I Have a Very Important Witness!

"The reason is simple. If we don't give it to them, there's a good chance we'll be fighting the Aurors in North America," Ivan explained.

He was pretty sure that the French minister had said something to Bruno and the others last night, which was why the wizards of France were attacking him today.

It wasn't hard to see that Grindelwald was behind all of this, using the incident as an excuse to blame him for the deaths of the two ministers, and even to place him under house arrest and arrest him for the investigation.

Grindelwald was all the more pleased with himself once he was provoked into a fight.

After all, the North American Capitol had been turned into a fortress, and there were over four hundred Aurors stationed there, along with a large amount of protective magic. Even for powerful wizards like them, a direct confrontation would not end well.

Because of this, Grindelwald did something that left Grindelwald baffled — he handed over the key that represented Britain.

If the President of Congress was really Grindelwald in disguise, as he believed, then the move would be a huge blow to him.

Whatever the order of events, the key in Grindelwald's hand was bound to be the one that gave Grindelwald the greatest headache.

Such an obvious contrast would surely make Grindelwald suspicious, suspicious of the authenticity of the key, suspicious that he had discovered his identity…

This mystery and the unknown would serve as a protective charm for Grindelwald, and his surrender of the key would partially clear his name.

"What if Grindelwald doesn't care and insists on using this as an excuse to imprison us?" Pierce asked.

"He was a clever man, and would not do anything he was unsure of. He would make it a priority to find out if I had tampered with the key in order to determine if his cover had been blown," Ivan explained patiently.

"If things go as you suggest, I'll just have to take the chance that the President of Congress will be the first to attack him and see if he can undo Grindelwald's transfiguration spell."

Ivan had no intention of taking such a risk unless absolutely necessary.

Because Grindelwald was most likely on his guard.

If the attack was successful, it would be fine, but if it failed, he would be guilty of attacking the President of Congress.

Cold sweat beaded on his back as he listened to Ivan's explanation. He had not expected to be on the brink of war twice in the few minutes of negotiations.

If Grindelwald had acted more aggressively, he would probably be dead by now…

"What do we do next?" Pierce asked, trying to compose himself so the Aurors watching them would not notice.

"I have a plan, but I need to confirm Connor's position. Without his help, we won't be able to move freely through the Magical Congress Building, let alone compete with the President of the North American Congress," Ivan said slowly, transmitting the information to Pierce and the others through his magical imprint.

The first step of the plan was, of course, to find a way to deal with the Aurors who were spying on them. Grindelwald's spies were bound to be among them, and there was nothing they could do unless they found a way to deal with them.

After explaining the plan as concisely as possible, they set off.

As they passed the entrance to the lounge, they split into two groups. Dawlish and the others returned to their rooms, while Ivan, Pierce, and some of the others went in the other direction.

None of the North American Aurors wanted to give up, so they split into two teams to continue their surveillance and report what was happening.

However, Ivan and Pierce's next actions were quite ordinary, as they only went from the lounge to the living room to meet with the heads of several smaller countries to discuss cooperation, much to the relief of the nervous Aurors, and temporarily put off the idea of requesting support.

After following Ivan and the others around a corner, an Auror suddenly frowned and asked, "Wait… are they missing someone?"

He remembered that Ivan's team had seven members at first, but now there were only six.

Due to the large crowd in the drawing room, and the fact that the targets of surveillance, Ivan and Pierce, were under their noses, he did not notice the problem until now.

"We're indeed missing a wizard. We'd better inform the Chairman immediately," the other Auror confirmed after a few glances. He quickly took out a communication badge from the pocket of his wizard robe, but froze in place when he injected his magic.

"What's the matter, Crick?" The Auror patted her colleague's shoulder in surprise, but he did not move.

Before she could cry out, a faint voice spoke in her ear.

"Imperio ~ (soul out of body)"

The next moment, the Auror was frozen in place as Ivan slowly appeared behind them.

Noticing the commotion, Pierce quickly gathered his entourage around him, along with Ivan.

This was, of course, due to the effects of the Polyjuice Potion. As soon as they passed around the corner, Ivan had one of the British wizards take the potion and use it to disguise himself.

He himself used the Disillusionment Charm to hide and attack from the shadows.

"Did it go well, Sir Harls?" Pierce asked solemnly.

"Two in the open and two in the dark. All four of them have been dealt with." Ivan nodded. Even he found it difficult to control all four of them with the Imperius Curse.

However, in order to escape the surveillance of these people, he had to take the risk.

"Stall for as long as you can," Ivan said. "Don't let anyone see through you… I'll go and find Connor alone."

Pierce knew full well that he would not be able to help, much less raise an opinion, but before Ivan left, he asked, "How confident are you that you will be able to convince Director Connor? We don't even have the evidence to report Wilkinson, and I'm afraid we won't be able to convince the public with just these speculations…"

"Who says we don't have proof? I have a very important witness!" Ivan interrupted Pierce.