Chapter 159 Return to Dracula's Castle
Half of the sun has already set beyond the distant skyline, and a beautiful glow dyes the sky red in the afterglow of the setting sun.
A thin line of mist appeared on the forest below, reflecting the warmth on the ground and highlighting the brilliance of the sky.
The silver luxury car flew quietly in the half-dark sky, and the car body was dyed a bright red by the rays of the sun, interlaced with the rising stars in the sky.
Today, the car is no longer exposed to ultraviolet rays, and the ink on the car glass has been manually turned off by Dracula.
He looked through the car window at the twilight of the Albanian forest, which was reflected reddish by the setting sun, and frowned slightly.
Even in the end, Dracula did not find any unusual sights in this forest, nor did he find any special places.
‘Maybe I’m just overthinking it? ’
He held the steering wheel and took one last look at the forest below where he was about to fly past the end, thinking silently.
Newt sat in the passenger seat holding Sniff Teddy, stroking his plush fur.
The Niffler had just accomplished a great feat. He successfully reached out of the box with his little paws and released Newt from the closed lid of the box.
As for Dracula, the culprit who closed the lid and buckled the button, he used dark moon magic to escape from the box early, lifted Newt and the box directly outside the Rolls-Royce, and then the two The people then embarked on the journey to Romania again.
The car sped off to the northeast.
Time passed, and when bright stars hung high in the sky, a steep mountain appeared at the end of Dracula's field of vision.
The city wall, as black as ink, stood gloomily on the mountain ridge, and clouds shrouded the peaks, obscuring the outline of the castle lake.
The hook-like bright moon hangs above the clouds, and the cold moonlight is cut into layers and pieces of trivial shapes by the clouds, scattered messily on the city wall, and vaguely illuminates the shadows of a few whirling bats, creating an eerie look. scene.
But in this gloomy scene, there is also a different kind of atmosphere and prosperity.
"Well...welcome to Dracula's Castle, Mr. Scamander."
Dracula raised the corners of his lips and said to Newt beside him.
Newt raised his head sleepily and looked at the rugged mountains shrouded in clouds and reflected in the messy moonlight, as well as the castle standing on the ridge.
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"Is this the legendary Dracula's Castle?" He couldn't help but have a look of surprise in his eyes, and murmured, "I always thought that Brown Castle was the base camp of the Romanian vampire clan, but I didn't expect that there was another one hidden behind it. A bigger castle.”
Newt sat up straight and stretched his aching waist and neck.
After all, he was old. After sitting in the car for several hours, Newt felt a little panicked, even if the seat had been transformed by Dracula's magic.
Sniffing Teddy, who was curled up in his arms, was sleeping soundly. When he was woken up by Newt's movements, he glanced at him complainingly, rubbed his eyes with a groan, and stretched out his two short arms. Lazy back.
Then, Teddy climbed along Newt's legs to the windshield of the car, pressed his two small eyes against the glass, and looked curiously at any shining place illuminated by the moonlight outside the window.
"In fact, Brown Castle is just a front, Mr. Scamander."
Dracula held the steering wheel with one hand and rubbed Teddy's head with the other hand. After earning Teddy's dissatisfied look, he smiled and said to Newt:
"Let me think about how to describe it... Brown Castle should be regarded as a foreign office of Dracula Castle? Some peripheral vampires will be on duty there while supervising the behavior of other vampires."
"After all, vampires are still dark creatures. There are always some unruly guys who like to secretly suck the blood of Muggles. We are responsible for the local security."
Dracula introduced Newt.
"Responsible for public security?" A very ridiculous emotion appeared in Newt's eyes.
Even a magizoologist like Newt, who has no discrimination or contempt for any living creature, cannot associate the word vampire with maintaining law and order.
Of course, Newt does not have stereotypes about vampires, which are classified as "human beings" by the Ministry of Magic, like other wizards. He knows that there are also beings in the vampire group who can communicate with ordinary people normally.
Even among this group, there are very outstanding and successful people such as vampire singer Lorcan Deis.
But as a magical zoologist, Newt also knows that most of the lowest vampires have not escaped their old habits after all. They still maintain the urge to suck human blood indiscriminately and have no way to control their desire to eat.
This kind of vampire often acts like the stereotype of wizards, becoming a disruptor and disruptor of the order of the magical world.
So he couldn't imagine that Dracula's Castle actually had an external office of Castle Brown to maintain the stability of the magical society!
"Don't be so disbelieving, Mr. Scamander." Dracula chuckled, "Let me ask you a question first: In this area of Romania, there is a large-scale magical accident that endangers public security. You Who do you think is responsible in the first place?”
Newt was stunned for a moment and said hesitantly:
"Although I don't subconsciously think of who caused the magical accident, but if you think about it from another perspective... the wizards living in Romania would probably think of vampires and werewolves first, right?"
"I remember that I spent some time in a fire dragon sanctuary in Romania." Newt's eyes flashed as he thought, "At that time, whenever a fire dragon was hurt, the dragon tamers in the sanctuary would tend to attack vampires first. To doubt.”
"In comparison, the werewolf group in Romania is slightly better, because they are still infected by humans after all, and they can only be aggressive and uncontrollable enough on a full moon night."
"However, vampires are different. In the general view of wizards, vampires need to drink blood at any time and have an uncontrollable desire to drink blood."
As he spoke, a look of surprise gradually appeared in Newt's eyes, "So...in order to prevent others from suspecting you, the vampire group took the initiative to maintain law and order in the magical world?"
"This is a more important reason." Dracula nodded lightly. "In order to prevent other magical accidents from harming the already negative reputation of the vampire group, we are naturally responsible for the security of the Romanian magic world."
"Of course, this is not the main reason." Dracula suddenly raised the corners of his mouth happily.
"Have you had any dealings with the Ministry of Magic in Romania, Mr. Scamander?" he asked softly.
"It's not like we've ever interacted with each other..." Newt said, "But I met a few officials from the Romanian Ministry of Magic when I was in the Fire Dragon Sanctuary. He also talked to me when I communicated with Minister Albert during the day. Something about the Romanian Ministry of Magic.”
"Abertelle commented like this - he told me that the wizards at the Romanian Ministry of Magic are usually very arrogant, but as soon as the name of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts is mentioned, they will immediately become He looked like he was keeping secrets..."
At this point, Newt's words suddenly stopped.
He suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked at Dracula with incredible eyes.
"Could it be that……"
"You're right, Mr. Scamander." Dracula laughed happily, "Under the many years of operation of Dracula's Castle, most of the seats in Romania's Ministry of Magic have been occupied by high-level vampires."
"By maintaining law and order in the Romanian magical community, we are supporting the work of our colleagues in the Ministry of Magic. Why not do that?"
"No wonder... I used to think that the wizards in Romania were very enlightened, and they were actually willing to share the same magical world with vampires." Newt showed an expression of sudden realization. "It seems that under the influence of Dracula's Castle, the wizards here are very open-minded." Vampire prejudice is already light.”
"Actually, I had a very profound experience when I lived in the Fire Dragon Sanctuary——" Newt said,
"Most wizards who have stereotypes about vampires are dragon tamers from other countries. Those wizards who were born and raised in Romania have no other opinions about this group of people."
"I still vaguely remember that whenever there were outside wizards from the Fire Dragon Sanctuary who wanted to raise questions about vampires, the officials from the Ministry of Magic would always make it a trivial matter and treat the matters that those wizards questioned lightly."
Newt said and laughed with emotion.
"It's really amazing, Professor Dracula." He said with enthusiasm, "It must be very difficult to achieve this, right?"
Seeing Newt's sincere eyes, Dracula's expression suddenly became unnatural.
"Ahem, it's not that difficult..." He coughed dryly.
How to explain this to Scamander?
Is it possible to tell him that he has not paid much attention to the vampire community in the past few hundred years, and that it is his cheap daughter Serena who has subtly changed the reputation of vampires?
Dracula silently shook his head.
As the majestic Count Dracula, he became the hands-off shopkeeper. That would be too humiliating...
During the conversation, Dracula's Castle and the rugged mountains below were getting closer and closer.
The trivial moonlight unknowingly shone on the silver car body, and Dracula's Castle also appeared majestically in front of the eyes, like a heavy paperweight, firmly pressed on the mountains.
At this moment, a figure suddenly jumped up from the city wall below.
A pair of wings stretched out from his back, flapping gently, driving the figure to fly up, and finally stopped in front of Dracula's Rolls Royce.
"Ahead is Dracula's Castle, outsiders are not allowed to enter!"
A cold voice came from the direction of the figure.
Dracula raised his head slightly and looked in front of the vehicle with his excellent night vision.
The figure blocking the car was obviously a high-level vampire.
His face doesn't have the evil charm of a vampire, but instead has a gentle and gentle look. Her hair was meticulously combed into a neat five-part hairstyle, and seemed to be smeared with hair gel. There was a well-trimmed goatee above her mouth.
Seeing this image, Dracula raised his lips with interest and rolled down the car window gently.
"Why are you on duty here? Didn't I grant your leave?" he asked indifferently.
The high-level vampire blocking the front of the vehicle originally pretended to be cold and cruel. He wanted to erect a demonic image of the vampire family and scare the visitor away so that he would not have to take action.
However, after hearing Dracula's voice, his cold expression instantly became unbearable.
"Lord Dracula?!"
He opened his eyes wide in surprise, and using his equally excellent night vision, he saw the charming and handsome face through the car window, as well as the iconic silver hair hanging behind him.
"I was wrong, Lord Dracula. I really didn't know it was you." He flapped his wings and flew out of the car window, apologizing to Dracula awkwardly, "Why did you come back suddenly and didn't let us greet you in advance? you?"
It can be seen that this senior vampire is trying hard to bend down and salute, but the flapping of the wings in the suspended state needs to be balanced, and he cannot bend his body at will.
So he could only keep his head lowered and silently look at his toes hanging in the air.
"It's okay, it's not your fault." Dracula chuckled and waved his hand, "Speaking of which...when did I inform you when I returned to the castle?"
"Um..." The senior vampire looked at Dracula blankly, then silently moved his gaze back to his toes.
As a young vampire who had been here for less than a hundred years, he had no idea about Dracula's behavior and habits. He did not dare to express any opinions at this time and could only continue to remain silent.
"Don't be so nervous. In fact, I'm easy to get along with." Seeing his subordinate's nervousness, Dracula casually asked, "How have you been during your recent vacation?"
As he spoke, he suddenly raised the corners of his mouth with interest, "Has that old Auror named Robert remembered your memory, Tesla?"
Yes, the young senior vampire in front of me is the protagonist once written by Gilderoy Lockhart in the book "Traveling with Vampires".
Lockhart took the memory of the old Auror Robert who actually traveled on the same ship with vampires, and ruthlessly erased this rare wizard who was willing to make friends with vampires from his memory about Tesla. Only then did he write That bestseller.
However, the Forgetting Curse that Lockhart was most proud of was countered by Dracula a few months ago, and he lost most of his memory.
He will probably have to spend the rest of his life in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Maladies. Even when the money he saved from writing books is completely spent, he is more likely to be kicked out of the hospital and become a homeless man with a bad brain.
Lockhart, who had used the Oblivion Curse to do bad things all his life, got this end, which was considered a bad retribution.
However, Robert, whose memory was erased by him, lost his only friend in his life.
It was in order to save this friendship that was on the verge of destruction that Tesla mustered up the courage to ask Dracula for a long vacation...
"Master Dracula, your judgment at that time was completely correct. Robert may never think of our common experience again in this life." Tesla sighed.
Immediately, a hint of joy appeared in his eyes, "But I used this time to get to know Robert again. It's just a matter of stalking and making friends. There is no need for him to refuse."
"So now you have become friends again?" Dracula looked at him in surprise and asked.
"Yes!" Tesla nodded heavily, "Master Dracula, I was not lazy at all and came back to duty immediately!"
Dracula smiled and nodded.
"Since you have already started on duty, let me give you a task." He arranged, "I brought a guest this time. You go find some peripheral vampires to arrange some meals for the guests." There are guest rooms.”
"Okay, Master Dracula, I can do this myself." Tesla nodded and said, "I don't feel comfortable letting those low-level vampires do things. What if they dissatisfy the distinguished guests?"
"You don't need to be so polite." Newt heard this and hurriedly persuaded him, "I'm used to living in the open, so it's no problem under any conditions."
"Ji!" Sniffing Teddy chimed in as he stood in front of the windshield.
"How can that be possible!" Tesla immediately retorted, "You are a distinguished guest brought by Lord Dracula himself, and it is my responsibility to satisfy you!"
Then he added in a low voice: "Master Dracula, you must let me do this kind of thing myself."
"As the last vampire to come to Dracula's Castle, I haven't made any outstanding contributions yet, but I have taken the longest vacation in history among all vampires. Lord Alcatel seems not very satisfied with me..."
"If I can let her see my dedicated performance, maybe there will be a chance to save her."
Dracula looked at Tesla's cautious expression and couldn't help laughing.
"Since that's what you think, then go ahead." He waved his hand casually, "In addition, if Serena is dissatisfied with you in any way because of the holiday, then you can just come to me and complain. .”
"This little girl dares to be dissatisfied with the vacation I personally approved. I think she is rebellious!" Dracula said fiercely.
Tesla was suspended in the air next to him, saying yes repeatedly.
But he had a very clear idea of who he should please—
Even though Count Dracula is the spiritual symbol of the vampire family and has great practical power, he is too lazy to take care of things!
Normally, Lord Alcatel takes care of all the affairs of Castle Dracula, no matter how big or small.
Under such circumstances, how dare you make Lord Alcatel angry just because you have Lord Dracula's support?
If she is remembered by the vengeful Lord Alcatel, her revenge may come as expected as soon as Lord Dracula leaves...
So despite Dracula's promise to complain at any time, Tesla still decided to work honestly!
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