Recently, the number of Muggle disappearances has been increasing.
Because of the previous disaster, Mundungus realized that future intelligence gathering might need to include the Muggle world.
However, compared to the population of the wizarding world, the social structure of the Muggle side is much more complicated.
"To be honest, it's very difficult to check the information from the Muggle side. Although it is still a special period, the international confidentiality law is still there after all, and we don't dare to be too conspicuous..."
Listening to Mundungus vomiting his bitterness there, Maka actually didn't have much to say.
In fact, the International Statute of Secrecy was originally created to provide two-way protection for wizards and Muggles. As long as the two parties are isolated from each other as much as possible, a lot of trouble can be avoided.
If I have to give an example... let's say war.
However, as far as the situation during this period is concerned, Haierbo's constant tossing has also brought a lot of unavoidable contact between Muggles and wizards, so that the international secrecy law has almost become a decoration.
However, Haierbo can ignore the legal laws of the modern magic world, but it does not mean that wizards like Mundungus and others who only wander around the edges dare to cross that line.
"Mr. MacLean, you said... if we want to go to the Muggle world to develop some 'manpower', is this feasible?"
Looking at the sly look on Mundungus's face, Maka suddenly said angrily:
"It won't work!"
He naturally knew what this guy was thinking - as long as he got approval or instructions from him, then this guy could do these extraordinary things in his name. If the Federation asked about the crime, Maca McClain would become the strongest shield.
In fact, Mundungus's idea was mainly to expand the intelligence channel. Of course he had selfish motives, but the benefits to the Order of the Phoenix and Maka were indeed obvious.
And to be honest, if Maka is willing to nod his head, it is really possible to do this with his current network of connections.
but…
"There is no problem with the temporary investigation. If there are any valuable clues, I can help you with Veritaserum or even the Imperius Curse. But you must remember the word 'temporary'," he said seriously , "It's not the time to break down the barriers yet, don't stretch your hands too far."
To put it bluntly, if Maka was willing, he would have agreed to the invitation from the Queen of England and the old bishop last time. But he knew very well that it was too early to talk about these things now. If he did, he would only get a burning ending.
After saying this, he returned to the original topic and said:
"So, what happened to the 'Muggle disappearance case' you just mentioned? Was it caused by wizards?"
Seeing that Maka completely disagreed with his idea, Mundungus could only put the itchy thought back into his heart.
Because he understands that only a few people in the world can do something like that to develop power in the Muggle world - at least he himself is definitely not qualified.
After collecting his thoughts for a moment, Mundungus explained in a low voice.
"Just because it doesn't look like it was done by wizards, that's why I can't make up my mind!" He said a little depressedly, "Actually! Those missing cases themselves are not difficult to investigate. Even if Muggles try to investigate on their own, there will only be a lot of trouble at most. It just takes some time.”
"But the strange thing is that the disappearance cases actually involve human lives, and... the death processes of the deceased are also mostly very bizarre, the kind of 'traceable mystery'."
Hearing this, Maka couldn't help but raise her eyebrows and said:
"'Traceably bizarre'? How do you say that?"
Immediately, Mundungus randomly picked a case that he had already investigated clearly and told it to Maka as an example.
According to him, an accident happened to a seemingly ordinary Muggle family a few days ago:
It was a family consisting of a couple and two young children. The husband is a car salesman, and the wife, who just gave birth to their second child, quit her job to take care of the child at home.
Obviously, this is actually a very common family in London.
But just a few days ago, the wife accidentally discovered that her husband was having an affair. This is undoubtedly a very heavy blow to a woman who has only been married for a few years.
So, the wife, who had always been gentle and sensible, questioned her husband that night, trying to get him to explain everything.
She originally thought that her husband would be secretive and refuse to admit it - although that would also make her angry, it would also prove that her husband still had her as his wife in his heart.
Marriage is not a matter of one person, let alone two children now. Even for the sake of her children, she wanted to see if she could save it.
But what she didn't expect was that her husband would admit it nonchalantly!
Needless to say, the quarrel between the couple escalated further due to the husband's attitude, and a cold war began between the two.
"It can be said to be quite normal up to this point," Mundungus said, "Things like this happen all the time, whether it's the Muggle side or the magical world. But next..."
A pair of scissors, a life; the deceased was the husband, but the one who did it was not his wife.
"...it was the eldest son of the two who did it," he frowned, stretched out his hand to gesture, "He was only five years old, so tall - that child took advantage of his father's drunkenness and stabbed his throat continuously. Three or four times!”
"Five years old?" Maka couldn't help but frowned, "Is it his own will?"
"Yes," Mundungus nodded, "I asked myself... But there is another problem, that is, this case was originally caused by a disappearance case. At that time, the wife did not know that her husband died. When she went into the bathroom, she only found that her youngest son was missing... In panic, she called the police."
"Is there any problem?" Maka asked doubtfully.
However, Mundungus then spread his hands.
"There's no problem," he said, "Just because there's no problem, this is the biggest problem - I've said it from the beginning, the number of 'disappearances' has been increasing recently."
After hearing this, Maka suddenly said:
"So you just said that human lives are involved in the disappearance cases... No, it should be the other way around - all these human life cases were initially involved in the disappearance cases?"
"Yes, that's it." Mundungus nodded and said, "We have done some statistics and found that there are no regular patterns for the deceased and the murderer. The distribution of the cases can only be said to be around London - both in and outside the city. . The only thing about 'disappearance' is the same for everyone... Although there is nothing strange about the missing people, and most of them are easily found afterwards."
Judging from what he said, it's really hard to make a conclusion as to whether this matter is related to wizards... or to put it more clearly, whether it is related to Haierbo.
Of course, when it comes to suspicion, Haierbo is definitely a big deal.
"Hmm..." Maka pondered, and then said after a moment, "Is it because your current number of people is not enough to detect the situation in time, so you asked me to go to the Muggle world to develop manpower?"
"Yes!" Mundungus said with a bitter face, "The Muggle side is too chaotic, there are so many people, and there are many wizards here who are not familiar with Muggle things."
"Don't tell me now," Maka waved her hand and said, "Anyway, you just continue to keep an eye on it in your current state, and I will figure out the rest."
After saying that, he picked up the remaining half glass of butterbeer and fell into deep thought while drinking.
Seeing that Maka was silent, Mundungus had to turn his head and look at Aberforth, who immediately looked away impatiently.
"Uh... we will continue to watch, so I won't disturb you anymore - please call me anytime if you need anything, I'll be right next to you!"
After saying something to Maka, Mundungus, who felt a little bored just sitting there, stood up and walked to other round tables with his firewhiskey.
Maka responded casually, not paying attention to his departure.
He is now thinking about "disappearances", especially the fact that "most of the missing people are easily recovered after the incident."
Obviously, there must be a reason for this. If these disappearances are all "man-made", the reasons here will be even more intriguing.
As for those seemingly "bizarre" deaths, Maka had some personal thoughts.
"No matter what, you have to go and check it out for yourself first."
Maka muttered as she gently put down the empty wine glass.
…
The next day, Maca received the summary of the case compiled by Mundungus. He asked the other party to record all the cases he had followed so that he could select and review them.
As Mundungus said, there are indeed many disappearances.
Although compared to the population near London, this list is nothing at all. But if he had to check them one by one in person, to be honest, he really didn't have that much time.
At the moment, Maka is sitting in his potion preparation room, casually flipping through these case records with different handwriting. Not long after, he shook his head:
"There really isn't any pattern to this."
But after a rough scan and finding that she didn't see any clues, Maka settled down and looked at each one carefully.
Because he is used to flipping through all kinds of messy information, his reading speed is much faster than ordinary people. I saw the stack of reports rapidly changing in his hands, and most of them were turned over in the blink of an eye.
But suddenly, his hand stopped flipping the report.
"This is-"
Maka stared at the piece of paper in her hand, looking back and forth again, but her brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
After a while, he put all the other reports on the table, quickly walked out with only that one, and left the room in a hurry.