Austrian time, Salzburg at 7:55 pm.
"Has Max gotten lost here?"
Standing in front of the emergency building of the Salk Hospital, Kruger looked up and observed the bright red "Emergency" sign at the entrance, a dignified expression appearing on his face.
No figures can be seen in motion in the empty building, most of the floors are darkened, and the open door looks like some kind of monster with a huge mouth.
"Hold on, buddy. We are here to save you."
Kruger muttered, adjusted his windbreaker to conceal the right hand that had drawn his wand, and carefully approached the door. He couldn't help but recall Miss Pope Rohill's speculation before she left...
...
Ten minutes ago, at the Austrian Ministry of Magic.
"This is definitely not a common disastrous accident."
Observing the faded and reddish metal card, Pope Rohill narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips tightly.
Blaze Kruger swears by the heavens that he had never seen Miss Pope Rohir's face so unpleasant in all these years.
"Mr. Kruger, under what circumstances do you think that in five seconds, a well-trained member of the Reversed Occasional Magical Events Team can be brought to death?"
"Unexpected sneak attack?" Kruger responded hesitantly.
"Then, what if it happens two or three times in succession? And each time he enters a state close to death in the next moment after recovering." The witch's brown eyes seemed to burn with a flame of anger.
"There is no doubt that George was caught."
Without waiting for Kruger to respond, the youngest female director of Austria in hundreds of years vigorously shook with a heavy and angry tone.
"This only happens when a wizard is completely unable to resist. George Max may be experiencing scandalous torture at this moment."
"Torture?! But... what does George need..." Kruger's eyes narrowed sharply.
"This is what we must find out later, but first, we must find a way to rescue George Max."
The short-haired blonde witch turned sharply to look at Kruger, with an unprecedented tone of seriousness.
"I need you to go to Salzburg immediately to provide precise coordinate guidance to the tracking personnel and a safe assembly point for support."
"Then, depending on the situation, you can try to rescue George or wait for the support to arrive. But in any case, you must be very careful and always vigilant."
...
Slowly entering the emergency building, the first thing that caught Kruger's attention was the messy consultation lobby, as if a fierce battle had taken place here.
Near the left side of the door, a wall was completely destroyed by the spell, the floor was forcibly lifted, exposing the cement of the floor, and the dirt in the planter behind the information desk was scattered everywhere.
And the strangest thing is that although the lobby has this appearance, neither the security guard standing at the door nor the nurse asleep at the information desk seemed to have any strange expression.
"Has the corresponding memory been modified and erased? Was it Max... or did other wizards try to cover it up?"
Kruger looked with unfocused eyes, just like the security guards and nurses who had just woken up. Obviously, there was no way to obtain useful information from this Muggle staff—this is typical of the Memory Charm, and it will take at least an hour or two for the side effects of the Confundus Charm to gradually return to normal logical thinking.
Kruger shook his head and carefully observed the hospital lobby. After confirming that there were no other dangers in the lobby, he approached the corner and drew his wand.
"Seek the shadow."
Puffing out his cheeks, the wizard gripped the base of the wand with both hands, blowing air around it like a balloon, and a large patch of golden mist that only Kruger could see immediately rushed from the tip of his wand, silently dispersing throughout the lobby space.
"George Max."
Kruger cleared his throat and read aloud, while waving his wand, the golden mist dissipated, revealing a series of footprints on the floor, showing George Max's movement here a few hours ago.
"Strange, there are no signs of struggle..."
Kruger observed the golden footprints in the lobby, continuous and orderly, without any confusion.
Everything seems very ordinary. At this moment, George Max should be handling the accident according to the normal procedure.
Under the guidance of a nurse, the golden footprints belonging to George Max extended to a room next to the information desk for a while, and then passed into the area of the rooms within the hospital.
-And never returned.
"George... what on earth did you encounter?"
Kruger frowned and looked ahead. He entered the room where George Max had spoken with the nurse and placed a metal emblem engraved with the logo of the Austrian Ministry of Magic on the table.
Undoubtedly, at least from the current situation, this place should be safe.
"Mentos."
The strong man tapped the surface of the metal badge with a wand in his hand, and a faint blue light appeared on the surface of the metal badge. In the next moment, the metal badge disappeared on the desk.
"This should be fine. In short, let me go and see the situation first."
After setting the coordinates of the door key to guide the arrival of the Ministry's support personnel, Kruger cast a temporary Muggle Repelling Charm on the door of the room, swallowed it, and raised his wand to signal himself—[Armored Bodyguard]
Then, the wizard carefully walked towards the front wing area.
However, to Kruger's surprise, there were no magical traps along the way. Not until he reached the room where George Max's footprints disappeared did the imaginary enemy appear.
"Was it just a false alarm?"
Kruger furrowed his brow and reached out to gently open the hidden wing door. What he saw was a very ordinary room full of Muggle people.
After entering through the door, on the first bed to the right, there was an old man with closed eyes and a face full of vicissitudes. A silver-haired Muggle girl was sitting beside the bed, looking up and watching a drop of liquid fall into the infusion bottle; she seemed to be the family of the old man.
.....
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