Sigefin knew that because of his identity, quite a few people throughout the British Ministry of Magic were dissatisfied with him.
Especially at this critical moment, his position as a "former Upper Realm person" was inevitably becoming even more awkward.
However, he did not have any other thoughts about it. He simply hated the way those people stared at him with all kinds of suspicious looks.
Taking a deep breath, Sigefin tilted his head back and recalled, "You all know that I grew up living in the family estate. Compared with the urban area we have expanded into now, the family estate where I lived was actually much more pure. There was no advanced technology there, no strangely dressed people, and even less entertainment."
"The entire estate was actually quite similar to Hogwarts. It covered a huge area, had its own jungle hunting grounds, and even had a huge artificial lake."
"Of course, the main building of the estate was not a stone castle, but an ordinary palace. And because there were not many people, it seemed very spacious inside."
"What I remember most clearly is that it was extremely clean."
"Every corner of the estate was equipped with self-cleaning magic, keeping it in a spotless, brand-new state at all times."
"The people walking around inside all wore clean white robes. Their bodies were completely clean, and even their hair was fluffy and dry."
"We studied all kinds of knowledge there every day. Whether it was swordsmanship, magic, or principles, all of them were compulsory subjects for us."
"But at the same time, that place was extremely filthy."
"The people living there had black hearts."
"They schemed against each other in the estate. Although they would not openly clash, they would often deliberately harm others over the smallest matters, sometimes even trying to take their lives."
"And my father never interfered in such matters."
"He seemed to be quite happy to see us compete with one another, even if that competition sometimes resulted in the tragedy of someone dying."
"But I can understand him."
"After all, he had far too many descendants and far too many people with inheritance rights."
"If they did not compete with each other, he probably really would not know how to choose."
Everyone listened to Sigefin's account with great interest. The hidden stories of the elder family of the International Confederation of Wizards were very attractive to them.
Even Link kept nodding as he listened.
However, what he was interested in was only the way Sigefin's family raised its descendants.
From Sigefin's description, although most of the ordinary residents and a small portion of the nobles in Sky City had gradually become "cyberpunk," or, in other words, had become immersed in the happy life brought about by rapid technological development, the most powerful families in Sky City still maintained the same ancient method of raising children as the noble wizard families outside.
That was to keep their children at home and personally educate them, or hire tutors to provide them with a closed education.
This kind of education could avoid the children being harmed by the outside world to the greatest extent, while also allowing their values and way of thinking to gradually develop in the direction their parents and tutors desired through their cooperation.
But at the same time, there was also a chance of directly raising the children into idiots or lunatics with warped values.
The Black family had always followed this kind of educational philosophy in the past.
Unfortunately, no one knew what kind of nonsense they had been fed later. They abandoned their original educational philosophy and sent all their children to Hogwarts.
If they had maintained their original way of educating their children, Sirius would not have been so rebellious.
The group of people who had lived together with Sigefin had an even simpler life than the descendants of noble wizards in the Lower Realm, and the education they received was even stricter. It was the most traditional form of education.
In Link's view, this was indeed necessary.
Of course, that was not to say Link agreed with that kind of extreme traditional education.
Rather, in a place like the current Sky City, where "new ideas" had already become new to the point of extremity, it was indeed necessary for the upper-level rulers to implement extremely traditional education.
Because only in this way could the small society within Sky City find a balance between tradition and new ideas.
Otherwise, once this balance was broken, there would be no need for No. 1 to occupy Sky City and carry out something like the "Sky City Deterrence."
It was likely that the group of lunatics in Sky City would have already flown Sky City around causing trouble everywhere.
Newland clearly had not thought as much as Link. After Sigefin finished speaking, he immediately asked impatiently, "You mean you used to have many brothers and sisters? Where are they now?"
"How come I've only heard of that one named Iyeta? And she seems to be an outer family member, right? Normally speaking, she shouldn't have been qualified to receive the same education as you."
Hearing this, the people around them looked at Sigefin with even greater curiosity.
At this moment, they were inside Sky City and were slowly advancing toward the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards in the central urban district of Sky City.
The information Sigefin provided them might bring tremendous help to their actions to come.
But Sigefin's expression suddenly turned cold, and he said flatly, "Guess how I was chosen as the family heir?"
As soon as he said this, Newland seemed to have thought of something. He was so shocked that he could not speak, and almost shoved his hand directly into his mouth.
The others also began to look strange.
Overall, their impression of Sigefin was still good. He was righteous and kind, and could even be described as somewhat old-fashioned.
Otherwise, they would never have allowed someone like this "Celestial Realm person" to infiltrate the very center of the British Ministry of Magic's power.
Precisely because of this, they really could not imagine that Sigefin could have done such a thing as well.
"Don't misunderstand. I didn't kill them all."
Noticing everyone's gazes, Sigefin said somewhat indifferently, "To be precise, they killed each other until the very end, and then they even came to kill me."
"Only then did I fight back. You don't understand how dark those people's hearts were. If one of them had really become an elder of the International Confederation of Wizards, I'm afraid Sky City, no, the wizards and Muggles throughout the entire world, would not have had a good life!"
"Yes, you're right. I completely agree with what you did!"
Newland lightly patted Sigefin on the shoulder as he spoke.
The others also gathered around and comforted Sigefin one after another.
However, the strange expressions on their faces still did not disappear.
Sigefin's personality clearly did not fit Old Harris's expectations for an heir. Otherwise, he would not have driven Sigefin out of Sky City later on.
Then why had Sigefin become Old Harris's designated heir?
Other than all the other heir candidates having already died, they could not think of a second reason.
And as the only beneficiary, when Sigefin said he had not gone on a massive killing spree, nobody could possibly believe him.
But it did not matter. After all, because of Link's bias, there were not many truly clean and good people among the upper ranks of the British Ministry of Magic anymore.
Someone like Sigefin, placed among these people, could even be considered noble.
While Link and the others were talking, the bright moon above their heads split open once again, forming a long and narrow crack.
From Link's perspective, it looked as if a lifeless eyeball had suddenly gained a pupil and come alive, constantly spying on the city below.
But the eyeball that appeared before them was projecting down more than just its gaze. It was also sending down even more Sky City Defense Force members dressed in white robes.
These people rode flying devices. At tremendous speed, they dispersed through the air into small teams, then, as teams, scattered and killed their way into Sky City.
Not only that...
There was actually an artificial river serving as a barrier between Sky City's inner urban district and outer urban district. In normal times, bridges connected the two areas by land, while special light paths had also been constructed in the air.
But at this moment, a dazzling light suddenly erupted from the artificial river in front of Link and the others.
They saw the river water rapidly surge upward. In an almost bizarre manner, it flew out of the river channel and formed a translucent protective layer around Sky City's inner urban district.
Through that constantly surging and flowing layer of water, everyone could clearly see that all the buildings around the inner urban district near the river were transforming.
Not only were large numbers of white-robed personnel continuously pouring out from within them, the buildings themselves were also gradually turning into the same city-defense cannon towers that Link's controlled demon dragons had shattered earlier.
"Sky City's outer walls have unfolded. This means that we have truly threatened the enemies inside the International Confederation of Wizards."
Sigefin pointed at the enormous wall of water that had suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Outer walls?" Newland questioned sarcastically. "Unless my memory is messed up, we've already entered Sky City, haven't we? Who builds their outer walls in the middle of the city? Are you getting confused?"
Hearing this, quite a few of the people accompanying them turned to look over.
Although they acknowledged Sigefin's character, that did not mean they would completely believe what he had just said.
After all, there was a serious logical problem with Sigefin's last statement, and it was extremely unreasonable.
Sigefin was not annoyed. He simply looked at Newland as if he were looking at an idiot and said, "Although I was locked inside the estate all day when I was young and never personally toured Sky City, I still learned some things about Sky City's history through books. Regarding this outer wall, I first want to ask you something."
"Do you really think Sky City was this large from the beginning?"
Newland became somewhat embarrassed and angry under Sigefin's gaze and was just about to retort when Sigefin spoke first, "Of course not!"
"The sages who first founded Sky City, no matter how intelligent or great they were, were still limited by their era and therefore by the scope of their vision."
"When Sky City was first founded, they never imagined developing it into the super metropolis it is today. At that time, all their thoughts were focused on the International Confederation of Wizards. They merely regarded this place as a 'dormitory' where they could arrange their families to live!"
"Later, because of the wars on the ground, more and more people wanted to come and live in Sky City. Only then did they have no choice but to use magic to expand Sky City twice in total."
"The first expansion was the enlargement of the original headquarters building of the International Confederation of Wizards, turning it into the magnificent giant building it is today."
"The second expansion created the current inner urban district. This was also the final expansion carried out by the first-generation sages."
"During this expansion, the sages not only considered people's livelihoods, but also considered security."
"So they established an 'outer wall' in the empty area at the edge of the town and installed defensive facilities within it."
"Out of respect for the sages, the later rulers of Sky City never changed this kind of urban planning. They merely carried out all kinds of renovations inside the town to meet the needs of the residents."
"Your explanation doesn't seem right, does it?" Newland frowned. "According to what you're saying, then what is the place we're in now? Isn't this also part of Sky City?"
Newland did not speak after hearing this. He simply looked quietly at Newland with a mysterious smile on his face.
Link, however, said with a smile, "Strictly speaking, this place, which is what we call Sky City's outer urban district, indeed does not belong to Sky City. At least, that is the case according to the official definition of the International Confederation of Wizards."
"But that clearly doesn't make sense! This place obviously…"
Newland's voice suddenly stopped. It seemed as if he had suddenly thought of something, and his expression became extremely ugly.
Sigefin and Link had already made it very clear.
The outer urban district was, in fact, not recognized by the International Confederation of Wizards as part of Sky City.
Then what were the buildings constructed on the outer urban district where they were now?
The answer was very simple.
If they were not recognized, then naturally they were illegal buildings.
Newland was very familiar with this kind of thing.
Because strictly speaking, the place where he and his mother had previously lived was also an illegal building.
Even Spindle Alley itself was never supposed to exist.
Originally, there had only been a single factory there. All the residences around it had been illegally built by the workers themselves to house their families. The government had never truly recognized the existence of Spindle Alley.
Of course, they had not deliberately come over to criticize the residents of Spindle Alley for their actions either. Instead, they had adopted an attitude of ignoring the ever-increasing illegal buildings there.
No, in fact, it could not even be said that they ignored them, because secretly, they actually encouraged the residents to build illegally in a place like this.
To prevent accidents, they even specially hired a group of architects in the name of the factory to help everyone build houses.
From the government's perspective, there were simply too many benefits to doing this.
For example, the government did not have to take responsibility for dealing with the environmental problems around the Spindle Alley residential district, nor did it have to construct any basic infrastructure for the residents of Spindle Alley, such as hospitals, schools, police stations…
None of these things needed to be provided for Spindle Alley.
After all, this place was originally an industrial district. People were not supposed to live here.
And the residents of Spindle Alley did not dare to go to the government to demand these things either.
They were afraid that their only place to live would also be demolished in the name of being an illegal building.
Sky City's outer urban district was probably in a similar situation.
It was just that Sky City had gone even further in this regard. Because of Sky City's special nature, the lower-class residents could not privately construct a residential district like the residents of Spindle Alley.
So they directly intervened in the construction of the outer urban district, expanding the available space for its existence and carrying out basic urban planning for it.
They had even constructed a huge underground complex similar to that of the inner urban district for the outer urban district, along with defensive cannon towers around the perimeter.
Of course, the existence of these things was not meant to protect the lives of the residents of the outer urban district.
The rulers of the inner urban district had a much greater purpose and conspiracy hidden within all of this.
[T/N: A new fanfic is up guys— "Naruto: Transmigrating with a Gift Pack System" so add it to your collections and give some Powerstones. Have a great day, hope you enjoy it~ 🎉🎉]