"Huh? Huh?!"
A goblin, busily hammering away, reached for a component, but his hand grasped only air.
Unconvinced, he groped around a few more times, still finding nothing. "Where are my parts? Where the hell are my parts?!"
The goblin glanced around, seeing only colleagues rushing past, unable to figure out who had stolen his materials.
Scratching his head, the frustrated goblin felt helpless. Losing parts meant delaying production, and he could only gamble that his superiors wouldn't notice. Seeing another shipment of materials arrive, he convinced himself that he'd simply misremembered which parts he needed and resumed his work.
...
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter hauled a cart piled high with "scavenged" components. Harry had already discarded his guard's armor, now useless as a disguise. The surrounding goblins couldn't possibly know all their colleagues, so they could simply walk in openly. Keeping the armor would only be a heavy and conspicuous burden.
"Wow, this...you've got to be kidding me, right?" Harry said.
Draco blinked his sharp little eyes.
At the end of the tunnel lay a gigantic cavern, rivaling the previous one in size, perhaps even larger.
"And where did all these goblins come from? Gringotts couldn't possibly employ this many!"
Harry cautiously scanned their surroundings. Goblins bustled to and fro, probably numbering in the thousands. They were methodically dividing the underground space into distinct work areas, continuously manufacturing all sorts of weapons, from small battle axes and giant hammers to massive chariots and airships.
Looking up...
Hundreds of goblins drove carts laden with gleaming metallic parts, continuously ferrying them to the center of the cavern.
"…"
Draco's eyes widened, his expression blank with shock. "Are you kidding me? What is that thing?"
Following Draco's gaze, Harry wore the same astonished expression.
Parked in the center of the cavern was a massive warship, exceeding three hundred meters in length, probably between three hundred and fifty and four hundred meters. Its shape resembled a ship, but with elements of a Muggle aircraft. About one-sixth of its steel hull remained under construction, making it look like a gigantic, ferocious beast. Cranes towered around it, continuously lifting large pieces of machinery as the stocky goblins assembled them, connecting them to enable this colossal steel behemoth to unleash one powerful ability after another as they envisioned.
"A space carrier? Dwarves can build those?!"
Harry recalled a tattered comic book his bullying cousin Dudley had casually tossed him when he still lived with the Dursleys. Though the comic was old and thoroughly worn out by Dudley's violent reading habits, it was the first comic book he had ever owned, and its contents had left a deep impression on him. In that comic, there was an organization with a ghostly-sounding name that possessed a space carrier.
Before this, Harry had always thought that the so-called "space carrier" was just a figment of someone's imagination; as far as he knew, no one, no country, had ever actually built one.
But he never expected that these goblins would actually pull it out of the ground with hammers! It gave him the feeling of watching Iron Man forging steel armor by hand in a cave.
Marveling inwardly at the wonders of goblin forging and magic, Harry stared intently at the still-unfinished warship, his voice low, "Malfoy, what do you think we should do now?"
Draco naturally heard his question. "Blow it up?"
"No, that's suicide."
Harry shook his head slightly, then glanced back the way they had come. "I think we've achieved our goal."
So many goblins not belonging to Gringotts were here; they certainly weren't here for a goblin Christmas ball—especially since the ball was already over. And with them building so many dangerous weapons and this massive warship, any wizard could see that these ugly goblins were plotting a rebellion.
Oh? You say you're just building it for self-defense? Then why be so secretive? Hiding implies you don't want to be seen, doesn't it? If other wizards saw this, these goblins would be speechless.
As for extracting physical evidence, it wasn't necessary; as long as the memory remained, it was enough.
Harry was about to signal Draco to sneak back the way they came when...
Whoa! ~~
A deafening alarm blared through the cavern!
The other goblins might not yet know what was happening, but Draco and Harry's hearts skipped a beat, followed by a violent pounding!
"Intruders!"
"Foreign dwarves! The guards have reported it! Foreign dwarves! All on alert!"
"Seal all entrances and exits! Don't let a single dwarf escape!"
"..."
Through the magic-infused technology forged by the goblins, this urgent notification spread throughout the cavern in the blink of an eye! After a few short seconds of stunned silence, the goblins began to stir uncontrollably.
"Intruder? A dwarf?"
"Traitor! Damn traitor! They betrayed the great goblin race!"
"Who is it? Who is the traitor?! Show yourself!"
"Have you ever seen a dwarf you don't recognize? Ah? That's right, most of us don't recognize each other."
Watching the growing chaos below, the goblin commander aboard the unfinished space carrier tried to regain control, but the situation was spiraling out of control, even for him. Even his loud shouts of "Everyone, back to your posts! No one is allowed to leave!" were drowned out.
"..."
Draco and Harry pretended to be nonchalant, trying to appear as though none of this had anything to do with them. But they knew this charade couldn't last!
Draco's eyes darted around, scanning the surrounding goblins, and his cunning mind suddenly sparked with an idea.
He darted forward, grabbed a goblin, and slapped her across the face, yelling at the bewildered goblin, "Speak! You bastard! Aren't you that damned traitor?!"
The dazed goblin, startled, hurriedly waved her hands, protesting, "No, it wasn't me! My loyalty to the goblins is beyond reproach!"
"Hmph! I'll believe you this time!"
With that, Draco turned and glared at the next goblin. "Was it you?!"
This volcanic display of rage wouldn't immediately lead any goblin to suspect that he was the "traitor."
Watching Draco's actions, Harry understood and imitated him, heading toward the exit, interrogating the goblins one by one. As they questioned each other, they slowly approached the exit, and the "questioning between goblins" they had initiated spread like wildfire, making the entire cavern "lively."
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