"It looks like you've met with Mr. Ellerby and Mr. Badmore."

Jung grabbed his hat in his hand, and reluctantly made everyone stop paying attention to the little accident that happened to him, and it was indeed a stupid thing to use Floo fans after so many years to be burned by the fire.

"Well, both gentlemen are very welcoming."

Of course, Ning An was willing to relieve Jung, after all, he was his own person, he nodded, pretended not to see his embarrassment, and turned to face the two bosses of the broom company.

"Mr. Buzhang has informed us that you are going to the Black Forest, would you like to take a break or leave now? Allow the two of us to show you the way. ”

Forner? Ellerby bent over and moved forward, like a big beetle bowing down, the folds on his face trembled, Ning An was very suspicious that he was so old that he could still remember the road in the Black Forest.

"Let's go now, let's see the situation first."

Glancing at Jung, Ning An said with a smile, Jung had an expression dominated by Ning An, so he naturally came according to his own ideas.

So the four of them walked out of the house together, and Ning An found that they were in a two-story wooden house built in the forest, and behind the house was a large forest that could not be seen, with dense trees, and a rolling mountain range was faintly visible around it, and it was indeed black from a distance, no wonder it was called the Black Forest.

There are also many stone bungalows built around the two-story cabin, and the outermost part is surrounded by a small low wall, in any case, this 'Elebi Badmo Broomstick Company', which should have been very successful in Ning'an's impression, seems a bit 'shabby'?

"Well, we have an office in London—"

Ellebi hurriedly explained, he saw the suspicion in the corner of Ning An's eyes, this was the family's hard work, and it was like a child to him, so he naturally didn't want to be underestimated, although judging from this, it was indeed shabby.

"Why are the houses empty?"

There was not a trace of life in the stone bungalows that surrounded the small wooden building, and everyone could see that there was no one inside, except for a few of them, and there were only one or two wizards in a hurry, with a sad face, who stopped to say hello as they passed by Mr. Ellerby and Mr. Badmore, and then hurried away.

Ning An looked strange and asked questions.

"Ahh

The two old wizards sighed at the same time, making Ning An a little inexplicable, the atmosphere that was quite cheerful just now became sad and depressed for a while, and he didn't know if he had asked the wrong thing or their own question, and he was soon answered.

Still a talkative Ellerby, Mr. Badmore just stood by and listened to Ellerby, then nodded in agreement.

"This was originally a factory where the elves processed fire bolts."

Ning An turned his head and stood on tiptoe to look, and vaguely saw tall piles of timber stacked behind the stone houses, piled up in a triangle, and some could be seen every few houses, which seemed to be the original materials waiting to be processed into flying broomsticks.

"But the elves have gone on strike in the last few months—alas—"

Mr. Ellerby sighed deeply, and the smile that greeted Ning An before was gone, leaving only a face full of sorrow and distress.

"This company was started by our fathers, and the two of them have always been committed to making the best broomsticks they can be."

Mr. Badmore nodded beside him, he had spearheaded the invention of the firebolt, and he was more of a craftsman than a businessman running a company than Eleby.

"The response of the first few sets was not very good, neither the Off-String Arrows nor the Swift Arrows were sold as well as the Sweep series and the Comet series, and the Swift was never even used by a professional Quidditch team."

Ning An felt that the old man had begun to cry when he spoke, and he even began to consider whether to avoid it for a moment to give the other party some space to soothe his emotions.

He had to admit that the goblin who lost his job at this time was a very serious blow, and it could be seen that the fire crossbow bolt pinned the hopes of these two old men, and the company might be able to sweep away the decline with this series, and even leap to become a new industry giant beyond Sweep, Comet, and Light Wheel.

"The Firebolt performed very well, exceeding my and Badmo's expectations, and the Halo series was simply not enough to see in front of it - it took the whole of Europe by storm in a very short time."

Even Jung was moved by Mr. Ellerby's words, he knew how hot the fire bolts were, and it was a bit imposing to describe them as in short supply, if the children who went to the magic school now, and even the members of the various Quidditch leagues, wanted the most gifts, then there would be no second choice but fire bolts.

"But at this time, the goblins who make the iron on the broom are on strike, alas, the factory has to shut down, and if this continues, the broom in stock will not be able to supply the huge order-"

Elleby's face became more worried, and he looked around at the deserted small stone houses, and said with a sad brow:

"It's a trivial matter if we can't make money, if the market is snatched back by Halo and other companies, we-"

It seems that the strike is quite serious, Ning An muttered to himself in his heart, the profits on the broomstick are very large, there is no wizard who doesn't like the sport of Quidditch, probably Ning An himself is the exception of the exception, even if he doesn't like it, many times long-distance flights always rely on broomsticks, wizards are not willing to take Muggle planes.

One of the largest broomstick companies in Europe can bring a lot of tax revenue to the Ministry of Magic every year, and if the 'Elleby and Badmore Broomstick Company' can completely defeat the light wheel and other companies and dominate the entire European market, the German Ministry of Magic will needless to say that it can get a large amount of tax revenue.

Even in other ways, it is of great benefit to the development of the entire German wizarding community.

He really wanted to help Elby solve this matter, but at the moment, Ning An didn't have a good way to deal with the goblins, these guys with long fingers are also very magical, good at forging, opening their own bank and king, very difficult to deal with, although the wizards treat them as second-class creatures, but people themselves don't think so.

Otherwise, they would not have rebelled repeatedly, and to this day there is still constant friction between the two sides, and the goblins' attitude towards wizards can be said to be very bad.

"Ah, don't talk about that, it's annoying."

As they crossed the low wall and entered a forest of birch and fir trees, Elleby realized that he had been complaining all the way, that it was not a flattering habit, and he quickly shut up.

Ning An shook his head, he was nothing, what Ellerby said was quite interesting, and it was quite exciting to know some unknown aspects of the production of fire crossbow arrows, but there was no good way to help them, so naturally he would not answer, so this topic was skipped, Ellerby rubbed the short hard stubble on his chin, and asked again:

"Are you specially invited by Mr. Buzhang to deal with the evil spirits? They're not easy to deal with, and I've heard that another Muggle was eaten last week. ”

Elleby said as he got closer, such an old man was as lively and active as him, Ning An was still the first time to see him, sure enough, not every gray-haired old wizard was Dumbledore.

"And those annoying elves, it seems like they're hooking up with the banshees right now, I mean, they all like to eat little ones - you know, right?"

The old wizard's voice doubled as he spoke, and he looked around from time to time as he spoke, as if he was worried that something was eavesdropping.

A cold wind blew through the mountains and forests, shuttling between the leaves, stirring the gaps between the leaves and branches to make them "rattle", like a sea of trees rolling and a wave approaching the shore.

"Where are we?"

Ning An found that he had already walked with these two people for a while, and the broomstick making factory behind him had long been out of sight, and there was nothing else in all directions except the towering number, and the types had long since changed from birch and fir trees to a thousand forms.

The pines and firs of Dapian are all over every corner of the dense forest, and the primitive trees add a touch of dark green to the forest, which makes people's hearts feel a little chilly, as if winter has come in advance, which makes Ning An unconsciously tighten his collar a little, and even feels that the cold wind blowing through the forest is a little cool.

"This is the northern part of the forest, the territory of the banshees."

Ellebi walked ahead and whispered to Ning An without looking back, "The evil elves operate in the center, and the southern part of the forest is inhabited by rotting vampires. ”

The obvious difference in adjectives made Ning An realize that the old wizard did not want to see the living dead like vampires, and he remembered that there was an old vampire in his house, but he had not been back since returning from the world on the other side of the veil, he had been busy, and he didn't know what happened to William and Sarah.

"So we're going through the northern forests?"

Jung lifted the hem of his robe, and the black wizard's robe was almost dragged to the ground, making a "rustle-rustle" sound in a patch of dead branches and rotting leaves.

"No, no, no, let's go find a banshee who lives near here, she's familiar with the situation, and maybe ask her what's going on in the Black Forest."

"Banshee?"

Jung pursed his lips, his brows furrowed like two curved crescents, and his tone was full of thick distrust, it was the first time Ning An had seen him with such an expression

"Can we expect a banshee to tell us anything useful?"

Living in Germany, he can be said to know very well about the three creatures that flood the Black Forest all year round, although they are classified as human beings in terms of species, but the attitude of the banshees towards humans has never been good, and it is good not to come out to find trouble, and few people will take the initiative to lean in.

"Ah, that's right—I bet it's not a good choice if you don't know the place well, Mr. Jung."

Ellerby showed considerable respect, and of course he knew Jung? Hohenzollern, the big man in the Joint Senate of the Ministry of Magic, naturally used honorifics when he spoke.

"But we've been neighbors with this guy for a long time, so—" He shrugged, grinning and showing a few loose teeth:

"So there is still a little bit of 'friendship' more or less."

Ning An didn't know how much friendship there was, they trekked in the forest for two hours, and finally came to a clear lake, which was a small cold lake like a mirror, the lake was covered with tall firs, they surrounded the lake in a circle, and the wind swept the ripples on the water surface and the sound of the woods "rustling", giving people an extremely quiet and empty feeling.

The Black Forest is the source of the Danube River, and there are many lakes in the forest, large and small, which are not surprising, and this is the third lake that Ning'an has seen along the way, but compared to the previous places where you could not even see a ghost except a squirrel, here, a small wooden house is prominently built by the lake, and there is even a warm bonfire outside the house.

"Whew-"

Ellerby exhaled, Ning An felt that he was about to let out a white breath, the temperature in the forest seemed to have dropped rapidly in the past few hours, and now it should be almost noon, but the shade of the trees obscured all the sunlight, and it was dim and dark here, and the cold wind blew in gusts, as if it was in the deep forest on a cold night.

"That's Felea's home."

The old wizard reached out to the hut, and Mr. Badmore followed him and nodded, indicating that this was the right place, and it seemed that the two of them had indeed been in contact with the banshees here on a regular basis.

"Then let's go over."

Ning An led the way along the lake to the quiet wooden hut, where the light was a little dim, but a bonfire raised in front of the house provided a good direction.

As he approached the cabin, there was a shrill "gurgling" sound from behind the house, as if something was calling, and the listener couldn't help but slow down.

Immediately after that, a black shadow suddenly slipped through the air, rushing straight towards Ning An's face, and something sharp reflected a glimmer of light under the light.

"Armor protection!"

Ning An, who was suddenly attacking quickly, didn't even have time to bake out his wand, but he had so much combat experience, and his hands quickly stretched out to make a blocking motion, and at the same time shouted a spell, and then everyone heard a loud impact

"Boom—"

The black shadow seemed to hit an invisible glass cover, and after making a violent impact sound, it slowly fell to the ground like a rag, and the four of them took out their wands at the same time, and Ning An looked at it fixedly

Lying on the ground was a crumpled little man, and it was a bit of a misappropriation to say that it was human, because it didn't look like a human from head to toe, except for its limbs.

It was about three feet tall, nearly a meter or so, and its arms were as thin as hemp sticks, but it had ten slender and sharp nails, and Ning An guessed that it probably wanted to attack herself with these nails just now.

From the half-grinning mouth, you can see dense fangs, like a shark, it can be seen that this creature is by no means a docile vegetarian, Ning An already had a guess in his heart, and sure enough, he heard Ellerby's soft cry behind him

"Evil Elves!?"

It turned out that this little goblin was a bad spirit that specializes in eating children and giving people headaches, Ning An just wanted to tie it up with a wand first, and then said, this little thing jumped up and seemed to want to run into the woods, but the door of the wooden house opened, and a rickety shadow slowly walked out holding the door.

It was an ugly old witch, wrinkled like mountains and rivers all over her cheeks, and the furrows made her face more three-dimensional, and it was covered with yellow-brown warts, which was disgusting.

Ning An thought she was a witch, but Ellebi behind her was the first to say hello:

"Long time no see, Felea—how did you raise the Evil Elf."

Ning An suddenly realized that the person in front of him was the banshee they were looking for.