Falsifying history is good business

Chapter 6: The Kind Minister of Magic

A lot of things happened that night, but it didn't stop Lin You from having a good sleep. He woke up the next day refreshed and energetic. Today he would formally accept the canonization and inherit the family's earldom.

The old butler carefully prepared every detail from clothes, shoes and socks to hairstyle decorations. Lin You was manipulated by him and the maid like a puppet for an hour.

"Before and after the ceremony, the Queen will most likely talk to you in private, which will take quite a while, so it's best not to eat too much to avoid being disrespectful. After all, this is your first time officially representing the Forester family."

Lin You stared blankly at the breakfast consisting of two slices of bread and half a cup of milk, while his ears continued to receive the etiquette norms repeated by the old butler.

Fortunately, the old butler's instructions were complicated but not verbose. He only said everything once. It seemed to mean: it's best to remember it, but it doesn't matter if you can't remember it. The old butler was born a Squib. Although he has lived in Muggle society for many years, he still has some alienation and carelessness from the magic world towards the Muggle world.

Lin You had a feeling that the old butler's alienation was universal, and he treated all Muggles equally, whether they were the Queen of England or the maids at home. If it weren't for the Forrest family's face, he probably wouldn't have paid attention to any royal rules at all.

Where does this sense of alienation, standing in the Muggle society and yet vaguely transcending it, come from? After much thought, it can only be attributed to the traditional influence of the Forresters themselves.

But think about it again, isn’t the so-called history and tradition of the Forrest family “written” by themselves with a quill pen?
In the final analysis, it all comes down to me?

Lin You was amused by his own discovery.

After quickly finishing the pitifully light breakfast, the old butler personally drove Lin You to Buckingham Palace.

Today's succession ceremony for the new Earl of Goff was low-key yet grand.

The reason why it is called low-key is that this ceremony is not open to the public. Compared with the British royal family's "medal wholesale ceremony" twice a year, not many people attended this ceremony.

It is called grand because although there are few people present, each of them is of distinguished status.

In addition to the Queen and her husband, all members of the British royal family were present, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, whose relationship has broken down.

There was still an hour before the ceremony officially began, and not many guests had arrived. Looking around, the largest number of people were MI5 agents who were guarding key points inside and outside the venue, either openly or secretly. The most eye-catching was a sturdy middle-aged man wearing a bowler hat.

This man was about fifty years old, maybe a little older. He was wearing a suit, a tie, and a pair of pointed shoes; he wore a cape over his suit, which he refused to take off even after entering the meeting.

Considering that autumn has just arrived, this outfit inevitably looks strange.

Lin You recognized this man, he was the current Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. At the same time, Fudge also obviously saw him.

"Mr. Forrester, it's been a year since we last met, right?" Minister Fudge smiled amiably and walked towards Lin You. The two men shook hands. Because Lin You was too small, he even bent down on his own initiative.

"Hello, Mr. Minister. I didn't expect you to come so early."

"The more courtesy, the less blame! For the traditional friendship between the Ministry of Magic and Forrest, I have to come early!" Minister Fudge smiled and lowered his voice. "But after I got here, I found that it was a bit awkward to stand with so many Muggles."

"We are not the same kind of people, it's inevitable! I usually like to hide in the manor and not come out. Unless it is necessary, I try not to interact with outsiders."

Fudge showed a sympathetic look. "Really? I didn't expect Mr. Forrester to have such troubles. But you have to have some free time, right? The trade between the Ministry of Magic and Muggles still depends on the help of the Forrester family to mediate!"

"Of course, that's my duty. Hasn't our cooperation been going smoothly this year? I believe it will continue to go smoothly in the future." Lin You promised with a smile. "Of course, I think so too." The Minister smiled even more happily.

Although the wizarding world has hidden its existence, it is not completely isolated from the Muggle world.

Not to mention those wizards who were born into Muggle families, even pure-blood wizards need to eat and wear clothes, and they need food and cloth; wizards also need various supplies in their daily lives, and a considerable part of the supplies that do not contain magical elements rely on trade with the Muggle world.

After all, can you imagine wizards planting their own crops, harvesting food, raising livestock, fishing, weaving, and mining? In the Middle Ages, there might still be wizards who lived this kind of self-sufficient life. What about modern times?

Moreover, since there is trade, it must be regulated. Due to the need for confidentiality, supervision and taxation cannot be handed over to Muggle government agencies. Therefore, the Forrest family, as advisors on magical affairs to the British royal family and the British government, naturally assumed the responsibility of supervision.

This is why Minister Fudge acted so kindly to an eight-year-old boy.

Given the population size and production capacity of the wizarding world, if they lose the material input from Muggles, the living standards of wizards will regress to the Middle Ages in a matter of minutes.

Here I have to complain about the original author's shallow understanding of population size and social structure.

Ms. Rowling is indeed original and refreshing in arranging the plot, designing the connotations and metaphors of people and objects. However, her biggest weakness is generally recognized to be the background and world view design.

This may be a common problem among most British writers - they are good at designing ingenious plots in a small environment, but intentionally or unintentionally blurring the broader background and environment in which the story takes place.

Let’s talk about the Harry Potter series.

Rowling first said that there were more than 3,000 wizards in Britain, equivalent to the population of a community.

How can this small population support so many industries such as food processing, candy, toys, vehicle manufacturing, transportation network construction and maintenance, book publishing, pet breeding and care, magical creature protection, medical care, and sports?

There are thirteen Quidditch clubs in the UK and Northern Ireland. If we divide the population of over three thousand into one club, how many supporters does each team have on average?

Two hundred and five?
Are the game tickets sold enough to pay the players’ salaries?

With such a small fan market, where does commercial sponsorship come from?
And that Lockhart, a famous writer who was popular all over Britain, so impressive! But when I counted on my fingers, I found that his fans were not as many as the subscribers of the failed online novel written by Lin You in his previous life.

There is also the Quidditch World Cup final at the beginning of "Goblet of Fire"; a stadium with a capacity of 100,000 people, with more than 3,000 British wizards, but they only occupied less than 4% of the seats.

As a result, as the host country, British wizards actually have to fight for tickets...

You in the wizarding world never reserve tickets for the host when you hold sports events, right?
In fact, it’s not Lin You’s fault that he likes to complain. In order to deal with the worldview and logical contradictions in the Harry Potter world, he was almost exhausted to the point of vomiting blood.

I racked my brains and made more than a dozen drafts of the revision plan, but I still couldn't cover everything.

Finally, I gritted my teeth and became ruthless. I won’t change!
You said that the number of British wizards was not 3,000, and later the official setting was changed to 10,000, right?

Okay, then ten thousand people!

All of you should learn from the American Indian reservations and eat relief food from the Muggle government!
　Second update
　　
　
(End of this chapter)