The Admiral of Hogwarts

The hottest day of the summer was finally drawing to a close, and everything seemed to be shrouded in a drowsy silence.

In the Muggle neighborhood, the usually gleaming cars were all coated in a layer of gray dust, parked in driveways, and the once lush green lawns had turned yellow—due to the severe drought, the use of watering hoses was prohibited.

The Grangers' lawn was no different from the others. After all, even if Hugo had a simple way to keep the lawn green in this weather, he wouldn't be so foolish as to attract attention.

Nevertheless, the neatly trimmed lawn and hedges in front of the house showed the Grangers' diligence and love for life.

However, the situation inside the house was quite different from the tidy exterior. Many things were scattered about, as if the people inside were preparing for a long journey.

In fact, that was indeed the case. It was the weekend of the second week after the summer vacation began, and the Granger couple planned to travel to the East as scheduled to deal with issues related to the new factory.

"—You two are old enough, so I believe you can take care of yourselves. If you have any problems you can't solve, you can ask Miss Hood and the others for help," Mrs. Granger instructed Hugo and Hermione during lunch that day.

"Don't worry, Mom. I can handle these problems. You don't need to worry too much," Hugo replied with a smile, listening to his mother's nagging.

He had 100% confidence in his parents' investment, because he believed that Yixian could help his parents manage their lives in the Far East, and he also had absolute confidence in the porcelain teeth technology developed by Yubari.

After lunch and a short rest, they called a taxi and took their luggage to Heathrow Airport in London. In the waiting hall, Mr. and Mrs. Granger seized the time to give their children some last-minute instructions.

"I seem to have heard that you will be staying with your classmates for a few days. That's good. It's a good thing to communicate with your classmates during the holidays, better than staying at home all day."

"But when you are at home, you must take good care of yourselves. Remember to lock the doors and turn off the water, electricity, and gas when you leave the house—" Mr. and Mrs. Granger began to arrange things in detail. Hugo and Hermione stood there listening attentively.

It must be said that parents all over the world are similar in their love for their children, so this kind of situation always involves repetitive nagging. Fortunately, at this time, the announcement of boarding came from the broadcast.

"—Okay, that's it. We're about to board. You must help each other if anything happens. I believe you can take care of yourselves."

Seeing that the time had come, Mr. and Mrs. Granger gave a final instruction, and then left with their luggage. Hugo and Hermione watched their parents walk away until they could no longer be seen, before leaving the airport and taking a bus home.

"We should set off now," Hugo said to Hermione after arriving home. "The two experimental transport ships will complete all the break-in work in two days and set sail for Mars, so we'd better go to Lunar Station One and stand by there early."

"Don't worry, I've already packed my things. Give me half an hour to tidy up a bit and we'll leave," Hermione nodded and walked into her room, while Hugo shrugged and began to check his luggage.

To be honest, he really didn't understand why, theoretically speaking, ship girls have the ability to change outfits with one click, but except for North Carolina and a very few ship girls, other ship girls would slowly dress themselves up like humans in non-war states.

Fortunately, Hermione used to be a very punctual person, and this trend became even more obvious after becoming a ship girl. So, half an hour later, the Granger siblings left home with their pre-prepared luggage.

At this time, Hood was already waiting for them at the door in her car. After getting in the car, Hood quickly started the car and drove towards her London address.

In fact, it was possible to go to the moon using the sub-dimension from anywhere. However, to avoid the neighbors from becoming suspicious about Hugo and the others not leaving the house, Hugo could only use this method to let the neighbors know that he had left home.

"How is the situation now?" Twenty minutes later, Hugo and the others arrived at the space dock in lunar synchronous orbit and asked, looking at the two spaceships outside the porthole.

Compared to the last time they came, the volume of this dock was obviously much larger. It seemed that everything here was developing rapidly during the time Hugo was at school.

"Everything is going smoothly. We now have four transport ships running on the moon-Mars route using conventional engines," Hood said, pointing to the two spaceships outside the porthole that looked like the previous transport ships.

"If the test is successful tomorrow, then we will temporarily replace the previous four ships with these two ships, freeing up enough time to upgrade and improve the original four ships, and install warp engines for them."

Just as everyone was talking, Hood led Hugo and Hermione to the warehouse section of the space dock. Unlike other parts of the dock, the warehouse section had no artificial gravity.

The reason for doing this was that, on the one hand, items could be stacked more efficiently in a weightless environment, and on the other hand, it was more convenient to transport various materials in the warehouse.

Of course, in order to prevent the workers from colliding everywhere due to the lack of artificial gravity and causing some unsafe accidents, people entering the non-artificial gravity zone would also wear shoes with electromagnets and proceed along designated routes.

Hugo and the others were naturally the same. Although they wouldn't fly off the ground if they skillfully used magic, it was best to follow the rules in this kind of industrial area.

Walking in this weightless environment was a very novel experience, but fortunately, the life support system in this place was still running, so there was no need to wear a heavy spacesuit.

Therefore, the Granger siblings, whose physical fitness was much stronger than ordinary people, quickly learned how to use electromagnetic shoes to move forward in this environment after only a few steps, and quickly became proficient.

When they arrived in front of a large door at the innermost part of the warehouse, something that looked as big as a double-decker bus, made of metal and crystal, appeared in front of everyone, and Massachusetts and Glimmer were standing in front of it inspecting it.

The appearance of this thing looked square and full of a sci-fi aesthetic. However, the various crystals inlaid on it and the magic circles made of fairy silver gave it a mysterious characteristic.

"This is our warp engine, the Salem-Yubari Engine," Hood said with a proud face, standing in front of this huge machine. "It combines the power of magic and technology that we now possess."

Hugo nodded, because he could see that even this engine used some magical methods for reinforcement. In addition, the crystals and magic circles on it were obviously not decorations.

It must be said that these ship girls have indeed done something that no predecessor has ever done. They have successfully created miracles through their own efforts and have opened the prelude to the Age of Interstellar Navigation.