Harry Potter : Bloodraven-Chapter 293: The Opening Gambit (II) (CH - 312)

The sky slowly brightened, and light climbed the towers of Hogwarts, turning their peaks into quiet torches. Below, frost covered the grass, bare trees lined the grounds, and a thin mist lingered over the lake in the soft calm of a late autumn morning.

For now, the school remained mostly asleep, its tall tower windows dim and showing no signs of activity. But that silence would not last long. Breakfast begins precisely at seven, and even earlier than the students, the professors would usually be up and already getting started with their day.

Most of the professors' chambers, their offices, are set within the towers, spread across the first three floors, with only the Headmaster and his deputy living higher above the rest.

And tucked into the northernmost corner, with a clear view of both the inner grounds and the world beyond, sits the Professor of Alchemy's office, and at this early hour, like the rest of the castle, it rests in quiet peace.

At a glance, one couldn't guess it belonged to a renowned mage. The space was brightly lit, not a single candle in sight, and the only fire came from the fireplace on the eastern wall, set neatly between two shelves filled with books.

The quiet, then, was broken when a sudden bloom of bright orange light opened in the middle of the room, shimmering and turning as it formed a glowing doorway.

Footsteps echoed, unhurried, and the owner of the office stepped through, hair mussed, dressed in nothing but a shirt and shorts, looking very much like someone who had just woken up.

In fact, that was exactly the case. He had just arrived after spending the night with his fiancée. Fortunately, Mother Magic cared little whether one's loved one's bedroom was next door or on the other side of the continent.

The shimmering light closed behind him in a soft scatter of sparks as soon as both his feet touched the floor, just in time for early sunlight to filter through the windows where the calm of morning settled around the room.

It had indeed been a night to remember, not only because he had been with Isabella, but also because he had taken care of an important step in his grand plan on the other side of the continent. He let out a quiet sigh, though there was no tiredness in it. Instead, a small smile touched his lips as he crossed the room and dropped into the long-backed chair behind his desk, leaning back comfortably once he had settled.

Then, with a casual wave of his hand, four small identical rectangular boxes appeared on the large oak desk in front of him, each bearing the same printed image of what looked like a modern-day smart phone.

Well, they were really mobile phones, the latest models his company had released, unveiled the night before during the keynote held in Los Angeles, America.

If anyone from present-day Earth were to see one, they would undoubtedly recognize the design at a glance and assume it was a smartphone. However, it was still not advanced enough to be labeled smart just yet.

After all, it had only been last year that his company introduced the first generation, Caesar One, and at this time, the only truly cutting-edge features available to the public were the touchscreen and the camera, both of which would have taken another decade to arrive if Maverick had not pushed it.

As such, the second generation, labeled Caesar Two, was not a dramatic leap forward either.

That said, if Maverick truly wanted to, and if he committed the resources, manpower, and collective brainpower under his command, he could easily replicate a proper smart, smartphone and introduce it to the world. But he had no intention of doing so.

First of all, it would be a foolish decision, both from a long-term profit standpoint and from his personal perspective as someone who understood the general trajectory of this world's fate.

Introducing an all-touchscreen device with a camera was already a massive step, especially in a world where mobile phone technology was still in its infancy. If he released everything a modern smartphone could offer at once, the world would practically lose its mind.

And in terms of monetary benefits, stuffing every idea he knew into a single product would leave him with very little room to grow in the future. More importantly, people's expectations would spiral out of control. They would come to demand another groundbreaking, world-changing release the following year as well, and that was not a cycle he intended to start.

In any case, the new features he had chosen were more than enough.

What truly separated the second generation from the first came down to two key points. He had introduced multimedia messaging, and he had introduced wireless data transfer.

Infrared. Just infrared, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, nothing like that. This was still the 1990s, after all.

For the general public of the time, it was still a game changer. By simply touching two phones together, users of the second-generation model could now share the photos they took without having to go through the slow process of transferring files to a PC first and then back again.

As for MMS, it might seem primitive, but it was worth noting that wireless communication was still limited to basic telecommunications. Long-range multimedia transfer simply did not exist yet. Even so, these two features were more than enough, and judging from the audience's reaction, there was no doubt it would be a success.

And speaking of MMS, it was also important to note that it had not been accomplished by his company alone. Caesar Technologies was not a telecom carrier, after all. Instead, his team had partnered in advance with most major carriers around the world, and only through that cooperation had it become possible.

All Maverick had done was introduce the hardware into his product and present the idea to the carriers, then work with them to make it usable.

And competitors would undoubtedly add the feature to their own devices in the future, but he did not mind that in the slightest. In fact, he would be happier if they did it sooner rather than later.

In the end, though, the most important reason he had introduced both multimedia messaging and wireless data transfer had little to do with advancing the world's technological progress. It was for none other than the drama that would unfold next year.

Basically, when his plans finally converged, he wanted the entire world to witness it, the news spreading so fast and so uncontrollably that it would be impossible to contain.

That aside, the response to his second-generation phone was simply fantastic. The keynote had been just as spectacular as last year's, and Isabella had done her job beautifully, presenting with effortless confidence and holding the audience from start to finish.

Thank you so much for your support. It means the world! 💙😊