The two of them were playing a magic contest and insisted on having a witness.

"Haha, you lost, drink up!"

The wine in the specially made vessel is not the French people's favorite wine, but a compromise: elderflower liqueur.

"Stepping on Stars"

This is a wine made in France from 100% wild elderflower.

Pierre actually wanted to drink brandy or wine, but Wiles insisted on elderflower liqueur.

This wine has an alcohol content of 20% and is sweeter than regular sweet wine.

(I'm guessing that Wiles likes this because the only alcoholic beverage included in the drinks menu at Andrew Wiles's Building at Oxford University is elderflower liqueur.)

Zheng Li sat quietly to the side, watching them drink and chat.

Sweet wines are easier to get drunk on than red wines.

Actually, this kind of game is very disadvantageous to the side that loses first, because your spellcasting ability won't increase just because you're drunk.

Conversely, drunkenness can reduce concentration, making it difficult to accurately tilt the vessel towards the other person.

"Sigh, the pressure has been too great lately. The higher-ups are still arguing about whether to cooperate with America or China."

They always want to seize every benefit.

We fear that when we cooperate with America, they might conceal or deceive us, selectively revealing the truth to us.

They cooperated with China but questioned the other party's strength.

The chaos in London remains out of control.

Downing Street's warnings had no effect whatsoever.

The people below do not believe that being caught committing a crime will have serious consequences.

The underground magical battles are becoming increasingly rampant.

I really wish I could go back to Brussels and do some quiet research.

During this period, I felt like I was becoming Sherlock Holmes.

Or it would be nice to go back to Cambridge.

As Wiles drank more and more, he gradually loosened up.

He was very dissatisfied with 10 Downing Street.

Even if the person in charge is changed, in his view it's just the same thing in a different guise.

Pierre was much more sober than Wiles; he hadn't drunk much today.

"London's mistake was speaking too early and making too many pronouncements."

While Boris was still in office, he warned those who wanted to use magic to achieve illegal purposes that they would pay the price.

As a result, even the murderer who orchestrated the flexible killings in London did not receive the punishment he deserved.

This caused Boris Johnson's deterrence to fail.

Deterrence failure comes at a price.

London will therefore have to pay a higher cost to quell this situation.

Failed deterrence resulted in both sides incurring higher costs.

Deterrence is an effective means of safeguarding one's own interests and preventing the escalation of conflict; it requires both strength and determination.

In a sense, the latter is more important than the former.

If you lack resolve, do not resort to threats lightly. Empty words and grand pronouncements will only provoke the other party to become more arrogant and provoke further attempts to provoke you, ultimately forcing you to submit or stop their transgressions at a higher cost.

Although Pierre was a mathematician, he was old and experienced, and he understood this principle well.

He continued, "To solve the problem now, we need to rely on some unexpected methods."

---Aside---

I was a little disappointed and annoyed yesterday.

Those in the group will know that it was said as early as last Friday that Pelosi would definitely go.

The response and countermeasures were something I expected, but something I didn't want to see.

Finally, I hope the big-chess faction can prove me wrong and show that my pessimistic expectations were incorrect.

This time, I genuinely hope that my pessimistic expectations for the future are wrong.

I just wrote this; I don't know anything about geopolitics, it's just something I said casually.