From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 667 The Mystery of Illini

"So, you two have been staying in my Requirement Room since last night?"

In the clear pond adorned with tiny rainbows, the golden dragon's massive and majestic body was comfortably immersed in the water, its enormous head resting on a magically carved gem throne, enjoying a scrubbing service from several Yordles, or rather, having its scales cleaned.

Since transforming his body into a golden dragon, Ivy has inevitably acquired some dragon traits, such as a stronger collecting obsession, a greater appreciation for things that look beautiful and valuable, and intense desires, a thirst for power, and a need for control.

Besides, restoring his enormous size in the Room of Requirement and enjoying being scrubbed by the servants with magical brushes is something Ivy is becoming increasingly enthusiastic about.

After the House of Requirement merged with Ivy's own demiplane, it created many more terrains that could be freely edited. He designed a pond surrounded by green trees and sparkling with many brilliant crystals as a place to bathe and rest. Besides lying in his human form on the big bed, it sometimes became his sleeping place.

Building a fortress by continuously casting spells was a considerable burden even for a legendary spellcaster like Ivy. Determined not to let stress and fatigue accumulate into the next day, Ivy fell asleep by the pond after enjoying the services of the Poppies. However, what woke him the next morning wasn't his precise biological clock, but a fluffy, throbbing dragon's tail.

Its enormous size gave it a terrifying lung capacity, so when Ivy sneezed, the little dragon Aiwu was immediately thrown into the pond by the ensuing gust of wind.

Standing on the shore, Ilinica saw her dragon companion fall into the water, but instead of being worried, she pointed at her and laughed without any regard for her image.

Upon recognizing Illinika, the Crusader's knight commander, and her mischievous little dragon, Ivy lowered her guard and resumed summoning the Yordles to serve her. The opening dialogue takes place under these circumstances.

“Yes, we came in yesterday.” Irina unceremoniously lifted a layer of her gauze skirt to fend off the water splashes from Little Dragon Aiwu after it came ashore, and answered Ivy’s question with a smile.

As early as the beginning of the Fifth Holy War, Ivy lent her bathroom in the Room of Requirement to the actress Illinika, since she represented the face of the Crusades and naturally had to maintain a glamorous appearance at all times.

“It’s not strange that you’d spend the night in the bathhouse, but I don’t recall giving you permission to run around. Didn’t my magic stop you?” Ivy twitched his beard and asked with half-closed eyes. Since turning into a golden dragon, he seemed to be in a daze for longer every morning when he woke up.

“My friend is the freest person in the world! You don’t think a little magic door can stop her, do you?” The pale purple dragon stretched its already dried tail back into the pond, happily splashing water on Ivy.

However, with her limited water-drawing capacity, which is not much different from that of a calligraphy brush, it would take who knows when she could completely wet the part of Ivy that was above the water.

The spirit messengers from Elysium are indeed adept at traversing between different planes, and the access restrictions Ivy set up in the House of Requests would indeed be difficult to stop a spirit messenger with mythical power.

“Looks like you guys really have too much free time.” Ivy remembered the dragon-hunting contract they had agreed on last night. “Perfect, I’ve found you something to do. Do you know that red dragon that’s been harassing us outside the city? Go and take her out.”

"What? Aiwu is going to deal with the evil dragon! That's great! I will fight like a beast, howl like a beast, and avenge all the kind little dragons that were eaten by the old evil dragon!" Even while cheering on the upcoming dragon-hunting plan, Aiwu did not give up splashing water on Aiwei.

Ilinica, who was very enthusiastic about dragons, seemed distracted because she was surrounded by two giant dragons. Instead of cheering like Aiwu, she stared intently at the water.

“I’ve found you a helper, the assassin Grebo who lives in the tavern. You can gather your teammates and set off together. Also, if that adult female dragon is carrying eggs, remember not to destroy them. I want to try to change the dragon’s nature through education.” Ivy casually pulled her long tail out of the pond, pulling Ilinica and the baby dragon Aiwu from the shore into the pool.

Seeing that both the man and the dragon had become drowning dogs, he flapped his wings and stood up from the water, deftly shaking off the water droplets. However, an unexpected, crisp drumbeat rang out from behind him.

Ivy looked back in confusion, only to find Irina, who had fallen into the water, high-fiving and laughing with Aiwu: "We did it! We made the rattle drum on the tail of the great golden dragon ring!"

The joyful dragon flapped its dragonfly-like wings and flew up, landing right in front of Ivy's eyes with its nose raised: "You cute little rascal, do you know what the great golden dragon is going to do! I'm going to get a scolding, a lecture, and after the lecture, another scolding!"

Seeing Aiwu's playful yet slightly proud expression, Ivy wondered if her lecture might actually be a compliment to the Carnival Dragon.

So Ivy tilted her head and thought for a while, then decided to get back at him in another way: "You know what? I know some really interesting magic, perfect for playing pranks."

Aiwu's blue crystal eyes sparkled with curiosity: "Really? Then can you teach Aiwu? I can apologize for my previous prank! Or, Irina can sing you a song, a really, really beautiful song!"

"No way! You made the mess, so you have to clean it up yourself." Ilinica climbed ashore, wrung out her wet, gray hair, and smiled as she refused Aiwu's request.

"But... Aiwu really loves prank magic!" The tiny carnival dragon blinked its big eyes and shot cute beams at Aiwu.

However, the steely-hearted Ivy wouldn't succumb to such a half-hearted attempt at cuteness. His voice remained as calm and wise as ever: "I've never taught a Carnival Dragon student like you, so I don't know where your potential lies. What if you knew the spell but couldn't use it correctly? Wouldn't that be terrible? So I suggest you try out my Mischief Spell first, so I can see just how much talent you really have. What do you think, Ivy?"

“Don’t fall for it, Aiwu. The great golden dragon wants you to be the first test subject for the prank spell!” Unlike the naive little dragon, Irina saw through Aiwu’s plan at a glance and warned him with a smile. “Really?” Aiwu looked at Aiwu suspiciously, carefully observing the calmness on his face, before suddenly adopting a fearless expression. “A true prank expert wouldn’t be discouraged by a super cool prank spell, I’d just laugh! Come on, Your Majesty the Great Golden Dragon!”

“Very courageous, fearless little dragon. Maybe you’ll be sorted into Gryffindor. The spell I’m about to cast on you is called the Whispering Charm. Its effect is… well, let’s just say it’s to remove that talkative little tongue of yours.”

Upon hearing that her tongue was about to be removed, Ai Wu, who was about to cry out, opened her mouth and heard a loud "click" coming from between the golden dragon's teeth.

Then a small, slender, bluish-purple shadow darted out of Aiwu's mouth before she could even utter a cry of surprise, and vanished into the pond.

"(Very quietly) My tongue! My tongue has run away!" Ai Wu screamed anxiously, but felt that her voice was barely louder than a mosquito's hum.

"Too bad, the whispering spell seems to be particularly effective on you, so it has a bit of a backlash. If you can't find your tongue before sunset today, you'll have to say goodbye to it for the rest of your life." People are indeed best at keeping their expressions in check when they're doing something bad, and Ivy only revealed a triumphant smile at this moment. "Too bad, it seems your little tongue has escaped from my Room of Requirement."

"(Very quietly) I want to get out! I want to find my tongue!" Aiwu was so anxious that he was circling around in the sky.

However, Ivy acted as if she hadn't heard her at all and asked, "Don't forget your tongue has run away; I can't hear what you're saying at all."

Aiwu frantically gestured in the air for a while before Aiwei slowly opened the nearest door for her and let her out.

“You didn’t actually remove her tongue, did you?” Irina said with a knowing look.

“A little trick can bring peace to the entire city of Juanze for a whole day. It’s a good deal, isn’t it?” Ivy returned to human form by the pond and helped Ilinica dry off. “I’m going to start my work for today. I suggest you meet up with Grebo at the tavern as soon as possible to discuss what preparations you need to make for the dragon hunt.”

Ilinica followed Ivy to the office in the Fortress of Jueze City and asked curiously, "What are you planning to do today?"

“Zecarius has been urging us to build a spirit tower outside the city of Jueze for several times. The undead warriors we’ve gathered from the temple district also need a place to be housed.” Ivy tapped the snow globe on her desk, waking the lich inside.

“Oh, I almost forgot you’re a dragon lich.” Ilined followed Ivy quite naturally. “What’s it like to become an undead? Eternal peace? Not being bothered by mortal emotions? Starting to plot evil schemes? You were right not to let Nie Niu appear in the fortress, you have no idea how long she’s been bothering me with these questions!”

"It's not as magical as you imagine, it's just death. Everyone will eventually encounter her." Ivy glanced at Ilinica, remaining noncommittal to the Crusader Knight Commander's blatant slacking off. "Tell me about your new power. It has changed you a lot, making you less arrogant."

“Oh my god…” Irina breathed a sigh of relief, “I thought you were going to say I’d gotten uglier. Ever since I left Chelias and got away from those devils, everything around me has started to feel wonderful! Even the demons… You have no idea how cute Elsare is!”

“It’s good that you can accept it, but have you ever thought that this power is not innate, nor is it a gift from the gods, and it even has very little connection with the Blissful Realm?” Ivy asked tentatively.

“Yes, although everyone says my power comes from God, or at least from Desna’s grace, if not Iomede, then I know very well that this power comes from the angel in the Guardian Stone, and it has undergone special changes because of my personal pursuits.” Irina answered lightly, “'This power is not innate; the more you rely on it, the more backlash you will suffer when you lose it,' you must be thinking that, right? I’ve seen countless operas like that in Celias. All the gifts of fate come with a price tag in secret, and the one who writes down fate itself is a stingy devil.”

“No, this has nothing to do with fate or the devil.” Ivy calmly shook her head. “Have you ever considered that you might be an experiment, and this mythical power is the result of that experiment?”

"What?" Ilinica looked over in astonishment.

“Remember Nugennis? That half-soul-eating demon, he was originally human, then transformed into a demon with the same source of power as you. That’s why your power increased after killing him.” Ivy continued her analysis. “I suspect that, like Nugennis, you are also one of Arelu’s experiments. She deliberately placed you in Kanaburi, which was about to be invaded by demons, to observe the results of her experiment. I guess she also secretly removed some obstacles for you, allowing you to successfully see the Guardian Stone and draw out the mythical power within you.”

Ivy looked at the swaying Irina and gently comforted her, "These are just my speculations for now. It doesn't mean that your previous life was a fake created by Arelu. But my speculations are not unfounded or based on mere imagination."

"My reasoning is based on what Arelu did in the City of Favor. She guided you to the Edge of Valor, and she seemed quite certain that the power within you would undergo some strange changes with this artifact of Iomede. Considering Nugenis, the half-soul-eating demon who also possesses mythical power, it is quite logical to conclude that you are Arelu's experiment."

Illini was no coward who would fall into the existential trap. She regained her footing and took a deep breath: "Then she should know that even an experimental subject may not be completely under her control! Playing with fire will get you burned!"

“I think so too.” Ivy nodded in agreement. “Arilu may very well have created her own greatest enemy.”

"But why is she doing this? Is it just to let the demons invade Grellion?" Ilinica, who had regained her confidence, felt a deep sense of doubt. "If she is really so powerful, why doesn't she use it on herself? If she could completely control this power, even the demon lords in the abyss wouldn't be a match for her, would they?"

"Regardless of whether Arelu's goal is to become a demon lord or to create some other disaster, one thing is foreseeable: many demons with mythical power will appear on the battlefield between the Crusaders and the demons," Ivy asserted.

(End of this chapter)