Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 116 A Dialogue Across a Thousand Years

What Rice saw was a pair of blank eyes. A thousand years ago, those bronze eyes were as sharp as an eagle's, but now they had lost their former sharpness and looked somewhat dull.

Ravenclaw felt as if she had been in a deep sleep and then suddenly shaken awake, her mind briefly going blank. However, she recovered quickly, and in less than a minute, her eyes regained their sparkle.

She remembered her identity, her position, and the obligations she bore.

After recalling all this, Ravenclaw's gaze involuntarily fell on Rice in front of him.

Why would a child appear in the sealed dungeon?

"It's dangerous here, this isn't a place for you. Go upstairs quickly," she said to Rice instinctively.

Rice: ?

Seeing his old friend regain consciousness, Rice had a thousand words stuck in his throat, but Ravenclaw's first words ruined the atmosphere—"Does Rowena think I'm a student in the castle?" No, sister, it's understandable that you don't recognize me because you haven't seen me when I was young, but take a look at this quagmire! This is my one and only trademark!

Rice paused for a moment, then stamped his foot. Instantly, ripples spread across the ground, as if a pebble had been thrown into a pond.

The changes in the ground caught Rowena's attention. She looked at the ground, which was "surging" like the sea, and a look of realization flashed across her face.

"You are Salazar—"

Rice nodded in satisfaction.

"—A descendant of him, right? Indeed, he has already mastered some of the skills in this field. Are you here to atone for his sins?"

Rice: ...

He felt his blood pressure was about to get out of control. Putting aside the fact that he had "acquired some of the true skills," what was this all about atonement? Was he the one who was guilty?!

He wasn't going to keep them in suspense any longer—who knew what Ravenclaw might say if he kept going like this—so he took a deep breath and said in as calm a tone as possible, "Royna, it's been a long time."

Ravenclaw paused for a moment.

This title...? She squinted, carefully examining the boy standing in front of her, and then she gradually raised her eyebrows.

"It's you, Salazar?!"

Rice nodded.

The next second, a huge wind blade slashed across his head.

Rice: !

He plunged directly into the mud, and immediately the spot where he was standing was covered by dozens of wind blades.

Rice popped his head out from the edge of the mud and yelled at Ravenclaw, "Royna, what's wrong with you?"

"You—have—the—face to come back?!" Ravenclaw shouted through gritted teeth. With each word she uttered, she summoned a barrage of wind blades that hurtled towards Rice.

However, with the swamp domain's blessing, these spells couldn't do any harm to Rice, and Ravenclaw understood this well—these moves were useless against Rice who had dived into the mud; she was just venting her frustration.

In an instant, it was as if a storm had swept through the small space.

About five minutes later, the storm subsided, and Rice emerged from the ravaged swamp, looking at Ravenclaw with a helpless expression.

"Are you calm now?"

Ravenclaw had regained her calm and elegant demeanor. She didn't respond to his words, but instead gave Rice a faint smile and said, "It's been a long time, Salazar."

Rice resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

What a crazy woman! He cursed inwardly. After all these years, Rowena had become more and more neurotic.

"Can you tell me what era it is outside?" Ravenclaw asked in a relaxed tone, as if he were talking about the weather with an old friend.

"The twentieth century is a full thousand years since we founded Hogwarts." As Rice said this, he suddenly felt a pang of emotion: Time is truly a wondrous thing.

"A thousand years." Ravenclaw closed his eyes, seemingly savoring the weighty number.

When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Rice and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes: it seemed that her old friend had gone further on the path to immortality than the three of them.

However, his approach seems to have some drawbacks, and I can try to verify it myself.

"Words are no proof. What evidence do you have to prove you are Salazar?" She could clearly confirm the identity of the person in front of her, but she still deliberately asked such a tricky question.

Reston frowned immediately: How am I supposed to prove I am who I am? Rowena, are you deliberately trying to pick a fight?

He stirred the mud beneath his feet.

Ravenclaw shook his head: "Domains can be inherited and learned, but they don't count—besides, your domain is quite different from what I remember."

"Hmm..." Rice nodded and took out the fragment of the crystal ball from his pocket.

Ravenclaw's eyelids twitched, and he shook his head indifferently.

"That just proves you're not Salazar. Salazar wouldn't break this thing."

Rice felt his blood rushing to his head, so he pulled out his wand and pressed the tip against his temple.

Rowena Ravenclaw, you forced me to this!!!

"You're right. I have a memory, Madam Ravenclaw, would you like to take a look? A witch once asked me for a potent Dream Potion, then mixed it with a Stimulant Potion and drank it. This is how she behaved fifteen minutes after taking the potion." As he spoke, a wisp of silver smoke curled around the tip of his wand, seemingly about to pull Rhys out of his mind.

A bad feeling flashed through Ravenclaw's mind.

Oh~~~ I am—

A woman's singing voice could be faintly heard from within the silvery smoke.

"Alright!" Ravenclaw interrupted Rice's spellcasting. "I believe you are Salazar."

Rice smiled slightly: "Wouldn't it have been better to do this earlier?"

Through their recent conversations, Ravenclaw obtained the information he wanted to know: the method his old friend used to achieve immortality seemed flawless on the surface, but his personality had been subtly altered, most likely because his physical body had become that of a child.

After verifying each other's identities, the two fell silent again. After a while, Rice finally spoke, "These past years have truly been tough on you."

Ravenclaw remained silent.

Those last few days were really tough for me.

In the final moments, she fantasized about what she would do when she saw her old friends again, and now it seems that at least her idea of ​​beating Salazar up was realized.

After a long while, she slowly began to speak, and in a very calm tone, she began to recount what had happened after Rice left school.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Update delivered! The second update will be a little later, so it's still recommended to read it on your way to work in the morning.

It wasn't an intentional break in the chapter, but because I wanted to properly write about the protagonist's reunion with Ravenclaw after a thousand years, I finished writing yesterday's chapter close to 2 AM, and I really wasn't in the right state of mind, so I can only write this after get off work tonight.

(End of this chapter)