Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 171 Rice: Thanks Again to Vigo

Hufflepuff's mushroom soup naturally didn't contain any mushrooms that shouldn't be eaten, and she told her friends about her goal of starting a magic school.

"I think this situation is wrong. Only through more communication can magic progress faster, just like we just did. If everyone locks their spellbooks in their own secret chambers, how can we possibly..." At this point, Helga glanced north. Although she didn't say it aloud, the other three understood what she meant: if all magical families hoard their spellbooks, then the gods will forever remain a sword hanging over the heads of wizards.

They have become increasingly active in recent decades. With the support of the Norse gods, the Vikings marched south, their warhammers sweeping across England, France, Spain, and Italy, reaching as far as the Greek peninsula. Furthermore, they entered Russia and Eastern Europe via rivers and estuaries, discovered Iceland and Greenland to the west, and eventually reached North America. To the east, they even reached the Caspian Sea.

If this continues, it's only a matter of time before wizards become servants of the Norse gods.

"Moreover, we can also encourage other families to share their magic by opening schools, which is very beneficial to us." After Hufflepuff finished explaining the necessity of opening schools, Ravenclaw added the benefits of opening magic schools for her.

After hearing what Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw said, Gryffindor was actually a little tempted, but Slytherin immediately poured cold water on their idea: "If that's the case, our school might not last more than a few days before it's destroyed by greedy wizards. They'll sneak in and steal our magic, or they might just arrest our students and force us to hand over all the spells we know."

"We definitely can't open a magic school right now. We'll have to wait until all four of us are famous enough to deter those greedy eyes."

The other three remained silent.

They had to admit that the scenario Slytherin described was the most likely to happen.

"Then let's open a magic school after we become famous great wizards!" Hufflepuff didn't put her friends in a difficult position; she knew it wasn't realistic to start a school now.

Gryffindor expressed his support to Hufflepuff. He stated that fighting was his forte, and he could even single-handedly defeat a dragon. He added that if anyone dared to covet their school in the future, he would nail them one by one to stakes.

Slytherin grinned and shook his head: "Become a renowned wizard? That'll be decades from now. By then, how many of the four people in the house will still be alive?"

"Alright, the soup's ready. Wild mushrooms with grouse, and an egg for everyone." Helga's words snapped them back to reality. They grabbed their utensils and ladled the chicken and mushrooms from the pot into their bread—the bread that served as their rations was harder than a rock. Experienced diners would first make a hole in the bottom of the bread and then use it to hold the stew. By the time they'd almost finished the stew, the bread would have softened.

After eating and drinking her fill, Hufflepuff began practicing the wood-transforming magic she had just learned.

One by one, she dug the lifelike little badgers out of the wood and placed them on the floor. Slytherin looked at the little badgers, his eyelids drooping uncontrollably, and eventually he fell asleep.

……

Rice pulled himself out of his memories, and the wooden badger in his memory and the badger on the handle of the copper cup gradually overlapped.

With such a strong personal style, even after a thousand years of weathering, Rice could still recognize the maker of this cup at a glance.

He concluded that this must have been Hufflepuff's doing.

Helga Hufflepuff, why are your cups here?

Rice needs to date the cup to determine which age of Hufflepuff it was made by. If it is a work from Hufflepuff's later years, its value will be immeasurable.

As for the method of dating, it's very simple: Rice needs to first look at the origin of this cup.

Thanks to Vigo, her institutional reforms really helped Rice a lot. The cabinet under this cup contains all the information about the cup, from how it was acquired to its functions and usage records.

After carefully reviewing the documents, Rice figured out the origin of the cup: it was unearthed by the monastic order from a 12th-century wizard's tomb, and the tomb owner even recorded in his epitaph how he obtained the cup!

The cup originally belonged to the tomb's occupant's grandfather, who encountered an elderly witch wandering through Alexandria. This witch possessed almost divine powers; her basket could produce an endless supply of cheese, bread, smoked meat, and fresh fish. Even more miraculously, she could make food taste exactly as she wished—she could transform bread into tender roast beef, or render delicacies tasteless.

In other words, this old witch only needs a piece of cheese and a loaf of bread to experience the taste of all the world's delicacies.

The old witch also had a cup; when water was poured into it, a fine wine was poured out, greatly impressing the tomb owner's grandfather. After much pleading, he finally managed to exchange the Holy Grail for a confidential piece of information from the old witch.

This is the origin of this badger-head bronze cup.

However, after obtaining the cup, the tomb owner's grandfather became an alcoholic and eventually died drunk in his bed. The tomb owner's father, after inheriting the cup, also became addicted to the wine it produced and eventually died of liver disease. The tomb owner believed the cup was cursed, so he simply took it to his grave to prevent his descendants from suffering its harm.

However, after the secret society unearthed it from the tomb, they discovered that, perhaps due to the passage of time, the spell attached to the cup had malfunctioned. The cup could no longer produce fine wine, but only a sour liquid similar to vinegar. So they placed it in a corner of the storage room, hoping that some expert could repair it someday.

The idea of ​​turning water into alcohol is quite impressive.

After reading the description, Rice concluded that the "old witch" mentioned in the epitaph was Hufflepuff.

According to Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff also went on a journey after he and Godric left the school and never returned. Now it seems she must have been to Egypt, and her food magic has even improved. Rhys remembers clearly that when he left Hogwarts, Helga wasn't yet unable to perform the feats described in her epitaph.

However, none of that is the main point. The main point is what kind of information the tomb owner's grandfather provided, which would allow Rice to continue tracking down Hufflepuff's whereabouts.

What's truly remarkable is that the Secret Order actually provided an analysis for Rice!

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 next update will be a little later, so please check back in the morning!

I had the AI ​​draw two Ravenclaw illustrations, and the good news is that I found a really nice Hufflepuff illustration along the way.

(End of this chapter)