Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 223 Hufflepuff's Advice

Helga's threat made Salazar's expression change: Wild boar meat, is that something for humans to eat? It's fishy and smelly, and the meat is so tough it could break a person's molars. Of the whole wild boar, maybe only the tongue is slightly tender.

If they really angered Helga and cut off their pork supply, then the Slytherin students would have no choice but to go fishing together at the Black Lake.

"I've never looked down on this craft!" Salazar immediately conceded, "Look, aren't I contributing to the advancement of the technology?"

"Contribution?" Helga sneered, pulling a roll of parchment from her bosom and waving it in front of the Slytherins. "Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about the word 'contribution'?"

Salazar fell completely silent, afraid of saying anything that might further provoke the little bean in front of him.

He could understand why Helga was in a bad mood: a group of wild boars had rushed out of the forbidden forest and ruined most of the fields she had worked so hard to cultivate under the cover of night—to make matters worse, the students who were on duty the night before had gone out drinking together. One can imagine how furious Helga was when she found those students, completely drunk, in a tavern outside the school.

Why did he have to ask her to exchange things at this time? Salazar was filled with regret.

After venting her anger on her old friend, Helga finally passed on her earth magic techniques to Salazar. Then, she yelled at the students working hard in the fields nearby, "No one's going to eat or sleep until the replanting is finished today—no magic allowed!"

Her punishment for those students was to make them replant the fields destroyed by the wild boars, without using magic, purely by manpower.

"Don't panic, I'll talk to Godric later and we'll go into the Forbidden Forest to kill a bunch of wild boars and use them to fertilize the fields," Salazar reassured him.

Helga's anger subsided considerably.

For a wizard—especially one like her skilled at manipulating soil—a bountiful harvest is actually quite easy. She can even control every step of the process—sowing, watering, fertilizing, pest control, and harvesting—all through magic. Under the influence of magic, an acre of land can yield far more grains and vegetables than a Muggle's.

For example, she could make pumpkins grow as big as a carriage, wheat ears as long as a person's arm, and freshly cleared land be covered with several feet of humus overnight...

But an easy job doesn't mean the fruits of labor can be squandered at will. This is why Helga, who is usually kind and gentle, decided to severely punish those students.

After Salazar received the booklet, he opened it and began to read it. After finishing, he couldn't help but sigh.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with what I wrote?" Helga heard Salazar's sigh and immediately came over to ask what was wrong.

"I was just thinking, with a great mage like you who is skilled at controlling the earth ahead of me, what's the point of me researching spells to manipulate the soil?" Salazar suddenly felt a sense of emptiness.

No matter how deeply I study the pamphlet, can I surpass Helga Hufflepuff, who possesses the "Earth" domain and is revered by some Muggles as the "Mother Earth"?

"So that's all it was. I thought my writing was terrible." Helga patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what if I'm good at controlling earth? Just because I'm an expert in this area doesn't mean you won't study this type of magic. I'm still researching magic to make the sky rain." Helga scolded Salazar.

"Learning any spell is meaningful. Didn't that funny spell we saw in that village that made the enemy's weapon fly out actually have a very powerful application? That spell almost tore Godric's arm off! No matter how funny a spell looks, you can find its value if you study it in depth."

"There's an ancient Greek fable about the tortoise and the hare. If the tortoise hadn't persevered step by step, even if the hare slept for a week, the tortoise still wouldn't have won the race," Helga said, taking back the parchment she had given away, adding a sentence to it, and then handing it back to Salazar.

Later, Salazar indeed relied on the experience summarized by Helga and combined it with his own field to develop a spell with astonishing endurance. After learning that move, no one could match him in a war of attrition.

If he is willing and the enemy can hold out, he can fight continuously for months or even years.

……

Rice's thoughts gradually returned to reality. He looked up at Daphne standing to the side and saw that she was holding the roll of parchment he had given her.

He took the Hufflepuff Notebook from her hand, flipped through it, and found that the pages were undamaged and without even creases.

Rice was somewhat surprised.

"It's clear you cherish it, which is good, because it's an authentic work by Helga," Rice praised Daphne.

Daphne silently reached out and unfolded the parchment. At the very top of the scroll, written in large Latin characters, was the following: [To my friend Salazar Slytherin, that he and his students may understand the meaning of "earth" to mankind, and the value of unwavering perseverance—Herga Hufflepuff]

"These are Hufflepuff's relics!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I just copied everything on it without even looking at the original! How can you let someone handle such a treasure without any protection? Why didn't you tell me beforehand?"

Daphne's tone was full of reproach. When she first got the parchment, she didn't take it too seriously and just stuffed it into her bag.

When she discovered the origin of the parchment, she was horrified: how could she have kept such a precious item with such a large book and an inkwell? It was practically a crime.

If it were damaged, she might not be able to afford to pay for it, because her family didn't have any belongings of equal value. Perhaps they did, but her father hadn't told them.

"Ah, something came up and I forgot. It's alright, you can fix it with magic if it gets dirty." Rice didn't take it too seriously. What Daphne considered a precious treasure was just a souvenir left to him by his old friend. Once he found his friend, he'd have plenty of these things.

"I told you, my family has a large collection of precious cultural relics. Now you believe me, right?"

Daphne thought to herself, “My ancestor was a student of Salazar Slytherin, and he didn’t leave behind so many precious documents. Yet your family has so many medieval letters and manuscripts from the Four Great Men. It’s outrageous!”

She was increasingly convinced that Rice was a direct descendant of Slytherin.

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.

The second update is here!

I'll try to update on time tomorrow.

Young Ravenclaw:

(End of this chapter)