Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 258 Long Time No See, Helga

"So this is where you came from? Why did you come here?" Looking at the drab town in front of her, Daphne couldn't figure out why Rice had traveled all this way to get here.

Upon arriving in Cairo, Rice and his companions abandoned the Muggle mode of transportation and, like most wizards, used magic to reach their destination.

According to the information provided by Gemma, the suspected ruins could be found by heading west into the desert from this town. Rice had indeed made a promise with Gemma that he would have her accompany him on his adventures, but he hadn't revealed his whereabouts to her this time. The reason was simple: he didn't particularly want to bring Daphne and Astoria along, let alone a Slytherin graduate he wasn't very familiar with.

Perhaps if she had known Rice for five years, Rice would have considered bringing her along.

"Yes." Rice glanced at Daphne. "Do you remember that fight with Gemma Farley?"

"Of course I remember, it's still fresh in my mind." The battle that ended in a draw with Gemma left a very deep impression on Daphne.

"The magical sand she used was obtained from the desert not far away."

Upon hearing Rice's words, Daphne's eyes lit up: she felt that she would soon be able to play with the same sand as Gemma—the ability to manipulate the soil was super cool!

"Are we going to collect soil?"

"Yes, but it's not just about collecting soil—Gemma suspects there's an undiscovered ruin hidden there. If it really exists, we'll go and conquer it."

Upon hearing the word "ruins," Astoria and Daphne's breathing quickened. They began to imagine what the ruins looked like and the treasures hidden within them.

With such anticipation, the two excitedly entered the desert with Rice.

"Damn it, how did Gemma even find that place?" The journey deep into the desert was extremely tedious, with the surrounding scenery remaining almost unchanged. Daphne felt like she was going crazy.

"The process should involve first gathering some clues, then investigating bit by bit, narrowing down the destination to a specific area through various clues, and finally conducting a systematic investigation of that area." Rice explained to Daphne the method for finding the relics hidden by the ancient wizard.

This monotonous period lasted for a day and a night. When Rice finally uttered the word "We've arrived," both Daphne and Astoria breathed a sigh of relief.

Then they became confused: there didn't seem to be anything special about the surroundings. It was just an ordinary sand dune.

Astoria tried to detect the anomaly by observing the flow of magic, and then she noticed that there seemed to be a faint flow of magic in the sand beneath her feet.

Rice plopped down on the ground and stuck his wand into the sand.

As magic was channeled into the sand, it began to tremble slightly. After a few minutes, a small clump of sand rose from the ground and hovered in front of him.

"That magical dust is mixed with a lot of ordinary sand. You can play with this sand first—attach magic to it, and then you can manipulate the soil." Rice put the collected sand into a crystal bottle and handed it to Astoria.

The girl took the crystal bottle, took two steps to the side, and tried it as Rice had instructed. It worked wonders.

The dust mixed into the sand, spreading her magic as well. The "infected" sand gave Astoria a feeling of complete control.

She could manipulate the sand with ease, shaping it into whatever she desired. First, a small dune rose up on the sand, then the dune quickly transformed into several letters, and then into the shape of a snake.

"rise!"

A round, chubby sandman appeared on the ground and slowly began to move.

Astoria was having a blast, and Daphne, watching with envy, quickly took the remaining sand from her sister and, imitating her, covered herself in a pile of sand, then happily started playing with it.

Seeing that the two students were engrossed in playing in the sand, Rice didn't stop them. He just smiled and said, "Let the children play if they want. I'll get back to my work."

During his recent exploration, he discovered that Gemma's prediction was correct; there was indeed a ruin hidden beneath the sand dune.

He also found a way to excavate the ruins.

Rice continued to infuse his magic into the sand, filtering out those with special energy. After accumulating enough magical sand, he attached his magic to these sand particles and then used them to control a large area of ​​sand.

Rice stood up and suddenly waved his hand forward, causing the entire sand dune to tremble.

Daphne and Astoria were trying to build a Hogwarts castle out of sand when a sudden tremor in the sand dunes caused the castle they had only half-built to collapse.

Countless grains of sand slid down the sides of the dunes like a flood, and these moving grains of sand created a chain reaction, dragging along other grains of sand that were not affected by the magic of Rice.

The entire dune began to collapse at an alarming rate.

Rice and his two companions used flight magic to float into the air, watching the sand dunes collapse one by one.

Daphne pouted as her "castle" was destroyed. The Hogwarts she and her sister had built was almost finished, but Rice destroyed it all in one fell swoop.

"Rice, what are you doing—" She stopped mid-sentence, because as the sand slid down, a palace built of huge white stone blocks appeared.

Judging from the parts that have been exposed so far, the palace is extremely magnificent, possibly exceeding fifty meters in height, and is constructed entirely of massive stone blocks.

Over the long years, the rear part of the palace may have collapsed, or the foundation may have subsided, eventually causing the palace ruins to form a triangle. Sand carried by the wind gradually accumulated on the hypotenuse of the triangle, eventually burying the entire palace.

Rice moved a large amount of sand from the top and front of the palace, exposing it again from beneath the sand.

"Look, there really is a ruin here." Rice pointed to the palace beneath his feet, then landed directly at the palace's main entrance.

Upon landing, Rice didn't rush to examine the ruins' shape; instead, he closed his eyes. He focused on sensing the magical fluctuations within the palace, and only after a while did he open his eyes, a slight smile appearing on his lips—

It's been a long time, Helga.

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.

Here's the second update. There will be another chapter tonight, but it will be very late, so everyone should go to sleep now. It will be posted in the morning!

(End of this chapter)