Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 264 This palace is no ordinary palace.

Lying on the ground, Rice felt pain in every joint of his body.

He turned his head and glanced at the doll lying beside him.

The Hufflepuff doll left behind has been completely corrupted by Rice's magic. The only reason it can still maintain its human form is because Rice is using magic to keep it afloat. If Rice were to dissipate all his magic, it would instantly turn into a lump of mud.

Rice remained silent for a long time, then gave a wry smile: This really does resemble the scene from a thousand years ago...

At that time, he had a falling out with several old friends and they even got into a fight. However, since they were all experts in their respective fields, they were helpless against each other. In the end, they could only put down their wands and give their former friends a good beating.

Even after a thousand years, Rice still doesn't think he was wrong.

Shouldn't students of Muggle origin be subject to a certain degree of surveillance? He had tried to trust those children from Muggle families, but they betrayed Hogwarts and broke everyone's trust in them.

After that, he still tacitly allowed his friends to recruit students from Muggle families, which was already a huge concession. Unfortunately, his concession did not earn his friends' understanding, but instead sowed the seeds of even greater trouble.

But this is all for later.

Rice silently channeled the magic within his domain to heal himself. Once the pain subsided, he stood up, gazed down at the doll on the ground for a moment, then dissipated his magic, letting the doll turn into a lump of mud.

A doll is just a doll; it can never replace a real person in one's heart.

Having done all this, Rice strode out of the main hall—to his surprise, when he stepped out of the hall, he was greeted not by his two disciples, but by two dog-headed stone statues.

Outside the ruins, Astoria and Daphne were panting heavily.

The frantic run had exhausted them, but thankfully they escaped unharmed.

Instead of returning to town as Rice had instructed, the two chose to wait silently outside the ruins.

While waiting for Rice, the two men had different thoughts.

Daphne was still upset about her necklace, while Astoria recalled the necklace's reaction when her sister was attacked. Clearly, her sister's necklace had been enchanted with a life-saving spell.

Thinking of this, Astoria couldn't help but look at her bracelet.

She wondered if her bracelet also bore such a spell. She wasn't sure, because it represented a life! The value of these two alchemical artifacts would differ drastically depending on whether they possessed this function. And why should she accept such a precious gift out of thin air? Lesken's healing of her had already placed an unpayable debt of gratitude on her shoulders.

Perhaps only her sister's necklace had this function? She thought to herself, because Rice always seemed to care more about her sister.

If Rice knew what Astoria was thinking, he would brew a strong pot of tea and ask in a weathered tone: Isn't it normal for a less intelligent student to take up more of the teacher's energy?

"It's Rice! He's out!" Daphne shouted as Astoria was lost in thought.

Having dealt with the two kobold statues and traversed the narrow passage, Rice breathed a sigh of relief upon returning to the desert. He looked up at the sun and saw that it was still high in the sky.

Rice had a vague feeling that something was not quite right, but at that moment Daphne rushed in front of him.

"As expected of you, you took care of that monster in no time, you're amazing! So what was that thing?" Daphne bombarded her with questions.

Daphne's praise did not make Rice feel better; instead, it intensified the strange feeling in his heart.

Ultimately, he realized a problem: the position of the sun did not seem to have changed much, yet his battle with the puppet had been a protracted war that lasted a very long time.

"Daphne, how long have you been waiting outside?" Rice asked, finally getting to the point.

Daphne paused, her mouth slightly agape, looking somewhat bewildered: she didn't understand why Rice would ask such a question, and she hadn't paid much attention to it—her mind hadn't been on it just now.

"I...I'm not sure, but it shouldn't be long, right?"

Astoria also rushed over, and after hearing Rice's question, she told him with certainty that the two of them hadn't waited long; Rice came out about five or six minutes later.

Rice narrowed his eyes: This is not right. He fought the doll in the ruins for far more than five or six minutes.

He felt like he played for at least an hour, maybe even longer.

"We need to do a few experiments," Rice finally decided—he had too many questions in his mind, and a number of conjectures had also emerged, which needed to be verified through experiments.

"Let me ask you a question first: when you left the main hall, were the two dog-headed statues restored?"

After receiving an affirmative answer, Rice felt that his conjecture was one step closer to being verified.

"You two stand here and don't move. Remember to keep track of the time." Rice gestured for the two to stand on the sand dune opposite the ruins. From there, they could see the entrance to the ruins, but not the passageway inside.

Despite their many doubts, Daphne and Astoria obediently followed Rice's instructions.

They watched as Rice walked to the entrance of the ruins and then stood at the edge of the passage for fifteen minutes.

Daphne, Astoria: ? ? ?

Rice's behavior baffled them.

Fifteen minutes later, Rice returned to their side.

"How long have I been in the ruins?" Rice asked. After learning that he had stood there dumbfounded at the entrance of the ruins for a quarter of an hour, Rice didn't say anything. He just let the two of them continue to stand on the sand dune to keep track of his time, while he himself went back into the palace ruins.

The difference this time was that he went deep into the passage, out of sight of Daphne and Astoria. However, he emerged incredibly quickly, as if he had made a round trip inside.

"Rice, what are you doing?" Daphne was completely bewildered; her mind was about to explode with questions.

"Tell me first, how long did I stay in the ruins?"

"You went in and came right back out!" Daphne complained about Rice's strange behavior.

"Interesting, very interesting." Rice's lips curled into a smile. "Would you believe me if I told you I spent hours spacing out in the tunnel?"

Daphne, Astoria: !!!

The two exclaimed in unison: How is this possible?!

"This is no ordinary palace," Rice said, looking at the ruins in the distance with great excitement.

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. The next update will be posted (at least) around midnight.

(End of this chapter)