Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 303 A Conversation Between Three Old Friends

"We've come across a topic you're good at." Ravenclaw smiled, looking at Rice on the table, her tone as warm as if she were meeting a long-lost friend. As for why her old friend was in a puddle on the table, with only her face remaining, that was none of her business.

"Do you think there's any good way?" Rowena repeated Helga's troubles, urging Rice to rack his brains and think of a solution.

Rice closed his eyes and began to think seriously. Soon, a series of bubbles began to rise from the small puddle where he was.

"Salazar, what is this...?"

"He's thinking."

Helga: ?

Looking at the string of tiny bubbles, Helga felt that Salazar seemed to be seriously thinking about the problem—the little puddle he was in was almost boiling!

After racking his brains at full power, Rice found a solution to the problem in no time.

The reason the two of them couldn't come up with a solution for so long was that they wanted to materialize the magical talent—they wished they could create a crystal ball so that students could automatically sense their talent value just by placing their hands on it, but that was unrealistic.

Ultimately, Helga wanted to find children from Hufflepuff who were naturally gifted at manipulating magic, and then select her successor from among them based on their character.

Then all I need to do is find those students with really good talent, right? And judging from Helga's attitude, she doesn't want to publicize this matter, so she'll just cover it up with another layer of concealment.

I actually have an idea!

"How about this...?" Rice shared his idea with his two old friends.

They could create a marble that moves only when powered by magic, then place it in a box maze and see how long it takes the students to get the marble out of the maze using magic.

Obviously, for most students, the marbles in this maze box are stuck. Only a small number of students with a talent for manipulating magic can master the trick unconsciously. Rice is looking for such people.

At first, he, Helga, and Rowena all found themselves in a dead end, but from a different perspective, things became much simpler.

While I may not be able to fully demonstrate just how good your talent is, I can simply eliminate those with less talent.

After hearing Rice's words, Helga looked as if she had just realized something: "As expected of Salazar, he found a reliable solution right away!"

Rice didn't answer, but a string of bubbles rose up from the puddle behind his head.

Ravenclaw didn't say much, but instead began trying to build the device Salazar had described.

Soon, she made a beautiful little wooden box. There was a hole in the center of the box, and a bead was stuck in the upper left corner. Only magic could move the bead.

"I've made it a bit easier; there's no maze. Students just need to use magic to push the bead into the hole to pass." Ravenclaw handed the box to Hufflepuff.

Helga took the box, examined it for a moment, and found that, as Rowena had said, only magic could make the beads roll; no other method would work.

Upon seeing this, she was overjoyed: with this box, she could conduct a "rough screening" of the students.

Because of his valuable suggestions, Rice was also granted the power to "transform," allowing him to move from "the table" to the side of the table.

"You didn't come to see me today just to make a box, did you?" Rowena glanced at her two old friends, sensing that they must have another purpose.

After Helga told Rowena about catching the succubus in the Forbidden Forest, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows: Is that how you see me?

Helga, Salazar: Of course.

Although Rowena was quite unhappy with her old friends' distrust, she still honestly told them that the dreavus had nothing to do with her.

"Really? Actually, if... it's alright, we can just fix the seal." Rice carefully chose his words before speaking his true feelings.

"Yeah, yeah," Helga chimed in from the side.

"Can't there be even a little bit of trust between people?!" Ravenclaw slammed his fist on the table. "This succubus has absolutely nothing to do with me!"

Seeing Ravenclaw's expression, Rice had no choice but to believe her—otherwise, she would have to find other ways to convince herself.

"That makes things a bit complicated." Hufflepuff explained the implications of the situation to Rowena.

Ravenclaw fell silent for a moment.

After a moment, he said quietly, "The new millennium is almost here."

Rice and Helga both frowned.

Ravenclaw continued, "The Shadow of the World becomes active every thousand years, and that might be the reason—that dreavus stumbled through some crack and came from the Shadow Dimension into the real world."

"It is indeed almost time, but we left behind a sufficiently complete seal back then..." Rice's brows furrowed.

"A thousand years have passed, Salazar. If I truly trusted those seals that much, I wouldn't have chosen to die here." Ravenclaw tapped the ground with his foot.

Everything has a shadow, and the real world is no exception. The projection of the real world in space was called the Shadow World by the wizards of Rice's time, the origin of dark creatures.

Thousands of years ago, there was no boundary between the Shadow World and the Real World. Only over time did a blurred boundary gradually emerge. After defeating the Norse gods, Rhys and his companions clarified this boundary, separating the Shadow World from the Real World—the most obvious benefit of this was that large numbers of undead would no longer invade the world of the living on Halloween.

However, nothing is absolute. Rice and his companions could not completely sever the shadows, so there are still several connection points between the two worlds, one of which is beneath the Hogwarts dungeons.

They placed many seals at those connection points to prevent dark creatures from entering the real world, but according to Rowena, those seals may have already malfunctioned.

This situation should not have occurred. They had considered this problem back then, leaving behind a permanent seal with a magic cycle sufficient for self-sufficiency.

Thinking about this made Rice's mood much heavier.

"Don't worry, there shouldn't be any waves during Halloween now, right? This means the methods we left behind are still effective. You can go and inspect them when you have time." Ravenclaw's words livened up the atmosphere.

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.

First update delivered. Second update may be delayed until tonight.

There's a lot of internal strife at the company, so I got home a little late and I'm a bit tired. Here's a chapter to start.

(=`=；)ゞ

(End of this chapter)