Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 36 Yes, I'm going to restart the secret room.

Today is the most tumultuous day of Daphne's life.

The composed and mysterious Rice, whom she admired, agreed to teach her a powerful spell, but the lesson took place in the school's girls' restroom. Just as she was seriously considering whether Rice had psychological problems, he discovered a secret entrance hidden in the restroom.

She only saw Rice open her mouth, but what came out was not a human voice, but a strange hissing sound.

Daphne: !

As the heir to the ancient Greengrass family, Daphne was discerning; she instantly recognized that Rice was speaking Parsley.

Thanks to the contributions of a certain dark wizard, Parseltongue has a terrible reputation in the modern magical world, almost synonymous with the concept of dark wizards, and many people are prejudiced against it.

After Rice gave the command, the faucet emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly. Then, the pool also began to move. It slowly cracked open, sank into the ground, and revealed a thick water pipe large enough for a person to crawl inside.

Looking at the pipe, Rice fell silent.

This was completely different from the entrance to the private classroom he had built, but his intuition and reason told him that this was the place he was looking for.

Holy crap, this way of getting in is disgusting!

This was Rice's first reaction upon seeing the water pipe. He was one of the founders of Hogwarts, the great wizard Salazar Slytherin—how could he enter his private classroom in such a way?

He was extremely eager to find the culprit who built the entrance, grab him by the collar, and have a good talk with him about what "Salazar Slytherin" really meant to him. He did like snakes, but that didn't mean he shared their habits, nor did it mean he was willing to crawl into a pipe covered in hair and mud.

If it weren't for the fact that only the best students of Slytherin House knew of the existence of this classroom, Slytherins would surely have thought it was a trick played by Gryffindor students.

Looking at Rice, who stood silently by the pipe, Daphne felt a chill run down her spine. She took two steps forward and asked in a trembling voice, "Rice, are you a Parsleyan?"

After receiving an affirmative answer from Rice, Daphne fell silent. After a moment, she asked, "So Rice, you are the heir to Slytherin?"

I am Slytherin.

But Rice didn't want to reveal this secret, so he acquiesced.

"So...you want to reopen the Chamber of Secrets?" A hint of reluctance flashed in Daphne's eyes. Coming from the Greengrass family, she had naturally heard the legends about the Chamber of Secrets. Perhaps it couldn't be called a legend, because the news was revealed to their ancestors by the Gaunt family, descendants of Slytherin.

Rice: A secret room? Oh, right, thinking about it, it does seem like the word "secret room" could indeed be used to describe my private classroom, since the students and teachers of the other three houses don't know about it!

I am opening my own private classroom, which is indeed restarting the escape room, no problem.

He nodded naturally, but at the same time, he was a little puzzled: What's wrong with Daphne? Why does she seem so dazed today? Is she still half asleep?

At this point, Rice was unaware of how shocking the phrase "rebooting the Chamber of Secrets" was to a young wizard from a pure-blood family.

Daphne looked at Rice, whose face clearly said "that's how it is," and was filled with shock.

So that's what kind of person he is...

She couldn't help but shudder: the boy before her was about to kill all the Muggle-born students in the school, yet his expression hadn't changed at all! Was this a born killing machine? Did he really possess human emotions? Was his gentle demeanor just an act?

That's absolutely terrifying.

Daphne got goosebumps. She took a deep breath and said in a death-defying tone, "So you're going to kill Hermione too?"

Rice: Huh?

He was stunned.

How did their conversation jump from "opening the secret room" to "killing Hermione"? I couldn't keep up with this little girl's train of thought at all.

"Why?" Rice shrugged, genuinely confused. "Why would I kill Miss Granger? There has to be a reason, right?"

"Because she's a Muggle-born student."

Rice: !!!

"Miss Daphne Greengrass, you're going a bit too far." Rice stared at Daphne and said seriously, "Miss Granger is a student of Hogwarts. Before she betrayed the wizarding world and Hogwarts, even Headmaster Dumbledore had no right to execute her—even if the four founders were to come back to life, they wouldn't support your idea."

Rice couldn't understand. Daphne seemed perfectly normal most of the time, so why were her thoughts so extreme? To kill a student just because he was a Muggle? What a crazy delusion! He almost couldn't resist using Legilimency to see what she was thinking.

Yes, although he is a master of Legilimency, he almost never uses this ability in his daily life.

Looking at the serious-looking Rice, Daphne's mind went blank. She couldn't understand why Rice would stand on some moral high ground and speak to her with such righteous indignation—you're the Slytherin heir who reopened the Chamber of Secrets, aren't you? Didn't you come here to purge the Muggle blood from Hogwarts? Why are you acting like I'm a pure-blood supremacist?

"But, uh, weren't you going to open the secret room?" she stammered in response.

Rice: ?

"How does this relate to our previous conversation?"

"It is said that Salazar Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets before he left the school and sealed it afterward, so that only he and his successor could open it. He placed a terrifying monster in the Chamber, which only Slytherin's successor could control. When it was released into the school, it could 'purify the school,' eliminating anyone Slytherin deemed unworthy to learn magic." Daphne told Rhys what she knew about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, plunging Rhys into a long silence.

He now understood why Slytherin House was perceived as a villain in the eyes of the public—how could it not be villainous if they constantly promoted this worthless thing?!

This rumor is half true and half false. If you say it's complete nonsense, Rice actually built a "secret room" and kept a monster in it. But if you say it's true, Rice would really want to punch someone.

"That's slander," Rice said firmly. "There's no such thing as 'purifying the school.' Slytherin couldn't do it while he was there, so how could this beast he left behind possibly do it? Ridiculous! Besides, Slytherin had no intention of purifying the school."

Finally, Rice added a final note to avoid any misunderstanding.

Welcome everyone to invest in my new book! The number of investments has been refreshed at the beginning of the month, and I'm getting free coins—I've already earned 300 points by investing in myself.

(End of this chapter)