Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 372 Rice: We can't let the Ministry of Magic lock Hufflepuff up in Azkaban, can we?

Feeling the earth tremble, Rice sighed: blaming Helga now was neither meaningful nor empathetic. Considering Helga a friend, Rice decided to help her in his own way.

He drew his wand and pointed it to the sky.

The moisture in the air began to condense rapidly, and magic was also being channeled through it. Before long, raindrops began to fall from the sky, trying to wash away everything that had just happened.

"Darling, did you see that? That monster—"

"I see it! What the hell is that?! Damn it, can't this piece of junk move faster?!"

On the highway, a Volkswagen Beetle is traveling at its maximum speed of 60 miles per hour, with a man and a woman inside still in shock.

Just as the two were talking, the ground suddenly trembled. They initially thought it was an earthquake, but when they looked out the car window, they saw a giant as tall as a mountain.

The scene frightened the two so much that they started the car and drove away without even buttoning their shirts.

A fine drizzle suddenly began to fall from the sky, a few strands of rain as thin as cow's hair drifting in through the car window, and the man and woman's gazes gradually began to wander...

"Step on the brakes—"

"It's going to crash!!!"

creak-

"Phew... How do you drive?!"

"Hey, why am I driving?"

……

Rain fell, water vapor rose, and all stories were hidden in this downpour.

Rice returned to the scene of the incident, where Helga had vented her anger and was sitting on the ground resting.

The small mound had vanished, replaced by a deep pit over thirty meters in diameter. Loose soil, pebbles, and fragments of plant matter were scattered everywhere, both inside and outside the pit—the remains of the mud giant Helga had just conjured.

The raindrops with the Oblivion Spell effect falling from the sky had no effect on Helga, but she still managed to conjure a "C"-shaped platform to shelter her from the wind and rain.

When Salazar returned, Helga didn't say anything, but simply nodded to him as a greeting.

Rice understood her feelings and didn't say much to her. He just jumped into the pit and tried to find Gemini out of it.

But before Rice could even circle the bottom of the pit, Helga's voice came from above: "Don't bother, he's everywhere now."

Upon hearing this, Rice silently tossed aside the handful of damp soil he was holding—there was no need to continue the search.

He hadn't held out much hope for the search operation to begin with, but he was hoping that Helga might be able to control her anger and spare Gemini's life. After all, Gemini was a person with a domain; she should be able to take a few punches and let Helga vent her anger, right?

Unfortunately, perhaps Gemini wasn't very resilient, or perhaps Helga's anger was too intense; in any case, Gemini couldn't hold on and was smashed into a pulp by Helga after their domain was broken.

It seems our plan to find clues about the secret society by following these two monks is going to fail. After Helga's violent attacks and powerful magic stirred up this area, no trace will remain, and we can't access Gemini's memories from his previous life using magic.

Having given up the search, Rice returned to the surface and came to Helga's side. Only then did he notice that Cedric was placed at Helga's feet.

Leaning down to check Cedric's condition, Rice figured he hadn't suffered any irreversible damage. He casually tapped the hard shell covering Cedric's body, producing a crisp sound.

"A mixture of soil and resin infused with my magic, triggered when the wearer is under mortal threat. It can deploy a miniature domain in a very short time to protect the user's life," Helga explained the shell's function to her old friend.

"A clever design, much better than the gadgets I prepare for my students." Rice thought Helga's design was more practical than his accessory, and its ability to protect one's life was significantly stronger.

"It's really not easy to get such a high evaluation from you."

Helga's words came from the heart. When it came to equipping students with magical items, Salazar was the most professional; he was adept at imbuing various materials with magic.

Of course, she was unaware that Rice had successfully incorporated her domain into the brooch. If she had known, she would have been absolutely astonished.

"Anyway, thank you for your rain of oblivion." Helga looked at the rain falling from the sky and couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude for her old friend's help.

With his help, I don't need to worry about the impact of this battle. When it's light, the Muggles will just think there was an earthquake here, and no one will say anything they shouldn't.

"We can't exactly have them come to our door and drag you into Azkaban!" Rice laughed.

This is actually a very serious issue. As the most rule-abiding of the four, Hufflepuff could very well be imprisoned in Azkaban by the Ministry of Magic—provided she has indeed violated the current laws and there is a proper trial process, the likelihood of Helga complying with the verdict is very high.

Unlike myself, I would definitely find a way to get out of this predicament, such as changing my identity to continue living.

Helga smiled after hearing her old friend's words.

"Are they the secret society you mentioned?"

"Yes, a bunch of little rats scavenging for scraps, picking up trash we haven't cleaned properly to use." Rice couldn't help but sigh as he said this: "But the later ones were too weak, they couldn't even beat these scrap scavengers."

After saying this, Rice and Helga both fell silent for a moment.

"Perhaps it's not that the younger generation is incompetent, but rather that the four of us are too strong," Helga tried to justify the future wizards: "Before us, those gods had been living freely for thousands of years."

Rice was taken aback, realizing that Helga's words made a lot of sense; perhaps they really were just too strong.

"Oh, right, just now..." Rice told Helga about seeing Hela's head.

"He is different from the other fragments. He still retains a part of his consciousness. He will scream and run away when he sees me."

"That's incredibly intelligent." Helga felt like she had something to say, but she didn't know where to begin.

"Don't look at me like that," Rice waved his hand. "The more you deal with the Secret Order members, the more you'll discover that those so-called 'divine remains' on their bodies are just the physical remnants left behind after the fall of false gods. It's incredible that they can consciously preserve them. Hela herself isn't a powerful god, so this kind of behavior is very abnormal."

"You mean?"

"In the last memory of His head, I saw an interesting fellow, Loki, do you remember him?"

"The God of Mischief?" Helga had naturally heard of this famous deity.

"She's the god of lies and trickery, and also the god of fire." Rice rolled her eyes. Helga made the second-in-command among the Norse gods sound like a clown.

"The same," Helga said, unwilling to dwell on the details. "You mean this has something to do with Loki? But wasn't he killed by Rowena?"

Rice shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

According to Ravenclaw, Godric played a significant role in this matter, successfully seizing the power of the God of Fire, which caused Loki to lose most of his fighting strength, making him easy to kill.

"Maybe it has nothing to do with Him? Loki is Hela's father after all, so isn't it normal for Him to appear in his final consciousness?"

Rice agreed with Helga's conjecture.

"But if Loki is behind the Secret Order, then we can't underestimate them."

"What does Loki want to do? Take revenge on us?" Hufflepuff laughed. "But from the outside, the four of us are already dead."

"Do you think Loki would believe that?" Rice was speechless: the four wizards who caused Ragnarok would die of old age. Would any god believe that? Especially since Horcruxes, a means of achieving immortality, had already been invented at that time.

"But I don't think He wants revenge on us, or that revenge isn't His primary goal." Rhys began to analyze the psychology of the god of lies and trickery for Helga. "Although Muggle folklore attributes many of the things we do to Him, His relationship with Odin is not actually that close."

"I think He still wants to restore the glory of the gods in their heyday, and now it seems that it is not impossible."

If you were in his shoes, Rice would make the same effort: He was living a comfortable, carefree life, enjoying countless offerings, occasionally teasing his sworn brother and his entire family of gods—what a blissful life! Then four wizards, appearing out of nowhere, ruined everything. Could he accept that? Of course not, and naturally, he would try to go back to the past.

"Now that you mention it, His perspective has broadened considerably," Helga joked. "So? What should we do?"

"We'll deal with whatever comes our way, and remain steadfast in the face of change," Rice said, expressing his thoughts. "The Secret Order will definitely cause trouble in the future. We'll just wait for them to jump out and then crush them. After all, they've already set their sights on Hogwarts."

Hufflepuff: ...

Is this such a passive approach? She had thought Salazar would wipe out the Secret Order, but it turned out they were just waiting for them to come to them.

"You could try talking to Rowena and see what she says," Rice said, confident that Rowena would support his decision.

"I'll just leave it at that." Helga agreed, still somewhat skeptical.

"By the way, could you check on Digory for me?" Before returning to school, Helga was still a little worried about her student, so she took the initiative to remove the protective gear on him and let Salazar check on his body.

After the outer shell disappeared, Rice's gaze fell on the wound on Cedric's shoulder, which had been burned by Gemini's light and darkness field. The entire shoulder had a burn-like appearance, and blisters of varying sizes had bulged on the skin.

"How is it? I've also noticed a problem here. How serious is it? Will there be any... long-term effects?" Of the four, Helga focuses on physical enhancement, while Salazar is most skilled in healing, so she really wanted to hear Salazar's advice.

Helga even had beads of sweat on his forehead.

Rice observed all of this and silently elevated Cedric's status in his heart. He had no doubt that anyone who harmed her as a student would be punished most severely by her.

His assessment of this was: Isn't this a bit too much?

How can a child raised in a greenhouse become a truly great wizard? His own educational methods are far superior; he will arrange sufficiently rigorous training for his students. However, if Helga wants him to bring Cedric to the assessment this time, he needs to seriously consider it, because the boy's strength is a bit too overpowered.

One Daphne was enough of a headache for him; controlling the intensity of the assessment was extremely difficult. Adding Cedric on top of that was going to drive him crazy.

Creating a deadly threat without actually killing the students you've painstakingly nurtured—that's truly an art. Rice suddenly felt nostalgic for Quirrell from back in the day.

If Quirrell were still alive, I would definitely do everything in my power to help him awaken a water or earth elemental ability, and then make him the exam paper for every year's final exam.

Another day of missing Quirrell.

Rice's thoughts were wandering far away, and he appeared to be daydreaming, which startled Helga: Why was Salazar so lost in thought? Was Digoripet really in some serious trouble?

"Oh!" Rice, who was brought back to his senses by Helga's gentle call, told Hufflepuff that there was no need to worry too much. Although Cedric's shoulder injury was a bit tricky, it was not incurable.

"The magic from the Gemini domain lingers in the muscles of his shoulder. Under the influence of this magic, the wound will heal very slowly, and may even never heal due to the nature of the domain—or, to put it more pessimistically, the wound may even fester further."

Rice's words made Helga's face turn extremely ugly, but fortunately he immediately offered a solution.

"You just need to use the power of your own domain to eliminate the remaining magic from Gemini, and the wound will become a normal burn. He doesn't have any other problems, it's just that his magic consumption is a bit high, you can go back and get some energy potions."

Hufflepuff was immediately relieved; she even thought she could use this opportunity to let Cedric practice his domain combat skills.

Just as she moved Cedric to her side and began to draw the teleportation magic circle, Rice suddenly said something out of the blue.

"Oh, right, I won't be going back with you."

Helga: ?

"Are you planning to track down the whereabouts of the Secret Order?"

Rice responded with an eye roll.

"Of course not! There's no point in investigating that thing. If Loki isn't behind the Secret Order, then it's nothing to worry about. If Loki is the mastermind, then my investigation will be discovered by Him soon enough. In the end, either He will set a trap for me, or I will completely destroy the 'Secret Order,' but then several similar organizations will emerge elsewhere. I don't want Dumbledore to know that I've also escaped!"

Hufflepuff: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

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.

Update here, still a two-in-one long chapter~

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(End of this chapter)