Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 430 Rowena, your research is too dangerous and must be restricted!

Just as Rice had expected, he only waited a short while in the corridor before hearing two sets of footsteps.

The next moment, Helga and Rowena appeared in his field of vision.

Rice smiled and nodded at the two of them, while Rowena remained expressionless and did not respond. Helga, on the other hand, smiled and waved.

The three of them walked back to Helga's office in silence without exchanging a word. Outside, they remained very restrained and did not reveal each other's true identities in public.

After Helga's office door closed, Rice spoke first: "Royna, I didn't expect you to come up with such a method."

"It's not difficult to operate, and the materials you chose are good." Rowena finally spoke. As she replied, she pulled out an armchair and plopped down in it.

"To take over someone else's body and still be so shameless, you really are something else."

Rowena waved her hand, indicating that today's situation was special and that she would let Aries out for some fresh air in the future.

Rice was skeptical of her words.

"Would you like some desserts?" Helga took out a silver plate with more than a dozen exquisite desserts on it, and then took out three gold cups and filled them with alcoholic beverages.

"Thank you, I'd like a sweeter bottle of wine." Rowena accepted all the food Helga offered. Having been in ghost form for a long time, she hadn't eaten properly. Last year, Salazar had only allowed her to taste the flavors of food, not actually eat anything.

Having gone through that experience, Rowena, like Helga, developed a love for food.

Helga poured Rowena a full glass of Canadian ice wine. This wine, made from frozen grapes, has an astonishingly high sugar content—over 125 grams of sugar per liter, more than a can of cola. This also gives it a rather thick, almost syrupy appearance. After that, she poured Rice a glass of orange juice.

Rice: ...

While there's nothing wrong with orange juice, it's still quite annoying to pour it for someone without even asking.

"I wouldn't dare serve alcohol to minors, but you can tell me what flavor you want, and I guarantee your orange juice will taste just like that."

Rice was even more speechless after hearing Helga's words. Given this premise, he could faintly detect an orange juice flavor in everything he drank, so he might as well just stick to drinking orange juice.

After the drinks were served, the late-night snack in the three-person room began.

"What? You two really want me to participate in that competition?" Rice spoke first. He smiled and looked at his two old friends, his gaze constantly shifting between their faces.

"Hogwarts needs your strength," Rowena replied, having adjusted her mindset, raising her glass to Rice.

"If Hogwarts needs my power to become the world's number one magic school, then I feel it doesn't deserve that title," Rice retorted directly.

Reina kept rubbing the bottom of the cup, and finally told Rice to win the championship first, and they could deal with the rest later.

Rice scoffed, indicating he didn't care whether Hogwarts won the championship this year. If they didn't, they'd just wait for the next one—no big deal! It wasn't like the championship was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Anyway, the three of them would continue to stay at Hogwarts; if they didn't win this year, they'd wait for the next one, until they had trained enough outstanding students.

Helga silently sipped her drink. The stances they held were something she hadn't anticipated.

The fact that Ravenclaw would stop at nothing to win, and that Slytherin would actually try to follow the rules, completely overturned her understanding.

What Helga didn't know was that people's stances are constantly shifting. Rice, for example, now had ample confidence in the strength of the Hogwarts students, and also needed to seize the opportunity to extract sufficient benefits from his two old friends. Therefore, he naturally had to stick to his principles; otherwise, how could he raise his demands?

Rowena, however, was different. She didn't fully understand the state of Hogwarts, lacked Salazar's confidence, and definitely needed a powerful figure to help her maintain order. Therefore, Rowena needed Salazar to participate in the Championship Tournament.

This is also why Rice adheres to his principles.

Rice's words made Rowena grip her wine glass tighter. She felt as if Salazar had her under his thumb.

"Name your terms. What do we want for you to participate in the championship?"

"What conditions are needed? I'm already a contestant! How could I possibly back out?" Rice ignored Rowena's words and instead started circling around.

Just kidding! Of course, he couldn't be the one to make the request. Helga and Rowena should list the benefits first, and then he should add them little by little.

What if he proposes a condition and the other party immediately agrees? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?

"You know what I'm talking about," Rowena sighed inwardly.

Salazar holds the absolute initiative. Yes, he has indeed become a contestant, but he could completely surrender and be eliminated at the start of the competition; Rowena and the other two would have no way to deal with him.

"I need you to help me with some experiments and some things." Rowena finally revealed her true purpose.

"I have an idea about this tournament..." Rowena swirled the iced wine in her glass, revealing her true thoughts.

This idea came to her while she was still trapped in the dungeon.

Rowena wanted to take advantage of this tournament to popularize the concept of magical flow among young wizards worldwide, hoping that as many new generation wizards as possible could master magical flow after the competition, and even witness the power of domains, thereby achieving the revival of the magical world.

After hearing Rowena's words, Rice couldn't help but raise his eyebrows: "I didn't expect Rowena to have such a grand vision. Trying to revive the wizarding world during the Global Young Wizarding Championship? You've got some serious talent..."

Even he was a little tempted by that.

"Royna is right. We do want to take this opportunity to give the magical world some 'benefits.' Other magic schools have also brought some treasures, which will be given to the students participating in the competition as rewards. This is one of the reasons why they are willing to actively participate in the competition."

interesting.

Even Rice had to admit that Rowena and Helga had made a brilliant move.

The participants in the Global Young Wizards Championship are elites selected from various schools. Although talents from the modern magic system may not necessarily be able to adapt to the study of magic flow, it is ultimately an opportunity to promote magic flow once again.

With more wizards mastering the flow of magic, it's natural that a few will emerge who will open the gates to their new domains, which is undoubtedly a good thing for the magical world.

"So I hope you can participate in the competition as a last resort. You know, the situation of this competition is very special, and I can't take care of every aspect."

At this point, Rice had already decided to get involved in the match, but he was still waiting for his two old friends to make an offer.

His willingness to participate is one thing, but receiving payment is another; these two things should not be confused.

The office fell silent.

Rowena and Helga were waiting for Salazar's response, while Rice was waiting for them to make an offer.

"I'll provide you with a pound of unicorn cheese every month this school year, how about that? And there are other magical foods I've recently developed, I'll provide you with one serving every month at the general assembly." After a moment, Helga decided to take the lead herself.

Rice felt the conditions were quite good. Helga's magical foods were all excellent; even if she couldn't eat them all herself, she could give them to her students, as they were very good for their health. Moreover, as long as one didn't seriously investigate the origins of the ingredients, Helga's cooking was always delicious.

In Rice's mind, Helga had already passed the test.

But the main event is Rowena, and he decides to give Rowena a little shock from the regulator.

"The magic you used tonight, was it time magic?" Rice didn't immediately start bargaining with Helga, but instead turned his attention to Rowena, who had remained silent.

Rowena could have easily made excuses, but she disdained to do so. In terms of taking responsibility for her actions, she was a role model for all the teachers and students of Hogwarts.

"Yes, it is indeed time magic. I disrupted the timeline around your little trick, causing a voice from the future to appear in the present."

Rice's expression immediately turned serious.

"Royna, you should remember our agreement from back then, right? You shouldn't be conducting this research anymore; it's too dangerous—it's forbidden magic." Rice turned to Helga, "Helga, what do you think? I myself have also given up developing several spells."

Helga lowered her eyes, indicating that what Rowena had done was indeed wrong.

"I did not restart research in the field of time; I simply utilized existing research findings."

"That's how the bottom line is broken step by step." Rowena's explanation failed to convince Rice.

"I believe that any research you conduct from now on will need to be reported to Helga and me, and can only be carried out with our permission," Rice stated his request.

The research conducted by Rowena is too dangerous and must be jointly controlled by them!

A glint of light flashed in Helga's eyes: she agreed with Salazar's suggestion. It would be wonderful if they could use this opportunity to strengthen their control over Rowena.

After careful consideration, Rowena finally accepted Rice's suggestion and agreed to inform his two old friends about his research.

"What a pity..." Rowena shook his head regretfully: "Time, space, prophecy, and death—these mysterious realms are beyond our reach."

Rice could tell just by listening that Rowena was still not giving up, but unfortunately, the direction she was researching was too profound and dangerous.

Any one of these areas alone could be enough to kill a wizard of their level, yet Rowena actually wanted to explore each one; she was practically a master of courting death.

However, these fields do have their own allure. Just like the black hole theory proposed by Muggles, it is extremely dangerous, yet it attracts people to it unconsciously.

"It's getting late, I'll go back and rest now—Royna, I hope you keep your promise." Rice stood up from her seat and left Helga's office first.

As Rowena watched Salazar's departing figure, she couldn't help but sigh: she should have supported Salazar in continuing his research back then, so he would have had no reason to stop her.

"I'm going back too. Dumbledore cleared out an office for me, and I need to go back and remodel it a bit." Rowena felt it was time for her to go back to her office and rest.

"Shall I come and visit your place?" Helga was a little curious about what Rowena's dormitory looked like.

"Of course, no problem." Rowena had no objections and led her old friend directly to her office.

Upon opening the door, Helga was immediately greeted by a strangely shaped large platform. It was about five meters long and three meters wide, with a model of a manor on it, surrounded by mountains and lakes.

Somewhat surprisingly, several clouds were floating above the platform, and above the clouds was a yellow-orange sphere—Helga recognized it as the moon.

There is also a light source below the platform, illuminating the entire office.

Helga looked down and saw that it was indeed a huge fireball burning fiercely.

"As expected of you, you even simulated the sun and moon. So where do you usually sleep?" Helga asked curiously. She didn't see any beds or other bedding in the office.

Rowena didn't speak, but simply pointed to the platform.

Helga followed Rowena's finger and looked over, her eyes widening in surprise: There's such a thing?! How come she hadn't thought of that?!

The next morning, the front page of the Daily Prophet was dominated by Dumbledore's announcement of the Global Young Wizarding Championship.

It's clear the Ministry of Magic had already informed the Daily Prophet in advance; the rules of the competition reported in the Daily Prophet were quite detailed and without any errors. As a wizarding newspaper based in Britain, the Daily Prophet's stance was undoubtedly biased towards Hogwarts. In its report, they even directly stated that the suspense of the competition lay in which school would come in second place.

Meanwhile, magical newspapers in other countries also featured the Global Young Wizards Championship on their front pages.

The news spread throughout the entire magical world immediately.

Besides the eight major magic schools that had already taken action, some lesser-known smaller schools, magical families, and magical organizations also sprang into action...

In an instant, a large number of wizards flooded into Britain, just like the Quidditch World Cup finals before.

In a secluded manor, Polaris picked up the newspaper that had just been delivered, and his eyebrows rose.

"A magical organization... So, isn't the Secret Order a magical organization too?" His voice echoed in the empty room. "It's time for another meeting. I wonder if Hogwarts will welcome us country bumpkins?"

The secret society is also taking action.

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 delivered, goodnight~

(End of this chapter)