Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 443 Rice: Feeling the Malice of the World

Once all the contestants had arrived, Dumbledore appeared with a group of headmasters.

Regardless of how much the principals schemed and worried last night, they all maintained a calm and confident demeanor, and brought out their best clothes and accessories, determined not to lose face at this crucial moment.

The principals' efforts paid off. Shortly after everyone had gathered, Bagman and Henry, along with several reporters from the Daily Prophet and a group of Ministry of Magic officials, entered the stadium.

After taking dozens of photos, the reporters huddled in a corner with their notebooks. They understood who the main character was today, and they couldn't steal the spotlight.

As for interviews and special interviews, let's contact the school principals after the competition starts.

After the reporters left, Mr. Henry walked up to the crowd.

"The first Global Young Wizards Championship is about to begin. I want to emphasize again that the competition is very risky, and the contestants' lives are in danger. It is not too late to withdraw now."

None of the contestants uttered a sound.

At this point, who would want to withdraw? Would the principal treat them well after they withdrew? How would they explain it to their classmates when they returned to school?

[People could die in the competition, so I withdrew.]

They felt their scalp tingle just from hearing those words once in their minds.

Even if some of the independent competitors wanted to back out, they quietly took care of it last night. Why would they wait until the opening ceremony to withdraw?

After saying their words, they waited quietly for a few seconds. Seeing that no one was willing to withdraw from the competition, Henry and Bagman each took out a small bag from their pockets and distributed the contents to the contestants.

The bag contained a multi-functional crystal ball provided by Hogwarts. It could be used to broadcast the players' experiences, issue various tasks, and communicate with the event organizers.

"These crystal balls are imbued with defensive spells. Once triggered, they will activate a protective magic spell for you. This is our life-saving measure," Mr. Henry announced loudly as he distributed the crystal balls. "Be careful, these crystal balls have also been made into Portkeys by the Ministry of Magic. Once the defensive spells are triggered, the Portkeys will be activated, bringing you back from the arena—meaning you are eliminated. Of course, your companions may be able to earn a chance to return to the arena after completing certain tasks."

These crystal balls were naturally the work of Rowena, Helga, and Rice: Rowena and Helga used the new technology that Rice had previously researched as a base, and combined it with their own unique spells to create this batch of crystal balls with complex functions.

Mr. Henry paused slightly as he approached Rice. Then, with a complex expression, he took out a crystal ball and placed it in Rice's hand.

Mr. Henry was stunned when he learned that Ras Lint was also on the list of contestants. Later, after learning about Hogwarts' selection process, he was completely relieved: in this situation, it would have been a surprise that Lord Slytherin was not selected.

This is also one of the reasons why he allowed Ekaterina to participate. After all, even this ancestor from Hogwarts has entered the arena, so he won't stop Cordostas from doing whatever he wants, since it won't have any impact anyway.

However, Henry was also a little confused. He didn't understand why Lord Slytherin would participate in such a children's activity. Was it to ensure that Hogwarts would win first place?

Henry felt it wasn't impossible, but it was undoubtedly very good news for him.

The title of the world's number one magic school is shrouded in mystery. Other magic schools can't handle it; only Hogwarts, with its long history and abundant faculty, can.

Moreover, both of his daughters were going to represent Hogwarts in the competition, and with Lord Slytherin around, he could at least help look after them.

Could Lord Slytherin really stand by and watch the descendants of House Greengrass fall into dire straits?

Soon, each contestant received a crystal ball.

"Please follow me." Mr. Henry led a large group of people toward the Forbidden Forest.

At this time, a large area of ​​forest surrounding the Forbidden Forest had been fenced off. Rowena's magic completely isolated the situation inside, so much so that even if someone stood on tiptoe and craned their neck to look, they could not see the specific situation inside the arena.

In fact, last night, a principal from another school secretly came to spy on the setup of the competition venue, but even though they tried their best, they couldn't get even a tiny bit of information.

"Enter the arena from here." Henry extended his wand and lightly tapped the air in front of him, and an archway appeared out of thin air.

He told the contestants that as long as they stepped over this archway, they would enter the competition area.

The contestants and school principals watching from the sidelines were dumbfounded: Is this the heritage of a thousand-year-old prestigious school?

This concealment spell alone is enough to form the foundation of a magic school.

Godric stared wide-eyed at everything before him, a thoughtful look that seemed out of character for a Gryffindor flashing in his eyes.

This competition venue is no ordinary place...

However, he quickly reverted to his old ways, laughing and joking as he spoke to the wizards around him who, like him, were guardians of independent contestants:

"How about that? This is the essence of Hogwarts!"

The headmasters of the surrounding second-rate magic schools, the heads of magical families, and the leaders of magical organizations naturally wouldn't dare to defy the legendary wizard. They immediately echoed Gryffindor's words.

The contestants walked through the archway one after another.

To students from other schools, this archway was unfamiliar and mysterious, but to most of the students at Hogwarts, it was quite familiar.

Isn't this an enlarged version of the archway that Professor Arianus used when teaching alchemy?! Then the students remembered that Professor Arianus was also one of the project planners for the competition, so everyone suddenly realized who it was.

At the same time, they also roughly understood in what form the competition would take place.

The contestants stepped through the archway and disappeared from sight.

After all the contestants had entered the arena, Mr. Henry nodded slightly to the Ministry of Magic employees he had brought with him, and the employees got busy hanging large screens one after another in the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch.

Judging from their appearance, these are screens used in the previous Quidditch World Cup, and now they're being reused. Spectators outside the arena can use the screens to watch the players' progress.

……

A small group of people are trekking through the dense forest.

The lead knight was nearly two meters tall, clad in heavy armor, and used his longsword to cut through the vines and thorns blocking his path. In the dense forest, such armor was clearly inconvenient, but the knight moved with natural fluidity, as if the armor were nonexistent.

Behind the knight followed a tall, dark-haired woman in a blue robe, carrying a staff, and a short girl with brown curly hair, holding a book. At the rear of the procession was a pale-faced young man carrying nothing but a satchel.

Suddenly, the knight stopped, and the black-haired woman behind him also stopped and stuck her staff into the ground.

"What's wrong?" The short girl noticed the change in the atmosphere in the group and immediately asked.

"Someone suddenly appeared in front of us," the black-haired woman replied.

"Another presence has appeared." The knight's voice rang out. He called out towards the direction of the presence, "We are adventurers sent by Duke Debilis to slay the evil dragon Enrico. Please come out for a moment!"

After the knight shouted, the dense forest remained quiet. The owner of the aura did not respond, but gradually approached them.

The knight narrowed his eyes, his muscles tensed, and flames erupted from the knight's longsword in his hand.

Soon, a handsome young man with black hair, dressed in a long black robe, appeared before them.

"A human?" The knight frowned: This guy who appeared alone in the Dragon Forest was not to be underestimated.

This dark-haired youth was Rice. He looked at the group of four in front of him, completely bewildered: Was this another test from the alchemical world? Why were they speaking English?

However, Rice soon realized that the language they were speaking was somewhat similar to English, and felt like a variant of English that had evolved over hundreds of years.

"Perhaps it's some strange worldview implanted by Rowena." Rice quickly dismissed the unease in his mind. In his opinion, it was a good thing that the alchemical world also spoke English, saving him the trouble of casting translation spells.

His gaze swept over the four of them, and then he was speechless: Why does this four-person squad look so familiar? Rowena, just how much of your own stuff did you put into this world?

"I meant no harm," Rice said calmly.

Despite carrying Rowena's mission and his own unique purpose, Rice still didn't want to cause conflict as soon as he landed. Of course, the sense of déjà vu that the four-person team in front of him gave Rice also played a part.

To put it bluntly, looking at them reminded Rice of his younger self.

Rice's voice startled the four of them. The brown-haired girl said softly, "Classical Common Language. He might be a priest from some shrine."

"In that case, Elise, why don't you talk to him?" The black-haired woman gently nudged the brown-haired girl.

"Oh, okay." Elise took a few steps forward, came to the knight's side, and then bowed to him.

"Hello, esteemed priest." She spoke in fluent but stiff English.

"Hello there."

"May I ask you, what country are you from? And which deity do you serve?"

"I have no faith, I don't believe in God."

Elise: ?

Good heavens, he speaks Classical Common Language better than the Archbishop of the capital, yet he's an unbeliever?

Just then, she heard a rustling sound coming from the person opposite her, and then a small, emerald green snake crawled out from his sleeve.

The black-haired youth grabbed the snake's head and smiled apologetically at Elise.

"My pet snake, I hope it didn't scare you."

Watching the young man tuck the snake back into his sleeve, Elise felt a chill run down her spine. However, the man's intimate relationship with the snake made her realize that perhaps this guy wasn't a good person.

According to their local customs, snakes are extremely evil creatures, and only inherently evil people would associate with snakes.

Elise looked up and met the dark, deep eyes of the black-haired youth. She immediately felt as if she were staring into a deep pool of water, and at the same time, she felt as if everything about her was being seen through.

Rice silently cursed Ravenclaw in his heart.

Damn it, why add so much drama to the world-building? What did the snake do to you? Rice decided to have a good talk with Rowena after they got out, to explain what it meant that "snakes are incredibly evil creatures, and eagles that prey on snakes are sacred."

"Let's get to know each other. My name is Rice."

Just as Elise was about to say something, Rice took the initiative to speak and introduced himself first.

"Oh, I'm Elise, a priestess. This is Joseph, the knight in the party. This is Sister Alexandra, a magician. And the guy at the back is our apothecary, Traton." Elise introduced each member of the party to Rice.

Rice's brow furrowed upon hearing this: This team composition...

"You guys just said you came to slay a dragon?" Rice remembered what the knight Joseph had said when they first met. He had landed in a dragon's lair right after he landed. Could it be such a coincidence?

"Yes, the evil dragon Enrique has attacked nearby villages many times, and last month he burned Blackrock Castle to the ground. We must get rid of him," Joseph replied.

Rice: "I just dealt with a dragon. Do you guys want to go check if it's the evil dragon Enrico?"

A four-person team: ? ? ?

A few minutes later, looking at the huge dragon corpse in front of them, the four of them fell silent: they had come all this way for nothing, the evil dragon Enrico had actually been killed!

More importantly, Enrique had no wounds on his body, so they had no way of knowing how the young man named Rice had killed the dragon.

"Is it the power of a curse?" The most likely guess came to mind among them.

At that moment, a strong wind came from deep inside the cave.

Rice's expression changed instantly.

"Eh? This is the first time you've seen this, right? Don't worry, this is a very common natural phenomenon in Dragon Forest. Sometimes, a strange wind does blow in the caves. We call it 'the breath of the deep mountains'." Iris noticed the change in Rice's expression. She thought Rice was frightened because it was the first time he had seen this phenomenon, so she kindly explained this unique local natural phenomenon to him.

Rice: ...

"No way, after all these years, hasn't any of you realized that this mountain is actually alive?" he couldn't help but complain.

Four-person team: Huh?

Just then, the ground beneath their feet suddenly began to shake, as if an earthquake had struck.

Rice sighed: Now he truly understood what the world's malice meant.

Setting the spawn point in the dragon's nest is just an appetizer; the main course is here!

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.

Thanks for the gift, goodnight!

(End of this chapter)