Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 448 Slytherin persuades Gryffindor

"You resort to violence at the drop of a hat? You're still the same as ever. I thought you'd changed!" Godric exclaimed from the side. "No wonder you asked him if he was full just now, so that's why."

"The main problem is that we simply can't eat the rest of the food." Rice used a simple spell to fix the young monk from the secret order to a chair, and then threw the remains of the god that he had dug out of his body onto the table.

It was a square bone attached to the spine, which had become one with the monk's body. It took Rice a lot of effort to dig it out.

"This is what the secret order does: searching everywhere for the remains of gods that weren't destroyed after the war, then placing them into their own bodies to gain power that isn't theirs," Rice sneered. "Some of them can even create domains!"

Godric raised an eyebrow.

These secret order members have some interesting ideas, but their method sounds bloody. The remains of gods are not so easily fused together. The alchemical artifacts they made from the bodies of gods are used with extreme caution, let alone fusing divine remains into their own bodies.

Gryffindor overestimated the monks of the Secret Order. The monks weren't fools; they wouldn't force a fusion directly. Instead, they would first weaken the murderous aura and resentment within the divine remains as much as possible, and then appease the remains through the Order's secret techniques.

Putting aside the wicked ways the monks obtained their power, Godric began to ask the question that concerned him most: what was the truth about Godric Gryffindor being the leader of the Secret Order?

"We're not entirely sure either. He just suddenly appeared at the opening ceremony, and everyone was shocked." Rice told Godric what happened on the opening day, and Godric's forehead veins throbbed as he listened.

"You just accepted him like that?!" He couldn't help but interrupt his old friend halfway through the conversation, asking incredulously.

Hogwarts now has Salazar, Helga, and Rowena, so how did this person of unknown origin take his place?

"It's fine." After these days, Rice has come to terms with it.

"First, let people know and acknowledge that you're still alive, then we'll take care of that imposter, and you can legitimately take its place, right?"

Godric was stunned.

Is this even possible? Let a fake promote the real thing, and then replace the fake with yourself—you become the fake's fake, but at the same time, you are the genuine Gryffindor.

Godric felt his mind was in a mess, and all he wanted right now was a glass of iced ale to calm himself down.

"More importantly, that Gryffindor might not be fake. At least none of the three of us noticed anything amiss—you should understand what that means." To put it bluntly, the Godric in front of him was even more suspicious than the Godric of the Secret Order when he got serious.

Godric of the Secret Order has not revealed any flaws until now, while the Godric before us was summoned by the Resurrection Stone.

All three of them were well aware of the stone's true nature; it was an out-and-out dark magic artifact.

The Godric summoned by this item is itself quite suspicious—the Secret Order version of Godric cannot be disproven, but there is no conclusive evidence to definitively prove the Godric before us.

Of course, his association with the term "secret society" is his biggest point of suspicion.

The Norse gods worshipped by the secret society are the mortal enemies of wizards. How could Gryffindor, who caused Ragnarok, possibly do such a thing?

As for the absurd claim of "using human bodies to neutralize the environmental pollution caused by the remains of deities," Rice would never believe it.

I neither believe the claim is true, nor do I believe that Godric Gryffindor could come up with such a miraculous method. It's something someone like myself or Rowena would do.

If the leader of the Secret Order were to make a grand entrance, claiming to be Rowena Ravenclaw, Rhys might actually believe him. Even if he claimed to be Salazar Slytherin, Rhys would still be skeptical, seriously considering whether he had done something strange before falling into a deep sleep that resulted in another version of himself existing in the world.

Upon hearing Rice's words, Gryffindor immediately deflated: the current situation was giving him a real headache.

"After discussion, we decided to acquiesce to its existence and then wait and see what it wants to do," Rice told Gryffindor about the best solution the three of them had come up with.

After all, the three of them are currently wearing disguises, and rashly stepping forward to expose the imposter's identity would only complicate matters significantly. It could very well lead to the imposter's identity being exposed, while their true identities would also be completely revealed, something he, Rowena, and Helga all want to avoid.

"You did the right thing, and I feel that's how it should be—" Rhys interrupted Gryffindor.

"But there is another way."

Gryffindor: ?

"Come back, return to Hogwarts as a true Gryffindor," Rice said earnestly. "Let you, the real Godric Gryffindor, expose the imposter's mask and see what's underneath."

Godric was quite tempted.

He used to want to be a hands-off manager, leaving everything to his three old friends and enjoying the peace that belongs to the dead. But now, his thoughts have changed slightly because of the appearance of the imposter Gryffindor.

He was starting to miss Hogwarts; he wanted to use his sword to chop that bastard's head off himself.

Rice blinked: "Right now, you might not even be able to wield the Gryffindor sword properly. It's hard to say who will strike whom..."

But saying that seems a bit too hurtful to him, so I'll just keep it to myself!

Seeing the Gryffindors regain their fighting spirit, Rice couldn't help but feel quite gratified: Great, their good friends are coming back again!

Now everyone's burden is much lighter. Helga can completely hand over her doll-making project to Gryffindor and doesn't need to worry about it herself anymore. In competitions like this year's, if Godric were here, he wouldn't need to come in and do the dirty work.

The eight-story castle of Hogwarts, the four towers, plus the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest, were all previously carried on Godric's shoulders alone!

"But I'm already dead..." Halfway through their pep talk, Gryffindor suddenly became listless again, as if they had a mental problem and had entered a dead end.

Seeing that his good friend seemed to be thinking of giving up and quitting, Rice quickly tried to persuade him.

"Godrick, what do you consider to be the definition of death?"

The question was a bit abrupt, but Gryffindor still answered Rice seriously.

"Death is when the heart stops beating, breathing stops, and the body decays."

Rice shook his head.

"That's just physical death. The body decays, but the soul lives on. That doesn't count as death."

"So, according to you, the ghosts didn't die either?"

Rice nodded. Ghosts can't be considered the dead, but they're not living either; they're a very special kind of being.

"As long as one can still think, one is not dead," Rice stated his definition of death.

"Godrick, Muggle technology is advancing so rapidly these days that they can even bring the dead back to life—their brains have lost the ability to think, but their bodies remain alive." Rice shared the wonders he had read about in a book with his friend.

"Their hearts are still beating, their lungs are still breathing, and their bodies haven't decayed with the help of medication, but they can no longer think. They can no longer hear the calls of their loved ones. All their memories, good or bad, have vanished. They can no longer feel the fragrance of spring flowers, the blazing sun of summer, the harvest of autumn, or the biting wind of winter. They just lie in rooms that Muggles call the ICU, with cold machines maintaining their so-called lives. Do you think such people are alive or dead?"

Gryffindor fell silent.

He felt that Salazar's words made some sense, but they were also somewhat different from his own understanding. It seemed like something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Godric, you can think now, you can react to what I say. How can you be in a state of death? You're just living a slightly special life." Seeing that his words had an effect, Rice pressed on and began to try to persuade Gryffindor.

Don't actually think you're dead, Godric!

"But could I be a projection of myself from your memories?" Gryffindor pointed to the Resurrection Stone ring in Rhys's hand. "According to you, isn't this thing an evil device that manipulates people's memories to induce suicide?"

Rice shook his head.

"You underestimate me and Rowena. We can still distinguish between projected memories and those of others—and how do you explain Dumbledore seeing you? Rowena and I are one thing, but where would Dumbledore get a memory of you from?"

Godric was speechless.

My old friend is still as eloquent as ever.

"Okay, maybe I really am still alive, but right now I'm not even a ghost, so how am I supposed to get back to Hogwarts?"

"You don't need to worry about that. Leave it to me, Rowena, and Helga. I'm an expert in this area."

Godric just needs to wait to be resurrected, while the other three have a lot to do.

Gryffindor scratched the back of his head. Salazar's words made perfect sense and were entirely sincere, but his intuition told him that Salazar seemed to be hiding something beneath his genuine emotions, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Since they couldn't guess, there was no need to guess. Would Salazar harm them? Gryffindor gave up thinking and instead thanked Salazar sincerely.

"Thank you, Salazar, you've worked hard."

Seeing Godric's understanding, Rice couldn't help but beam with joy.

Poor Gryffindor, he didn't even think about why his three other old friends were unwilling to appear at Hogwarts in their true identities.

If he had thought about this issue, he probably wouldn't have been in such a hurry to be reborn.

But it's too late now! Wizards all over the world know that Godric Gryffindor, the founder of Hogwarts, is still alive. Godric can only obediently be resurrected as Gryffindor, and can't do what the other three did and find a strange name to put on his person.

If Godric gives in here, Salazar Slytherin will surely resurrect him and bring the real Godric Gryffindor back to his loyal Hogwarts!

After dealing with Godric, Rice began tinkering with his crystal ball.

He wanted to try and decipher the crystal ball and then use it to do something, such as reconnecting with Daphne and Astoria.

Moreover, it's time for me to change my goals for this competition.

After learning that the seven members of the Secret Order who came this time were all elites of the organization, Rice's mission objective changed slightly.

None of these seven people can be sent back to Hogwarts.

Godric sat down in the seat next to him and silently watched Rice fiddling with the crystal ball in his hand.

……

"It's over." The silver-haired girl found a clean spot to sit down, looking down at the dumbfounded natives.

Behind her, a huge black dragon lay on the ground, its body in a strangely withered state, like poultry that had been slaughtered in winter and hung under the eaves to dry.

The leader of the indigenous group swallowed hard, feeling he should say something, but his mouth went dry and he couldn't utter a word.

This is so eerie! Considering what everyone had just seen and heard, even the girl's delicate face seemed sinister.

This seemingly frail girl they met on the road single-handedly killed the monstrous black dragon Ares in a way they could never have imagined!

During the battle between the girl and the black dragon, these elite knights of the kingdom couldn't even get close, because as soon as they approached the battlefield, they felt their blood begin to boil. Perhaps this was how the girl killed the black dragon.

Astoria didn't bother trying to figure out what the natives were thinking; she was only traveling with them to have them guide her.

Sure enough, with their help, I successfully completed the main quest. Judging by their appearance, they seem to be able to complete the side quests as well?

The girl walked up to the black dragon's corpse and, after some effort, dug out the dragon's heart, which had shrunk into a small ball, from the withered body.

"The dragon is dead, you can go back and report, but I will keep the dragon's heart," Astoria said to the natives.

The knights, of course, had no objections.

After dismembering the dragon's corpse and collecting all the precious materials, the knights looked at each other in bewilderment. In the end, it was the knight leader who stepped forward and begged Astoria to go back with them to see His Majesty the King.

At that moment, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Excuse me, fellow student from Hogwarts, could you please give me your dragon heart?" A person emerged from the nearby forest, a bright smile on their face.

"I also had my eye on this dragon, but unfortunately I was a step too late." He even offered an explanation.

"The Secret Order?" Astoria raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly!" A hint of pride flashed across the young cultivator's face.

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 everyone.

The character cards for the four founders plus Rice have all been created. Don't forget to send them hearts!

(End of this chapter)