"The god of mischief?"
Helga had naturally heard of the infamous deity.
"The god of lies and schemes, moonlighting as a fire god," Rhys rolled his eyes. Helga made the second most important figure among the Norse gods sound like a clown.
"It's the same thing," Helga didn't want to get hung up on such details. "You're saying this has something to do with Loki? But wasn't he already killed by Rowena?"
Rhys shook his head, indicating he wasn't sure either.
According to Ravenclaw, Godric had played a major role in that incident—he had successfully seized the Fire God's authority, causing Loki to lose most of his combat power, allowing her to kill him with relative ease.
"Maybe it has nothing to do with him? Loki is Hela's father after all. It's normal for him to appear in her final memories."
Rhys agreed with Helga's speculation.
"But if there really is Loki's shadow behind the Secret Society, then we can't afford to underestimate them."
"Then what does Loki want?" Hufflepuff laughed lightly. "Revenge against us? But as far as the outside world knows, the four of us have been dead for a long time."
"Do you think Loki would believe that?" Rhys was genuinely speechless. Four wizards who had triggered Ragnarök simply dying of old age—would any god buy that? Especially when immortality methods like Horcruxes had already been invented back then.
"But I also don't think he wants revenge against us. Or rather, revenge isn't his primary goal," Rhys seriously analyzed the psychology of the god of lies and schemes for Helga. "Although a lot of what we did got pinned on him in Muggle folklore, his relationship with Odin was never all that close to begin with."
"I think he wants to restore the glory of the gods from back then. Judging by the current situation, that may not even be impossible."
Putting himself in Loki's shoes, Rhys would have done the same.
Originally, it had been a comfortable divine life—endless offerings, leisurely days, occasionally teasing his sworn brother and that entire divine family. How pleasant had that been? And then suddenly, four wizards came out of nowhere and smashed it all to pieces.
Could anyone just accept that? Of course not. Naturally, one would look for a way to return things to how they were.
"Put like that, his scope does sound a lot grander," Helga teased. "So then? What should we do?"
"When soldiers come, block them. When floods come, hold them back. Respond to change by remaining unchanged," Rhys replied with his plan. "The Secret Society is definitely going to stir up trouble sooner or later. We can just wait for them to pop up and slap them dead in one hit. They've already set their sights on Hogwarts anyway."
Hufflepuff: "…"
Wasn't that response a bit too passive? She had half expected Salazar to go raze that Cult to the ground. Instead, he was planning to wait for them to knock on the door themselves.
"You can go talk it over with Rowena and see what she says," Rhys said. He believed Rowena would support his decision.
"…Alright, then." Helga agreed, still somewhat doubtful.
"Oh, right. Can you take a look at Diggory's condition for me?" Before returning to the school, Helga was still a little worried about her student, so she took the initiative to lift the protection on him and let Salazar examine his body.
Once the shell vanished, Rhys's gaze fell on Cedric's shoulder.
It had been scorched by Gemini's light-and-dark domain. The entire shoulder looked as though it had suffered a burn, with blisters of varying sizes raised across the skin.
"How is it?" Helga asked. "I noticed there was a problem here too. Is it serious? Will there be any… long-term effects?"
Among the four of them, Helga specialized more in domains that enhanced the body, while Salazar was the most proficient at healing, so she very much wanted to hear Salazar's professional opinion.
There was even a sheen of sweat on Helga's forehead.
Rhys took it all in, and inwardly raised Cedric's importance yet another notch. He had no doubt that anyone who harmed this student of hers would be subjected to her most severe punishment.
His assessment of that was: wasn't it a bit much?
A child raised in a greenhouse—how could they ever become a truly great wizard?
His own educational philosophy was better. He would arrange sufficiently intense trials for his students. That said, if Helga wanted him to include Cedric in future assessments, he would need to give it serious thought.
This kid's strength was a little too far above the curve.
Having just one Daphne already gave him a headache. Controlling the intensity of the assessments took considerable effort, and if Cedric were added to the mix, his brain really would explode.
Creating situations that posed genuinely lethal danger without actually getting the hard-trained students killed was truly an art.
Rhys suddenly found himself missing Quirrell from back then.
If only Quirrell were still alive—he would absolutely spare no expense to help him awaken either a water or earth domain, then make him the final exam paper every year.
Another day of missing Quirrell... sigh..
Rhys's thoughts drifted far away, which outwardly looked like he was spacing out. This gave Helga quite a scare.
Why was Salazar still thinking so deeply? Could it be that Diggory really had some serious problem?
"Oh!" Rhys came back to his senses after Helga softly called out to him. He told Hufflepuff not to worry too much. While Cedric's shoulder injury was indeed troublesome, it wasn't beyond treatment.
"The residual magic from Gemini's domain has seeped into the muscles of his shoulder. Under the influence of that magic, the wound will heal very slowly, and it may even never heal properly because of the nature of a domain. If we consider the worst-case scenario, there's even a chance the wound could continue to deteriorate."
Rhys's words made Helga's expression turn extremely grim, but he immediately followed up with a solution.
"You just need to use the power of your own domain to erase the residual magic left behind by Gemini. Once that's done, the wound will just be an ordinary burn. There's nothing else wrong with him—he's just expended a bit too much magic. Give him some stamina potions when you get back, and that'll be fine."
Hufflepuff immediately felt at ease. She even thought she could take advantage of this opportunity to let Cedric practice resisting a domain.
Just as she carried Cedric over to her side and began sketching out a teleportation magic array, Rhys suddenly said something completely out of the blue.
"Oh, by the way, I won't be going back with you."
Helga: ???
"You're planning to track down the whereabouts of this Secret Order?"
The response she got was Rhys's eye-roll.
"Of course not! There's no point in chasing that thing. If there's no Loki behind the Secret Order, then they're not worth worrying about. If Loki really is the mastermind, then it wouldn't take long for Him to notice my investigation. In the end, either He sets a trap for me, or I completely wipe out the 'Secret Order', only for several similar organizations to pop up somewhere else. I don't want Dumbledore to know that I've also run out!"
Hufflepuff: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI