"Care for some hot soup?"
"The croissants just came out of the oven~"
As soon as Rhys returned to the camp, Daphne and Astoria approached him with bright smiles, welcoming him back and celebrating his victory.
Looking at the steaming bowl of rich soup in his left hand and the buttery, fragrant croissant in his right, Rhys suddenly felt that all those years of hardship had not been in vain.
As expected, Hermione and Cedric were there as well. Aries, meanwhile, quietly shrank into a corner of the camp, sneaking glances at him.
Rhys followed her gaze, startling Aries. This person looked exactly the same as the phantom in the Library Domain.
"I have to say, I'm quite surprised you managed to capture her." Rhys glanced at Daphne and Astoria, and their faces flushed red at a visible speed.
After their exchange, even Daphne had to admit that there was still a gap in strength between the two of them and Aries. Astoria, in particular, had even been knocked unconscious.
"Hermione helped a lot," Daphne said truthfully. At this moment, Astoria, who was usually quick-witted, lowered her head and began studying the texture of the croissant in her hands.
Rhys nodded. Of course he understood how a group of children who had yet to awaken their elemental Domains had managed to deal with a Domain practitioner.
He walked up to Aries and carefully examined the captured Constellation Mage.
Like most members of the Secret Society, Aries had distinctly Eastern European features.
That made sense. After all, that region was the only place in the world without a sufficiently powerful magical school, making it ideal for the Secret Society to secretly recruit talent. As for why that area lacked a strong magical school in the first place, Rhys felt it was likely closely related to the Secret Society itself.
Aside from Hogwarts, other magical schools more or less all had a developmental process. As long as they were stifled before they could grow, no prestigious magical schools would ever come into being.
"I think we should hand her over to the Ministry of Magic or Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said after a moment of hesitation.
Rhys turned his head toward the direction of the stadium. He sensed an extremely powerful surge of magic there. Even from such a distance, he could feel a trace of heat, clearly indicating that Dumbledore had arrived.
Handing her over to Dumbledore might be a good choice, Rhys thought.
"Is it really a good idea to hand her to the Ministry? She managed to knock Astoria unconscious. She's very strong," Daphne suddenly said offhandedly. Astoria immediately lifted her head and lightly thumped her sister on the back twice.
That was too much. How could she expose something so embarrassing in front of Rhys? As expected, Daphne's words caught Rhys's interest, and he turned to look at Astoria.
Astoria felt the back of her ears burning. She quickly insisted that they were only superficial injuries.
"Broken bones still count as superficial injuries?"
"They do!" Astoria replied firmly. Even if she had been beaten to the brink of death in the library earlier, she would only admit to having suffered minor injuries in front of Rhys.
Please. Being the only one among the four to be knocked unconscious was already humiliating enough. If she admitted now that she had been seriously injured, how could she continue to face this small circle in the future?
Rhys raised an eyebrow. Regarding how to deal with Aries, he changed his mind.
"We can't hand her over to the Ministry. She's too dangerous," Rhys concluded.
"Then hand her over to Professor Dumbledore?" Hermione felt that with one option eliminated, only one remained.
"I don't think that's appropriate," Cedric objected this time.
He remembered his teacher had said not to publicize her identity and to keep a low profile. But if Professor Dumbledore found out they had captured a Domain wizard from the Secret Society, that would be far too high-profile and go against his teacher's instructions.
Hermione: ?
"Then what do we do? We can't just let her go, can we?"
"No!" Before anyone else could respond, Aries was the first to jump out in opposition.
Even if these young wizards dared to release her, she did not dare to return. Setting aside Voldemort's threat, just the act of surrendering to outsiders was already an unforgivable betrayal.
The best outcome upon returning would be having her divine core stripped away and being reduced to a low-ranking mage.
"Leave her to me. I have a very good arrangement in mind," Rhys said, having already decided how to deal with Aries: send her straight to the dungeon to accompany Rowena.
Aries felt uneasy, but as a prisoner, she had no choice.
"Alright, let me try your cooking," Rhys said. Having decided Aries's fate, he finally had time to eat something and fill his stomach.
After his battle with Voldemort, Rhys was a bit hungry as well.
It had to be said, Daphne's tomato soup tasted excellent, with plenty of beans added in. Astoria's croissants were even better. Add some bacon, sausages, and luncheon meat roasted over the fire, and it made for a hearty post-battle supper.
"If I could eat this every time after fighting Voldemort, I'd fight him every day," Rhys remarked with satisfaction.
"The Dark Lord—"
"Call him by his name, Voldemort, or Tom Riddle," Rhys corrected.
As a student of Helga, how could Cedric not even have the courage to say Voldemort's name aloud?
"Alright…" Cedric blinked.
As soon as he realized that the classmates around him could stand against the Dark Lord head-on, the fear he once felt toward Voldemort immediately dissipated.
"What happened to Voldemort?"
"He was seriously injured by me and fled. He probably won't be able to use the power of a Domain for several years. Forget Domains, if you ask me, even casting spells will be difficult for him."
The young wizards present were all shocked. They had not expected that the infamous Dark Lord would suffer such a crushing setback right after declaring his return. What they found even harder to imagine was that the one who had defeated him was the very classmate they spent time with every day.
Aries, on the other hand, was overjoyed. The sword of Damocles hanging over her head had finally been lifted.
"You all take him too seriously. He's really nothing special," Rhys said, taking a sip of his soup, dismissing Voldemort as insignificant.
Of course, without awakening a Domain, it was best not to provoke him. Even with a Domain, one should not be careless. Voldemort's Domain had a very high upper limit. But as long as one progressed step by step, a wizard like Daphne would definitely be able to face Voldemort alone before graduation.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI