"Hahaha! I suddenly feel like I might not actually need to personally train an heir. As long as someone inherits the 'Will of Gryffindor' and earns the recognition of the Sword of Gryffindor, then that person would naturally be my heir!"
Driven by instinct, Godric declared this with complete confidence.
Rowena: "…"
So this was the intuition of the strongest duelist?
Truly terrifying.
Despite knowing absolutely nothing, he somehow acted as though he already understood everything.
As someone who had personally interacted with Daphne, Rowena knew very clearly what kind of person that child truly was, so…
Silently, Rowena offered a moment of sympathy for Salazar.
"Well then, chatting with you has been delightful. Farew— actually, no. I really hope we don't meet again through this method. The stone on this ring is not a good thing."
Feeling that there was nothing more to discuss with Rowena, Godric Gryffindor decisively transformed into a stream of heat and vanished into the world around him.
Watching Godric disperse and disappear, Rowena fell into thought.
"Hm. Interesting…"
Then she rotated the Resurrection Stone in her hand another three times.
The next instant, Godric reappeared in the exact same spot.
Godric: ?
He turned toward Rowena with both hands spread wide, his face filled with confusion and incomprehension.
"It's nothing. You may leave now," Rowena said calmly.
Godric: ???
Still utterly baffled, he once again transformed into a stream of heat and vanished.
The moment the heat fully dissipated, Rowena immediately rotated the Resurrection Stone once more.
Then Godric appeared again.
Godric: "…"
After voluntarily dispersing himself, he could not sense the flow of time at all, but his instincts told him that the interval between his latest summons and the previous ones absolutely could not have exceeded a minute.
"Rowena Ravenclaw!!!"
Godric shouted Rowena's full name with a stern expression.
"Stop playing with the souls of the dead!!!"
"You're hardly a dead person."
Rowena rolled her eyes at him.
What she was doing was not merely toying with Godric.
Well, not primarily.
She was conducting a very serious experiment.
She was researching the mechanisms behind the Resurrection Stone.
A stone capable of "reviving" the dead was simply far too valuable for research purposes.
There was no way Rowena would ignore something like this.
The only unfortunate one was Godric, who happened to be bound to the Resurrection Stone.
"Um… could you demonstrate that again? You know, the part where you disappear on the spot."
Rowena looked at Godric hopefully, wishing for him to continue providing experimental data.
Godric also realized what she was trying to do.
After his expression shifted several times, he ultimately decided to cooperate with Rowena.
Participating in experiments?
He was already extremely familiar with that.
Back when everyone still traveled together, Salazar and Rowena frequently invited him to participate in experiments. He had long since gotten used to it.
After observing the entirety of Godric's dispersal process, Rowena narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.
This time, she did not summon Godric again.
Instead, she turned her head toward the nearby grove.
"Teacher, have you been enjoying the show?"
A voice echoed from deep within the woods.
[Little Rowena, your senses are still as sharp as ever. It seems you've obtained a very interesting little toy.]
"Nothing more than a trick," Rowena replied calmly. "The malice this object holds toward its user is truly intense."
In Rowena's view, the Resurrection Stone ring could completely be classified as a Dark Magic artifact. The malicious intent contained within it was overwhelming, as though the object existed solely to encourage its user to commit suicide.
For an ordinary wizard, if they became addicted to the Resurrection Stone ring, their ultimate ending would certainly be suicide.
That was, of course, assuming Godric had not become attached to the stone.
Rowena had already realized that what the Resurrection Stone summoned was not truly the souls of the dead.
Or rather, not entirely.
What it actually produced were phantoms formed from the user's memories of the deceased. However, those phantoms were not pure. The Resurrection Stone mixed in its own "extras," subtly influencing the user toward suicide.
How should she put it…
The magic involved was advanced to a degree that did not resemble anything from their era, yet it also was not nearly as mystical as the legends claimed.
Godric's situation, however, was special and could not be included within the discussion.
He had become a cluster of unconscious particles drifting through the world. When the Resurrection Stone created a phantom of Godric based on Rowena's memories of him, it instead attracted those wandering unconscious particles, resulting in Godric genuinely being "revived."
And after dispersing, the particles belonging to Godric fused together with the Resurrection Stone itself.
As a result, regardless of whether the next user possessed memories of Godric or not, the stone would still summon him.
As for the one currently conversing with her…
That was the true creation of the Resurrection Stone.
[Are the few of you doing well?]
"We've gone through quite a few storms, but overall, we're all doing alright."
[Then I'm relieved.]
The woods fell silent once more, clearly indicating that the phantom had dissipated.
A trace of confusion involuntarily arose within Rowena.
So was Teacher merely a phantom formed by the Resurrection Stone, or an existence like Godric?
Soon afterward, she forcibly suppressed the thought and restrained herself from thinking further about it.
Because she was certain that when the four of them first encountered their teacher back then, the teacher had already died, leaving behind only a phantom and a few final legacies for them.
"Truly a terrifying Alchemical creation. I really wonder what exactly the Peverell brothers were thinking when they made something like this."
While sighing emotionally, Rowena slipped the Resurrection Stone ring into her pocket.
After that, life at Hogwarts returned to peace once again.
Well, perhaps "peace" was not quite accurate.
Because beneath the calm surface of daily life, turbulent undercurrents surged endlessly.
The students all eagerly awaited October's arrival, while the professors themselves became increasingly tense.
Hogwarts Castle underwent a massive cleaning operation. The entire castle was thoroughly scrubbed clean. Even the outer walls were washed down, with every patch of moss hidden in corners completely removed.
The grimy paintings and suits of armor inside the castle that had gone unattended for years were also polished until they gleamed brilliantly, ensuring Hogwarts would not embarrass itself before guests from other schools.
Subtle changes also appeared outside the castle.
A huge section of land near the edge of the Forbidden Forest had been flattened and surrounded with fences, preventing anyone from seeing what was inside.
Clearly, it was being prepared as a competition venue for the upcoming tournament.
What confused the students was that the Quidditch pitch had been preserved.
This was rather strange, because the Quidditch field was obviously a far more suitable location for tournament events.
The thirteen selected contestants completely bid farewell to their weekends.
The professors seized every available moment to tutor them, stuffing vast amounts of knowledge into their heads.
Charms. Potions. Transfiguration. Herbology…
Everything was done to accelerate their growth as much as possible.
Professor White and Professor Aries also became increasingly reclusive.
Aside from attending classes, students could practically never spot them anywhere inside the castle, and no one knew exactly what they were doing.
At the end of September, Hogwarts' tranquility was finally shattered:
The other magical schools had arrived.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI