"You attacked him the moment the conversation went badly? You really haven't changed at all. I thought you'd mellowed out!" Godric remarked from the side. "No wonder you asked whether he was full. So that was why."
"Mainly because the remaining food would've become inedible."
Rhys used a simple spell to secure the young monk from the Mystic Society to the chair, then tossed the divine remains he had dug out of the man onto the table.
It was a square piece of bone attached to the spine. It had already fused completely with the monk's body, and Rhys had needed some effort to remove it.
"This is what the Mystic Society does. They search everywhere for the remains of gods that weren't destroyed after the war, then implant them into their own bodies to obtain power that doesn't belong to them."
Rhys sneered.
"Some of them can even unfold Domains."
Godric raised an eyebrow.
The people of the Mystic Society were certainly inventive, though the method sounded bloody. The remains of gods were not so easy to fuse with. Even the alchemical artefacts the four of them had made from divine bodies had to be used with extreme caution, never mind directly implanting divine remains into one's own body.
Gryffindor had somewhat overestimated the recklessness of the Mystic Society's monks.
They were not fools. They did not simply force the fusion. Instead, they first weakened the killing intent and resentment within the divine remains as much as possible, then used the Society's secret methods to pacify them.
Putting aside the sinister way the monks obtained their power, Godric began asking about what concerned him most.
What exactly was going on with the leader of the Mystic Society claiming to be Godric Gryffindor?
"We're not entirely sure either. He suddenly appeared during the opening ceremony, and everyone was shocked."
Rhys recounted what had happened that day, making the veins in Godric's forehead throb.
"You just accepted him like that?!"
Halfway through the explanation, he could no longer resist interrupting his old friend in disbelief.
Salazar, Helga, and Rowena were all currently at Hogwarts. How had they allowed some stranger of unknown origin to claim his name?
"It's not necessarily a bad thing."
After all this time, Rhys had already come to terms with it.
"First, let people learn and accept that you're still alive. Then, once we kill the impostor, you can naturally take his place."
Godric stared at him, dumbfounded.
That was an option?
Let a fake build up the reputation of the real one, then have the real one replace the fake.
He would become an impostor of the impostor while simultaneously being the genuine Godric Gryffindor.
Godric felt his thoughts descending into chaos. At that moment, all he wanted was a mug of chilled ale to calm himself down.
"More importantly, that Gryffindor may not actually be fake. At the very least, none of the three of us could find any flaws in him, and you should understand what that means."
To put it bluntly, if one examined the matter closely, the Godric before Rhys was even more suspicious than the one from the Mystic Society.
The Mystic Society's Godric had yet to reveal a single flaw, while the Godric standing before him had been summoned by the Resurrection Stone.
The three of them understood the true nature of that stone perfectly well.
It was an unmistakable Dark artefact.
A Godric summoned by such an object was inherently suspicious. The Mystic Society's version could not be proven false, but neither was there any decisive evidence proving that the Godric before him was genuine.
Of course, his association with the Mystic Society was the greatest point against the other one.
The Norse gods worshipped by the Mystic Society were the mortal enemies of wizardkind. How could Godric Gryffindor, the man who had brought about Ragnarok, possibly do such a thing?
As for the absurd claim that they were "using human bodies to neutralise the environmental contamination caused by divine remains," Rhys did not believe a word of it.
He neither believed the explanation itself nor believed that Godric Gryffindor could come up with such an ingenious method.
That sounded more like something Rhys or Rowena would do.
Had the leader of the Mystic Society appeared and claimed to be Rowena Ravenclaw, Rhys might actually have believed it.
Even if he had claimed to be Salazar Slytherin, Rhys would have been half-convinced and seriously wondered whether he had caused some bizarre disaster before falling asleep, resulting in another version of himself appearing in the world.
Hearing Rhys's explanation, Godric immediately deflated.
The situation gave him an enormous headache.
"After discussing it, the three of us decided to tolerate his existence for now and wait to see what he intends to do."
Rhys told Godric the solution they had agreed was best.
After all, the three of them were currently hiding behind false identities. If they rashly stepped forward to expose the impostor, it would only make the situation extremely complicated. There was a strong possibility that while the impostor's identity was revealed, their own true identities would also be completely exposed.
That was something neither Rhys, Rowena, nor Helga wanted.
"You made the right decision. I think that's what you should do as well..." Gryffindor began, but Rhys interrupted him.
"There is another option."
Gryffindor: ???
"Come back. Return to Hogwarts as the real Gryffindor," Rhys said seriously. "You, the true Godric Gryffindor, can tear away the impostor's mask and see what is hiding underneath."
For a moment, Godric was genuinely tempted.
Previously, he had wanted to wash his hands of everything, leaving all troublesome matters to his three old friends while enjoying the peace reserved for the dead.
But the appearance of the impostor Gryffindor had caused his thoughts to change slightly.
He wanted to return to Hogwarts.
He wanted to cut that bastard's head off with his own sword.
Rhys blinked.
At this point, you might not even be able to command the Sword of Gryffindor anymore. Who would end up cutting off whose head is honestly difficult to say...
Still, saying that aloud would probably hurt him too much, so Rhys kept the thought to himself.
Seeing Gryffindor regain his fighting spirit, Rhys felt deeply gratified.
Excellent. Their long-suffering... good companion was finally coming back!
The burdens on everyone's shoulders would become much lighter.
Helga could hand her entire puppet-making project over to Gryffindor instead of constantly trying to drag Rhys into it. If Godric had been around for a tournament like this, Rhys would not have needed to enter and do all the dirty work himself.
The big ancient Hogwarts castle, the four great towers, the Black Lake, and the Forbidden Forest had once all rested on Godric's shoulders alone!
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI