With the scrolling of the mouse wheel, Slytherin's message in the secret room appeared in front of Ryan's eyes. Different from the magical knowledge that Ryan imagined to be left to future generations, Slytherin only introduced his own thoughts and the reasons for leaving Hogwarts at the beginning.
Judging from these self-reported words, Slytherin is not the dark wizard that Ryan imagined before. Because he declared from the beginning that his principle of dealing with others is to do no harm to others and do whatever he wants. Obviously, a powerful wizard like Slytherin doesn't bother to lie, so this principle should be true.
So what is the reason for later generations to think that Slytherin is a dark wizard? Ryan continued to scroll down with doubts in his heart.
Sure enough, the latter paragraph describes why Slytherin left Hogwarts, because from the beginning of the school, he and the other three founders had irreparable differences in the teaching route.
When they started Hogwarts, Europe was in the dark Middle Ages. War and strife dominated Europe at the time. The magical world was also full of dark wizards. After all, in this environment of the weak, dark magic that could quickly improve strength was more popular among wizards.
At that time, when the four wizards established the Hogwarts School, they wanted to pass on the magical knowledge they accumulated against the dark wizards to the next generation, so as to slowly reverse the current situation of the flood of dark wizards and recast order. After all, when dark wizards are dominant, a long war will break out, and in the end, everything in the magical world will be destroyed.
In this case, Slytherin made a proposal to recruit only descendants of pure-blood wizards. Because Muggle-born wizards were likely to be influenced by their relatives (since their relatives lacked the ability to protect themselves as wizards) and do certain things that harmed the Hogwarts school.
Not to mention that there were many differences between Muggles and wizards at that time. For example, in those days, many Muggle-born wizard apprentices could not even read or write, and learning magic required extensive knowledge. At the same time, Muggle-born wizards who lacked sufficient resources were more likely to turn to dark magic, which often involved plundering others.
From an absolutely dispassionate perspective, Slytherin pointed out why it made sense to focus resources on young wizards from reliable wizarding families. In this way, resources could be used most efficiently, and as many excellent wizards as possible could be cultivated with limited resources. (Due to underdeveloped productivity in that era, acquiring resources was much more difficult than in modern times. For example, many herbs can be grown now, but back then, they could only be collected in dangerous magical forests.)
But this view was refuted by the other three founders, who argued that while Slytherin's view did maximize resource utilization, it lacked humanity.
This was also the first major disagreement among the founders, and Slytherin chose to give in. He did not interfere with the choices of the other three wizards but only implemented this idea in his own house.
Then, one event suddenly widened the divide. Early Hogwarts lacked the magical protections it has today. Since the school had gathered many resources, it attracted the attention of dark wizards.
Once, Hogwarts was raided by dark wizards. Unfortunately, Slytherin's students were killed in the attack, and in a fit of rage, Slytherin personally killed the dark wizards responsible.
The act of killing the dark wizards did not provoke opposition from the other three founders. The righteous Gryffindor merely stated that there should be a trial to handle such matters. After all, it was a dark age, and even the kindest wizards had to fight against dark wizards, werewolves, and vampires.
However, after this incident, Slytherin began teaching dark magic to his students, believing that if they truly wanted to defeat dark wizards, they needed to understand their methods.
This is why later generations came to regard Slytherin as a dark wizard—he taught dark magic at Hogwarts, and those who attended his lessons recognized his profound knowledge of it. Over time, this idea persisted, and it became widely accepted that Slytherin was a dark wizard.
Naturally, this approach drew objections from the other three founders. When they established the school, they vowed to create a magical institution unlike any before, a place to teach magic that could stand against dark magic.
Now, Slytherin's approach worried them because the students were young and inexperienced. In such circumstances, they could easily be led astray.
But Slytherin believed that every student was a soldier ready to fight against dark wizards. He felt they needed to clearly understand what they were up against from the start so that they would have the ability to change the world after graduation.
Because the disagreement dragged on for so long, Slytherin felt that if he remained at the school, it would likely divide Hogwarts.
Out of love for the school, he chose to leave and spend the rest of his life hunting dark wizards, removing future threats for Hogwarts.
Contrary to legend, Slytherin fully communicated with the other three founders before leaving. To ensure his safety and avoid alerting dark wizards, the other founders only told people that he had fled after a dispute.
Later, because he had killed dark wizards, rumors spread that Slytherin was an even worse dark wizard himself. Ultimately, these rumors built the reputation of Slytherin as a dark wizard that persists to this day.
And this secret room was the last thing Slytherin did for the school before he left. In his vision, as time passed, the magical world would continue to improve. He hoped that his descendants would inherit his vision and turn it into reality, benefiting the entire wizarding world.
The basilisk, meanwhile, was only meant to be a temporary guardian. At that time, Haierbo had just bred the basilisk, and the one in Hogwarts was a trophy Slytherin obtained after killing a dark wizard.
He originally intended for the basilisk to be one of the school's protective measures, helping Hogwarts survive its early, vulnerable days. However, he never expected it to live for a thousand years.
After reading all this, Ryan couldn't help but sigh. A thousand years had transformed a great wizard, who had spent his life fighting for his school and ideals, into an infamous dark wizard in the eyes of history. The students of the house that bore his name, and even his own descendants, now revered dark magic and took pride in being dark wizards.
If Slytherin, whose lifelong goal was to destroy dark wizards, knew this, he would likely be so furious that he'd return from the underworld to deal with them himself.
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