"I'm afraid your sincerity doesn't count for much." Leonard waved the map in his hand. "I've been to that place before. There's nothing there."
"Of course you found nothing going there like that, because we already excavated it. We even dug up the wall bricks," Harris Raymons said with a cheerful smile.
Leonard's expression darkened. "So you're toying with me?"
"No, no, not at all." Harris Raymons waved his hand. "Those of us who aren't heirs can only rely on that kind of brute-force excavation, but that method can't actually damage an ancient magic ruin."
He continued, "The door to the true ruin is still there. Only a real heir can find it."
"I already told you, I went there, and I didn't find any door," Leonard said bluntly.
He had swept the whole place with his magical sight and had not found any hidden entrance at all.
"That's because we buried it," Harris Raymons said. "You probably didn't search underground, did you?"
"Underground?" Leonard froze for a second. That really was something he had overlooked. After all, on the live map, there had originally been a tower there.
"That's right, underground. And we made some modifications too. We built a cave specifically to contain the door's location." Harris Raymons pointed at the map. "The entrance to that cave is marked there as well."
Leonard looked at the map in silence for a while, then put it away.
"I'll go have a look," Leonard said. "But if you think this counts as sincerity... then I can't accept it."
"Why not?"
"What you did is like stealing someone else's property, then returning the safe after you fail to crack it and calling it a gift..." Leonard shot Harris Raymons a sidelong glance. "Do you really think that makes sense?"
"Uh..." Harris Raymons was stunned for a moment and realized Leonard actually had a point.
...
That night, after finishing a full day of classes and study, Leonard leaned back in his chair at his desk and let his thoughts drift.
"An entrance in an underground cave?"
He rocked back and forth in the chair, staring up at the ceiling as he weighed the pros and cons.
How credible were Harris Raymons's words, really? Leonard had no way to be sure, because even now he still did not know what this so-called Raven actually wanted.
They claimed they wanted him to join them, but an organization that hunted bloodline wizards was never going to make Leonard feel at ease.
So naturally, he could not fully trust the clue they had given him either.
What if it was a trap? What if the moment Leonard arrived, five hundred axemen suddenly jumped out of the wilderness and chopped him into mince?
Leonard still had not learned Apparition. He simply had not gotten around to it yet, mainly because the chance of Splinching was too much of a nuisance.
"But I can't just ignore it either. There may be a trap there, but there's no question there really is an ancient magic ruin there. Otherwise, the live map would never have marked it so specifically."
Leonard kept thinking, trying to work out how to reduce the risk of exploring the ancient magic ruin as much as possible.
He definitely could not ask Midgard to come. With Harris Raymons, the same man who had infiltrated the werewolf settlement, now involved, even if there was no ambush there and only some trivial raven scout watching, Midgard appearing would be as good as confessing everything.
On the day Harris Raymons invaded the werewolf settlement, Leonard had exposed "his own appearance." But from the way things had gone these past few days, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor showed no sign of suspecting Professor Flitwick. Clearly, for some reason, he did not believe that the "Flitwick" in the werewolf settlement had been the real Professor Flitwick.
And that reason... perhaps Harris Raymons actually knew Professor Flitwick. Or perhaps Professor Flitwick himself was even a member of Raven.
After all, Professor Flitwick was of goblin descent. In a sense, that made him a bloodline wizard too.
If Leonard and Midgard went together right now to explore a ruin that Raven had already thoroughly searched once before, there was no guarantee they would not be discovered.
And if that happened, Leonard William's identity would be completely exposed.
That ran directly against Leonard's intentions.
"In any case, I can't let Midgard come... but going alone to explore the ruin is too reckless, especially when it's a place Harris Raymons told me about after Raven already searched it... no, that won't do. Going alone is definitely not an option..."
Leonard was still tangled in his thoughts when Justin, freshly washed up, walked in. Seeing Leonard sitting there with such a conflicted expression, he casually asked, "Leonard, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm just torn about something," Leonard said, snapping out of his thoughts.
"Torn about something? Then why not ask a professor for help? You're on good terms with quite a few of them anyway," Justin said offhandedly.
Ask a professor for help?
Leonard's eyes lit up.
Of course. He was a student at school. If he ran into a problem, asking a professor for help was perfectly natural.
...
He was not Harry Potter, that hard-headed kid who wanted to meddle in everything and stick his hand into every mess without ever stopping to think whether he was actually capable of handling it.
Leonard preferred to use every bit of strength available to him when he wanted to accomplish something.
"If I'm going to explore the ruin, I can ask a professor to go with me. After all, Harris Raymons gave me the location, so there's nothing suspicious about me."
Leonard immediately relaxed and gratefully said to Justin, "Thanks, Justin. You reminded me."
"No problem. If there's trouble, ask a professor," Justin said carelessly.
Leonard nodded, then turned back to thinking about which professor he should ask to accompany him.
The first person who came to mind was Professor Sprout. She had the best relationship with him.
Unfortunately, she did not understand ancient magic, and as for her strength... Leonard had no idea how powerful she really was. Bringing her along might not be much help.
Professor Flitwick was actually not a bad choice either. He was extremely capable, and he also possessed ancient magic. Perhaps he could give Leonard considerable assistance.
But the source of Professor Flitwick's ancient magic was questionable, and Leonard was still not sure whether the man had any ties to Raven.
Professor Flitwick was not fully reliable either.
So...
"Looks like I'll have to trouble Professor Dumbledore after all," Leonard murmured to himself, rubbing his chin.