"All three champions performed unexpectedly well this time!"
After announcing Krum's score, Ludo Bagman—still being played by little Barty—once again exclaimed in a thoroughly cheerful tone, "Honestly, when the few of us first designed this task, almost none of us thought anyone would actually be able to fully repair this golden egg. That's why we set up three charging pillars… And in our original vision, it was entirely possible that a champion might not even be able to defeat the fire dragon at all, and thus fail to clear the second stage—that was a Ukrainian Ironbelly, after all!"
"And after comparing their performances to those of champions from past Triwizard Tournaments, I can proudly say that the champions selected for this restarted Triwizard Tournament—revived after a hundred years, and with its difficulty greatly increased as well—are among the finest the Tournament has ever seen!"
True enough.
Hearing that, Avada nodded inwardly.
He had deliberately looked into the history of the Triwizard Tournament before. Among this year's champions, even if one deliberately excluded him as an outlier, Krum and Fleur alone would still be enough to rank among the strongest champions in the Tournament's history. Part of that was naturally due to the overall progress of the times, but their personal strength had indeed far exceeded Avada's expectations.
Fleur went without saying.
The talent brought by her Veela bloodline, combined with a wand perfectly suited to her, gave her astonishingly comprehensive combat ability. In ordinary battle, silent and invisible mental magic was enough for her to bring down most opponents without the slightest effort. And when she went all out, her almost unreasonable talent for agile aerial movement combined with the powerful magical flames of a Veela was enough to keep even a dragon pinned down. Aside from limited endurance, she was almost without weaknesses.
But that same setup also brought with it one clear flaw—
When facing environmental pressure that was not man-made, she was at a particularly obvious disadvantage.
For example, in the original second task, the underwater environment directly suppressed her flames, while all sorts of aquatic, low-intelligence creatures were not particularly sensitive to charm magic. On top of that, the water itself greatly increased her physical exhaustion. In the end, she was easily eliminated by a Grindylow. Compared to how she was performing now, the difference was like night and day…
Krum, meanwhile, was even more surprising to Avada.
At first, Avada had assumed that someone from Durmstrang, combined with a professional athlete's career, would naturally turn out to be an extremely aggressive, hot-blooded powerhouse. But unexpectedly, Krum was actually the one with the sharper, more delicate mind—the sort better at rapid thinking and tactical deployment. By contrast, in direct combat he did not have that many standout qualities beyond his Dark Magic, which probably also had something to do with his identity as a Seeker.
And in the first task as well, Krum had often been able to follow Avada's train of thought a step faster than Fleur. That made Avada feel that, purely in terms of raw thinking ability, Krum was probably no worse than he was.
As expected of the finest elite chosen from an entire magical school.
That should make things a lot easier for me.
After quickly reviewing his assessment of the two in his mind, Avada could not help but feel pleased.
That way, when the coming whirlpool of conspiracy arrives, I probably won't need to spend too much effort protecting them. They already have enough ability to protect themselves, and they've become aware of the danger… Or maybe they might even be able to help.
"Now then, let me announce the current total scores of the three champions."
Up in the stands, "Bagman" took out his notebook again and turned a page before reading aloud, "Miss Fleur Delacour—ninety-one points; Mr. Viktor Krum—ninety-three points; and Mr. Ken—ninety-six points!"
"The gap between the three champions is very small. Allow me to praise them once again—this year's champions are each more outstanding than the last. All three have scored above ninety, an exceptional result… These scores, together with the champions' golden eggs, will play a role in the next task, so please keep your golden eggs safe."
"And the third task—the final task of this Tournament—will be held on May 24 of next year. The champions will learn the content of the third task one week in advance. Until then—please enjoy a peaceful stretch of school life, as well as the Christmas feast that is fast approaching!"
"The second task of the Triwizard Tournament is now officially concluded. Thank you all as well for supporting the champions… You may now return in an orderly fashion!"
The moment those words fell, a bad premonition immediately rose in Avada's heart.
And sure enough, in the very next moment, he felt the ground vanish beneath his feet—
He had once again been hoisted straight into the air by the classmates around him…
…
At last, after a grand celebration aboard the train that lasted from noon all the way until dinner ended, Avada was finally released back into his own compartment. With his stomach stuffed full of food, he flopped onto his bed in utter exhaustion, his lower legs hanging limply over the edge.
Fortunately, he was not old enough to drink yet. Otherwise, he might well have ended up like those seventh-year seniors, completely unconscious and carried back by others…
After resting half-reclined for a while, he finally sat up again and took the fully charged golden egg out of his Extension Pocket.
At last, he had time to examine the thing properly.
And it was also worth noting that during the banquet just now, although everyone had enthusiastically congratulated him, with almost every sentence revolving around his performance in the second task, not a single person had come over to ask to look at the golden egg—including the few close friends most familiar with him.
And Avada himself had not displayed it either.
After all, he had not seriously inspected the thing yet. Although the making and final form of the golden egg had most likely been supervised—or even directly participated in—by Dumbledore and the other headmasters, and although it would remain in the champions' possession for quite a long time, making the odds of someone tampering with it not especially high, he still decided it was better to be cautious.
After all, it was hardly the first time the pure-blood families had managed to do something right under Dumbledore's nose…
"The surface is a complete whole. It can't be opened… completely different from the original."
After confirming that there were no curses or unusual magic on it, he first tried using his hands to see whether he could open the golden egg the way one could in the original story. Only after reaching that conclusion did he take up his wand and begin carefully analyzing the magical structure contained within the golden egg using his magical senses.
"There is a spell inside the golden egg that can open it, but it seems it can only be triggered after a certain time arrives and certain external conditions are met… Though it doesn't look hard to crack. Should I try it now?"
"Wait… ugh, never mind. Once the egg is opened, it looks like it'll immediately transmit everything around it, probably for use during the live broadcast. It wouldn't be hard to crack that either, but forget it for now. Better check whether there's any other danger first…"