Arrogant and flashy guys always have punchable faces, and the current Terence was the prime example.
Just moments ago, that guy had the audacity to say he would use Dark Magic to win Helena's heart. This was something Rey absolutely could not allow.
As a modern man, Rey felt that if Terence could win Helena over through genuine courtship, he wouldn't say a word against it.
But using underhanded tactics? That deserved nothing but scorn.
Rey was a man, and a normal one at that.
For any normal man, after spending more than three years with Helena, having no romantic thoughts would be abnormal.
At seventeen, Helena was stunningly beautiful. Her temperament, figure, and face made her a beauty among beauties.
In this era, at her age, she should have been married long ago, likely already a mother.
Rey had imagined a life with Helena—having a son or daughter, living a comfortable life.
Men are like that; mentally fantasizing is a given. If a man didn't even think about it, he wouldn't be a man—there would likely be something wrong with him.
Helena had shown signs of affection toward Rey, and seventeen was the prime age for romance.
However, faced with Helena's revealed feelings, the current Rey had begun to dodge them.
All of this stemmed from a conversation with Rowena and the other Founders a few days ago.
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"You will die. If not here, then you will die upon returning to your own time."
"If you stay here, certain events or accidents will inevitably occur to ensure the fact of your death."
"If you return to your own time, the span is too great. The force of time will take its full toll on your body. In other words, you will age rapidly and weather into dust. The kind that leaves no trace."
Rowena Ravenclaw's words kept echoing in Rey's mind. When these words were spoken, all four Founders of Hogwarts were present.
It was rare for them to gather, especially after the conflict between Salazar and the other three. Unexpectedly, they had come together because of Rey.
This conclusion was essentially a death warrant for Rey.
According to the Founders, the sooner Rey returned to the future, the slightly higher his chance of survival would be. If combined with the potions they were brewing for him, the odds would improve further.
Rey was a future student of Hogwarts, and the four Founders had been trying to find a way to send him back for years. Interestingly, they rarely asked Rey about the future. They understood that the more they knew, the more history would change, and the danger to Rey would skyrocket.
It wasn't just Rey; if the four of them learned too much about the future from him, they would also be in grave danger. It was just a feeling in the unseen world, but in the realm of magic, the intuition of high-level wizards was often frighteningly accurate.
All four were masters of magic. After deliberation, they agreed there were only two ways to send Rey back.
The first was to use a trans-temporal magic array to teleport him back. Constructing this array would require the use of Stonehenge on the outskirts of London.
However, the four of them weren't very confident about this method of time travel. Stonehenge was a relic of the ancients, and teleporting through time was far more complex than teleporting through space.
The second method was to find the Black Unicorn that had brought Rey to this era.
Since riding it had brought him here, it should be able to take him back.
This path was the safest. Perhaps the mysterious Black Unicorn could even bypass the self-correction of time and space, allowing Rey to land safely.
However, while the Black Unicorn existed, encountering it was a matter of luck, not effort. Godric Gryffindor had searched the vast Forbidden Forest but found no trace of it.
"You'd best stay inside Hogwarts from now on. Hogwarts is a living entity; you should be relatively safe within it."
This was the advice Rowena and the others gave Rey.
In other words, until they prepared the magic array, Rey had better stay put.
"Sigh..."
Rey let out a heavy breath. Thinking back on this made his heart heavy. Since that conversation, he had consciously and unconsciously distanced himself from Helena.
After all, he was a man with zero chance of survival. What right did a dead man walking have to make promises to Helena?
"But even if I can't give her any promises, I will change her original ending."
Thud!
Rey punched the railing with his right fist. He used enough force that the pain in his hand only solidified his resolve.
"Terence, if you dare try anything twisted, don't blame me for what happens to you."
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Rey knew Apparition, too. Only, his was short-range, line-of-sight teleportation.
To achieve long-distance teleportation, apart from years of practice, one needed a trigger.
Rey hadn't found that trigger yet. He believed it required a desperate urgency from deep within the soul. That was how Helena had achieved her first long-distance jump.
Terence's parting words had stuck in Rey's memory. If he wanted to understand what Terence planned to do to Helena, he likely needed to go to the graveyard and absorb some pure Dark power himself.
Salazar Slytherin had mentioned during his lectures that graveyards were among the best places to absorb Dark power. Terence had said the same; his confident method likely originated from the graveyard.
The best choice for a graveyard was in Godric's Hollow. Rey felt certain he would gain something there. As for the Founders' warning not to leave Hogwarts, he had already thrown it to the back of his mind.
Short-range Apparition was still instantaneous movement.
As long as he knew the direction of Godric's Hollow, chaining multiple jumps would get him there quickly enough.
Making a decision and acting on it—that was Rey's style.
As he began moving toward Godric's Hollow, Helena was searching for him inside Hogwarts.
Because just moments ago, her mother, Rowena Ravenclaw, ignoring Helena's objections, had decided to betroth her to Terence Barrow.
Terence Barrow, that stubborn noble, had somehow persuaded his teacher, Salazar Slytherin, to speak on his behalf. And her mother, knowing full well that Helena liked Rey Faest, had inexplicably agreed to Salazar's proposal.
Thus, the man she detested was to become her fiancé.
And now, Rey Faest—that even more annoying guy who was inexplicably hot and cold—was nowhere to be found.
"Where did he go?"
Helena searched the school anxiously. She was already proficient in Apparition, so her figure began to flash in and out of existence all over Hogwarts.
Such frequent use of Apparition naturally caught the students' attention. Seeing such a cool magical skill, the students' desire to learn it became urgent.
Consequently, books on Apparition in the library became hot commodities. Some students even got into fights over them.
Students began attempting to learn Apparition in small groups. The consequence was a series of magical injuries among the student body in the days that followed.
Following these incidents, a new rule was naturally added to Hogwarts: Apparition is forbidden within the school grounds.Furthermore, young wizards were required to be 17 years of age before they could learn this magical skill.
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