Nicolas Flamel seemed absolutely convinced, only Merlin's grave could possibly produce so many absurdly extraordinary treasures in a row.
"!!!!"
"!!!!!"
"!!!!!!"
…
This time,
It wasn't just three dumbfounded expressions.
It was three faces struck with horror and shock.
"He even said that in the future, he wants to establish the first gravedigger family in the wizarding world, starting with himself, and continuing for generations." Nicolas Flamel completely spilled the beans, he didn't hold back a single secret on Ian.
"Oh no!" Queenie's face suddenly changed dramatically as she listened.
"What's wrong?" Newt Scamander's reaction time was noticeably slower.
"I need to go relocate my husband's grave!" Without another word, Queenie turned and bolted, as if being a second late would mean returning home only to find a mess of empty dirt piles.
"What happened to her?" Nicolas Flamel looked confusedly at the two young people left in the office.
"She accidentally revealed, in front of Mr. Prince, that she had buried a bunch of treasures with Jacob in his grave," Tina replied, both amused and exasperated.
"I think when Mr. Prince warned us to beware of graves giving rise to things they shouldn't… he was probably speaking from the experience of someone who knows grave robbers better than anyone."
Tina, at least, didn't really believe Ian would actually go dig up Queenie's late husband's grave back in their hometown. Queenie was just panicking and not thinking straight about some otherwise simple logic.
If he really intended to dig it up…
Would he have warned them?
That would basically be a formal declaration of war.
And come on, a wizard that good-looking couldn't possibly be that nasty. Liking to raise dark and creepy creatures wasn't necessarily a bad thing; didn't her own husband also have some strange hobbies?
"Oh hoh, so that's it. No harm in her relocating the grave, better safe than sorry," Nicolas Flamel said, though he didn't actually seem to trust Ian's integrity or self-control very much.
'I mean, what kind of normal wizard dares to dig up Merlin's grave?'
"See? I told her before not to leave anything valuable in a grave. And now, my words are coming true." Newt Scamander clearly had his focus on a very different part of the issue.
"That's not what you said at the time." Tina gave her husband's too-close face a light smack, thoroughly speechless.
"Actually, Queenie doesn't need to worry too much. I think our very generous little wizard won't be interested in their family's grave… at least not in the short term."
Nicolas Flamel turned around and began tidying up his desk, stowing away the magical tower manuscripts he had been studying, and setting out several teacups.
"Yeah, if he really found Merlin's final resting place, there's no way he'd care about some ordinary person's grave," Newt Scamander said rationally.
However,
While pouring the tea, Nicolas Flamel shook his head.
"It's not because of that," he said. "It's because I just gave him a new address. He's probably already getting ready to dig up the burial site of Arthur Pendragon."
Nicolas Flamel handed over the freshly poured tea to the two, but then noticed, both their hands were trembling as they reached out.
"You…"
Newt Scamander didn't even know what to say anymore. Everyone knew Nicolas Flamel was a bit of a prankster, so at this point, he seriously started suspecting that Ian had been led astray by this alchemy master in front of him.
Tina was no different.
"How dare you!"
Even though she was an American, Her voice was still filled with disbelief.
"Actually, I only did it to verify a theory… I wasn't just trying to stir up trouble with the little wizard," Nicolas Flamel chuckled softly.
Newt Scamander and Tina were immediately intrigued.
"What theory?"
"Don't try to fool us,"
Newt Scamander clearly didn't quite buy Nicolas Flamel's explanation.
"I actually found that tomb years ago. But I wasn't able to enter it, because no magic could overcome the threshold required to enter."
"I figured… since little Ian could get into Merlin's tomb, maybe he could also enter King Arthur's. It was just a theory." Nicolas Flamel walked back to his desk, gently bobbing a tea bag up and down in his cup. In his eyes, the dark whirlpool swirling in the tea was reflected.
"What threshold?" Newt Scamander blew on his cup of tea.
Nicolas Flamel paused for a moment.
"The qualification… to bear its weight." He gave a deliberately cryptic answer.
…
Meanwhile, in the Room of Requirement…
"Straight!"
"Straight!"
"Plane!"
"Double Joker Bomb! Eat my Spring!"
Ian sat at a table he had cleared out, grinning from ear to ear.
To his left was a Dementor, to his right a black-robed skeleton, the little wizard was currently teaching two non-human beings how to play Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game).
Of course,
He had also given this game a very localized name:
[Battle of Wizard Kings]
He personally hand-drew the entire deck. The Jokers were illustrated as Grindelwald and Dumbledore, while the four Heads of House were featured on the J, Q, K, A cards respectively.
Each suit's founder wore differently colored robes.
A truly maxed out localized modification.
"Again! Again!"
Having just won big, Ian eagerly reshuffled the deck.
"Pair of sixes!"
But his luck wasn't as good this time, his hand was full of pairs, so he tried to steer the round in that direction. The Dementor tilted its head in confusion.
It clearly hadn't quite grasped the rules yet.
The black-robed skeleton, however, was far too clever.
"Seventeen Jokers… I want to bomb Spring too…"
Uh-huh.
Or maybe too clever for its own good.
The skeleton, in a raspy voice, spread out its cards, seven Dumbledores, eight Grindelwalds. Ian's eyes popped wide like scoops of ice cream.
"What the heck!? What did you do?! That's cheating!" Ian swore he had only placed one pair of Jokers in the entire deck. He lunged forward and grabbed the skeleton's cold wrist bones.
"What is cheating?" The black-robed skeleton tilted its head.
And responded firmly,
"What is cheating? I have seventeen Jokers… I bomb Spring!"
Then, just as the skeleton finished speaking, some kind of force seemed to activate.
The seventeen cards in its hands started changing. Flowers began to bloom on them, then both flowers and cards turned red.
"Boom~"
It wasn't particularly violent, but the smoke-filled explosion inside the Room of Requirement was plenty dramatic.
"Pffft! Ack! Ack!"
The blast sent the little wizard flying, landing him flat on his back, face charred black. Meanwhile, the skeleton seemed to love this game. When Ian scrambled up and wiped his face clean, he found the skeleton had already reshuffled the deck.
"Not a single card missing? Didn't those cards just explode?"
As the black-robed skeleton began dealing again,
Ian began to sense that something was off.
And sure enough,
"No cheating this time! No morphing the cards! No magic!"
He sternly warned the black-robed skeleton.
"Seventeen Ians. No card morphing. No magic," The skeleton laid its hand on the table once more, and all seventeen cards featured images of Ian sitting cross-legged at the table.
However, the little wizard had no time to admire his stunning looks printed across the cards, because Ian felt it.
A formless binding force was now enveloping the entire Room of Requirement.
It was… the absolute magic-blocking domain he had once created using potions.
(End of Chapter)
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