Yesterday's and the day before's updates—Chapters 241 and 242—you might not have seen them. If you're unsure, you might want to go back and check if you've read them.
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After Regulus and Lucius had confirmed the relevant matters with Meinelquaid, the representative from the Karkaroff family, they came to the study where Lys was located, preparing to sign the specific documents.
At this time, Lys had just finished expressing to the old gentleman how happy she was to have the opportunity to chat with him, and was also packing up her newspapers, preparing to leave.
After Lucius entered the room and saw Lys, he cleared his throat. Lys looked at him puzzledly.
Discovering that the old gentleman seemed to want to stay and discuss matters with Lucius and the others, Lys tapped the teapot with her wand as she was leaving: "This is a new flavor I've been researching. You can give it a try."
After Lys left, Meinelquaid bowed his head slightly in respectful salute: "Uncle," then went to the table.
It wasn't until Lys had been gone for half a minute that the old wizard raised his head from his teacup: "Quaid, the little girl has ideas, very sharp, just her courage varies—sometimes big, sometimes small, hehe." Then he casually used his wand to leave his magical imprint on the contract that had been handed to him with both hands.
He didn't even glance at Lucius and Regulus, tidying up his windbreaker and leaving Black Manor with his nephew.
Lucius and Regulus exchanged glances and both breathed a sigh of relief.
Because the German friend Regulus had introduced to Lys was still sitting idle in the reception room...
And this person, judging from his dismissive behavior toward the two of them and Meinelquaid's attitude, was probably the real head of the Karkaroff family at this stage.
Lys didn't know that the person she'd been talking with wasn't arranged by Regulus. She just felt that sometimes this old man's words were really sharp and direct—the Dark Lord's recent decisions were implicitly criticized as worthless by his veiled language...
But these weren't things Lys could comment on. She just smiled and poured tea for him, discussing various theories she'd seen in Muggle books in different ways.
Later, she occasionally chatted about different ideas from her magical experiments, because she could see that this old man's magical control was much stronger than Meinelquaid's.
This was indeed the case. With just a few simple words from the old man, Lys's mental magic, which she'd never been able to figure out before, now had some progress.
She also confirmed that she really had no way with mental magic.
He was the strongest she'd ever seen besides the Dark and Light Lords... No, maybe she should count the owner of the Hog's Head Inn—his magic wasn't weak either... Speaking of the old witch in Knockturn Alley and her magical knowledge... She wondered if that Greek smuggler had any rare goods recently—she'd go check tomorrow.
Originally, Lys had made some small moves regarding the Order of the Phoenix, selling them some goods, but ever since Bellatrix caught her trail, Lys hadn't done it again.
She really couldn't figure out how to place bets on both sides—Lys couldn't think of a way.
Sitting at the greasy table in the Hog's Head, unconsciously cleaning the wine glass stuck to the table's grime over and over again, ideas bubbled up from the depths of her heart like marsh bubbles, but without exception, they had no possibility of implementation—they burst at the slightest touch.
She also wanted to find someone to chat and confide in like Regulus did. She somewhat missed that suit of armor in the corner of Hogwarts' abandoned dungeon.
It wasn't until the blue-eyed bartender viciously threw a rag at Lys that she stopped her endless cleaning of the surroundings and quickly apologized to the owner.
This old man had a terrible temper and was petty too...
She sat there reading until evening before Lys caught trace of that Greek smuggler, but unfortunately, this time he had nothing unusual except for a few eggs.
Lys bought them all—very strong magical fluctuations, extremely strong, fresh goods. Gageng would probably like them.
However, this time the eggs were really too large. Gageng couldn't manage them even with his mouth stretched to the maximum. Later, Lys simply cracked the egg and cooked it, making individual small omelets that the whole family, including Gageng, could eat.
It was only three or four days after they'd finished eating them that Lys learned from the Daily Prophet that these were Chimera eggs. The British Ministry of Magic had been tracking this batch of smuggled goods for a long time with no trace, which was why they published the report.
Lys couldn't help but sigh secretly—this Greek smuggler was impressive. He'd actually said these eggs weren't unusual. No wonder processing this egg had been so magically draining—Chimeras were 5X-class creatures.
Reading the newspaper to this point, Lys suddenly remembered her little wooden box. She took out the small wooden box where she collected things from her already dusty trunk. Inside was a bottle of Nundu venom she'd extracted from blood when treating a sphinx.
After much hesitation, she still tucked it into her lizard-skin pouch that she carried with her. This stuff was highly toxic—if she encountered urgent or secretive situations, she wouldn't need to ask her mother or Snape for potions. One would worry, the other would be suspicious, and explanations would be troublesome.
Looking at the things in the box, she picked up that lily sealed in resin and stared at it for a long time.
She had to hold tightly to what she had in her hands now, otherwise once lost, getting it back wouldn't be the same as before...
After that day, Lys visited Snape's house much more frequently. Of course, she didn't go empty-handed—occasionally she'd bring Snape some Lamb family potion journals and strange materials she'd collected.
"These materials are getting harder and harder to obtain lately. I don't know what Lucius and the others are actually doing. Why are they making those conditions so strict, chasing and blocking those materials day and night?"
"They want to control discourse, so they need to control the flow of rare resources. You should be careful too. For this, the Lord has specifically assigned people—any materials that might flow into the market and disrupt the plan will be dealt with directly."
Snape looked up at Lys, who was rummaging through his collection, while removing impurities from dragon liver, then patiently explained. He had no choice—the materials Lys brought this time were too much to his liking.
This woman might seem brainless, but sometimes she was extremely sharp. She'd known about Bellatrix and that new Death Eater's movements just as they started. This might be muscle-brain intuition?
Lys stuffed several books with Snape's notes into her robes, then persistently asked about a spell she'd seen in his notes.
"You mean Sectumsempra?" Snape glanced at Lys. "You should know that spell. When researching those incurable wounds on your right arm, I also developed its counter-curse."
Lys really wanted to applaud—he'd developed this level of spell in fifth year! But her left hand couldn't exert force, so she could only clap lightly twice, which seemed sarcastic.
Snape weighed and sealed the processed materials, then looked at Lys's left arm: "I've had a question for a long time—what kind of injury would make you wear protective gear for almost a year?"
Lys ignored him, grabbed a few more notebooks and some Prince family secret potion recipes, and ran off.
Leaving Snape once again wondering if she considered his house a library.
Sitting in Malfoy's study, Lys learned from Lucius that he, Regulus, and two old nobles were going to Germany with Ministry of Magic officials, and her heart immediately stirred with ideas.
"Did you seriously listen to what I said? You'd better stop that channel you personally set up. If you need anything, I'll try to get it for you. That patrol team is led by Bella—she's at her most sensitive right now. You know she doesn't have a good impression of you. If something really happens and it gets blown up, I can't protect you."
Lucius worriedly reminded her again, not knowing what Stalys was thinking—she'd just given Narcissa a set of dragon-hide dolls, ugly to the point of abstraction.
Lys nodded perfunctorily, indicating she understood. When leaving Snape's place, Lys had gone to Knockturn Alley to have the woman and child working for her temporarily avoid the limelight, leaving them a sum of Galleons and giving that Squib child an Ollivander toy wand.
Lys had something on her mind, so she hurriedly said goodbye to Lucius. Lucius just thought Lys was going to handle her small business and didn't mind her usual rudeness.
But actually, Lys was thinking about that coastline.
Although Lys had left a mark at that boulder on the coast before, she'd been worried about running into Regulus, so she'd never gone there.
But now was a good opportunity.
She wanted to know what was inside.
Although Lys didn't think the Dark Lord would create Horcruxes, she didn't think anything hidden by such means would be insignificant either.
She'd hesitated, but just like with Thomas's box, while she bore some pressure, it also let her see potential crises that might exist ahead and plan accordingly.
Or she could know some tendencies in advance, avoiding wrong choices when making decisions.
Before going out, Lys hesitated once more about whether she should go.
But seeing Noah being held by the neck by Senna practicing squats, Lys still wrapped herself in the dragon-hide windbreaker Noah had given her that morning and went out.
If Regulus's level could return, she didn't need to be afraid.
"Little Star, this will be cold!"
"It's okay, Dad, I'll remember to supplement warming charms!"
Lys came to the beach where she'd left her mark. She cautiously observed the appearance of that iron chain, put on dragon-hide gloves and tried to pull it, but Lys's left hand still couldn't exert force. By the time she'd hauled the boat up, half an hour had passed.
Lys remembered Regulus mentioning large numbers of Inferi—she'd even brought a set of sunlight-storing torches.
Inferi were a type of semi-alchemical dark magic product refined by dark magic, made using humanoid creatures or simply human corpses.
Tireless, insensible to pain puppets, most commonly used in tombs as burial guardians. In recorded discoveries, the most Inferi used was in an ancient Eastern emperor's tomb.
When Lys saw the data then, she only thought that person was mad—over nine hundred people! Just to pursue possible magic in numbers!
Including nine pairs of small boys and girls, Lys had found it incomprehensible at the time. Didn't his descendants need subjects? Weren't they afraid that one day it would be their turn to guard tombs for others?
Though saying this, it also demonstrated the Inferi's status in these tomb owners' eyes—absolutely strong aggression, acuity, and no maintenance required.
From boarding this small boat, it began drifting against the current on its own. Lys speculated it might have navigational magic.
When the small boat reached a patch of mist, Lys stiffly and slowly turned her neck to look at the water surface beside the boat.
She silently gathered her clothing hems, hair—anything that might scatter or fall into the water was tightly wrapped in her windbreaker.
Regulus had said these Inferi would grab anything touching the sea surface and drag it into the water—only sitting in the boat was safe.
This boat wasn't floating on seawater—it was simply traveling through mountains and seas of corpses.
And worse, Lys's living breath seemed to attract those Inferi. The distant sea surface, where parts could be seen, was gradually occupied by floating corpses. Those corpses circled around the small boat at an eerie speed.
Porcelain-white, bluish skin, wide eyes clouded with white film, clothing already disheveled and tattered by water currents, suddenly turning their heads toward her with Lys's occasionally slightly heavier breathing.
Lys couldn't help covering her mouth and nose. Although she knew this was useless, the rotting magical smell was really unbearable.
The sound of "flapping" came. Lys's gaze instantly became sharp as she looked in that direction, only to find it was two children's corpses tangled together for some reason. When they surfaced, they would constantly rotate and slap the sea surface because they were both competing to be the one on top, making noise.
She constantly watched these Inferi's reactions, gripping her blackthorn wand tightly, calculating in her heart that if anything went wrong, she'd ignite the Fiendfyre sealed above—otherwise she really might not make it home.
When the small boat touched shore, she couldn't even stand up immediately, because she'd unconsciously counted the approximate number of Inferi and her legs felt weak.
If calculated according to Lys's estimation, the number of Inferi here could probably build nine more tombs for that Eastern emperor...
Lys's mind conjured images of news reports about the Dark Lord massacring Muggle villages that had been in the papers since third year.
She climbed ashore using hands and feet, looked back at the Inferi all facing this direction, and carefully examined herself.
Lys hesitated—she didn't want to go in anymore. Since these were protective measures, they naturally prevented others from entering or taking away secrets from the base. Now that she'd entered so easily, leaving probably wouldn't be so easy...
But when Lys stepped onto that small boat again, it showed no intention of returning.
Lys returned to shore, looked up at the sky shrouded in mist, gripped her wand and walked toward the island's interior. As for waiting? Lys felt it wouldn't work, because after Lys left the small boat, her living breath was too tempting—those Inferi seemed to want to break free from the water surface to grab Lys.
Lys slowly felt her way forward through the slightly grayish mist, reaching a narrow stone corridor.
It was very dark here and something seemed to be inside.
Lys raised her wand alertly. A black shadow suddenly burst from the cracks at the bottom of the front stone wall—Lys shattered it with a spell.
Suddenly, a "bang" came from behind. Lys's magic curved around to block behind her, but what her magic pointed to seemed to be a corpse.
The light here was very dim. Lys only felt that corpse was terrifyingly familiar.
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