Because of wizards' powerful yet easily restrained nature, Muggles have been the main melody of the world since ancient times.
From very early on, wizards lived in seclusion.
It is precisely because of this, and with the help of Greece's unique terrain, that many former wizard residences have been preserved to a certain extent...
Well, speaking of preservation, in reality, anything of value inside has been mostly cleared out by either official or private hands over these two thousand years.
What's left are either empty houses with only sightseeing value, or dark wizard testing grounds that are so creepy no one wants to go near them, much like Azkaban.
But with the Time Phantom Shuttle Spell, everything is different again; perhaps there is still great value to be unearthed here.
"Greece is a country with a glorious past, but a rather bleak present," Nicolaos said, gazing at the surging sea.
Sailing on the sea surface were ships with special magic applied, and key former wizard residences not open to the public were enchanted with something similar to the Fidelius Charm; only by piloting this special ship could one enter.
"This was once the center of civilization, possessing the most advanced thought and technology in the West, but after being destroyed several times..."
"I don't think Greece should be like this. I also want our Ministry of Magic to be as grand as the British Ministry of Magic. We don't want to be a tourist country." Nicolaos already had such aspirations.
He wanted to obtain something from the ancient wizards that might change the destiny of this country.
That's why he, a department head, condescended to serve Roger.
And this idea, after he and Roger traveled through Greece for ten days, witnessing many of Greece's past glorious historical moments, spread through his heart like wildfire.
Some people study for the rise of China, some storm Congress to make America great again, and some strive for Germany's prosperity... Ordinary small countries lack the ambition to compete, but those with a glorious ancestry, even if temporarily in a slump, will yearn for a future full of honor.
Next, he took the opportunity to express his desire to Roger to record the scenes he had witnessed using magical means.
Roger had no objections to this; it wasn't something that needed to be kept secret. However, he was not optimistic about Nicolaos's plan: "Let's not even talk about how much knowledge one can gain from ancient wizards just by looking."
"Even if you do gain something, what's the use?"
"Although some ancient magic has been lost over time, the overall system has never been broken. It wasn't lost in a generational gap; it was naturally phased out by modern magic."
Ancient magic is more powerful than modern magic, but this comes at the cost of controllability.
Learning ancient magic is more complex and difficult to control. If one learns both ancient and modern magic simultaneously, modern magic will definitely have the upper hand.
To use a more easily understandable analogy:
Ancient magic is like a bow and arrow, while modern magic is like a handgun. Some heavy bows are far more powerful than handguns, and the same applies to range. A skilled archer has an effective range of about 300 meters, while a handgun only has 50 meters.
On paper, the bow and arrow significantly outperform the handgun, but handguns are more convenient, and training gunmen is easier, making the elimination of bows and arrows inevitable.
The investment required to learn one ancient spell would be enough to learn at least five modern spells.
Roger's curiosity about ancient wizards was more about their thought processes when they blazed a new trail from scratch.
He wanted to see what inspired them in their daily lives, outside of books.
Not to embrace ancient magic again.
"...Having something is always better than having nothing." Nicolaos actually knew that the possibility of the ancient wizards' legacy changing Greece's destiny was extremely slim.
But what else could he do?
Although his position was high, like Fudge, he was a politician-type wizard with not much magical power.
If forced to say, his strength was not much different from that of Professor Quirrell, who was possessed by Voldemort.
All he could do was act in the direction he could strive towards.
"At worst, the excavation of a large amount of real historical material can still benefit Greece greatly."
...
...
...
When they actually arrived, Roger realized that it was indeed necessary for the Greek Ministry of Magic not to publicize the residences of some wizards.
Along the way, Roger broke through 13 traps, 7 curses, and various other dangerous spots caused by the passage of time.
It made Roger somewhat annoyed. If it weren't someone else's territory, Roger would have wanted to flatten the place with a "Sun Punch," then investigate slowly, and after the investigation, cast a restoration spell to fix it.
And this was just on the way.
Once the Time Phantom Shuttle Spell was activated, it was even more astonishing.
Even Harry, who had witnessed many brutal scenes in both modern and ancient wars, looked very unwell, appearing as if he wanted to vomit.
Nicolaos didn't want to lose face in front of the two young guests and held on, but Roger could tell he was reaching his limit.
"I expected ancient wizards to be quite unrestrained, but I didn't expect it to have reached this level," Roger said, rubbing his temples with half-closed eyes.
Morality and ethics often have different standards across different eras, regions, and groups.
For instance, in ancient times, 14 years old was practically the age for marriage, and notorious massacres were even considered normal military tactics during certain periods.
And among some groups, only they themselves were considered human; all other races were merely two-legged livestock with human form.
Similar ideas were not uncommon among ancient wizards; at least, they were "rampant."
Some pureblood wizards in modern times might have had similar thoughts.
Roger recalled the books Professor McGonagall lent him and those he had seen in the Hogwarts library, and couldn't help but sigh.
It seemed those books certainly had parts that were later embellished by others.
"How about we start here?" Roger glanced back at the two people whose faces were incredibly pale.
And behind his head was the scene of that ancient wizard studying human Transfiguration, peeling apart the skin, fat, muscles, nerves, internal organs, and bones of dozens of Muggles, floating them in mid-air, turning them into various strange things, and then piecing them back together.
...By the way, all these Muggles were alive the entire time.
The scene was like a Blood Dancer under the command of Sloth practicing their craft.
Roger finally understood how ancient wizards kept advancing their techniques in an environment where they lacked communication and mutually antagonized each other.
So it was 1% inspiration and 99% brute-force trial and error, right?
It was quite similar to Roger, but Roger used himself for trial and error, while they used Muggles for experiments.
"Let's go look around somewhere else first." With Roger speaking up, Harry and Nicolaos nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Before canceling the Time Phantom Shuttle Spell, Roger took one last look at the ancient wizard, and a thought suddenly struck him.
Witch Hunts!
The witch hunts in this world, looking back now, might be somewhat similar to what the "head-washers" did to the Jews. There were definitely many innocent people who suffered undeserved disasters and died unjustly, but the initial cause might not have been 'innocent'.
A small group of people committed sins out of greed and took the sweet fruit, but in the end, the consequences were borne by the innocent.
Roger kept this matter and his many observations from his previous journey in mind.
When the Three-Dimensional Law becomes widespread in the future, he would also prevent similar phenomena from occurring.
Whoever makes a mistake should bear the responsibility.
"Sigh..." Walking out of the ancient wizard's laboratory, Nicolaos sighed.
He had thought he would gain something valuable.
But his first stop had ended in failure.
What he saw might have some magical value, but it was completely unsuitable for public disclosure.
Nicolaos had many ideas for the future, and he once thought that the most likely path was to establish a school.
Europe had three major magic schools: Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Nicolaos didn't want to create a fourth renowned institution.
Instead, he wanted to use the vast amount of ancient magic that was being unearthed to create something like a 'sacred land for ancient magic research'.
With Greece's national strength, dominating the world was out of the question, but cultural victory might be worth a try.
But now...
If the subsequent discoveries were all of this nature, his hopes would truly be dashed.
With a sliver of hope, the magic sailboat set off again, and they headed to the next deserted Greek island in the Aegean Sea.
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