"No one. Just talking to myself." Rey laughed awkwardly, hoping to gloss over the slip-up. He didn't want to explain why he knew the future Baron's bloody nickname.
Thirteen years old. In Rey's original time, that was an age of innocent crushes and awkward middle school dances. But in the Middle Ages, a thirteen-year-old girl was practically considered marriageable.
Different eras, different standards. A thirteen-year-old then was far more mature than a modern child of the same age.
Helena Ravenclaw, at thirteen, already possessed a beauty that was anything but ordinary. Rey was certain she would grow up to be a stunner. No wonder the Bloody Baron was so obsessed with her.
"Um... you..."
Rey looked at Helena, confused about why she was still standing there.
"I need to borrow your tent to hide from the person outside."
Helena pointed toward the tent flap. The person she was hiding from was obviously Terence Barrow—the future Bloody Baron.
"Hide here? He'll find you eventually."
Rey wondered why she chose his tent. Hiding with her mother, Rowena Ravenclaw, seemed like a much better idea. At the very least, Terence would have to behave himself in front of Rowena.
"Even if he knows I'm here, he won't come in."
Helena smiled confidently, a hint of mischief in her eyes.
Rey understood the words, but the logic escaped him. The problem was, this was his tent. It was just him in there. Adding Helena created... implications.
Rey wasn't interested in kids, but if Helena stayed and Terence found out, given what Rey had just seen of the boy's temper, Terence would likely go berserk.
"Look..."
Rey tried to refuse politely, but Helena cut him off. "The reason he won't come in is because he lost a duel to you. It's basic aristocratic pride."
"Huh?"
Rey's face twitched. She interrupted him just to explain that? He couldn't care less about Terence's wounded pride.
But the little girl standing in front of him looked smug. She seemed to think using Rey's tent to block Terence was a stroke of genius.
The faint smile on Helena's face practically screamed: "Praise me! Tell me how smart I am!"
---
Rey wasn't in the mood to praise anyone. He couldn't believe he had somehow stumbled into the middle of a drama between the future Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady.
It was a headache. Especially remembering the terrifying, screaming face of the Bloody Baron back at Hogwarts.
If you won't leave, I will. No need for a grown man to argue with a thirteen-year-old girl.
Rey shrugged and gave a wry smile. Under Helena's puzzled gaze, he grabbed his cloak from the bed and walked out of the tent.
The tent was huge on the inside; adding another bed would have been trivial. Helena didn't understand why Rey was leaving.
"What a strange person."
Helena muttered to herself, then started setting up her bedding in a corner of the tent. She didn't know where Rey came from; she only knew her mother had saved him. Judging by the quality of his clothes, he seemed to be a noble.
But his clothes were different from anything she had seen, which piqued her interest. That was why she had volunteered to take care of him.
Resigned, Rey surrendered the tent to Helena.
But the moment he stepped outside, he was met with Terence's cold glare.
Terence was now wearing a rapier at his hip. When Rey emerged from the tent, Terence's hand instinctively went to the hilt, startling Rey.
Simultaneously, Rey's right hand gripped the wand in his sleeve. He looked at the taller boy and asked coldly, "What do you want?"
"Is Helena inside?" Seeing Rey's defensive stance, Terence realized he had overreacted. He released the hilt and tried to compose himself.
"She's inside. You can go in and find her." Seeing Terence back down, Rey relaxed.
A simple, honest answer. Yet, somehow, it enraged Terence again.
Terence's chest heaved. He glared at Rey with intense displeasure, then let out a cold snort and stormed off.
The abrupt departure left Rey completely baffled.
"What did I do wrong now?"
Rey felt like a herd of alpacas was stampeding through his mind. Seeing that Terence's anger was genuine, Rey finally snapped. Since waking up, he had been inexplicably challenged to a duel, and now he was inexplicably dealing with this guy's mood swings.
"Screw this! Do I owe you something?" Rey roared internally.
He had planned to leave the tent and find somewhere else to sleep, leaving the space for the lovebirds. But now? It was like the dog biting Lu Dongbin—no good deed goes unpunished.
"Do whatever you want. I'm done being nice."
Venting his frustration, Rey turned around and marched back into the tent. His plan to leave evaporated the moment Terence threw his tantrum. If anyone was leaving, it would be Helena. Why should he suffer for some kids' puppy love drama?
---
In a foul mood, Rey returned to the tent, flopped onto the bed, and fell asleep almost instantly.
The night felt short. Or at least, Rey only remembered one dream.
It was a strange dream. He saw another version of himself—the shadow figure that had rushed him while he was unconscious after Dorry's bite.
The shadow disappeared. In the dream, while they were facing off, the shadow vanished. It dissipated bit by bit, then gathered on the hem of Rey's robe.
Rey resisted, struggling against it, but it was useless.
The shadow didn't manifest on his clothes; it seemed to melt into them, or perhaps into Rey's body itself. But Rey felt no invasion, no corruption. His body had no negative reaction.
On the contrary, after the shadow vanished, his body felt lighter and more comfortable than it had since the bite.
When the dream ended and the shadow was fully gone, dawn broke, and Rey woke up.
Subconsciously, he reached for the hard lump on his neck. To his surprise, it was gone.
In reality, the lump had disappeared the first time he woke up in the tent, but he hadn't thought to check until after the strange dream last night.
Helena noticed his reaction immediately.
"Don't worry. The potion my mother brewed solved your problem."
Helena, who had been up for a while, looked at the groggy Rey with a faint, haughty smile.
"Potion? When did I take a potion?"
Rey was confused. He didn't remember drinking anything. Besides, Rowena Ravenclaw had told him the dark magic in his neck couldn't be removed—even the other founders had agreed.
"That is my mother's brilliance."
"What do you mean?" Rey asked.
"It's simple. My mother left you at Stonehenge to open the portal specifically so you would drain your magical reserves completely. This gave the dark power in your neck a chance to expand."
Helena chuckled softly. "The food you ate after you woke up was prepared by Aunt Helga using my mother's potion. You consumed it unknowingly. The dark power, having let its guard down in the absence of your magic, was forced to merge with your own regenerating magic as the potion took effect."
Rey listened, stunned.
He finally understood. If Rowena had told him the dark power could be removed, his conscious mind might have alerted the dark magic, causing it to resist or hide deeper.
First, drain the host's magic with the portal, making the dark power confident and active as it tried to break the seal. Then, administer the potion disguised as food, using the recovery process to neutralize and integrate the darkness at its source.
"As expected of Rowena Ravenclaw. The wisest witch of the age." Rey couldn't help but admire her brilliance from the bottom of his heart.
"Well, your problem is solved, so my task is complete."
Helena pouted slightly, then turned and strode out of the tent with a flourish. It seemed her taking care of Rey for the past two days had solely been to ensure the dark power was removed.
---