Chapter 202: Free dinner is not unlimited
Abei touched the empty pockets of his new clothes, his dragon eyes seemingly losing their luster, as he sniffled and wiped away tears.
The treasures he had accumulated since birth were all gone, but the problem was that his own master had taken them. He couldn't even seek revenge; there was nothing more exasperating in the world.
Aaron was incredibly grateful that he had previously cast a soundproofing spell on his dormitory. If that sound had gotten out, his reputation would have been ruined.
The thought-form examined the pockets of the clothes stripped from the dragon cub, its eyes widening involuntarily.
It took a few seconds for him to recover from his surprise, then he looked at the wronged dragon cub in astonishment, before solemnly handing the clothes to his main body, as if they were some priceless treasure.
"You should take a look yourself! It's best to be mentally prepared.
We underestimated him before. When it comes to hoarding food, this guy is clearly a thousand times better than a hamster."
Aaron was a bit skeptical, thinking it was a prank by the thought-form.
But he merely spread open a pocket and glanced inside, then stood stunned on the spot, feeling the immense weight of the item in his hand.
Everything was inside: all kinds of ingredients, things that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, swam in the water, and various fresh vegetables and snacks, piled up more than ten meters high. It was enough for everyone in all of Hogwartsto hold a feast for a week straight.
Even more outrageous was that he actually saw two complete sets of cooking utensils inside. He really didn't know how Abei managed to stuff those two pots in.
He couldn't cook, so it was obvious who they were prepared for.
"Hehe!" Aaron lifted the dazed Abei and said irritably, "You really know how to enjoy life! You even prepared pots, bowls, and ladles for me."
"That's enough, put him down!" the thought-form gently advised, "It's a good thing he hoarded so much food. Not to mention this holiday, the food problem for the next few years is solved."
Hearing this, an infinite sense of grievance rose in Abei's heart, but seeing his master's darkened face, he still suppressed the urge to cry loudly.
Aaron sighed, placed him on the table, and asked coldly, "Genes urges you to lose weight every day. These certainly aren't from home.
So... explain yourself!"
Abei poked his index fingers together, acting cute while weakly explaining, "The Hogwarts kitchen, I occasionally went there."
Damn it! Case closed.
Aaron rolled his eyes, "I knew your weight kept increasing!"
"I'm still a baby, I need nutrition."
"A baby?" The thought-form raised an eyebrow playfully, "Are you really going to say you're a baby?"
Abei hesitated for a moment, "I'm still a child, I need..."
"Stop!" Aaron said with a dark expression, "Aren't you worried about being discovered?"
"No," Abei confidently straightened his back, "I only took a little at a time, and I never made a mistake."
"Is that something to be proud of?" Aaron said with a wry smile, "I really regret not listening to Genes and giving you a proper egg education.
Don't go stealing food from the kitchen anymore, or don't blame me if I make you experience what it's like to starve nine times in three days."
Abei nodded weakly, "But I really only went a few times occasionally."
Aaron frowned slightly and exchanged glances with the thought-form.
They could both tell Abei wasn't lying, but going to the kitchen only a few times clearly wouldn't allow him to hoard so much.
So the question was, how was this mountain of food accumulated?
Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Aaron and the thought-form both became serious.
They understood their own dragon cub; he wasn't weak in combat and his intelligence wasn't low, but sometimes he was simply overly naive. If they weren't keeping a close eye on him, he might have been lured away by a lollipop.
Now, someone had given him so much food, which meant the other party had a bigger scheme.
"Tell me the truth, how did you accumulate such a mountain?"
Abei hesitated for a moment, then took a few steps back, feeling somewhat guilty.
"This is very important," the thought-form said in a deep voice, "We need to make sure no one is targeting you, and it's also possible they're coming after us."
Abei nodded thoughtfully, then struggled to extend a claw, pointing towards the common room.
Aaron frowned, "Is this person a Slytherin?"
Abei nodded, but quickly shook his head, "Not one, but a group.
Every time I came back at night, I would go for a stroll in the common room. Many people would give me things when they saw me, and I couldn't stop them.
And there were more and more people, and they gave more and more things."
Aaron and the thought-form exchanged glances, their cheeks twitching uncontrollably.
They had still underestimated this guy's charm. Being cute certainly came with privileges!
Slytherin House also had over a hundred people. Even if only a portion of them fed him, accumulating so much food didn't seem too difficult.
If they ever ran out of funds while on the run, they could just let him out, and he would definitely come back with a full harvest.
This idea was very feasible, but it was extinguished the moment it appeared in Aaron's mind.
It was okay to be doing poorly, but there was a bottom line to how poorly one could do.
He still had confidence in himself and wouldn't stoop to being supported by a pet.
Just as Aaron was silently setting a flag for himself, the thought-form suddenly realized something, "You should be with your main body every day, where do you find the time to wander around outside?"
Abei snorted, crossing his claws over his chest, "Every time Master starts writing and drawing, he can't stop for a long time. I get bored, so I go for a walk."
Hearing this, Aaron and the thought-form smiled awkwardly but politely.
They were too engrossed in studying, which led to a decrease in their care for Abei; they didn't even know he had left the dormitory.
"Alright, we apologize to you.
I won't pursue this matter any further; let's leave it at that!" Aaron shrugged, picked Abei up, and put on his new clothes, "But this is a one-time thing. Even if you can rely on your looks to get by, free dinners won't be supplied indefinitely."
Abei nodded as if understanding, then thoughtfully stared at the clothes he had just taken off.
"We can't give this back to you for now; we'll rely on these to get by during the summer holiday," the thought-form comforted, "But you can rest assured, when you return to school, you'll still see this mountain of food, it just might be a meter or two shorter."
Abei scratched his head and tugged his old clothes over with one claw.
He stretched out two claws and rummaged through the pockets, but after a while, it seemed he didn't grab anything.
Abei was a bit anxious, and a few seconds later, he buried his head inside too.
Soon, he pulled out a silver pot from the pocket and excitedly placed it on the floor.
"This… isn't quite appropriate, is it?"
Aaron was torn between laughter and tears, thinking Abei wanted him to cook a meal before he would forgive him.
Although he had received the true teachings of Salaxis Gaius and was skilled in magic cooking, this was a dormitory after all, not a kitchen.
Moreover, there were at least twenty more Slytherin in the common room; his heart wasn't big enough to cook in such an environment.
"How about this!" the thought-form suggested, "You can stay at Hogwarts with me. During the holidays, you can set up this pot in the common room, and I guarantee I'll feed you until you're plump and healthy."
"Don't even think about it." Aaron decisively pulled Abei into his arms and said irritably, "He's already fat enough. Although it doesn't show on the outside, don't tell me you don't feel this heavy weight.
Besides, Vicky and the others wouldn't be at ease if they came back and didn't see this dragon cub."
"That's true, I suppose!" The thought-form gave Abei a helpless look, "It seems it's a bit unrealistic to expect you to stay at Hogwarts with me."
Abei shook his head blankly, slowly opened the pot lid, and a burst of colorful envelopes exploded out, showering the room in a rainbow rain.
Seeing this, Aaron suddenly had an ominous premonition.
He nervously picked up one of them, opened it anxiously, and a heart-shaped pattern came into view.
What the… Aaron felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He didn't even read the rest, his hand throwing the love letter away as if it were on fire.
The thought-form also picked up one, and after reading it, his face turned red and then white. It took him a while to recover.
"How could this happen?" Aaron said in a daze, feeling that life was full of shocks.
He had lived for thirteen years, and it had never been this exciting. Lord Voldemort seemed quite a bit cuter compared to these envelopes scattered all over the floor.
"Explain yourself," the thought-form looked at Abei, putting on a solemn face, "You must explain clearly. This is very serious, a million times more terrifying than Lord Voldemort's resurrection."
Abei once again performed the index finger poke, stammering and hesitating to speak.
"If you don't explain clearly, your pockets will be emptied every month, no, every week from now on," Aaron said with a dark expression.
Feeling an unprecedented anger from his master, Abei shivered in fright, "It's Master's female classmates, from every year.
Every time I accepted a letter for Master, they would give me three times the snacks. At first, I was quite resistant, but..."
Slap! × 2.
Aaron and the thought-form both slapped their foreheads, both angry at Abei for not living up to expectations.
Miscalculation! Guarding against everything, but a house dragon is hard to guard against!
It was obvious this guy couldn't resist the temptation, otherwise, that mountain of snacks wouldn't have been so high.
"I was wondering why this period was so much calmer than last semester. I even thought it was the Chamber of Secretsincident that was unsettling people!" Aaron murmured bitterly, "I was overthinking it. How did I raise such a master-betraying dragon cub?
Are girls' love letters something you can just accept? Looking back, I realized those girls' eyes seemed different when they looked at me."
"And he accepted so many," the thought-form wanted to cry but couldn't, "More importantly, neither of us even knew. There's nothing more unlucky than this.
Why don't you just take me back? Although being confessed to by so many girls is quite an accomplishment, it's not something a thirteen-year-old child like me can handle."
Aaron rolled his eyes at him, then let out a long sigh, "Calm down, if it really comes down to it, just pretend you don't know anything!
Those envelopes were accepted by him, what does it have to do with us?"
"Self-deception." The thought-form pouted.
"Do you have a better idea?" Aaron retorted, "The holidays are coming soon. Endure this period, and everything will pass."
"It can only be so."
Aaron suddenly thought of something, and solemnly patted the thought-form's shoulder, saying earnestly, "I'm counting on you next. I'll stay in the dormitory, and you... you'll have to make a sacrifice for now!"
"I refuse," the thought-form said without hesitation.
"This is an order. You have no right to refuse."
"I knew it," the thought-form gritted his teeth, then changed his tone, "But do you think my clone can deceive Dumbledore's eyes?"
"Ah, this..."
The thought-form sneeringly slapped Aaron's right hand away, "I really want to help you, but some things I can't help with even if I want to.
So, for the next few days, you'll have to bear the gazes of those girls!"
Aaron:...The main body is more tormented than the clone. In the magic world, I guess I'm unique.