Harry and Neville left the office looking as though they had suddenly seen the light.
Judging by their expressions, they had probably begun a Hogwarts-wide manhunt for Slughorn.
Meanwhile, Slughorn was still leisurely strolling along the shore of the Black Lake with Dumbledore.
The two of them were completely immersed in their aerobic exercise, utterly unconcerned with anything involving Grindelwald.
It wasn't until evening that the two finally returned to the castle and sat down for dinner.
As he ate, Slughorn kept glancing toward the staircase every few moments.
Finally, he spotted Kasenhis.
"Kasenhis! Kasenhis, have you thought it over? Do you want to join my Slug Club?" Slughorn lowered his voice, but still spoke loudly enough for everyone at the staff table to hear.
That included Snape.
The moment he heard it, Snape subtly lowered his head.
Kasenhis merely shrugged.
"Sorry. It's not really my thing."
The cheerful smile on Slughorn's face instantly froze.
He gave two awkward chuckles.
"Oh... hehe. Uh, I see. Of course, that's perfectly fine. It's entirely your choice."
Then, without showing anything outwardly, he suddenly began eating much faster.
A short while later, he stood up and headed toward the stairwell.
Snape soon stood up as well and followed him.
"If you're going after Slughorn, you can sit back down. I'll go explain things to him properly," Kasenhis said hurriedly, wiping his hands with a napkin before standing.
Snape glanced back at him, then curled his lip, spread his hands, and shrugged all in one smooth motion.
"He doesn't have the nerve to fall out with me over this. He simply has something he wants to ask me. That's all."
Kasenhis's eyes shifted thoughtfully.
A retired old man and the Head of Slytherin House.
Fair enough.
He sat back down.
Before long, Snape returned to his seat.
"What did he ask you?" Kasenhis asked.
Snape shook his head.
"Nothing. Perhaps he knew, but was too embarrassed to say it directly. In any case, all he wanted was for me to persuade you to join the Slug Club."
He paused before continuing.
"I still personally recommend that you stay away from that club, because he didn't invite you because of your talent at all."
"Then why?"
"You're powerful and bold enough to charge straight into Azkaban and break someone out without a second thought. If the Slug Club had someone like you as a member, then from now on, whenever the Ministry dealt with matters involving Slughorn or the Slug Club, they would have to think twice because of you," Snape explained.
"Oh. So to put it plainly, he wants to use me as a shield?" Kasenhis raised an eyebrow.
"That isn't entirely accurate. It would be more like a deterrent. Similar to nuclear weapons in the Muggle world," Dumbledore, who had been listening from beside them for quite some time, quietly added.
"That's essentially it. Stay away from that old man from now on," Snape concluded.
"He looks so kindly and harmless, but his mind sure works fast," Kasenhis said as he leaned back in his chair.
"He was once Head of Slytherin House, after all. No wonder he dragged me around outside for an entire day today. Turns out he simply didn't want you coming to ask me about the club. Unfortunately for him, he still miscalculated," Dumbledore said with a somewhat helpless laugh.
"Exactly." Kasenhis shrugged.
With that, he brought his pleasant dinner to an end, returned to his office, and prepared to wash up and go to bed.
Unfortunately, he still wasn't fast enough today.
Someone was already waiting for him.
"Hello, Professor."
Orlant had been sitting on the sofa for quite a while. The moment Kasenhis returned, he excitedly handed over the notebook in his hands.
"Oh? What's this?" Kasenhis asked curiously as he looked at the densely packed spells and calculation formulas filling the pages.
Orlant immediately stood up in excitement, pointing at the notebook as he explained.
"As everyone knows, most magic only has a single effect. So, being the clever person that I am, I decided to combine multiple spells together. Using different combination formulas as the core, I developed ways to maximise their effects. It's somewhat similar to the compound magic in your Ars Nouveau spellbook, Professor Kasenhis. And through that, I finally invented..."
"An immortal-path killer move?" Kasenhis raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry, Professor, I don't play with worms. What I mean is, I just invented an extremely complicated long-range targeted killing spell!"
"I call it the Distant Death Curse," Orlant said proudly.
"Wow. Sounds ridiculously impressive. What did you invent it for?" Kasenhis asked, raising an eyebrow.
"To kill Green from a distance."
"........"
Kasenhis's eyes instantly turned into tiny dots.
He blinked.
"Huh?"
Seeing Kasenhis's expression, Orlant instinctively began reconsidering a few things.
Maybe he shouldn't have told the professor this much?
Or, put another way, would the professor really support him assassinating Green?
Should he ask someone else instead?
Grindelwald, perhaps?
"Uh, Professor, you should get some rest. My grandmother's about to give birth to my father, so I'm going to go see whether it's a boy or a girl."
Orlant grabbed the notebook and was about to make a run for it when Kasenhis stopped him.
"Green already spent half a month in Azkaban. You still haven't cooled off?" Kasenhis said patiently as he pulled Orlant back down to sit.
"Professor, you have no idea what I went through during that time," Orlant replied with equal sincerity, trying to convince Kasenhis of the necessity and legality of killing Green.
More importantly, he absolutely did not want any living person to know about that period when he had acted like a hopeless simp.
So silencing the witness was extremely necessary.
The two continued talking completely past each other, neither understanding the other at all.
In the end, Kasenhis had no choice but to physically stop Orlant from remotely killing someone and helplessly tell him the truth.
What else could he do?
In this whole incident, Maple could practically be considered the perfect victim.
She had been possessed by Voldemort because she wasn't strong enough.
He was the one who used the Love Potion.
He was the one who caused all the trouble.
He was the one who enjoyed Orlant's devoted simping.
And in the end, Maple was the one who had to spend time in Azkaban and accept the consequences of nearly getting her head chopped off.
The whole thing was simply too absurd.
...
(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:
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