Ranni knew that with the tacit understanding between her and Arthur, he would definitely be able to read the meaning in her eyes.
Arthur, of course, understood perfectly.
And thus, the Gringotts operation that night came to be.
This time, Arthur did not bring Hermione along.
It was an outing that belonged solely to him and Ranni—a date, in every sense of the word.
And during that "date," Arthur casually took Hufflepuff's Cup as well.
Poor Voldemort—
another Horcrux gone.
(Voldemort: Have you no shame?!)
Ranni was extremely satisfied with this trip to Gringotts. The slight displeasure she had felt earlier vanished completely.
It was rare for her, but she even took the initiative to kiss Arthur.
...
The next day, The Daily Prophet broke yet another bombshell headline—
Gringotts had been robbed.
Logically speaking, Gringotts shouldn't have discovered the theft so quickly. Before leaving, Arthur had meticulously erased all traces left behind by himself and Ranni.
Unfortunately, his Sleeping Charm had been a little too effective.
The dragon guarding the vault remained unconscious for far too long, which finally alerted the goblins to something being wrong.
And so, on that very day, news of the Gringotts robbery spread throughout the wizarding world via the Daily Prophet.
The reaction was immediate.
Yesterday the Ministry of Magic being robbed was already outrageous enough—
now even Gringotts?
That was unacceptable.
After all, everyone's money was stored there!
Many wizards who already distrusted goblins rushed to withdraw their savings. For a time, Gringotts' reputation took a severe hit.
Because the circumstances of this robbery were almost identical to the Ministry incident—no traces, no clues—it was officially concluded that the same individual or group was responsible.
Gringotts promptly applied to the Ministry to increase the bounty on the thief, offering to fund the additional reward themselves.
However…
The goblins only added 5,000 Galleons.
Truly deserving of their reputation for stinginess. 🪙
The string of robberies caused a wave of unease throughout the wizarding world. Wealthy wizarding families grew increasingly anxious, afraid that they might be next.
Some bored observers even gave the culprit a nickname:
"The Invisible Phantom Thief."
As for Arthur—
Living in the Muggle world and spending his days comfortably at home, he was completely unaware of all this.
And even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.
He wasn't some actual phantom thief. Why would he go around robbing wizarding families?
...
The days that followed were peaceful.
Hermione spent her time reading, continuously expanding her knowledge base. Occasionally, she would research the deactivated Time-Turners Arthur had brought back from the Ministry.
Ranni was also interested in the Time-Turners—but her curiosity lay in their origins.
After all, even gods like Marika in the Lands Between had failed to grasp the power of time.
Yet wizards—beings with only a sliver of extraordinary power—had somehow created tools capable of turning back time.
That, to Ranni, was fascinating.
She dug through Arthur's collection of books and, to her surprise, actually found relevant material.
These texts came from the rare tomes Arthur had obtained from the Malfoy family.
They didn't record the origin of Time-Turners, but they did describe research conducted by one generation of Malfoy ancestors—alongside the Nott family, another of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
Incidentally, the current head of the Nott family was Old Nott, from Lucius Malfoy's father's generation.
However, Old Nott had a child late in life. His son was the same age as Draco and also attended Hogwarts.
The boy's name was Theodore Nott.
Seeing that the materials still failed to explain the origins of Time-Turners, Ranni lost interest. She tossed the documents to Hermione and went to find Arthur instead—to personally experience the wonders of time.
At that moment, Arthur was practicing his newly acquired control over time.
He could already perform simple time acceleration and reversal. As for more advanced applications, he was still exploring.
When Ranni arrived, she saw Arthur casting time reversal on an apple core.
Green light flowed across its surface as the missing flesh reappeared piece by piece.
Soon enough, a complete apple sat in his hand again.
Arthur spoke as he noticed Ranni.
"It's incredible. I can clearly feel that the original flesh is still in my stomach. So where did this restored flesh come from?"
Ranni felt a wave of speechless disbelief.
Instead of exploring practical applications of time, he was pondering this?
She replied casually,
"Who knows? Parallel timelines, perhaps. Or a branching time stream."
Arthur nodded thoughtfully, surprised.
"That's actually possible."
Still, hearing those terms come from Ranni's mouth felt… oddly out of place.
"Where did you learn those terms?" Arthur asked.
"From the books you bought for me—about understanding this world," Ranni replied.
Ah. That explained it.
Those books were kept in Ranni's chambers. Arthur himself had never read them.
Still, her words gave Arthur an idea.
Perhaps he should also study some science-based knowledge—it might help broaden his perspective on developing time-related abilities.
After all, even Einstein had said that the end of science was theology.
"By the way," Arthur asked, looking at her, "what did you come to see me for?"
"I want to experience the power of time," Ranni answered.
Her tone was perfectly normal—but Arthur sensed something off.
When he had mastered other powers before, Ranni hadn't shown much interest. Even Destined Death, one of the most mysterious forces in the Lands Between, hadn't drawn this kind of reaction from her.
Then it clicked.
She wanted to grow taller.
Because of frequently using the Zen Garden's time dilation to study, Hermione's height had shot up rapidly—approaching 165 cm.
Ironically, Hermione herself was rather troubled by this, feeling she was growing too tall for her age.
If Ranni knew that, she'd probably punch her on the spot.
Ever since Hermione overtook her in height, Ranni had been hiding in the Zen Garden, asking Arthur to maximize the time flow to accelerate her own growth.
But the Zen Garden's time ratio was only about 1:120—roughly one year inside for three days outside.
Ranni had been motivated since early in the year. Even spending almost all her time inside, the total accumulated time was only about fifty to sixty years.
Subtract the time she spent outside with Arthur, and halve it again—
In over thirty years, this godly body of hers had only grown one centimeter.
She still hadn't even reached 156 cm.
So when she learned Arthur had mastered time itself, she immediately set her sights on it.
"How exactly do you want to experience it?" Arthur asked.
"Use time on me directly," Ranni answered without hesitation.
Her intention was exactly what Arthur expected.
He couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
The Moon Princess who once boldly admitted her role in the Night of the Black Knives had truly learned subtlety now.
Realizing her goal had been exposed, Ranni's embarrassment lasted only a moment.
She said frankly,
"Time acceleration would be better. It strengthens me and speeds up my growth."
Arthur stopped teasing and began casting time acceleration on her.
The power of time enveloped Ranni, accelerating at an average rate of fifty years every thirty seconds.
Her height slowly increased.
After about seven or eight minutes, Arthur estimated she had reached around 170 cm, and gently withdrew the power.
Ranni closed her eyes, sensing the growth of power within her body, then opened them to look at Arthur.
Understanding her meaning, Arthur took out a full-length mirror and placed it before her.
Ranni examined her reflection and nodded in satisfaction.
She was still about half a head shorter than Arthur—but being taller than Hermione was more than enough.
"How does it feel?" Arthur asked.
"Powerful," Ranni said softly.
"More wondrous than the power of death."
She had personally experienced Destined Death, but in her view, time was far more miraculous.
Death merely eroded the body and claimed life.
Time could do the same—
and in countless other ways.
It could age someone to death in moments, reverse them to youth, or even erase them before birth.
And killing wasn't even its primary function.
In terms of versatility, time far surpassed death.
At that moment, Hermione arrived with documents about Time-Turners, intending to consult Arthur.
Instead, she saw the now-taller Ranni.
After questioning them, she finally learned that Arthur had used the power of time to accelerate Ranni's growth.
Hermione: "…?"
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