Chapter 458 - 458: 458: Can't Be Guaranteed

"Her soul is living inside her body," Voldemort said casually with a shrug.

Dumbledore's brows had not relaxed from the very beginning. They remained tightly furrowed.

"So what are you going to do now?" Voldemort asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Rather than what we're going to do, I'm more curious about why you did this," Kasen said.

"Just consider it me reliving my student days. You know, once you leave Hogwarts, it becomes rather difficult to find professor-level wizards willing to teach you. Especially when an Alchemy professor like you is one of a kind," Voldemort explained.

"So, did you learn what you wanted to learn? You can treat me as a professor right now, if you like," Kasen said.

"If I'm treating you as a professor, then all I can say is... you're a good professor. It would be even better if you abandoned that stupid Create system. Every time I attend your classes, it feels like panning for gold in dirt, digging through Create just to find a few scraps of shallow knowledge about enchanting," Voldemort mocked.

"At least... Orante teaches pretty well too, doesn't he?" Kasen raised an eyebrow.

"Of course. That's one of the few redeeming qualities he has," Voldemort said.

"Mm, I more or less understand now."

Kasen ran a finger along the scale of the History Storage Section on the Watch of Flowing Time.

Just another ten or so seconds, and it would recover one second of stored time.

One second was enough to do a great many things...

"Yes, I learned quite a lot too."

Voldemort nodded, pulled Maple's wand from his waist, and began drawing rapidly in the air.

A series of symbols instantly flew toward Kasen.

"Oh, you're currently applying the Thorns enchantment to your enemy," Kasen said, sensing the magic on his body and raising an eyebrow.

"You're not my enemy. At least, you're not the enemy of this body, are you?"

As Voldemort spoke, he fired an Avada Kedavra straight at Kasen.

At that very instant, Voldemort's previously confident expression suddenly froze.

He saw the smile on Kasen's face.

It was an incredibly relaxed smile, the kind that said everything was completely under control.

"This is bad..."

Voldemort only got halfway through the sentence before his voice abruptly stopped.

Along with the rest of the world.

Kasen instantly appeared in front of Voldemort, pulled out a bucket of milk, and shoved it directly into Maple's half-open mouth.

Yes, shoved.

Because time had been stopped, the milk had shamefully become...

Solid.

Fortunately, the result was extremely satisfying.

The milk's code was clearly above Voldemort's soul.

The instant the milk touched Maple's mouth, according to its rules, it removed all external forces from the human body.

Naturally, that external force also included Voldemort's soul inside Maple.

One second ended.

The Avada Kedavra Voldemort had cast slammed into the wall of the Gaunt shack behind Kasen, erupting in a burst of sickly green flames.

Maple's body went limp and collapsed to the ground.

Dumbledore still wore the same dumbfounded expression, his brows remaining tightly furrowed.

As for Voldemort's soul, it had long since flown off somewhere unknown.

"Is she all right?"

Dumbledore hurried over and crouched beside Maple with Kasen.

"She should be fine. The soul tag is still inside her body," Kasen said.

Sure enough, just as Kasen finished speaking, Maple, who was lying in the snow, dazedly opened her eyes.

After everything she had just been through, she looked at the two large faces in front of her. One belonged to the handsome and good-looking Professor Kasen, while the other belonged to the wrinkled Professor Dumbledore.

Although Professor Kasen was a little scary...

Still...

"Wah! I almost died!"

Maple suddenly sprang up and threw her arms around Kasen's neck, bursting into tears.

"Okay, okay, you're fine now. You're alive again. That's good news, right? Relax. Could you let go of me?"

Kasen immediately brought out his skills for comforting third-year brats. Within a few sentences, he managed to calm Maple down and set her back on the ground.

"I think we should return to the Headmaster's office first. Miss Green, there are many things you need to explain to us," Dumbledore said faintly.

"All right."

Once Maple agreed, flames flashed, and the three of them reappeared in the Headmaster's office.

At that moment, Hogwarts was deathly silent.

The three of them might genuinely have been the only living people left in the entire castle.

After all, even Steve had gone to the Black family home ahead of them...

If he even counted as a living person...

"Miss Green, tell us how you came to be possessed by Voldemort," Dumbledore asked.

"About... one month ago? Or two months? Maybe half a month ago. It was a Friday. After I finished my fifth-year Charms class, I had no lessons for the rest of the afternoon, so I slept in the dormitory the entire afternoon. Then, when I went out wandering around after midnight, I saw his soul. After that, his soul suppressed me. No, that's not quite right. It wasn't his soul that suppressed me, it was his magic. His soul actually wasn't very strong," Maple explained.

"That much we expected. Tom's soul... hehehehe..." Dumbledore could not help laughing as he spoke.

"When your soul was being suppressed, were you still conscious? Could you see what was happening outside?" Dumbledore continued.

"Yes."

"You couldn't resist at all?" Dumbledore asked.

"Obviously not. That was You-Know-Who, Professor. I'm only a fifth-year," Maple said, looking aggrieved.

"All right. That's about everything we needed to know... Why don't we have Professor Kasen take you home?" Dumbledore said with a smile.

Kasen, on the other hand, was completely bewildered.

"Why me?"

"I still have to prepare dinner. I'll be waiting for you at Sirius's place."

With that, Dumbledore Disapparated.

"That old bastard."

Kasen sighed as he watched Dumbledore leave.

Then he suddenly remembered something and turned to Maple.

"What are you going to do about your relationship with Orante?"

Maple instinctively shrank her neck.

"You-Know-Who used my body to brew a Love Potion for him. When he wakes up, do you think he'll kill me?"

"That is some extremely authentic phrasing you've got there... Don't worry. He probably won't," Kasen said, black lines covering his forehead.

"Probably?"

"...I can't guarantee it either."

...

(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:

Patreon: Dragonel