Chapter 502 - 502: 502: Wearing it can make you wiser!

In the Great Hall, the students and professors were all eating lunch.

Kasenhis and Dumbledore arrived late, but at least they still managed to get something to eat.

The difference was that Kasenhis continued eating like a starving ghost.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, would take two bites, pull the diadem out of his robes to look at it, take another two bites, then pull it out again.

It was as if he were afraid Kasenhis might use some mysterious trick to steal the diadem away.

Ridiculous.

Am I, Kasenhis, that kind of person?

On the other side, Professor Flitwick had completely forgotten about eating from the moment Dumbledore first pulled out the diadem.

Kasenhis finally understood.

Maybe Dumbledore wasn't guarding against him at all.

Maybe he was guarding against someone else.

"Dumbledore, that diadem in your hand..." Professor Flitwick finally failed to suppress his curiosity and spoke up.

"This? It was once one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. But now I've discovered that there may be something more to this diadem, so..."

Before Dumbledore could finish, the impatient Professor Flitwick cut him off.

"So let me see it."

Dumbledore nodded and handed the diadem over.

Professor Flitwick hurriedly accepted it.

"Yes. It's far too similar. It looks exactly like the descriptions in the books. Ravenclaw's diadem."

Dumbledore didn't look particularly surprised. He merely raised an eyebrow.

To be fair, he really had guessed correctly.

Sure, Kasenhis's detective friend had helped narrow down the specific location, but Dumbledore had been the one steering the overall direction.

If he hadn't accurately deduced that Voldemort might have set his sights on relics belonging to the four founders...

Even the cleverest cook couldn't make a meal without ingredients!

Meanwhile, Professor Flitwick grew more and more excited as he held the diadem.

He jumped down from his seat and hurried toward the staircase.

"Where's he going?" Kasenhis asked.

"I imagine he's going to find the Grey Lady. She is Ravenclaw's ghost, and also Headmistress Ravenclaw's only daughter," Dumbledore explained.

"Then we absolutely have to go watch!"

Kasenhis decisively put down his knife and fork, pulled out a pixel steak, and ran off while taking rapid bites from it.

"He really does love watching the excitement," Snape said faintly. "Wouldn't you agree, Albus?"

"Albus?"

Slughorn shrugged.

"About two seconds after Professor Kasenhis left, Albus went after him too."

"......."

"Hogwarts is doomed sooner or later!"

Meanwhile, the two spectators quickly found Professor Flitwick and the Grey Lady around a corridor corner.

Dumbledore very gentlemanly tapped a nearby iron golem with his finger, producing a series of metallic clangs.

"Would you mind letting us listen in?" Dumbledore asked.

"I don't mind, but you won't hear any particularly interesting story."

The Grey Lady shook her head, then pointed at the diadem in Professor Flitwick's hands.

"That is indeed my mother's diadem. Legend says that whoever wears it will gain limitless wisdom."

With that, she began drifting away.

"Is that all?" Dumbledore asked with a frown.

The Grey Lady continued floating away without the slightest pause.

"Is that really the case?" Kasenhis asked as well.

The Grey Lady turned back and looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

Kasenhis pointed at the diadem.

"If Lady Ravenclaw's wisdom came from a diadem, then wouldn't it be somewhat misleading for the wizarding world to use the name Ravenclaw as a symbol of wisdom?"

The Grey Lady nodded.

"It is because my mother was the one who wore that diadem that people came to associate it with wisdom. Not the other way around."

This time, the three of them understood completely.

Ravenclaw had given the diadem its reputation for wisdom.

The diadem had not given Ravenclaw hers.

"I thought the Grey Lady would be happy to see her mother's relic again," Professor Flitwick said with a sigh.

"Perhaps it reminds her of painful memories."

Dumbledore walked over, then waited until the Grey Lady had drifted farther away before continuing.

"Still, the return of this diadem isn't without benefits. At the very least, Ravenclaw House now has a founder's relic of its own."

Professor Flitwick shook his head.

"Ravenclaw's true inheritance is knowledge and the wisdom to innovate, not some tangible treasure."

Despite saying that, Professor Flitwick still followed his heart and tucked the diadem straight into his robes.

Kasenhis and Dumbledore stared at him, momentarily speechless.

As expected of the Head of Ravenclaw.

The wisest and most knowledgeable Head of House.

An ordinary person really couldn't speak so beautifully while acting so bluntly at the exact same time.

Couldn't he at least pretend to hide it?

Couldn't he sneak it away?

It wouldn't have taken much effort.

At the very least, he could have turned around first and given Kasenhis and Dumbledore some ego bost!

Professor Flitwick looked at Kasenhis and Dumbledore, whose expressions remained perfectly normal, and shrugged.

"If we head back now, we might still make it in time for lunch."

"Hmm..."

"Aren't you hungry?" Dumbledore asked, bumping Kasenhis with his shoulder when he fell silent.

"Oh, right. That's true. We should head back and eat."

Kasenhis suddenly came to his senses and took the lead toward the Great Hall.

Unfortunately, they had apparently wasted a little too much time on the way...

...

"I've always said that eating somewhere else once in a while has its own special charm. Don't you agree?"

Kasenhis sat on a staircase, holding the last two ribs they had managed to rescue from the dining table.

"For example?" Dumbledore played along.

"For example, classrooms, dormitories, stairwells, the side of the road, toilets... ah, no, that last one slipped out. But aside from the last one, all of those are excellent places for improving your appetite, aren't they?" Kasenhis said while eating.

"If you hadn't said that last sentence, I might have believed you were speaking like a normal human being," Dumbledore said faintly.

Then he placed the sandwich in his hand into Kasenhis's lap and stood up to leave.

Professor Flitwick beside him did exactly the same thing.

But the instant they both stood up, one tall and one short, they looked at each other.

"Hmm... is it possible that we've been tricked?"

They spoke at the same time, then looked down at Kasenhis, who was wolfing down the food.

"It really does look like we've been tricked!"

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