Chapter 491 - 312: Hog-what-warts?

Chapter 491: Chapter 312: Hog-what-warts?

Dean returned home and handed his coat to the nanny.

"Dean, your mother said to get changed. You can’t be late for your grandmother’s birthday party."

The nanny watched Dean’s back as he hurried upstairs and called out loudly.

"I know! I’m going to check if Bibiduo Flavor Beans has updated first!"

"What beans?"

For the nanny, who was over forty, there were more and more newfangled things she couldn’t understand lately.

Just when she finally learned one, another new thing would pop up.

She felt her mind wasn’t nearly as sharp as it used to be.

However, there was one of those new gadgets she really liked: the player.

Not for listening to music, but for listening to audiobooks.

She found the book she was currently listening to. "Chapter 35. He swiftly caught her in his arms..."

A magnetic male voice came from the player, and the nanny, content, began to wipe down the expensive armoire.

Dean returned to his room and first stuffed his Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game cards into a small box and locked it. This was his most prized collection.

Then he flopped onto his bed, took out his phone, and logged into the web novel forum.

Reading novels was much more interesting than going to his grandmother’s birthday party.

It wasn’t that he disliked his grandmother. It was just that at an event like that, a bunch of adults with intimidatingly long titles would show up and use the party as an opportunity to discuss seemingly important matters. ℯℯ𝑙.

No kid would be interested in that sort of thing.

Dean’s grandmother had been an outstanding Minstrel.

Not the kind who told stories on street corners, but a high-level Transcendent who could imbue her songs with Magic Power.

In her youth, she had been on the same adventuring team as Soron, and they had a very good relationship.

This was also why Soron would be attending Dean’s grandmother’s birthday party.

He had just lied to his friends; Master Soron was going to his grandmother’s house, not his.

But it sounded more impressive that way.

Children can be rather vain sometimes.

Besides, going to his grandmother’s house was basically the same as going to "his house," so it wasn’t a complete lie.

Although his grandmother was a very powerful Minstrel, her children didn’t inherit her talent.

It was one of nature’s strange balances. A person who could control Magic Power wouldn’t necessarily have children who could do the same, and likewise, a Magic genius could be born into an Ordinary family.

This point was actually just like what was written in Harry Potter.

In short, Dean’s family was in a state of decline, with each generation weaker than the last.

His parents had used the wealth his grandmother accumulated from her adventures to buy a few shops, and now they were desperately trying to break into a higher social circle.

Dean was their hope, the only person in his generation of the family who could perceive Magic Power.

From the moment he was discovered to have the ability to perceive Magic Power at age six, a development plan was laid out for him all the way to the age of thirty.

First, one-on-one tutoring at home, then entering a well-known Mage Tower as an apprentice, getting into a prestigious academy, finding a mentor with outstanding abilities...

That was the gist of it.

The goal for tonight’s party was to accomplish the second step of the plan: ask Master Soron for a letter of recommendation to help him get into a more renowned Mage Tower.

The opportunity to become an apprentice was, of course, not fair. If everyone had similar talent and test scores, it all came down to connections.

A letter of recommendation from Master Soron was far more effective than simply giving a gift.

Dean didn’t actually like this. He knew his own limits. His tutor never said it directly, but he could tell he wasn’t a particularly good student.

Master Soron probably saw hundreds of children at his level every year.

Besides, Master Soron was friends with his grandmother, not with juniors like them. How awkward would it be to just go and ask for a recommendation letter?

But his parents still clung to unrealistic fantasies, as if he could become a High Level Mage just by working hard enough.

Because of this, ever since his Casting talent was discovered at age six, little Dean had lost his carefree childhood.

He was allowed to play for no more than an hour each day, two hours on holidays. The rest of his time was filled with endless Spellbooks and one tutoring session after another.

Growing up in this environment made Dean empathize deeply with Harry Potter from the novel.

Their situations were completely different, of course. Harry’s parents were dead and he was fostered, while Dean was being pressured by his own parents.

But from an emotional standpoint, Dean felt they were the same.

A childhood with almost no joy, constantly chased by academic goals, wasn’t much different from a childhood spent being constantly bullied.

But Harry had better talent. In his flying class, he could make the broom fly into his hand instantly.

’Speaking of which, why do the Mages there fly on brooms? Such a strange mount.’

Discussing the feasibility of brooms as flying mounts was also one of the hot topics on the forum recently.

’Oh, right, the update!’

Dean frantically refreshed the Harry Potter homepage. It usually updated around this time.

After refreshing thirty times in a row, a new Chapter finally appeared on the page.

"Chapter Eleven: The Quidditch Match."

"Whoa."

Dean’s spirits lifted.

The Quidditch match. The inter-house competition that had been built up in the previous Chapters, the most popular sport for Mages in the world of Harry Potter.

Playing a ball game while flying through the sky.

’Just thinking about it is awesome.’

Harry was the Seeker, a key position, and he was a key player as a first-year student.

He was practically Dean’s ideal version of himself.

However, in this Chapter, Zog hadn’t completely followed the original work’s description.

The reason was simple: the Quidditch rules in the original work were just too absurd.

It was as if the rules were thought up on a whim, purely to set the stage for Harry.