Chapter 226: Knowledge?
Chapter 226: Knowledge?
After concluding the riddle wager with Katrina, Albert did not go to the stadium to watch the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch match. Instead, he headed directly to the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor. He intended to record the hundred riddles and their answers proposed by the eagle ring to prevent forgetting them after some time.
Quick memory techniques were not long-lasting, and unless Albert was frequently questioned by the eagle ring like a true Ravenclaw student, there was no way he could retain the content for an extended period.
As the saying goes, a good memory is no substitute for a well-written note.
This proverb from his past life held a lot of truth.
Organizing and recording these hundred riddles and answers took up quite a bit of Albert's time. By the time he put down his pen and stretched leisurely, it was already past noon.
For every Quidditch match, unless it ended early, most people would go without lunch until the game concluded.
As for dinner?
Quidditch matches rarely extended into the evening. How inept would the Seekers have to be to not catch the Golden Snitch within a few hours? Matches that lasted an entire day were exceedingly rare.
Albert put away his notebook and rubbed his cheeks with his hands, directing his gaze toward the eagle ring perched on the old wooden board in the corner of the room. He took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock lightly on the board. The eagle ring spoke, posing a riddle: "I am not in the past or the future, yet you can see me in the present. Where am I?"
"The mirror," Albert replied without hesitation.
"Reasonable," the eagle ring acknowledged, and a door appeared out of thin air.
"Success!"
Albert excitedly clenched his fist and, wand in hand, stepped through the door. He found himself in a vast circular marble chamber illuminated by burning blue torches that cast a bright light on the surroundings.
"Eternal flames?" Albert mused as he examined the torches on the walls. In that moment, he felt a sudden urge to take one of the torches down for a closer inspection.
"Where is Ravenclaw's treasure of knowledge?" Albert murmured.
The chamber was windowless and sparse, with bare walls.
It was not entirely devoid of features, however, as strange ancient magical symbols were etched into the marble walls.
"Ancient runes?"
In fact, the moment Albert entered the chamber, his attention had been drawn to these ancient runes.
There was little else to capture his interest in this room besides the eternal flames and the ancient runes inscribed on the walls. He walked closer to the wall, his fingers trailing over the carved traces, as he began to decipher and translate the actual content of the ancient runes.
The ancient magical text that Professor Broad and Professor Smith had shown him was indeed copied from here.
However, according to Albert's memory, the written language used a millennium ago should indeed be these ancient runes, while English, borrowing from the Latin alphabet, was introduced to Britain later.
Albert spent half an hour perusing and transcribing the ancient runes on the wall in front of him into his notebook.
The wall inscriptions seemed to narrate the founding of Hogwarts, similar to the documented records he had come across in the library.
Initially, Hogwarts was established to protect witches and wizards from persecution.
After all, Muggles feared magic, and this fear could drive them to persecute witches and wizards. Moreover, during the dark medieval times a millennium ago, Britain was in the throes of the terrifying Viking Age.
From the fact that Hogwarts Castle was located on a mountain by a lake and that its exact position could not be mapped due to enchantments, it was evident that the four founders of Hogwarts had anticipated potential attacks on the school. Thus, they implemented a series of defensive measures within the castle.
Albert had not forgotten that the suits of armor and statues of knights within Hogwarts could be animated by spells when necessary. This implied the presence of an army of hundreds or thousands of fearless soldiers, and when combined with the castle's terrain and defenses, it would have been an impregnable fortress, even against the infamous Vikings of that era.
However, this well-known history of Hogwarts was not what Albert sought. Surely, there was more to Ravenclaw's repository of knowledge than this! Damn it! At least leave me some books or something else.
Had someone else beaten him to it and taken everything?
Albert glanced at the "Find Ravenclaw's Repository of Knowledge" task on the task panel, and indeed, it had not been marked as completed.
Could it be that this place was not Ravenclaw's repository of knowledge? Or was there still a secret hidden within this chamber?
Albert circled the chamber again, and aside from the ancient runules on the walls, there truly was nothing else.
However, Albert made a new discovery.
It was something akin to a puzzle. As for why he thought it was a puzzle, it was because the magical symbols were scattered and disjointed.
Albert felt that it might be a door or something else, but he still couldn't understand it, or rather, he couldn't comprehend it:
"Surpassing intelligence is mankind's greatest wealth."
And then?
Albert pieced together the scattered runes and read them aloud in the ancient language.
He felt that something was vaguely missing, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.
If this was the repository of knowledge, what knowledge did it conceal?
Albert was perplexed and couldn't make sense of it. He felt certain that it wasn't about the ancient runes themselves, as they were merely the written language of that era, nor was it about the history of Hogwarts inscribed on the walls. So, what else was there?
That phrase—"Surpassing intelligence is mankind's greatest wealth"?
Or the eternal flames on the walls?
Albert took one of the eternal flames from the wall and examined it closely. It resembled the Olympic torch, and indeed, some ancient runes were carved into it. In that regard, it wasn't too dissimilar from the protective bracelet he had crafted.
However, the effects produced by these ancient runes were quite astonishing.
Albert was aware that this might be the power of magical writing.
But did it have anything to do with the repository of knowledge?
If it truly was related, then... what secret was hidden within the repository of knowledge?
Albert felt a headache coming on as he struggled to comprehend what secret was hidden here.
"Forget it, let's just make a record of this for now," Albert said to himself as he returned the eternal flame to its place. Neither Professor Broad nor Professor Smith had likely uncovered the secret of this chamber.
As for the possibility that a wizard who had discovered this secret in the past had taken away whatever was originally kept here...
That seemed unlikely.
(End of Chapter)
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