Chapter 478: The Endless Corridor
Chapter 478: The Endless Corridor
Wid paused for a moment, finding the situation strangely amusing.
The creatures in front of him, except for Mihal, had no faces. The Cube, however, could extend a pair of eyes, though it lacked other facial features.
But at this moment, he could subtly sense a sense of guilt and unease from the Broomstick, Cloak, and Firebird, as if they were avoiding his gaze.
The Cube, on the other hand, stood tall and proud, subtly conveying two messages: "I'm not with them", and "I've already scolded them."
Wid rubbed his forehead and asked, "What happened? Did you blow up the alchemy room or break some precious potion?"
"No, no", the Broomstick swayed from side to side, saying, "It was the Cloak. He took out the master's stone necklace to play with it."
"I just tried it on. It was the Broomstick who tried to hit me, causing the necklace to fall!"
"If you hadn't taken it out secretly, it wouldn't have fallen!"
"If you hadn't pushed me, it wouldn't have fallen!"
"It fell... but it didn't break, right? Mihal was the one who pecked at it!"
"Exactly, Mihal, do you know how hot your beak is?"
The two golems turned their attention to the Firebird. Mihal tilted its head and chirped, looking innocent and adorable.
The Cloak felt a pang of guilt and stammered, "It wasn't broken at the time... no, no, the necklace is still fine. It's the other one that got damaged."
"What is it?" Wid asked, walking into the storage room. He then saw the third party that had "fallen victim" in this accident.
A stone.
"I... I wanted to put the necklace back", the Cloak whispered. "But somehow, I just lightly touched it, and the stone shattered..."
An ordinary stone wasn't worth Wid's attention, but this one was a Christmas gift from Professor Mori, a rune stone given by the African Wagaadu School of Magic to their students.
Wid was fascinated by how the Dream Messenger could send the stone to the students from a distance, but the runes on it were in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which he hadn't had the time to study. So, the stone had been set aside temporarily.
A rune stone given to every Wagaadu student wasn't exactly valuable, but as a gift from Professor Mori, it held special significance.
Seeing Wid silent, quietly picking up the broken stone, the Broomstick and Cloak huddled together, shifting positions and nudging each other nervously.
The Cube sighed and leaned in, saying, "It's not entirely their fault... of course, touching the collection items is wrong, but I think the stone had its own issues."
Wid glanced at the Cube.
He always found the Cube to be the most mature and rational, but how could it say such illogical things in defense?
It sounded oddly familiar... like when a child falls, and the grandmother angrily hits the floor, shouting, "Bad floor! Bad floor! You hurt my baby!"
"I'm not trying to defend them. Look at this spot", the Cube pointed to the stand where the rune stone had been. "It fell outward, not inward."
"Huh..." the Broomstick swayed. "I didn't move it like that."
"Neither did I!" the Cloak quickly added.
Mihal chirped, "Chirp chirp chirp!"
The Cube waved a hand, "Don't rush to pass the blame. I'm analyzing!"
It looked at Wid and said, "If the necklace's movement had enough force to break the rune stone, the stand would have fallen inward, and the fragments would be inside."
"But now, the stand is leaning outward, and the stone fragments are at the edge of the stand. This suggests the opposite scenario—"
"The rune stone moved toward the necklace, knocking over the stand, and the collision resulted in one of them breaking."
After a moment of silence, the Cloak clapped loudly, "Cube, you're just like Holmes!"
"Holmes! Poirot! Detective Conan!" the Broomstick beat the ground with its broom, the twigs rustling.
Wid gave the two golems a sidelong glance and asked coolly, "You two are happy?"
The golems instantly fell silent and bowed, "Sorry, we were wrong."
"Good, just make sure you understand", Wid said calmly. "As punishment, you two will stand in the corner for an hour, and Mihal, you'll supervise."
Although they might have accidentally done something good, the gift from Professor Mori was still damaged.
After the golems left, Wid took the Cube to the lab, gathered all the research materials from recent days, placed the necklace on the table, and recast the spell:
"Omigen, Fata, Teiamorgan, Rayota, Nupsrangayota..."
The necklace emitted a slightly brighter red light, and in Vid's vision, the runes around it were either bright or dim, with a faint silver glow darting through them rapidly.
He suddenly recalled the animated simulation of neurons transmitting signals, finding a strange similarity between the two.
Vid steadied himself and marked the bright runes he saw on the research diagram. The cube automaton swiftly calculated and simulated, listing several new spell configurations and incantation methods a few minutes later.
Vid tried again: "Semiara-Sami-Eisnor-Omigen..."
The necklace showed no reaction.
He moved on to the third set of spells: "Humnor-Deripiron-Ayota-Nip..."
The necklace's light grew brighter, and the positions of the bright spots changed.
Vid recorded everything, and he and the cube automaton sat at the table, deducing, calculating, and analyzing the spells. Soon, the table was piled high with calculation papers.
A few automata who had finished their tasks were perched outside the window, watching the busy scene inside with a sense of awe.
Cloak: "We're all automata, so why is the cube smarter than us?"
"Yeah, it's really unfortunate", Broomstick sighed. "Being a fool is actually a good thing."
Cloak swept Broomstick to the side, speechless.
Mihal: "Chirp!"
Broomstick perked up, circling the firebird and asked, "I've been meaning to ask, Mihal, I don't have a mouth, yet I can speak; you have a beak, so why do you only chirp?"
Cloak chimed in, "Who says? It can also go 'coo'!"
"Shut up, that's not what I mean!" Broomstick retorted.
Mihal spread its wings and preened its feathers, looking like it was saying, "I'm just a bird, what do I know?"
Broomstick stared at it and suddenly said, "Mihal is a fool!"
The firebird instantly lifted its head, narrowing its eyes at Broomstick.
Broomstick took a step back and continued loudly, "Mihal acts all cool but actually shows a red butt every day!"
The firebird instantly spread its wings, its body swelling to two or three times its size.
Cloak huddled against the wall, suddenly filled with admiration for Broomstick—how did this wooden creature have the courage to provoke Mihal, the embodiment of fire?
Broomstick retreated to the door and shouted, "If you're so tough, come and argue with me! You dumb bird who can't even argue! Mihal has to wash its brain by the lake every morning because—"
Before Broomstick could finish, the firebird lunged at him, the scorching heat making the air around them seem to warp.
Broomstick let out a strange cry and shot up into the sky in a flash, with Mihal hot on its trail, trailing a long trail of flames, determined to tear Broomstick to pieces.
Cloak rushed out the door, looked up at the two streaking figures, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow!"
It could only be grateful that the wardrobe space was large enough to prevent Broomstick from being cornered by Mihal.
Fortunately, while the two were playing, they knew their limits and didn't cause real damage in the wardrobe space.
But when they were causing trouble, if Cloak did the work, the master would surely notice who the good automaton was, and forgive its past mistakes.
Cloak rubbed its non-existent chin, feeling this was a brilliant idea, and quietly floated into the study to help organize the manuscripts, occasionally fetching reference books from the library.
After a while, Broomstick's cries of pain were heard from outside: "Ahhh... I'm wrong, I'm wrong... I'm the big fool... I need to wash my brain..."
Vid, who was engrossed in his research, couldn't help but look up, "What are they doing?"
"The Broomstick is probably provoking Mihal again", the cube automaton said without surprise. "Even though he can't win, he still likes to provoke. Master, you should have given it more intelligence."
"To be honest, I didn't treat any of you differently when I infused your minds", Vid said helplessly. "But human thoughts change in an instant, and I couldn't fully determine what you would become before you were born."
Cloak nodded, "It's all because Broomstick's brain capacity is too small... Oh, wait, he doesn't even have a brain, which is why he's not smart."
The cube automaton looked at Cloak with a mix of emotions, thinking, "Are you any smarter?"
It wisely kept this thought to itself, took a few blank parchments, and quickly wrote down rows of equations.
Spells in the magical world are not created out of thin air. Most of the spells learned at Hogwarts come from Latin, with a few derived from Aramaic, Egyptian, and Greek.
For example, the Disarming Charm, "Expelliarmus", in Latin, "expello" means to drive away or expel, and "arma" means weapons. Combined, it means "Expel Weapon."
The wizards who invented spells may have initially chanted words unintentionally, combined with their strong will, which triggered their magical power, thus forming various spells.
In Professor Flitwick's Charms class, students not only learn spells but also how to break them down and understand their components. They even have assignments to create counter-curses based on the original incantations of certain curses.
Clever students can invent new spells by analyzing roots and grammatical structures—though this practice is somewhat dangerous.
Wizards from other countries, even if their spells are not derived from Latin, follow similar basic principles. The key to deciphering an unfamiliar spell is to first understand its root and structure, then figure out how to use and counter it.
Wade's discovery of the changes in light and dark points made this task much easier, at least making the spell combinations more predictable. The Cube continued to write down various interpretations until it suddenly noticed that the room seemed quieter than before.
Upon closer inspection, Wade was found lying on the floor, a piece of parchment in his hand, fast asleep. The Cloak was quietly covering him with a blanket.
"Asleep?" the Cube was surprised.
Wade always tidies up before going to bed, and the Cube had never seen him lie down like this, as if he had fainted.
"Master must have been very tired recently", the Cloak said. "Don't wake him. Take these things to the next room, and I'll turn off the lights!"
The Cube was speechless. "Do you want Master to sleep on the floor all night? Humans are different from us! He'll wake up in the morning feeling very uncomfortable... Just wait."
It left the wardrobe space and stood in the center of the dormitory, calling out, "Zoe? Zoe?"
The House-elf "popped" into the room's corner and asked, "I'm here, what's wrong?" She looked around. "Mr. Gray isn't in the dorm?"
"Master is asleep. I need your help to move him to the bed", the Cube said.
"Sure", Zoe said happily. "Zoe is happy to help."
Soon, Wade floated out of the wardrobe space, safely lying in bed, covered with a soft, fluffy blanket.
Seeing that Master was indeed undisturbed, the Cube silently praised its own wise decision. It grabbed the Cloak, who was about to return to the wardrobe space, and together with Zoe, helped Wade pack his luggage for home.
...
Wade, in a deep sleep, was unaware of being moved by the House-elf and the Cube.
At that moment, he stood in a long corridor, looking at countless doors on both sides, completely bewildered.
He only remembered reciting a spell the Cube had organized... Before that, he had tried many times, and the repetitive experiments and failures had made the spellcasting feel mechanical.
Suddenly, as if in a daze, he found himself in this endless corridor.
The walls on both sides were milky white, with no extra decorations, and occasionally, white light streams would dart across like small fish.
Wade looked up and saw a flowing, dazzling starry sky above, as if the entire galaxy had been brought to his eyes, breathtakingly magnificent.
—Am I dreaming?
Wade couldn't help but think this and pinched himself hard. The intense pain made him gasp.
Not a dream.
Is this the effect of the necklace?
The runes on the necklace had been analyzed repeatedly, and the Silent Men from the Department of Mysteries had interpreted them from various angles, confirming that they contained no offensive spells and posed no harm.
Wade steadied himself, not overly worried, and walked forward casually.
The doors on both sides looked identical, but as he passed them, he noticed different symbols and patterns on each, some of which changed color.
Wade randomly chose a door with a windmill pattern, similar to a four-leaf clover, and gently pushed it open. The door opened smoothly.
Before him was a long street, with buildings that looked somewhat old and cobblestones that were lifting at the edges.
A mother and child approached from the other end of the street. The child held a colorful plastic windmill, blowing into it with puffed cheeks, while the mother held his hand, smiling warmly.
The child excitedly said, "Mom, look, it's spinning so fast!"
"Yes, because you're blowing very hard!" the mother said gently.
The child asked innocently, "Will it get tired? Does it want to rest?"
The mother laughed, pointing at the child's cheek. "When your cheeks start to feel a bit sore, that's when it wants to rest too!"
"I'm not tired yet", the child said. "I can blow a little longer!"
The colorful windmill spun again, and the two continued talking and laughing, passing by Wade as if they didn't see him at all.
Wade looked at the mother, his eyes filled with disbelief, feeling everything around him blur except for her smiling face.
His lips moved slightly, almost inaudibly, "Mom..."
(End of Chapter)
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