Chapter 731: Return
Chapter 731: Return
Hermione, lying on the lounge chair, looked somewhat weak. She listened quietly to Liam's incessant chatter while sipping the Soul Nourishing Elixir he had just retrieved from his Spatial Bag. This specially formulated restorative potion had a rather unpleasant taste, so Hermione's face twisted slightly with each sip.
"Knew it was nasty, didn't you?" Liam instinctively reached out to touch Hermione's hair, seeing how her entire face contorted after drinking it. This time, due to her weakness, Hermione didn't flinch away as she usually did, but instead glared at Liam with a disgruntled expression.
"Don't look at me like that." Liam continued his rambling, "You could have used a simple Soothing Charm to send those spirits to where they belong, but you insisted on opening a gateway between two worlds. Opening such a portal, which connects two realms, is still quite a strain for you, even with me providing the magic power. Your soul can hardly withstand the direct impact of Death Energy."
"I know that", Hermione replied, quickly recovering a significant portion of her strength after drinking the specialized elixirs. She rolled her eyes and moved Liam's hand, which was petting her hair like a cat, to the side before continuing, "But isn't it because you were right beside me, and I trusted you to help me complete the magic?"
She glanced at Liam's face, noting that he didn't say anything, and then added, "After casting that spell, I feel like my understanding of Death Energy has advanced significantly. This will greatly benefit my future growth."
"If you put it that way—this time, I'll forgive you", Liam sighed lightly. "But next time, please let me know before you decide to do something like this. Don't make such decisions on the spur of the moment again."
"Alright, I promise I'll inform you next time", Hermione nodded, acknowledging his concern. She then watched Liam's back as he checked the entire cave, whispering, "Of course, to keep up with your footsteps, sometimes taking risks is necessary."
After searching the entire cave, Liam found nothing. The marks on the ground and walls indicated that the place once had many decorative items, such as metal plates or tapestries. However, these easily portable decorations had been thoroughly removed when they left.
Seeing that Hermione had mostly recovered, Liam left a large number of Alchemical Automatons to restore the place to its original state. He then returned to the Manor with Hermione. After destroying the stone orb, all the magical effects in the cave had completely vanished, leaving only some ancient ruins that held no magical significance.
"Has anyone come looking for us recently?" Upon returning to the Manor, Liam asked Handy, who had run over to help them with their clothes, "And how are the three ladies we brought here doing?"
"Recently, no unauthorized personnel have approached the Manor", Handy replied. "The three ladies have been staying in the guest rooms of the annex building and haven't come out much. Only the two younger ladies ventured into the courtyard for a short while, but they returned after about ten minutes."
"Of course, their current state should be fairly normal", Handy added after a pause. "According to the Life Detection Device you improved, their bodies are slightly weak but generally healthy."
"Understood", Liam nodded and instructed, "Please inform them that Hermione and I will visit their current residence after lunch. Oh, and don't just tell them verbally; it would be best to prepare a more formal card."
"Understood, sir", Handy's two camera lenses formed a V shape, and he said, "My system has a complete set of Wizard Etiquette Guidelines, so I won't make any mistakes."
"Wizard Etiquette Guidelines?" Hermione, standing beside him, looked somewhat puzzled. "I don't remember our robots ever being required to store such information. Where did you learn them?"
"Wife, this was the command you gave at Christmas", Handy said, pointing his camera at Hermione. "Mr. Black sent a large number of books about household management at the time, and you asked us to record all the tasks we could perform from these books. One of them was the Wizard Etiquette Manual."
"I see, go do your work now", Hermione dismissed Handy and turned to Liam. "Sirius Black sent us an entire bag of books using one of those temporary Spatial Bags we use to deliver potions to the Ministry of Magic. He said it was a collection of books about home life from his family, and thought they would be useful for us. I looked through a few and found some cookbooks, so I gave them to the robots. I didn't realize there was a Wizard Etiquette Manual in there."
"It's not surprising. This gift was definitely sent by Sirius Black separately. He probably couldn't stand all those bottles and jars at home anymore, and this was a good opportunity to pass on some useful items to us", Liam shrugged.
Since it was still a while before lunch, Liam decided to check the letter he had received that morning. The letter was from the guerrilla fighters, who reported that they had successfully raided and completely destroyed a Pureblood alchemy workshop in Cornwall the previous day. In the process, they had killed one Death Eater without any casualties.
Liam immediately wrote a reply, praising the guerrilla fighters for their successful operations over the past half-month, especially the recent use of an enhanced version of Wildfire to burn down half of Gringotts Tower and kill two Death Eaters. This forced Voldemort to pull back some of his front-line forces to strengthen the protection of key areas.
In addition to the praise, Liam advised the guerrilla fighters to temporarily withdraw to the north for a few days of rest. After seven raids in just half a month, the team was exhausted, and their magical items were severely depleted. The increased defenses in the south also made future raids much riskier. Liam didn't want to lose these valuable followers he had nurtured.
After mailing the letter, Liam and Hermione had lunch together. As for the two wandmakers, according to the Handymen's reports, they had hardly eaten on time. They would finish their work and then have the robots bring their meals to their rooms. In the past half-month, the two masters had only eaten fewer than ten meals in the Great Hall.
The Wizarding World was truly full of wonders. Many problems that Muggles found difficult to solve were easily managed by wizards. So, the irregular eating habits of the wand masters or Dumbledore's unhealthy lifestyle of consuming large amounts of sugar didn't have any adverse effects on their health.
After marveling at the wonders of magic, Liam and Hermione changed into formal attire and walked through the manor's small garden toward the two-story building nearby. Regardless of the circumstances, Mr. Greengrass's death was related to them, and some things needed to be addressed.
Liam knocked on the door, and Mrs. Greengrass, dressed in black, opened it. Upon seeing Ryan and the others, she greeted them calmly and led them to the living room.
Liam had instructed the robots to fulfill the Greengrass family's material needs, but it seemed that apart from asking for some basic necessities and school supplies for the two students, they had requested nothing else. The rooms remained as they were initially.
(End of Chapter)
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