Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 439 New Contract
The atmosphere in the ant cave was a bit tense, but Benjamin and Franklin behaved very naturally. They completely ignored the army of ants surrounding them and instead did their own work.

Earlier, while Mike was talking to the queen ant, they had already brought in that traitor and verified the identity of the man in the windbreaker who was hanging upside down - the patriarch of the Avery family!

After confirming the identity of the target, Franklin and Benjamin quickly stripped the other party clean.

Chief Avery, who was covered in blood, had obviously never suffered such humiliation before. He struggled and covered his vital parts with his hands, while glaring at the traitor beside him with a pair of bloodshot eyes.

"I remember you, you are old Jerry's son! You traitor! Merlin will punish you!"

"Shut up, you old man! I am no longer your subordinate. My leaders now are... these gentlemen in front of you!"

Faced with his chief's curse, the traitor reacted excitedly. He waved his wand violently, and then a long golden whip composed of magic power extended from the tip of his wand and lashed the fat body of Chief Avery, leaving a bloody whip mark.

Chief Avery howled miserably, followed by even harsher curses. Naturally, the traitor beat him even harder after hearing that.

He seemed to want to prove his loyalty in this way, but unfortunately, no one present took him seriously. After all, he couldn't even call out the name of the master he was now loyal to.

Franklin and Benjamin ignored him. They were rummaging through the clothes that had been stripped from Chief Avery.

Patriarch Avery was obviously a money-loving man. Franklin and Benjamin searched his coat pocket and found a pocket full of gold Galleons, as well as a key to the Gringotts vault with the Avery family emblem engraved on it.

But these are secondary. What they really gained was a pendant box and a piece of worn parchment!

Looking at the pendant box engraved with the Slytherin symbol and the parchment written in ancient Latin in his hand, Benjamin's breathing became heavy!
"Mike, we seem to have found it!"

Franklin's excited and trembling voice drew Mike's attention back. He turned his head and quickly glanced at the pendant box, and the corners of his mouth rose.

Giving a strange smile to the queen ant in front of him, Mike put down his wand, slowly turned around, exposing his entire back to the other party.

This seems to be an extremely wise behavior. After all, the queen ant is still his enemy at this stage.

But Mike didn't care.

You have to know that this is the opponent's nest. Perhaps for other races this means a perfect home advantage, but for ants, the inside of the nest is exactly the place where they are least willing to fight.

After all, the queen ant is everything to their colony. If something unexpected happens to the queen ant during the battle, their colony will be declared extinct.

What's more, Mike knew very well that with his own strength and proficiency in the fire spell, these ants were no match for him, no matter how many there were.

And the fact was just as he expected. After Mike put down the wand, the queen ant was obviously much more relaxed.

But faced with this excellent opportunity for a sneak attack, she did not react at all and just looked at Mike quietly.

Mike looked at his main target this time, Chief Avery.

At this moment, he was struggling and crying under the whip of that traitor, but when he noticed Mike's gaze, the traitor stopped hurriedly and stood aside with a flattering look on his face.

"Nice to meet you, Chief Avery. I'm Townley, Mike Townley. You can call me Mr. Townley." Mike looked at him with a smile, "I'm going to ask you a few questions, but I don't think you will answer truthfully, so..."

As he spoke, Mike glanced at Benjamin who was standing beside him.

The latter immediately understood, took out a bottle of potion and poured it directly into the mouth of Chief Avery.

This is truth serum. Unlike the variant of anesthetic in the Muggle world, its potion version is much more powerful and can make people talk about almost anything, but as a side effect, those who have taken it will become wise directly.

Due to its overly powerful effect, the Ministry of Magic strictly blocked the sale and manufacture of this potion. Only a few potion masters in the whole of Europe have mastered the method of making truth serum, and the one that Benjamin took out now is the only one they have!
Chief Avery was obviously a knowledgeable man. Soon after being fed the truth serum, he realized what he had drunk. He hurriedly reached out to dig his throat, trying to spit out the potion again.

Unfortunately, it's too late.

Chief Avery pulled the trigger only a few times before he stopped. His ferocious expression quickly turned calm and gentle, and then quickly turned dull.

He did not take the hand out of his mouth, but he stopped digging his throat and instead sucked his hand hard like a baby sucking a pacifier.

The sight of a middle-aged man sucking his fingers made Mike feel a little disgusted. He shook his head impatiently and asked quickly:
"Where's Chris?"

"I do not know."

Listening to the other party's pale and empty voice and looking at his wise expression, Mike was a little dazed.

But he soon reacted.

I was stupid. The other party should just answer questions passively now. I should have asked more detailed questions.

"Why did you and Chris all disappear at the same time?"

"Chris came to us and told us a lot of things, including Dumbledore's preparations and the news that Voldemort was about to return. He told us that Britain and even Europe would be plunged into war, and we'd better hide like him, and wait until the end of the war to choose the advantaged side to pledge allegiance. In this way, we can preserve the family's strength to the greatest extent and gain future security. We believed him, so we hid."

"Each family's hiding place is separate and confidential, so you don't know where other families are hiding, right?"

"Yes."

Nodding, Mike took the pendant box from Franklin, held it in front of Patriarch Avery, shook it a few times and said:
"Where did this come from?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Chief Avery's expression suddenly became ferocious. He stared at the pendant box viciously, as if he wanted to tear it into pieces.

Mike looked at Benjamin expressionlessly. This would not happen to someone who had taken truth serum.

But Benjamin was also confused. After all, he didn't have a deep understanding of the super banned drug, the Truth Agent, and had no idea why this happened.

Fortunately, Patriarch Avery's abnormality only lasted for a short moment. He soon returned to his original stupid look and continued to answer in that pale and hollow voice:

"Chris gave this to me."

"Do you know what this is? Why did he give this to you?"

"This is Slytherin's locket. I've had it authenticated and it's genuine. Chris wanted to use this to thank me for supporting his plan. This is the gift, and I like it very much." "But now it seems," Mike laughed sarcastically, "this seems to be just a trap, a trap that will leave you dead without a burial place."

"Yes, that's right."

"Then the next question." Mike took out the parchment, "What is this."

"The contract the Avery family uses to control the ants."

Mike smiled. He glanced at the somewhat uneasy queen ant and said slowly:

"Teach me how to sign this special contract."

As soon as these words were spoken, the queen ant suddenly made a squeaking sound, from which Mike heard a hint of unwillingness, and the surrounding ants also rioted upon hearing the sound.

But the next moment they all fell silent, because a string of black flames emitting a dangerous aura suddenly appeared in Mike's palm!
The ants retreated quickly. Seeing this, Mike snorted coldly and crushed the flame in his palm.

At this time, after a brief silence, Chief Avery finally spoke.

"I cannot. The method of making this ancient contract has been lost."

Upon hearing this, Mike and the others as well as the queen ant beside them were all stunned. No one had expected that such an important contract spell had been lost by the Avery family!

A burst of laughter sounded from Mike's heart. This was the voice of the queen ant. At this moment, Mike could feel infinite happiness from her laughter.

But her laughter didn't last long, because Mike lowered his head and thought for a moment before continuing to speak to Patriarch Avery:
"Then, can the power enjoyed in this contract be transferred from you to me through an unbreakable oath?"

"can."

Hearing this, Mike laughed, and the laughter of the queen ant next to him stopped abruptly.

She didn't actually understand what Mike meant by the unbreakable vow, but that didn't stop her from feeling a little uneasy.

The next thing was very simple. Under the effect of the truth serum, Chief Avery was in a state of confusion. Mike effortlessly made him swear to transfer the effectiveness of the contract, and then Benjamin on the side performed an unbreakable oath.

As a golden chain appeared from the hands of Mike and Chief Avery and slowly spread to their bodies, the oath was officially established. Mike didn't feel anything, but the queen ant was different.

Her contract with the Avery family was actually very simple, that is, she had to obey all orders from the Avery family and could not harm any member of the Avery family, otherwise she would be tortured by pain equivalent to the Cruciatus Curse.

Now, she could clearly feel that the restrictions of the contract had shifted from the Avery family to Mike, which was hard for her to accept.

Just as Mike said before, the reason why she provided so much help to Mike was that she wanted to use Mike to get rid of the Avery family so that she could regain her freedom.

But now, although the Avery family has been destroyed, her freedom is in the hands of the man in front of her!

What if you just don't accept it?

What Mike did on the fifth floor just now was seen by the queen ant through the other ants. A man who mastered that horrible spell could probably destroy his entire colony by himself!

So, the queen ant trembled and slowly lowered her head towards Mike.

As she moved, hundreds of ants in the entire rock cave also knelt down and presented the most noble gift to Mike.

Of course, this kind of sublimity is only for human beings.

From the twisted and stiff movements of the ants when they kneeled, it was clear that they themselves did not understand what kneeling meant. It was just an action that the Avery family forced them to teach in order to satisfy their vanity.

Shaking his head, Mike looked at Ant Queen and asked expressionlessly:

"Your name is Lilith, right?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"From now on, there is no need to greet people."

"Um...what?"

There was a strong sense of surprise and confusion in Lilith's words.

Unlike her own children, Lilith, who is extremely intelligent, knows the true meaning of kneeling. In her opinion, wizards are a group of ambitious, brutal and cruel guys.

How could such a creature voluntarily give up the opportunity to be worshipped?
"I'll give you my orders, and you just need to execute them." Mike continued, "In addition, your future work will remain the same, which is to harvest the mushrooms in the secret territory. I can give you more power and even allow you to be independent and autonomous in this secret territory. My only requirement is that your production must double. Do you understand?"

The queen ant was even more confused. The pair of antennae on her head kept shaking as she said:

"But……"

"No buts, I will send someone to take over your work here in a while. If you cannot complete my requirements, I will take away your life, not to mention the power I gave you!"

After saying that, Mike no longer looked at the terrified queen ant behind him, and walked directly out of the cave with Benjamin and others.

Just as he had thought before, he had no way of guaranteeing whether this secret realm would have other entrances or other door keys controlled by the enemy. After all, the Avery family had ruled this place for countless years in the past, and who knows what tricks they might have left behind.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible for Mike to invest a lot of resources in construction. The risk is too great.

So the best way to deal with it at this stage is to drain the resources in this secret territory in the shortest possible time. In this case, Mike is also willing to give these ants better treatment. After all, Mike is not a member of the Avery family. He knows very well that if you want the horse to run, you have to feed it grass.

As for where these ants will go after this secret realm is developed.

It all depends on how they perform at that time.

If they behave well, Mike doesn't mind taking them to the Overworld!

(End of this chapter)