From Hogwarts to Sturhaven

"Arrogant brat! A puppet of fashion! ... Ignorant fool, you brave young pursuer, share in my joy and victory!"

The Phantom of the Opera spoke again, but unlike the soft whispers that had been echoing in Christina's ears, his voice became high-pitched and angry; he was jealous.

"So, do you have an answer, Nico?" Just before the plot on stage reached its first climax, the so-called "battle royale," Dumbledore once again inappropriately interrupted Nico-LeMay's viewing experience.

“Merlin’s beard!” Nicolas Lemaître slammed his hand on the armrest and stood up angrily.

Ivy vaguely heard a cracking sound from his wrist.

“Please, Dumbledore! I’m here to appreciate art, not to be your advisor!” Nicolas Flamel calmly adjusted his wrist, but the two people in the box had already noticed. “Can’t you learn from your students… your collaborators?”

Since entering this luxurious private box, Ivy hasn't said a word. Could you find a more perfect theater-watching partner than him?

“Nicole, you’ve been through so many adventures, and you’ve met all sorts of white and black wizards. I know you must have the answer.” Dumbledore rested his arms on the armrests, his fingertips touching, as if he was certain that Nicole would answer the question.

In the original story, Dumbledore only saw Voldemort's Horcruxes when Harry was in his second year. By the time he realized that Harry himself was also one of Voldemort's Horcruxes and began to wonder how many times Voldemort had split his soul, Nicolas Flamel, who destroyed the Philosopher's Stone, was probably already dead.

Now that the alchemist, who has lived for over six hundred years, is still alive, Dumbledore's knowledge of Voldemort's Horcruxes came much earlier.

Perhaps this is why he directly sought confirmation from Nicolas Lemaître, instead of going through the trouble of searching for various witness accounts.

Chapter 148 Bold Hypothesis

“Sigh…Dumbledore, have you heard of any other dark wizards who only made Horcruxes?” Nico asked with a sigh.

“That despicable Halbo?” Dumbledore uttered a name.

Ivy had also heard that the legendary "Despicable Helbo" was the first wizard to create Horcruxes, evil dark magic items, and he was also considered the first wizard to hatch a basilisk.

"Herbo the Despicable" was an ancient Greek who lived about two to three thousand years ago, but legends about him still circulate in the magical world today, and there has never been any news of his Horcruxes being destroyed.

If Horcruxes, this kind of dark magic, could really allow a wizard to escape death, then he should still be alive now.

“Well then, where is this ‘despicable Herpo’ now?” Nico asked.

Dumbledore shook his head and said, "I don't know, and I think... nobody knows either..."

"So he's long gone!" Nico glanced towards the stage. Christina had already started singing a duet with the Phantom of the Opera, and he figured they'd see the Phantom's true form soon.

"If you ask me, Voldemort is doomed sooner or later. Although he is still clinging to life for now, I think it won't be long before he is completely forgotten by people!" Nicole said absentmindedly, staring longingly at Christina on the stage.

“Perhaps… ‘Hilbo the Despicable’ is not dead, but has simply gone into seclusion,” Dumbledore suggested.

“Absolutely impossible!” Nico’s answer was resolute. “Think about it, before he even made Horcruxes, he was already a notorious dark wizard. His terrifying stories are still written into textbooks. How could someone like that disappear without a trace after gaining the ability to live forever? So I’m certain that he’s completely finished.”

“Excellent.” Dumbledore’s furrowed brows relaxed, and a smile reappeared beneath his white beard. “Then, in your opinion, how long will it take for Voldemort to bring about his own destruction without external interference?”

“It won’t be too slow,” Nico shrugged. “Maybe a hundred years?”

"A hundred years?" Ivy rarely saw surprise on Dumbledore's face. Over a hundred years of life had allowed the old man to experience so much that it was difficult for anything to move him, except for his favorite candy.

“Perhaps I don’t have another hundred years…” Dumbledore shook his head.

“It’s not my fault!” Nico said innocently. “You know I’m over six hundred years old. A hundred years isn’t a particularly long time for me.”

After a while, he added, "Actually, it's been quite a long time. I haven't traveled far from home for at least two hundred years... Perhaps I should take a long hike before facing death?"

"Let's get back to our question," Dumbledore steered the conversation back on track. "Tell me, Nico, what do you think is the maximum number of times a wizard can split their soul?"

“That depends on how much they crave it,” Nico replied quickly. “You’re a wizard, Dumbledore. Think about how you use magic. My past experience tells me that, apart from having more side effects, black magic is essentially no different from white magic—at least in the creation of alchemical items, there’s almost no difference.”

"So... he might be able to create many Horcruxes?" Dumbledore's tone turned somber once again.

“You don’t actually think the soul is infinitely divisible, do you?” Nico looked surprised. “We’re talking about the soul itself! Creating a Horcrux isn’t a free lunch. Every Horcrux you create means that the wizard is forever missing something. You know… something internal, spiritual. I’ve never made a Horcrux, so I don’t know.”

Christina and the Phantom of the Opera's first duet on stage has ended. Guided by the white-masked Phantom, Christina discovers a secret passage behind a giant mirror, and she is now following the Phantom to the basement of the Paris Opera.

The story of *The Phantom of the Opera* itself takes place within the Garnier Opera House, so almost every scene in the musical has a real-life counterpart. Just like on stage, beneath the opera house beneath Ivy and her companions lies a massive underground structure, reportedly a man-made lake filled with water. Workers periodically drain the water and refill it with clean water. However, this underground lake is currently closed to the public.

The male and female protagonists of the story have all made their appearances, and the first climax is just around the corner. Therefore, Nico himself is becoming increasingly impatient.

"Enough, Dumbledore? You already know what you want, let me enjoy the art in peace." Nico's bottom shifted restlessly in the chair. It was the first time Ivy had ever seen someone so fidgety. Could this musical really be that captivating?

“Calm down, Nico,” Dumbledore reassured him. “I have one last question.”

Seeing the distrust in Nicolas Lemaître's eyes, he added, "This really is the last one. If you were to make Horcruxes, how many would you make?"

“I don’t create Horcruxes,” Nicolas Flamel answered without hesitation. “Creating Philosopher’s Stones was an accident for me. I’m not pursuing immortality; it just so happens that I have a way to temporarily avoid facing death.”

That's like the richest person saying they don't like money.

“Making Horcruxes isn’t enough, he wants to make several? I think it would be better to just die!” Nico watched the Phantom of the Opera wandering across the wooden bridge with a lantern, then added after a moment’s thought, “If he could make many, perhaps he would choose a meaningful number? Like… some kind of ritualistic thing?”

"A sense of ritual?" Dumbledore's azure eyes seemed to light up. "Although there's no evidence yet, my intuition tells me this works! I taught Voldemort a bit about it when he was still at Hogwarts. But those things are too long ago; I'll probably have to rummage through my memory!"

“But anyway, thank you for your help, Nico.” Dumbledore’s expression was sincere, but Nico Lemaître didn’t seem inclined to be polite. He simply hummed and turned to watch the opera.

Only Ivy knows what really happened.

Voldemort had a hobby of collecting souvenirs. For him, rituals were an indispensable part of life, and he did not give up on this even after losing so many souls.

Not only were his Horcruxes items meaningful to him, but even in his final duel with Harry, he didn't forget to follow the dueling etiquette between wizards, making Harry bow to him.

Dumbledore has now noticed this, and according to the original plot, Nicolas Flamel has advanced the plan to defeat Voldemort by five years in just a few words.

Chapter 149 Underground Space

Christina on stage had fallen into a deep sleep, and although Dumbledore in the box was no longer making a sound, Nicolas Flamel still missed a wonderful performance.

But he didn't care at all and continued to immerse himself in the musical. Because Nico, who had seen it many times, knew very well that the first conflict in the plot was only just about to unfold.

The Phantom of the Opera, who lulled Christina to sleep, was engrossed in writing. Living in the opera house's underground, he made a living by writing new operas for the theater. However, he never delivered his completed operas to the theater manager in a normal way, and he himself never showed his face. He lived like a shadow in the grand theater, using the various secret passages and dark rooms within the theater to travel between different places.

“Did you know?” Nico said with great interest, “the total number of doors and keys in the Garnier Opera House is close to ten thousand, and there are also several miles of underground tunnels. Maybe in some place unknown to Muggles, there really is a Phantom of the Opera!”

Ivy thought Nicolas Flamel's joke might actually come true, after all, Hogwarts Castle was inhabited by all sorts of ghosts, including wizard ghosts from a thousand years ago, such as the Bloody Barrow from Slytherin and Helena Ravenclaw from Ravenclaw.

Although "The Phantom of the Opera" is just a literary work from the Muggle world, and the characters played by the actors are all fictional, dark and damp places like the underground space of the Garnier Opera House might actually attract some ghosts and spirits.

Ivy was starting to feel adventurous. His experience points hadn't increased significantly in a long time, and with the limited experience he'd gained at the academy, he didn't know when he'd finally acquire a ninth-circle spell slot. He also wanted to test the effects of the Wish spell in this world.

As we all know, there are two main ways for adventurers to gain experience points: one is through combat, and the other is by completing adventures. If there really is something interesting in the underground of the Garnier Opera House, it might be able to raise Ivy's level by one and a half levels.

“Oh”

The Phantom of the Opera let out a scream, drawing Ivy's attention back to the stage.

Christina, who had been fast asleep, had woken up. Seeing the phantom writing at his desk, she became curious and secretly crept over, tearing off the white mask that he had been wearing on his face.

"...You damned, spying Pandora! You little devil, is this what you wanted to see?"

The Phantom of the Opera, caught off guard, unleashed a vicious curse, venting his panic and rage. The pitiful Christina lay curled up on the ground.

Seeing the beautiful woman startled, even the eccentric and extreme Phantom of the Opera couldn't help but feel a pang of pity, especially since this was the girl he had always loved.

"This face is stranger than you can imagine. Do you dare to look at it? Do you dare to think of me?"

The Phantom of the Opera softened his tone and began a heartfelt confession: "This repulsive and grotesque man suffers in hell yet secretly yearns for heaven... secretly... secretly..."

As Christina, dressed in a white dress, slowly turned her face, the Phantom of the Opera softly guided her, "Fear can turn into love. You will find that the man behind this monster, this beast-like man, is also secretly yearning for love..."

Christina was drawn in by the singing and wanted to catch a glimpse of the Phantom of the Opera, but he himself hesitated.

The Phantom of the Opera's extreme and bizarre behavior was merely a cover for his deep-seated inferiority complex; in the face of the young and beautiful Christina, he ultimately turned his face away.

Christina thoughtfully picked up the mask from the ground for him. When his inferiority and ugliness were once again covered by the mask, the Phantom of the Opera's strength and eccentricity returned.

He grabbed Christina and pulled her up from the ground, intending to take her back to the theater's backstage dressing room.

Ivy chuckled softly and stood up from her seat.

"Where are you going?" Nico turned around in surprise. "The best part is just beginning!"

“You’re right, this exciting plot makes me want to explore the underground space of the Garnier Opera House,” Ivy replied with a smile, rising from her chair and casting an illusion spell on herself.

Watching the heavy wooden door of the private room open and close again, he shook his head in surprise, then laughed: "It seems that Ivy has long been impatient with the two old men's nagging! It's not bad for a young person to have endured it until now."

Dumbledore suppressed his urge to say something. Could he really say that this tall, slender young man was even a few years older than him and was an ancient relic from over a hundred years ago?

Just as Nicolas Lemaître described, the Palais Garnier Opera House has countless doors and locks; anyone who wanted to steal something here would probably need several kilograms of keys.

However, Ivy was a wizard, and over a hundred years ago, when he was still studying at Hogwarts, he had already pried open every single box and lock in the school. No matter how exquisitely crafted or intricately designed the locks on the Garnier Opera House were, he could easily break them with "Alohobos".

Thankfully, electronic locks are not yet widely used, and the Garnier Opera House has not undergone much modernization. If it were to be converted into a museum and fitted with electronic locks in the future, Ivy might have to resort to vaporization.

Walking through the corridor adorned with Ionic columns, Ivy flitted like a shadow past the shimmering light reflected from the crystal chandeliers. Although a performance was taking place in the main hall, there were still many staff members in the corridors, and Ivy had to carefully avoid each and every one of them.

The Disappearance Charm uses magic to make a wizard transparent. In short, it uses magic to change the path of light refraction. It is not complete invisibility in the traditional sense, so some unnatural things will appear when the wizard is moving.

Even though Ivy was a seasoned wizard who had been immersed in this art for many years, he still couldn't help but reveal a flaw under the colorful light reflected from the countless crystal chandeliers in the corridor.

The colors exhibit some unnatural variations along the edges of the body's outline, as if some translucent object were standing on the ground.

Ivy saw a staff member looking at him with a look of horror.

Just as Ivy was about to give him a painless memory-altering treatment, the staff member looked away as if he had seen a ghost.

As long as Ivy stops moving, the Illusion Charm's effects will stabilize, and his invisibility will become impenetrable once again.

Chapter 150 The Witch on the Bridge

The staff member breathed a sigh of relief, his expression a mixture of smugness and fear, and excitedly shared the news with his colleague beside him.