The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 151 The Wizard Merlin

"System, exchange for a bottle of mana recovery potion (medium)." Moriarty slowly sat down by the lake. The howling wind had drained most of his mana, and he was now at his weakest.

The system immediately responded: "10,000 points deducted, successfully redeemed a medium-sized mana recovery potion."

Moriarty suddenly had a bottle of potion in his hand.

"A mid-level mana recovery potion costs 10,000 points? What a price! I'll brew my own mana recovery potion sooner or later."

The system agreed, saying, "We can look forward to something."

Moriarty didn't even look at it before shoveling it into his mouth. He pursed his lips, savoring the sweet and sour taste. A surge of heat rushed to his brain, then flowed through his limbs and bones, forming a cycle within his body.

His magic was quickly restored, and Moriarty stood up and walked toward the black dragon. The black dragon noticed Moriarty and flapped its wings to approach him.

The black dragon moved very lightly to avoid the wind and waves blowing Moriarty away, but Moriarty waved his staff, and a tornado rose from beneath his feet, sending him right in front of the black dragon.

A flash of surprise crossed the black dragon's eyes. It moved its mouth slightly and uttered a string of obscure dragon language. The voice was so soft that Moriarty could hardly hear what it was saying. But then something strange happened. A silver light flashed before Moriarty's eyes, and he had to close them—the silver light meant no harm, Moriarty was certain of that.

Moriarty opened his eyes and found that the black dragon had disappeared. A handsome blond youth stood in the air. He was over 1.85 meters tall, wearing a high-collared mage's robe, holding Dracula's head in his hand, and looking at Moriarty with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, student of Hogwarts," he said with a gentle and polite bow, "before we get to know each other, I'd like to know what era this is?"

"It's the end of September 1989," Moriarty said casually, glancing towards the forest. "If you're asking about the Elven calendar, only the elves can tell you."

"If I could, I would rather not deal with elves."

Okay, 1989 AD? So, I've been asleep for over 1300 years? Rounding up, that's 1500 years!

1500 years is enough to weaken my seal on Dracula, no wonder he came out—he didn't do anything to Hogwarts, did he?

I noticed you look remarkably like Professor Salazar. Are you his descendant? My name is Merlin, and I'm a Slytherin student.

The blond youth took a few steps forward, a friendly smile on his face. Moriarty, already having guessed his identity, wasn't surprised and calmly said, "I am the last Slytherin. You are a student of Salazar?"

"Yes, when I enrolled, the first batch of seventh-year students had just graduated," Merlin said nostalgically. "I remember a noble student named Barrow who pursued Ravenclaw's daughter for seven whole years. Did he succeed in the end?"

"no."

A smile flickered in Moriarty's eyes. He hadn't expected Barrow's story to be so famous; even the renowned wizard god Merlin had heard of him.

However, in order to verify Merlin's identity, Moriarty changed the subject: "Did you enroll in Hogwarts to seal Dracula?"

Given your strength at the time, even the four giants combined might not have been able to defeat you.

Aside from Dracula, I really can't think of any other reason why you'd want to go to Hogwarts.

"You've hit the nail on the head." Merlin grabbed Dracula's hair and shook it. "I split Dracula's seal in two. I sealed Dracula's body in a helmetless armor, and with the help of Professor Salazar, I made a portrait of the armor and hid it in a mural."

As for Dracula's head, I hid it in my mental dimension using dragon magic—Sleeping Dragon, Do Not Disturb.

Moriarty knew this was the key point. He looked at Merlin and asked, "Could you elaborate?"

"Of course," Merlin readily agreed. "During the sealing of Dracula's head, I received help from my teacher Salazar, and I don't mind sharing this secret with you."

Let's go downstairs and talk. By the way, you can fly? Master Salazar has always wanted to develop a flight charm; it seems he succeeded.

"I made improvements to the flight spell left by my ancestors, which is how the current flight spell, Dimoaka, came about."

The two landed on the ground, and Merlin began to explain: "The Sleeping Dragon Do Not Disturb is a powerful dragon magic. Its original meaning is 'Do not provoke a sleeping dragon,' and it has a sealing magic effect."

Based on this spell, I used alchemy, taking a portion of my soul and most of my thoughts as alchemical raw materials, to create an indelible alchemical artifact—that is me, the me standing before you right now.

Moriarty had a breakthrough, and Merlin opened up new avenues of thought for him in alchemy.

"Due to the special connection between dragon language and alchemy, I transformed into a black dragon and bound myself to the Sleeping Dragon, together sealing Dracula's head."

Thanks to the special connection between Elvish and alchemy, the sealing location was set in Avalon, and that's what you see there.

Over a thousand years, I became a snow-capped mountain, Dracula's head buried deep beneath it, his body slumbering in the murals of Hogwarts—but I don't understand why I've awakened.

Moriarty had a thought: Dracula's awakening might be due to the "Hogwarts Riot"!

Merlin was still pondering: "Only Salazar and I knew that Dracula's body was at Hogwarts. The other three leaders all believed that I went to Hogwarts to gain experience in running the school!"

"To gain experience in running schools?" Moriarty raised an eyebrow. "You're also going to open a magic school?"

"That's right, that's one of the reasons I went to Hogwarts to study. I really wanted to have my own school!" Merlin said, beaming. "So when Arthur asked me what I wanted to build as my base, I said without hesitation, I wanted to build a school!"

But... but...

Merlin suddenly fell silent. "Arthur didn't heed my advice and lost the scabbard of the sword in the lake. He was caught up in the war... and I was also trapped in the Avalon Forest by Vivian."

Merlin gazed at the sacred lake, his eyes reflecting the sunlight on its surface. The sunlight was no longer so dazzling; one wonders if seeing the dim light reminded him of his friend, King Arthur.

He turned his head and looked into the forest again, searching for a long time but still couldn't find the oak tree that imprisoned him. He could only silently look at the tall trees in the forest.

The passage of time and the vicissitudes of life made Moriarty's hair stand on end. He had last seen this feeling in Nicolas Flamel, but Merlin gave him a much stronger feeling than Nicolas Flamel.

"Ahem," Moriarty cleared his throat and said, "Is this the scabbard you're talking about?"

He drew his sword from its sheath and brandished it in front of Merlin. He couldn't let Merlin reminisce about the past any longer, or his imposing aura would unsettle Moriarty.

The moment Merlin saw the scabbard, his eyes blazed with a brilliant light. He stroked the patterns on the scabbard and said in a deep voice, "You got the scabbard? A descendant of Slytherin got the scabbard! Well, I suppose so, so I have a few words to tell you."

Merlin's eyes sharpened as he met Moriarty's grey gaze. He said seriously, "Don't lose it, okay? Always keep it with you. It will protect you and keep you from bleeding. You must also protect it—it concerns a terrible prophecy of immortality."

"Wait!" Moriarty's expression also turned serious. "You're saying the scabbard is related to the prophecy of immortality?"

A sharp, cold light flashed in his grey eyes, and Merlin was secretly alarmed. "What, you've heard of the prophecy of immortality?"

"I've heard that people in Japan are obsessed with immortality," Moriarty said meaningfully.

"Japan..." Merlin nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on his face. "It seems my true form went to Japan..."

Around the time Arthur died, I traveled the world in search of a way to resurrect him. A Hebrew lord told me that the prophecy of eternal life could resurrect Arthur.

However, after investigation, it was found that the prophecy of immortality was an extremely dark and evil form of magic.

There is a group of people in this world who hope to achieve a secret through the prophecy of immortality, and Dracula is one of them.

Just then, Dracula came looking for trouble again, so I decided to seal him away to prevent him from finding the prophecy of immortality and wreaking havoc on the world.

"So there's such a history..." Moriarty subconsciously tightened his grip on the Ice Moon Necklace around his neck. From Merlin's tone, it wasn't hard to hear the prophecy of immortality itself, as well as the darkness and immense power behind it.

Dracula, the infamous progenitor of vampires. Even after his head was severed and he was sealed away for a thousand years, he nearly turned Hogwarts upside down with his headless corpse.

Such a person is merely a member of a faction!

So now I'm up against them?

Moriarty glanced at the Ice Moon Necklace, then at the scabbard, and it didn't seem too bad.

(End of this chapter)