The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 280 Only Happiness, Joy to the Point of Death (Two Chapters Combined)

The flight was late, and Moriarty looked up at the sky, his brow slightly furrowed.

In his line of sight, a flock of crows flapped their wings and flew around the wings and tail of the passenger plane.

These crows were unlike the fire crows, rainbow crows, and fallen crows that Moriarty had seen before.

They are entirely black, with bright red heads and feet, as if dripping blood.

The crow flew in the air, with two small black spheres under its wings.

Moriarty detected traces of dark elemental magic within the sphere, though not clearly, because the magic was mixed with too many negative emotions.

If anyone were to come into close contact with those small black spheres, Moriarty was certain that person would be dragged into an abyss of sin by a whole host of emotions.

The fluctuations caused by the magic altered the magnetic field, resulting in a deviation in the aircraft's instrument panel.

The captain and crew were unable to maintain the original speed and altitude, and they dared not accelerate rashly. They could only reduce the speed and altitude and fly slowly.

Moriarty learned of these things later, but that didn't prevent him from making a judgment.

"Lilith," Moriarty sighed deeply, "you were right again. The flight delay is directly related to these crows."

A flicker of tension crossed Lilith's eyes: "What did you see?"

"The strange crows." Moriarty explained briefly, then asserted, "As for whether the crows harmed the passengers, we'll have to wait until they disembark; that will make it clear."

Moriarty's eyes were fixed on the plane, and as the lights in the control tower flickered, the plane began to land.

"Look, the red-robed wizards and the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic have chosen a truce," Lilith said, pointing to the rooftop. "It seems they haven't reached the point of no return yet; their target is still the delayed flights."

Moriarty glanced in the direction she pointed out and saw two groups of people, the goatee and the bald wizard, standing on opposite sides, each staring intently at the plane.

Not only them, but also the aircraft staff, military officers and soldiers, and passengers in the terminal all turned their attention to the plane.

Relatives and friends who came to pick them up ran out of the terminal.

Simon, who was invisible, ran in the lead, his face full of anxiety and anticipation, eager to confirm that his wife and daughter were safe and sound.

At that moment, the delayed flight became the focus of the entire airport. Moriarty had Lilith hold his suit and used Apparition to get to the runway.

Once the plane lands, this is the closest but least noticeable open space.

"The goatee—the teacher whom the bald wizard called 'Genya-kun'—said to his students, 'For the sake of building a better Ministry of Magic!' Remember that?"

Moriarty asked Lilith.

"Of course," Lilith nodded, then suddenly realized, "You mean—the Japanese Ministry of Magic is about to experience a coup?"

"Just a goatee and a bunch of teenagers?" Moriarty raised an eyebrow. "You're seriously underestimating the Ministry of Magic's capabilities."

"Those red-robed wizards were pretty powerful with their fireballs, water curtains, and clods of earth."

"Those are all low-level elemental transformations," Moriarty shook his head, glancing at the red-robed wizards. "If that's all they've got, they'll never achieve their goal."

What interests me more is what exactly happened that caused the teachers and students at the Magic Institute to become dissatisfied with the Ministry of Magic.

Moriarty concluded, "If you encounter a difficult problem and have no clue where to start, then finding the cause of the problem is half the battle."

"Should I find a notebook and write this down?" Lilith's eyes flashed with a smile. "Then name it 'Moriarty's Quotations,' publish it, and maybe I can earn two Galleons?"

As they were talking, the plane slowly descended and landed smoothly, and the door opened from the inside.

Moriarty dispelled Simon's invisibility, and the Hebrew appraiser rushed to the gate as if he had seen a priceless treasure.

"Natalie? Natalie? Natalie? Ilan? Ilan? Ilan?"

Simon called out his wife's and daughter's names repeatedly, but the plane was quiet and no sound came out.

Simon's face turned deathly pale, his lips trembled, and he remained speechless.

More and more people rushed to the airplane door, gathered together, and shouted the names of their relatives and friends.

But there was still no response!

A few dozen seconds later, people sensed something was amiss; an accident might be happening, but no one could say exactly what it was.

However, there are too many unsolved mysteries surrounding the mysterious disappearance or sudden death of all the crew members.

People couldn't believe it; their eyes reddened. The scene was deathly silent; neither the plane nor the ground made a sound.

The sound of running footsteps rang out as the army rushed over, and the red-robed wizard and the black-robed wizard also Apparated to the vicinity of the plane.

"Moriarty, shall we go inside the plane and take a look?" Lilith's emerald eyes sparkled with curiosity and longing.

That is the boldness and courage to want to explore and attempt to discover.

Although the world inside the plane is unknown, it seems necessary to go to the scene to uncover some clues at present.

Just as Moriarty was about to nod in agreement, the music of "Jingle Bells" suddenly started playing in the plane.

That is, Christmas carols, like "Jingle Bells".

Simon: ? ? ?

army:???

wizard:???

Lilith:? ? ?

Everyone was stunned.

Then the flight attendants, dressed in red leather jackets and each carrying a small megaphone, disembarked from the plane, standing on either side to create a passageway.

A large group of people came out, with the captain and crew at the front, followed by the passengers.

Each of them wore a big smile, their eyes brimming with undisguised joy.

The people on the ground were stunned and have yet to utter a single word.

The captain walked up to the group with a cheerful smile and said loudly, "Did you like our prank? We're not getting off the plane after it lands."

We'll make you wait a moment, then we'll put on a Christmas show for you!

This decision was made jointly by all passengers and crew of flight LJN—I know we were delayed, but we had a wonderful 20 hours on the plane!

"Whoa!"

The passengers behind the captain, regardless of gender or age, all erupted in cheers, with many men waving their arms and shouting excitedly.

"Yes, yes! I guarantee we'll never forget the wonderful time on the plane!"

The captain and first officer high-fived each other in celebration, and they tried to take photos with each passenger, but were pulled apart by airport staff.

"Hey! What are you doing? Don't use that force, it hurts!"

The captain was dragged away by four or five people, but strangely, he didn't show any displeasure on his face.

Everyone else was the same; they all noticed this and didn't expect the captain to tell them what was happening on the plane. Instead, they focused on the endless stream of passengers disembarking.

Simon finally saw his wife Natalie and their daughter Elaine being held by her mother as they disembarked from the plane together.

"Daddy~"

Ilan jumped off Natalie and ran toward Simon.

Moriarty and Lilith smiled slightly as they watched the family of three reunite.

But they soon discovered that most of the passengers were just laughing and joking.

A man had a broken arm; his left forearm was visibly bent—he said he hit a wall during the plane's turbulence.

Despite the excruciating pain, the man showed no distress whatsoever. He even smiled as the doctor administered anesthetic and hemostatic injections.

Lilith frowned and said, "Laughter? Some people always say that laughter has a kind of magic. Could these people really be under a spell of joy?"

"As far as I know, there is no magic of joy." Moriarty's expression was not good.

When flights are delayed, people are worried about the safety of passengers.

Most of the passengers are safe and sound, but their mental state has become problematic.

Simon explained the dangers of Japan to his wife and daughters, trying to persuade them to return home.

But all he received in return was his daughter's silvery laughter and his wife's tender, deep kiss.

Another group of people surrounded the two passengers.

They tearfully recounted that the passenger's elderly mother had passed away, but the two passengers showed no grief, their cheerful expressions unchanged, making one want to punch them.

"Have you noticed?" Moriarty said to Lilith, "The passengers getting off the plane have lost their negative emotions. They don't feel sadness, they don't feel annoyance, they don't feel surprise, they don't feel fear..."

They only know how to be happy and joyful, doing whatever makes them happy, seemingly always in a cheerful mood, to the point of numbness…

Lilith, a clever witch, immediately associated the image with the small black spheres of negative emotions.

"Those crows absorbed all the passengers' negative emotions, leaving them only with joy!"

"I think that's a fair interpretation." Moriarty nodded slightly; he couldn't find a better explanation.

A serious expression appeared on Lilith's face. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn't have believed that such a thing could happen in the world."

"Compared to the corrupted crows that attacked Hyprose, those crows' abilities have evolved."

Moriarty said with certainty, looking up at the plane. It was empty, with no trace of magic.

Long before the plane landed, or even earlier, the crows disappeared into the night.

"The Fallen Raven draws out the darkness in people's hearts, infecting wizards through dark power and negative emotions."

All conscience, morality, and happiness... were overturned by all sorts of terrible evil thoughts.

Evil and famine turned the wizards into zombies, into monsters.

Moriarty compared the characteristics of the two types of dark elemental magic.

"The crows we see today have also removed negative emotions, but the difference is that they haven't allowed negative emotions to invade people's consciousness and reason. Instead, they've left people with happiness, or rather, only happiness!"

Lilith tried to imagine what it would be like when a person's emotions consisted only of happiness.

If I only have happiness left, then I won't be jealous of Moriarty anymore.

The first thing that popped into Lilith's mind was Moriarty lying with a bunch of girls, and then she watching and grinning like an idiot.

Are you kidding me!

Lilith shook her head vigorously; if such a thing happened, she would rather be dead.

So, without negative emotions, without feeling sad or disappointed, only feeling happy is not good at all.

"That's horrible," Lilith said, looking at Moriarty. "Although I don't like seeing myself cry, sad, or disappointed, I don't want to become a fool who only knows how to laugh. I like experiencing all walks of life."

Moriarty teased her, "I didn't know you could cry. Where? When? May I have a look around?"

"It's all because of you! And you even laughed at me..." A blush quickly crossed Lilith's pretty face as she clenched her fist and punched Moriarty on the shoulder.

She spoke very softly, just muttering to herself, so Moriarty couldn't hear her.

"But this feeling is really good. Although there's a bit of shyness and bittersweetness, I'm very satisfied and happy." Lilith put away her playful expression and looked towards the noisy crowd.

"They will probably become numb for a long time."

Moriarty nodded in agreement. "If you keep smiling for too long, your face will become stiff, and it will cause your facial skin to sag and your muscles to become loose."

"Your focus is always so unusual," Lilith teased, raising an eyebrow. "Were you focused on the lady's face the whole time? Look how pretty Simon's wife, Natalie, is...?"

"That's enough." Moriarty glanced at Lilith, who remained silent.

"We need to find Simon and the Slit-Mouthed Woman. So much has happened in the last two days; I need to sort things out."

"And what about them?" Lilith glanced at the two groups of wizards from Japan.

"Send the Ghost Serpent to follow first."

Dozens of small black snakes crawled out of Moriarty's sleeves and disappeared into the darkness, hiding nearby the red-robed wizard and the black-robed wizard.

Lilith watched the black snake disappear into the distance, and praised, "What a convenient and practical magic."

"I'm gone."

As Moriarty spoke, he walked toward Simon.

The two of them deactivated their invisibility together. The scene was chaotic, filled with exaggerated laughter, and no one would notice that two more people had suddenly appeared.

Simon was worried about his wife and daughter's excessive happiness when he saw Moriarty coming over. He happily introduced Moriarty to his wife.

Hopefully, Moriarty can help get Natalie back on track.

Moriarty pulled Simon aside and whispered, "I don't need to do anything. The disappearance of negative emotions is only temporary. In less than a week, your wife and daughter will automatically return to normal."

Simon breathed a sigh of relief.

As a husband and father, it's good that my wife and daughter are happy.

However, he firmly believes that all human emotions and desires are essential, and a life without any one of them is incomplete.

Moriarty agreed with his point of view, just as Lilith said, experiencing all aspects of life is far more important than just having happiness.

Otherwise, what meaning would life have?

However, Moriarty saw through the Japanese boss's intentions through the airport incident.

The Japanese boss is constantly developing dark element magic. Within the rules, he is improving the methods of using dark element magic as much as possible, and is also constantly increasing the power of dark element magic.

From the most direct magical attacks to changing appearances through dark power, and now to subtly altering people's thoughts.

The Japanese BOSS used dark elemental magic to accomplish many things that ordinary wizards could hardly imagine.

It's difficult to determine the wizard level of the Eastern Japanese BOSS, but Moriarty's protection estimates that the Eastern Japanese BOSS is level 75 or higher.

As they walked out of the airport with Simon's family, Moriarty saw the Slit-Mouthed Woman standing alone on the road outside the airport.

Moriarty suddenly realized that the Slit-Mouthed Woman was also quite lonely, and he was determined to find out why the poor woman had become the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

After meeting up with the Slit-Mouthed Woman, Moriarty and his group checked into a hotel near Haneda International Airport. After all that fuss, it was already 3:18 a.m.

This time, Lilith did not resort to any tricks to share a room with Moriarty.

She now only wanted to avoid Moriarty, not wanting him to see the scales that had appeared on her skin as she learned Transfiguration.

Moriarty stood before the French windows. The serpent had returned empty-handed, but this precisely proved the whereabouts of the red-robed wizard and the black-robed wizard.

Only the Magic Institute and the Japanese Ministry of Magic have magical protection, preventing the Ghost Serpent from entering; otherwise, the Ghost Serpent wouldn't have lost track of it.

Moriarty gazed in the direction of the volcanic island in Japan, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

Thank you tangyue6618 for the monthly ticket and recommendation vote, thank you~ Also, I have a question for everyone: Would you be willing to live a life without any negative emotions, where you only experience happy emotions no matter what happens?

(End of this chapter)