The wheelchair-bound warrior is speedrunning Hogwarts.

Sera was not intimidated by them. Instead, she stepped forward and shielded Vera behind her again: "Professors, Vera is not an outsider. She can use ancient magic just like us."

Vera stood behind her, looking at her straight back, and that subtle emotion welled up inside her again.

The four guardians in the mirror were silent for a moment before one of them, a white-bearded guardian, slowly spoke: "It's not that we are unwilling to trust, Miss Kronos, but the things this secret room carries are far heavier than you know."

“I know.” Sera’s voice was calm, yet filled with deep trust. “She knows all about Isidora, and the secrets the fairies have been coveting… even more than you and I do.”

Professor Figo coughed lightly beside her, trying to stop her from continuing, but Sera completely ignored his prompting and fearlessly poured out all her words.

Seeing Professor Figo's slightly twitching eyebrows, Vera sighed silently, took Sera's hand, stepped forward, and silently met the gazes of the four guardians. Sera's fingers tightened slightly in her palm.

“I know Isidora Morganak.” Her voice echoed in the empty chamber. “I know she tried to eliminate human suffering, I know she sealed those extracted emotions in the castle’s underground, and I know… it was you who stopped her.”

The faces of the four guardians in the mirror froze for a moment.

The white-bearded man asked in surprise, "How could you—"

“The castle told me all this,” Vera interrupted him. “It brought me here for that forbidden object you are guarding.”

The air in the sealed room seemed to freeze.

“The secret vault left behind by Isidora is now coveted by the fairies.” Vera’s voice was calm and unhurried, yet each word was clear. “And what I need to do is actually similar to your mission: to guard that taboo, to guard this castle.”

She paused, her gaze sweeping across the faces of the four guardians before finally settling on Professor Figo's shocked eyes.

"This is not a story I made up out of thin air. If you don't believe me, you can verify it."

The moment the words left his lips, the will of Hogwarts surged into the Chamber of Secrets like a tidal wave. Fine patterns of light appeared on the ceiling of the castle, and the magical circuits that had been dormant deep within the stone walls lit up one after another, enveloping the entire Chamber in a soft silver light.

Professor Figo suddenly took half a step back, nearly bumping into the stone pillar behind him.

He had taught here for decades and had never seen the castle display such a sight. He watched as the silver light flowed around Vera like water, as if silently announcing something.

“Amazing…it’s truly amazing…” Professor Figo murmured in a daze, his eyes shining brighter as he looked at Vera.

The four guardians exchanged glances and bowed slightly to her.

"It seems the castle has made its choice." The white-bearded guardian's voice was much gentler than before. "Then, we have nothing more to say."

Sera stood beside Vera, watching this almost miraculous scene, and unconsciously tightened her grip on Vera's hand.

Her Vera was far more...more remarkable than she had imagined.

Professor Figo, finally recovering from his shock, cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound calmer: "In that case, Miss Kronos, Miss Black, the next trial—"

“Sera’s trial can continue.” Vera released Sera’s hand, stepped forward, and looked back at the four guardians. “However, I need to go and see that secret vault first.”

The four guardians exchanged a glance, and the white-bearded one nodded: "Now that the castle has accepted you, that place is naturally open to you. However…"

He hesitated for a moment, then turned his gaze to Sera: "Miss Kronos, you haven't completed the challenge yet."

Sera paused, then subconsciously looked at Vera, hesitating as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

“In that case…” Vera naturally noticed the unspoken words in her eyes, and after a moment of hesitation, she said, “Then I’ll go with you. We’ll go together after the trial is over.”

“Okay.” Sera replied quickly, as if she had been waiting for this sentence.

Professor Figo stood to the side, his gaze shifting back and forth between the two, but ultimately said nothing.

The rest of the process is quite simple. Sera has already completed three trials, and now with Vera's added support, there's no need to hide the final one anymore.

"Taming the Purple Horned Beast...?" Vera looked thoughtfully at the spot the guardians were pointing to.

She remembered the Ukrainian Iron Belly that she had released from Gringotts with Sera before.

It was a very old dragon, and it took her and Sera a lot of effort to heal its wounds.

However, the mistreatment by those fairies has caused this old dragon to develop PTSD, resulting in its extremely low survival ability.

So Vera simply kept it in the scroll. At least with the young dragon Hemera by its side, the old dragon's spirits improved considerably.

“Miss Black, do you have some insights into the purple-horned beast?” Professor Figo noticed her expression and asked from the side.

Vera snapped out of her reverie, looked at the slender yet resolute figure not far away, and couldn't help but smile: "I don't have any insights, I'm just quite curious about what that purple-horned beast looks like."

"Do you want to see?" Sera had just finished speaking with the Guardians and turned around eagerly upon hearing her voice. "I'll take you there."

She paused for a moment, then hesitantly looked at the four guardians in the mirror.

The guardians remained silent.

Vera turned her head and glanced at Professor Figo again.

The other person looked at them with encouraging eyes.

Fine, Vera could only manage a forced smile: "Okay, let's go together then."

Chapter Eighteen: The Transfer Student is Just That Fierce

According to the trial's content, a purple-horned beast known as the King of the Seas inhabits the area near the coast of Craigmore.

Sera needs to subdue it and bring it back to the Guardians.

Of course, Vera can accompany her during this time, but she cannot help.

After bidding farewell to the guardians, the group left the map chamber. Professor Figo gave Sera a few words of advice, explaining that he needed to continue monitoring the fairies' movements and therefore couldn't accompany them.

However, judging from Sera's seemingly calm expression, Vera guessed that she was probably secretly pleased with herself.

There was no way around it; having spent so much time with Sera from the future, she had learned how to accurately interpret her lover's subtle expressions.

Clearly, the current youthful version of Sera is far less adept at disguise than the old fox of later generations.

After finishing her conversation with Professor Figo, Sera turned around and saw Vera staring at her with a slight upturn at the corners of her lips.

Originally, I should be happy—who wouldn't want all the attention of the girl they like to be focused on them?

However, seeing the longing that always unconsciously flowed in the other person's eyes, as if looking at another person through her own eyes, Sera's smile paused almost imperceptibly.

“Let’s go back and get ready for class.” She turned around. “Tomorrow is the weekend, so we can head to Craigmore Coast. I need to finish my trial as soon as possible.”

Vera followed in her footsteps, watching the figure walking ahead, and felt that the girl's emotions seemed to have subsided somewhat compared to before.

The two returned to the ground in silence. As they passed through the courtyard, the early morning sunlight slanted down from between the castle towers, casting long shadows of the two of them, one in front of the other, with a small, seemingly close yet distant distance between them.

Sera walked ahead, her shadow stretched long by the sunlight, almost touching Vera's toes.

Vera looked at the shadow and suddenly quickened her pace, making her shadow overlap with hers.

Sera paused slightly, but did not turn around; her tense shoulders remained unyielding.

“We’re going to the Craigmore coast tomorrow,” she asked. “Is there anything you need to prepare?”

Vera thought for a moment. She had all the potions and scrolls she carried with her, so there was nothing she needed to prepare specially.

“Remember to bring a thick coat,” she thought for a moment and said, “It’s windy at the beach.”

Seemingly surprised by the answer, Sera turned her head, but when she met Vera's gaze, she instinctively tried to pull her head back, only to have Vera grab her hand.

“Your complexion has been off since just now,” Vera said, gripping her hand tightly and leaning closer. “Did I say something wrong, or did something wrong?”

Communicate well when there are problems; this is the most important thing Vera learned from her relationship.

Especially given that she and Sierra are still quite unfamiliar with each other and need to work things out, communication is even more essential.

Sera lowered her eyes, looking at the hand holding hers, and after a long while, she said softly, "The way you looked at me just now was like you were looking at someone else."

Vera was taken aback.

"Is the person you want to see someone who looks a lot like me?" Sera looked up, her crimson eyes filled with an eagerness to find something.

From the day she made her wish at the age of six, Vera had already entered her life and become an inseparable obsession in her short life.

But regarding Vera, what she had experienced in the past, who she had met, and even... whether she had ever liked anyone, Sera had no way of knowing any of this.

Especially when she saw the completely different look in Vera's eyes when she looked at her just now, Sera's unease began to surge again.

Simply keeping Vera around wasn't enough; she wanted to know everything about Vera, and even more so, she wanted to know... what place she held in Vera's heart.

Vera was silent for a moment.

Looking into those uneasy, crimson eyes before her, and at her trembling fingertips that seemed to be trying to remain calm, she felt a pang of sadness.

It turned out to be the case.

She thought Sera was certain enough, that this girl who had been waiting stubbornly since she was six had already learned to be calm.

But now, standing in the sunlight, being gazed at by those eyes, she finally saw clearly that the ten years of waiting brought not only anticipation, but also a deep-seated fear of loss.

Perhaps a hundred years from now she can easily tease Sera about some of her past quirks, but Sera, who is still in her adolescence now, is completely different.

At this time, Sera had not experienced what happened later, nor had she been shaped by time into the person she would become later. At this point, she was essentially a 16-year-old girl whose body and mind were undergoing dramatic changes, and she would naturally be exceptionally sensitive to everything around her.

The fact that she always confuses the present-day Sera with the later-day Sera only exacerbates the child's anxiety.

“Yes.” She heard her own voice, softer and gentler than she had expected. “I’m looking at someone, someone…someone who is very important to me.”

Sera's eyelashes trembled violently as she tried to pull her hand away, but Vera gripped it even tighter.

“But not someone who looks a lot like you,” Vera raised her other hand, her fingertips gently touching her heart, “but yourself.”

Sera paused in her movements.

"The Sera I know becomes stronger every time I appear than the last time. She uses the days of waiting to hone herself when I disappear."

Vera continued to explain gently, "So I can't help but wonder what heights you will reach after overcoming those man-made obstacles."

Sera stared at her, the unease in her crimson eyes seeming to melt away little by little in the sunlight, revealing the clear underlying color.

"So," her voice was a little hoarse, "what you've seen all along has always been me?"

“Of course,” Verasson’s eyes crinkled, “it’s always been you, from when I was six until now.”

Sunlight streamed in from between the castle towers, bathing them in a warm, golden glow.

Sera stared at her blankly, a surge of emotion welling up in her chest, almost overwhelming her.

For a young girl experiencing her first love, nothing is more heartwarming than having her unspoken emotions accepted and embraced by her beloved, or even being treated with tenderness by him.

It was a strange feeling. Nothing had changed, but she inexplicably felt at ease, more at peace than she had in any day in the past ten years.

This is the person she loves, who will always gently accept all her feelings.

Who wouldn't be captivated by Vera?

"Mmm." Sera responded softly, her eyelashes drooping down, casting a small fan-shaped shadow under her eyelids. Her voice was as soft as a dandelion seed scattered by the wind. "That's good."

Vera watched as the tips of her ears, starting from her earlobes, gradually turned a pale pink, a color that was very faint but stood out clearly in the sunlight.

She didn't say anything more, but simply let go of his hand, naturally taking half a step back, bringing the overly intense distance back to a comfortable level of walking side by side.

Sera's fingers curled up as if trying to grasp something, then slowly loosened.

"Let's go." She turned around, her back still straight, but her shoulders were much more relaxed than before. "We have class later."

Vera followed, this time neither deliberately keeping her distance nor deliberately getting closer, but simply walking beside her at a distance that was neither too close nor too far, like a shadow.

……

After another busy day of classes, Vera returned to her somewhat unfamiliar dormitory. She lay on the bed for a while before getting up and taking a shower.

Actually, it was because when she was alone with Sera in the same space, she didn't know what to say to her.

So I had to find something to do.

When Sera emerged from the steamy bathroom, she was already writing furiously at her desk.

It's rare to see Sera working so hard to finish her homework.

Vera dried her hair as she quietly sat down on the edge of the bed. As soon as she let her hair down, water droplets rolled down from the ends, leaving a few dark wet stains on her deep red robe.

"You'll catch a cold if you don't dry your hair."

Sera didn't turn her head; her voice drifted over from the desk, carrying a hint of unnatural tension.

Vera paused in her movements, looked down at her still dripping hair, then looked up at the stiff back, and couldn't help but smile.

"Then why don't you help me?" she said with a smile, her voice carrying a softness she herself didn't even realize.

The quill pen on the desk immediately stopped.

After a brief silence, Sera stood up, her movements so quick it was as if she was afraid she might change her mind.

She walked over, took the half-damp towel from Vera's hand, and stood behind her.

Vera felt those hands gently gather her long hair, much gentler than she had imagined, the towel slowly wringing out the moisture from her hair.

Her technique was clumsy and even awkward, occasionally pulling on the roots of her hair, but she did it very seriously, as if she were performing some important ritual.