Chapter 638: A Brand-New Species — Shamelessly Slandering People Again

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The next morning, the two sisters woke up at some unknown point.

Well, more accurately, Astoria was woken up by Daphne being annoying again.

Thankfully, she’d slept enough the day before that she wasn’t really in the mood to complain.

After getting out of bed, Astoria finally truly felt the changes in her body.

The most obvious sensation was lightness.

A kind of ease that stretched from her soul to her mind and all the way down to her body.

No burden. No exhaustion.

Breathing felt smoother, her body lighter, her thoughts sharper.

Before taking the strengthening potion, her body had been like an hourglass, constantly leaking vitality and life force away.

Even after taking the potion, it had still been an hourglass. The sand simply flowed out while also being slowly replenished.

But now, both ends of the hourglass had been sealed shut. Everything had finally stabilized.

In such a wonderful mood, the normally quiet and reserved Astoria actually started running through the castle.

She sprinted out of the manor, dashed through the gardens, and eventually reached the little cattle shed.

This place was basically Daphne’s petting zoo and stable meat supply rolled into one.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s temperature had been far too low.

The cows... were gone.

All the Highland calves Daphne had raised had frozen to death overnight. The house-elves had already butchered them and stored the meat in the freezer. They’d probably show up on the dining table later today.

"I’ll go buy a few more tomorrow," a familiar voice said with a smile. "This time, they’re definitely not appearing in the kitchen again."

Astoria turned around in surprise and saw the boy she’d been thinking about standing there smiling at her.

Without hesitation, she rushed forward like a gust of wind and wrapped him tightly in a hug.

"Tom, I missed you."

It had only been one night, but to Astoria, it felt like an incredibly long time had passed.

Tom gently stroked her icy-blue hair and smiled. "I just finished talking with your mother. Your new hair color looks great. Once we get back to school, I’m guessing a lot of people are going to envy you." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Lady Greengrass had fainted from mental exhaustion. After resting for a day, she was mostly fine physically, though her mood was still rather low.

Tom had asked her a few questions about the Greengrass family’s connections to the Gaunts and other descendants of Slytherin. Then he noticed Astoria running around in the gardens and came over to find her.

"Tom... how did I become... that form yesterday?"

Astoria’s sudden question was honestly pretty difficult to answer.

"How should I put this..." Tom carefully considered his wording. "Astoria, you’re basically a completely new species now."

"?"

A giant question mark practically appeared over the girl’s head.

The way he phrased that...

Did that mean she wasn’t human anymore?

"T-Tom..." Astoria’s voice immediately took on a tearful tone. "Then what am I now? A magical creature?"

"It’s not that serious."

Tom quickly pulled her into his arms and gently smoothed down her hair as he comforted her in a low voice. "These details don’t really matter. They’re trivial things. As wizards grow stronger, they’re also... evolving. Honestly, a lot of powerful wizards can’t really be considered human anymore."

"Look at Voldemort or Dumbledore. They’re the same."

"Oh, and me too. At this point, I don’t even know what I count as."

By the time he finished speaking, Tom himself started laughing.

If anyone in this world had ridiculously chaotic bloodlines, it was definitely him.

The power of Rayquaza. Ancient phoenix bloodline. Dragon bloodline. Fairy bloodline. And all sorts of racial talents from other magical creatures mixed in on top of that.

He was basically a walking stew of random supernatural species.

Normally, trying to fuse together that many different powers would either turn someone into a monster or make them explode on the spot.

Yet somehow, all those messy bloodlines coexisted peacefully inside him.

"Astoria, that transformation you went through before was the result of the Golden Apple’s power merging with your Yuki-onna bloodline."

"In theory, it should be a kind of ancestral reversion, increasing the purity of your bloodline. But there’s never really been any overwhelmingly powerful yokai among the Yuki-onna lineage. Unlike..."

Tom suddenly paused.

He’d originally wanted to use Kamio as an example, but her origins were a little too shocking. Unless she personally chose to reveal it herself, he couldn’t exactly go around blurting it out to everyone.

"Anyway, it’s definitely not a bad thing. It’s actually a huge blessing. As long as you learn to control that power, you’ll absolutely become the strongest and most beautiful witch in the world."

Tom recalled the magical power fluctuations after Astoria transformed yesterday.

It had instantly jumped from the level of an ordinary student all the way to Abeforth’s level.

That was basically the tier directly below the absolute monsters of the era. A leap so absurd that even professors like Snape would probably turn green with envy.

The only problem was that it didn’t last very long.

One big attack and she was completely drained dry.

"...I see." Astoria nodded vaguely, not noticing Tom’s brief pause at all.

"Alright, enough thinking about that for now."

Tom wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her back toward the manor. "There’s plenty of time to figure out your strength later. Your body just recovered, so the most important thing right now is celebrating and relaxing."

Astoria obediently pushed the transformation issue completely out of her mind.

She’d never really cared much about things like power anyway.

For her, as long as she could stay with her family and by Tom’s side forever, her life would already be complete.

...

Logically speaking, Astoria had practically been reborn, and the Greengrass family would most likely never suffer from the blood curse again in the future.

That should’ve called for a massive celebration.

But the process of breaking the curse had been anything but pleasant. There was no question that Tom had played a huge role, but in the end, it almost felt as though the generations of Greengrass ancestors had forcibly erased the curse themselves through the lingering marks they left behind.

Lady Greengrass still looked emotionally drained, and only showed faint smiles whenever she saw the healthy color restored to Astoria’s face.

Tom actually understood her feelings very well.

Her current state was probably exactly what Daphne would become in the future if she ever lost Astoria.

Thankfully, with him around, that tragedy would never happen.

So after dinner, Tom brought the two girls back to Hogwarts while also sending a message to Bones, asking her to come keep Lady Greengrass company.

There were some things best friends could talk about that mothers and daughters simply couldn’t. At the very least, Lady Greengrass could finally let go of the strong front she’d been forcing herself to maintain.

...

..

Meanwhile, in Africa—

Andros had mostly digested the gains he obtained from the battle, but every attempt to use that divine power again ended in failure.

Only after asking Tom for advice did he finally understand the two major problems he still had.

The first was that his body and soul still hadn’t reached perfect synchronization.

Normal magic circulation and spellcasting weren’t affected much, but the moment finer control became necessary, that tiny discrepancy turned into an enormous, almost insurmountable gap.

Andros had already noticed something felt off before, but he hadn’t realized the impact would be this severe.

The second issue was that he still hadn’t been "assimilated" enough.

If he wanted to truly awaken the divine power within him, he would need to gradually improve his compatibility with it.

The reason he’d managed to activate it before was purely because his immense combat talent had resonated with it during battle.

In other words, that final move had been a temporary burst under pressure.

Naturally, he couldn’t reproduce it under normal conditions.

Since neither problem could be solved anytime soon, Andros stopped worrying about it.

Ambushing Voldemort and redirecting trouble toward the Sun Chasers had only been his first mission, not the entire plan.

As for the second mission...

Naturally, it was to turn things up even further.

When Andros returned to the temple ruins, the Gringotts curse-breakers had just finished breaking through the outer temple and arrived at the devastated central courtyard.

Inside each of the twelve statues in the courtyard was a hidden magical inheritance.

Some even contained traces of ancient magic.

These were all treasures Andros had personally stored away back in the day.

Originally, Tom and Morgan’s plan had been simple: just leave behind a few fake treasures, something that looked convincing enough to fool Voldemort.

But honest old Andros felt that if someone truly managed to fight their way in through their own ability before Voldemort arrived, then they deserved an actual reward.

Giving them nothing but fakes felt a little too cruel.

Besides, if Voldemort ended up not caring about these things at all, then at least the treasures could count as compensation for everyone else wasting so much manpower and effort getting here.

So every secret art hidden inside the statues was completely genuine.

Honestly, Andros’ moral standards were simply too high. Compared to the current atmosphere inside the study space, he stood out like a completely different species.

Jeanne at least had Jalter balancing out her morality score.

Only Andros remained the same old honest man as always.

Unfortunately, having morals without decision-making authority didn’t mean much.

He could freely handle small matters, but the overall direction still depended entirely on Tom’s plan.

Like this sudden return, for example.

...

At that moment, a group of curse-breakers was excitedly digging valuable pottery shards out of the ruins.

Ancient Greeks often recorded important texts on pottery fragments, and after verifying the authenticity of the writing on them, the group became even more thrilled.

Then suddenly, Andros strode into the courtyard.

The massive magical power radiating from him formed tangible pressure that instantly weighed down on everyone present, making their hearts sink as they stared at him warily.

Andros let out a disdainful snort and arrogantly raised his chin.

"Everything here belongs to the Sun Chasers."

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