"Huh?" Phineas rubbed his ears as if he hadn’t heard anything, dodged the witch’s punches, and gradually ran off into the distance.

Kael sighed, walked to the wall, and found the portrait with Phineas’ name on it.

"Fawkes, I’ll give you ten pots of Mandrake—would you help me burn this ugly painting?"

Fawkes immediately looked up and smacked his beak.

"I know this is the Headmaster’s Office, but Professor Dumbledore isn’t here right now, is he? When the time comes, you just say it was a Dementor wanting to attack me and that’ll be that, right?

"Alright, I’ll offer twenty pots of Mandrake, plus..."

"Hey, kid, what do you think you’re doing!"

At this moment, Phineas, who had already run far away, somehow came back again, glaring at Kael in disbelief. "This is the Headmaster’s Office!"

"I know, but I can’t help it; you happened to discover my biggest secret." Kael shook his head. "Sorry about this, Professor Black."

"Wait, wait, wait, we can talk this out." Phineas waved his hands frantically. "Don’t worry, I would never tell anyone; after all, I was a headmaster myself, protecting students’ secrets is part of the job."

"Hmm... still not safe enough." Kael thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Fawkes also cooperatively stretched out his claw and pressed it onto the portrait.

"No, please don’t, you have to believe me..." Phineas was really panicking now. "My great-grandson gets along with you pretty well, right? Even if you don’t trust me, you can trust him.

"And you all, stop just watching—help me talk him down!" He turned to the portraits beside him and shouted, "If my portrait gets destroyed, yours won’t be safe either! Why are you just standing there, hurry up and join me in begging him..."

"Shut up, you idiot! The portraits and the castle are one!"

Before he could finish, someone kicked him to the side, and he lay on the floor groaning.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, a crowd suddenly rushed in from all sides, laying into him with punches and kicks, so practiced it was like they’d rehearsed it a thousand times.

"Don’t get us wrong, kid." The wizard who kicked him straightened his clothes and said seriously, "We former headmasters are actually quite reasonable; Phineas is just an exception. His intelligence hardly represents the rest of us."

"The least popular headmaster—got it." Kael said with a smile.

The man let out a breath and said again, "Don’t worry, everything that happens here, none of us would ever spill a word. In fact, Fawkes’s reaction says it all—Phoenixes don’t cozy up to someone with a dark soul."

"That’s all right, I know."

Kael said, "But I have a question—are these portraits really so easily destroyed? I always thought they couldn’t be, even with Fiendfyre."

"If you manage to destroy the entire castle, then yes." the man said.

"So, you mean a Phoenix can do it easily?"

"Not even a Phoenix, unless it’s the current headmaster."

"Then why was Headmaster Black so worried just now?"

"Obviously, the idiot just forgot... Anyway, you go ahead and do your thing—I’m off to stretch out."

With that, he joined the fray, landing a kick right on Phineas’s face.

"Ugh... damn it, when’s the last time you washed your feet—hundreds of years ago?"

"Shut up. Have you ever seen a portrait washing its feet?"

The Headmaster’s Office instantly became lively, with Phineas’s screams echoing everywhere.

"Oh, what a lively scene."

Kael turned around just in time to see Dumbledore walking in from outside.

"What’s going on here?"

"Said they needed a bit of exercise," Kael replied.

"What about Phineas?"

"Uh... Consider him the organizer of this activity."

"How generous of him," Dumbledore said. "So, any updates?"

"At least sixty Dementors have turned traitor," Kael said, "maybe more. What are you planning to do, Professor?"

"When such dangerous beings are out of control, we should deal with it as soon as possible." Dumbledore said calmly. He waved his hand, and Fawkes flew over at once.

"Thank you for your trouble."

"It was just a chat, nothing to it," Kael glanced at the Dementor, which had been trembling ever since Dumbledore entered. "Professor, what about it...?"

"Of course, the Beaters will take it back to the Ministry of Magic." Dumbledore said meaningfully. "They really shouldn’t be anywhere outside Azkaban."

"Exactly, I was thinking the same," Kael muttered under his breath.