Tensei Skill Shop Chapter 45

Tensei Skill Shop

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 45:

Our attack on Crouch-Moody had been swift and sudden; I had entered the classroom under the pretext of notifying him about an upcoming meeting with the Triwizard Tournament organizers, using a folder filled with documents to get in close. Irene then set off a spell to serve as a distraction, causing his magic eye to look away from me. That was when I struck, swiping away his flask with [Steal]. 

I have to admit, it feels pretty good being able to swipe the flask without him noticing when I did it. 

He didn’t realize right away, but when he did, he reacted quickly, turning his wand on me and giving me actual combat experience of facing a wizard who knew what he was doing. In the meantime, Irene evacuated the classroom of the students, to keep him from taking hostages or causing collateral damage.

It was… slightly challenging, considering I was sandbagging a little with my spellcasting speed. More curiously, I realized that my Chain Attack was having an effect, making each successive spell hit harder, putting him on the back foot early on.

Crouch started out with minor jinxes and hexes at first, but when I easily handled them, he began throwing more vicious attacks, attempted transfigurations and Dark curses that took more effort to defend against. Those were tougher to deal with, but for some reason he didn’t use the Killing Curse. I pretended to go on the defensive, allowing Irene to step in to back me up.

That lasted until Matsu notified us that Dumbledore and the others were nearly there, then we stopped holding back, subduing him just in time to present ‘Moody’ to them.

I glanced at Karkaroff, who still had his wand pointed at me and Irene. 

“Igor, lower your wand. They aren’t the ones you should be pointing it at,” Dumbledore ordered.

“How can you be so sure?” Karkaroff demanded, “There’s no way two students could defeat an adult wizard, even as talented as they are.”

At least he’s cautious enough… 

Dumbledore repeated his name, and Karkaroff finally did so. He noticed my dismissal of him as a threat, and bared his teeth at me.

“Mr Steel,” Mr Meddle finally spoke up, “Could you please explain what is going on?”

“I would very much like to know that myself!” Madam Maxime agreed.

From the looks on the faces of the students peeking in, they felt the same way.

“Decky!” Dumbledore said sharply.

A house elf popped into the room. “Yes, Master Dumbledore? What is you needing?”

“Tell Professor Snape that I need him to bring his strongest truth potion to the Defense classroom. After that, tell Professor McGonagall to inform the Ministry’s Department of Magical Law Enforcement to send Aurors.”

“Yes, Master Dumbledore!” The house elf popped away as suddenly as it arrived.

Dumbledore turned to Irene and I, looking deadly serious without his usual eye twinkling. “While we’re waiting, I would like to hear your explanation of how this happened.”

He conjured up chairs for all of us, though not everyone sat down.

“What about the other students?” I asked, directing everyone’s attention to the crowd that was peering in from the doorway.

Even now, we could hear people muttering conflicting statements about what went down; we had killed Moody, Dumbledore saved us from Moody going crazy and trying to kill us, or even how I had fought Moody for Irene’s hand. That last one made me stare incredulously in the direction of whoever had said that.

That also caused my eyes to meet Harry’s, as he was one of those in front, together with Ron. Dumbledore noticed as well, and after a bit of hesitation, decided to call the teenager in.

“I wished to spare you from this a bit longer, Harry,” He said with some reluctance, “But perhaps understanding is what you need.”

The other adults didn’t object, so Harry stepped into the room, followed by Ron, who looked very much like he didn’t want to be there when the other adults looked at him. That loyalty was commendable, at least. The rest of the students continued to observe from outside.

“Professor, I don’t understand. Why would Moody…?”

“That is not Alastor Moody, Harry,” Dumbledore said quietly, “I would say that you have never known Alastor Moody. He did an excellent job of acting like him, and with how little we’ve interacted, I had not realized myself.”

He turned his attention to me and Irene. 

“Which begs the question, how did you realize?”

We had the story ready, having been preparing for every part of this ever since we decided to go after Crouch. Unlike the last few times, I didn’t fight the activation of [Speech] as I explained how, in the course of preparing puzzles and other challenges for the third task, we put together several separate clues to figure out that someone was using Polyjuice Potion, and that Moody was the most likely suspect. This confrontation was unintentional as we initially wanted to swipe the flask to check, but Moody had reacted with uncharacteristic fierceness. 

I could see them becoming convinced as the skill took effect.

<How much time?> I asked Matsu, who was observing from her Room.

<Almost. Snape is about to arrive too.>

Sure enough, the students in the doorway backed away to allow the sallow-faced Potions professor to enter. He paused at the sight of all of us around the tied-up body of Moody, a small vial in his hand. I could see comprehension on Snape’s face when his gaze fell on the drops of Polyjuice Potion Dumbledore poured out from the flask earlier.

“Severus, you have the potion?”

“Yes. Is he…?”

“Merely stunned, courtesy of our exchange students.” Dumbledore held a hand out, and Snape put the vial into it. 

“Professor!” Harry exclaimed, his gaze on ‘Moody’,and they turned to look.

Right on time too. 

Everyone watched as Moody’s feature’s started to change. The scars disappeared, and the missing body parts grew back, the nose, the eye, the leg… the hair shortened and changed in color, until the transformation was complete. Where Moody was, now lay a pale-skinned, slightly freckled man with fair hair.

“Who is that…?” Harry asked.

“Crouch!” Snape’s tone was uncharacteristically disbelieving. “Barty Crouch!”

Karkaroff took several stumbling steps backwards, his face pale. Madam Maxime and Mr Meddle, lacking the knowledge they did, just stared in confusion. 

“Crouch?” Harry repeated, “But that’s…”

“Bartemius Crouch’s son, who is also named Bartemius Crouch,” Dumbledore explained.

Some of the students outside overheard and started whispering among themselves.

“Wasn’t he dead? I heard from… I heard he died in Azkaban,” Ron asked.

“And yet here he is, very much alive.”

Dumbledore moved over to the man and pulled him up into a sitting position against the desk, before forcing his mouth open and pouring three drops from the vial into it.

Mr Meddle spoke up. “Dumbledore, is that Veritaserum? You know that-”

The feeling of cold rage washed over the room, silencing whatever Mr Meddle was intending to say.

“A supposedly dead wizard turns up in Hogwarts, in the guise of one of my old friends.” Dumbledore’s voice was quiet, but the intensity behind it was powerful. “I wish to have answers.”

Madam Maxime nodded stiffly. “I would like some too.”

Karkaroff nodded as well, a bit jerkily, and Mr Meddle just gave up.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at Crouch’s chest. “Ennervate.”

The man opened his eyes, but his face was slack and his gaze unfocused.

The questioning started off like in canon, how Crouch escaped Azkaban, how he spent years hiding under an Invisibility Cloak in his father’s home, controlled by the Imperius Curse. Mr Meddle was shocked to hear that Bertha Jorkins had discovered the secret and was Obliviated by Mr Crouch. However, it was only one of many shocking reveals.

I could see the faces of those listening pale as they realized who Crouch’s master was, and that Voldemort was not just alive, but actually intending to make a comeback. Karkaroff looked like he was about to faint entirely, gripping his arm where the Dark Mark was. Under the effect of Veritaserum, Crouch continued to reveal every bit of the plan, from impersonating Moody to interfere with the Triwizard Tournament to his master Imperiusing Mr Crouch to maintain the charade. 

When he said that the real Moody was in the trunk, Dumbledore took the keys from Crouch’s body and passed it to Snape, who quickly went off to confirm the other man’s condition. The next thing he revealed was that Voldemort was currently being looked after by Wormtail at Mr Crouch’s home, which caused Harry to hiss and clutch at his scar in pain. Dumbledore looked shocked at that, but he quickly hid his reaction and returned to asking more questions.

“Make way! Make way, please!” Professor McGonagall’s stern voice called out, and she came into the classroom followed by three other wizards. The moment she caught sight of the man, she jerked to a halt. “Good heavens! Is that Barty Crouch!?” 

“Dumbledore, what is going on here?” One of the Aurors demanded. “Why are all these people present?”

“As you can see, we’ve caught the person responsible for putting Harry Potter’s name in the Goblet of Fire. I apologize, but I have urgent business to see to.”

Dumbledore swept out of the office, everyone else making way for him without having to be asked to move. 

Guess he’s off to try and catch Voldemort before the guy can flee. Except… I eyed the grimacing Harry. I guess Fate will arrange for him to escape somehow, since he has yet to return like he was prophesized to. 

For some reason, [Editing] refused to allow me to modify [Event Predictor] to work within this world, so I couldn’t figure out if our actions had butterflied the canon events of this year away or not.

As to be expected of Hogwarts’s rumor mill, the retellings of what had gone down in the Defense classroom had gotten severely twisted, becoming rather ridiculous in some cases. People were telling what they heard from other people, and repeating it with their own embellishments until very few people knew what to believe.

One of the few facts that was retained through the various retellings was that Moody, Irene and I were involved, and as the former was currently residing in the Hospital Wing, a lot of people were now paying attention to the remaining two for answers. What was annoying was that they just stared and whispered, and so far, Cedric was the only one to actually approach for answers.

“Rick, is it true?” Cedric asked me during dinner, two days after the event.

Around us, conversations ceased as people tried to listen in.

I gave him a flat look. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“About Moody, I mean.”

“Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?” I ought to be feeling happy about getting to use that line, but things are seriously wearing on my mood.

“Why not just tell him what you know?” Uzume suggested from her seat nearby. <I had to convince him to actually work up the courage to approach you.>

So he wouldn’t have talked to me without being pushed into doing it? 

“Yeah, it would be better to clear up the confusion,” Matsu agreed. <And that way we can set the story how we want it.>

I laid out the ‘facts’ of the matter; we suspected that Moody wasn’t who he said he was, and his poor reaction to our investigation attempt forced us to subdue him, upon which we discovered that our suspicions were correct. The person’s Polyjuice Potion wore off shortly afterwards, upon which the teachers identified him as Bartemius Crouch Junior. After that, Dumbledore questioned the man under the use of a truth potion, to which he confessed to putting Harry Potter’s name in the Goblet of Fire, all for the sake of reviving his master.

“And is his master… You-Know-Who?” Cedric asked.

“That’s what he said, but I wouldn’t know if that really was true.”

“What do you mean?” Someone else asked, “You said that Crouch said-”

“Exactly,” I interrupted, “He says, she says, that’s all subjective. Remind me, how many of you said before, that Harry Potter secretly put his name in the Goblet of Fire? Hm? Well?”

Uzume laid a hand on my arm, a signal that I was getting too heated. The boy I was addressing reddened a little, but he didn’t respond, knowing that he was one of those who had insisted that Harry Potter had joined the tournament because he was a glory seeker.

“What Rick-dono is saying,” Irene took over, “Is that the man might have said that under the effect of truth potion, but whether it actually is true, or whether it’s someone pretending to be his master, we do not know.”

Thankfully, Dumbledore’s appearance in the Great Hall saved us from any further conversation. The old wizard had vanished from the castle shortly after Crouch’s impersonation was revealed, possibly to try and catch Voldemort at Crouch’s home. From the looks of things, he appeared to have failed. Dumbledore stood in front of the staff table, clearly preparing to make an announcement, and the hall went silent to allow him to speak.

“As many of you may have heard, there was an altercation between two of our exchange students,” Dumbledore inclined his head towards us, causing many in the hall to glance in our direction, “And Professor Moody. As a result of that, a shocking discovery was made. The man you all know as Alastor Moody, was actually a Death Eater in disguise.”

The general reaction of shock spread quickly through the hall, but he continued to speak. 

“It was he who was responsible for putting Harry Potter’s name in the Goblet of Fire.”

This time, the glances were directed at Harry instead, and I could see him staring stony-faced at Dumbledore.

“Unfortunately, while the culprit was apprehended, the person whose orders he was acting on has escaped, and remains at large.”

<He must have figured out from the connection he shared with Harry.> Matsu informed me.

The rest of the announcement was that Defense classes would be cancelled for the time being until a substitute teacher could be found, and that the Triwizard Tournament would still be going ahead. The reaction from the crowd of students was just a lot of quiet whispering.

<Did they really just react to ‘oh, one of your teachers was an escaped criminal who put one of your classmates in a dangerous tournament’ like that?> Uzume asked us incredulously.

<Yes. Yes they did.> I eyed the mix of worried and unconcerned faces around me. <There’s a huge reason why the general opinion of the Wizarding World is that they’re sheep.>

<...I wasn’t expecting to say this, but I’m really looking forward to leaving after this.>

I reached out and patted her hand comfortingly, a reversal of what happened earlier.

…

‘ESCAPED DEATH EATER CAUGHT AT HOGWARTS’

That was the headline of the latest Daily Prophet, an extra issue rushed off the presses, and more than a few group huddles could be seen as students gathered around those who had received the newspaper. A surprising amount of attention given that it was an article not written by Rita Skeeter.

It claimed that the three Heads of the schools discovered that Alastor Moody was an imposter, and quickly subdued him. There wasn’t any mention of our role in that incident. Instead, it went straight to the reveal of the man’s identity as Bartemius Crouch Junior, son of Bartemius Crouch, and a convicted criminal thought to have died in Azkaban years ago. An impromptu interrogation was carried out with truth potion, and the person revealed a lot of shocking facts. Crouch Junior was turned over to the Aurors afterwards, for investigation into his connection to several other cases, such as the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins and the death of Mr Crouch.

That last one was reported in yesterday’s newspaper, about how several members of the Ministry went to Crouch’s home based on vital information, only to discover the corpse of the man there, along with signs that someone else had been living there during that time. Just like with this article, the details were sparse, as though someone was making an effort to conceal things from the public.

Makes me wonder if someone cast the Dark Mark over the house. 

<Looks like Harry’s got a reply from his dogfather,> Matsu informed me, her gaze looking over my shoulder where the Gryffindor table was.

A slight turn of my head allowed me to glimpse the Golden Trio hurrying out of the Great Hall, a letter in Harry’s hand.

“Looks like we’ve got a letter of our own,” Uzume remarked, her eyes aimed upwards.

The brown owl landed in front of me, dropping another letter from Mr Meddle. Just like the past few times, it was a request for a meeting at Hogsmeade, but this time he would be bringing other people along. Since it was the Easter Holidays and there weren’t any classes, we headed down to Hogsmeade right away.

Mr Meddle was dressed in nicer robes this time, but his expression made it clear that he was undergoing a great deal of stress, which was understandable given what had gone down a few days ago. It appeared that he was trying his best to ignore it, as he didn’t make a single mention of what had occurred, and focused entirely on the plans for the Triwizard Tournament. Supposedly Minister Fudge would be taking Mr Crouch’s role as judge for the third task, as well as to award the trophy cup to the winner at the end.

The two wizards accompanying him were Ministry employees, one from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and another from Mr Crouch’s department. The former was to provide information required for the setting we had in mind, while the other was just here to take notes for the eventual liaison with overseas wizards. They were rather enthusiastic about the ideas we proposed, and cooperated eagerly.

When Mr Meddle excused himself to use the toilet, we took the chance to inquire with the latter person about the situation with Mr Crouch. He couldn’t say much other than that the Aurors were still investigating the matter, including questioning people like Percy Weasley who were close to Mr Crouch. 

The new school term started off quietly, with the teachers piling on more homework on the students as though trying to distract everyone from recent events. That didn’t apply to us, as we received a special dispensation thanks to our involvement in the tournament and our already stellar performance in classes. Instead, we spent our evenings working on the preparations for the third task, testing the Rooms we crafted and making sure that they could be easily installed and removed. 

“Okay, I’ve added the charms for the beast arena, please check it.”

Matsu glanced over my work, then nodded. “That’s fine. Put it with the rest in the done pile.”

“Enchantments on the puzzle rooms are done,” Irene reported, “I’ll be working on the barriers next.”

“Please do!”

“Matsu-chan, I’m having trouble keeping one of the linked mechanisms from affecting the others,” Uzume asked, “Can you take a look at it?”

“Hold on a moment… okay, let me take a look.” Matsu quickly tuned up the item a bit, before handing it back. “This should do it.”

Ah, this feels like working in the shop again… feels nostalgic. I met Uzume’s eyes, and we exchanged smiles before returning to our respective tasks.

Amusingly, I noticed that Cedric’s friends seemed to be paying an odd amount of attention to us. They appeared to be trying to get some clue about what the third task was about, so they could help him prepare better for it. He himself barely noticed, spending more time with Cho Chang instead.

In contrast, Harry seemed to be barely keeping his head afloat with everything that happened to him. Matsu let me know that he had been having extra lessons with Snape, probably starting his Occlumency early now that Dumbledore knew for sure that there was a connection between him and Voldemort, but it appeared to be doing more harm than good. He did seem to improve a little whenever I pushed his limits during our tutoring sessions, but we both had other responsibilities, so I wasn’t able to help as much as I wanted to. Instead, I just slipped Hermione a list of useful spells for him to learn, knowing the girl would make sure he actually did so. 

As for the other two champions, their friends also tried the same; Uzume mentioned that more than a few conversations of her friend group had gone in that direction, usually guided by the foreign students in attempts to learn more. We didn’t mind giving a few tidbits of information, but the majority of it was still kept under wraps.

Around mid-May, Dumbledore managed to get Kingsley Shacklebolt to help out as a substitute teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and he proved to be a rather popular teacher, one that did an excellent job of teaching. As for Moody, the man was still in the Hospital Wing, extremely twitchy about anyone who even looked like they were approaching him. It was hard to say if he would return to teaching, but it appeared very unlikely.

Finally, in the last week of May, Mr Meddle came up to the castle to give the champions instructions about the third task. Just like in canon, the third task was being set up in the Quidditch field, something that annoyed the Quidditch players among them, but instead of a hedge maze, we were raising a tower with the help of several other magic users.

“A bit more to the right! A bit more! Okay, hold it there! Locking charm, please!” I waited for the magic to take effect. “Alright, good!”

“Hello there!” I turned to see Mr Meddle leading the four champions over to us, a cheerful smile on his face, “No problems, I hope?”

“Mr Meddle,” I greeted the man, “And champions. Is this…?”

Mr Meddle nodded vigorously. “Yes, I’m here to give them their instructions regarding the third task.”

“A tower?” Fleur asked, looking up at the structure currently taking shape.

“That’s right. The main objective for the third task is to grab the Triwizard Cup at the top of the tower, with the first champion to touch it receiving full marks.”

"We seemply 'ave to climb the tower?" Fleur said.

“It’s not as simple as it sounds. Inside the tower, there will be obstacles for each of you to overcome. Hagrid will be providing some creatures, spells that you might have to break to overcome, or take a detour around… But that’s not all! Rick here will explain our special plan for the task.”

I met the four pairs of eyes as they turned to me. “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to. That is the theme which we designed this task around.”

“Hey, I know that quote,” Cedric said, grinning.

“Unfortunately, there won’t be any rings involved,” I replied with a smirk, “Instead, as you can probably guess, it’s about timing.”

I proceeded to explain how the cup would only appear when a certain condition was fulfilled, which was to pass through the final door at the right time. As for what that time was, that answer was hidden among the many challenges put around the room. I illustrated my words by using Arc of Embodiment, disguising its use with meaningless waves of my wand.

“A door?” Cedric asked, looking at what I generated.

I nodded. “Not just any door, but this is the door that will be blocking the way to the Cup.”

It was a simple stone arch with a heavy metal door set in it, but on the top of the arch was a timer with shifting numbers, while at the sides of the arch were four plates bearing keyholes with symbols over them. 

“Why are there so many keyholes?” Harry wondered.

With a flourish, I made several keys appear between my fingers, each with a symbol matching the ones on the keyholes.

“Only one of these keys will unlock the door. The others… well, they might do something useful,” I twirled them in my fingers. “They’ll be behind some of the challenges around the tower as well.”

“Zat is not very ‘elpful,” The French champion complained, “And eet sounds too deeficcult.”

“That’s where the challenge is, milady!” Mr Meddle stepped in to support me. “Not all of the challenges are necessary, it’s up to the champions to pick the ones they’ll need to open the final door.”

“And besides, some of the clues will be left right out in the open,” I added, making a sign that said ‘The yellow key is helpful but not crucial’.

Mr Meddle took over again, this time to explain that the champions would take turns entering the maze based on their point total so far, which meant that it would go in the order of Cedric, Harry, Viktor Krum, and finally Fleur Delacour.

“So to sum up, each of you will enter the tower, find your way to the top, and along the way gather the clues and keys that you need to open the final door. The one who manages to do so and touches the Cup, will be the Triwizard Champion!” Mr Meddle beamed around at the rest of them. “Any questions?”

“Rick-tan! Could you come here for a bit?” Matsu called from a distance away. <That woman’s giving you that look again, better not give her that chance.>

I looked at Mr Meddle, who gestured for me to go ahead. I quickly walked away from the group, feeling Delacour’s eyes on my back. But when I glanced back later, she was talking cheerfully to Harry. His action in saving her sister definitely won a lot of points in her book.

In the meantime…

YOINK

I grabbed another spell from the Ministry witch that was taking a break from the ongoing construction. So far, the collaboration was proving to be a bountiful source of data, and they were very eager to share what they knew with a bit of flattering and encouragement.

“So what are some of the more interesting incidents you helped to solve?” Uzume asked one of the wizards belonging to the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad.

“Oh, there was a case about two years ago, when a boy accidentally blew up his Muggle relative of his aunt.”

“Blew up? You mean like exploded?”

“Like a bomb? Merlin, no! I mean like a balloon.” The man mimed an expanding balloon, “She was all round and floaty, and we had to get her down and deflate her back to normal.”

“What’s it like reversing magic? Is it difficult having to deal with the chaotic results of accidental magic?”

“Some of them are quite easy, like if it’s a charm that causes a change in color. You just have to perform the counter-charm. But for Transfigurations like the woman I mentioned earlier, those take a bit more effort.”

“What did you do to fix her?” Irene asked, her expression interested.

The wizard began explaining how the woman’s condition was locked to the concept of a blown-up balloon, so they had to puncture her to let the air out. By doing so, they weakened the concept enough for their reversal spells to work, and then they could just heal up the wound entirely.

“How strong are sphinxes?” I asked the handler who had just finished inspecting the room planned for containing one.

“Oh, they are very strong. I’ve seen one shatter a boulder with a single swing of its paw. And it was only playing. There’s a reason they have an XXXX classification.”

“And there’s no issue in bringing one of them here?”

“Not at all. They’re fine as long as you don’t cross them, and even easier to handle if you can appease them.” The wizard grinned at me. “Your ideas for this task turned out to be very popular, you know. The one that’s coming wants to know more about the rest of what you’ve got planned.”

“Why?” I had a slight suspicion as to the reason.

“Sphinxes like puzzles that have more than one answer. I expect she wants to include hints about other challenges in the riddle she plans to make.”

“Ah, I see.” So just like the canon sphinx’s riddle hinted at the Acromantula at the end of the maze.

“Anyway, I don’t think she’ll have any complaints about where you plan to put her. Blimey, I think I’ll take some time off so I can come and watch this tournament.”

“I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.” I waited until he turned his back before I struck again.

YOINK

There are still the magical beasts after this, and the various enchanted objects the Ministry is providing for this… man, I expect that the next time I update my falna, my Thievery rank is going to go up.

And just like that, the tower continued to take shape even as the day of the third task approached, with us reaping benefits in secrets along the way. More than a few observers came by to peek at what we were doing, but Mr Meddle did a good job of keeping anyone from learning too much.

It wasn’t just the students who were curious to learn our secrets either; there were a bunch of adult magic users who heard of our image capturing charms and wanted to steal them for themselves, but Matsu was well-prepared for that. They left empty-handed, and us with more than a few unique spells for our collection. Who would have expected some of those rich wizarding families to keep personal magical secrets within their bloodline only?

I’m honestly tempted to try and find their homes so I can raid them, as payback for the way they treated us. I flexed my fingers, recalling the satisfaction of swiping some of their magic.

“Stop that,” Irene told me in a low voice, “There are people watching.” 

I forced myself to relax. “Ah, thanks. Where are Uzume and Matsu?”

“Conducting the final checks. If nothing goes wrong, then we’re all set.”

I smiled at her. “So you’re saying we’re all set.”

She returned my smile with one of her own. “You really have faith in Matsu’s work, don’t you?” 

“I have faith in all of you.”

Irene blushed, and I could feel her emotions pulse happily through our bond.

The sound of rattling chains signaled a lowering elevator, and we turned just as the large-sized cage stopped nearby, a door swinging open to allow Uzume and Matsu to step out. It was a contraption that was so reminiscent of Soulsborne games that I had no doubt Matsu had used them as inspiration. 

“All perfect!” Matsu declared out loud for everyone to hear, causing some of them to break out into cheers and applause. “Thank you, thank you!”

“No, thank you,” Mr Meddle said to her with deep gratitude, “You’ve gone above and beyond in assisting us despite being from a foreign nation.”

“Hey now, it’s still too early for that part. Save it for after the third task is over, okay?” 

Mr Meddle looked startled, then nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Tomorrow, it’ll all be over, and we can celebrate it then.”

That was right. Tomorrow, the third task would happen, and we could leave afterwards.

Afterword: I had quite a bit of trouble with this chapter… as much as I enjoy thinking about butterflied events, I’m extremely dependent on my muse to properly craft the flow of events when it comes to the subsequent fallout. Hopefully I didn’t do too badly with this.

Please let me know your thoughts in comments.

In other matters, I finally got a new job that will be starting in a few days, so writing might be slower from now on.