20. Assembly

"Ha ha, the esteemed Mephistos have come to visit... Without the Mephistos, the Black Magic Association would be nothing more than a meaningless gathering of Dark wizards!" Karkaroff approached Fumengde with an eager, ingratiating smile, warmly greeting him.

Karkaroff looked far more composed and imposing than he had back when he was a Death Eater, but among the surviving Death Eaters, he was undoubtedly the sort of person his former comrades hated to the bone.

In contrast, although the Mephisto Family had only recently adopted a reclusive lifestyle, they still enjoyed considerable prestige among Dark wizards and Death Eaters. The family's legacy was only one reason for that.

Another reason was the rumor that Voldemort had been close friends with Sherlock's late grandfather. By extension, people naturally held an unusual degree of trust and affection for the Mephisto Family.

After Voldemort's downfall, Laike'er had even been the only one bold enough to stand up directly against the Ministry of Magic's Aurors, which deeply moved those surviving Death Eaters...

Yet perhaps only Fumengde knew that his younger brother had acted that way purely to vent his resentment—resentment toward their father's helpless decision to pressure them into submission in order to preserve the family under the dual pressure of the wizarding world and the Ministry of Magic.

"Karkaroff, it has indeed been a long time. Though from what I've heard, you seem to have been doing rather well," Fumengde replied. Aside from the previous reasons, he had agreed to come because Karkaroff had also sent many exceedingly sincere letters.

However, Fumengde awkwardly noticed that Karkaroff's shrewd gaze was not fixed on him at all, but on his son, Sherlock. Karkaroff looked at Sherlock as though he were admiring an unrivaled piece of precious jade.

"Karkaroff!"

"Ah? Ha... Ahem, my apologies, Fumengde, my friend. After all, you must understand that your son is the famous Spell Prince. If we're talking about the most renowned and celebrated young wizard in the wizarding world today, there is no one but your son. He truly lives up to the Mephisto name!"

Karkaroff hurriedly offered a slick explanation as he led Fumengde and Sherlock into a tent specially prepared for the Mephisto Family.

The tent's interior was unimaginably spacious. It contained twelve luxurious bedrooms, private bathrooms, and a huge sitting room large enough to host four badminton matches at once. Exquisite pastries had been laid out on the table.

Though the magical tent looked no different from an ordinary tent on the outside, it held an entirely different world within. With just one look, Sherlock guessed that this was probably the most luxurious tent at the gathering.

"Hiss! That man is rather sinister, Master. Camilla does not like people who are so cunning and cowardly."

Camilla's voice quietly sounded beside Sherlock's ear.

"Then how about I let you wander around and stretch your muscles later? After all, you rarely leave the manor's castle."

"But Master, Camilla wants to eat something delicious first, then go wandering afterward."

Camilla wheedled.

A closer look would reveal a golden necklace coiled around Sherlock's neck, though it was actually a slender little golden snake.

While Sherlock had been speaking with Camilla, she had coiled around his neck, raising her head beside his ear to whisper quietly.

This was because Sherlock had used his self-created spell, the Smallification Curse.

Otherwise, three-year-old Camilla was already nearly two meters long and as thick as an arm. Keeping her by his side was highly inconvenient, so Sherlock had secretly studied the characteristics of the magical creature known as the Occamy. (In the film Fantastic Beasts, it was a magical creature capable of changing its size at will.)

He had invented the Smallification Curse and the Enlargement Curse.

These two spells had not been made public, however, so the outside world knew nothing about them. Once Sherlock cast the Smallification Curse on Camilla, he could carry her with him at all times.

Karkaroff spread word that the Mephistos had come to attend the gathering.

Before long, the tent where Sherlock and the others were staying was packed with people.

Among them were Dark wizards who had come specifically because of his reputation, and they greatly admired the famed Spell Prince.

Spell Prince was the nickname wizarding folk had given Sherlock. It sounded far better than Spell Printer.

Once, when Aili had bought snacks for Sherlock and Axinsha, Sherlock discovered that one of the Chocolate Frog packages contained a wizard card bearing his own image.

It was his younger sister Axinsha who had drawn that card.

She had jumped about in delighted celebration. The card had practically become her most treasured possession, and she had even cried out that her brother had run into the card.

The back of such cards usually described the wizard depicted on them. Sherlock Mephisto's card described him as a boy known as the "Spell Prince," possessing an extraordinarily, extraordinarily high talent for spells.

It also listed every spell he had invented, the tiny print packed so densely that there would not have been enough space otherwise.

Sherlock picked up a strip of jerky from the table, broke it into tiny pieces, and fed them to Camilla in her shrunken state.

"It isn't as tasty as Kobe beef. It tastes a little like ordinary pork jerky, except it has far too much seasoning. This kind of jerky tastes more like seasoning than meat."

Camilla affectionately rubbed her head against Sherlock's soft neck, unable to resist complaining that the food these people used to entertain the noble Mephistos was rather lacking in sincerity.

"All right... Go sneak out and have a look around later. After Voldemort's downfall, Dark wizards have all been living oppressed and impoverished lives. The fact that they could produce this much is already enough to show their sincerity."

Sherlock lowered his hand to the ground, allowing Camilla to slowly crawl down his arm and onto the floor before quietly slipping outside through a gap.

Even in her shrunken state, Sherlock was not worried that the little snake would be harmed outside. Some magical creatures in the wizarding world were naturally endowed with magical abilities humans could not comprehend.

After closely analyzing these innate magical abilities, Sherlock concluded that they were merely the innate spell talents of creatures born with magical power.

They could be regarded as an inborn ability to cast spells without incantations, activated at will. If spells were acquired through later study and practice, then magical creatures' abilities were something they possessed from birth and were deeply fused with.

Sherlock had created three Parseltongue spells for Camilla.

That was, spells that could be cast using Parseltongue.

They were the Parseltongue versions of the Smallification Curse, the Enlargement Curse, and the Serpent Venomfire Curse.

The Parseltongue Smallification Curse and Enlargement Curse allowed Camilla to control her own size, while the Serpent Venomfire Curse allowed her to spew purple flames filled with an extremely potent serpent venom from her mouth.

Even if one was not burned to death by the flames, getting the slightest bit on them would result in death by snake venom without prompt treatment.

It could be considered an exceptionally vicious piece of Dark magic.