07

"Brother! Brother! What are you holding?"

Already four years old, his younger sister Axinsha had inherited their mother Aili's beautiful looks. Her long golden hair was straight and silky, while her sky-blue eyes possessed an innocent charm that drew everyone's gaze.

Her fair, flawless features seemed as though God had fashioned her from a sketch of an angel.

At Mephisto Manor, the family's most beloved child was no longer Sherlock, the one hailed as a genius, but his younger sister Axinsha Mephisto. Treated as a little princess, she had always been the pearl in their parents' palms.

And she was exceptionally kind as well.

As one of the oldest families in the wizarding world, the Mephisto family was rumored to have shared a deep friendship with Merlin himself when he was still alive.

As a prestigious old family like this, their manor naturally had house-elves who had served them generation after generation for countless years.

Axinsha was willing to share her kindness with those elves, which deeply moved them. They all regarded Axinsha as their little angel.

When she was younger, Axinsha had seen the house-elves dressed in filthy rags and could not bear it. She had even planned to take the manor's spare clothes and give them to the elves, but her father stopped her. After all, giving clothes to a house-elf meant giving them freedom.

Though her wish had ultimately gone unfulfilled, the elves who learned of their young mistress's intentions were so touched their hearts nearly broke.

Every one of the elves was a fine cook, and their desserts were first-rate as well. Often, in the dead of night, one or two crafty little elves would secretly make extra desserts and snacks, leaving them in Axinsha's room.

That silly girl had always thought her mother had prepared them.

As his sister followed behind him, persistently asking out of curiosity, Sherlock calmly explained.

"An egg that's about to hatch. A little snake will come out of it."

"Wow!" Upon hearing Sherlock's answer, anticipation filled her sky-blue eyes.

Though she was a girl, she had never been afraid of snakes or other reptiles. An ordinary girl would probably burst into frightened tears and screams at the sight of a snake.

But Axinsha certainly would not. The emblem of Slytherin House at Hogwarts was a snake.

Could snakes perhaps symbolize the ideals of pure-blood families in the wizarding world?

"Give it to me..."

Axinsha stretched out her chubby little hand, asking her brother for it, but Sherlock refused outright. Seeing her puffed-up expression, he could not help but find it amusing.

"Godfather is here. He gave me this snake egg, and from what I know, he prepared an even better gift for you."

"Really? Then I'm going to find Godfather!"

The moment she heard that Lucius had brought her a gift as well, Axinsha excitedly ran off to demand it. Lucius, who had been preparing to leave, was rather baffled when Axinsha insisted on receiving a gift. Yet since he had not prepared one for her, he was left looking somewhat awkward.

Facing Axinsha's hopeful gaze, Lucius felt that a man nearing forty like himself was being rather foolish. He had prepared something for Sherlock, yet had nothing presentable to give Axinsha.

At that moment, he could never have imagined that Sherlock had been the one who urged Axinsha to ask him for a gift.

After receiving the snake egg, Sherlock hurried back to his room. He could feel the movement inside, little by little, as though the tiny life within could not wait to come out early and glimpse the colorful world.

The wait for an egg to hatch was always filled with anticipation.

The wait for Sherlock's first pet was clearly a little long. Only after three days did the soft egg finally give a crisp cracking sound.

Sherlock practically rushed over at once, pressing his eye close to peer through the crack in the shell.

Inside, a golden little snake as thick as an index finger spun around in confusion amid bluish-green fluid. Perhaps the crack was not wide enough for it to squeeze through after hatching, and it seemed to be considering ramming it with its head again.

"I'm going to give you a name. You'll be called Camilla." The little snake had only just managed to crawl out of its shell when Sherlock's warm hands, which had been waiting outside, caught it.

Camilla's golden-scaled body resembled an exquisite ornament forged from gold. As she fell into Sherlock's palm, she felt cool to the touch.

Yet the warmth surrounding her also made Camilla feel comfortable...

Simply put, Sherlock was very satisfied with the gift his godfather Lucius had given him this time.

He carefully cradled the little snake in his palm and walked over to the window, gazing at the round, disk-like moon beneath the black night sky beyond the manor castle.

"Another month has passed. The magic notebook can record another new spell. What type of spell should I create? A powerful dark magic spell, or one with the nature of white magic, like Scarless Healing?"

The golden little snake dozed in his palm, and Sherlock smiled. A golden python could grow three or four meters long, as thick as a thigh, and could even swallow an entire lamb.

But when newly born, it was only like a slightly larger loach—except no loach was anywhere near as beautiful.

"Unfortunately, I'm not a Parselmouth, so I can't communicate with you. But if I really want to speak with you, I could create a spell that makes communication easier."

A sharp gleam flashed through Sherlock's eyes.

In Sherlock's view, Parseltongue was a rather useful innate talent. Those who possessed it could communicate and converse with snakes. Throughout history, only three known Parselmouths had been recorded.

And all three had achieved extraordinary things beyond ordinary people.

The first was Salazar Slytherin, one of Hogwarts' four founders and the founder of Slytherin House. He had been an outstanding and powerful wizard, though he held extreme pure-blood ideals. In the end, he fell out with his friend Gryffindor and left, leaving behind the Chamber of Secrets, which would one day be opened by Slytherin's heir.

The emblem of Slytherin House was a snake.

The second was the infamous Voldemort, Tom Riddle. Nearly everything related to him could be found in modern wizarding history, but without exception, it all read like horror stories.

The third was the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter.

In Sherlock's eyes, Parseltongue was more like a bloodline talent that could be passed down to descendants. For instance, Voldemort was Salazar's descendant. It was also possible that Voldemort's ancestors had possessed Parseltongue without becoming famous enough to be recorded in history.

As for Harry Potter, it was because a fragment of Voldemort's soul resided within him that he could glimpse Voldemort's thoughts and understand Parseltongue.

All things considered, Harry Potter was the only person who was not Slytherin's heir yet understood Parseltongue because of an accident.

Oh, right... Voldemort's daughter could speak Parseltongue too, in the eighth installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Voldemort's daughter, Delphi, was also a Parselmouth. She inherited Voldemort's extraordinary talent, and even the adult Harry was no match for her.

Of course, all of that was still somewhat far away. This showed that Parseltongue could be inherited through bloodlines, and outsiders found it difficult to master unless by accident.

When Sherlock had first read the Harry Potter series, he had been incredibly envious of Parseltongue, the ability to communicate with animals.

"Perhaps... I can create a... unique spell!"