Voldemort

In the Great Hall of Hogwarts Castle, a thrilling duel is underway.

Xiwen sat comfortably in the audience, enjoying the exciting duels on stage.

Since his successful duel in his third year, where he skipped a grade and won first place in the school's dueling competition, he has never personally participated in Hogwarts' Dueling Class again.

In fact, given his current immense reputation as the leader of the entire Pure-blood New Faction, both Headmaster Dippet and Professor Merrythought, along with the other deans, were well aware of Xiwen's current strength and naturally wouldn't force him to participate in a duel that offered little skill for him.

After all, if Xiwen were to Champion the dueling tournament every time, his position as the dueling Champion would probably remain unchanged for nearly five years, from his third year to his seventh year.

This prolonged lack of opportunity to win the championship will undoubtedly have a significant negative impact on the enthusiasm of other young wizards participating in the dueling competition.

After Xiwen withdrew from the dueling competition and Miranda left Hogwarts to participate in an internship, the selection of the Champion went through several changes, changing hands several times among Charlus Potter, Septimus Weasley, Ignatius Pruitt, and others, before all of them gradually graduated.

By the end of this school year, the Champion of the dueling tournaments who challenged opponents of higher levels had finally stabilized.

Tom Riddle of Slytherin has won the Champion for most of the semester!

In the Great Hall Hogwarts, amidst thunderous applause, Riddle elegantly straightened his slightly disheveled school robes and helped his opponent, who had collapsed to the ground, to his feet.

Then a gentle smile appeared on his handsome face, and he waved to the many young wizards below the stage.

Professor Slughorn stood up excitedly and clapped vigorously at him. Even Professor Merrythought, who always had high expectations for young wizards, showed a satisfied expression.

Compared to the overpowered Xiwen, Riddle seems to be the true genius of Hogwarts. His outstanding strength, excellent performance, and handsome face have won him the admiration of many young wizards and the favor of almost all the professors.

Even Riddle's defeated opponents couldn't muster any ill will towards him, and could only willingly be captivated by the personal charm of this young wizard who was only in his fourth year.

With such prestige, Riddle rearranged his names and gave himself a completely new name— Voldemort.

Within months, Voldemort's name had spread throughout the entire Hogwarts!

"Voldemort! Voldemort!..."

Now, the audience below the stage is enthusiastically chanting the name Voldemort.

Riddle was pleased that the audience was chanting Voldemort's name instead of Riddle's, so he politely turned around, bowed deeply to the audience, and then stepped down from the dueling platform.

"A magnificent duel, Riddle." Xiwen stood up in the audience, smiled, and patted Riddle on the shoulder.

Riddle's expression stiffened slightly upon hearing his original surname, but he smiled and said, "Actually, I have a new name. You can just call me Voldemort now, Rozier."

"Voldemort? To be honest, I'm not quite sure what that word means." Xiwen looked at him curiously and asked. "It seems a bit like a French word. Vol means flight, de is a preposition, and mort means death. Do you mean to Flight from Death, Riddle?"

"That's one way to put it," Riddle said softly, pursing his lips.

"Then I'll call you that, Reed ... Voldemort. Cough, it still feels a little strange." Xiwen smiled and said to Riddle. "Actually, you don't need to fear death, Voldemort. Many of my elders have said that death is just a greater adventure."

At this point, Xiwen thought of the Flamel, who invented the Philosopher's Stone but were still willing to face death when necessary; he thought of what Dumbledore had told him: there was no need to pity the dead, but to care for the living relatives and friends; and he also thought of Newt, who was willing to risk his life alone to Care of Magical Creatures.

In their hearts, they must have already understood the meaning of this sentence: "Death is nothing more than a greater adventure!"

Upon hearing this proverb, Riddle paused for a moment before saying, "I must admit, I haven't reached that level yet."

"To be honest, I haven't reached that level of understanding about life yet," Xiwen said with a light laugh. "We're still young; thinking about death is a bit of worrying unnecessarily. Let's just focus on what's in front of us."

"That would be true in peacetime," Riddle said dismissively, scoffing. "But we constantly face the threat of Death. I don't believe youth offers any advantage in such a turbulent era."

"But this is nothing to you, Voldemort, is it?" Xiwen raised an eyebrow, looking at Riddle. "You're the greatest duelist at Hogwarts!"

A barely perceptible flicker of resentment crossed Riddle's eyes, but he feigned a self-deprecating expression as he said to Xiwen, "Don't make fun of me, Rozier. If you hadn't missed the recent dueling tournament, I probably wouldn't even have qualified to challenge a sixth-year student."

"There's no need to belittle yourself. Maybe I can't beat you now?" Xiwen chuckled and said to Riddle.

"That joke isn't funny at all," Riddle shook his head, saying self-deprecatingly. "Who doesn't know you're now the leader of the Pure-blood New Faction? Did you know that the Daily Prophet mentioned that experts have already rated your strength as the strongest below the Archmage?"

"Strength can only be proven in battle, not by the evaluations of those experts," Xiwen scoffed, dismissively. "If you ask me, those so-called experts would be better off on the battlefield with a wizard squad than running around making evaluations and analyses. Even taking down a follower of Death would be a contribution for them."

"I don't think it's appropriate to include those experts in the wizarding team," Riddle said with a laugh. "That would be too unfair to the team members. They would have to put up with the experts' interference and be held back by them. In fact, adding more people might actually reduce their efficiency."

Xiwen and Riddle exchanged a glance, and then burst into laughter simultaneously.

After laughing together at the troublesome so-called experts, Riddle was the first to stop laughing, and then asked somewhat abruptly:

"Rozier, tell me, what benefits do those followers of Death receive that they would serve a Demon God?"