Madam Paget

Manus found himself looking forward to meeting Dumbledore.

Not only was he widely acknowledged as the greatest wizard of the age, but he was also the headmaster of Hogwarts—the magical school his parents said he would attend in the future.

In his mind, kings and officials might not necessarily be particularly powerful, but the headmaster of a magical school definitely would be. That could also serve as evidence for his conjecture.

"Come in quickly. The snow here only stopped a little while ago, and who knows when it might start again."

While Manus was lost in thought, not much time passed in reality. After Grandfather exchanged looks with Griffin for a moment, he spoke to the family of three.

As he spoke, Grandfather looked at Manus and gave him a kindly smile.

"This is Manus's first time returning to the old house, isn't it? Aside from the few days after he was born, he has never come back..."

"Grandfather."

At Manus's call, Grandfather's smile grew even warmer.

"Good, good..."

Though Manus could already tell from the windows that the old house did not have particularly good lighting, only after truly stepping inside did he realize that it was even worse than it looked from outside. It relied almost entirely on the fireplaces and a few lamps for illumination.

Still, the interior of the old house was larger than it appeared from outside, and its lavish decorations included at least three distinct styles from different eras. Now, it finally showed some of the wealth and heritage of a Pure-blood Family.

So the reason it looked so plain outside was that the exterior could not undergo major renovations?

"Go see your grandmother first and greet her. Her health has not been as good as it used to be these past few years, and she spends most of her time in bed. You know what your brother is doing now—he is always making her worry..."

As they were led deeper inside, Manus's gaze wandered over the surroundings. He saw many objects, some novel and some familiar in design, all radiating magical light. They were clearly items made with magic.

Come to think of it, magical items were quite common among wizards. But that made sense. They did not require synchronization to use and made life much easier. If it were him, he would not refuse such convenience either.

No, if it were him, he would still rather live in a mage tower he had built himself.

"Oh, look who has arrived?"

A woman's voice, carrying the weight of age, rang out. Manus had assumed it was his grandmother, but when he looked over, he discovered it came from the stairwell leading upstairs.

Wasn't Grandmother supposed to be in her bedroom?

"Madam Paget, it is a pleasure to see you again. You are as beautiful as ever."

Griffin's voice came from ahead.

"Oh ho ho~ Little Griffin's mouth is still so sweet. No wonder you managed to win such a beautiful wife later on."

"Yes, this is Aivina. You all met her at the wedding back then."

Following behind his mother, Manus entered the stairwell and discovered that Griffin and the others were standing about halfway up the stairs. The one conversing with them was a painting hanging on the wall beside the staircase.

Looking at the noblewoman in the portrait, whose only signs of age were details like faint lines at the corners of her eyes, chatting with his mother while fanning herself with a feather fan, Manus thought of the cards inside Chocolate Frogs.

The two seemed to be much the same sort of thing...

So those cards could talk too?

Damn it. Since I have a good memory, I always threw those cards away after reading them. Thinking about it now, I seem to have thrown them away too early. I might have missed out on several Sickles' worth of experiences because of that.

More importantly, judging from the portrait before him, these paintings did not merely stupidly repeat pre-recorded voices. They seemed to possess a certain degree of intelligence, enough to hold ordinary conversations at the very least.

Then could those portraits know more information about the people depicted in them?

"Oh, is this Little Griffin's son?"

The noblewoman spotted Manus following behind Aivina. Her eyes lit up, and she put away her feather fan before waving quickly at Manus with small motions.

"Come here, let me have a good look at you!"

Seeing her reaction, Manus had no doubt that if the person before him had been real, there was a high chance he would have been thoroughly pinched and fussed over.

Before his transmigration, his teacher—the giant of the magical world—had possessed a lively, unpredictable personality completely at odds with her achievements in magic. Even those familiar with her found it difficult to fully anticipate her thoughts and decisions.

When Manus had first entered her tutelage and was still quite young, his cheeks had once fallen victim to her hands...

But the one acting this way now was only a painting, so he had nothing to worry about.

"Oh~ What an adorable child! What a pity I cannot reach my hands out of the painting!"

Seeing Manus's obedient and adorable appearance, the noblewoman could not help showing an expression as though her heart were melting.

Griffin came down two steps and spoke quietly beside Manus.

"This is a portrait Madam Paget left behind. She is an ancestor of the King Family."

An ancestor? Then why call her Madam instead of addressing her by seniority... ah...

Manus glanced at Madam Paget before him. Even in the portrait, she insisted on appearing somewhat younger than she had truly been. Clearly, having the younger members of the family call her by her actual generation would not be something that pleased her.

"Madam Paget."

He obediently stepped forward to greet her. After exchanging a few more words with Madam Paget, the group bid her farewell and continued onward.

The sound of high heels striking the floor came from behind him. When Manus turned around, he found that the painting's frame was already empty.

Seeing this, Manus became even more certain that it was the same kind of thing as the cards in Chocolate Frogs, because he had also seen the figures in Chocolate Frog portraits walk out of their frames and vanish.

"Madam Paget has gone to visit the portraits left behind by other ancestors. If you are interested, you can go to the portrait room later and chat with them. They will like you."

Aivina noticed that Manus had stopped at the stairway exit instead of following them. She turned around and rubbed his head.

"Visit...?"

Manus considered the word. It sounded as though all the portraits were connected to the same world.

A demi-plane?

That did not seem right. If it were the entrance to a demi-plane, he should not be seeing only this little magical light.

Setting the thought aside for the moment, Manus looked at Aivina.

"Mom, Madam Paget's portrait looks a lot like the cards in Chocolate Frogs."

"Oh, yes. Magical portraits are all painted using magical paints. Their methods of creation are the same, so naturally they look alike."

Aivina was a little surprised, but she nodded.

"However, the magical paints used for the portraits in Chocolate Frogs are very cheap and can last only two or three years at most. But if these portraits left behind by our ancestors are properly maintained, they will not be damaged even after hundreds or thousands of years."