Seemed to Have Heard Something He Shouldn't Have...

Compared to Griffin and the others, who were anxiously pondering the future, Manus was clearly more positive about the news that Dumbledore was coming.

He had never expected that he would get to meet this living legendary wizard so many years before reaching the age to enroll.

The discussion that followed had little to do with Manus. Griffin and Grandfather needed to discuss the details of the upcoming banquet.

And after being excited and agitated for so long, not to mention talking so much, Grandmother no longer had much energy left and needed a proper rest.

The four of them left Grandmother's bedroom. Grandfather took Griffin to the study, while Aivina led Manus up another floor from the stairwell and all the way to the end of the third-floor corridor.

At the end of the corridor hung a portrait, an enormous one that nearly filled the entire wall. It depicted a slightly plump old man in magnificent robes, leaning on a cane as he dozed in an armchair in his study.

Hearing Aivina and Manus's footsteps, the old man in the painting suddenly opened his eyes. Once he recognized them, he gave them a kindly smile.

"This is Count Westcott."

Aivina led Manus in nodding respectfully toward the portrait.

"This ancestor was the first to attempt expanding the family's businesses into the Muggle world while properly circumventing the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, raising the family to another level."

Manus cooperatively looked at the portrait with admiration and reverence, making Count Westcott in the painting laugh with great satisfaction.

"Those are all matters of the past. The family's glory can only continue through living people like you."

At that, Count Westcott's smile faded. He changed from a wealthy old man peacefully enjoying his retirement into an imposing count and tycoon as he spoke to Aivina.

"Little Aivina, you have always been more decisive than that brat Griffin. Whenever there are signs that the situation is about to reach a conclusion, or when an eerie calm appears, leave immediately."

After a brief pause, Count Westcott rubbed the gem-set handle atop his cane.

"If Griffin cannot make up his mind, take little Manus and leave Britain first. Sometimes, for greater long-term benefits, certain businesses must be abandoned decisively."

Manus's eyelid twitched. Was it really okay to say something like that?

This sounded like he was encouraging Mother to take me and run, treating Father as a liability to be discarded... and the key point was that the one saying it was Father's ancestor!

"I understand, Count Westcott."

Aivina answered the portrait solemnly.

Count Westcott nodded in satisfaction. The figure in the portrait rose and walked a few steps to the bookshelf within the painting.

"All right, come in. Aside from that rude little bastard Griffin last time, no one has come here in over sixty years..."

He raised his cane and tapped several book spines on the shelf in sequence. After a burst of trembling, the bookshelf split in two down the middle—along with the section containing the portrait itself—revealing a passageway.

Manus watched the scene with curiosity.

After learning that these portraits could leave their frames to visit other portraits, and that they possessed a certain degree of intelligence, he had known they surely had uses beyond their symbolic purpose of chatting and communicating with later generations.

What he saw before him was clearly one such use. Besides using magical materials as paint and canvas, additional magic had been cast upon the entire painting itself, and the person within it could activate that magic through a specific method.

He just did not know whether there was any way to force his way into the hidden passage besides this method...

After opening the passageway, Count Westcott returned to his chair, leaned back against it, and closed his eyes again.

Aivina raised her hand and took Manus's hand as she spoke.

"Inside is the old manor's library."

Seeing Manus's eyes suddenly light up, Aivina smiled faintly and squeezed his hand.

"Come with me."

As he walked through the passageway, Manus examined the narrow corridor around him.

This direction and distance were completely disproportionate to what I saw outside. Was this spatial magic again?

Manus knew the place his mother had deliberately brought him to had to be special, but he had originally assumed it was merely where the portraits she had mentioned before were kept. He had never expected it to be a library...

Temporarily setting that question aside, Manus looked at Aivina curiously.

"Mom, you and Count Westcott seem very familiar with each other?"

Judging by the timeline, Mother should not have spent many years at the old manor. Why did she know this ancestor of the King Family so well, and why did Count Westcott seem to know her so well too?

"Because the portrait left behind by Count Westcott's wife is in the Thayer Family estate..."

Mother had only changed her surname to King after marrying Father. Thayer was Mother's original surname. Did that mean Count Westcott and his wife, like his parents, represented a union between the King Family and the Thayer Family?

After noticing this, Manus suddenly connected it to a question he had never considered before.

Even though the King Family was not such a rigid Pure-blood Family, their standard was still that wizards could only marry wizards whose parents were both wizards.

Considering the existence of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, marriages between wizards and Muggles should be extremely rare. Most wizards might never have any contact with Muggles in their entire lives.

And the odds of two Muggles producing a wizard were likewise outrageously low...

By that calculation, weren't most Pure-blood Families made up of close and distant relatives?

Though Manus had not been a genetic engineer before his transmigration, he still possessed common sense. He knew that children born from close relatives had an extremely high chance of physical defects.

The chances might not be as high for children of distant relatives, but accumulated generation after generation, they would not be low at all.

After all, the distinction between close and distant relatives essentially referred to how similar their bloodlines were.

Hiss—this is bad. I seem to have found the reason why Uncle's mental state is suspected to be abnormal. This body of mine might even have defects too. At the very least, the odds are far higher than I originally thought.

No, I can't just sit around and wait for death. Magic that can test health conditions and heal congenital defects needs to be put on the agenda!

With Manus's speed of thought, all those thoughts had taken only an instant in the outside world. As he made his decision, Aivina had only just finished the rest of her sentence.

"Moreover, Count Westcott and his wife can visit each other's portraits, so I have seen Count Westcott since I was little."

Hearing that, Manus was startled.

"Can people in portraits visit other portraits without any distance limit?"

If that was true, then the ability and value of this magical creation were simply absurd.