Threads Remembered Once More

And what if he took a less conservative approach... What would happen if a Runespoor had more than three heads?

Though the idea did not sound particularly ethical, getting a Runespoor to grow additional heads was a subject many Magizoologists had been trying to tackle—its heads were not merely a biological mutation of having one extra head.

Decision-making, imagination, criticism—the Runespoor's three existing heads each had clear tendencies. Thus, Runespoors had always been an important subject for studying the brain, thought, and the soul.

For instance, researchers studied the differences between the three heads to investigate the differences between those three modes of thought. They also tried giving a Runespoor another head to see whether a new tendency would emerge... Of course, some wanted to remove one head, or even turn it into a creature with only one head.

Because this subject was so important, and because it involved studying Runespoors rather than wizards, official research projects existed in many countries.

Manus did not know whether the Ministry of Magic in Britain had one. If it did, it was probably within the Department of Mysteries' jurisdiction.

Unfortunately, no one had ever truly succeeded.

No matter what methods Magizoologists used, Runespoors stubbornly retained exactly three heads—no more, no less, not counting acquired factors such as biting off one of their own heads.

Perhaps that was precisely why Runespoors were regarded as symbols of the number three in Ancient Runes literature.

"...Forget it. There's no need to take that risk."

He could try such morally gray things someday, when he no longer followed moral standards and only needed to avoid becoming a world-destroying villain.

For now, the so-called protagonist treatment was still quite appealing.

Looking back over the past year or two, Manus had not gained as much as he had during