Wizards' Entertainment

"Where did you go?"

Roy had just sat down at the Hufflepuff table when Cedric and the others finished lunch and prepared to head back to the common room.

"The Hospital Wing, and the library."

Roy had run all the way there and sat down, panting. He grabbed the last pie on the table and stuffed it straight into his mouth.

"Oh, right. Take these back for me."

Roy tossed the two thick books he had borrowed from the library to Cedric.

Cedric caught the two books Roy had thrown at him and nearly stumbled.

He had not expected them to be so heavy. Cedric had to use both hands to hold them. He looked curiously at the books, each thicker than a dictionary. Roy might not have been very big, but he was certainly strong.

"All right, we'll head back first."

Cedric carried the books away with the other students who had finished eating.

The dining hall was much emptier now. Only a few students who had just returned sat scattered across the tables of the four houses, wolfing down the leftovers.

Naturally, Roy kept stuffing food into his mouth without restraint. But just as he put a steak he had really wanted onto his plate, all the food on the table vanished.

Rubbing his stomach, Roy felt only half full.

"Forget it. I'll count it as dieting today."

He put down his utensils, wiped his hands casually on his green trousers, then got up from the table and headed for the basement.

When he returned to the dormitory, Gabriel and Connor were lying on their beds playing Wizard's Chess. Gabriel seemed to have gotten the hang of it by now, and he and Connor were evenly matched.

Cedric sat nearby with one of the books Roy had borrowed from the library, casually flipping through its contents while occasionally glancing at the game between the two.

When he saw Roy return, Cedric handed him the book and sighed over its contents.

"This book is too complicated. I can only understand a little of it. Did you borrow something like this because you want to keep making those toys you gave us over the summer?"

Roy took the book and casually tossed it onto the table beside him. He pulled over a chair, sat down, and watched Gabriel and Connor's match.

Roy neither confirmed nor denied it. He chatted with Cedric while watching their game.

Connor still seemed to be the better player. After all, having grown up in a wizarding family, he had mastered Wizard's Chess long before starting school.

Seeing Roy and Cedric watching from the side, Connor invited them.

"Do either of you want to play a round?"

Cedric agreed, but Roy shook his head.

"Forget it. Chess is way too boring."

Connor stood up, and Cedric took his place. Once the game ended, all the pieces hopped back into their original positions on their own.

"But compared to Gobstones, Wizard's Chess is much more interesting."

Connor had grown up entirely in the Wizarding World. To him, aside from Quidditch, Wizard's Chess was about the only reasonably interesting pastime left.

Faced with Connor, who had seen so little of the world, Roy could not help sighing at how lacking the Wizarding World's entertainment was. In his previous life, technology had been endlessly advanced, and people had endless ways to entertain themselves.

Coming to this era, without short videos or the internet, had instead given Roy a bit of peace he had never found in that time. Still, compared to the Wizarding World, even Muggle television alone was far ahead of its entertainment.

Roy looked at Connor, who was questioning him, pointed at the Wizard's Chess set, and said indifferently,

"Fundamentally, it's no different from Muggle chess. The pieces just move on their own."

Havoc had achieved technology like that easily a few decades later. There was nothing particularly magical about pieces that could move by themselves.

Roy pulled a deck of playing cards from his trunk. He was an expert card player. He flipped the cards between his hands, then gave them a light turn. The whole deck vanished, leaving only the two Jokers pinched between his fingers.

With another flip of his hands, all fifty-four cards appeared neatly in Roy's grasp. Holding the cards, he said confidently to Connor,

"Want to play cards? You could say I'm quite good at them."

Roy's card tricks left Connor dazzled. Connor took the cards from Roy, examined them in his hands, then returned them.

"Aren't these tools for divination? And none of these cards move. What's fun about them?"

Faced with Connor's doubts, Roy carefully explained many different card games. As a veteran card player, he knew dozens of ways to play.

Yet after Roy introduced so many games, Connor was not very interested. He merely repeated,

"These cards can't move on their own, and they can't fight each other. A game like that is way too boring."

In response to Connor's question, Roy drew out the King of Hearts and studied the white-bearded old man in a hat on the card.

K stood for king. Roy thought that if he replaced the image in the center of the card with one of the moving figures from Chocolate Frog cards, would that work?

"What if we replace the person on the card with Dumbledore?"

Roy brushed a hand over the card, using Transfiguration and Alchemy at the same time. The king in the center of the King of Hearts turned into Dumbledore in red robes.

Connor took the card. The flat Dumbledore even stood up from the surface. A super-miniature Dumbledore stood on the card and shouted at Connor,

"Hufflepuff gains 100 points!"

That ingenious Transfiguration caught the attention of Cedric and Gabriel, who had been playing chess. Cedric, whose turn it should have been, stopped, rose, and walked over to Connor. He took Roy's card, and as someone proficient in Transfiguration, Cedric knew just how impressive Roy's spell was.

Cedric carefully examined the Little Dumbledore standing on the card. Seeing Cedric studying him so intently, Little Dumbledore shouted again,

"Good student, Hufflepuff gains 100 points!"

"How did you do that? Th-this is incredible."

Seeing the admiration on Cedric's face, Roy's pride was greatly satisfied.

"It's actually a combination of Alchemy and Transfiguration. Just like Wizard's Chess pieces, except it isn't very intelligent yet."

Dumbledore continued loudly awarding points to Hufflepuff without stopping.

Roy drew out another card, a Queen, turned the Queen on it into Professor McGonagall, and handed it to Gabriel.

Little Professor McGonagall spoke in an extremely stern tone, as if she had caught a student causing trouble. Standing on the card, she repeatedly shouted,

"Slytherin loses 100 points! Slytherin loses 100 points!"

"Hahaha—"

Everyone was amused, and they were also astonished by the powerful technique Roy had displayed. Looking at the tiny people on the cards, Gabriel offered an idea.

"It would be great if they could fight each other."

"Fight each other—"

That suggestion inspired Roy. Looking at Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore on the cards, Roy thought of the online games from the internet in his previous life.

"Isn't this a physical online game?"

A great plan capable of changing entertainment in the Wizarding World after the Mendelbrick Project was born in Roy's mind.

"Sure. Add another item to the task list. Let's call it the Auto Chess Project."