Wizards' Entertainment

"Where did you go?"

Roy had just sat down at the Hufflepuff table when Cedric and the others, having just finished lunch, were preparing to return to the common room.

"The Hospital Wing, and the library."

Roy had run all the way back and sat down, panting. He picked up a leftover pie from the table and stuffed it straight into his mouth.

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

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

Cedric caught the two books Roy threw at him and nearly staggered.

He had not expected them to be so heavy. Cedric had to use both hands just to hold them. He looked curiously at the books, which were thicker than dictionaries. Roy might not have been very big, but he was surprisingly strong.

"All right, we're heading back first."

Carrying the books, Cedric left the dining hall with the other students who had finished eating.

The dining hall was much emptier now. Only a few students who had just returned were scattered among the four House tables, wolfing down the remaining food.

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

Rubbing his stomach, Roy felt only half full.

"Fine. I'll count this as dieting for the day."

He put down his cutlery, 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 grasped the tricks of the game 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 Gabriel and Connor's game.

Seeing Roy return, Cedric handed him the book and sighed over its contents.

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

Roy took the book and casually tossed it onto the nearby table. He pulled over a chair and sat beside Cedric to watch Gabriel and Connor's match.

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

Connor was clearly the better player. After all, having grown up in a wizarding family, he had already mastered Wizard's Chess long before coming to Hogwarts.

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

"Do you two want to try a game?"

Cedric agreed, but Roy shook his head.

"Forget it. Chess is way too boring."

Connor stood up, and Cedric took his seat. With one game over, all the pieces hopped back to 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 one of the few reasonably entertaining pastimes left.

Faced with Connor's lack of worldly experience, Roy could not help lamenting how scarce entertainment was in the wizarding world. In the era of Roy's previous life, technology had been infinitely advanced, and humanity had endless ways to entertain itself.

Coming to this era, without short videos or the internet, Roy had instead found a sliver of peace that had not existed in his old time. Still, compared to the wizarding world, even Muggle television alone was leagues ahead of wizarding entertainment.

Roy looked at Connor, who was questioning him, pointed at the Wizard's Chess set, and said casually, "At its core, it's no different from Muggle chess. The only difference is that the pieces move on their own."

Havoc could easily accomplish that kind of technology several decades later. As far as self-moving pieces went, magic was nothing remarkable.

Roy pulled out a deck of playing cards from his trunk. He was an expert at card games. He flicked the cards between both hands, then gave his hands a light turn. The entire deck vanished, leaving only the two Jokers pinched between his fingers, one in each hand.

With another turn of his hands, all fifty-four cards appeared neatly in Roy's grasp. Holding the deck, he said confidently to Connor, "Want to play some cards? I'd say I'm quite good at them."

Roy's card trick left Connor dazzled. Connor took the deck from Roy, examined it in his hands, then returned it.

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

In response to Connor's doubts, Roy explained many different ways to play card games in detail. As a seasoned card master, he knew dozens of variations.

Yet even after Roy introduced all those games, Connor showed little interest. He only kept repeating, "The cards can't move on their own, and they can't fight each other. A game like that is too boring."

Faced with Connor's question, Roy drew out a King of Hearts and held it in his hand, studying the white-bearded old man in a hat depicted on the card.

K stood for king. Roy thought, would it work if I replaced the picture in the middle of the card with one of those moving people from Chocolate Frog cards?

"How about replacing the person on the card with Dumbledore?"

Roy brushed his hand across the card, simultaneously using Transfiguration and alchemy. The king in the center of the King of Hearts turned into Dumbledore in red robes.

Connor took the card. Dumbledore on its flat surface actually rose up from the paper. A super-miniature Dumbledore stood on the card and shouted loudly at Connor.

"100 points to Hufflepuff!"

This ingenious Transfiguration also caught the attention of Cedric and Gabriel, who were playing chess. Cedric, who should have been making his move, stopped and rose to walk over to Connor. He took Roy's card, and as someone proficient in Transfiguration, Cedric knew exactly how impressive Roy's technique was.

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

"Good student, 100 points to Hufflepuff."

"How did you do that? This... this is amazing."

Seeing the admiration on Cedric's face, Roy's sense of 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 was still loudly and continuously awarding points to Hufflepuff.

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

Tiny Professor McGonagall spoke in a stern tone, as though she had caught students causing trouble. Standing on the card, she repeatedly shouted.

"100 points from Slytherin! 100 points from Slytherin!"

"Hahaha—"

Everyone burst into laughter, while also being amazed by the powerful technique Roy had displayed. Looking at the little figures on the cards, Gabriel proposed 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, he thought of those online games from the internet in his previous life.

"Isn't this a physical online game?"

A grand plan that would change wizarding entertainment after the Mendelbrick Project was born in Roy's mind.

"It can be done. Let's add another item to the task list. We'll call it the Auto Chess Project."