Zhang Xiao's figure abruptly vanished and reappeared in front of the chair. The disturbance in the air caused by Apparition blew away the thick layer of dust covering it.
It was a very, very old-looking chair, older even than the oldest chair he had seen at Hogwarts.
The pattern on its back was somewhat blurred, but he could still make out a shield-shaped coat of arms: a capital H surrounded by a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake.
He had not been mistaken. This was the Hogwarts crest.
An overwhelming sense of absurdity filled his chest. He looked around blankly, then the corners of his mouth tugged at his facial muscles, producing something that was not quite a smile.
It was as inconceivable as people finally opening the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang one day and finding its terracotta guards armed with Type 95 rifles.
"Wh-what's wrong? Is there... something wrong with this chair?" Vervidakis had already forgotten his earlier question.
All his attention was focused on the young-looking Easterner before him.
In all the time Vervidakis had known him, this was the first time he had seen such complicated emotions on his face. Before this, the boy had always worn a faint, confident smile, as though nothing could ever stump him.
But now...
"There is. Something very wrong..." Zhang Xiao pointed at the chair in bewilderment. "This crest... belongs to a school. It shouldn't be here."
Vervidakis understood immediately. As an archaeologist and historian, his greatest fear was not discovering another ruin that filled a gap in history.
It was finding burial goods in those ruins that clearly did not fit the historical record. That sort of thing could leave a man scratching his head bald.
The chair's four legs had sunk into the soil, and there