The season of harvest

"You... what are you..."

Scamander's actions left Argus at a complete loss.

Dude, you're a chief!

Couldn't you have a little dignity?

Don't act like some lackey!

"Brother, let's talk this over. Do me a favor. With so many people watching, at least let me lose in style."

"If you agree, I'll give you a big gift afterward!"

"It's something I've treasured for years!"

Scamander pleaded quietly, in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Argus hesitated, then nodded.

He would win either way. What difference did it make how?

By going a little easy on him, he could even get something out of it!

Why not?

"Both sides, get ready!"

"Begin the duel!"

The two bowed to each other and walked to opposite sides of the battlefield.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Levicorpus!"

"Stupefy!"

"Protego Totalum!"

Spells flew everywhere, the dazzling beams drawing gasps from the young witches and wizards.

Fantastical sights and mysterious incantations!

This was the magical duel they wanted to see!

The younger students and most of the older ones could not tell what was really happening, but the other chiefs and Snape were different.

They could tell at a glance that the two were merely putting on a show!

Neither was actually fighting seriously!

"Scamander, have you no pride as a chief?"

"Pulling this with a first-year!"

Prefect Amiri cursed aloud, but an ominous feeling rose inside him.

The fifth-year chief had gone home for the past few days and could not accept a challenge.

Since he couldn't fight the fifth-year, was I going to be his next challenge?

No, absolutely not!

If a first-year really swept through me too, wouldn't I become the laughingstock of all Hogwarts?

"Mr. Grindelwald certainly deserves to be this year's most highly anticipated new student. I concede!"

After several minutes of back-and-forth fighting, a spell knocked Scamander's wand away. He bowed graciously, admitting that he was outmatched.

Argus calmly put away his wand and looked toward the chiefs again.

Amiri broke into a cold sweat!

Here he came. He was coming!

Just as Amiri was racking his brains for an excuse to refuse a duel, Snape suddenly spoke.

"Mr. Grindelwald!"

"If you do not want your classmates to be sprawled over their desks like slugs tomorrow, unable to get up, you had best take note of the time."

Argus looked at the clock in the common room and only then realized that its hands were about to overlap. It was already past eleven, approaching midnight.

Quite a few first-years were already yawning nonstop.

Argus did not want to give up, but Snape had already reminded him. Continuing would undoubtedly make everyone think he cared only about showing off.

That he disregarded others for fame and gain!

That would be extremely detrimental to his future actions.

"Sorry, Professor Snape."

"I'm sorry, everyone, for keeping you here so long."

Argus bowed deeply to everyone in apology.

"It's all right, it's all right. The chief selection duels are like this every year."

"Today's chief selection duels are over!"

"Return to your dormitories in order of year!"

Amiri Carrow hurried forward and immediately announced the end, afraid Argus might change his mind.

He secretly let out a long breath of relief!

It looked as though his position as Prefect was safe for now!

Thank goodness the Head of House was there, or he would have been in serious trouble today!

A sixth-year fighting a first-year would be embarrassing if word got out, whether he won or lost!

Everyone left, with quite a few still discussing Argus's duels.

For these adolescent boys and girls, both the strength Argus had displayed and his elegance in combat were enough to make him their idol.

Many bold older girls were already openly casting flirtatious glances at Argus.

But faced with these enthusiastic older girls, Argus did not dare make a move.

It was not that they were unattractive.

It was his bone-deep fear of a minimum three-year sentence and the death penalty at worst!

"Argus, come with me."

"I'll take you to the first-year chief's private dormitory."

Amiri Carrow's appearance relieved Argus's awkwardness.

He followed him all the way to the private dormitory.

The surroundings were much better than Argus had imagined.

"From now on, this will be your private room. Matters concerning your year will be left to you."

"Of course, I suggest you put some spells on the door to keep trivial matters from disturbing your studies."

"I understand. Thank you, Carrow."

After a few brief reminders, Amiri Carrow returned to his own dormitory.

Argus was left alone in the spacious room.

"Finally, I can see how many achievement points I've saved!"

He opened the system and saw that defeating the fourth-year chief had earned him another 400 achievement points.

His total had reached 1,500!

"System, start the draw!"

A large pile of card packs appeared in midair. He picked a few that caught his eye and opened them one by one.

They were accompanied by a dazzling burst of... blue skies and white clouds.

There was only one guaranteed purple glow.

Argus's heart sank to rock bottom as well.

"Looks like gold drops aren't easy to get, no matter what kind of draw it is."

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained: Impedimenta (level 2), Lumos (level 1), Confringo (level 2), Reducto (level 3), Descendo (level 2), Protego (level 3), Obliviate (level 2), Episkey (level 3), Expulso (level 3)]

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained: Expelliarmus (level 5)]

[Current achievement points remaining: 500]

[Detected that the host has already mastered some of these spells. Would you like to merge them?]

"Merge!"

The familiar sensation of insertion flooded his brain, and a system notification arrived.

[The host possesses exceptional talent and has achieved comprehension beyond the spells' levels.]

[Impedimenta (level 3), Descendo (level 3), Protego (level 4), Expelliarmus (level 6)]

"Even Expelliarmus and Protego leveled up."

"That's like drawing two purples at once. Expelliarmus almost became gold."

"Not bad."

Many spells obtained from the card pool were below Argus's existing levels. Even when the rewards were converted into experience, it was difficult to gain a whole level at once.

"While my luck's good, let's do another five-pull!"

He opened another five card packs, once again greeted by blue skies and white clouds.

The difference was that one of the packs actually emitted an eerie, ghostly green glow.

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained: Scourgify (level 2), Aguamenti (level 1), Protego Totalum (level 2), Relashio (level 3)]

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained: Killing Curse (level 3)]

[Current achievement points remaining: 0]

[Detected that the host has already mastered some of these spells. Would you like to merge them?]

"Merge!"

Once the merging was complete, only Aguamenti and Scourgify had risen by one level.

Argus did not mind, however. Those two spells were mainly useful in everyday life.

They had little impact on his combat strength.

He could only say that they were better than nothing!

"The ghostly green one was the Killing Curse... Looks like all Three Unforgivable Curses are ghostly green in the card pool."

"Luckily, the level it gave me wasn't high. Otherwise, I'd really have trouble dealing with it."

Argus had discussed Dark Magic in depth with Vinda and Grindelwald.

Learning Dark Magic gradually while remaining clearheaded did not affect a person as much as one might imagine.

The difficulty lay in how hard it was to remain clearheaded throughout. Or rather, when delving deeply into research, one could not constantly check one's own condition.

Moreover, one could not be certain whether the Dark Magic one was researching matched one's current abilities!

That was why many people seemed to become entirely different people after studying Dark Magic!

"It's late. Time for bed. I still have to get up early for class tomorrow."

"Who would've thought that even after being reborn, I still couldn't escape going to school?"

Argus had just changed into his pajamas and was getting ready for bed.

A faint sound suddenly came from the door.

"Argus? Argus, are you asleep?"

"Scamander?"

Only then did Argus remember that Scamander seemed to have said he would give him a big gift.

He opened the door, and Scamander winked and nudged a thin book into his arms.

"Brother, this is something I've treasured for years!"

Treasured? Was it some secret magic?

Argus opened it dubiously, and the provocative image that met his eyes made them widen!

"This... this is!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down!"

Scamander clapped a hand over Argus's mouth, the smile on his face looking sleazier by the moment.

"Well? Pretty generous of me, right? Let me tell you, my friend begged me for it for ages, and I still wouldn't give it to him!"

"We're even now!"

"Hope you can still get out of bed tomorrow!"