Harry looked at Loreton with a surprised expression, thinking, "Good thing my mouth isn't as fast as yours."
"If you carefully observe this circle around the desk, you can see more of this white ash. Clearly, he doesn't have the habit of clearing embers. And this also indicates that he has been burning certain things for a long time."
Saying that, he looked at the pinned book pages on the wall, and then at the books on the desk.
"We can see that none of the book pages on the wall came from the books he himself was reading. This can be seen from the bookbindings; all the books are complete."
"This means someone has been continuously providing him with these materials. Combined with the white ash, it can be inferred that this person has been corresponding with him by letter. And after each exchange, the letters would be burned by him."
"Let's go back, it's over." Howl said, picking up the quill from the desk.
Thanks to the quill's properties, its personal scent lingered… quite strongly, especially the feathers near the grip, which had already turned yellow.
Howl let Harry hold it, while he himself took down all the pinned documents from the wall, stacking them into a thick pile in his hand.
Then, the three looked at Huckleton. At this moment, the old Professor was keenly flipping through the books on the bookshelf, reading with great interest.
He turned his head and said gently: "Mr. Williams's collection is quite good. I'm very curious, how did he collect so many books when he has neither an ancient family inheritance nor great wealth?"
"Perhaps he's been an artifact thief for more than just a day or two?! An international artifact theft organization?"
"I don't know, perhaps we can ask Charon." Howl shook his head, his interest rising again.
Combined with Jason Williams's ancient and powerful Confundo, if it truly was a group crime, perhaps the fellows in that team might even have a trick or two of ancient magic up their sleeves?!
It seemed these people should not be underestimated either.
Howl did not answer him, merely placed his hand on his shoulder, looking at Huckleton.
"Hold on tight."
"Wait!" Suddenly, a somewhat hysterical voice appeared.
"You… can you really get Jason home safely? He's not a bad boy… maybe he just… just fell in with the wrong crowd."
"Oh, I can probably guarantee he'll come back." Howl smiled, "As for the rest, that's hard to say. You knew your child was acting a bit off, didn't you?"
"I…"
The next moment, the few people vanished, and the papers and white embers on the desk rose, like autumn leaves, slowly floating to the ground.
Returning to the Cerberus bar, Howl walked straight inside, looking at Charon, and an abruptly empty wine bottle on his table.
"I don't understand why you always choose things that look like they've been dug out of a garbage dump for Portkeys? Charon, do you know of any famous international theft organizations?"
"Uh… there's one, Hand of Glory. You can tell from the name they're a bunch of thieves… but I'm not very clear about their specific composition."
"I tried to contact them yesterday, but couldn't get through…"
As he spoke, his voice grew softer and softer, then he lowered his head, somewhat uneasy.
"I'm really sorry! This is my mistake!!"
"After we leave, continue to gather information." Howl didn't say much, placing his hand on the Portkey.
Harry followed closely.
Behind them, Huckleton and Loreton had clearly not recovered from the Apparition just now, looking at Howl in horror.
"What creature's Apparition was that?! Do you have the bloodline of other creatures?!"
Howl glanced at him: "You certainly know how to talk."
The next moment, the group vanished.
In Turkey, Aydin Province, in the mountain forest to the left of the ancient city ruins of Miletus, the figures of several people suddenly appeared.
Howl, holding and looking at the papers, analyzed the fellow's possible whereabouts.
From these documents, Howl learned that the Athens Academy ruins seemed to no longer be the Athens Academy that Plato once established.
Instead, it was the "Athens Academy" depicted in Raphael's painting, which gathered all the wise men of Ancient Greece.
And its appearance seemed not to be fixed. Neither the conditions for entering nor the location after exiting were fixed at all.
The last person known to have entered it was a Wizard from two hundred years ago.
Unfortunately, this fellow had an ordinary reputation, and the reason he was remembered in history… was because he researched spells and ended up killing himself.
"From these materials, it seems he wants to go to Miletus, to trigger the appearance of the secret realm through the ruins of the former Miletus school." Howl said, then looked towards the sea.
Harry pointed to the dilapidated ruins beside the mountain forest: "Uncle Howl, is this it?"
At this time, there were still many tourists there.
"Probably not." Huckleton shook his head: "The true Miletus has been submerged by the sea. Dozens of kilometers beyond the coastline."
Howl looked out at the sea, somewhat regretting not bringing a boat.
No, releasing a boat directly here didn't seem like a good option either.
"Then how do we get into the sea?" Loreton asked somewhat awkwardly: "The deep sea isn't something a Bubble-Head Charm can solve."
"Gillyweed?!" Harry suddenly thought: "I saw this in a Herbology Class for older students."
Loreton looked at Harry with some surprise, not expecting the kid to be so quick-witted.
Howl also looked at Harry approvingly. His own body had been modified, so going into the water was no problem for him, but the other three were different.
"Let's go, I know where the market is here." Loreton said.
...
...
Half an hour later, on a deserted coastline, waves crashed, creating dense white foam, and the sea breeze carried a salty smell.
"Uncle Howl, here." Harry broke off a piece of Gillyweed and handed it to Howl.
Howl looked at the tangled, continuously wiggling thing that resembled seaweed, twitched the corner of his mouth, and shook his head: "No, I don't need this."
Saying that, gills, in the true sense of the word, began to split open beneath his cheeks.
"You should keep Gillyweed somewhere you can access it at any time. The best option is to stuff a piece into your mouth, so you can swallow it at any moment."
"Okay." Harry nodded repeatedly, first swallowing a large piece of Gillyweed, his face turning red, as if he had eaten a rotten fish that had been left for three days, then he took two more pieces and stuffed them into his cheeks.
Then, a feeling of suffocation emerged from his chest.
He quickly looked down, somewhat at a loss, at the four-to-five-meter-high sea cliff.
Howl glanced over and saw no reefs…
He kicked him down.
Then he looked at the other two.
"You two are…"
"Don't trouble yourself."
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