"What magical artifact chose me?" Sean asked.
"Me, of course." Peeves giggled, making his already ridiculous face look even more absurd.
"Didn't you say Merlin's thoughts chose me?"
"Idiot. Merlin stored his thoughts inside me."
Sean suddenly understood.
So that was possible too.
Gryffindor had turned his wizard's hat into a magical artifact, allowing the other three founders to place their thoughts inside it as well.
But Merlin had gone even further—he had attached his thoughts directly to Peeves.
Sean had to admit that Merlin had taken the concept to an entirely different level.
"So where is Merlin's treasure?" Sean asked.
If Merlin had truly left behind his thoughts, then the rumor about the treasure had to be real.
"In the Slytherin common room."
Peeves's answer surprised Sean.
He had expected something far more secretive—like the Chamber of Secrets.
Peeves immediately led Sean toward the Slytherin common room.
As they walked, Sean couldn't help wondering something.
In a thousand years, had no one ever discovered the treasure?
Salazar Slytherin's Chamber had existed for a thousand years too, and Voldemort had opened it fifty years ago.
Could Merlin's chamber be even harder to access than Salazar's?
"Peeves, hasn't anyone ever found Merlin's chamber before?" Sean asked.
"Of course someone did," Peeves replied.
"Before you, Merlin chose another Slytherin student."
"But he failed Merlin's test."
"Do you know who that student was?"
"Tom Riddle."
Sean fell silent.
He almost felt a strange sense of admiration.
Voldemort truly was extraordinary.
Not only had he inherited Salazar Slytherin's legacy, he had also been chosen by Merlin.
Setting aside his character, his talent was undeniably one in a thousand years.
But what exactly was Merlin's test?
Sean asked Peeves, but the poltergeist didn't answer.
At that moment Sean noticed that the corridor was filling with students.
Only then did he realize that the morning classes had ended.
The Slytherin common room would certainly be crowded now.
"Peeves, are we really going to the chamber now?" Sean said.
"It's not very convenient if there are other students inside."
Peeves looked up at him and jumped onto Sean's neck.
"Peeves can turn invisible."
"I can't," Sean replied helplessly.
Peeves grabbed Sean's hair with both hands.
The next moment—
Both of them vanished.
Sean walked into the Slytherin common room while invisible.
Cassius and Graham were eating snacks.
Chris was sitting on a sofa reading A History of Magic.
Sean carefully avoided the other students and walked toward the fireplace.
He stared at the blazing flames and swallowed nervously.
"The entrance is… here?" Sean asked hoarsely.
"Yes," Peeves replied with a grin.
"Are you scared?"
At that moment Cassius walked over.
He grabbed two pieces of firewood from the pile beside the hearth and tossed them into the fireplace.
The flames immediately burned even brighter.
"Ah… so warm," Cassius said happily.
Sean couldn't help glaring at him.
"You're literally adding fuel to the fire."
"Coward," Peeves mocked.
"Tom Riddle wasn't like you."
"Don't compare me to him," Sean muttered.
Then he suddenly thought of something.
"Wait… how many stages are there in Merlin's test?"
"Five."
"This is the second stage."
Sean frowned.
The second stage?
When had he passed the first one?
"What was the first stage? I don't remember doing anything."
"Idiot. The first stage was catching Peeves," Peeves said, rolling his eyes.
"That counts as a test?" Sean thought.
"That's way too easy."
But Sean didn't realize something important.
Catching Peeves was extremely difficult.
Just look at caretaker Rankoros, who had been driven to retirement by his failure to trap him.
Peeves had extremely high magical resistance. Most binding spells barely affected him.
Merlin himself probably hadn't expected the existence of someone like the Bloody Baron, who could force Peeves to obey.
Back then, when Tom Riddle received Peeves's hints and pranks, he spent three days trying to capture him.
In the end he had to ask the Baron for help.
Sean had saved some time by going directly to the Baron.
If he had tried to catch Peeves himself, who knew how long it would have taken?
Sean stared at the roaring fire in the fireplace.
This wasn't magical fire.
It was real fire.
If he walked into it, wouldn't he be instantly cremated?
"Peeves… you're coming in with me, right?" Sean asked nervously.
"No."
"Only you go in."
"I don't want to burn to death."
Peeves answered bluntly, completely ignoring Sean's anxiety.
"How did Tom Riddle enter?" Sean asked.
When facing danger, people often looked for others' experiences to guide them.
"He just walked in."
"How far did he get?"
"Sadly… only the third stage," Peeves replied.
Then he added with a teasing grin,
"You're scared, aren't you?"
"This is real fire. Of course I'm scared," Sean said honestly.
But he thought about it carefully.
If Peeves wasn't lying, Tom Riddle had walked straight through the flames and reached the third stage.
That meant the fire probably wouldn't actually harm him.
"Fortune favors the bold," Sean muttered.
"At worst I'll end up badly burned and spend a few months in the hospital wing."
With that thought, Sean steeled himself and slowly approached the fireplace.
When he lifted his foot and stepped inside—
A wave of heat blasted against his face.
Instinctively he shut his eyes.
The edge of his trousers instantly caught fire.
At that exact moment, Peeves jumped off Sean's neck.
Sean's invisibility vanished.
He threw himself completely into the fireplace.
Flames wrapped around his entire body—
Like a phoenix reborn in fire.
Graham was chewing on a piece of toffee.
For a moment he thought he saw something in the fireplace.
But the next second it looked completely normal again.
He rubbed his eyes and nudged Cassius.
"Cassius… did you just see someone in the fireplace?"
Cassius glanced back.
Only burning logs remained.
"There's no one there," he said casually.
"You must've imagined it."
Chris closed her copy of A History of Magic and also glanced toward the fireplace.
Meanwhile—
Sean had already been transported to a hidden chamber that even the Marauder's Map could not detect.
Not Salazar Slytherin's chamber—
But the chamber of the legendary wizard Merlin.
The room was dimly lit.
Sean raised his wand.
"Lumos."
At the same time he activated his Magic vision.
"A mannequin?"
The wide chamber contained only a single training dummy.
It looked almost identical to the wooden dummies used in Hogwarts classes.
But under the Magic vision, this one radiated brilliant white light.
The ordinary classroom dummies certainly weren't this powerful.
Clearly—
They were the guardians of this stage.
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