The Great Hall had been decorated by the Gryffindor students.
Overall, it looked much the same. After all, the decorations were the same ones everyone had to work with. But the enchanted sky above the Great Hall had been changed. It was now covered by a thick layer of storm clouds, and whenever lightning flashed through them, one could make out terrifying ghostly shadows drifting across the darkness.
Countless pumpkin lanterns floated up and down in the air. Since night had not yet fallen, none of them were glowing yet.
The first-year Gryffindors did not know the Levitation Charm either, so they had only been responsible for carrying the decorations into the Great Hall. Hermione had worked up quite a sweat, and the fringe on her forehead had even clumped together a little. But after touching the emerald earring on her ear, she suddenly looked completely refreshed again.
Even her strength seemed to come back.
After lunch, Hermione went off to History of Magic, while Altair, having nothing else to do, returned to the Room of Requirement to continue brewing Orc potion.
The next day was October 31.
That night, Hogwarts would be holding its Halloween feast.
And Altair's monthly summoning privileges were about to refresh as well. He did not use his summoning privileges on 30th itself.
That morning, Gryffindor and Slytherin had Charms together, while in the afternoon Slytherin would have History of Magic with Hufflepuff.
As expected, the Charms lesson was on the Levitation Charm.
The incantation was Wingardium Leviosa.
This time, however, Hermione was sitting beside Altair, so she never corrected Ron's pronunciation. That meant no argument broke out, and the entire lesson passed quite normally.
The only thing that was not normal was Altair.
Because he wanted more points, he controlled his feather until it flew like a dart, striking wherever he pointed. It even made sharp whistling sounds as it cut through the air.
As a result, Professor Flitwick awarded him ten points.
Hermione's feather, by comparison, merely floated gently into the air. Professor Flitwick praised her, but did not award any points.
That afternoon, Altair unsurprisingly slept through both classes again.
In truth, he quite liked History of Magic. It reminded him a little of the philosophy lessons he had once studied, the sort that made him gradually drift off without even realizing it.
Very soon, evening arrived.
The feast had not started yet, and Altair was resting in his dormitory when the system notified him that his summoning privileges had refreshed.
"It's Halloween today, so let fortune favor me. Silmaril, come to me!!!"
Altair closed his eyes and made a wish, then chose item summoning.
"Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully drawn the item: Ithil-stone!"
Hm?
An Ithil-stone?
"What even is that?"
The corner of Altair's mouth twitched. There had been no notice about an increase to the One Ring's unlock rate, so this thing probably had very little connection to the Ring itself.
But after checking the item, a flash of delight still appeared in Altair's eyes.
The Ithil-stone was one of the seven Palantíri brought to Middle-earth.
And another name for the Palantíri was the Seeing-stones.
The seven Palantíri could communicate with one another, and were used for observing lands and for communication across vast distances.
Although this Ithil-stone was not the same Seeing-stone that belonged to Saruman, it was still immensely valuable to Altair.
Whenever items from Middle-earth were summoned, the system altered them to better suit this world. And after being modified, the Ithil-stone had gained an extremely powerful ability.
Through the stone, Altair could observe any person and any place at any time.
It would not be blocked by other spells, nor could anyone else detect it.
"Very powerful."
Altair took the Ithil-stone out of his system space and set it in front of himself. Then, with a thought, ripples like water spread through the crystal, and a scene appeared within it with perfect clarity.
At the Shelby estate, Sophia was having dinner with the other servants.
Inside Birmingham Prison, Freddy was lounging on a sofa with a thoroughly satisfied look on his face, his eyes half closed, a cigar held between his fingers. A woman with a figure like a model was busily attending to him, because Freddy's temper was running a little too hot...
The corner of Altair's mouth twitched.
What a true leader of the Shelby family. Even after getting himself thrown in prison, he was still living at ease.
Though that woman looked strangely familiar. She seemed to be one of the female managers from the family's shopping center.
Altair had no interest in observing more closely. His thoughts shifted, and the image inside the crystal changed to the Great Hall, where many students were already waiting for the feast to begin.
Hermione was propping up her chin in boredom, pouting a little, and glancing from time to time toward the entrance of the hall.
Then the image changed again. Professor Quirrell was hurrying back toward the castle from outside, and there was a faint smile on his face, as though something had happened that pleased him greatly.
"Tsk, poor Quirrell."
Altair put away the Ithil-stone and glanced at the time.
There were still twenty minutes left before the feast began.
"System, summon character."
"Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully summoned William Huggins!"
"Who the hell is that supposed to be?"
Altair was speechless.
The One Ring's unlock rate had not reacted again. It looked like this month had been a complete wash.
Altair opened the system space, only to find that inside was a huge troll.
"Hm? Another troll? And one with a name?"
There were plenty of trolls in Middle-earth, but not many of them had been mentioned by name. Altair opened the system's description, and only then did he remember who this William was.