The man stood in a tower with his chest held out and gave a speech.

He squinted, and in his left hand he held a cane in the shape of a dead wood, which looked like a tree branch everywhere.

With his right hand on his chest, he looked smug and said, "Introduce yourself."

I'm Merlin—Araala—and you're not shocked to hear my name!

Well-there is no need to be restrained, I hope you don't see outside, just call me Brother Merlin! ”

"Huh?" Whether it was Hermione or the others, their expressions were frozen at this time.

Merlin's reputation is similar to that of Qin Shi Huang in the Muggle world.

He just said this, with: Hello, I am Qin Shi Huang, in fact, I am not dead. The effect is the same.

Every year - every year in the wizarding world someone falls for the same scam letter and gets fifty out of someone's house.

Truth be told, Archmage Merlin's reputation hasn't been good for the last hundred years - because there are so many liars.

And Hermione—she was more cautious, who knew if it was an illusion, if it was the flesh of the sea that made them see.

In this way, the air unexpectedly froze.

And Master Mei, after seeing that no one was paying attention to him, continued to speak, "I rescued you at a critical moment, and I hope you can send me overwhelming words of thanks." ”

He spoke again to remind, and at this time, the three people on the boat, the most pure-minded Nefer, immediately looked nervous, and then hurriedly bent down towards each other, "Okay-that-thank you very much." ”

"My name is Nelfi, Nefer Tully, and if you have time, I'd like to invite you to Cairo for a drink."

At this time, the two little witches of about the same age showed a gap.

Miss Granger didn't reply, but took out her wand and secretly used her magic to stir the water, and only after making sure that the flesh and limbs in the sea were gone, did she relax her tense nerves.

But – that doesn't mean anything.

Since there is no direct relationship between the two, he still can't prove that he is Merlin.

And Nefer, her eyes lit up, she waved her hand at Merlin excitedly, and wondered what kind of magic he could stand on the water.

I didn't think that the other party might be an owl fraudster.

As for the Auror - sorry, he didn't understand English

However, the strange man who appeared in front of him, the terrifying strength, the ability to reverse flesh and blood, made him frightened.

Several people have their own hundred faces, but they forget that they are not the only ones in this sea.

The initiator, a humanoid monster suspended in the air with wings waving, was still watching them.

"Oops! Forget - there's another viewer. ”

Archmage Merlin looked at the figure in the air, "In that case, then I have to show some real skills." ”

With that, he shook his right hand slightly, and a golden long sword appeared in his hand.

And then—like a cannonball, a sliding slash split the humanoid monster in half, before it had time to react.

Silent pink petals erupted from the monster's wounds, and the petals in the sky caressed the man's figure, which looked so beautiful on this sea of flowers.

"Well, it's a vampire family! It seems that there is a master behind it. ”

"Vampire Clan?" Hermione heard a new term.

Nefer Tully, who was beside her, knew more about this, and she explained to her in excitement, "Some of the vampire patriarchs will have some wizards for the first time, and of course some of the dregs of the margins of society. They will pursue becoming vampires for a variety of reasons. ”

"Uh-I know." Even though Hermione hadn't seen it at Hogwarts, the Muggle films had made it in enough detail.

"It should be that among the dark wizards we cleared before, there is a vampire's property, so let his family take revenge on us."

"I know." Hermione nodded, then looked back at the fair-skinned, multicolored man who was crossing his waist towards them.

"Are you-um-are you really Merlin?"

"The legendary wizard who assisted King Arthur, Merlin?"

"Haha-it's all Arthur's own efforts, I didn't actually help much, it's true that I caused a lot of trouble."

The man who called himself Merlin smiled heartily, exuding an air of impropriety all over his body, which made Hermione doubt his identity even more.

You must know that Merlin not only assisted King Arthur on the throne and helped him establish the Camelot dynasty, but also later organized the Merlin Sir Regiment to mediate wizarding disputes everywhere. He advocated for the peaceful coexistence of wizards and Muggles, and promoted the establishment of the Council of Wizards (the predecessor of the Ministry of Magic), among other things - even the later Presbyterian Church (the predecessor of the Federation) was influenced by him.

Merlin - In the wizarding world, he is a god.

Muggles will say—Oh God, on their lips.

And the wizard will put - Merlin on top and on his lips.

Every epistle – every sorcerer's epistle is accompanied by a sentence at the end – may Merlin bless you, such a blessing.

So—it's not that Hermione doesn't believe it, unless there's really a God.

The Muggle God is real, and the wizard's Merlin is certainly alive.

"But—you doubt me so much, it makes Big Brother Merlin very sad." Boss Mei walked lightly.

"I even brought you a gift!" He blinked, a smile on his face.

"Gifts!" Hermione wasn't moved, but Nefer beside her was thrilled. "Gifts! Miss Granger, Archmage Merlin's gift must be something very precious. One of her little faces was slightly red from the surging of qi and blood, her hands became helpless, and her whole person was immersed in the petals on the sea.

Looking at Nefer's appearance, Hermione couldn't help but wonder if Merlin's faith had already encompassed Egypt.

Isn't this the resurrection of Ramses II (the famous pharaoh of Egypt) so excited?

"Oh! It seems that this little girl has a kind heart. Merlin picked up his deadwood cane and tapped it lightly on Nefer's shoulder, "Now, you're a member of the Order!" ”

"Ahem—you just said you wanted to treat me to a drink?" The Flower Magician suddenly changed his face, earnest, "Then what are you waiting for, let's go!" ”

"Oops! Paddleing all the way from Sicily was a tiring person. ”

On the boat, Hermione and Auror looked at each other.

Whoever the other party is, it's time for them to get out of here.

The ambushed guys will definitely come back.

While Hermione wasn't afraid, she didn't want to get into trouble.

When you arrive in Cairo, under the nose of the Ministry of Magic, even dark wizards don't dare to act recklessly.

After making eye contact, the Auror took Hermione and Nefer, the little girl like a newborn flower bone, a blank piece of paper, and a very friendly other hand grasped the arm of Archmage Merlin, and then a phantom shifted.

Four people arrived in Cairo.

With a thud, Hermione found herself in an inn filled with a mix of ancient Egyptian and Arabic styles.

The space is large, bright and exotic, with snow-white marble floors, shiny bronze gates, huge and quaint stone carvings, brightly colored drapery and tapestries on the walls, and expensive ornaments everywhere.

The gate was in the shape of a sphinx, and they walked inside. Then I saw several huge stone pillars carved with hieroglyphs.

"Where is this?" Hermione asked, brown eyes looking at the large stone pillars in the hall carved with hieroglyphs.

Unlike the Magic Hotel she had stayed with her parents in Cairo before, it was more like a Muggle hotel remodel.

And here - here the Egyptian flavor is stronger.

"Pharaoh's Inn." On the side, the man who called himself Merlin spoke, "The tomb of a certain pharaoh of the Seventeenth Dynasty was stolen by a dark wizard and the Ministry of Magic turned it into an inn, and I have been here before-"

"I remember there were a few mummies there," he said, pointing to the pillars, and it was interesting to talk to them, and you could hear a lot of interesting stories from three thousand years ago—even some of the pharaohs' private affairs, of course—if you were on good terms." ”

"Uh-huh." Hermione bit her lip and followed Merlin's fingers to the middle of the two stone pillars, she didn't think it was interesting to live in a mausoleum.

Not to mention the presence of a few living mummies in the hall.

"That- the Ministry of Magic removed several wizard travelers because they were injured." Nefer explained.

"Hurt? How can it hurt? Hermione tilted her head to look at her.

"It's nothing, it's just a fight with the mummy. You know, people three thousand years ago were very stubborn, and when they couldn't argue, they started to do it. ”

“.”

Hermione kept her mouth shut—perhaps in the eyes of the Egyptians, mummies were like ghosts, and thinking of the ghosts in Hogwarts—thinking of them—she suddenly understood the strange customs.

But—a three-thousand-year-old mummy, that's a long enough time, Hermione didn't know if Hogwarts had a ghost from three thousand years ago, and the oldest ghost she could know about was Sir Nicholas de Mimci-Poppington of Gryffindor, who had his five-hundredth birthday a few years ago.

"It's a pity—" Archmage Merlin looked more sorry after hearing Nefer's introduction, "I had a good time chatting with them." ”

"Oh - I thought the mummies that had survived for 3,000 years would live forever, but they were not human! It's really a thing. ”

“.”

Hearing the voice—Miss Granger, stroking her forehead, she walked quickly across the hall.

A few people found a seat in the dining room on the east side of the hall.

It's a restaurant, but it's actually a restaurant

But unlike the restaurants outside, first of all, there are compartments, only the side of the aisle has no wooden planks to block the view, and secondly, there are no windows on the walls next to them, in fact, most of the ancient buildings in Egypt have no windows, which is a custom, and even if there are, the windows will be designed to be very narrow.

On the walls, brightly colored murals depict some of the lives of the ancient pharaohs and scenes of grand sacrifices.

Even on their tables, hieroglyphs fill the unpainted corners like embellishments.

The whole room is lit only by candles, and it is not dark, but it is extremely dim, and it gives people the feeling of being in a mausoleum.

Nefer took a big package and ordered a lot of dishes after sitting down.

Mister Auror didn't linger, and he left in a rage, ready to investigate who planned to ambush them.

As for Merlin.

He shoved another suitcase to Hermione and began to drink Egyptian-flavored beer.

"Oh - people really live for these beautiful things!" After a few beers, Merlin turned red.

He picked up his knife and fork and began to duel the food in front of him.

Every time I taste a new dish, I will sigh with emotion, "Na Na - Gao Wenqing, who can only make mashed potatoes, should be buried in the soil and turned into potatoes."

Oh - poor Arthur. ”

Nefer ordered a dozen Egyptian specialties in one go.

Although she kept introducing Miss Granger to all sorts of delicacies, it was so 'underworld'. There was no atmosphere to eat at all, Hermione just ate a few bites, and she couldn't swallow even one bite.

Nefer couldn't eat that much, and her attention was on Hermione.

Naturally, the rest of the meal fell into Mr. Merlin's stomach.

Dozens of minutes later, Mr. Mei was lying back in his seat, facing the questioning eyes of the two girls - how can your stomach fit so much - and there was no heaving at all.

He smiled at the end of his life and patted his stomach. "This is the strength of the king, and you can't be a king without a good stomach."

"The king can eat even the hardest food to swallow."

"No one can insist on eating potatoes for more than ten years, except for Wang!"

“.”

"Oh! By the way, after eating a little bit, I remembered something. Grand Master Mei suddenly stood up leisurely.

"Please follow the menu just now, thank you!"

“.” The two girls watched dumbfounded as the man greeted the boss kindly, and then sat down on their own.

"Alaala-the one just now, just as I helped Wang Qian taste the food to his liking, and the next one is mine!"

Hey, what does it have to do with King Arthur!

It's just what you want to eat!

Hermione complained heartlessly.

"Won't you look at the gift I gave you?" Suddenly, Grand Master May stared at Hermione happily.

He glanced at the suitcase she had placed at his feet and motioned for her to open it.

"For me?" Hermione wondered, it was a brown unknown leather, quaint suitcase, about fifty or sixty years old.

In the Muggle world, this kind of stuff is only introduced when you go to the scrap shops, or if the brand is reproducing the classics.

So obviously, this is a suitcase that wizards use.

Normally - it was dangerous to open a wizard's chest, and it was still when she had doubts about the identity of the person in front of her.

But—it was in Cairo, with a lot of people, the Ministry of Magic was not far away, and they could even meet their employees during meals, so Hermione wasn't very worried.

Of course – what really made her fearless was the little white cat sleeping in her fanny pack. With Shylock, there's nothing to fear.

After thinking for a moment, she picked up the suitcase and placed it on her lap.

Buckle the bolt and knock.

And then—and then she saw—saw a wooden staircase.

The chest was cast with a wireless stretching spell.

"Go in and have a look." Boss Mei motioned for her to put the box on the ground, and then took the lead, the first to walk under the stairs.

Hermione was a little flustered - the Infinite Stretch Charm was an illegal spell after all, and it was not allowed to be abused without the authorization of the Ministry of Magic.

She had two pockets with the Infinity Stretch Charm on her, but Harry and the others had walked into the box now in the open, and if they were seen by the Ministry of Magic, they would have troubled her.

In fact, there were already employees of the Ministry of Magic who saw it.

This compartment was not secretive, and because of Mr. Merlin's frantic cooking, many people's eyes were diverted.

Among them are quite a few employees of the Ministry of Magic.

But—when the employees saw the other girl beside Hermione, they immediately hid their minds, and none of them stepped forward.

On the other side, Hermione had followed Merlin's footsteps into the chest.

The wooden staircase creaked and creaked, making it suspicious that it might break next.

The steps were dark, greasy, and wet, and only the brown color of the wood could be seen in the middle.

The air is filled with the salty smell of the sea, which is a strong smell that can only be found on the surface of the sea.

After walking dozens of steps, they finally came up the stairs to the stone floor.

"It's-"

"It's really big!" It was the first time Hermione had seen such a large Infinite Stretch Charm inside.

Whether it's her pocket, or Owen's basic interior area, it's about the size of a house, but it's clearly not in front of you—it's endless.

The whole space is like a castle.

Descending from each layer, the stone fortress separates the empty rooms.

These rooms are varied—some are green meadows, some are deserts, some are sunny, others are dusk and midnight.

The magic of magic is unmistakable in this little castle.

The three of them kept going down, and eventually they came to a balcony in the sky.

Ahead is an ocean of lakes.

Mr. Merlin waved his deadwood-like cane with a multicolored ribbon, and in an instant, the lake was separated.

The stone pillars on both sides, extending a stone staircase, proves into the depths of the bottom of the lake.

In the distance, Hermione saw some kind of creature in the lake.

When I got closer, I realized that they were all beautiful women—no—they were sirens.

She saw the krakens leap out of the water, and the fish's tails morphed into two legs.

There are probably a dozen sirens here.

Each one of them is beautiful, like a perfect sculpture carved by a god.

The skin is fair and delicate, like the purest snowflakes, without a single blemish.

The face is petite and delicate, and people can't help but want to kiss. The eyes are bright and attentive, revealing innocence and a hint of fear.

The figure is curvy, the waist is slender, the legs are slender and straight, and the lines are smooth and graceful, which makes her a little envious.

For a while, she was stupid.

Until Hermione suddenly realized that these krakens were unclothed, they were naked

With a "boom", Miss Granger immediately blushed.

The eyes quickly glanced away.

Then she saw that the strange man who called himself Merlin was smiling at the innocent creatures with his man's purple eyes.

"Alaala, what a wonderful creature!"

He commented.

"It reminds me of the fairy of the lake. They are also such beautiful women, but unfortunately they have never come into contact with humans, and Arthur has never seen the true face of fairies. ”

"If you don't come into contact with humans, then you" Hermione immediately caught the loophole in the man's words and immediately opened her mouth to question.

"I—I'm not fully human!" Archmage Merlin said with a smile.

"Isn't it human?"

Miss Granger was stunned for a moment, and then remembered the legend about Merlin.

Legend has it that he was the child of a Nightmare and a Welsh princess, so he had half of Nightmare's blood and never died.

Could it be that the legend is true?

But the wizarding world has never heard of such a creature as a nightmare

"What's going on with these Krakens?" On the side, Nefer asked, she had seen so many krakens for the first time.

"Hehe—Mr. Trisk runs a hotel in Sicily called the Tavern Etna." Mr. May said.

"Oh! I know that tavern. "Almost all wizards who visit Etna choose where to stay. ”

"Then you don't know that Mr. Trisk has other businesses in secret. Decades of living on the islands had given him a great familiarity with the surrounding seas, and I suspect that as the Maelstrom opened and expanded, a group of Krakens escaped, and they were caught by Mr. Trisk, who was waiting for the rabbit. ”

"What?" Nefer looked surprised, after her and Hermione's 'adventure' these days, she naturally knew very well what Merlin's 'career' was.

Selling Magical Creatures - Judging from the other rooms in this castle, he sold more than one, and it was most likely that he had got those magical creatures in the Colosseum where she and Hermione had met.

And listening to the tone of Archmage Mei, this Treske is obviously a habitual offender, a habitual offender for decades, so he is extremely familiar with the surrounding sea and clearly knows the path of the Krakens. That's why so many krakens can be caught.

Nefer's gaze swept over the Sirens.

Look at this little face—ahem—there must be someone willing to give up a lot of gold.

Because – it's really beautiful.

She wants a beautiful sister to warm her bed.

Eiffel, who suddenly came up with this idea, quickly shook his head.

Oops - no, no, no- people already have white moonlight in their hearts.

She glanced cautiously at Hermione, and immediately withdrew her gaze from the others.

Merlin parted into the sea, exposing the sand, and the three of them stepped on the muddy sand and continued to walk, until a rock wall appeared in front of them, and then stopped.

The rock wall in front of them was hollowed out by the Krakens, and they picked up many plants from the bottom of the sea, as well as some skins or magical items from other creatures in other rooms, and simply built a shack.

A humble shack.

In the shack, four or five young, beautiful, and naked krakens gathered around a person.

In an instant—Miss Granger's cheeks, which had been crimson, turned iron-blue.

A pair of small hands clenched together fiercely.

He had an expression of wanting to eat people.

(End of chapter)