Professor Baker's Message

Chapter 58 Professor Baker's Message

As Avada had predicted, the atmosphere immediately turned cold after Baron declared himself a Slytherin. Ron's smile became extremely forced, and Harry scratched his head, unsure of what to do—they had both been thoroughly disgusted by Slytherins in the past few days, and their natural affinity for the group had almost completely vanished.

Baron seemed to want to ask something, but before he could speak, Ron casually said a few goodbyes and pulled Harry away. Hagrid watched in bewilderment as the group parted on bad terms, completely unable to figure out what had happened.

"They've only been at school for two weeks, right? Why would they have such a strong opinion against Slytherin?" Baron frowned, puzzled. "Besides, both Potter and Weasley are pure-blood families. Those mean-spirited guys shouldn't have any reason to target them, right? Could it be that they have Muggle-born friends who are being targeted?"

"Why don't you go ask Draco? They're from the same year, so they should know something."

Avada ruthlessly betrayed Malfoy, whom he had met a few times.

"Hmm, that's a good idea." Baron hadn't immediately considered that Lucius's son would specifically seek out the story of the savior who killed Voldemort; he simply wanted to confirm the situation with Malfoy.

As for what will happen after he knows the truth, Avada doesn't know yet—he's only heard that Balon later went to see Harry and Neville, but he wasn't told what exactly happened...

For the next month or so, everything went as usual, except that Baron seemed to be in a bad mood. Voldemort's analysis of mental energy progressed steadily; Avada Kedavra also went to the edge of the Forbidden Forest to observe the katana from time to time, accumulating considerable knowledge over time and finding a way to understand the new spatial magic; he had already attended Voldemort's class twice, and had also gained a lot of free knowledge about mental energy and the Imperius Curse...

And now, he has finally accomplished something he has always longed for—he has completely broken the seal that Professor Baker left on the book.

Although Professor Baker had made it clear that only he could see the contents of the book, in order to prevent his roommates or classmates in the library from wondering why he was engrossed in reading a blank book, he still chose to open the book for the first time in the Room of Requirement.

What, then, is the deepest, most fundamental mystery...?

Full of anticipation, Avada opened the book to its first page—inside was a neatly folded parchment with a few lines of small writing on it.

"Is that a message from Professor Baker?"

Avada curiously unfolded the parchment and began to read its contents:

Ken:

[Congratulations! You've finally broken the seal I left. I hope you still have some memory of me, your professor whom you haven't seen for years. If I'm not mistaken, you definitely won't wait until sixth grade to open this book; with your abilities, you could have broken the seal much earlier.]

[I still can't confirm what your secret is, so I can't predict exactly when you'll open this book, but I can guess—maybe fifth grade or fourth grade? Or maybe third grade if you can get your hands on some secret knowledge beforehand…it can't be second grade, can it?]

"You didn't expect that, did you?"

Looking at the contents of the letter, Avada couldn't help but smile: he really did break the seal in the second year, and less than two months after the start of the school year!

[If you can really break this seal on your own in second grade, then it means that the secret you possess is the most outrageous of all my guesses, though that's probably unlikely. And rest assured, I haven't cast any "I'll sense it immediately once it's opened" magic on this book, although I did consider doing so...]

"..."

[Let's get back to the point. I need to apologize to you and Mr. Shafik. When I asked for your help, I deliberately concealed something—specifically, the black crystal ball that carries my consciousness and should now be in Mr. Shafik's possession. But don't worry, it's nothing dangerous.]

"You've noticed it yourself; that thing is a dark magic artifact. I've admitted it myself, but you've underestimated its origins. Perhaps if you're experienced enough in secretly browsing the forbidden section (I did that all the time back in my student days), you might have heard of the term 'Horregular.'"

Horcruxes are generally considered the most evil form of black magic in the world, bar none. They were created by "Hercules the Despicable" from the Chocolate Frog picture book, and have only one function: to grant immortality to the caster of this black magic.

—He actually took the initiative to tell me?!

The principle behind it is the splitting of the soul—this is something I've been hiding. When I was imprisoned in the crystal ball, it wasn't just my consciousness that was trapped, but my entire soul. And I can tell you here how to split your soul: it requires a malicious murder. It must be malicious; killing for self-defense or to punish evil won't work—you must clearly realize that the upcoming killing is an extremely evil act for your soul to split, fulfilling the prerequisite for creating a Horcrux.

[After reading this, you're probably furious, thinking I'm some utterly wicked dark wizard—but don't forget, I promised when I signed the contract that I've never done anything evil, and I never will.]

[The method of splitting the soul described above is only the most primitive version, and the only version known to the wizarding world. This is why I forbid you from telling the other professors about me—they will all immediately assume I committed an evil murder and treat me as a dark wizard without hesitation, no matter what explanations I give.]

But what you don't know is that thousands of years after the despicable Helbo created Horcruxes, in some corner of the world, several generations of geniuses had already discovered the essence hidden beneath the surface and improved and evolved Horcrux magic generation after generation. And I gained this knowledge through my constant battles with dark wizards.

The Horcrux magic I use no longer requires such an evil method of splitting souls.

As for the specific principles and methods, please allow me to keep you in suspense for now—after all, this book contains detailed information on the subject. And as for why I constantly fight dark wizards and gather this knowledge, and why I chose to create Horcruxes, I cannot disclose that information.

"..."

Avada stared blankly at the few lines of text, not even glancing at the content right below.

From just these few lines, he could sense just how vast and mysterious the magical world beyond the original story truly was.

As you've probably guessed, this book records the secrets of the soul, as well as some even more mysterious things—so be extremely careful if you want to study its contents, as the complexity of the soul may exceed your imagination.

To be honest, before I escaped, I never considered handing these documents over to anyone else. The contents are far too mysterious and dangerous; the consequences of them falling into the wrong hands would be unimaginable. Since you were chosen by Hufflepuff and possess unprecedented abilities, I thought that giving these to you might bring about some beneficial changes to our world.

This book is a compilation of research materials on dark wizards gathered during my many journeys, so it contains some content that may be quite disturbing. However, rest assured, those who practiced those methods have almost all been defeated by me and received their due punishment. Therefore, you should simply read it with reverence for life and sorrow for the deceased, focusing on the knowledge within.

Alright, that's enough for now. You're probably getting impatient by now—so I wish you success in your studies, a happy life, and that you can apply the knowledge from the book effectively.

Benjamin Baker

"Professor Baker... seems to have a story to tell."

Avada sighed before finally opening the book's table of contents to see what was recorded inside.

"The first article: 'Exploring the structure of the human soul from the principle of the Unforgivable Curse - A verification of the three-layer theory of the soul.'"

(End of this chapter)