The Adventures of Battery No. 1

Edmund closed his eyes, his spirit sinking deeper and deeper. He rummaged through the batteries in the inventory, eventually awakening a soul named Gerald Fass.

Gerald is 39 years old this year. He was imprisoned in Nurmengard only 4 years ago, making him one of the newer prisoners in this magical prison.

However, having mortgaged most of his soul, he remained in a daze for the past four years, losing all sense of reality about "life outside".

There are no clocks here, no change, and every day is a long, agonizing ordeal. As he endures it, a question occasionally pops into his muddled mind: How did I end up like this?

That's a good question. Whenever he hugged his knees and stared blankly at the iron gate that restricted his magic, Gerald would remember the painful and desperate look on his uncle's face and his aunt's sharp warning.

The older woman, who was nearly 40 and had only recently married into his family, always urged him to "do something productive and stop having such useless and naive ideas." The thought of this ignited a dulled anger within him, making him feel utterly miserable. His former ambition had ravaged him, leaving him feeling utterly hopeless.

Gerald often thought that if his father hadn't died, he would never have ended up like this.

His father was once a trusted lieutenant of the Dark Lord Grindelwald, a wizard more valiant than a griffin, capable of blasting open a door with a disarming charm and eliciting wild howls from many foolish, naive, Muggle-loving wizards.

But Father died. Father felt that Oscar Sohman had stolen his family's rightful reward, which was indeed very strange. Why had the Sohman family risen to prominence after Grindelwald's defeat, while the Fass family had to go into hiding?!

Gerald still doesn't blame his father for his choice. He's a powerful wizard, and naturally he'll resolve everything in a wizarding way.

Gerald's father suddenly appeared one day and challenged Soman to a one-on-one duel in front of everyone—a battle that risked his dignity and honor. Even if he killed Soman, his father would still go to prison, but it would be worth it.

The father should have won.

That's strange. Old Soman was never known for his powerful magic. He was a cunning and calculating man. How could he have killed my father with a single blow?

Gerrard was devastated at that time, often drinking heavily and gazing at his past life, feeling that those glorious years were like old, dusty portraits, each one more blurred than the last.

He could never forget it and refused to let it go.

He was unwilling to accept it. He had once been an arrogant and powerful young man, always dominating family banquets. He had a lover who fell in love with him at first sight and abandoned all her suitors to stay by his side.

But all of this was destroyed by his father's death. Those vivid dreams were shattered into pieces, and only his uncle and he were left to clean up the mess.

Those who surrounded him and never thought he would fail gradually disappeared without him noticing. Even the women who loved him grew increasingly distant, their faces showing horror as he struggled and went crazy day after day.

But he just couldn't let go, and because he couldn't let go, he wanted to fight for it.

When his uncle asked him to assassinate Soman together, he agreed without hesitation.

That's not surprising, is it? After all, how could Gerald have imagined that his disgusted aunt just wanted him to stop sitting idly at home, while his eternally loving uncle wanted his life?

Gerald still doesn't know what his uncle was thinking when he looked terrified and said, "My nephew has gone mad! Deputy Minister, please forgive me, please save my family—"

"They're probably thinking about whether they can get a new key to the family vault."

The master's voice squeezed out of Gerald's throat, chuckling.

"This one is good, but it's stained with your blood, so it's not a good omen."

Gerald shuddered, recalling the last scene he witnessed while he still belonged to himself: at the dinner that was supposed to turn bloody, the child next to the traitor Soman held up a finger to him.

And that was it...

Gerald stood up blankly. For the first time in a long time, his heavy body felt lighter; a familiar power was returning—the magic he was born with, yet which had been completely plundered. He had come back to life!

Because he received a task that he had to complete for his master.

At first, Gerald opened his mouth, wanting to call out to the guards of Nurmengard. But he hadn't spoken for so long that he only managed a few unpleasant creaks.

Gerald had no choice but to knock on the iron gate with the back of his hand. Soon, a brown-haired guard was led over.

The two looked into each other's eyes, and Gerald still couldn't speak fluently... but between batteries, there was no need for communication.

Edmund manipulated the two men, and in complete silence, had the brown-haired guard release the dazed Gerald.

Nurmengard was originally a prison built by Grindelwald to imprison dissidents. Before his defeat, it held many wizards who opposed him.

However, prisoners who could be imprisoned in Nurmengard instead of being burned alive by Grindelwald must have some skill; a good-for-nothing wouldn't be able to get the old Dark Lord to spare his life.

Therefore, perhaps to see these people show regret after their success, Grindelwald did not design the place to be particularly cruel.

Now he should thank his past self... after all, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would have spent the rest of his life here.

This has greatly benefited the Soman family, especially Edmund.

When the patrolling guards saw Gerald being released, they merely glanced at him briefly before turning their heads away.

Many of them are Edmund's puppets, while others have been cursed with an Imperius Curse, which will make them see all the abnormalities happening in the prison as normal.

In a sense, Nurmengard was indeed a monolithic entity. However, this monolith had been inscribed with a name; it had become entirely Soman's territory.

The brown-haired guard escorted Gerald out of prison, and on the way, he helped him find an old wand whose owner was dead, and a bag of Galleons, in the evidence room.

Once outside, Gerald greedily inhaled the frigid air, took one last look at Nurmengard, which stood alone amidst the mountains and forests, and Apparated away.

Gerald's destination was a wizard's pub in Frankfurt's old town. He took out a few gold coins, borrowed the fireplace from the owner, who was used to shady dealings, and went directly to Frederick, located southwest of Hogwarts.

Centuries ago, Fredrod was a small, fairytale-like town with very few inhabitants. But with the rise of what Muggles call the First Industrial Revolution, the Muggles all went to work in the city, and the town gradually fell into ruin, with only a few wizarding families remaining.

Perhaps some evil spirit truly lurked in Lukewood Castle, far away in Frederick, for the few wizarding families in town had somehow begun to stray onto the wrong path. They ventured into the castle, developing a new industry for this remote town far from London and Hogwarts, and providing employment opportunities for the local young wizards:

Fedroth has a dozen or so wizard casinos of all sizes.