Chapter 755: What about Fontaine?
"Huh? Another magical language?" Ariana had been listening with great interest, but the moment she heard that she had to learn something new, her expression fell.
"I haven’t even mastered Runes yet," she muttered under her breath.
"The two aren’t mutually exclusive." Morgan smiled. "Take your time. Plenty of people would love to have an opportunity like this."
Morgan keenly noticed that the moment these magical characters appeared, the power of the rules governing the Divine Realm had become noticeably more active.
In fact, she felt that calling the writing floating in the sky "magical script" wasn’t quite accurate.
A more precise name would be the reverse. Divine Script.
---
The next day, despite Fleur’s reluctant gaze, Tom still left Paris.
He didn’t return to Hogwarts immediately. Instead, he went back to his estate in Dorset.
The other girls had already returned home. After being away for so long, they naturally needed to spend some time with their parents.
That left only the foxgirl Kamio and the Cassandra family at the estate.
"Tom, you’re back!"
Kamio hurried over to greet him, then walked a full circle around him. The ears atop her head swayed with every step, making it abundantly clear just how delighted she was.
After leaving school, she had traded in her plain school robes for traditional Japanese-style clothing. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the Shiranui-style oni belt wrapped around her waist.
Kamio tilted her head back to look at Tom, her eyes overflowing with joy.
She looked just like a wife who had been waiting at home for her husband to finally return from yet another round of fooling around outside.
Cassandra, standing nearby, was much more reserved.
She could be quite enthusiastic when the two of them were alone, but whenever other people were around, she always had trouble letting her guard down.
"Have you gotten used to staying here?" Tom asked.
Cassandra nodded lightly. "The environment here is much better than Hogwarts. It’s far too damp over there."
Tom’s mouth twitched. "What can you expect when your headmaster had the bright idea of building the school right on top of a lake? Of course it’s going to be damp."
Mentioning headmasters reminded Cassandra of something. She cautiously asked, "Tom, how is Headmaster Fontaine doing now?"
Whatever Fontaine might have done outside the school, there was no denying that he had always been good to his students. He was strict, but he was also fiercely protective of them.
The students of Ilvermorny might not revere him quite as much as Hogwarts students revered Dumbledore, but their attitude toward him was probably closer to the way Hogwarts students viewed McGonagall.
If Fontaine really disappeared from the world, Cassandra would still be saddened by it.
Tom understood how she felt, but he couldn’t give her a definite answer. "Fontaine has already told us some things, but I can’t say yet what we’ll ultimately do with him."
Put him back in place as a spy?
Even with all sorts of methods available to control him, Tom still didn’t trust Fontaine.
𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
What if Fontaine turned the tables and used those methods against them? They could end up in some ridiculous spy-versus-spy situation, and the whole situation would become even more complicated.
"I can promise that I won’t personally kill him. But what the headmasters and the Ministries of Magic in the other countries decide to do is none of my business." Tom offered her another promise. At the very least, that should make Cassandra feel a little better.
"That’s not what I meant." To Tom’s surprise, Cassandra shook her head. "Although I have a great deal of respect for Headmaster Fontaine, what he’s trying to do clearly goes against what wizards everywhere are striving to achieve. I know perfectly well where I stand, so please, don’t let my feelings influence your judgment."
What Tom had just said had already moved Cassandra deeply.
The relationship between the two of them had undergone a complete 180-degree reversal.
When they had first met, Tom had literally stuffed her into a wall. Cassandra, who had never suffered such humiliation in her life, had been so mortified that she had practically considered ending her life.
Who could have imagined that now, her heart and mind would be completely occupied by the young man standing before her?
And because of what had happened back then, Cassandra had never shown it openly, but whenever she was around the other girls, she instinctively felt as though she came up a little short. She also couldn’t help thinking that she wasn’t as important to Tom as the others were.
But what Tom had done recently had completely shattered that impression.
First, he had gone out of his way to bring her parents from America to Britain to ensure their safety.
And now, because of her, he was willing to promise that he wouldn’t target Fontaine.
Cassandra was so touched that she practically wanted to tear out her heart and hand it to him on the spot.
At that point, who cared about Fontaine?
If Tom asked her to kill Fontaine herself, she would probably even thoughtfully ask whether he wanted her to use Avada Kedavra or Crucio and torture the man to death.
"All right, let’s not talk about this anymore." Tom rubbed his stomach. "I’m getting a little hungry."
Once he said that, Cassandra dropped the subject as well.
The fox girl immediately perked up and grabbed Tom’s hand, pulling him forward as if she were terrified he might starve.
"Didn’t you have breakfast at Fleur’s house?" Kamio asked curiously.
Tom smiled. "I slipped out while Gabrielle was still asleep. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to resist those big, watery eyes of hers."
Kamio blinked.
She knew perfectly well that Tom had absolutely no resistance to anything adorable.
...
Next, the three of them returned to the dining room, where the house-elves quickly brought out breakfast. A simple spread of seven or eight dishes was more than enough.
While they were eating, Cassandra’s father, Andrew, arrived and made a request that caught Tom completely by surprise.
"Go back? Dad, have you lost your mind?" Cassandra stared at him in shock.
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