【Zhou Jia】self-punisher.

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"The kid went back?"

Merlin's hairy head protruded from the jars, his hands were stained with palm oil.He cast a small spell to clean his hand, but still left a small piece of inattentiveness, which stained the rare edition spell book of Axe Rama - causing the latter's brow to frown instantly.He raised his index finger as if trying to recall for a while, and then answered suddenly:

"Ah, I've already gone back. Well, the biscuits I baked probably didn't suit Karna's taste, and I had a bad expression when I left."

"Oh." Rama the axe automatically blocked the irrelevant information from his colleagues, wiped away the stains on the sheepskin cover with a gloomy expression, and directed the book to fly back to its original position with his magic wand.

"As expected of masters and apprentices, your complexions really look like you bought them wholesale from the same grocer. Those guys from the Ministry of Magic are hard to deal with. It is said that one of the criteria for interviews is to make people feel uncomfortable and embarrassing." You can deal with them for so many days..."

"It's just a matter of duty." Axe Rama rubbed his swollen temple, thinking that this guy's chattering level could get a perfect score in the Ministry of Magic's interview, "Did he not say anything before he went back?"

"He said he wanted to step on the tail of Christmas and ask for leave to go back to visit relatives." Merlin smiled as he watched Rama's face change instantly, "It seems that I accidentally witnessed the birth of a big secret, dear professor .”

Karna was sitting in a buggy when Shirama's expression changed, and he refused the wine glass offered by Gilgamesh.As the carriage jerked around a corner but deftly balanced, he recalled three hours of flashing slides.After saying goodbye to Professor Merlin, he found Arjuna in the lounge, and recounted the information he had obtained from Cantera, but in the end he accidentally mentioned that name——

"Soulier."

Arjuna's reaction when he heard this name convinced Karna that he knew his own life experience already.The precocious boy looked at him silently, and said after a long time, "Senior Karna, I didn't expect you to come from such a prominent family. My father and your father are old acquaintances." The natural behavior looks abnormal instead.

"In this case, I will accompany the senior to visit your father's old mansion." Arjuna continued after a moment of pondering, "Since the origin is so deep, there must be many traces left by my father when he was young. The key clue."

Impeccable grounds.There is no room for rejection.But there are obviously so-called accidents in everything - what most Muggles call accidents.

"The cold breath of your Slytherins will disturb the souls of the dead." The Gryffindor prefect who turned from the armchair looked at him, "Hey, Karna, my carriage is parked outside, and I want to take you for a ride ."

For some reason, Gilgamesh, who followed the conservative aristocratic spirit in some aspects, announced his complete abandonment after taking two train rides with Karna and Ozymandis, who was keen on it, on the grounds of experiencing the life of the poor. This kind of transportation made him feel mixed among the bastards.The tailor-made luxurious carriage swaggered past all the way, making the Minister of Magic's hair turn gray again.

"How about it, my friend, feel the glory of flying with me in the sky."

"Well, it's exactly the same as Santa's car, so amazing."

When the carriage passed over London, Gilgamesh complacently asked Karna how he felt, and he got such an answer.In the next moment, the wheels of the carriage fell to the ground suddenly, and even the shining decorative lights of the carriage died down.

blah blah.

The carriage stopped in front of an unremarkable three-storey villa. There was no nameplate hung on the gray marble wall, and even the basic street number was hidden.But the scene that suddenly entered the goal turned into a ray of light strings, which touched a soft corner of my heart.Karna jumped out of the carriage, as if he had witnessed it countless times, he gently raised his hand and rested his fingertips on the closed door knocker.

"Myosotis."

The clear and natural password, just after the end, the door slid open silently.

In the dark room, there is a slightly rotten smell, and there is a rhythmic sound of water in the distance deep in the thick night.It sounds like you are in a deep cave, and the wind that blows brings an unexpected chill.The cold light ignited from the tip of the wand illuminated the view. Surprisingly, the order in the house was orderly, as if the owner had just left for a long time.There are no cobwebs that can be seen everywhere in houses that have not been inhabited for a long time, and even the two bronze statues in front of the foyer have not shed any dust.

When the fingertips touched the doorknob, a sense of nostalgia overflowed, but I couldn't remember the fragments of living in this house even after digging desperately.But his body instinctively guided him forward, sliding open the closed doors one after another, and came to the most familiar room with warm-colored wallpaper.Unburned charcoal remains in the fireplace, and a naive palm-sized baby elephant hangs above the swinging toddler.The small cart made of wood that fell into the gap, the wheels have lost their paint.

The small room is next to the bedroom of the owner of the house, as long as the door connected in the middle is opened, it will be opened.But the only door in the whole house was dusty, and it looked like it hadn't been opened for many years.

"Barely tasteful."

Gilgamesh judged critically, and magnanimously withdrew his harsh comments about the poor design of the nursery.He dismissed the rare calligraphy, paintings and treasured jewels in the room, and only scribbled through the few childish children's paintings scattered on the floor.There is not much innovative composition and content, it is nothing more than the old-fashioned crayon drawing of father and son loving each other and walking in the sun holding hands.But just seeing Karna so much like a "normal" human being is enough to make him feel quite interesting.

When Karna returned to the living room with the pile of collected materials, he thought for a moment that he was going in the wrong direction.The originally lifeless room was now completely refurbished and decorated with resplendent and resplendent primary colors. A ostentatious red carpet with tassels and gold trim was laid out in front of the vigorously burning fire. Gilgamesh, who had no sense of being a guest at all, was lying comfortably without knowing where he had changed. Come out to rest on the tiger skin mattress.

"Hmph, this way I can see a little bit. Your father is too stingy in terms of enjoyment."

"It's amazing to be able to carry around so many out-of-date possessions."

Karna admired it sincerely, as if seeing an unknown cartoon character take out an item from the Two-dimensional pocket for the first time.I have to admit that this guy will always give him a strange sense of frustration invisibly——Gilgamesh shrugged needlessly, raised his chin and nodded at the thing in his hand.

"Did you go panning for gold?"

"Hmm." Karna took the found objects out of the cardboard box one by one.These are old objects that resonate with the call of magic, but seem clueless from the outside.An old coat that was supposed to be my father's, a flower pot that didn't come out of any residue after being shaken for a long time, a ball of wool, a plastic food bowl with cat paw prints on the bottom, and a dull glass bowl that looked like a glass marble. Ball... He took out the last envelope, closed his eyes to see if there was anything he hadn't noticed inside, and was suddenly bitten by some bug that jumped out.

"Hello, Karna." Gilgamesh, who was playing with the glass ball leisurely, called out.Karna, who was unguarded and called by name, turned his face—the rare seriousness in the former's tone made him unable to guess the other party's intentions.

"If you have any difficulties, just ask me for help." The radiant scarlet snake eyes shone like gems against the background of the fire, and Gilgamesh stared at him from a height with one hand on his cheek, "What troubles you?" Those trivial things, as long as I can open my mouth, I will not refuse."

The air froze for a moment.At that moment, Karna had the illusion of being seen through by the man in front of him, and a strange and warm emotion filled his heart, which was the kindness he had hardly experienced for so many years.He pushed back his drooping hair, sat upright and looked at the other person's position, and said sincerely and sincerely, "Thank you."

"Cough..." Karna's serious look made Gilgamesh look away a little at a loss.He weighed the glass ball in his hand and threw it towards Karna, his figure gradually became invisible in the room, "This tattered thing also has contradictory value, don't look at it with your eyes."

Karna narrowly took the glass ball, looked it over and over again, and carefully put it back into the brocade box it was in.The sound of ping-ping-pong-pong was heard in the distance, probably Gilgamesh chose another room to renovate.He couldn't see anything for a while, but the photo that slipped out of the neglected envelope caught his attention.

This is not the kind of dynamic photo commonly used by magicians, but the most stereotyped, even a photo developed by a cheap Muggle photo studio.Karna's fingertips couldn't help trembling from the pictures shown on the few photos.The slightly faded and distorted photo shows him at his adoptive parents' house after he was adopted.

What slid down together was a thin sheet of letter paper.

"Your Excellency Surya:

Before slightly.

The business has been busy recently, and the gentleman has moved again... probably because of financial difficulties.Although you forbid us to have private contact with that family, I couldn't resist making a covert payment, I hope it won't be too surprising.Enclosed is a recent photo of the child, you probably won't open it and read it, so please forgive me for being troublesome.

your servant.

DS”

Each photo has been carefully plastic-packed, and it can be seen that this is not the handwriting of the DS that sent the letterhead—because the year, month, and day are signed in obviously different fonts on the inside of each photo.

Such a photo was sent in about every one or two years, and the last signature was in July six years ago.After looking at the date of the photos several times, he remembered the day Gilgamesh mentioned—just two months after the last photo was sent, his father died of illness by a lake hundreds of kilometers away .

At this moment, he also realized the truth of the glass ball.

"Give me your hand, Karna."

The image of the father is vague in memory, only the warm and reassuring temperature is left in the palm.He gently held the young son's hand, carefully took out the cold sphere, and placed it on a high place where he couldn't touch it.The clear texture of flocculent floating clouds flows inside, reflecting the warm afterglow of the setting sun.

"You can't touch it yet."

-TBC-