"… May I have your name?"
"Joshua Rockwell."
"Why haven't you spoken during this time?"
"I...I'm afraid of Miss Schon..."
"How much do you know about this girl Helen Schon?"
"The master discovered her three years ago... She is different from us. She already had this terrible power before she was brought to the monastery. She can control them without the help of the brand, and she is more powerful than us. .”
"… anything else?"
"No, I don't know... Then she was taken to another place by her master..."
Under the influence of Veritaserum, Joshua could no longer remain silent. When Maka began to ask questions step by step, he responded sentence by sentence.
"So, did you see anything that night?" Maka then asked.
"Yes," Joshua nodded immediately, "I, I didn't realize at first that it was Miss Schon lying behind the curtain. I had been sleeping in bed following Miss Pomfrey's instructions that day. But at night, I was awakened by a movement - I saw a giant spider fighting with a cloud of black mist."
He still seemed a little frightened when he recalled the situation.
"At that time, I was thinking that the master must have sent someone to find me, and the master must be punishing me again. But that big spider is very powerful, and its ability slowed down the black mist a lot... " Joshua said tremblingly, "But later, the volume of the black mist suddenly increased several times, and the big spider was knocked away at once!"
At this point, he paused, and his whole body trembled like chaff.
"I didn't dare to move at all," he said in fear, "and then... then the black mist suddenly rushed in front of me and gathered into Miss Schon... I think she must have recognized me... "
Maka felt that no matter how scared she was, she should not be so trembling. Perhaps there was a specific experience hidden behind Joshua's fear.
"Why are you so afraid of her? What has she done to you?" Maka suddenly asked.
"I... she..." Joshua seemed to be about to grit his teeth, but made a gurgling sound, "Miss Schoen once killed my former companions... several times! She... she hated her master, and she also Hate us all the same!"
"I can somewhat understand hating that old man, but why would she hate you?" Maka asked doubtfully.
Joshua pursed his lips and couldn't stop saying what was on his mind, which made him more nervous and his breathing became rapid and messy.
"No... I don't know, I don't know either..." he said intermittently.
"Then... do you know what was going on before she was taken to the monastery?" Maka shook her head slightly and had to change her question to another question.
"No, she never takes the initiative to talk to us, and we rarely talk to her."
The inability to carry out normal interpersonal communication is one of the characteristics of the obscurant. Although Maka didn't intend to obtain too detailed information, she couldn't get anything out of asking, which was a bit too...
"Last question," Maca thought for a moment and said, "Do you know anything about Helen Schon's mission?"
"Nothing was said," Joshua replied. "The master first sent us to sneak attack the Minos Magic School in Greece overnight, and then asked Miss Schon to pretend to be one of the students."
Maka nodded first, but then frowned slightly.
"It's not that you don't know, it's that your master didn't give any specific orders at all, is that right?" He thought for a moment and then confirmed.
"Yes." Joshua affirmed.
"Then did your master explain something to Helen Schon in advance without your knowledge?"
Regarding Maca's natural guess, Joshua shook his head decisively.
"It's impossible..." he explained, "Before that mission, Miss Schon had been performing the previous mission. That mission was very sudden - the master immediately recalled her urgently after coming out of the study as usual. We killed her. And as soon as she returned to the monastery, we rushed to Greece."
Maka immediately noticed the phrase "Come out of the study as usual" in Joshua's words. He was thinking that maybe he was in contact with Greenwald
Just saying that, could it be that Greenwald had been secretly communicating with the old man when he was in Nurmengard? Does Dumbledore know about this
After that, Maka continued to ask a few more questions, and finally ended the conversation after finding that there were no other valuable answers.
But he never expected that Joshua would gradually become willing to talk again the next day. Probably for him, yesterday he and Maka were inexplicably asking each other questions for a while, which unexpectedly opened up his self-isolation.
Veritaserum, which was originally used as an interrogation tool, actually became active in treating mental illness. Maka was also quite surprised by this.
Because of this, the silent spell that Maka placed around her before she started asking yesterday was naturally regarded as a confidential treatment by the little wizards in the ward. Because at that time they only saw Maka and Joshua's mouths moving, but they couldn't hear any sound.
Naturally, Maka would be happy to see such a benign misunderstanding happen. So when a student praised him for the effectiveness of his treatment, he shamelessly acquiesced.
"There's nothing wrong with it anyway, right?" he thought to himself.
…
That evening, after dinner time.
After sorting out notes in the ward and watching Luna finish the hospital meal, which seemed to taste pretty good, he finally left the campus hospital at the urging of Madam Pomfrey.
Today was the second gathering of the defense team. Naturally, he would not ignore activities like this that could bring more sufficient resistance to Hogwarts.
Although the growth of those little wizards will definitely take time, if these fine linens can be twisted into a rope, the force they can withstand should not be underestimated.
After all, the main opponents are Voldemort and Grindelwald, but they will not attack with just two people. Once Maka faces a powerful enemy, the biggest threat will actually be the large number of dark wizards that follow!
When Maka arrived at the Room of Requirement, Harry, Hermione and Ron had already arrived first.
"Maka." Hermione immediately stepped forward and said hello softly, "Good evening."
Behind her, Harry and Ron, who were still browsing some Defense Against the Dark Arts books by the bookshelf, also followed her.
"How are you? Are you okay?" Maka checked one by one, "I remember that you and Helen were very close. What happened this time -"
"It's okay, of course it's okay." Hermione was saying, but she shook her head slightly, "... No, how could it be okay? But... this time, thanks to Ron reminding me and Harry, we didn't waste too much on it. time."
"Yes!" Harry said quickly, "If it hadn't been for Ron's words, we don't know how long we would have been depressed! It's clear that there isn't enough time, but I-"
After Maka heard this, she glanced at Ron subconsciously, only to find that this guy was still looking embarrassed.
"Don't say that! If I hadn't mentioned it, you would have figured it out soon." He put his arm on Harry's shoulder and said, "I know you, you are not the type to keep things in your heart and then let them go. You idiot who can't breathe. To be honest, only the old me could do that... "
"Don't be shy, Ron." Maka said with a smile, "You did a good job! When friends have problems, you should remind them as soon as possible - you made me feel true friendship!"
He paused for a moment, then thought again: "For this reason, I think I should give you some gifts."
"What are you talking about!" Ron quickly ran to Maka, hesitated slightly, and patted him on the shoulder, "Aren't you our best friend too?"
When Maka couldn't help but feel a little moved, he said cheerfully: "Um, I mean, buddy... what good things are you going to give me?"
Seeing Ron alive and kicking, Maka seemed to have seen him when she first met him in the Burrow. A large proportion of the Weasley children have this kind of personality.
Obviously, Ron has indeed come out of the trough of his life, and a lively temperament similar to that of his father Arthur has begun to awaken in his bones.
"When I think about it," Maka shrugged, "Maybe... a large, fully automatic gold crucible would be a good choice?"
"Hey!" Ron jumped up immediately, "Isn't that the gift I gave you before?"
But Harry poked his lower back hard.
"Gold crucible! It's a gold crucible!" Harry reminded repeatedly, "It's not gold-plated, it's pure gold!"
"Pure-oh-Merlin's calves!" Ron's eyes widened instantly, "Really? Maka, are you serious?"
"What's real or fake?"
Just when Ron was filled with surprises for a while, the door was opened again, and Neville, Ginny and other members of the Gryffindor House walked in in a crowd.
The ones who asked this question were Fred and George who were walking at the front. The twins said it almost at the same time, even their voices overlapped.
"No! Nothing!" Ron shouted, waving his hands.
If these living brothers knew about the pure gold crucible, they would definitely try their best to get it, and then use it without hesitation to fund research on their magical prank products.
"Come all over! We don't have enough time. Those who arrive first will immediately start to show the results of your self-practice these days..."
Maka stopped talking nonsense and called on everyone to test their learning of the magic spell one by one.