She believed that the phantoms summoned by herself, Salazar, and Helga might be affected far less by the Resurrection Stone.
Their souls were stronger, and the memories contained within them were more condensed and detailed.
A phantom formed from such qualities might not be distorted too much by the Resurrection Stone.
Unfortunately, with the appearance of that Godric, the experiment could no longer continue.
She had several theories about what might happen if they summoned Godric with the Resurrection Stone now, but Salazar would obviously never allow her to conduct such a dangerous experiment.
If she really did it, she would have to be prepared for an all-out fight with Salazar.
With internal and external troubles striking Hogwarts at the same time, the school would truly be finished.
After carefully putting away the Resurrection Stone ring, Rhys turned to Helga and Rowena.
"You'll probably have to find a way to explain this to Dumbledore later. Are you going to tell him the truth?"
Helga and Rowena frowned once more.
"I think Dumbledore can be trusted. He's also a wizard who possesses a Domain now, and he's Hogwarts' current Headmaster," Helga said.
Rowena simply continued stroking her chin without offering an opinion.
Too many people knowing about this would be undesirable, but Dumbledore was obviously the person most qualified to know.
"Do as you like. I'm just an ordinary contestant now, after all." Rhys stretched lazily.
He felt that it didn't really matter whether Dumbledore knew or not, but he also understood that, in the hearts of himself and his old friends, Dumbledore would never earn their complete trust.
In Muggle terms, Dumbledore simply lacked a bond with them. They shared no common memories. They respected him and trusted him in most matters, but that was the extent of it.
"You can think of a way to explain it to Dumbledore later." Rowena tossed the somewhat troublesome matter to Helga.
With the most important issue already discussed, Rhys began asking about something directly related to his own interests: tomorrow's competition.
"Oh? Is our great Lord Salazar Slytherin thinking of cheating? I certainly don't mind. I'll gladly share the information with you~"
Rowena's words darkened Rhys's expression.
Does she have something she needs from me? Why is she acting like I'm the one asking favours?
"That's unnecessary. I just want to know what you meant by assigning starting positions according to strength."
As soon as he said that, Rowena suddenly fell silent.
Rhys didn't notice anything unusual at first, but he quickly picked up on the change in her demeanour.
Hmm?
His eyebrow rose.
Something about Rowena's expression seems a little off...
After nearly a minute, Rowena finally answered his question, and by then, her expression had become serious.
"You'd better be careful, Salazar. Don't capsize in a ditch."
Question marks slowly appeared over both Rhys's and Helga's heads.
?
Huh???
Rowena, you've definitely pulled off another outrageous stunt!
The thought flashed through Rhys's mind, and he practically howled in agony inwardly.
No wonder. Mystery solved. He had finally found out why Rowena had insisted on making him participate in the tournament.
She had messed something up again and needed him to clean up her mess.
"This time I really didn't do it on purpose."
"So the previous times were intentional?"
Rowena: "…"
"This time, the opening positions really will be assigned according to your actual strength. So, Salazar, you'd better prepare yourself."
Rhys scratched his head.
He was genuinely curious about what kind of unbelievable thing Rowena had come up with this time.
"It's Life Alchemy. It has completely spiralled out of control. I removed the out-of-control part from the dungeons and turned it into the arena for this tournament. Actually, at first, I felt it wasn't that out of control. I thought things were still under control. But when I went to inspect the site a couple of days ago, I realised the problem seemed to be rather serious..."
"Huh?!" Rhys and Helga exclaimed in perfect unison.
"You used something like that as the arena?!" Rhys stared at her in disbelief.
"Have you gone mad?" Helga was even more direct, immediately questioning Rowena's mental state.
"I already said it wasn't that out of control when I created the arena," Rowena tried to defend herself, but neither Rhys nor Helga looked particularly convinced.
"Start by telling me about this Life Alchemy."
After taking two deep breaths, Rhys told Rowena to explain everything from the beginning.
"Alchemy that grants life. That's the core concept behind this tournament. Without Life Alchemy as its foundation, this Triwizard Tournament would be nothing more than children playing house. There would have been no need for you to participate."
The moment Rowena began speaking, Rhys realised things were bad.
The trouble she'd caused this time was no less serious than the disasters she'd created in the past...
He had already more or less guessed what had happened.
"Tell me honestly. When you and Helga tricked me into joining the tournament, what state was your experiment in?"
"Most of it was still under my control. But the tournament was genuinely difficult, so I needed you as the final safeguard."
Rhys's vision went dark.
Most of it was under control?!
Didn't that mean part of it was already out of control?!
And more importantly, why hadn't she mentioned something this important earlier?
Sitting to the side, Helga licked her lips. At the moment, she was rather glad she was a professor and couldn't participate in the tournament. This problem wasn't hers to deal with... though could the old snake handle it alone? Even Rowena, the creator herself, had found the situation troublesome and beyond her control.
Rhys realised the same thing.
Taking a deep breath, he indicated that the two of them should stop standing around and come in with him to clean up the mess.
In response, Rowena looked at him apologetically and informed him that neither of them could enter.
"What do you mean, you can't enter?!" Rhys could feel his blood pressure steadily rising.
"I cast a spell on the arena. Anyone over twenty-one can't enter. Now, because of the problems with the arena, that spell has gone out of control as well, and it can't be removed. The spell that assigns starting locations based on strength has gone out of control too."
"So I count as under twenty-one?" Rhys blinked. No matter how he looked at it, he certainly didn't qualify as being under twenty-one.
"I left a back door when I cast the spell and gave you special permission. Although I can't modify the spell now, the permissions I left behind still exist, so you can still enter."
Rhys truly had no idea what to say anymore.
"So, please help me, Mr. Salazar!" Rowena pleaded sincerely.
Even as his blood pressure soared, Rhys found himself growing a little curious.
Just what kind of colossal mess had Rowena managed to create this time?
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI