"An entire werewolf squad went missing?"
Leonard looked at Midgard in surprise, as if she had to be joking. "I remember the one leading them was a werewolf called Chercy, right? She should be able to transform on her own. Even she lost contact?"
Chercy was mainly responsible for security in the werewolf settlement. Though she was aggressive by nature, she could rein in her impulses when it mattered, which made her one of Midgard's more dependable subordinates.
More importantly, Chercy was extremely strong. You could even say combat was her specialty. Once she transformed into a werewolf, she fought like a mad dog. Even the most experienced Hit Wizards, the Aurors' elite who dealt with dangerous criminals, were no match for her.
How could someone like that disappear without a sound, without sending back even a scrap of information?
"That's what happened," Midgard said. "They vanished without a trace, like they evaporated from the world. I had those smuggling merchants look into it, but they found nothing."
The relaxed look on Midgard's face darkened at the mention of it. "What do you think?"
"I'm wondering what kind of thing could swallow up our people so quietly." Leonard sat beside Midgard with Claudia in his arms. "With something as deadly as Mandrakes, even if they ran into an enemy they couldn't fight, at least one or two of them should have gotten away. Could they have run into some dangerous magical creature?"
If they really had encountered a magical creature that could ignore the Mandrakes' screams, then Chercy and the others might truly be done for.
"If a magical creature on that level had shown up, the local Ministry of Magic would already be in chaos. They wouldn't be this calm." Midgard shook her head. "I'd rather believe another group of wizards did it. The Ravens, for example."
"That's not impossible..." Leonard instinctively reached up to stroke his chin, only for Claudia to intercept his hand and rub her little face against it.
Smiling, Leonard pinched Claudia's smooth cheek.
"Stop fooling around. We're talking business." Midgard patted Leonard on the shoulder, then snatched Claudia from his arms and held her against herself.
Claudia looked like an oversized Barbie doll, sitting innocently in Midgard's arms as she looked at Leonard with a particularly helpless expression.
Leonard gave a faintly regretful shrug, shot Claudia a helpless look, and continued, "The Ravens could definitely have done something like this. They have both the motive and the ability. But if it really was them, that would actually be good news."
"Good news?" Midgard looked at Leonard as if asking whether something had gone wrong in his head.
"If they fell into the Ravens' hands, at least their lives would be safe," Leonard said seriously. "But if they show up again after this, you'll have to think carefully about whether they're still worth trusting."
The Ravens traveled the world searching for bloodline wizards. The wizards they found did not simply vanish, but when they reappeared, they never said a word about the organization that had taken them.
Most of them had probably been absorbed into the Ravens. Otherwise, the organization's reputation would have spread everywhere by now.
If Chercy's werewolf squad really had been taken by the Ravens, then by the time they appeared again, they would probably have been recruited just like those bloodline wizards.
"I understand." Midgard nodded heavily.
...
Time passed slowly, and the werewolf squad never reappeared.
Whether the Ravens had not finished brainwashing them yet or they had run into some other danger, they remained completely unheard from, like a drop of water disappearing into the sea.
Because of this incident, Midgard suspended her plans to recruit werewolves from other countries. Instead, she increased her efforts with those smugglers and had them spread a bit of information within certain circles.
If they could not go out and actively look for werewolves in other countries, then they would let those werewolves come to them instead.
Compared to going out and recruiting people directly, this slow and steady approach was much slower, but it was unquestionably the safest.
Midgard pulled back personnel from many places where they were not especially needed. The werewolf wizards, who had spread their reach into all sorts of industries like an octopus extending its tentacles, drew themselves back in to guard against danger.
Everything seemed peaceful. There were no more reports of missing werewolf wizards. Aside from Midgard's continued refusal to give up her investigation into Chercy's whereabouts, the disappearance of the werewolf squad seemed to be gradually fading from memory.
Until several months later, after Easter...
It was the end of term again, and Hogwarts was swept up in an atmosphere every bit as oppressive as exam week in Leonard's previous life...
Same as always. The more dismissive he had been about classes before, the more painful things were now.
To get good grades and make it peacefully through the summer holiday, the library was packed to the brim.
Not wanting to study the forbidden books in the Restricted Section in the middle of a crowd, Leonard moved his reading time back to the Chamber of Secrets.
He had been studying the desk in the Chamber of Secrets the whole time, carrying out extremely rigorous research on the magic that left it looking as if time around it had frozen.
In truth, Leonard could have broken the spell on the desk long ago. The magic that even Voldemort had been helpless against looked to Leonard like something he could undo simply by selectively modifying the roots of certain plants to absorb the outer layer of magic.
But that would have been too wasteful. As a good young man with a genuine spirit of inquiry, Leonard had put a great deal of effort into this, trying to uncover the principles behind that magic and how to use it.
Progress was slow, but he improved a little every day, and that feeling was far more pleasant than revising for exams.
That day, Leonard climbed out of the Chamber of Secrets after finishing his research.
"Time to get something to eat." Standing by the window and looking out at the dim golden light outside, Leonard decided to head to the kitchen and find himself something.
Just then, the owl Gray flew toward him with a letter in its beak.
The moment it saw Leonard, it beat its wings to slow down, released the envelope, and let it drop into Leonard's hand with the precision of a cannonball hitting its target.
"Thanks, Gray." Leonard stroked Gray, who had landed by the window, and smoothed down its feathers. Only after watching it fly off in satisfaction did he lower his head to read the letter.
The letter was from Midgard. Lately she had not been going out much, and she had not asked Leonard to meet her in the botanical garden, so if she wanted to pass on any information, a letter was her only option.
As for what was inside...
Leonard opened the envelope. After reading only the first line, a stunned expression appeared on his face.
"I've received news about Chercy."
That single short line had seven spelling mistakes. Judging by the handwriting, Midgard must have been in an utterly shocked state when she wrote it.