— — — — — —
{Mom! Sis has gone crazy. Please come back and slap some sense into her!}
At the Ministry of Magic, Lady Greengrass stared at the abrupt message from her younger daughter, completely baffled.
…Never mind. She'd ask about it when she got home tonight.
She closed her codex, decided not to overthink it, then looked up with a smile at the pink-haired girl standing before her.
"Icarus, you're brilliant. You've already mastered all the work procedures here," Lady Greengrass said gently. "Now that the troublesome work is finished and the Catherines can easily handle the remaining minor tasks, you should report to Crouch starting tomorrow. You'll gradually take over the guild's operations."
"Thank you for your guidance, ma'am. You've worked very hard."
Ikaros bowed slightly. Her face remained expressionless, but her words were unexpectedly warm.
The smile on Lady Greengrass' face softened even more. After spending these days together, she'd grown genuinely fond of this child.
Obedient, sensible, and eager to learn. The longer you looked at her blank little face, the cuter it somehow became.
And yesterday they discovered she had a weakness for round things. When the family was eating watermelon, Ikaros had fallen in love at first sight, hugging it and refusing to let go, even insisting on taking it back to her bedroom that night.
The next day, struck by a whim, Lady Greengrass gave Ikaros another watermelon.
That nearly gave Ikaros a breakdown. With her tiny frame, even holding one watermelon was a struggle. Watching her wrestle with it had both Bones and Greengrass laughing so hard they could barely stand.
Whenever the two women saw Ikaros, they felt a powerful urge to adopt her. Especially Lady Greengrass, compared to her own eldest daughter who spent all day giggling foolishly… well. There really was no comparison to be made.
...
After Ikaros left, Lady Greengrass brought some carefully prepared tea and pastries from her house-elf to Bones' office.
The moment Bones saw her, she decisively put down her quill, took the tray, and picked up a small cake to eat.
"Don't you even wash your hands?" Lady Greengrass said, clearly unimpressed.
Bones waved her off, speaking around a mouthful of cake. "Please, I touched a quill, that's all. And even if I swallowed some ink, I'd be fine."
Lady Greengrass could only shake her head helplessly.
"I feel like I've finally come back to life…"
After finishing the last sip of rich black tea, Bones let out a satisfied sigh and leaned back on the sofa. "Seraphina, if it weren't for you, I don't even know how I would've survived these past few days."
Lady Greengrass continued eating unhurriedly, every movement elegant and composed. Hearing Bones's thanks, she snorted dismissively. "You brought it on yourself. I told you I could ask Tom to lend you a Catherine, but you just wouldn't agree."
"I couldn't agree…"
Bones gave a wry smile. "Catherines really are incredibly capable. You could hand seventy percent of the workload over to them. But they're not truly human. If something goes wrong, who takes responsibility for the consequences? That's not something we can clearly define right now."
"All right, all right. You're the one who overthinks everything," Lady Greengrass said, too lazy to keep persuading her. It wasn't her problem anyway.
Bones quietly changed the subject, too.
In truth, she had deeper concerns she hadn't shared with her friend.
At the end of the day, Catherine was Tom's creation. And not some ordinary alchemical construct. She'd heard that all Catherines could share information and access a massive central database. That was how dozens of wizarding guilds around the world could operate in perfect sync.
If a large number of Catherines entered the Ministry of Magic, they might as well stop calling it the Ministry altogether. "Astra Abyssum Administrative Department" would be more accurate.
At that point, it would practically take the Riddle surname.
And aside from combat personnel, more than half of the Ministry's staff would be replaced.
On one side, tireless puppets that didn't need to be paid and could work nonstop. On the other, employees who demanded salaries, couldn't maintain full attendance, and occasionally slacked off.
Who would get eliminated was obvious.
So even though she and Tom were political allies, she wouldn't easily open that door.
After afternoon tea, Lady Greengrass lingered until quitting time and then headed straight home.
Astoria immediately ran up to her, looking tense. "Mom, something terrible has happened."
"Calm down."
Setting down her bag, Lady Greengrass patted her head casually. "If it's something small, ignore it. If it's something big, go find Tom. I'm no help."
Astoria's beautiful eyes instantly turned into dead-fish eyes.
She suddenly understood why her sister was so unreliable. Turns out the root of the problem was their mom…
So tired…
The girl sighed silently in her heart, but still explained the issue. "Mom, I don't know what's gotten into my sister. She insists on entering next year's Interacademy Tournament."
"Huh?"
Lady Greengrass froze. "You're saying Daph wants to compete?"
"Yeah."
"Did you give her any medicine?" the elegant woman asked worriedly. "Is she running a fever and talking nonsense? This isn't some competitive eating contest."
Astoria's face darkened. "Mom, now's really not the time for jokes. She looks completely serious. You have to go talk her out of it."
"All right, I'll take a look."
Lady Greengrass took Astoria upstairs and found Daphne in the training room, practicing spells.
Honestly, she even looked pretty convincing.
"Daphne, take a break."
"Mom, you're back!"
"Mmh. Astoria says you want to compete?" Lady Greengrass asked, placing a hand on her daughter's forehead as she spoke.
No fever.
"Yep."
Daphne planted her hands on her hips, confidence overflowing. "Don't worry, Mom. I'll definitely win first place. I'll give you the trophy when I do."
'Oh no, my daughter is completely crazy.'
Lady Greengrass complained silently. She tried to persuade Daphne gently for a while longer, but the girl was clearly deep in her own world and not listening at all. There was nothing she could do.
"Get Tom here," Lady Greengrass said, finally giving up. "From now on, Daph is his problem."
---
"Have you really thought this through?"
An hour later, after dropping Penelope off at home, Tom hurried over to the Greengrass estate.
He had no idea what had happened in a single afternoon to send Daphne's imagination into overdrive.
"I've thought it through."
The girl squirmed in his arms like a little silkworm, her big eyes sparkling. "Last term, I watched Ginny and Hermione competing on stage, and it looked really fun."
"And this time the scale is even bigger. It'll definitely be even more exciting."
Tom opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he didn't.
"All right. If you want to join, then join."
With that, he set Daphne down on the bed and started pulling strings for her.
His own pampered future wife. If he didn't spoil her, who would? It was just a competition. Why shouldn't Daphne be allowed to participate?
『Tom Riddle』: Crouch, still working overtime?
Crouch, who was at home enjoying some rare downtime, felt his eyelid twitch the moment he saw the message.
Whenever Tom contacted him, it meant trouble.
But sadly, he didn't have the luxury of refusing. He picked up his codex and replied.
After a few perfunctory pleasantries, Tom got straight to the point.
『Tom Riddle』: Has the rules for the Tournament been finalized? If not, set it at fourteen. If it has been finalized… then change it.
The next Tournament was basically the same as the Triwizard Tournament, just with more schools joining in. In fact, it didn't even have a new name yet.
And one of the Triwizard rules was that all applicants had to be over seventeen.
"..."
Reading Tom's request gave Crouch a headache. The age limit had been set at the beginning of last month. He'd even voted in favor of it.
And now he was supposed to propose changing it himself?
"Boss… are you planning to compete?" Crouch asked cautiously.
That… that would be outright bullying. His boss wouldn't be that shameless, right?
『Tom Riddle』: Not me. Daphne Greengrass.
That somehow made Crouch feel even more helpless. This wasn't about effort anymore. It was about whether it was even possible.
He alone didn't have that kind of pull.
Crouch phrased his concerns as tactfully as he could. Tom's response was simple: try your best.
He'd also ask Dumbledore for help.
That finally put Crouch at ease. He agreed.
After that, Tom spent a long time talking with Dumbledore as well. Only then did he let out a breath, snapping his codex shut.
Daphne immediately leaned over, eyes full of anticipation. "Did it work?"
"More or less," Tom said, rubbing her golden hair into a mess. "Since you're entering, you'd better work hard. I'm not helping you next time."
"Hehe, I definitely will~ Mwah!"
The delighted girl rewarded Tom with a kiss. At least, that was what she thought it was.
"Come home with me tomorrow morning," Tom said after a moment's thought.
At Daphne's current level, entering the competition would only end in disaster. The gossip from the Hogwarts students alone would probably make the young lady cry.
Normal training wouldn't be enough anymore.
That meant he'd have to resort to some unconventional methods.
Might as well start with engraving magical circuits…
.
.
.