"I'm leaving," Howl said, picking up a small box, opening the door to the wilderness, and bidding farewell to Harry. "Work hard. If you don't understand anything, ask Mr. Lucifer."
"Yes, Uncle Howl," Harry nodded.
Seeing Howl leave, Harry started talking to Mr. Lucifer, "Mr. Lucifer, where is Uncle Howl going?"
Mr. Lucifer replied lazily, "He's probably going to hide the Castle to prevent others from discovering it. I saw him take a box of silver chalk."
"What is silver chalk?" Harry asked curiously.
"It's chalk made with silver powder and a special binder. Silver powder has strong magic conductivity, so it's very useful for drawing some short-term magic arrays," Mr. Lucifer explained patiently.
"How do you plan to clean up this mess?" Mr. Lucifer suddenly asked.
Harry turned around, glanced at the messy living room, scratched his head, and said, "First, stack all the books, then clear out the clutter, and then throw away the unwanted trash."
Mr. Lucifer nodded, then suddenly remembered, "Oh, right, you have a colleague."
"A colleague?"
A rustling sound suddenly came. The broom that had been leaning against the door suddenly ran on its broom head. When it encountered the small steps at the entrance, it even jumped.
"What is this?!" Harry suddenly felt that he wasn't so surprised anymore. For this entire Castle, a walking broom wasn't that strange, was it?
"It's a flying broom," Mr. Lucifer explained.
"A flying broom?!" Harry's eyes widened, staring intently at it. It was covered in dust, and there were many cobwebs on its broom head. It looked no different from the Dursleys's broom.
"That's right, this is a gift that Howl previously snatched... ahem, someone gave it to him. But Howl usually doesn't use it, so he lets it sweep the floor when it's idle."
Harry suddenly couldn't help but reach out his hand, but the broom suddenly twisted and avoided him.
"It sweeps the floor by itself. So you can throw the trash on the floor, and it will be burned all at once," Mr. Lucifer explained, then urged, "Start now. If you don't know what to throw away, you can ask me."
"Okay," Harry nodded, rolled up his sleeves, and began the big cleanup.
Seeing this, Mr. Lucifer slowly narrowed his eyes. In his daily life, his greatest hobbies were sleeping, robbing, and burning.
Recently, he hadn't been able to do the latter two, so he usually just slept.
But shortly after he narrowed his eyes, Harry's voice suddenly rang out, "Mr. Lucifer, what is this? Can I throw it away?"
Harry picked up a small stack of parchment. Without exception, the papers were covered with text and symbols that Harry couldn't understand, as well as some doodles or arrays.
"Those are Howl's manuscripts. Put them all together and let him deal with them."
Harry nodded, put Howl's manuscripts in one place, and began to clear the table.
"What is this?" Harry picked up another leaf that had been flattened by a book.
"This is... it seems to be a Potion ingredient. Throw it away."
"What is this?"
"What is this?" Harry found another palm-sized stone pendant. The pendant was hollow in the middle, with eye-sized holes.
"That's a Manifestation Stone, and it goes with the book next to your left hand, 'Arthur Spadewick's Illustrated Guide: How to Enter the Fantasy World Around You,'" Mr. Lucifer said with some helplessness, his tone growing lazier.
"Of course, I don't know what you'll see with it in this world. Howl left it from a previous adventure."
Harry was a little speechless at the words and didn't venture to put his eye to the Manifestation Stone, instead carefully putting the item away.
During this time, Harry kept asking Mr. Lucifer various questions out of curiosity, and although Mr. Lucifer appeared lazy, he did not refuse him, clearly having enough patience.
It wasn't until Harry picked up a magic book made of human skin that he was startled, his curiosity largely dissipated, and only then did Mr. Lucifer have some peace.
What Harry didn't expect was why Uncle Howl, who seemed so solemn and dignified, had such a messy home.
Was there no corresponding household magic?
If Howl knew Harry's grumbling, he might truly spread his hands apologetically and say, 'There really isn't!'
He didn't know how much time had passed. When Mr. Lucifer opened his eyes again, Harry was mopping the floor. Dozens of huge books were stacked by size in a corner, and various sundries were all placed on the table.
The remaining plates and kitchenware in the dining room had been washed clean, and the sofa cushions had been thrown into the washing machine.
At the same time, there were two large bags of trash cleared out by the door.
"Ah~ much more comfortable," Mr. Lucifer picked up some firewood and placed it under himself, then sighed comfortably:
"Howl, that guy, used to often complain that Hal was a lazy dog. Who would have thought that not long after, he himself would become the very image he once detested?"
Seeing Mr. Lucifer open his eyes, Harry turned his head, "Mr. Lucifer, what is this Castle called?"
"Name..." Mr. Lucifer thought for a moment and realized that, in his memory, this Castle had never had a name.
In fact, there was no need to name the Castle.
"It has no name," Mr. Lucifer shook his head. "But when we were in the Caribbean Sea, it wasn't a Castle then, but a ship. At that time, it was named 'Moonlight Queen.' So you can also call this place Moonlight Fortress."
"Moonlight Queen... Why is that so strange? It's not cool at all," Harry felt a bit odd. Shouldn't warships be named something like Trafalgar, Sovereign, or Victory?!
Hearing Harry's question, Mr. Lucifer couldn't help but chuckle, "What you're talking about are royal ship names. Pirates wouldn't use such names for their ships.
The pirate ship naming style at the time was names like 'Black Pearl,' 'Queen Anne's Revenge,''Silent Mary.'"
"Oh, I see..." Harry nodded, somewhat understanding.
Harry was indeed quick with his hands, but the workload in the entire living room was simply too vast. In the evening, Howl returned again. After dinner, he took a stack of books and went down to the basement.
And Harry began to clear coal ash and chop firewood for Mr. Lucifer. There was also accumulated dust in various corners. It was a long time later before he finally finished cleaning the entire living room.
Howl came up from the basement holding a book, pulled out a golden pocket watch, and checked the time: 9:10 PM.
"Looks like there's no chance to play with magic today, you need to go home, kid," he said with a smile.
Harry was a little disappointed, but he didn't feel there was anything wrong. On the contrary, he enjoyed it. The various books and sundries had opened a door to a new world for him.
He could feel that the entire Moonlight Fortress held too many secrets waiting for him to discover.
Of course, the prerequisite was that he had to do his job well.
This was a thousand times better than being a servant at the Dursley Family!