Encyclopaedia Britannica was Rhys's Christmas gift from Hermione.
This was no small gesture—the complete set consisted of twenty volumes.
For a young girl to bring them all the way from the non-magical world to Hogwarts must have taken quite some effort.
That said, considering that Ravenclaw had likely already taught her how to manipulate magic, Rhys trusted that Hermione wouldn't have been foolish enough to lug them all by hand. Using magic to levitate them would be far less tiring—and wouldn't violate the Statute of Secrecy either.
The contents of the encyclopedia Hermione gave him were astonishingly rich—so rich, in fact, that when Rhys first got his hands on it, he felt a bit at a loss as to where to even begin.
Fortunately, she had given him the latest edition. At the strong urging of countless readers, the newest Encyclopaedia Britannica included two additional index volumes. Even though the index volumes alone ran into the millions of words, they at least allowed Rhys to quickly grasp the overall structure of the entire work.
After skimming through the two Index volumes at high speed, Rhys determined the order in which he would read the encyclopedia in a very short time.
Philosophy, religion, the humanities, and the arts—Rhys felt those could wait for now. What truly interested him was Muggle technology.
He urgently wanted to know just how far Muggle science and technology had progressed.
And while flipping through the Index, one term caught Rhys's attention.
That term was "Internet."
"An internal net? What a strange name," Rhys murmured, his curiosity piqued by the odd word.
Driven by that curiosity, he followed the index entry.
"TCP/IP? What is that? And what is ARPANET?" Rhys found that while he recognized most of the words used to describe the Internet, once they were strung together—and combined with a couple of abbreviations—he was completely lost.
He only knew that the Internet seemed to be a novel invention created by the United States, one that had developed at an extremely rapid pace in recent years.
Muggles could use the Internet to quickly and conveniently obtain all kinds of information—such as news, academic materials, and entertainment content—and could also send emails to one another, transfer files, and perform remote logins through it.
The phrases in these paragraphs were difficult for Rhys to fully understand.
By his interpretation, the Internet seemed to be a marvelous medium through which Muggles could learn about events happening in other parts of the world—provided that those places were also connected to the Internet. Locations like Hogwarts, which were not connected to the Internet, would therefore remain unknown to others online.
This both reassured and worried Rhys.
He was reassured because the magical world had not yet been exposed to the sight of Muggles, but worried because he did not know how the Internet was connected in the first place.
If it could be accessed without Hogwarts' permission, then exposure of the magical world would only be a matter of time.
"Muggles are developing far too quickly…" After imagining several possible uses for the Internet, Rhys couldn't help but marvel at the power of Muggles.
Just think—editors at the Daily Prophet wouldn't need to print newspapers at all. With a few movements of their fingers in the newsroom, they could let the young witches and wizards at Hogwarts see today's news. And not only Hogwarts—students at Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and other foreign schools could see it immediately as well.
According to the encyclopedia, the speed at which this information spread was the speed of light.
File transfer worked the same way. With such a network, professors at Durmstrang could teach Defense Against the Dark Arts to Hogwarts students remotely, and most of the books in the Hogwarts library could be uploaded to the network after being transcribed.
With just a single schoolbag, one could carry away the knowledge Hogwarts had accumulated over a thousand years.
And this was only the most basic application of the Muggle creation known as the "Internet."
Muggles truly were remarkable.
Rhys tried to understand it in greater depth, only to discover—much to his surprise—that digging into it was like pulling a mandrake out of the ground, dragging up a whole pile of concepts he had never heard of before.
After reading for half an hour, he still hadn't fully grasped the principles behind the Internet, nor what it truly was.
The encyclopedia Hermione had given him was of tremendous help in understanding Muggle society, but the deeper his understanding went, the more unsettled Rhys became.
He knew that many pure-blood wizards held Muggles in contempt, believing that if wizards so wished, they could trample Muggles underfoot and enslave them at any time.
The current clear separation between the magical and non-magical worlds, in their view, existed solely by wizarding grace.
Rhys felt that this way of thinking was profoundly wrong.
In terms of scale and technology, Muggle society already held an overwhelming advantage over wizards. It was by no means the rickety shack that would collapse with a single kick, as those people imagined.
Of course, wizards were not fish laid out on a chopping board either. Their ability to conceal themselves was second to none; if they truly wished to hide, Rhys believed Muggles would not be able to find them.
More importantly, wizards were far from defenseless.
If a full-scale war truly broke out, spells such as the Imperius Curse, Apparition, the Killing Curse, and blasting spells would all play striking roles.
Not to mention that several relics of the old era were still alive. Rhys could ensure that his magic would leave an extremely deep impression on Muggles.
But he hoped that day would never come, because once those spells were used, there would be no turning back for wizardkind.
Drawing his scattered thoughts back together, Rhys decided that once the holidays were over, he would have a proper talk with the young witches and wizards from Muggle families and learn more about the Internet from them.
Rhys felt that although connecting the magical world to the Internet would be extremely dangerous, the technology itself was still worth studying. Perhaps he could successfully replicate it and build such a system just within Hogwarts.
There was no rush, though. The Christmas holiday still had a long way to go, and he could take his time reading through the complete encyclopedia Hermione had given him.
True to his word, Rhys's routine during the rest of the Christmas break became extremely regular. After waking up early each morning, he would eat a simple breakfast, then take Daphne and Astoria to Helga's place to work on components. After Cedric joined in, Helga's progress noticeably sped up.
When Cedric first saw the three of them, his expression was remarkably complicated.
He had never imagined that there would be three heirs of Slytherin—and why were the three of them helping his professor with manual work?
Later, when he learned that they were doing it to study and learn, Cedric felt a trace of respect rise in his heart for these three juniors.
They were different from the other Slytherin students. These three had decent character.
In his own words, Rhys and the others were students who had "truly inherited the spirit of Slytherin."
Being evaluated this way by Cedric made both Rhys and Helga feel rather awkward, but Daphne and Astoria were genuinely delighted.
In response, the two of them directly wished Cedric success in defeating the Slytherin Quidditch team and lifting the Quidditch Cup.
"...."
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI