Upon hearing Juma's words, Minamoto couldn't hold back his shock.
"This is impossible! I had people keeping an eye on you, how could you have left Mahoutokoro?!"
Juma responded with a casual shrug.
"To be honest, I should really thank that peer of mine, Tachibana Yusei. If it weren't for him, I doubt I could've moved so freely in and out of Minami Iwo Jima island!"
He paused, smirking.
"Although that Yusei fellow has a decent face, his skills are hardly worth praising. I still remember the way his eyes nearly popped out when I cast the Imperius Curse on him!"
Hearing this, Minamoto stumbled back a step and collapsed into his seat in disbelief.
At the same time, Professor Snape lost control of his composure. Grabbing Juma by the collar, he yanked him forward and demanded with a voice like a blade:
"What exactly did you leave behind on that island?!"
Juma only chuckled coldly, offering no reply.
...
Meanwhile, on the volcanic island designated for the competition, three figures were advancing cautiously, Wentworth, Nala, and Yukina.
Suddenly, a bee buzzed past them. But as it neared, it abruptly darted away in a panic, as though frightened by something.
As it veered off, it brushed against a hanging vine leaf. In an instant, several vines shot up toward the sky. The fastest of them coiled around the bee like a trap and withdrew, the insect now wrapped tight as a parcel.
The other vines, slower to react, swiped through the air in frustration before lazily retracting as well.
Witnessing this, Wentworth swallowed hard.
Beside him, Nala muttered bitterly, "This Wizarding Schools Potions Championship is absolutely cursed! If the mist we encountered at the start was meant to test our adaptability, then what on earth were those swarms of insects for?"
Wentworth forced a wry smile as the memory resurfaced.
At first, the three of them had dashed through the terrain in blind panic, yet no matter how they ran, they couldn't shake off the insect horde.
It wasn't until Yukina reminded them that they were competing in a potions tournament, not a mountain marathon, that clarity returned.
They began working together, running and gathering potion ingredients at the same time. Eventually, through sheer perseverance, they brewed a repellent potion mid-flight and managed to fend off the relentless pursuit.
Reflecting on it now, Wentworth exhaled and said thoughtfully, "I think it was a test of our stability… under pressure, while brewing potions."
Nala sighed and added, "Still… thank you both for not giving up on me, even though I slowed you down. If it weren't for you, I might've drunk that potion and forfeited."
Yukina quickly chimed in, "Nala, we'd never leave you behind. Right, Wentworth, Wentworth?!"
She looked over in surprise. Wentworth hadn't responded at all.
Yukina's first instinct was suspicion, it had to be more trickery from the island.
She stepped forward to check on him, but at that moment, Wentworth suddenly raised a hand, his expression conflicted.
"I know now. I know what this tournament is really about!"
As he spoke, he pulled out the potion that Professor Snape had given him before they set out, his gaze filled with conflicted emotion.
Yukina noticed his eyes were not just serious, but tinged with something like… betrayal?
Nala couldn't hold back any longer. "What is it then? Just say it already, Wentworth!"
He finally spoke:
"If I'm right, this year's Potions Championship is testing our ability to reverse-engineer a potion from a finished sample, and recreate it ourselves."
Nala and Yukina looked at each other, confused.
Seeing their puzzled faces, Wentworth began to explain.
"From the start, both Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape misled us. We all assumed that the potion Snape gave us was a last resort, a way to escape if things got too dangerous. So we each stashed it away immediately."
Yukina asked, baffled, "Wasn't that the whole point?"
Nala, meanwhile, seemed deep in thought.
Wentworth replied calmly, "Yes… and no."
"Snape told the truth, but he deliberately left something out. The real challenge of this tournament isn't surviving the island's hazards. It's duplicating the potion in our possession."
"If Dumbledore said this potion could return us safely to the coast if things got dire, then that means it can neutralize nearly every danger on the island."
"So… if we don't drink it, but instead reproduce it, and then drink that, we'd be able to roam the island freely. Reaching the summit would be easy."
"No wonder they all said this competition favored you, Nala. All you had to do was duplicate this potion and follow the sulphur trail up the mountain!"
Realization dawned on both Nala and Yukina.
Nala immediately pulled out her vial and declared, "Just replicating a potion? That's my specialty."
Wentworth, however, offered a word of caution.
"Don't be overconfident, Nala. If this potion can deal with so many threats, it's clearly a compound potion. Merging multiple effects without creating conflict means the professors likely altered the base recipes."
Nala nodded with unexpected seriousness. "Don't worry, I've got this. I never use written recipes anyway… not that I could read them if I did."
Wentworth: "…"
What none of them noticed was that as they talked, a pair of eyes was watching them silently from behind a curtain of vines, not far away.
Strangely, the vines remained completely still.
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