Ethan ultimately suppressed the urge to stir up trouble and did not kill Voldemort.
Dumbledore had spent over a year making careful preparations. If Voldemort were killed now, wouldn't all of that be wasted?
More importantly, Fudge, who constantly engaged in internal power struggles, would go out of his way to make things difficult for Dumbledore. Because of this, he would be easily manipulated by the Death Eaters, who controlled vast resources and wealth, resulting in countless problems for Hogwarts.
Ethan didn't want any of that to happen, so the best course was to let Dumbledore's plan proceed and successfully reform the wizarding world from within.
Besides, he found no satisfaction in bullying Voldemort. The man didn't even know who he really was and, strictly speaking, hadn't even provoked him. Killing someone like that would bring neither achievement nor gratification. Without any drive, he simply chose to leave.
He figured Dumbledore had already received news of his "death" and was now following through with the plan.
With his public identity discarded, Ethan no longer needed to return to Hogwarts as a student.
Scáthach wouldn't be attending next semester either. The time flow in the Harry Potter world would soon synchronize. He needed to remember to add this world's coordinates to the teleporter, so Illya and the others could travel freely and conveniently attend school here.
"I haven't forgotten anything, right?"
Ethan didn't immediately return to the Artemis. He still needed to wait for Illya and the others to finish the semester.
He just no longer had to pretend to be a student stuck in the academy.
Feeling bored, Ethan casually sent a message to Illya and the others. The universal communication device aboard the Artemis wasn't affected by the magic in Hogwarts. After that, he began wandering around this land.
Although the end of the semester wasn't far off, Ethan still took the time to explore all of Britain. After all, he could go wherever he wanted and leave whenever he wished.
He could fly and had countless ways to conceal his presence. Even if he occasionally passed by some wizards, they wouldn't notice him at all.
During his travels, Ethan encountered many internal conflicts within the wizarding world. The longer he wandered, the more frequently he ran into these tensions.
He knew that Dumbledore's side had started applying pressure. This was the stage where the pure-blood faction and the reformist faction were fighting for influence. The next step would probably be dropping all pretenses and openly clashing.
With Voldemort as a catalyst, things might progress quickly. It was possible that by the time he returned next semester, the entire wizarding world would look completely different.
"You seem pretty relaxed."
Though Ethan could hide from outsiders, the crew on the ship could still locate each other using the communication device's positioning function, which the user could toggle on or off.
The place Ethan was currently in was Glastonbury, located in the southwest of Britain.
The climate here wasn't very pleasant, even more troublesome than London, which was already infamous for its rain. Still, it attracted quite a few tourists as the legendary burial site of King Arthur.
He had come here out of boredom. While wandering, he casually played with whatever was at hand. Remembering that gacha game, he came to see if the so-called "Holy Relic" summoning method would actually work here.
To his dismay, the savings he had painstakingly accumulated were all gone.
Still, it was just for fun. Although Luna had already hacked into that world's network and opened a top-up channel for a few players on the ship, no one had actually used it yet.
Scáthach, who stood beside him, looked around, and suddenly remembered something. She took out her phone, opened the game, and began a draw.
"Oh? So it actually works?"
"..."
After flashing her screen at Ethan briefly, Scáthach quickly put her phone away.
She treated the game just like Ethan did, merely as a way to kill time. Not as seriously as the younger crew members.
"How are things at school?"
"Everything's normal. The only issue was during your funeral. Illya and Rin Tohsaka felt it was too strange and couldn't fake sadness, almost causing a scene. Other than that, nothing worth mentioning... at least for me."
"For you?"
Ethan turned to look at Scáthach. He noticed that the effects of the potion she had taken were fading noticeably, and she was gradually returning to her original appearance. However, she still looked relatively youthful. Her long hair, which had been slightly darkened to avoid attracting attention, was now tied in a ponytail instead of left loose.
"Is there any difference?"
"Of course. You just up and died. The little girls were heartbroken and cried terribly at your funeral."
"..."
Ethan almost believed her. Thankfully, his brain wasn't offline, and he immediately realized Scáthach was teasing him again.
He hadn't actually informed Hermione. She didn't know he had planned a fake death. But since she already knew his real identity, she should have been able to guess that he wouldn't be killed so easily by Voldemort.
Even if she couldn't guess, she could ask Rin. Since Hermione had revealed that she knew their identities, Rin wouldn't keep it from her.
"Enough with the jokes. What are your plans next?"
Scáthach thought for a moment, then stated her thoughts. She was currently waiting to see which world Ethan would visit next. If it was interesting, she'd tag along and enjoy the fun.
Having stayed home for over a millennium (and that number did not start with a one), she now preferred to travel and explore different, interesting worlds.
Hearing her plans, Ethan had to give her a heads-up.
"I probably won't be heading to a new world just yet. I need to deal with things from this period first."
Synchronizing time across multiple worlds and upgrading the teleporter would take some time.
The Artemis had already sailed to a suitable star system. He needed to confirm whether there were any civilizations within that system, preferably within the Empire's territory. He still remembered the promise he made to help Betty find her family.
As the number of crew members aboard the ship grew, Ethan felt that, as the captain, he had to take on more responsibilities. Especially keeping his promises.
Shirou also needed time to integrate into the team. There were still some people who hadn't met the new crew member. Soon, Ethan would have to travel around to gather everyone for a group meeting, maybe a welcome party.
He also planned to use this peaceful period to give worlds like Starship Troopers and the Marvel Universe a bit of development. Additionally, time in the DC Universe still hadn't been synchronized. Ethan estimated that it was nearly time to consider syncing it.
This way, the DC Universe would be connected to the Artemis as well. The crew would gain another world they could travel to freely, but it would also mean more potential complications.
"Also, the Transformers world, which I casually set up back then. Should I check in to see if it's worth continuing or just drop it?"
He wasn't sure how to decide. Maybe he could bring it up with the others.
Considering the promise he made back then, he needed to either build or buy a spaceship in the Starship Troopers world, then return to the Transformers universe, collect some space water resources, and fly the ship back to Earth in that world.
With so much going on, if he hadn't enhanced his memory so many times, he wouldn't even be able to remember all of it.
There was also Mordred's training. Since boarding the ship, Mordred had been absorbing all kinds of knowledge and venting excess energy through combat.
Now that the "foundations" were almost complete, it was time for some more advanced training. Ethan had to carefully consider how to train her next.
"Throw her into a sufficiently chaotic world and let her compete for supremacy with the locals?"
That didn't seem like a bad idea. She'd learn through real combat which knowledge was useful, which wasn't, and what only worked in the right environment.
Besides all that, Ethan had also planted a seed in the Resident Evil world. It was nearly time to return and see how it had grown.
Ada, Annette, and Sherry probably wanted to go back and check on their world too.
Only after organizing everything did he realize how many things he had on his plate.
"Oh, right. Anubis still owes me for breaking my arm."
Since Evelyn, O'Connell, and the others never mentioned wanting to return to their original world to live (after all, once they got used to high-magic and high-tech life, who'd want to go back to such a backward environment?), Ethan had almost forgotten about it.
Back then, he estimated Anubis's power. The gap between them had been enormous. A casual blow from Anubis across dimensions had nearly killed him.
Now, thinking back, that attack would be nothing to him. Not much harder than deflecting Voldemort's Killing Curse.
But that was still an interdimensional strike. The arrogant god of death probably hadn't taken him seriously at the time, likely just swatted him like an insect.
"His strength is still hard to judge. I'll wait until this body finishes growing before going for revenge."
Ethan never picked fights he wasn't confident in. Since he couldn't yet gauge Anubis's true strength, he'd rather stay put and continue leveling up than go charging in for revenge.
If possible, he hoped that the next time he saw Anubis, he'd be the one effortlessly crushing him.
(To be continued.)