"Mr Dumbledore, welcome to Hogwarts."
Wayne, who had rushed over to mock—no, to receive—Dumbledore, led him into the office and opened with a verbal strike.
The headmasters on the wall burst into hysterical laughter; this scene was simply too amusing, especially Dumbledore's expression caught between laughter and tears. Phineas particularly shouted for Wayne to record this moment, suggesting Dumbledore should be immortalised on the wall with that exact expression, joining their ranks.
Well, indeed, Phineas had spent a week in the lavatory before being returned to the Headmaster's Office.
Though even now, no other headmaster was willing to enter his portrait frame to beat him up, finding it too foul.
After Wayne's teasing, Dumbledore's gloomy mood miraculously improved considerably.
"Mr Lawrence, coming here feels as familiar as returning home," Dumbledore quipped with a smile.
"Then do visit often when you have time." Wayne waved his hand, and the desk was suddenly laden with lemonade, sandwiches, and... an abundance of cockroach clusters.
These cockroach clusters were Dumbledore's leftover stock before he departed, which Wayne had deliberately saved for him until now.
Seeing his beloved sweets, the old headmaster happily ate a few, and without waiting for Wayne to ask, began recounting everything he had seen and heard over the past month or more.
After finishing, he even brought out souvenirs from his journey.
Two large loaves of bread that together took up half the desk.
Wayne stored them away; these went quite well with borscht and pickles, after all.
Of course, he'd rather not eat them plain—the texture of coarse rye flour wasn't particularly pleasant.
"Professor, you've taken quite a stumble this time."
Wayne spoke bluntly, and Dumbledore didn't refute it, nodding gently. "Tom is indeed more troublesome than I anticipated, but he's also become even more dangerous."
"I actually think... he's done rather well?"
Considering Tom was somewhat his student, Wayne instinctively defended him, then quickly clarified, "I'm referring to his efforts in suppressing the pure-bloods; I won't comment on the rest."
Dumbledore sighed. "Whether it's Tom or Voldemort, they are always exceedingly extreme."
"Why not just capture him directly?" Wayne said dismissively.
This was precisely why he didn't worry about Tom.
Without extra resurrection abilities or troublesome Horcruxes, he could be dealt with anytime.
"He currently holds an official position," Dumbledore shook his head slightly. "Tom isn't Voldemort; he's almost a completely new person. I have no justifiable reason to act directly against him."
"Being a little wilful occasionally is understandable," Wayne 'kindly' advised, fully aware of Dumbledore's reservations.
"I've held this line for far too long," Dumbledore instinctively sensed that Wayne might have ulterior motives, but couldn't quite pinpoint it, so he simply explained along his line of thought. "There are always proper ways to resolve matters, but if I grow accustomed to abusing power, it would only lead to consequences far worse than anything Tom could cause."
"It wouldn't," Wayne shook his head vigorously, wearing an expression of disbelief.
"If that day ever truly comes, I would choose to uphold justice over personal ties."
Dumbledore was left speechless.
Sure enough, it was the familiar taste. Over the years of knowing Wayne, he found his tolerance had grown considerably.
After all, with poor mental resilience, one could easily be angered to death.
After the jest, Wayne asked Dumbledore about his future plans.
The old man didn't speak, just stared straight at him, but his meaning was already clear.
Wayne lowered his head, then raised it again, revealing a brilliant smile. "Professor, don't even think about the Headmaster position. But if you'd like to be a teaching professor, I'd warmly welcome that. Your salary would be calculated based on your years of service as Headmaster."
Dumbledore was even more speechless. Was it really about the seniority pay?
"Wayne, you're still young. You should focus on your studies," Dumbledore advised earnestly. "The waters of the Headmaster position run too deep for you to navigate. Let me bear the burden for a few more years. It's not too late for you to become Headmaster after graduating and gaining some experience."
"Are you treating me like Voldemort?" Wayne scoffed. "Didn't you reject him the same way back then?"
"Moreover, there's no precedent in history for a Headmaster to resign and then be rehired."
"I'm only temporarily stepping away, not truly resigning."
"Dumbledore, you should just give up," Phineas, who had been listening to their conversation, couldn't help but interject. "Lawrence has already gained the school's recognition and become the true Headmaster"
"He even placed me in the boys' bathroom for a whole week!"
The last sentence was spoken with such raw emotions that it could move listeners to tears.
But Dumbledore wasn't interested in such fragrant topics. He stared at Wayne in shock. "You've really become Headmaster?"
"The school chose me," Wayne said modestly.
Dumbledore was stunned, momentarily feeling utterly defeated.
Had that one departure become a permanent farewell?
It was like going fishing, only for the fish to escape the hook, and returning to find his home had been stolen?
Fortunately, Dumbledore was a man who had weathered many storms and wouldn't be crushed by this setback.
Wayne sat there quietly, sipping his lemon water occasionally, not rushing him.
After about five minutes, Dumbledore finally accepted reality and recovered. For a moment, Wayne felt he had aged considerably.
"Very well, if it's Hogwarts' choice, then you must be capable of doing better than I could."
Before coming to find Wayne, he had spoken with Professor McGonagall and learned about the recent changes at the school.
From a future development perspective, although the students had lost some joy, their magical studies had become more solid.
In the current situation, strength was far more important than happiness.
But thinking of the situation, Dumbledore looked up at the young man again. "Does Grindelwald's surrender have anything to do with you?"
"No," Wayne said bluntly. "I didn't expect Mr Grindelwald to choose to emerge at this time either. Initially, I thought it was troublesome, but now... I actually consider it a good thing."
Dumbledore grimaced.
You call the emergence of another Dark Lord in the wizarding world a good thing?
Wayne saw through his thoughts. "At least Tom's ambitions must pass through him first, isn't that right?"
Dumbledore became thoughtful.
Although he hadn't attended Muggle school classes, he had learned basic mathematics and geometry in astronomy.
After all, the triangle is the most stable shape.
Only Professor McGonagall and Wayne knew about Dumbledore's return, perhaps with the addition of one House-elf.
He had no intention of making public appearances either. He had also noticed the increased Death Eater activity that Wayne mentioned earlier. Since Tom remained temporarily inaccessible, he would focus entirely on Voldemort instead.
To gradually draw him out into the open.
When he learned that Wayne planned to visit Tomoyo and Sakura during the holidays, he decided to remain at the school.
Wayne let him stay directly in the Headmaster's office - he had never even entered the bedroom upstairs, so it was perfect for old Dumbledore.
Returning to his dormitory, Wayne thought for a moment before jumping into his suitcase and opening the school-exploding critical hit package.
He now had nearly seventy thousand points, but Wayne didn't plan to use them yet. He was waiting until he reached ninety thousand points to unlock the pseudo-god tier reward directly.
For now, he'd just open a package to satisfy his craving.
At his command, the system interface erupted in dazzling diamond light, lifting Wayne's spirits.
Diamond—that was the mark of Legend tier.
[Congratulations, host, for obtaining the elementary version of the Floating City Core.]
Floating City Core? And just the elementary version?
Wayne was stunned.
Soon, the system fed information about this reward into his mind, and he gradually came to understand.
The Netheril Empire was a powerful nation on the Faerûn continent, renowned for its magical civilisation. During its peak, floating cities were among its iconic structures.
Building a floating city required not only powerful magical technology but also a power source called a Mythallar to provide stable and powerful energy.
The system reward was a modified Mythallar that already had super-tier levitation and anti-gravity spells attached, capable of maintaining a city within a five-kilometre radius floating in the air.
Excellent, simply heavenly.
Wayne's eyes sparkled.
What normal man wouldn't want to own his own floating city?
He could travel the world with his city, enjoy the scenery of different regions, and incidentally create a massive back... garden to grow flowers and go fishing.
Just thinking about it, he had already planned what areas would be suitable for what purposes.
It took Wayne a full half hour to digest all the information.
This system reward included not just the core, but also the construction methods for the floating city, along with the control methods for the levitation and anti-gravity spells.
He skimmed through the former, but these two spells belonged to a completely different system from any magic he had encountered before.
His interest piqued, Wayne decided to pull an all-nighter.
Anyway, with his current physical condition, he could go without sleep for days without any problems—it was mostly just habit.
He wanted to see if he could use these two spells to research some pathways.
This research session lasted until dawn.
There were gains - at least Wayne's levitation spell had broken through its original limitations.
But his research into the DND system hadn't even gotten past the starting gate.
The samples were too few, and without systematic teaching, it wasn't easy, especially since it was a magical path that could lead directly to godhood.
After tidying up, Wayne emerged from the suitcase.
His two roommates were already gone. He went to the common room, greeted a few students still playing Magic Awakening, then went to find Hermione and the other girls.
Quite a few people had chosen to stay at school for Christmas this year. The entire Weasley family had remained, Cedric had opted to stay behind to revise, and even Malfoy had stayed at school with his two lackeys.
He didn't dare return to Malfoy Manor, which had now become a den of dark magic, fearing that Voldemort might detect something amiss.
Once aboard the train, Wayne and his three companions found a compartment. Hermione put on the virtual helmet to experience Wayne's battle against Grindelwald from a first-person perspective, while Cho took out her knitting needles—she was making a scarf for Wayne.
As for Astoria, she had already fallen asleep in his arms.
She only woke up just before they were due to get off.
"Did you not sleep last night either?" Wayne asked with some confusion.
"No," Astoria replied groggily, rubbing her eyes - proving that even fairies could wake up with sleep in their eyes. "Selwyn kept Anna and me up all night chatting."
"What could possibly be worth talking about..." Wayne couldn't comprehend it. While he understood catching up with roommates you saw every day, what could require an entire night of conversation?
It was like with Toby and Norman - he'd just hit them with a Sleeping Charm every night and they'd become perfectly quiet.
"Selwyn was reviewing her ex-boyfriends..." Astoria's pretty face flushed, then she became excited as she shared the gossip she'd heard the previous night with Wayne.
As she continued talking, both Hermione and Cho leaned in to listen to her stories about the various messy affairs within Slytherin.
Even after getting off the train, the two girls still seemed eager to hear more.
One could only say... it was rather stimulating.
The pure-bloods certainly knew how to have fun.
After seeing the three girls home in turn, Wayne finally returned to his own house. Before he could even catch his breath, Humphrey's phone call came through.
Half an hour later, the man himself showed up at his door.
As soon as he entered, he asked, "Wayne, Hacker would like to invite you to dinner. When would you be available?"