When Zoe and the others heard that even the professors had agreed, they all made long, miserable faces.
Out of the sixteen of them, only Hermione, Cedric, and Penelope could be considered strong fighters. Hermione and Cedric had been practicing their magic circles for half a year longer than they had, and Penelope was a fifth-year prefect, so her strength was one of the best in all of Hogwarts.
But as for the others… some were too young and hadn't matured yet. Some were mischievous and spent their time making pranks. Others studied potions, magical creatures, or the history of magic…
Forcing this group of people to go up against 800 people from all of Hogwarts in a wizarding duel was unthinkable. My God! The thought alone was despairing!
Seeing that many of the people in front of him had collapsed like dead snakes, Victor decided to pull out his last resort: "The winning team of the tournament will receive a trophy and a prize of 10,000 Galleons!"
"We'll join!!!" Everyone immediately perked up and raised their hands high, afraid that Victor would change his mind and not let them participate.
10,000 Galleons!
Not Silver Sickles or Bronze Knuts, but 10,000 shiny, glittering Galleons!!!
For comparison, the total cost of all the modifications Arthur Weasley made to his car was only about 50 Galleons. 10,000 Galleons was enough for a wizarding family to live comfortably for seven or eight years!
Victor's face twitched as he saw the gold-crazed look in their eyes, and he couldn't help but mutter in his heart that money could make ghosts do a lot of things. However, he then added, "There's one more thing. The results of the tournament will also affect the Heads of House's annual review, so… you understand."
Although he didn't spell it out, everyone below understood what he meant, and their faces all changed. Even though they were all part of Fairy Tail, they also belonged to different Houses!
So if the results of the tournament affected the four Heads of House's annual reviews, wouldn't that be like putting all of them on the chopping block? It would be a difficult situation for them no matter if they won or lost!
But at the same time, as everyone was conflicted, Neville nervously raised his hand and asked timidly, "Uh… Master! Does our guild really have that much money?"
"What?! Are you looking down on me?! Of course we do!" Victor replied. He then took out 10,000 Galleons from his pocket dimension and piled them into a small mountain next to him. The visual impact was so great that even the usually aloof Sonia was moved.
In fact, Victor knew why Neville had asked about the money. In the guild, he, who studied potions and herbs, and the Weasley twins, who studied alchemical items, were the ones who spent money the fastest.
Many of the potion ingredients on the market were sold by small units of weight and were very expensive. Neville knew very well how much he spent on potions. Even if he was careful with his experiments, it would still cost him several hundred Galleons a month.
That's why he was so cautious when asking Victor if they had enough money. If they didn't, he was thinking of selling some of the potions he had successfully made to make up the difference. However, Neville was worrying for nothing.
Most of the guild's funds came from the Forbidden Forest. In addition to various common and rare herbs and magical creature hairs, the venom of Acromantulas was a best-seller. This semester, two Basilisks had appeared out of nowhere and landed on Victor's head. Their venom was already being sold by the gram on the international black market. The price, oh my, was more expensive than gold!
So, Victor had never worried about money. But some might ask, wouldn't the market for Basilisk venom become saturated if he sold so much of it? Of course not. Victor wasn't stupid enough to dump a huge amount of Basilisk venom on the market all at once.
He used a marketing strategy of scarcity, causing the Basilisk venom to be hyped up on the black market, and its selling price would often be more than ten times higher than the purchasing price of some intermediaries in a short amount of time. And that was what you called truly insane! As the saying goes, it was faster than robbing Gringotts!
And so, under the influence of Victor's Galleons, a flame of victory ignited in the hearts of the Fairy Tail members, and they all decided to practice their magic circles to at least a combat-ready level before the tournament.
After that, time passed quickly. And on the second day of the new year, 1993, Victor arrived at Luna's home as promised. He walked along the herringbone cobblestone path to the end and knocked on the Lovegood family's front door.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
A crisp knocking sound echoed, and then a light footstep that most people wouldn't notice came from inside. After a while, the door opened, and a man with a similar eccentric vibe to Luna's peered out from behind the door.
"Hello, Mr. Lovegood, long time no see!" Victor greeted with a smile.
That's right, the person who opened the door was Luna's father, Xenophilius Lovegood. He had shoulder-length white hair that looked like cotton candy, wore a bright, eye-stinging egg-yellow robe, was slightly cross-eyed, barefoot, and had a gold chain with a strange triangle-in-an-eye symbol around his neck. The first impression he gave was that of a madman.
"Oh, Mr. Dreyar, long time no see!" Xenophilius walked out from behind the door. "Speaking of which, I haven't had a chance to thank you for dealing with those people who wanted to break into my house a while ago."
"It was the right thing to do!" Victor replied with a smile.
"Come in and sit down. Luna is upstairs. She's been talking about you every day since the holiday started. She's been waiting for you for a long time." Xenophilius said, and then turned and walked into the house. For some reason, there was a strange hint of resentment in his tone…
Victor walked into the Lovegood family's house. Luna's house was filled with a sense of wonder. Upon entering, there was a spiral iron staircase in the middle of the circular living room that led upstairs. The first floor was both a kitchen and a dining room. The stove, sink, and curved cabinets were placed along the walls, and they didn't match each other, but they looked inexplicably reasonable.
The most interesting thing was that the entire first floor, including the living room, kitchen, and dining room, was covered in colorful graffiti: flowers, insects, and birds, as well as some unknown, oddly shaped animals. These were all drawn by Luna since she was a child.
"Victor…" A light, ethereal voice came from the direction of the stairs. Victor looked over and saw that Luna had been called downstairs by her father. She was barefoot, wearing a high-collared orange-red sweater and a knee-length skirt, and she was carrying a small suitcase.
"Luna, we should get going. It might take two or three days!" Victor said with a smile. "I think you should say something to Mr. Lovegood."
"Dad already knows, and he also told me to bring back some Moon Frog eggs," Luna said, walking down the stairs barefoot.
"Where are your shoes?" Victor looked down at Luna's feet. It was so cold, and it pained him to see her walking on the cold floor.
"I think my shoes were stolen by Nargles."
"Honestly, you can even lose your shoes at home." Victor shook his head helplessly, and then, as if he had been prepared, he took out a brand-new pair of shoes from his pocket dimension. "Put them on, and don't lose them again!"
He then looked up at the second floor of the house in confusion. Xenophilius hadn't come down since he went up. How could he, a father, be so at ease with his daughter going on a long trip with a boy?
"How should we get there?" Luna, who had put on her new shoes, stood up and asked.
"Hmm… I think we should fly," Victor suggested. "Using a Portkey is too boring. It's better to just fly there and enjoy the scenery along the way. It'll only take two or three hours anyway."
"Okay!" Luna nodded happily. She clearly liked this option.
So they went outside, and Victor used Transfiguration to turn a huge stone into a giant, non-black, non-white bird—a bald eagle.
Then, the two of them sat on it. As they sat on the soft white feathers, Victor waved his hand. The bald eagle immediately spread its huge wings, flapped them a few times, creating gusts of wind, and then quickly flew south.
Their destination this time was Dublin, the largest city in Ireland. From the village of Ottery St Catchpole, it would take about two hours for the bald eagle to get there at its current speed.
Victor and Luna were now sitting on the eagle's back, soaring through the blue sky and white clouds. Because of a spell, the gale-force winds of flight couldn't affect them. Only a gentle breeze continuously ruffled their hair.
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