Ten o'clock…
"Um… if I may ask, why are you all here? Mr. Filch? What's going on?" Kaisen looked at the five Little Wizards, then at Filch, who had brought them.
"This is Professor McGonagall's punishment for them. Originally, they were supposed to patrol the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid, but now they'll be with you," Filch said very humbly.
"Alright. Thank you, Mr. Filch, and all of you, stay close to me, don't fall behind. Since you're here today, we'll just walk around the outside of the Forbidden Forest."
After Filch left, five small lanterns appeared in Kaisen's hand, and at the same time, three fluorites appeared and began to orbit around him.
"Cool!"
"Of course, if you weren't in detention, I'd even let you touch them… Draco, please let go, alright?" Kaisen had just finished saying that if it wasn't detention, he'd let the Little Wizards touch the fluorite, and then Draco quickly reached out his hand to touch it…
In short, it was quite disrespectful.
Kaisen held his wand in one hand, with fluorites flying around him, ensuring they could instantly turn into hard obsidian to physically Stupefy any magical creatures that suddenly attacked.
He even specifically took out a rope and had each of the Little Wizards hold it to ensure they didn't fall behind.
Draco, who was both weak and loved to show off, quickly grabbed the frontmost part of the rope, as Professor Kaisen, who was within arm's reach, was much safer than a useless piece of rope.
The other four Little Wizards felt a bit awkward; on one hand, they also wanted to stay as close to Kaisen as possible, and on the other hand, as Gryffindors, the courage imprinted on them made them hesitant to compete with Draco for the very front position.
And so, the six individuals, a small squad of five trembling Little Wizards, slowly patrolled the outer edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Professor, will we encounter any danger?" After a short while, Harry, who was walking at the very back, suddenly asked.
"Probably not. Wasn't this punishment arranged by Professor McGonagall? Although Dumbledore is always unreliable, Professor McGonagall is very reassuring," Kaisen explained.
Draco, who was walking right behind him, breathed a sigh of relief. Professor McGonagall indeed didn't seem like the kind of person who would impulsively send Little Wizards to their deaths.
After all, such a serious person…
"Alright, let's patrol quickly and get your punishment over with as soon as possible. Then you can happily snuggle in your beds and never have to grind redstone again."
"Of course, that's not certain, Draco, you'd best not make the same mistake you made before."
Kaisen remembered something and added.
"Never again, Professor." Draco shivered, as if recalling the nightmare-like experience of grinding stones.
The six of them chatted on and off like this. Most of the time, Kaisen, worried that the Little Wizards were scared, kept finding topics to talk about with them, hoping it would help them relax a little.
Most of the magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest possessed intelligence, though not high, but they could distinguish that five Little Wizards and an adult Wizard with surging magic could not be their prey.
The simple brains of magical creatures could perform such simple calculations.
Taking a chance would almost certainly lead to death.
It wasn't until Kaisen felt they had walked far enough that he pulled out his pocket watch: "It's already twelve o'clock. We still need two hours to get out of the Forbidden Forest. I hope you don't have classes tomorrow morning."
"Actually, we do. We have an eight o'clock class tomorrow morning," Harry said with a bitter face.
"Perhaps you can go to Madam Pomfrey for some stimulating potion. That stuff is great for people who are tired after waking up early, if you don't mind white smoke coming out of your ears and looking foolish."
"Perhaps."
Neville murmured softly, then he looked up, past Ron, Hermione, and Draco in front of him, and finally to Professor Kaisen.
At this moment, Kaisen was looking up, controlling the fluorite to drift towards a certain spot, as if there was a… figure there?
And that figure, sensing it had been discovered, stepped out from the bushes. It was a strong, human-upper-bodied, horse-lower-bodied… Centaur.
"I am a Professor at Hogwarts, Kaisen Heath, and you are…" Kaisen still gripped his wand tightly. He had already decided that if the Centaur in front of him made even the slightest movement, three Decay Skulls would instantly blast him into pieces.
"My name is Ronan, I am a Centaur. We have always lived deep in the Forbidden Forest, and we and you Wizards… keep to ourselves."
Kaisen nodded: "That's best. So, Mr. Ronan, why aren't you staying deep in the Forbidden Forest, but have come here? I remember this should be considered the outer circle, at most approaching the middle circle."
"Mars is unusually bright tonight, and correspondingly, this means the Forbidden Forest will not be peaceful lately," Ronan said.
"Mars… disaster and accident?"
Ronan nodded: "Centaur astrology is different from Wizard divination, but the views on Mars are quite similar. Recently, many Unicorns have been killed in the Forbidden Forest. Perhaps it's some powerful evil magical creature, or perhaps some ill-intentioned person."
Kaisen nodded, his eyes still fixed on the Centaur in front of him, while he casually joked with the five Little Wizards behind him: "It's a pity, if we had heard this news an hour ago, we could have returned to the Castle an hour earlier."
"But it's not too late now. Anyway, thank you for the warning, Mr. Ronan." Kaisen protected the Little Wizards behind him, silently backing away.
Ronan, seeing this, understood: "The Centaurs have no intention of attacking you."
"Uh-huh." Kaisen nodded, and only lowered his wand after seeing Ronan turn and start moving his hooves, their rapid clatter quickly making him disappear from sight.
"Let's leave quickly too. Although I don't know if what that Centaur named Ronan said is true, I can't take that risk."
This time, the group of six did not follow their original route, but instead walked directly towards Hogwarts Castle, following the Big Dipper in the sky in a straight line.
Along the way, they built bridges over rivers and paths over slopes, until this very moment, Kaisen took a deep breath.
He regretted it, truly regretted it. If he had known such bad luck would happen, why walk in a straight line? Wouldn't it have been better to follow the original route?
--------------------
✦ T/N: I'm still a fairly new editor, but I have a Patreon! There aren't many people yet, but I'm still releasing online novels daily, and advanced chapters are available there.
It doesn't seem like much at the moment, but who knows? Things could always change in the future.
👉 patreon.com/DaoistRoeoNQ
If you're interested, feel free to check it out!