"Oh, so professors at Hogwarts don't get sorted?"
Thorne asked with a hint of regret, while following Dumbledore and Snape into the interior of the castle.
The castle corridors were deep and ancient, with moving portraits hanging on both sides of the walls, and occasionally suits of armor would shift positions on their own, making a faint metallic clanking sound.
It's just that in Thorne's eyes, the figures in these portraits were almost entirely bugs.
Vivid expressions and varied poses, yet no matter how you look at them, they look like a whole wall of "actively communicating" insect specimens.
Instead, it was those suits of armor that still barely managed to maintain a human silhouette, which gave him a bit of comfort.
A bat and a Bee were walking in front of him, muttering something in low voices.
Thorne didn't really care what they were actually talking about.
In comparison, he was much more interested in Hogwarts Castle itself.
[Current Special Environment: Hogwarts Castle （1.9%）]
The moment the system prompt popped up, he subconsciously looked up and around.
Even though he'd clearly already passed through the drawing room and the Great Hall and officially entered the tower, he'd actually only explored 1.9%?
Thorne couldn't help clicking his tongue in his mind.
This castle is just a bit too big.
A flight of stairs appeared up ahead.
He subconsciously glanced at the two "bugs" walking in front of him, a hint of doubt flashing through his mind.
Since I can fly, why not just fly up there?
But as soon as the thought popped up, he snuffed it out himself.
Oh, right.
I'm a nutcase.
Everyone else is normal.
My apologies...
Snape suddenly looked back with disgust, glanced at Thorne, and then lowered his voice to say to Dumbledore:
"Are you sure he's really up to the job of being a professor?"
"He seems to know even less about magic than a little troll just starting school—oh, no, even less than a freshman."
Dumbledore just gave a slight smile, and the two of them stepped onto that spiral staircase.
"Severus, don't worry."
"The magic of this world is as vast as the sea, and in Mr. Thorne, there exists a type of magic we've never seen before."
His tone was relaxed.
"Besides, it's not like I haven't made any preparations."
"There's going to be another interview later, which Minerva will handle."
"You can sit in on it as well when the time comes."
Snape fell silent for a moment.
"...Fine."
"I don't want my future colleague to be a total incompetent either."
"Don't say that."
Dumbledore added with a smile, "I think Thorne quite likes you."
He paused, his tone becoming a bit teasing:
"Mr. Mammal."
Snape had just glared.
Suddenly, a dull 'thud' came from behind him.
The two of them turned back at the same time, only to see Thorne hanging on the wall in an extremely weird posture, hands gripping the wall, his body almost perpendicular to the wall surface, then he kicked hard off the wall for leverage, his whole body springing upward.
Once, twice, three times.
His movements were clean and swift, with almost no extra pauses, and he had already flipped and leaped onto the second-floor corridor.
This scene straight up stunned both Dumbledore and Snape.
"Damn it..."
Thorne muttered under his breath, "They took away my Mantis Claw, now climbing walls depends entirely on physical fitness, really—"
He caught his breath, making a mental note of it.
He'd have to find a way to make another one later.
Just as the thought passed, he looked up and found that bee and bat staring straight at him.
Snape's furry ears were pricked way up, looking almost oily in the castle's dim light.
Thorne shrugged, acting nonchalant:
"Uh... these stairs of yours, they're a bit... unruly."
Dumbledore smiled, his tone gentle: "Mhm, yes, it is a magic school after all."
However, Snape clearly wasn't listening to their conversation.
His gaze was fixed tightly on the hand Thorne had just used to climb the wall.
On that palm, a faint white light flashed and vanished, and the small scratches on the skin were healing themselves at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"This..."
Snape muttered to himself, "Wandless magic? Or something else?"
He looked up at Thorne, his gaze truly becoming serious for the first time.
Then, he turned his head and said to Dumbledore beside him:
"I'll go put the materials away first."
"I'll be there in a moment."
Before his voice had even faded, he had already turned and left, his black figure quickly disappearing around the corner of the corridor.
Thorne watched the back of that "giant bat," his tone carrying a hint of sincere regret:
"Sigh... now that Professor Snape is gone, it feels like the whole castle has dimmed a bit."
"His head even seems to reflect light."
As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed the compound eyes of the Old Bee beside him, subtly squeezing out a "smiling" expression.
"Uh, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Dumbledore's tone was cheerful, "Just a reminder, you'd better not say things like that in front of Severus."
He paused, then added:
"And, you'll be seeing him again soon."
"We still have an interview."
"An interview?!"
Thorne's expression changed instantly.
"B-but, I don't even have a resume!"
Dumbledore unhurriedly pulled a piece of parchment from his red robes, his smile as kind as ever.
"It's fine."
"We can just make one up."
——
"Name: Erik Thorne."
"Sex: Male （crossed out） Male."
Uh, I spent too much time in the insect world before.
"Age: 22 years old"
"Education: University of London · Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, Medical Entomology"
Well, that's definitely a match for my major.
"Psychiatric History: ...In short, has a cognitive disorder where he calls everyone insects."
"Research Direction: Soul Magic"
"Work Experience: Soul Sanctum Intern Researcher"
When writing the last item, Thorne clearly hesitated.
There was really nothing to write in this section. If Dumbledore hadn't insisted so much, and if he hadn't actually had some history in Hallownest, he wouldn't have put this down at all.
Finally finished the resume.
Thorne handed over the parchment, let out a soft sigh of relief, then looked up and started sizing up the interviewers across from him.
The one in the very middle was, naturally, the Old Bee Dumbledore—needless to say.
Sitting next to him was an extremely serious-looking Mosquito Lady, wearing dark green robes and a pair of thin-framed glasses, currently looking down and reading Thorne's resume word by word, without even a twitch of her eyebrows.
Further along was the bat Snape.
He looked up every now and then, sizing Thorne up with a scrutinizing gaze, the undisguised contempt he'd shown at the start completely gone.
As for the reason, Thorne couldn't really say for sure.
On the other side was a massive earthworm.
She had a faint earthy scent about her, and her voice was gentle, giving off the feeling that she was very easy to get along with.
But what really made Thorne's mood skyrocket in an instant was that last one.
A human.
That's right, a human in the true sense of the word has actually appeared here for the first time.
He was a kind-looking man, but his height didn't even seem to reach Thorne's knees; still, that was already enough to make Thorne burst into tears inside.
When he first saw the other person just now, if he hadn't been concerned that this was an interview and the other person was one of the interviewers.
Thorne almost pounced right then and there to give them a kiss.
At this very moment, Thorne was staring at that human with a huge grin on his face.
You could almost say he wasn't hiding it at all.
Thorne had absolutely no resistance against the first human who appeared in his field of vision.
"Buzz buzz buzz, Mr. Thorne."
"..."
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Mr. Thorne!"
"Eh?! S-Sorry!"
Thorne suddenly snapped out of it and instinctively wiped the corner of his mouth.
Great, sure enough, he'd drooled.
He immediately sat up straight and looked at Mosquito Lady, who had just called him.
She pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and those small eyes behind the lenses were staring at him with obvious displeasure.
"I see it says on your resume," Mosquito Lady's tone was calm and professional.
"You once conducted research at this so-called... 'Soul Sanctum'. So, I'd like to ask, what was your research topic at the time?"