Human Preferences Are Free

"Forget it. Once the wizards’ overall strength improved, hopefully someone would become strong enough to let me have a good fight… before my edgy—no, passionate soul burned out."

Adam felt that should not be a problem. After all, men were boys until the day they died.

After adjusting his mindset, Adam looked at the shrunken Xiao Hei. Xiao Hei was perched on his shoulder, his tail wagging so fast it left afterimages.

Although both meat and nuclear energy were on Xiao Hei’s menu, he still preferred nuclear energy—probably because his true form was so enormous that eating meat would take forever to replenish enough energy.

Still, Adam always felt that eating that stuff was less healthy than meat, so he rarely fed him Nuclear Reactors.

"Since we’re having New Year’s Eve dinner tonight, I’ll get you a few more Nuclear Reactors. Eat until you’re full."

The catastrophe from moments ago seemed like nothing more than an illusion. Every trace that should not have existed in the surroundings was cleansed and erased, while Adam’s figure and voice vanished into the wind.

After the sun rose the next day, Scrimgeour slowly opened his eyes.

His memories were somewhat muddled. Scrimgeour sat up clutching his head, taking several seconds to sort them out before instinctively drawing his wand and looking around.

His wary gaze swept over the area, and Scrimgeour discovered that he was sitting right outside Hogwarts’ gates. Ministry of Magic Aurors lay sprawled all around him.

Last night… had it been an illusion?

Scrimgeour’s face darkened as he fell into self-doubt.

After waking the Aurors around him, Scrimgeour abandoned the idea that the previous night had all been an illusion. The injured Aurors still bore traces of their explosions wounds.

Furthermore, not every Auror who had disappeared at the Black Lake had returned. Three were still missing, while those who had come back all had… traces that had yet to fade.

According to them, once they regained consciousness, although they had seemed somewhat delirious at the time, they remembered spending a wonderful night with the merpeople in the Black Lake.

A wonderful… night?

After becoming Minister for Magic, Scrimgeour had gained access to more information. Especially since Hogwarts had recently been listed as a potential enemy, he had looked through records and learned what the Black Lake merpeople looked like. Seeing his subordinates’ lingeringly satisfied expressions, he could not help making the face of an old man staring at a phone on the subway.

You people were really that desperate… You could even bring yourselves to do that?

Wait, could those three have refused to submit and been killed by enraged merpeople, which was why they had not returned?

In reality, however, those three had actually fallen for the merfolk after regaining consciousness and wanted to stay together with them forever… And the merfolk, who had technically been born less than a year ago, had never seen anything like this before, so they all fell for it.

Uh… just one night and they already…?

As for this situation, Adam could only say that human preferences were free. He did not understand it, but he respected it.

He merely reminded them that merfolk were different from humans: they valued emotions deeply and were extremely faithful. Then he let them remain at Hogwarts as temporary workers.

Since they were already on his side, he could not exactly send them back to be killed by Voldemort. They should stay at Hogwarts for a while.

As for the possibility that they might regret it and change their hearts later, that certainly existed. Even if they were sincere now, who could guarantee that they would never change in the future?

But Adam had already reminded them of the difference between merfolk and humans. If they eventually asked to go back on their word and leave, only to be eaten by the merfolk, that would be their own choice.

After inspecting the Aurors, it seemed that aside from the three missing people, there had been no other casualties. Scrimgeour’s expression remained grim.

It was not just because of the three missing people, either. After questioning everyone, nobody knew what had happened in front of Hogwarts Castle in the end. What several people described was more or less the same as Scrimgeour’s own memories.

Yet after checking now, there was not a single trace left on any of them… Had it been an illusion?

Scrimgeour’s face twitched as he cast that thought aside. After what they had experienced last night, attributing it all to some illusion would be nothing more than self-deception.

Before, he had refused to believe based on his own experience. Now that he had truly seen it, if he still deceived himself, how would he be any different from Fudge, who had denied Voldemort’s return?

But…

Scrimgeour raised his head and looked at the iron gates before him. Everything was no different from when they had arrived the previous night.

There was no doubt that Hogwarts’ current power exceeded his imagination. He needed to reconsider the Ministry of Magic’s stance and methods toward Hogwarts…

"Retreat!"

After a single night, the Ministry of Magic’s force, now down three people, hurriedly withdrew from Hogwarts. Once they had gone far enough, they Apparated away one after another.

"In the end, I was still too softhearted to do it~"

Adam stroked Suppi with one hand and Kero with the other, then sighed.

"I hope they can enjoy life properly during these next ten-odd days before the Death Eaters and Voldemort kill them."

Adam had originally intended to let the merfolk kill a few of them, but at the last moment, he reconsidered. Hogwarts should not leave people with such a violent impression. Besides, even if he let them return, they would not live much longer anyway.

When the time came, Voldemort and his subordinates would be the ones killing them either way. What did that have to do with him, Gandalf?

Kero’s purring abruptly stopped. He could not help opening his eyes and giving Adam a speechless look.

Listen to yourself. Does that even sound like something a human would say?

The next day, Professor Gandalf did not appear. Professor McGonagall introduced several new members of Hogwarts’ teaching staff, who would help Professor Grindelwald shoulder part of his workload.

Those three were, after all, active Aurors. Although their combat ability had deteriorated somewhat because they had lived in peacetime, their foundations and talent remained. With some casual guidance from Grindelwald, they could teach the third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students.

As a result, Professor Grindelwald’s life visibly became even more leisurely…

"Adam, I don’t think this can go on…"

That day, Professor McGonagall and the others came to find Adam.

After listening to them, Adam understood why they had come.

Simply put, Hogwarts’ reforms had not only left the students laughing and cheering; they had also given the professors quite a bit more work.

At first, everyone had been enthusiastic. They thought that, finally, more educational resources could be put to use. Even if they were more tired than before, it would be worth it to watch the students constantly improve.

But now, seeing Professor Grindelwald become increasingly relaxed while they were all worked to the bone, especially with final exams approaching, the professors had no choice but to admit that they were running out of energy.

"Of course. In fact, I had already intended to bring this matter up with all of you. It was only that, if I raised it myself, perhaps you would think I was questioning your abilities, so I never mentioned it."

Adam smiled faintly.

"Hogwarts is currently recruiting talented people with outstanding abilities in every subject for teaching positions. Since you have come to see me, I trust you already have suitable candidates in mind?"

They did have some, but…

Professor McGonagall and the others had originally only wanted to add several positions similar to teaching assistants. But from Adam’s tone, he wanted to recruit more full-fledged professors!