pertwk Chapter 115 The Lemaître Family Dinner and the Unsolved Scroll
Chapter 115 The Lemaître Family Dinner and the Unsolved Scroll
Chapter 115 The Lemaître Family Dinner and the Unsolved Scroll
As evening fell, they returned to the manor with their purchases and Karen's "Starry Night Egg." The golden glow of the setting sun cast a warm halo over the ancient stone house, and the magical plants in the garden released an even richer fragrance in the twilight.
Professor Castor heard their commotion and came to the newly decorated dining room. Although he was still pale and haggard, he seemed to be in better spirits than in the morning, perhaps because he had rested well in the afternoon, or perhaps because of Karen's arrival.
Inside the restaurant, a long table was covered with a pristine white linen tablecloth, and in the center sat a huge basket of flowers, still in full bloom, adorned with several lifelike Easter bunnies and chicks made of enchanted chocolate. Warm flames danced on silver candlesticks.
"Looks like you've had quite a haul." Castor's gaze swept over the deep blue Easter egg that Karen had carefully placed on the small table beside him, and a slight smile appeared on his lips, a rare expression of approval. "Although I don't know what's inside, your taste is pretty good."
“Professor Castor,” Karen replied immediately, “although the magical districts of Paris are very vibrant, I still prefer the atmosphere of Mr. Lemaître’s studio and your teaching.”
Castor snorted and said nothing more. Dumbledore, on the other hand, let out a pleasant chuckle.
Dinner was a carefully prepared Easter family feast by Perenaar. The dishes were not elaborate or luxurious, but full of family warmth: tender spring vegetable soup, lamb leg slow-roasted with herbs and magic mushrooms, light and airy mashed potatoes, fresh asparagus salad, and finally, an Easter-themed cake made by Perenaar himself.
Each dish is crafted with meticulous care, resulting in an exquisite flavor.
The atmosphere at the meal was quiet and peaceful. The firewood crackled softly in the fireplace, and the candlelight flickered. Nico looked at the people sitting around the table, especially Karen, who was intently devouring the leg of lamb, and a look of reminiscence crossed his face.
"Seeing you young people," Nico began slowly, his voice carrying a gentle warmth that seemed to transcend time, "always reminds me of a long time ago, in a more 'direct' era in the magical world." He gently swirled the deep red wine in his crystal glass.
Karen immediately put down his knife and fork and listened intently. He was very interested in the "anecdotes" told by the legendary alchemist; even if there was no useful knowledge, gaining some gossip was quite valuable.
“For example, in the fourteenth century,” Nico continued, “the wizarding markets in Europe weren’t as orderly as they are today. They might have been held in a clearing in some forest or in the hall of an abandoned castle. There were no fancy shop windows, just rough stalls. The things traded were all sorts of things: dragon scales, unicorn tail hair, magic scrolls of unknown origin, alchemical artifacts, and even some bloody things related to life.” He glanced at Dumbledore, who nodded slightly, clearly aware of that history as well.
"Back then, wizards relied more on personal strength and intuitive understanding of magic. A powerful ancient rune might be carved by a wandering wizard on a stone slab he picked up and traded. The person who bought it might simply 'feel' that it contained great power, rather than truly understanding its structure. And most of these people didn't have much of a moral bottom line. The transfer of knowledge was full of chance and danger." Nico's tone was tinged with emotion.
"But this also led to the creation of many highly individualistic, and even unconventional, magical applications."
For example, I once knew a wizard from Eastern Europe who firmly believed that the ultimate form of fire magic was "freezing." He spent half his life researching how to solidify Fiendfyre into an ice crystal sculpture the moment it erupted. Although he ultimately perished in the Fiendfyre, his dedication to research was truly awe-inspiring.
“For example,” Perenaar continued, her voice gentle, “the alchemists of ancient Egypt communicated with the gods, channeling the power of the stars into their alchemical circles in pursuit of consecrating ‘divine gold.’ Many of their rituals seem absurd to us modern wizards, filled with meaningless symbols and long prayers. But Albus knew…”
Then she looked at Dumbledore, "Some of those seemingly redundant rune structures were later proven to have unexpected uses in stabilizing extremely high magic flows and preventing transmutation circles from collapsing. It's just that people at the time knew how they worked, but not necessarily why they did it."
Dumbledore nodded: "The pursuit of knowledge often proceeds in a spiral, Perenaar. Sometimes, seemingly meaningless rituals of the past contain fragments of uncomprehended truth."
As dinner drew to a close and the Easter cake was shared, the servants cleared away the plates and replaced them with fragrant herbal tea. The warm atmosphere still lingered in the dining room. Karen looked at Nicolas Flamel, who sat at the head of the table with a kind and wise expression, and the question that had been swirling in her mind about Lucian Sinclair's diary finally surfaced.
He took out a copy of his diary, turned to a marked page, and pointed to an unusually complex rune composed of multiple nested spirals and sharp angles.
“Mr. Lemaître,” Karen’s voice held the respect of someone seeking advice, “I apologize for disturbing you after such a pleasant dinner. But I’ve been studying Mr. Lucien Sinclair’s experimental journal. This rune,” he pointed to the structure, “appears frequently in his experiments on ‘visual magic’ and ‘manifestation of magical fields,’ and seems to be a key energy guiding node. But I’ve tried various known ancient symbols, such as Nirman and alchemical symbols, to interpret and reverse-engineer it, and I still can’t fully understand its stabilization mechanism and energy flow. It seems to exhibit contradictory magical reactions under different experimental conditions; sometimes it’s intensely focused, and sometimes it’s strangely scattering, which completely violates the basic principles of rune stability. I’m completely baffled. Have you ever seen a similar rune? Or could you give me a hint?”
All eyes were on Nico. Castor also raised his eyelids, his gray eyes scrutinizing him; he was clearly also interested in the matter.
Nico took the copy from Karen and, instead of immediately looking at the rune, carefully flipped through the dense notes, derivations, and question marks Karen had left in the blank spaces of the journal, page by page.
His fingers slowly traced the words, his eyes focused and deep.
The dining room was quiet, save for the soft crackling of the burning wood in the fireplace. After a long while, Nico finally fixed his gaze on the rune that had been troubling Karen for so long. He didn't answer immediately, but instead fell into deep thought, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the tablecloth, as if recalling a very distant memory.
“Lucian Sinclair,” Nico began slowly, his voice deep and resonant, “a brilliant yet obsessive soul. His fascination with ‘seeing’ the nature of magic ultimately led him astray in the illusions he chased.” He pointed to the rune, “This symbol, Karen, is not a product of the traditional ancient runic system, nor is it a common symbol of medieval alchemy. It was created by Lucian himself, or rather, ‘compiled’ by him.”
"Compile?" Karen asked, puzzled.
“Yes,” Nico nodded. “Later, Lucian became obsessed with a theory: he believed that magic itself possessed a ‘language,’ with different flow patterns, frequencies, and wavelengths corresponding to different ‘vocabularies’ and ‘grammars.’ He attempted to create a rune system that could directly ‘write’ and ‘decipher’ this magical language. And this…”
Then he pointed to the complex pattern on the paper. "It's a kind of 'compound magical verb' he designed to express the concepts of 'forced manifestation' or 'penetrating focus.' Its structure is fixed, but its 'magical semantics'—that is, its actual effect—dynamically changes according to the 'context' of the input magic. That's why it seems unstable and contradictory to you. You're trying to understand a dynamic, context-dependent 'magical word' using the standards of static runes."
Karen suddenly understood, as if struck by a thunderbolt! "Dynamic runes! Magical context!" he asked excitedly, "So those seemingly chaotic adjustments to experimental parameters in his logs were actually attempts to define the 'magical grammar rules' of this rune? In different magical 'sentences,' it plays different 'verb roles'?"
"Very perceptive!" Nico looked at Karen approvingly. "Exactly. To understand it, you need to step outside the framework of traditional runes and see it as a living, adaptive energy converter. Its core is not the structure itself, but the key energy resonance points contained within it. Try to feel and locate those points, rather than forcibly analyzing the entire pattern. Many of Lucian's failures were precisely because he became too obsessed with the perfection of the structure in his later years, neglecting the fluidity and context of magic itself."
Nico picked up his wand and pointed it in the air. Several soft silver rays appeared out of thin air, outlining the simplified core framework of the rune—the intersection of several spirals and the vertices of several acute angles. "Focus on these nodes,"
Karen. When magic flows through, these nodes resonate like strings on a musical instrument. The frequency and manner of this resonance determine their specific role within the current magical phrase. This requires extremely strong perception and—
"Hmm, perhaps your 'Eye of Truth' would be a good auxiliary tool." He gave Karen a meaningful look.
Karen's mind raced. Nico's guidance was like a key, instantly unlocking his previously blocked train of thought. He immediately pulled out his alchemy notebook and quill, and by the light of the dining table, began sketching rapidly on the blank pages, trying to mark the core resonance points Nico had indicated, and considering the possibilities of magic flowing, overlapping, and resonating between different nodes. The only sounds in the dining room were the scratching of the quill across the parchment and the occasional soft gasp he let out when he paused to think.
Dumbledore and Perenaar smiled as they watched the boy, lost in thought. Castor leaned back in his chair.
Her eyes were closed, but there seemed to be a slight curve at the corners of her mouth.
After a long while, Karen finally calmed down from the excitement of that epiphany. He carefully put away his notebook and bowed deeply to Nico: "Thank you so much, Mr. Lemaître! Your words have cleared up my long-standing confusion! This feels so enlightening!"
"It's my pleasure to help you, Karen," Nicole said with a kind smile. "Although Lucian's research went astray, there's definitely gold hidden in these 'crazy' ideas he left behind. You have the potential to unearth them."
Karen was filled with gratitude, then he remembered something from even earlier. "Mr. Flamel," he hesitated for a moment, but decided to ask anyway, "there's something else. When I was eight years old, the first time I met you and Mrs. Flamel at the beach, you gave me an old scroll filled with runic puzzles. I wanted to mention it when we met at Hogwarts, but then we talked about Professor Sinclair and I forgot about it."
He paused, his eyes honest and expectant. "I've been trying to decipher it, using many methods, combining the alchemical principles taught by Professor Castor, ancient runes, and even trying to observe its magical structure with the Eye of Truth, but it's still like facing a fog. Could you give me a hint this time? Even just a direction?"
This question deepened Nico's smile, giving it a gentle, all-knowing quality. He gently set down his teacup, the silver spoon clinking softly against the cup.
“That parchment—” Nico’s voice was soft, as if recalling a memory. “Karen, the first thing I want to say about it is: I’m glad you’ve remembered it and never given up trying. That in itself proves that my choice was right.” He looked directly into Karen’s eyes. “But my answer is the same as it was three years ago: patience. The real answer must be ‘seen’ and ‘understood’ by yourself, not by me telling you.”
Seeing the fleeting disappointment in Karen's eyes, Nico gently added, "Don't misunderstand, Karen. I'm not being stingy with the answer, or deliberately setting obstacles. It's because the core of the puzzle on that scroll isn't the words or symbols themselves, but something else: a 'key to cognition.' It doesn't point to a specific location, a spell, or a treasure, but to a way of seeing magic, a way of seeing the origin of the world. This transformation of 'cognition' can only happen from within, naturally emerging through continuous thought, practice, setbacks, and epiphanies. Understanding imposed from the outside is like a tree without roots; it can never truly become part of your power."
He paused, his tone tinged with emotion: "To be honest, Cullen, when I first handed that scroll to you, I didn't expect that we would meet again when you were only eleven years old and had just entered Hogwarts."
"The trajectory of fate is always full of surprises, just like Castor's illness, just like your discovery of moonmoss that brought us together here ahead of time." He glanced at Castor, who was resting with his eyes closed, and Dumbledore, who was listening quietly.
"So, don't rush it." Nico's tone regained its firmness and expectation. "Treat it as a long-term partner, a whetstone to sharpen your mind and perception. When you are truly ready, when you are ready for magic..."
When your understanding of matter and its rules reaches a certain critical point, the fog will naturally dissipate, and the answer will clearly appear before you. That will be your own unique "epiphany," its value far exceeding any explanation I could offer directly.
Nico smiled, his expression conveying the wisdom and encouragement of an elder. "This Easter holiday is short; you'll soon be returning to Hogwarts to face the challenges of final exams. Digest today's insights about Lucian runes, and focus on your current studies and the knowledge Castor has imparted. As for the scroll—"
Nico's smile widened, carrying a warm invitation: "This coming summer, if you'd like, and your advisor agrees," he glanced at Castor, "you're welcome to return to the 'Quiet Abode.' The quiet environment, the extensive library, and this old fellow myself might provide a more suitable setting for your continued contemplation. Of course, that's assuming Castor doesn't mind me stealing his student." He made a small joke.
Castor snorted but did not refute, which was taken as tacit agreement.
Karen was overwhelmed with immense joy! Summer vacation! Studying and researching at Nicolas Flamel's secluded retreat! She never imagined she would receive such a precious opportunity.
"Really? Mr. Lemaître! Thank you so much!" Karen was so excited he almost stammered. He looked at Castor, "Professor Castor, I—"
"Come if you want." Castor's eyes remained closed, his voice carrying its usual impatience, but Cullen understood his meaning. "On the condition that you don't embarrass me in the final exams, and that your alchemy and spell practice reports satisfy me. Also, for the rest of your time at Hogwarts, focus on your studies. Knowledge and power are fundamental, Cullen."
Remember my words.
"Yes, Professor! I will do it!" Karen straightened her back, her voice loud and determined. Her mentor's health, which had been a source of great concern, was temporarily relieved, and the long-standing rune puzzle received crucial inspiration.
Although the mystery of the scroll remains unsolved, the direction has become clear, and I have also gained the opportunity to return here for in-depth study during the summer vacation!
The rewards of this Easter holiday far exceeded his wildest expectations. He felt his chest brimming with boundless anticipation for the future.
"We also look forward to your arrival during the summer vacation, Karen," Perenaar said gently.
The fireplace flickered warmly, illuminating every face in the dining room. Nico and Perenaar smiled at each other, Dumbledore's half-moon spectacles gleamed with satisfaction, while Castor's pale, gaunt face...
It also seemed to soften considerably in the pulsating light and shadow.
The dazzling lights of Parisian shop windows, the magical surprises of Easter, the vastness of ancient history, and the profound mysteries of runes...
And this warmth and expectation flowing in the tranquil home, like that of family, all these intertwine to form the most precious memories of this Easter holiday.