If the one you're cursing is Smith White, what does that have to do with me, White Smith?
But now, neither of these methods seemed viable, because Helga clearly wanted to eradicate the curse once and for all.
After thinking it over seriously, Rhys felt he should support Helga's idea.
How could Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff possibly shrink back in the face of such a mere curse? If word got out, they would even have to bear the reputation of "Voldemort's curse couldn't be broken even with Slytherin and Hufflepuff working together." He simply couldn't accept that.
"My intuition tells me this curse is anything but simple."
Helga rolled her eyes. Anyone could tell it wasn't simple.
"Can you sense where the spell is coming from?" Rhys decided to use a process of elimination to investigate the nature of the curse affecting Helga.
Salazar's question stumped Helga. She carefully recalled her experience and then stated with certainty that she hadn't sensed any trace of a spell or any flow of magical power.
"I thought so. I'll prepare a purification potion for you." After ruling out the possibility of a direct spell, Rhys decided to try dispelling the negative effects on Helga through a cleansing ritual.
"Alright." A hint of delight flashed in Helga's eyes.
The process of brewing this kind of purification potion was quite complicated. It would take several weeks to complete, and likely no one in the world besides Salazar could make it.
Since she needed Salazar's help, Helga naturally had to provide him with the best possible conditions.
So she directly mobilized the power of her private classroom and built a spacious and comfortable cottage for Rhys.
Rhys settled into the cottage and began brewing the potion for Helga.
In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
Rhys handed the carefully brewed purification potion to Helga, and also prepared a bottle of luck-enhancing potion for her—though not as miraculous as Felix Felicis, it could still dispel misfortune.
"Thank you." Helga took the two bottles, drank them in one go, and immediately left her underground chamber.
Not long after, she returned covered in dust.
"It's useless. No effect at all. I'm still just as unlucky as before." Helga looked somewhat dejected.
She didn't doubt the quality of Salazar's potions. After all, he was one of the top potion masters of the age. If even he couldn't brew an effective solution, then no one else could be expected to.
"Then it's most likely not a problem with you." Rhys's gaze turned deep.
Thinking about it, that made sense. Who was Helga? How could someone like Voldemort place a curse on her without her even noticing?
Besides, Voldemort had already fallen long ago...
"Then there's only one possibility." Helga understood what Salazar meant.
"Law," Rhys said in a grave tone.
Laws were the principles governing how things operated—the rules of nature. Just like how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, or how objects fall from high places to low ones. These were all laws, extremely advanced concepts.
The "curse" Helga had encountered was a power on the level of laws.
And the reason a domain could block the curse was also because it carried its own laws. Within a domain, aside from the fundamental laws of nature, the wizard held the highest authority, and the laws imposed by the curse were repelled.
"Drink this. It will greatly enhance your perception." Rhys took out another small vial of potion and handed it to Helga.
He had already considered this possibility before beginning to brew the luck-enhancing and purification potions, so he had naturally prepared a third option.
Voldemort clearly couldn't have comprehended the power of laws. If he had that ability, why wouldn't he simply eliminate Dumbledore or curse him directly? So it was highly likely that he had hidden something akin to a divine relic somewhere within Hogwarts Castle, using the laws it emitted to place a curse on the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
All they needed to do was find it.
After drinking his specially prepared potion, Helga's perception would increase to an astonishing level, allowing her to quickly locate the source of that anomalous law.
Only he or Helga could accomplish this, because their souls were strong enough to directly perceive laws. If anyone else drank this potion rashly, it would be no different from suicide. At best, they would lose their sanity; at worst, they would die on the spot.
"I understand." Helga took the potion and, under the protection of her domain, stepped out of the underground chamber.
Rhys wasn't entirely at ease, so he followed her out.
Helga walked to the entrance of the Great Hall and then drank the potion.
In the next instant, the veins on her forehead bulged, and her eyes rolled back, leaving only the whites visible.
A few seconds later, her body began to tremble. Rhys understood that she was struggling to sort through the omnipresent yet intricately intertwined laws of the environment, trying to identify the anomalous one among them.
Helga soon made a discovery.
Her hand swept across her own body, as if picking up a loose thread.
Helga immediately raised her head, her eyes, showing only their whites, staring straight toward the top of the castle.
She had locked onto the location of the anomalous law.
Without any hesitation, Helga flew straight out of the window. Driven by magic, she sped toward the 7th floor of the castle and landed in front of a tapestry.
In an instant, the tapestry changed, and a perfectly smooth door appeared upon it.
Helga twisted the handle and rushed inside.
Behind the door was a room packed full of all sorts of miscellaneous junk. Rhys, following closely behind her, didn't spare much attention for the clutter.
He merely gave it a quick glance before following Helga deeper into the piles.
A flush had already spread across Helga's face. The overwhelming boost in perception was placing immense pressure on her, but fortunately, it would soon be over.
After weaving past heaps upon heaps of junk, Helga finally stopped in front of a pile of discarded desks.
With a raise of her hand, an ancient-looking box floated out from within one of the desks.
Seeing that Helga had found the source of the curse, Rhys quickly poured a perception-dampening potion into her mouth.
The moment the potion went down, Helga collapsed onto the ground, beads of sweat the size of beans forming on her forehead.
It was over.
Rhys examined the box in front of him. After confirming that there were no defensive spells on its surface, he picked it up.
Before he could study it further, a voice came from inside the box.
"Fortunate one, form a contract with me. I can grant you one wish."
'Ancient Greek.' Rhys recognized the language immediately.
"Who are you? Why are you sealed inside this box? What is the origin of this box?" Rhys replied in Ancient Greek.
"I am Moros. For now, I reside within Pandora's Box," the voice inside answered honestly.
Rhys: "…"
Good grief. With those two combined, it was no wonder they could place a law-level curse on someone like Helga.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI