Alduin was very pleased with his new appearance.
To that end, Wade had even placed a large mirror inside the cage he'd prepared for him.
"What in the world is that?" Tom was bewildered at first sight of the strange bird-like creature, but after taking a closer look, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"It's just an ordinary little dragon," Wade explained calmly.
Little dragons were creatures about the size of owls that closely resembled true dragons. They were common attractions in wizarding circuses.
Tom frowned at Wade.
"I've never seen a little dragon that looks like a Hungarian Horntail."
"Heh, it seems you know too much..." Wade grinned viciously as he drew the Elder Wand.
"Ahem, I suppose I'm simply ignorant. This is my first time seeing one." Tom laughed awkwardly.
"Oh, that's certainly true. You really haven't seen much of the world." Wade was very satisfied with Tom's tact.
Only after Wade put the Elder Wand away did Tom finally let out a sigh of relief.
"By the way, what brought you to Mr Newt's place?" Wade asked.
Tom replied, "I came to ask him about the Hydra... You know, that's my Patronus. I'm curious whether such a magical creature really exists."
Originally, Tom had come here to avoid Wade. But after staying at Henry's house for so long, he had become rather bored, so he decided to visit Newt and ask about the nine-headed Hydra.
Who would have thought that even after coming all the way here, he would still run into Wade?
"So? What did Mr Newt say? Has he ever seen such a magical creature?" Wade's interest was piqued as well.
Tom shook his head.
"He hasn't seen one either. But he once found some similar bones in some ruins in the North Sea. However, he only found nine enormous serpent skulls. All the other bones were missing, so he had no concrete evidence to prove whether they belonged to a Hydra or whether nine giant snakes had simply died there together... Since there wasn't enough evidence, he didn't include the creature in his book."
"Generally speaking, a wizard's Patronus only takes the form of creatures that exist in this world," Wade said.
"I don't know either. The books don't mention it. But I wrote to Professor Dumbledore, so I believe we'll have an answer soon." Tom was very curious about the matter as well.
"If such a creature really exists, it must be a magnificent sight," Wade said wistfully.
"Indeed..." Tom also became lost in thought.
He imagined an unimaginably huge and ferocious beast standing upon the sea.
"I wonder whether it tastes good."
Tom blinked.
"Huh?"
"What do you think Hydra meat tastes like?"
"How would I know?!"
"What flavour do you think it'd have?"
"Well... maybe eel? Or perhaps chicken?"
"If we ever find one, we can just cut off a piece and try it. It's so huge that it probably wouldn't even notice."
Tom inhaled sharply.
"Are your nerves made of steel? If we really do find one, I'm definitely not going with you!"
...
After returning to Riddle Manor with Tom, Wade packed his things and left the manor together with Andrews and Elena. After all, with the others already gone, there wasn't much point in staying.
Slytherin, meanwhile, chose to remain behind for the time being. He intended to personally train his descendant.
In his eyes, Tom's abilities were still lacking.
Although most of Slytherin's specialties were too dark to teach to Tom, he still remembered many of the skills possessed by his old friends.
As for Wade, he chose neither the Knockturn Alley base nor the safe house.
Most of his research had reached a temporary stopping point, and he wanted to use this holiday to travel and properly enjoy himself.
He even sent a message asking Toby to come over and brought Tom Cat along as well.
After all, travelling was more enjoyable when there were more companions.
Three days later, a Thestral-drawn carriage stopped on a reef along the North Sea coast.
Wade jumped out of the carriage and tossed Alduin, who had been resting on his arm, into the air.
The moment Alduin was thrown out, his body suddenly expanded back to the size of a normal dragon, and he shot into the sky!
While Alduin flew joyfully through the clouds, Andrews and Elena stood beside the carriage completely dumbstruck.
Andrews tightly held onto the Thestrals pulling the carriage. Otherwise, the poor creatures would have bolted in terror.
By this point, the house-elf Toby had already calmly jumped down from the carriage and begun efficiently setting up the travelling tents.
Meanwhile, after secretly glancing at Wade and Toby, Tom Cat dragged a broomstick out of the carriage and leapt onto it.
After tapping the end of the broom a few times with his hind paws, the cat was carried into the sky by the broomstick and flew off in pursuit of Alduin, who was circling in the distance.
"Boss... your cat... flew away," Elena stammered.
"It's fine. He'll come back when he's tired of playing." Wade shaded his eyes with his hand, glanced upward, and spoke unconcernedly.
Tom Cat was just like that. You could hand him a piano and a sheet of music, and he'd somehow learn to play it in no time.
It wasn't scientific, but it was very magical.
Elena wanted to say that she had never seen a cat like this before.
But after remembering the Hungarian Horntail that Wade had just thrown out, which could freely change its size, she wisely kept her mouth shut.
As long as something involved her employer, all kinds of bizarre things somehow became reasonable.
If she kept acting so shocked all the time, she'd only seem out of place.
Uncle Andrews, on the other hand, seemed perfectly normal.
While Toby was still setting up the tents, Wade conjured a reclining chair and lay down on the nearby beach to bask in the sun.
Meanwhile, Andrews went around casting several ordinary protective spells, such as the Muggle-Repelling Charm.
Of course, it was only a precaution. There weren't any Muggles within two miles of the area, only a few wizarding villages.
The surroundings of wizarding villages were already protected by spells that kept Muggles away.
Lying on the chair, Wade held the Hogyoku in his right hand and carefully examined it under the sunlight.
The magical power consumed earlier to replenish his Ancient Magic reserves had already been fully restored.
For the time being, everything seemed to be functioning well. All Wade needed to do was feed it more "residue" and wait.
Still... there was room for improvement.
At that moment, Andrews drove the carriage over and, after letting the Thestrals rest nearby, used a Levitation Charm to raise it into the air and began his routine inspection and maintenance.
Seeing this, Wade put away the Hogyoku and wandered over.
"How does this carriage fly?" he asked.
Although Thestrals could fly, according to physics, two flying creatures simply pulling a non-flying carriage shouldn't result in such smooth travel. Even when stopping, there was barely any bumping. Wade refused to believe there wasn't some sort of mechanism hidden within the carriage.
Sure enough, Andrews pointed to a component underneath it.
"Actually, the underside of the carriage contains a core assembly similar to that of a broomstick. It allows the carriage itself to float. The Thestrals only need to pull the floating carriage along. That's why they can endure very long journeys."
"A levitation device?" Wade stroked his chin as he studied the little mechanism. "Can you take it apart and let me have a look?"
"Of course. I was planning to remove it for maintenance anyway."
As he spoke, Andrews detached the levitation core and handed it over.
Wade examined it for a while before suddenly smiling.
"I've got another idea... Looks like the Gubraithian Fire energy core can be put to use again."
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