The moment Kyle returned to the Great Hall, he became the focus of every student's gaze.
They were all dying to know what on earth he and Grindelwald had been up to during the half-day they had vanished.
However, none of them dared to approach and ask. There was now a distinct sense of awe and dread surrounding Kyle.
This fear stemmed from a feeling of distance.
It was like having a classmate—originally, you were ordinary, and he was ordinary, and you shared a completely ordinary relationship as schoolmates.
Then, one day, his true identity was suddenly exposed: turns out, this guy was actually the son of a major foreign warlord!
To make matters worse, his private army was powerful enough to stand toe-to-toe with the world's major powers.
That sudden, overwhelming gap in social standing instantly made itself felt.
Only Hermione—the future warlord's wife—and a few of Kyle's usual fair-weather friends treated him no differently than before.
So, as soon as Kyle sat down, the Weasley twins stuck to him like cheap plaster.
"Kyle, where did you go during the day?"
"Is Cornelius Fudge still alive?"
What in the world? Is Fudge still alive?
Did he really look like the type of person who would exterminate an entire family just because someone invited him to the station for a cup of tea?
This was pure slander!
They ought to remember that he also possessed another surname inherited from the greatest White Wizard in the magical world.
He, Kyle Dumbledore, was a good person.
"I didn't touch Fudge, and the place we went to wasn't the British Ministry of Magic either," Kyle said, casually brushing them off. He gave them a Hyūga-style Byakugan glare before digging into the feast set before him.
He didn't kill Fudge? George and Fred looked somewhat disappointed.
Even though Fudge was their father's ultimate boss, neither of them had the slightest affection for the Minister.
Beside them, the clever young bushy-haired witch picked up on a detail in Kyle's words.
"Not the British Ministry of Magic? Then where did you go?" Hermione asked point-blank.
"France," Kyle replied in a perfectly casual tone, as if his trip to France had merely been a vacation. "You'll probably see the news in the Daily Prophet tomorrow."
Hearing Kyle's answer, Hermione was momentarily at a total loss for how to react.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a tinge of regret for getting together with this little Dark Lord. They say that he who touches pitch shall be defiled—would she turn into a Dark Witch in the future too?
After curfew, Hogwarts was exceptionally tranquil.
Most of the students had already fallen asleep, but Kyle didn't feel sleepy in the slightest.
Inside the world of his small suitcase, in the alchemy laboratory of the Akina Mountain Villa:
The alchemy laboratory had now been almost entirely converted into a clone production base.
Countless incubation pods were stacked against the walls, reaching all the way to the ceiling. As far as the eye could see, just a single wall alone held thousands of incubation pods.
Unlike before when they were empty, these large glass vats were now filled with tiny floating embryos.
These embryos were a crucial component of the Insight Plan that Kyle was about to execute.
They were all mass-produced White Zetsu created by taking his own cells and fusing them with cells from the Whomping Willow.
Unlike the White Zetsu Kyle had manufactured previously—the one specifically created as a vessel for Black Zetsu—these mass-produced White Zetsu possessed practically zero combat power.
Their sole purpose upon production was to be buried in various corners of the world to serve as eavesdropping devices.
The sensory abilities of every White Zetsu had been enhanced; they could clearly pick up any subtle movement or sound within a thirty-meter radius.
Do not think a thirty-meter range is small.
By relying on the fused Whomping Willow cells, these White Zetsu could closely integrate themselves with the surrounding plant life in their assigned regions.
The energy provided by these plants was not only sufficient for their daily needs, but once accumulated, it would also allow them to cast the Spore Technique (Hōshi no Jutsu) to produce even more White Zetsu.
With a bugged ability like the Spore Technique, Kyle could continuously spawn an army at an extremely low cost until these White Zetsu were eventually buried in every single corner of the world.
In this way, he would possess an intelligence network spanning the entire globe.
Indeed, this was the so-called Insight Plan.
Although the execution of this plan was somewhat crude and lacked style, the simplest methods were often the most effective.
What's more, besides playing a role in the Insight Plan, these White Zetsu could also play a vital role in another one of Kyle's schemes—
The Eye of the Moon Plan (Tsuki no Me Keikaku).
When the self-replicating White Zetsu spread to every corner of the world and reached a certain density, they would cease cloning and instead quietly store up the energy gathered through plant photosynthesis.
This accumulated energy would be continuously transmitted through the root systems of the plants, converging at a single location to ultimately form a fruit...
Well, whether it was called a Chakra Fruit or a Magic Fruit, neither seemed entirely accurate.
In short, when that time came, Kyle would be able to channel the energy gathered by the White Zetsu to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi (Mugen Tsukuyomi).
By reflecting it off the moon, he would project his magic across the entire world.
Then, the White Zetsu buried deep beneath the earth would turn into seeds, taking root and sprouting into towering, colossal trees.
This was the legendary Nativity of a World of Trees (Shin: Jukai Kōtan).
Once the victims of the spell were wrapped up, these trees would begin absorbing their spiritual and physical life energy.
Of course, it would only be a small amount, not enough to endanger their lives.
Whether Muggle or wizard, both forms of energy coexisted within their bodies, though wizards clearly possessed vastly more energy than Muggles.
Even without all seven billion-plus humans providing him with energy, if just the people of Europe or the UK contributed a tiny fraction of theirs, it would still amount to an extraordinarily terrifying sum.
By then, no matter what kind of formidable enemy he faced, Kyle would have full confidence in securing victory.
Of course, Kyle didn't actually believe that any enemy would ever appear in the magical world who would require him to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and Nativity of a World of Trees.
After all, the ceiling of power in the magical world was right there—Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Barely counting Old Voldy, too.
There were only three ceiling-tier wizards in the entire magical world, and he already had two of them on his side.
Add to that himself—a rapidly growing Third-Generation Dark Lord who would be able to touch that ceiling in a few more years.
By then, even if Voldemort truly managed to resurrect himself, and even if his Horcruxes weren't all hunted down and destroyed, the noseless freak wouldn't have the guts to act up in front of their family of three.
Still, even if such a scenario was impossible, when it came to trump cards...
One could never have too many.
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