If his guess was correct, time within this palace came to a standstill whenever there were no external observers.
The first time he, Daphne, and Astoria entered the palace, they had gone in together.
Before they exited the palace, there had been no "observer" present outside, so they hadn't realized that time inside the palace had actually come to a halt. It was only through certain subtle details that Rhys had noticed something was off.
Rhys also realized that it was the palace's time that had stopped—not the time of the people who entered it.
That was why, after Daphne and Astoria exited the palace, Daphne's necklace remained destroyed, and the number of spell charges in Astoria's bracelet hadn't been restored.
When he entered the palace a second time, Rhys had been under observation by Daphne and Astoria, so the flow of time remained normal. On the third entry, with no one watching, the time discrepancy reappeared.
The same logic applied to the two jackal-headed statues. Once the doors to the hall had closed and no observers remained, the statues reverted to their previously "recorded" state.
Rhys suspected that if they entered the ruins again now, everything would have been restored—perhaps even the puppet itself would be back to its original form.
Practice proves theory. Rhys decided to go back into the ruins once more to uncover the truth.
While Rhys was on the verge of unraveling the mystery, Daphne and Astoria were still in the dark.
"How did the ancient Egyptians do this?"
"So you're saying the flow of time inside the ruins is different from outside?"
Both girls were utterly shocked when they heard Rhys say this—after all, this was time magic.
If any branch of magic deserved the title "the jewel on the crown of magical disciplines," then time magic would undoubtedly be one of the top contenders.
The vast majority of wizards go their entire lives without ever coming into contact with time magic. Only a very small number ever have the chance to interact with it.
For example, the Unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic—among the projects they study is time magic. They even safeguard a collection of Time-Turners capable of reversing time, though knowledge of these devices is restricted to a very select few.
And now you're telling us this entire palace is a construct of time magic?!(⓿_⓿)
Daphne and Astoria felt like their entire worldview was falling apart.
"That's right. Ancient Egypt was, after all, a civilization from thousands of years ago. Back then, magical resources were abundant, so building extravagant wonders like this was more feasible," Rhys said, his tone tinged with envy.
Compared to modern wizards like themselves, the ancient Egyptian sorcerers had access to far more magical materials.
Still, Rhys and his generation were at least lucky enough to catch the tail end of that age. It was Daphne's generation and those after her who were truly unfortunate—after thousands of years of "excavation," there was practically nothing left for them.
"Can we… take this palace with us?" Daphne blurted out a bold idea.
Rhys: "…"
He seriously considered the possibility, but quickly concluded it was highly unlikely.
The spell had been cast on the palace as a whole, so taking just a part of it wouldn't preserve the effect—it would just be an ordinary chunk of stone.
"I need to go back in," Rhys said softly.
Daphne and Astoria looked up at him at the same time. It was clear they both wanted to follow, but that was out of the question. Rhys wasn't about to bring two young witches who couldn't even withstand a sneak attack from the Helga puppet back into the ruins—especially with Daphne's necklace now destroyed.
Rhys entered the ruins alone once again.
As he ventured deeper into the palace, he noticed something strange: just outside the innermost gate, he saw the two jackal-headed statues shattered into rubble—his own handiwork from earlier.
This surprised Rhys greatly. According to his previous hypothesis, everything should have been restored by now.
He gently pushed open the door, and a wave of dense moisture drifted out from within, causing his brows to furrow. The great hall beyond the door had also remained exactly as it was when he had last left it.
Bathed in the mist, Rhys fell into deep thought, then began to revise and refine his hypothesis.
If someone entering the palace caused significant changes—changes that exceeded the palace's self-recovery threshold—then those changes would be "recorded" at the moment of their departure, becoming the palace's new state.
Rhys had turned the great hall into a swamp and blasted the gatekeeping statues into rubble.
The extent of these alterations had exceeded what the palace could restore, so his changes were recorded and became the scene that future explorers would encounter.
When Helga entered the palace long ago, she likely also made significant modifications, which were similarly recorded. After her, no one else had left their mark—until Rhys arrived.
So, could this palace be something like a giant magical recording device? Preserving traces of people throughout history?
Thinking of a magical recording device, Rhys suddenly had a flash of insight: were the time fragments preserved by the palace just single snapshots—or continuous sequences?
And would recording a new sequence overwrite the past ones?
His instinct told him that the answer to that question lay within the other two passageways.
With that in mind, Rhys didn't delay any further and walked straight out of the palace.
After confirming once again that almost no time had passed outside, Rhys felt he was getting closer to the truth. Wasting no time, he entered the ruins again—this time through the central entrance.
There were more traps and mechanisms along the way this time, but Rhys managed to reach the end of the passage safely. The palace at the end of this corridor seemed untouched—no one had entered it before.
The space was filled with scattered items and still preserved the look it had thousands of years ago.
But none of that really mattered.
What truly drew attention was the half-person-tall, compass-like object placed at the center of the grand hall.
Judging by its position—at the far end of the palace's central axis—it was clearly the core of the entire structure.
The compass's design wasn't particularly complicated. It was made up of two concentric layers. The outer layer had ten segments, while the inner layer had no divisions. At its center was a raised needle, and along the edge were illustrations of the moon in its phases—from full moon to crescent—giving the entire device a resemblance to a sundial.
The shadow of the needle happened to fall on the crescent moon.
Rhys narrowed his eyes, a new hypothesis forming in his mind: could each segment of the outer ring correspond to a recorded time segment? And the inner ring…
Could it be a tool to adjust which time fragment was being accessed?
As this idea emerged, Rhys keenly sensed that this might be the key to meeting Helga Hufflepuff again—a reunion after a thousand years. But it was still just a theory, and he needed to confirm it.
Rhys reached toward the inner ring of the compass and turned it to the full moon position.
_______
Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon: HornyFBI