"...How about we try hiking?" Kasenhis, once again, offered one of his famously awful ideas.
"...."
"...Alright, maybe I should just go ask Professor Trelawney to do a reading for me," Kasenhis said, face full of exaggerated sorrow as he turned to leave.
"Come back."
He heard Grindelwald's voice behind him and instantly flashed a knew it kind of grin—before quickly swapping it out for a pitiful, world-weary expression as he turned around.
"What is it?"
"A real seer is standing right in front of you, and you'd rather run off to find a half-baked fake?" Grindelwald said, frowning, hands clasped behind his back.
"Well, what can I do? You didn't want to help, and I can't exactly hang myself on one tree," Kasenhis shrugged.
"...Give me a day," Grindelwald said after a long pause.
"OK, no problem! I knew your prophetic powers were unparalleled, unmatched, legendary—absolute peak tier!"
Kasenhis launched into a rapid-fire barrage of flattery, then patted his own backside and walked off like nothing happened.
"Oh right, one more thing." Grindelwald called in a low voice.
Kasenhis turned around, face full of question marks.
"Did you tell him… about the spell that hit Ariana?"
"Yeah. He asked about it himself."
Grindelwald nodded. "Thank you."
Kasenhis shrugged, then turned and activated his Ender Teleport, vanishing from the spot and reappearing in his office chair—where the great and terrible task of grading homework awaited him.
Evening…
"Aaaahhh!!! Ugh… what a thoroughly satisfying grading session!"
Kasenhis dramatically stretched and stacked the graded papers in a neat pile on the corner of his desk.
Then he remembered—Grindelwald had asked him to wait a day.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Grindelwald, but you know how the saying goes: It never hurts to have a backup plan.
Just like last term, when he was still stuck in the "mental PowerPoint" stage of planning.
Back then, he'd bragged about building a 3D surveillance map of Hogwarts. But when he actually looked into it, the number of magical modifications required was way too complicated. And as a self-declared lazy guy… well…
Yeah. He couldn't be bothered.
But now? Now he had to bother.
And not just with Hogwarts surveillance.
What he needed now was a global-scale tracking map—one that could help him locate all kinds of hidden plants or minerals scattered in every obscure corner of the world.
Way faster than walking the entire planet, that's for sure.
"All this… just to upgrade a damn magic book. Man, crafting ain't easy," Kasenhis muttered as he built a massive Scrying Lens on the Arcane Workbench.
The Scrying Lens would serve as the heart of the search system.
For example, if he needed to find Irritating Supreme Wood, all he had to do was feed that keyword into the search function. The lens would then scan the entire world, locate matching items, and report the coordinates. Boom. Job done.
"No time to waste—let's go!"
The next day...
"Kasenhis, I—whoa… what is this?" Grindelwald had just pushed open the door to Kasenhis's office, only to find that the already ridiculously oversized room… had gotten even bigger.
To put it mildly, if his office used to be the size of the Black Lake, then right now it was easily as big as the Forbidden Forest.
Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration—but really, you couldn't blame Grindelwald for being shocked.
Right before him stood a gargantuan, unbelievably complex machine. It was crammed with all kinds of redstone contraptions—levers, pistons, mechanical arms—and every tiny movement triggered a chorus of thousands of synchronized components.
He couldn't even see the end of it. The only thing visible at its core was a giant, rotating purple scrying mirror.
"What is this?" Grindelwald asked.
Casually sprawled out on the floor for a nap, Kasenhis groaned and slowly sat up. "It's something I built. It can find anything in the world."
"Can it find people?"
Dumbledore's voice suddenly chimed in—when had he shown up? He stood beside them, gazing up at the massive device.
"When'd you get here?" Kasenhis scratched his head in confusion.
"Woke up early, didn't feel very energized. Thought I'd stop by, launch an iceboat or two… then I saw this behemoth. So—can it find people?" Dumbledore repeated.
"In theory… it should be able to," Kasenhis said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Dumbledore nodded. "Let's try Sirius—Sirius Black."
As soon as he finished speaking, Grindelwald—standing beside him—gave a helpless, amused smile.
Meanwhile, Kasenhis nodded, turning to a massive control console packed tight with rows and rows of buttons and levers.
Each button represented a letter, and after typing in "Sirius Black," the giant machine quickly locked onto two targets.
One pointed to Sirius—the star in the constellation Canis Major (Big Dog Star).
The other, "Black," pointed toward a place that was perpetually bathed in darkness—no light, ever.
Kasenhis slapped his own forehead. "I forgot—the core of this machine is a scrying mirror, which only searches keywords, not actual names."
Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "But surely you can make this thing a bit… smaller?"
"This is the shrunken version. What do you think?" Kasenhis replied with a tired sigh.
"I honestly can't even imagine its original scale," Dumbledore murmured in awe. Though as he said it, his gaze wasn't on the giant machine—but on Kasenhis.
"And I can't even begin to describe how powerful your alchemy is… forgive me, but I truly can't think of a word that does it justice." He smiled as he finally looked away from Kasenhis and turned his eyes to the machine instead.
"I get what you mean," Kasenhis accepted the praise as naturally as breathing. Then he turned to Grindelwald. "So, any results?"
"You can try your luck at Hoyabachu," Grindelwald replied before walking out of the office.
Dumbledore just shrugged and moved to stand next to Kasenhis. "Not like you need his answer anymore, right?"
"He brainstormed all night for my request—I can't just turn around and say I don't need it anymore. When it comes to serious matters, I do have emotional intelligence, okay?" Kasenhis said, hands on his hips, proud and smug.
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