Chapter 42: It Doesn't Seem That Surprising Either

Fortunately, Ellie was the earliest synthetic creature to be successfully harmonized in this laboratory, so she had witnessed the entire experiment that gave birth to Cohen.

"You know how to call me Big Brother too?"

Cohen asked with curiosity as he flipped through the books on the shelf.

[?]

With only whites showing in her eyes, Ellie always looked as though she were rolling them upward.

Though he did not understand, Cohen's request had to be fulfilled. Ellie continued to recount her own origins.

[I was hatched from a stillborn unicorn foal soaked in a liquefied curse.]

"Wait—what is a liquefied curse?" Cohen asked. "Pardon me, but Hogwarts textbooks don't teach that."

[I don't know, I've never seen it—you can find it in the third row, fourth book on the shelf. I heard those people discussing it.]

Ellie curled her legs and lay down on the floor, her pitch-black mane seemingly capable of swallowing even the firelight.

Her entire life had been spent inside that cage. Since birth, she possessed the inherited knowledge of unicorns, but because she was born of a curse, she was utterly incapable of casting those holy spells.

Following the location Ellie pointed out, Cohen pulled out the sticky book.

"Scourgify."

Cohen swept away the filth on the surface. The book's cover bore the title *Secrets of the Darkest Art*.

This book was a handwritten copy—Cohen knew why, because the original, one-of-a-kind manuscript by the author Emeric Switch was with Dumbledore.

It contained detailed instructions on how to create a Horcrux, but Cohen had no need for such trash.

Some people would go to any lengths to tear their souls apart, while others were desperately trying to make their souls whole again—Cohen was certainly not going to split his own soul back up.

The latter half of the book was almost entirely composed of the research findings of a single man—a man by the name of Herpo the Foul.

Herpo was one of the most powerful and influential dark wizards in history, the first to create a Horcrux, the inventor of numerous evil curses, and even the first wizard to discover that "hatching a chicken egg under a toad will produce a Basilisk." Because he was one of the earliest Parselmouths, Basilisks could not resist his commands.

And right here was the content regarding the "Liquefied Curse."

It was a liquid magic formed by the condensation of numerous mixed curse incantations within an alchemical vessel. Because most advanced curses carried the chaotic property of being "uncontrollable," these liquids were not in a stable state of fusion, but constantly intertwined and fought with one another—like a spell-based Gu-insect jar.

Normal living creatures coming into contact with this solution would be eroded and killed by dozens of completely different curses within ten seconds. Herpo the Foul had once experimented with the liquefied curse on dozens of wizards—"They seemed to enter a state of chaotic transfiguration, alternately swelling into rotting, bloated balls of flesh, and shrinking into shriveled, bone-exposed mummies..."

However, certain noble lives would not be killed by this mixed curse, but would instead be reborn from it into entirely new forms.

Take the Phoenix, for example—though Herpo never managed to catch a Phoenix, so there were no related records.

Or take... unicorns.

They inherently possessed an extremely high tolerance for curses. "The blood of a unicorn flows with the curse of rebirth; drinking it will grant you a new lease on life, yet at the same time, your soul will remain half-dead for slaughtering a pure, gentle creature."

However, the magic upon their pure horns would heal the curse, so the curse within their blood would not take effect on themselves.

Immersing a freshly deceased unicorn foal in the liquefied curse would cause it to rot, but rotting was not the end; the liquefied curse would replace its flesh and blood, bringing forth a brand-new individual.

Herpo named this creature a "Nightmare," because he felt it fit the definition of a "nightmare beast" far better than a skeletal horse.

"What on earth were the people in this laboratory trying to do? Fuse all the known, most evil creatures in the world together and create the 'most evil creature in history'?"

Cohen felt it was rather absurd, especially since this experiment took place before Voldemort's downfall—surely Voldemort wouldn't want to conjure up something he couldn't even control himself, right?

"Will someone award them the 'Guinness World Record for Most Evil'?"

[Those people never said. They just buried their heads in research, occasionally discussing the progress and dilemmas of their experiments, and even used code names for their test subjects instead of species names.]

Ellie let out a yawn, which made her look somewhat less creepy.

"Can't you invade their minds?"

Cohen had assumed Ellie possessed some sort of mind-reading ability—after all, she could project her voice directly into Cohen's head.

But Ellie shook her head.

This should be just like a radio signal station; it could only transmit signals out, but could not receive anything back through the transmitted signals.

[You can hear my voice simply because we share blood.]

[They used my bone and blood to create you, and perhaps some other creatures as well. I remember they called you this...]

Ellie mused.

[Homunculus.]

"There should be experimental logs or something around here; we can definitely find the other ingredients—" Cohen intended to continue searching.

[You don't need to waste your time.]

Ellie reminded him.

[The important and precious things have already been stolen.]

[?]

Cohen grew alert.

"Stolen? By who?"

[I remember it was a short man, somewhat fat, who had dealings with the people doing the research before—wait...]

Ellie recalled the name that person had been called.

[Seemed to be named... Mundungus, Mundungus Fletcher.]

"..."

Cohen remembered this person.

Or rather, it was somewhat unexpected, yet entirely reasonable.

Mundungus was an old thief—in the original story, he had stolen piles of things and frequently smuggled and fenced stolen goods.

It gave one the feeling of, "What the hell, why is it you?" mixed with, "Well, if it's you, that actually makes total sense."

[Not long after the explosions sounded upstairs, I remember.]

Ellie added.

[He came down, took away a lot of books, logs, alchemical apparatuses, potions... and then left. Even though I pounded on the cage to make him let me out, he walked away without once looking back, as if he had made up some sort of mind...]

"I think he was simply cowardly," Cohen corrected. "If it were him..."

Then he might as well announce that retrieving those materials was like searching for a needle in a haystack—though Cohen had come looking for these things purely out of curiosity, so he wasn't in any rush.

"Forget it, let's stop researching for now."

Cohen sighed.

Although the thief Mundungus had certainly sold off all the stolen goods by now, Cohen would sooner or later find him and give him a beating.

No reason, purely out of malice.

Cohen packed all the books from the entire bookshelf into his pouch, followed by the cage made of runed metal—this pouch could open its mouth very widely after having the Undetectable Extension Charm cast upon it.

As for the empty flasks and junk instruments on the desk, Cohen didn't bother taking them; Hogwarts had plenty of those things.

"Stop sleeping, Earl, we're leaving!"