In the previous chapter, the protagonist, Leonard Taylor, died.
What will happen to the story from now on?
Now, please enjoy Chapter 71.
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A week has passed since the collapse of the Ministry of Magic. When I woke up, everything was over. It was my fault... If I had noticed Voldemort's trap, if I had learned Occlumency properly... The Ministry of Magic finally acknowledged Voldemort's resurrection. But the price was high. Many Aurors died, and many members of the Order of the Phoenix were sacrificed. Arthur, who was like a father to me, also died. I can't get the crying faces of Ron and Ginny out of my head. Sirius and Professor Lupin are alive, but they were in a terrible state. Sirius can no longer see my face. Professor Lupin can't walk.
Why did this happen...
Right now, we Hogwarts students are gathered in the Great Hall. Even the teachers and ghosts are here. The only ones not here are Hermione and one other person. Leonard Taylor is not here. To be precise, only his body is here. Only his silent corpse is placed in the coffin.
The fact that Leonard Taylor was killed was more shocking to the Hogwarts students than the Ministry of Magic acknowledging Voldemort's resurrection. At first, no one believed it. They couldn't believe it. He could handle any kind of magic, develop new magic and potions, and even a group of skilled wizards couldn't beat him. He blew up the stadium, and even Dumbledore couldn't beat him. Such a guy was killed.
This is also my fault.
The students were all saddened. Many people were crying. Even the Slytherin students were shedding tears. But Hermione, his girlfriend, hadn't changed at all. Even when Dumbledore told her about Taylor's death, she said, "Leo isn't dead." Even when someone told her that Taylor was dead and would never come back,
She said, "There's no way Leo could die. None of you understand Leo."
Since then, no one has spoken to Hermione. Seeing Hermione like that, everyone thought her heart had broken.
This is also my fault.
Everyone in the Great Hall, who had gathered with a solemn look on their faces, started talking when Dumbledore started talking.
"My friends, Leonard Taylor has passed away. Losing him is an irreplaceable loss for Hogwarts, no, for the wizarding world. Everyone must be sad, but I don't think he would want us to be sad. Let's offer a final prayer."
That's when it happened. The doors of the Great Hall opened. There stood Hermione, Taylor's pet, and... Leonard Taylor.
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The time goes back a week. Hermione Granger had finished her owl exam and returned to the lab. However, there was no sign of Leo or Ku, and the only sounds in the lab were the sound of liquid being stirred in a flask and the sound of potions boiling.
"Where did you go?"
As she sat on the sofa and self-scored her owl exam, Leo appeared in front of her across the table. To be precise, an image recorded by magic was projected.
"Leo? No, it's a projection by magic, isn't it?"
"Hermione, can you hear me? I'll just tell you the message for now. I'm going to the Ministry of Magic with the Order of the Phoenix. There's probably a trap set by the Death Eaters, but that's not a problem. If the Dark Lord doesn't show up, I'll come back right away. But if the Dark Lord shows up, I'm going to die once."
"Die? What are you talking about, Leo?"
"I guess you're wondering what I'm talking about, but I need to die once to activate the results of my research. It's not just about dying, it's best to die with the spell of death, Avada Kedavra, so I'm going to be killed by Voldemort. Don't worry, I'll come back to life, so it's not a problem. Ku should be back first if everything goes according to plan, so ask Ku for details."
The projection ended there. She thought again that her lover had lost all his screws. But even though he said he was going to die, she was quite crazy to be calm just because Leo said it was no problem. For the time being, she returned to self-scoring the owl exam.
After a while, Ku returned with an appearance charm.
"Madam, did you receive the message from Master Leonard?"
"Yes. Ku's return, Does that mean it went well?"
"Yes. I will show you here."
She was led by Ku to the innermost part of the lab. There was a transparent container large enough for one person to enter. Inside was Leo. It was an indescribable figure, naked except for a ring, but no wounds were visible.
"Leo? Are you alive?"
"Master Leonard seems to have transferred his soul to this body for now. It seems to take about a week for the reconstruction and adjustment of the soul. He won't wake up until then, but his body is perfectly healthy."
"What kind of research suggests that one needs to die once for that? If Leo can transfer his consciousness without going to that extent, why bother?"
"I was not told the details either. He only told me that he would tell me as a surprise when he woke up."
"Hmm... I guess it's a task from Leo. Let's try to guess what kind of research it is in a week."
During the week, various things happened in the world. The Ministry of Magic collapsed, Voldemort's resurrection was acknowledged, the Minister of Magic changed from Cornelius Fudge to Rufus Scrimgeour, and many casualties occurred, etc. At Hogwarts, fear and confusion spread because Leo died. Even though she was worried about Hermione, no one would believe her if she honestly said that Leo would come back to life. On the contrary, she was treated as if she had gone crazy, so everyone had ignored her since then.
And a week passed. The solution in the capsule was discharged, and Leo's new body came out. The first thing Leo saw when he woke up was the figure of his beloved Hermione.
"Good morning, Hermione."
"Good morning. How are you feeling?"
He moves his body to check his condition. Then he uses magic to take out his clothes and put them on. He tries various magic and looks around.
"The magic seems to be no problem. It's even more efficient than the previous body. My "eyes" is also fine. But my body feels strange. I wonder if there's something like accumulated experience in the body, it feels somewhat awkward."
"So what's the reason for doing this? I guess your goal is immortality, but I didn't know the specific method."
"Right, that's the goal. I'll explain how I did it later. For now, let's finish what needs to be done. Ku, are you there?"
"I'm here. Congratulations on your success. What can I do for you?"
"Where is my previous body? Has it already been buried?"
"No, not yet. Due to various circumstances in the world, Leonard's funeral is scheduled to take place today in the Great Hall of Hogwarts."
"I see. Then I have a use for the body, so let's go get it."
Leo started walking towards the Great Hall with Hermione and Ku.
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Everyone in the Great Hall was watching without saying a word. Even Dumbledore was staring as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Ignoring that, Leo walked through the Great Hall. He took out his past body, which had been buried with great care.
Finally, Dumbledore, who had been able to move, called out.
"Who are you?"
"I am Leonard Taylor."
"That can't be... He died. I saw it clearly with my own eyes. Who on earth are you!"
Ignoring those words, he disassembled his own corpse and integrated it with his new body.
"Okay. Now I'm used to my current body."
When he looked around, he saw that the teachers had surrounded him with their wands drawn. Everyone was looking at Leo as if he were an unknown monster.
"Miss Granger, come here! It's dangerous!"
"Whoever you are, you can't come back from the dead. Who are you?"
"Please lower your wands. I am the real Leonard Taylor."
"That's right. It's rude to Leo, so please stop."
"I can't stay silent if you're going to harm Leonard."
"...Well, I'd like you to explain and prove in detail. What's going on?"
"Proof... That's difficult. Can I first explain how I'm standing here?"
Everyone nodded. The students seemed to want to know as well.
"Then let me explain. First of all, my goal is to understand all of magic. That required a tremendous amount of time. The Philosopher's Stone and the Horcrux were not enough. So I focused on a certain creature. It was the phoenix. The phoenix comes back to life from the ashes even after it dies. I decided to imitate that.
I prepared a body for after the resurrection in advance, and when I died, I reconstituted my soul like a phoenix and made it transfer to the next body. The best way to do that was to die once with the killing curse Avada Kedavra, so I used Voldemort.
Now I am immortal. Even if this body perishes, my soul is immortal. I can create a new body and resurrect. It's even hard to destroy this body now. This body is a special one that I improved and developed based on Ku. It combines dragons, basilisks, and many other magical creatures and incorporates the Philosopher's Stone.
With this, even the killing curse Avada Kedavra cannot fully exert its effect, and if even a single cell remains, the immortal soul will regenerate from that single cell. Even if all the cells are destroyed, the soul is immortal, so it is possible to create a new body from scratch. With this, I can continue my research indefinitely."
Everyone was speechless. In other words, Leonard Taylor had become an immortal being.
"If Leo becomes immortal, then I'll die first. That's not fair."
Hermione was dissatisfied. It's good that Leo's wish came true, but it means that there will be a separation between them eventually. She doesn't want that.
"If Hermione wants, you can be with me forever. What do you think?"
"There's no need to say that. I wouldn't mind following you for eternity."
"Of course, I will accompany you as well."
"Thank you both. Now, I've explained the details of this case, but how can I prove that I am Leonard Taylor?"
"...No, it's fine. Whether you are real or fake has become a trivial matter. In other words, we, no, whoever we are, cannot destroy you. That's what you're saying. Therefore, even if you are a fake, we have no choice but to treat you as Leonard Taylor."
"Is that so? Well, even if I become immortal, I won't change anything. I will continue my research on magic, and I will not quit as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Please treat me as a student as usual."
With that, he left the Great Hall with Hermione and Ku, as if he had no more business there. No one could say anything. Everyone was unable to process the fact that Leo had said something so unrealistic. It was a while before time started moving in the Great Hall again.
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Leonard Taylor has resurrected!!
He came back to life as if it was only natural.
In fact, no one was worried in the last review. Even though he's the protagonist....
Ring Introduction No.10
・Resurrection
A function that stores the soul that separates from the body at the time of death in the ring by activating all rings at the same time.
This time, he immediately resurrected by transferring the ring to a new body he had prepared.
Leo transformed himself into an immortal soul by processing the soul that was temporarily released from the body into an existence equivalent to a phoenix. As the chapter title suggests, he has surpassed the phoenix.
Furthermore, he had prepared an upgraded version of Ku as a new body.
With this, it has become almost impossible to kill Leo.
He can even withstand a meteorite.
Hermione naturally wished for eternity with him.
She will probably become a non-human existence in due course.