Hearing someone knocking on the metal door, Asterion stopped what he was doing and turned around, behind him Verucca had his head down while his limbs were firmly attached to the chair.
The skin of Verucca's arms was open at the sides, revealing the red and bloody muscles inside, each vein seemingly untouched and with the blood still flowing smoothly inside, showing how precise Asterion's dissection skills were.
Asterion's gloves were completely stained, the pristine white long since replaced by a dark red.
Placing the scalpel in its case on the table, Asterion took off his gloves and opened the door, he saw an old man with a long beard wearing a very nice blue robe, it was Albus Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looked at young Asterion and then into the cell and what he saw made him raise his eyebrows. Verucca's condition was much worse than he had expected; from the dull glow in her eyes, he guessed he was seeing a shell of a once proud woman.
Dumbledore didn't feel anything special when he saw Verucca's horrible condition; he'd seen far worse when he was young and doing his chores like any other Hogwarts student. "Can we talk, Asterion?"
"Yes, let's go outside." Asterion nodded and left the stone cell, leaving Verucca in silence.
As the door closed, Verucca's originally low head rose and her lifeless eyes began to glow again. She gritted her teeth and used her magical energy to try and break the chains that bound her, but no matter how hard she tried, the chains were still intact.
She knew that these bindings were alchemical items used to bind witches and wizards. This complicated things for her, but she didn't give up and kept trying, but this time with a different approach.
As far as she knew, this type of binding was strong against magic, but extremely weak against physical attacks.
Crouching with her head close to her lap, she used her bound hand to pull a small object that resembled a wand out of her thick hair, only it seemed too small to be a wand.
Although her wrists were bound, she could still move her hands perfectly. Ignoring the pain in her arm, she turned her wrist with difficulty and pointed to the box on the table.
With a silent spell, the same scalpel that had sliced her flesh countless times flew at her and cut the leather restraints on her right arm.
With her arm now free, it was easy to remove the other restraints. Verucca stood, but groaned in pain as she felt her wounds sting, knowing that the salt Asterion had thrown on them had begun to take effect. Walking over to the table, she didn't hesitate and picked up the bottle of Phoenix Tears, after hours of agonizing and painful torture, there were only two tears left in the bottle.
Without hesitation, she drank the precious natural healing elixir, she felt her wounds itch and her body began to regenerate at a frightening speed. Moments later, she was completely healed!
"You will pay for all the pain I've suffered, Asterion Black." Verucca muttered with a look so cold and full of resentment that it would probably frighten a demon. "I will kill every person you love and bask in your gaze."
Verucca moved her torn and bloodstained dress, not waiting for Asterion to return, certain she would be killed if the monster saw her free.
In the highest tower of Hogwarts, where astrology classes were held, Asterion and Dumbledore looked coldly at the bloodied figure running quickly from the castle grounds.
If they looked closely, they could see that it was Verucca herself!
"I have to admit, I really am inferior to you when it comes to manipulation." Asterion commented, looking coldly at the woman he had deliberately let slip away. It wasn't his idea, it was Dumbledore's. And he had to say, it worked perfectly.
Dumbledore didn't comment on Asterion's words and spoke in a gentle tone. "Now all we have to do is follow her and she'll lead us to her accomplices. Even if the leader of this organization isn't there, there will probably be other members on site."
"Baskerville is in her shadow, no matter where she runs to, I'll know." Asterion spoke in a calm tone, his lips curled into a sadistic, amused smile. He would love to see Verucca's expression when she saw him again.
"How will you deal with the rebellious noble houses?" Ignoring the sadistic smile on Asterion's lips, Dumbledore asked curiously, his eyes calm, perhaps only he knew what he wanted by asking such a question.
Asterion looked at Dumbledore and didn't hide the sarcasm in his eyes, he knew very well what this old man wanted.
"Those least involved in this conspiracy will be stripped of their titles, lands and possessions and exiled. The most serious traitors will be killed and those involved thrown into Azkaban." Knowing that Dumbledore wanted him to kill everyone involved, Asterion clearly wouldn't, especially since England had just come out of a civil war; killing more people would only change his image to that of a cruel, cold tyrant.
Showing traitors a little "mercy" for the people showed that he was not a bloodthirsty killer. Behind the scenes, these people will still die in the future, albeit by "accident". The prisoners in Azkaban would be the first to die, since no one could check the status of the prisoners in Azkaban.
Asterion's words would surprise Dumbledore, for he knew the boy next to him only too well; he knew how much Asterion would like to kill anyone who stood in his way. Asterion's actions made Dumbledore nod with a satisfied look.
In his eyes, Asterion was more mature and less murderous than in the past, which pleased the Lord of Light very much; it seemed that young Daphne and Rose were doing a good job of making Asterion more human.
However, Dumbledore really wanted Asterion to kill all the traitors, it would undermine the boy's foundations, but that didn't matter at the moment. Whether they were killed or not, the Clock Tower would have many more openings for him to fill with Half-Bloods and Muggleborn.
That's what Asterion knew Dumbledore was thinking, but what Dumbledore himself didn't know was that this was Asterion's plan as well. In the future, when he transforms the entire society into a constitutional monarchy, the noble houses will be the biggest obstacle to the centralization of certain powers.
He had to centralize his power at this time and keep certain rights in his hands so that the throne of his future children and descendants would not be destroyed in the future. He could gain more support from the people by showing how liberal he was in this sense, or at least give the impression that everything was still a beautiful society that they still had the power to control.
In the future, he would let the Aristocratic Faction, the Neutral Faction, and the Democratic Faction fight each other while he coldly watched and only intervened when things got serious, thus gaining prestige among the people by doing nothing while everyone was killing each other.
Dumbledore didn't know about Asterion's plans, otherwise he wouldn't have been so pleased with Asterion. Unfortunately, Dumbledore never thought in his wildest dreams that Asterion would want to establish a monarchy.
Suddenly, Asterion, who had been silent, smiled and looked in a certain direction with a cold stare.
"The rat has entered the cave." He said calmly.
Dumbledore smiled too, and they both looked at each other and moved at the same time!
--------
Send me Power Stone!
200 Power Stone = 1 + chapters
500 Power Stone = 2 + chapters
1000 Power Stone = 3 + chapters
Support me to write more and read chapters ahead of all regular readers!
P-atreon.com/HPSCB
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)
Next Chapter Second Volume: 172 - Conspiracies and Secrets (2), 173 - Conspiracies and Secrets (3), 174 - Conspiracies and Secrets (4), 175 - Conspiracies and Secrets (5), 176 - Conspiracies and Secrets (6), 177 - Conspiracies and Secrets (7), Chapter 178 - Decision and two wives (1), Chapter 179 - Decision and two wives (2), Chapter 180 - The Old King of Camelot (1), Chapter 181 - The Old King of Camelot (2), Chapter 182 - The Old King of Camelot (3), Chapter 183 - Second Trial of the International Tournament of Witchcraft and Wizardry (1), Chapter 184 - Second Trial of the International Tournament of Witchcraft and Wizardry (2), Chapter 185 - Second Trial of the International Tournament of Witchcraft and Wizardry (3), Chapter 186 - Second Trial of the International Tournament of Witchcraft and Wizardry (4).