"The meat's gone cold!"
Gryffindor pinched a piece of frozen, rock-hard meat from the lunchbox with his fingers, looking at it with clear disdain.
When meat cools, the fat solidifies on the surface, making roasted meat taste terrible and hard to digest.
"Professor Gryffindor, it's the dead of winter. Of course, the meat is cold. We can just light a fire to warm it up."
Adrian said, carrying a bundle of freshly chopped wood. He quickly piled it into a small stack on the ground and lit it with magic.
"Move aside, don't get in the way!" Gryffindor's prized student, Mary, carefully approached, holding a horn cup. "Professor, it's so cold. Have some warm mulled wine to warm up!"
Before returning to camp, she had cleverly used magical flames to warm the wine to just the right temperature.
Adrian: "_"
He turned stiffly, only to notice his teacher, Slytherin, standing under a nearby pine tree, smiling at him.
Adrian scratched his head, realizing he was in trouble. He had already finished the wine he brought along during the journey...
'Seriously, Mary, what's with all this over-the-top flattery?
Gryffindor is such a great wizard—does she really think he can't heat his own wine?'
After internally criticizing Mary for her unnecessary sycophancy, Adrian quickly brushed away the snow from the ground and laid down a deer hide. Then, in a flash, he ran to Slytherin's side and respectfully invited him over.
"Sit here, teacher. It's clean, so you won't dirty your robe."
After Slytherin "sat down," Gryffindor handed him the wine cup, letting him have a sip.
"Counting the two from this morning, we've already dealt with five dragons. There are way too many dragons in this forest," Slytherin said, calmly finishing the wine in one gulp before starting to discuss the next steps for clearing the Forbidden Forest with Gryffindor.
"Should we leave a few for the kids? If future young wizards can't even handle a single dragon, that's not right," Gryffindor said, drawing his longsword and skewering the cold, rock-hard piece of meat. He placed it over the fire to roast.
"Professor Slytherin, leave it to us. Just a few dragons— I can handle two... no, three, on my own!"
Adrian, who was tending the pot over the fire, perked up immediately upon hearing the professors' conversation.
Mary glanced at Adrian, feeling like he was about to get scolded.
"How many times have I told you, never underestimate any enemy. Why can't you remember that?" As expected, Slytherin was displeased with Adrian's arrogance. He believed Adrian was far too overconfident.
Ordinary dragons were one thing, but if there were any hidden giants or rare dragons with spatial attributes like the space dragons, Adrian would likely meet a swift and tragic end!
"Alright, alright, the kid's idea is good—at least he's got courage!" Gryffindor actually agreed with Adrian's statement.
Slytherin let out a heavy sigh, feeling like Adrian was Gryffindor's spy planted within his house.
He took out his own lunchbox, and upon opening it, a rich aroma wafted out.
Gryffindor sniffed the air and then looked at his old friend in astonishment.
"What on earth is that? Why does it smell so good?"
Then, he noticed something unusual. "Hey? Why does your food look so fresh? It's like it was just made!"
Mary and Adrian also came over to inspect Slytherin's lunchbox.
Sure enough, just as Gryffindor had said, the food inside looked extremely fresh, as if it had just been pulled off the stove.
The roast meat sizzled with oil, the fried food still steamed, and when they poked at it with a dining knife, it made a satisfyingly crisp sound.
"Heh~"
"I collaborated with Helga on this for a while. We came up with a fun little spell and tried embedding it into this lunchbox. Haven't decided on a name for the spell yet—maybe something like the Freshness Charm or the Warming Charm?"
"You had something this good and didn't tell me?!"
Gryffindor looked at his own lunchbox, which had turned into a block of frozen food, his mood clearly complicated.
"You didn't ask, did you?" Slytherin responded with a smile.
Gryffindor was left speechless by Slytherin's reply.
"Pfft~ Just teasing you. The main reason is that we only recently developed this spell, and its effects are still unstable. So, I used my lunchbox as a test. This time it worked well, but if we'd had bad luck, I could have opened the lunchbox to find either a pile of charred food or something spoiled and rotten."
"Yeah, whatever. Humph~" Though his friend offered an explanation, Gryffindor still felt a bit sulky.
He crouched down, reheating the meat on his sword. As he took his first bite, a realization struck him: the reason for his frustration wasn't the food. It was that when they were experimenting with the crystal ball, he had been the first one Slytherin consulted.
But when it came to testing the lunchbox's warming charm, Salazar tried it first. 'That sly, cunning Salazar!'
"Taste this!" Salazar offered some of his food, placing it in Gryffindor's lunchbox.
The moment the succulent, juicy roast meat hit Gryffindor's mouth, all his annoyance towards Slytherin disappeared.
'Slytherin! Such a great guy!'
The lunchbox Slytherin used was enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm, allowing it to hold enough food for four people. Everyone was able to enjoy fresh, hot meals.
...
"And that's the story of Slytherin and the Preservation Charm. Now, let me teach you the key to this spell. Once your lunchbox is enchanted with this charm, the food inside will remain in the exact state it was in the moment you placed it there. This is an extremely advanced form of time-based magic!" Rhys concluded the amusing tale for Daphne and then moved on to today's lesson: teaching the Stasis Field.
A basic preservation spell typically just heats or freezes food, keeping it warm or cold. However, continuous heating or freezing tends to ruin the taste, and even higher-level preservation magic can only create a near-vacuum state inside the box with constant temperature control. Yet, that method still has its flaws.
Rhys' Stasis Field, on the other hand, had almost no drawbacks. The only downside was its difficulty in casting and the high amount of magical power it required.
The spell essentially freezes time within a small area, keeping everything inside in the exact state it was placed until the spell's effect wears off. Only then does the flow of time around the food return to normal.
The time within that small area is permanently "stolen" by the caster, extracted and banished into an unknown space where it eventually dissipates.
After Rhys' explanation, both Daphne and Astoria blinked in amazement.
———
12 Advance Chapters—Patreon.com/HornyFBI