[According to research, the tomb owner was a descendant of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh's Keeper of Secrets. The Keepers of Secrets had protected the Pharaoh's tombs for generations, but by the twelfth century, Egypt's magical community had completely declined, and the wizarding population in Egypt had entirely changed. This led to the degeneration of the Keeper lineage, with many descendants resorting to selling off the Pharaoh's funerary artifacts for a living.
Therefore, we reasonably deduce that the grandfather of the tomb owner traded the knowledge of a particular Pharaoh's tomb in exchange for this cup.]
"A Pharaoh's tomb…" Rhys read the Order's analysis and found it quite plausible; if it was an unopened Pharaoh's tomb, it would certainly attract Hufflepuff's interest for exploration.
As the leaders of the first wizards, the earliest Pharaohs would surely have powers comparable to the Norse gods, meaning their tombs would undoubtedly contain remarkable treasures.
But it would have to be an ancient enough Pharaoh. Rhys thought there was hardly any point in excavating tombs from the Twentieth Dynasty onward, when Egypt had already been conquered by Persia, and certainly not those of Ptolemaic Egypt, whose links to ancient Egypt were tenuous at best.
"The tomb must be ancient enough and unplundered, yet even with these conditions, there's still a thick veil of mystery…" Rhys sighed.
There was too little reliable information; all he'd found were faint traces of Hufflepuff's past. The bigger challenge was that he couldn't be sure whether Helga had wandered off to other places after "visiting" the Pharaoh's tomb.
Still, a lead was better than nothing. From this information, it seemed Hufflepuff had been living well enough after leaving Hogwarts, with her magical abilities even advancing.
Reassuring himself with that thought, Rhys tucked both the badger-head cup and the Order's compiled information into his robes, planning to share it with Ravenclaw when he returned to the school.
Since the information was unclear, Rhys wasn't in any rush to search for Hufflepuff. Instead, he focused on clearing out the various Order of Secrets outposts on his list.
On the bright side, if he stumbled across more clues about Hufflepuff, it would be an unexpected bonus. With that thought, Rhys set out.
…
While Rhys was busy tracking down the Order's "little rats" around the world, turning them one by one into drowned corpses, Hogwarts enjoyed yet another peaceful day.
Daphne, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, left her dormitory and soon spotted Rhys in his usual corner of the common room, reading a book.
"Morning, Rhys…" she said, trailing off halfway through, realizing with a jolt that this was an imposter—Rhys wouldn't be reading A History of Magic.
"Seriously, the execution is way too sloppy!" Daphne muttered. "Rhys reading A History of Magic? That's an obvious giveaway."
She walked over and plucked the History of Magic from Rhys' hands.
The false Rhys didn't react with anger to being interrupted. He looked up and greeted her calmly with a gentle, "Good morning, Daphne."
As he sat quietly on the bench, looking at her with a friendly expression, Daphne narrowed her eyes. A thought struck her: didn't she have control over this "Rhys"? Could she make him do anything she wanted, or were there limits?
Once the idea took root, it grew like a wildfire.
Daphne found herself unable to resist the urge to make this fake Rhys do something.
"Rhys, could you bring me some breakfast?" Daphne asked tentatively.
"Of course my friend." Without a second thought, Rhys' duplicate stood up and walked to the Great Hall.
Daphne: （ꏿ ω ꏿ）!
It actually worked!
Excitement bubbled up in her—apparently, the permissions Rhys had granted her were more extensive than she'd expected.
Sensing Rhys reaching the Great Hall, Daphne tried taking over his sight, selecting her favorite breakfast items from the tables.
A few minutes later, as Rhys returned with a pile of breakfast food and sat down, Daphne couldn't help but giggle quietly to herself.
Leaning back in her chair with her feet up, she opened the freshly delivered Daily Prophet. After flipping through a few pages, she glanced over at the Rhys duplicate next to her, who was calmly eating his own breakfast.
"Rhys, I'm busy reading the paper, so feed me breakfast."
"Understood." The duplicate set down his sandwich and began preparing Daphne's breakfast.
Daphne: ≖‿≖Hehehe~
Rhys' duplicate prepared a bacon and egg sandwich, then used a spell to cut it into small pieces, holding a fork up to Daphne's mouth.
As she took a bite of the breakfast "offered" to her by the duplicate, Daphne felt a deep sense of delight. This was so much fun!
She continued giving orders, and the duplicate continued feeding her bite after bite.
When Astoria entered the common room, she was stunned by what she saw: her sister, lounging like a decadent Roman noble, while Rhys was standing beside her, leaning down to feed her with a fork.
Astoria woke up too fast—seeing things.
"Daphne, Rhys, what…what's going on?" Astoria looked at them with an extremely puzzled expression.
"Oh, it's you, Astoria, hold on a sec!" Daphne shifted her position and then ordered
"Rhys!"
"Yes, my friend Daphne?"
"Rhys, I'm a little stiff, give me a back massage."
"Understood." Without hesitation, Rhys knelt beside Daphne and dutifully began massaging her back.
Astoria's eyes widened in disbelief. Sis, do you have some dirt on Rhys or something?
After enjoying the massage for a while, Daphne slowly explained to Astoria that this Rhys was a duplicate, created by Rhys himself and entrusted to her care.
Astoria: "So this is how you're 'taking care' of it?"
Daphne shot her a look. "You're not going to tell Rhys, right?"
"Of course not," Astoria replied, feigning loyalty.
Inside, however, she was already calculating what kind of reward Rhys might give her for ratting her sister out.
She'd been eyeing that duplicate spell for a while now, and if it came with a necklace just like her sister's, that would be even better! After all, it was her sister; she had to get a good price!
She certainly wasn't going to spill the beans right in front of Daphne, though.
No, she'd find an opportunity to tell Rhys later, and when Daphne asked, she could just blame it on some other student in their House.
Serves her right for being so showy, Astoria thought smugly.
Playing innocent, she stepped forward and spoke earnestly: "Sister, isn't this a bit too flashy? If someone notices, Rhys might find out someday."
Daphne thought it over and felt her sister had a point.
She was only this bold because it was just a duplicate that Rhys had made, no different from a plush toy he'd given her. She'd never dare boss the real Rhys around like this!
If he ever found out…
A chill ran down Daphne's spine, and at that moment, a voice echoed that made Daphne's brow furrow while Astoria's face lit up with delight.
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