With Mr. Bellington knocked out, Hermione was floating him with the levitation spell while Loki floated the refrigerator that was tightly bound using the Incarcerous spell.
They used a disillusionment charm to hide their captives and walked towards the department store under the barrage of insults Hermione shouted out for Mr. Bellington.
They included things like cursing seven of his previous generations and complaining about leaving him permanently disfigured or even disabled depending on how you interpreted it.
It frightened Loki a little while Daphne had a hard time keeping herself from laughing.
Hermione was so talkative that they didn't have the time to reapply the disillusionment charm on their 'spoils of war' when they reached the Department store.
Reaching the department store, Daphne greeted the store clerk who looked at them oddly when he saw them carrying an unconscious man and a refrigerator but didn't say anything.
He just politely opened the warehouse door and allowed them to use the fireplace to get back to the ministry.
As soon as they teleported with their respective items and left the Ministry fireplace, they came across Cedric's team.
"Haha~ We were done before you losers!!" Zacharias said with a smile as he provoked Daphne but she just ignored him like he didn't matter.
Cedric came closer to them and examined the 'loot' they'd brought into the Ministry. But when he saw the refrigerator Loki was floating he became a little confused.
"The item is inside that?"
Loki nodded, "We didn't know the obliviate charm so we also brought the guy along after knocking him out."
Cedric nodded while trying to keep his smile hidden but he failed and caused Hermione to snort angrily at him.
"What happened to her?" Cedric whispered into Loki's ears as they walked side by side.
"She's angry 'cause the guy pulled on a switchboard while fighting us and exposed wires that shocked her."
"Ouch…that sounds like it hurt quite a bit." Cedric said with a slight wince.
"Yeah, it probably did, she shot into another room because of her muscles spasming."
Under the surprised gazes of many wizards working at the Ministry Loki, Daphne and Hermione walked along with Cedric's team towards the Auror Department.
A few Aurors even tried to stop them to question what kids were doing there but Cedric pulled out a badge that caused them to look away.
'A Mystical Item?' Loki thought as he looked at the badge that Cedric was holding. 'One with psychological invisibility?'
'Spectator Pathway?'
Once in Ethan's office, Loki and Hermione set down their 'loot' on the floor, and while Loki was soft with it, Hermione lifted the man a little before acting as if her spell had gone out of control and caused the man to hit the ground hard.
'He still didn't wake up?'
'Did Mione actually kill him?'
Ethan looked at it but didn't stop Hermione, instead, he turned to Daphne and asked her a question, "Is the book in the refrigerator?"
"Yes. Do you want me to brief you now?"
"No. You can write a report for me to read a little later." Ethan said and turned to Cedric, "Have you found the badge?"
Cedric nodded and tossed it casually towards Ethan.
"Not much happened, we took care of any muggles and even restored any damages we caused."
"Good." Ethan nodded as he snatched the badge from the air. "You can write up the reports in the next room.", Ethan said pointing at a door that led to a room with many desks and typewriters in it.
Daphne from their group left while Diego from Cedric's group left to write the report.
In the mean time as they waited, Cedric asked Loki a question, "How you holding up as the champion?"
Loki's eyes widened for a second before he calmly nodded, "It's been fine for now. I hope I don't become roast meat by the end though."
"If you can handle the world of Beyonders, I don't think there's much else that can take you down so don't worry about it."
"Hm~m, thanks."
"In case you need to practice spells or need help making plans to face the tasks make sure to hit me up. I'm sure Diego and Zacharias will be more than happy to help you out along with me."
Loki's eyes shone as he politely nodded, "I'll do that then."
They spent the next few minutes in silence as Loki tried to console Hermione who was glaring at unconscious Mr. Bellington who was currently undergoing a memory extraction operation that Ethan was performing casually.
Casually, Loki turned on his spirit vision to watch Ethan's operation but he froze as soon as his gaze fell on the refrigerator, specifically on the book that was locked inside it.
'It's cursed!!!!'
'By 'Her'!!!!!'
'Why!!!???'
Loki almost flinched in panic but his impeccable control over his expressions hid his flooding thoughts.
Almost instantly, he forced a brake on his thoughts since thinking about the Mother Tree of Desire or Mother Goddess of Depravity while outside the Sefirah Castle would be dangerous.
Instead, he switched his thoughts.
'How do I warn them of it?'
Ethan was soon done and so Loki stepped closer to him, "Are you going to check the items for any corruption before you store them or use them?"
Ethan looked at him as if asking, 'Why?' and then Loki covered himself with a random excuse, "I mean after last time I just want it to be safe. Who knows if all of this is a trap for something larger?"
Ethan looked confused for a second but nodded slightly, "I'll inform Laura to be a little vigilant when testing it."
"That's good." Loki nodded and went back to his seat.
'That's all I can do. And with her being a Saint it'll probably be hard to hide from her.'
Loki sighed in relief and sat back down on his chair but then asked a random question to himself.
'Who was it for anyway?'
Loki frowned and then looked at Hermione.
'Ha~ she's still frowning. Just how angry did that shock make her-'
'-NO WAY!!!!'
Loki instantly reactivated his spirit vision and his eyeballs nearly fell out of his socket.
'WHAT THE HELL!!!!!'
Loki almost screamed out loud but he managed to hold himself back.
Not only had a faint layer of corruption taken hold in Hermione's heart but also in the person behind Hermione, inside the room where typewriters and papers existed, Daphne.
'Why?' Loki asked and he came up with an answer almost instantly. There was only one possible reason after all.
'Because of her connection to the Sefirah Castle?'
Loki frowned. He didn't know if he was right a hundred per cent, but his intuition pointed towards it.
'It was meant for me probably, but because of the pendulum's connection to the Sefirah Castle the curse mistook the target to be her?'
'What about Daphne then!?'
Loki stood up and told Ethan, "Where's the washroom? I'll be back in a few."
Ethan pointed to the left and Loki entered a stall in the bathroom. He quickly put up a wall of spirituality around himself and entered the Sefirah Castle.
There Loki performed a simple divination.
"The original target of the curse of the Belladonna of Bets was me."
"The original target of the curse of the Belladonna of Bets was me."
"The original target of the curse of the Belladonna of Bets was me."
…
"The original target of the curse of the Belladonna of Bets was me."
Having repeated the statement seven times while in cogitaiton Loki opened his eyes slowly.
'Clockwise.'
'So it's true. The corruption was meant for me.'
'So Daphne was a stray casualty?'
Loki frowned, left the Sefirah Castle and walked over to Hermione.
He then stole the corruption from her and planted it on a random Knut in his pocket.
The changes were visible almost immediately since not even a few minutes later, Hermione was worried about having broken some random rules and hurt their target with excessive force.
Ethan had to repeatedly convince her that no aurors or Unspeakables would be coming after her at Hogwarts to arrest her.
She was no longer as blazingly angry as before.
But Loki sat there frowning after making sure he stole the corruption from Daphne too.
The act today meant several things to him, none of which he liked.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N : Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.