"Of course. Other truths include: peel a banana before eating it, workers must be paid, schools must have students, and people die when they are killed... Oh, that last one isn't quite right. That bastard Voldemort doesn't necessarily die when he's killed."
As Kasen kept talking, his voice grew quieter and quieter until he finally closed the notebook and put it away.
After all, this kind of nonsense literature was genuinely embarrassing.
Dumbledore was the first to finish breakfast. After eating, he stood up and stretched, then looked down and saw Kasen still eating.
He stretched his arms again.
Looked down.
Kasen was still eating.
Then he twisted his spine, producing a series of satisfying cracks, and looked down once more.
Still eating.
"Kasen, what exactly are you doing?" Dumbledore asked faintly.
"Still eating."
"........"
"Weren't you going to tell me what you deduced last night?" Dumbledore asked through gritted teeth.
"What direct connection does that have with me eating right now?" Kasen scratched his head.
"........"
In the end, under Dumbledore's bizarre stare, which made Kasen feel like an Avada Kedavra target, Kasen reluctantly followed him back to the office.
"Let me put it plainly. This feels exactly like some inexperienced office worker being coerced and tempted by his superior into following him into his office. What's next? Are you going to start abusing your authority for favours?" Kasen complained as he sat on the sofa.
"I apologise for interrupting your breakfast, but is there really any need to assume such malicious intentions? At the very least, I have some pastries here to tide you over."
Dumbledore took a plate of pastries from a drawer and pushed it toward Kasen.
"I also need black tea. No sugar, no honey, no jam."
Kasen picked up a pastry, tasted it, then continued.
"No problem."
Dumbledore poured him a cup of plain tea.
"Now tell me about your deduction," Dumbledore said.
"Keep a close eye on a fifth-year Slytherin witch named Maple Green," Kasen said.
"What makes her suspicious?" Dumbledore asked.
"Nothing concrete yet. But what she's doing could fit Voldemort's methods. For example, she may have used a Love Potion to control Orante from Ravenclaw, then used Orante to learn my knowledge from me before teaching it back to her."
"But if she wants to learn from me, why not come directly to me? Why use Orante as a middleman?" Kasen said slowly.
Dumbledore listened to Kasen's explanation and nearly laughed.
Considering the things Kasen had done outside Hogwarts, how many of them could actually be described as normal?
Whenever Kasen suddenly left Hogwarts outside the holidays, something was guaranteed to happen somewhere.
Either a few Death Eaters died here, or a few Dark Wizards died there.
He spent every day acting like some dedicated Death Eater killing machine.
General Kasen himself.
And now he was asking why a young Slytherin witch would not come directly to him and ask to become his student?
Still, Dumbledore ultimately kept those thoughts to himself and instead chose a more tactful and accommodating way to put it.
"When you have some free time, perhaps you should visit a Muggle hospital and make an appointment with psychiatry. This inability to recognise yourself accurately is an illness. It needs treatment."
"You think I'm mentally ill."
"I did not say that."
"No. You absolutely do!"
"I don't!"
"You do!"
"I don't!"
"You do!"
"Fine, I do!"
"Then don't blame me..."
"Does that make sense? And can you be serious for once? Stop acting like some hyper-aggressive lunatic all day. Couldn't you spare a little of the gentleness you show young wizards for an old wizard like me?" Dumbledore held his forehead.
He had originally thought this might play out dramatically, like something from a novel or some other work of fiction, with Kasen voluntarily changing his answer so Dumbledore could fire back with a witty retort.
Naturally, that plan failed.
In fact, Kasen's response had been so smooth that Dumbledore strongly suspected he had been deliberately picking a fight, just waiting for an excuse to take a shot at his Headmaster in revenge for interrupting his breakfast.
"Let's get back to the point. You don't have any classes today, but I still have work later," Dumbledore said.
"In short, the Voldemort I killed at Downing Street last time was too weak, so I suspect that Voldemort may have been an impostor or some kind of split soul. I didn't pay much attention to him."
"As for the Voldemort I killed before that, he was killed by the chandelier hanging from the ceiling of my office. But at the time, Voldemort had absolutely no idea what had actually killed him."
Kasen paused to catch his breath.
"So? What does any of that have to do with this?" Dumbledore asked, black lines practically covering his forehead.
"But during that battle, I used an enchantment technique that shocked Voldemort quite badly. That attack even staggered him on the spot, which ultimately laid a solid foundation for me killing him."
Dumbledore interrupted again.
"Please stop speaking in encrypted language that normal humans cannot understand."
"What I'm saying is that enchanting left a very deep impression on Voldemort during that battle. And last night, Maple specifically told Orante to learn enchanting. Don't you think that's a little too much of a coincidence?" Kasen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"In that case, yes. It is quite a coincidence."
Dumbledore's brows furrowed, relaxed, then furrowed again before he slowly nodded.
Kasen continued, "I can't follow them around under an Invisibility Potion every minute of the day, so this is where you come in. Didn't you once brag to me that all of Hogwarts was under your control?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "That wasn't boasting. I can have the portraits throughout Hogwarts keep an eye on Miss Maple Green for me."
"Mm-hm."
"Mm-hm."
...
Before long, the room fell silent again.
"What are you doing?" Dumbledore instinctively asked when he saw Kasen sitting in front of him looking somewhat dead.
Then he realised Kasen really did look a little dead.
The sleeping Kasen could vaguely hear some noises.
It sounded like...
"Hey... hey! Hey? Ahhh!!! Madam... Pomfrey... help... sleep? Damn it!"
...
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