Chapter 175: Punishing the Wicked
Early in the morning, the camp deep within Albania's Black Forest was shrouded in a layer of cold, grey green mist.
Inside the largest tent, Tamara opened her eyes beneath a familiar weight.
"Ugh..."
She frowned, feeling as though a Bludger were crushing her chest and making even breathing difficult.
She did not need to look down to know what was happening.
Expressionlessly, Tamara reached out, grabbed the heavy black cat sprawled across her chest, and threw her off the bed without mercy.
"Meow!"
The black cat rolled twice across the thick carpet, arched her back indignantly, and stared at her master with resentful amber eyes.
This was the fourth time that week.
Whenever Tamara became distracted by studying the Dark Arts or managing the affairs of the camp and forgot to secure the brass cage before bed, this stupid cat named Nagini somehow managed to escape.
Then she would cling to Tamara's chest like an expanding rice cake.
As a result, the dignified Dark Lord woke each morning feeling not refreshed, but exhausted.
"Get out."
Tamara rubbed her throbbing temples, her voice filled with morning irritation.
Sensing her master's foul mood, the black cat shrank her neck and sensibly trotted out of the tent.
Tamara sat up and waved her wand. A set of pure black wizarding robes immediately draped themselves over her body.
By her calculations, she had remained in this secret camp in Albania for nearly a week.
It was time to return.
The environment here was filled with a pure Dark Arts presence that delighted both her body and mind. More importantly, she did not need to pretend to be some damned model student.
But reason told her that if she remained away for too long, cracks would begin to appear in the flawless identity she had painstakingly constructed within wizarding Britain.
The supposed Aunt Quirina could not withstand a thorough investigation by either Dumbledore or the Ministry of Magic.
For precisely that reason, Tamara had completely severed contact with the outside world during her time away from Britain.
She had revealed nothing about her holiday whereabouts to anyone, including Hermione, who always made a fuss over everything, and Draco, who liked to flaunt his importance.
Once a person told one lie, countless others were required to conceal it.
The best solution was to let Tamara Riddle vanish completely from the world during the summer holiday.
Just as Tamara was considering her return arrangements, Quirrell's respectful voice came from outside the tent.
"Master."
"Come in."
Quirrell lifted the curtain and entered. His robes were disordered, clearly showing that he had spent a long time travelling through the forest.
"I am deeply sorry, Master."
Quirrell bowed his head, a trace of panic in his voice.
"Peritus and I have searched almost the entire outer region of the Black Forest, along with several hidden swamps, but we still have not found the enormous venomous snake you described."
He spoke with great caution, fearing that Tamara might casually cast the Cruciatus Curse upon him.
Yet Tamara did not fly into a rage as he expected.
She merely walked calmly toward the table and poured herself a cup of black tea.
"It does not matter."
Her voice remained cold.
Tamara knew the true Nagini would not be found so easily.
If she could be located within only a few days, she would not be worthy of becoming the Dark Lord's true pet.
"Make this a continuing assignment for you and Peritus. The moment you uncover any clues, do not alert her. Report directly to me."
"Yes, Master!"
Quirrell reacted as though he had been granted a pardon and quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"There is one more matter, Master..."
He swallowed, his expression becoming rather strange, as though he could not decide whether he should speak.
"Continue."
"It concerns your... cleansing operation around the forest over the past several days."
Quirrell chose his words carefully.
"Because you eliminated so many exiled Dark wizards and murderous robbers entrenched along the Albanian border, the entire underground magical world of Eastern Europe is now in an uproar."
A trace of awe entered his voice.
"The survivors who were fortunate enough to escape are spreading rumours everywhere. They claim that an unspeakably evil and terrifying presence has awakened within Albania's Black Forest."
The hand holding Tamara's teacup paused.
Then a pleased smile slowly curved across her lips.
That was undoubtedly the finest compliment she had heard all day.
During the past week, Tamara had spent nearly half of each day conducting battles of justice in order to test the system loophole she had discovered on the train.
Whenever she found murderous Dark wizards who preyed upon the weak, Tamara wasted no words.
She marched straight into their camps, destroyed everything, and sent every occupant into the afterlife.
"Who the hell are you? Are you insane? We never provoked you!"
Whenever their leaders faced her with expressions filled with horror and despair, Tamara would elegantly step over the severed limbs and remains scattered across the ground, then answer in a gentle and compassionate voice.
"Do not be afraid. I am merely a kind passerby."
Standing above them, Tamara played idly with her wand while her eyes remained as cold as ice.
"After all, when evil appears before my eyes, I simply cannot bear to ignore it."
What sort of kind person spoke such righteous words while torturing others in ways a hundred times crueler than the Dark Lord?
In truth, Tamara had never wanted to do things this way.
Under the strict surveillance of the damned system, she could not freely use efficient curses such as the Cruciatus Curse or Avada Kedavra.
To vent her impulses without violating the system's judgment, the Dark Lord had been forced to employ her creativity.
She took various inefficient spells originally intended for healing and preserving life, then applied them in entirely different ways.
After witnessing the artistic methods of this so called kind person, those vicious Dark wizards completely collapsed.
They dropped to their knees, weeping and striking their foreheads against the ground as they offered sincere repentance.
"We were wrong! We have changed! Please show mercy! We swear we will become good people from now on!"
"We will definitely be good people!"
Faced with such a moving display of repentance, Tamara merely tilted her head. Cold delight flickered through her eyes as she gently waved her wand.
"Become good people? What a wonderful ambition."
"Perhaps after you die, some damned voice will offer you another opportunity to begin again."
With the fall of her spell, that one sided redemption reached its perfect conclusion.
Their pleas for mercy finally dissolved into the foul soil of the Black Forest.
The memory ended there.
Tamara slowly rotated the teacup between her fingers as her thoughts returned from the pleasure of the slaughter.
That reminded her that she had not yet examined the system's final assessment.
"System."
She called out coldly within her mind.
"I cleansed the magical world of so much filth during the past few days. How many attribute points have you awarded me?"
A cheerful electronic sound rang out, and a translucent panel appeared before her eyes.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the epic chain mission: Eastern European Border Cleansing!]
[Mission Rating: Perfect! You purified the soil of sin through decisive and overwhelming action!]
[Reward: Courage +5! Current Courage: 56.]
Tamara's expression instantly darkened at the sight of that solitary five.
"Five points?"
She questioned the system within her mind.
"I casually disposed of three pieces of rubbish on the train, and you gave me two Courage points."
"I destroyed at least four Dark wizard camps during the past several days and sent dozens of scum to hell, yet you awarded me only five?"
[Ahem... Respected Host, please remain calm.]
For once, the system's mechanical voice carried a trace of guilt.
[The system detected that your recent acts of punishing evil occurred with excessive frequency, while the methods employed were also... excessively cruel and repetitive.]
[To prevent the host from becoming addicted to the simple pleasure of killing, and to stop the malicious exploitation of system loopholes for repeated point accumulation, the system has automatically activated an anti addiction mechanism!]
[All similar combat activities conducted within the same region over a short period will be consolidated into a single special action! Please do not be discouraged. Continue to shine in other areas and become a well rounded good person!]
"Damn it..."
Tamara gritted her teeth and cursed viciously within her heart.
Whenever it came to restraining her, this system always possessed an exceptionally revolting internal logic.
Even so, Tamara was not particularly angry.
She merely sneered and dismissed the panel.
Accumulating points had only ever been an incidental benefit.
The true rewards she had gained from the slaughter within the Albanian forest were far more important than those few ridiculous Courage points.
She had rediscovered herself.
At her core, the Dark Lord was not some madwoman who killed merely for the sake of killing.
What she desired was supreme power, immortality, and the absolute superiority of standing above all others.
Killing was only a tool and a ladder by which those desires could be realised.
When she employed that tool, she felt no pity. Instead, she experienced the pleasure of taking revenge upon the world and demonstrating her own greatness through the power to deprive others of life at will.
During the year she had spent maintaining her disguise at Hogwarts, those warm and peaceful days had once created panic within her understanding of herself.
She had feared that those hypocritical emotions might genuinely assimilate or change her.
But the bloodshed of this past week had completely dispelled those doubts.
Whenever she looked down upon Dark wizards wailing and dying at her feet, that morbid desire for control and the sensation of holding another person's life and death within her hand made one truth perfectly clear.
She remained the same cold and ruthless Dark Lord who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals.
With that certainty about her true nature restored, Tamara felt more relaxed than she had in a long time.
Returning to Hogwarts, continuing to play the gentle and friendly model student, and acting alongside Dumbledore and those foolish classmates no longer seemed quite so intolerable.
Since her core had not changed, the hypocritical cloak of kindness was merely an excellent disguise that would help her ascend the throne of power.
"Master..."
Seeing Tamara remain silent for so long while holding her teacup with a disturbing smile, Quirrell could not help calling to her softly.
"Pack our belongings, Quirrell."
Tamara set down the teacup and rose gracefully, her voice filled with the composure of someone who held everything firmly under control.
Although Albania's Black Forest was indeed a place worth remembering, this absurd tale of visiting an aunt had reached its conclusion.
Now she had to return to London.
Back to that damned Wool's Orphanage.