"Regulus! Tell me this isn't true."
Sirius Black grabbed Regulus Black's hand. He truly hadn't expected that Regulus Black would go so far as to imprison him and bark orders at him—all just to secure his freedom, and in turn, ensure the survival of the Black family in the future.
"Hmph! Stay put. You'll be let out when I need you."
Regulus Black shook Sirius off and pulled out his wand, activating the magic on the collar once again.
Sirius Black involuntarily transformed into a large black dog.
"Woof! Woof... woof woof!"
But this time, the black dog wasn't baring his teeth at Regulus. His barks carried an anxious tone instead.
"Shut up! Go to sleep."
With another wave of his wand, Regulus sent a blanket flying over, completely covering the big black dog from head to tail.
Regulus Black on the bed had already fallen asleep. After peeking at him for a while, Sirius realized his brother had no intention of responding to him and had no choice but to curl up and sleep in the dog bed prepared for him.
Regulus Black—sleeping? In truth, as an undead, he didn't need sleep at all. He had infinite stamina and boundless energy... As an immortal creature, Regulus Black possessed several stats that were essentially limitless.
Yet despite his seemingly invincible stats, his weakness was just as clear—any real flame could become his undoing. As an undead, his body was as flammable as grease; one spark could reduce him to ashes.
That's why, upon understanding his condition, Regulus used Neville's toad Trevor to craft a beast-type talisman that suppressed all flames—the Black Lotus Sacred Flame Triple-Legged Golden Toad, imbued with phantom fire properties.
Only after creating this talisman did Regulus Black feel somewhat truly safe—no longer worried that someone might accidentally light a cigarette near him and turn him into a pile of soot.
Since he wasn't asleep, what was Regulus doing? Naturally, he was working on refurbishing the Nautilus submarine he had acquired!
This alchemical marvel, which once surpassed the world's technological standards, had become little more than scrap metal once its former glory faded. Still, its historical value and design concept retained an undeniable allure.
Regulus Black had been tirelessly restoring it. Many of its systems were terribly outdated by 1990s standards. If he were to restore it exactly as it was, it'd be fit for nothing more than smuggling runs for drug dealers—which was definitely not the outcome Regulus wanted.
Sailing the seas, appearing and vanishing like a ghost, unmatched in every way—that's the true spirit of a warship.
To that end, Regulus fused his iron golem [Zero] with the Nautilus, making it no exaggeration to call the vessel a ship-girl now.
It wasn't that Regulus wanted to jump on the ship-girl trend—fusing the Nautilus with [Zero] fit right into his skill system. This was the foundation of his survival, and the most effective way to restore the Nautilus.
As soon as the Nautilus fused with [Zero], [Zero]'s health bar immediately hit rock bottom—but the total health pool also increased drastically. If [Zero] originally had a health of 10,000, then after fusion, it soared to 10 million. And by "rock bottom," it meant that the full health bar was reduced to just slightly over 1/1000th—thanks to the remaining parts of the Nautilus still contributing a bit of HP.
Once the Nautilus became part of [Zero], her health began to slowly regenerate. With more healing potions, it would recover faster—but Regulus wasn't aiming to restore the original Nautilus. So, he let her heal naturally while focusing on gathering materials to craft replacement systems.
This definitely wasn't Muggle technology. Any part that could be replaced with an alchemical item would be. That's what vexed Regulus most—after all, jumping from 10,000 HP to 10 million meant the workload had multiplied more than a thousandfold.
The other numbered iron golems had also set aside their tasks. They'd been doing their utmost to gather the materials Regulus needed. Several Muggle factories and warehouses had been raided recently, suffering huge material losses.
Then [One] through [Six] used their link with Regulus Black to send the materials directly into his system space.
[Black Lotus Sacred Flame Three-Legged Golden Toad] These materials are then re-smelted to become metal imbued with magical properties.
Finally, Regulus Black crafts the components for magical artifacts.
Building a warship is far from assembling a mere model; it requires an immense amount of scientific knowledge and a large number of highly skilled craftsmen.
Regulus Black is neither a scientist nor a master craftsman, but he is a wizard! Using the magical artifact [Book of Experience], Regulus Black visited numerous experts and professors in various fields of shipbuilding, acquiring their knowledge. He compiled this expertise into a single volume of the [Book of Experience: Seven Ships Descend from Tianshan].
The book's cover is divided into seven sections. Currently, the section for the submarine Nautilus has been illuminated, while the others remain blank.
"Progress is at 27.46%. It's almost one-third restored," Regulus Black silently calculated in his mind. Repairing the Nautilus had consumed a great deal of his energy, but for someone with boundless vitality like him, idleness was unbearable.
All night, Regulus Black worked as if playing Minecraft, meticulously repairing the Nautilus pixel by pixel.
Dawn broke, marking the first day of the new semester.
"Dufftown isn't far from here. Go there and make an appearance," Regulus Black said, opening his eyes on time and standing beside Sirius Black's doghouse to announce the day's plan.
After dispelling the enchantment on Sirius's collar, Regulus Black left the room without another glance at his brother.
Regulus had no concerns about his older brother. If Sirius couldn't handle such a simple task, his decades of life would have been wasted—fitting, perhaps, for someone who was literally a big black dog! With Sirius's familiarity with Hogwarts, while all the students and staff were enjoying breakfast, he had already slipped out of Hogwarts' boundaries, bypassed the Dementors' defenses, and headed toward Dufftown, the location Regulus had specified.
Two days later, the front page of the Daily Prophet featured a photo of Sirius Black—not taken by a reporter, but by a Squib. The image showed Sirius clumsily stealing food from her home.
"Oh, it was absolutely terrifying! That scruffy man looked just as frightening as the one on the wanted poster. I heard a noise downstairs and went to investigate, holding my camera to capture the thief. But it was Sirius Black! I was certain he'd kill me, but instead, he got startled by the camera flash, grabbed the food, and bolted out the door."
A girl the same age as Harry Potter recounted her terrifying morning experience to the Daily Prophet with a look of horror.
Below was the reporter's impression of her during the interview:
"Sarah Maidani, a 13-year-old girl with wine-red hair. Though she's a Squib, her family takes great care of her, as evidenced by the fact that she lives alone in a Muggle villa at such a young age. Her heterochromatic eyes—one a clear, radiant pale gold—are mesmerizing. But it's not just her eyes; at 13, her figure surpasses that of many Muggle models, exuding both allure and charm. Oh, a golden-eyed Lolita!"
The entire article focused on describing how stunningly beautiful this 13-year-old girl was. Clearly, the Daily Prophet reporter was utterly captivated by her, unable to resist her charm. Even more astonishingly, this article was published in its entirety. Could it be that the Daily Prophet's editor was also enchanted?
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