Mysterious Journey
Chapter 457: The Demon King's Mercy
One day, the hunter will become the prey.
Aileen sat in the center of the Acromantula's nest, watching the crackling, crispy spider legs roasting over the campfire, marveling at the wonder of fate while swallowing her saliva. She had never imagined that the first magical creature feast she would eat would be spider.
Unlike vegetarians or compassionate philanthropists, Aileen had always been a ruthless predator. Since the Acromantulas wanted to taste delicious human flesh, they had to be prepared to become human food.
This has nothing to do with intelligence. Nature endows all races with an equal food chain of life and death.
In fact, in Aileen's view, the main reason why some extreme animal rights activists or extreme vegetarians appear in later generations is not because people's spiritual realm has improved, but because the terrifying upright apes are too powerful. With a huge population as a backing, they can afford the eccentricity of a small number of members.
If a wolf pack wanted to switch to vegetarianism, they might starve to death in the wilderness before the second winter.
And on the other hand...
Since the old spider Aragog could no longer restrain its children, no longer allowing them to resist the temptation of human flesh, then they needed to be prepared to be eaten. Facing a sentient magical creature that craved human flesh, Aileen preferred to call her behavior "benevolence" rather than directly implementing genocide.
Roasting spider legs is a technical job. Compared to roasting crab legs, the process of roasting spider legs is more complicated.
The biggest difficulty in cooking and grilling this [terrestrial soft-shell hairy crab] that lives in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts lies in controlling the heat. It is necessary to burn off the fluff while avoiding burning the tender meat by setting the shell on fire.
With the crackling sound of the campfire, the limbs of the terrestrial soft-shell crab began to emit a faint aroma similar to that of roasted king crab legs. Without any seasoning, this natural and wildest flame cooking is the best match for the ingredients.
Aileen's delicate little nose twitched, so fragrant!
Carefully taking a well-roasted crispy spider leg from the campfire, Aileen used a stone chip that she had temporarily sharpened into an edge and effortlessly cut open the crispy black shell, revealing the snowy white flesh inside.
The increasingly strong aroma of roasted king crab mixed with a faint burnt smell, making people involuntarily begin to secrete saliva.
It must be admitted that as a magical creature with a certain amount of magic, the flesh of the Acromantula is far better than the roasted spiders Aileen had eaten in Cambodia in her previous life. The taste is somewhat similar to tender chicken, but the taste has a few points of the deliciousness of hairy crabs.
"Hic, Aragog, would you like to eat some?"
Aileen glanced around at the surviving Acromantulas huddled around, trembling as they ate the corpses of their companions. She turned to look at the big spider, which had been hiding behind the thick spider web, not participating in the meal, and said with a light smile.
Spiders are creatures with cannibalistic habits.
According to the habits of spiders, eating the corpses of dead companions is not such an unacceptable thing.
In this regard, even the Acromantula, as a magical creature, is no exception. In fact, if Hagrid hadn't acted quickly, Aragog's funeral in the original book might have only buried some of his small toys from his childhood, building a magical creature version of the "cenotaph" with a pile of dirt.
Click clack...
Aragog, hiding behind the spider web, waved its large claws a few times and asked slowly after hesitating for a few seconds.
"That...Miss Kaslana, are you full?"
"About seventy percent full, hic. There's really too much, I can't finish it all alone."
Aileen casually threw away the crispy spider leg she had already eaten, stood up and walked to the slaughterhouse next to her, naturally breaking off four or five more spider legs and dragging them to the campfire to put them on the rack. She licked her lips and said softly.
"Don't worry, I won't eat you. I'm still waiting for you to lead the way for me..."
As the girl stood up, the Acromantulas who were still eating around her all stiffened involuntarily, and then quickly moved their large claws and retreated, for fear of being caught and harmed by Aileen as a "corpse".
"I...I'm not hungry yet..."
Aragog hesitated for a while before speaking slowly, his huge body subconsciously moving a little deeper into the mist.
Compared to those young Acromantulas with slightly less developed minds, this old spider, which had grown up with Hagrid, could more clearly feel the fear that Aileen brought. If nothing unexpected happened, from then on, this fear would be deeply rooted in the depths of the soul of every Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest.
"Not hungry? Okay, suit yourself..."
Aileen shrugged her shoulders, not calling out the old spider's insincerity. She continued to return to the campfire and stared at the new batch of roasted spider legs, spacing out. Eating roasted spider legs on Halloween can be considered a special holiday experience.
Speaking of which, if she remembered correctly, Ron Weasley seemed to have some shadows about spiders due to the pranks of his brothers when he was a child. She wondered if these fragrant, crispy spider legs could help him get out of his childhood shadow.
After all, according to Aileen's own experience, diet therapy is always the most effective and healthy mental therapy.
……
At the same time, the battle on the other side was also coming to an end.
It must be admitted that compared to Grindelwald, who hadn't used his hands for decades, Voldemort's proficiency in spellcasting was still maintained at a relatively good level, at least several times stronger than the Aurors in Austria.
On the other hand, Quirinus Quirrell's accusation still had some effect.
At least as the party at fault, Grindelwald did not completely take drastic measures, regardless of the consequences, and forcibly wanted to keep this poor wizard, who had already been beaten twice and had even started eating dirt to survive, in the Forbidden Forest. This could be considered the mercy of the Demon King.
Even with the help of Fluffy, facing a second-generation Dark Lord who was wholeheartedly defending, using someone else's wand, and slightly restraining his strength, Grindelwald was still unable to stop Quirinus Quirrell from escaping back to Hogwarts Castle.
However, even if Quirinus Quirrell managed to escape from his hands, he still paid a considerable price.
If Grindelwald was not mistaken, that young wizard had at least taken another solid paw from Fluffy, as well as two or three complex curses he had cast that were biased towards curses. These were not injuries that could be healed by resting for a while.
"How interesting, as expected, it is that Dark Lord?"
Grindelwald, riding on the three-headed dog, stopped at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, looked at Professor Quirrell, who was running in a mess across the clearing in the forest and into Hogwarts Castle not far away, chuckled, and muttered to himself with flickering eyes.
As for the follow-up processing, that was a problem for Albus Dumbledore to worry about.
He still had more important things to do now.
"Okay, Fluffy. Let's go find Aileen. That little girl must be starving."
……
Hogwarts Great Hall.
Nearly a thousand magically conjured bats were fluttering on the walls and ceiling, and some were hovering above the tables like low clouds, causing the candle flames in the pumpkin bellies to flicker.
The delicious and abundant Halloween dinner was also about to come to an end.
Hermione, Hannah, and Luna looked anxiously at the entrance of the hall. Ever since a small commotion occurred at the faculty table half an hour ago, and Hagrid and Mr. Otto left Hogwarts Hall at the same time, they had a bad feeling.
As time went by, Aileen had not been able to appear in the hall on time, which confirmed their guess.
Without a doubt, something particularly troublesome must have happened on the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest side.
However, at the moment, they had no way but to pray. At least, Dumbledore was still sitting in the hall, indicating that the situation was not particularly serious, just a few accidents, right?
"Aileen, you must be okay."
Bang!
At this moment, the door of the hall suddenly opened.
Professor Quirrell, covered in blood, rushed into Hogwarts Hall. The male wizard was covered in terrible wounds, and many places had burn marks or traces of explosions. His pale face was full of fear.
Everyone subconsciously stopped talking and turned to look at the miserable-looking Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
Quirinus Quirrell's large turban was crookedly placed on his head, revealing half of his bald, wrinkled, and dirty back of the head. Voldemort, who was originally attached to it, was nowhere to be found.
The young wizard staggered to Dumbledore's chair, leaned against the table, and made a banging sound.
"Unicorns - someone is poaching unicorns in the Forbidden Forest - Aileen and I tried to stop them - but -"
Quirinus Quirrell, who had temporarily lost Voldemort's possession, was particularly weak.
After gasping for breath, Professor Quirrell struggled to say a few words, and then fell headlong onto the floor of Hogwarts, unconscious. Spots of blood spread from the entrance of the hall all the way to Dumbledore's long table.
"..."
Dumbledore silently glanced at Professor Quirrell, who had fainted in front of him, and his cheeks twitched.
"Wait! This wound...I seem to have a little impression."
Before Dumbledore could say anything, Severus Snape suddenly stood up, looked at a wound on Quirrell's body with a solemn expression, and said in a gloomy tone.
"This is very likely the effect of a special explosion curse, which is very similar to the spell that blew open my office door a few months ago. Professor Dumbledore, I suspect -"
However, before Snape could finish his words, a chaotic scream instantly drowned out his figure.
Witnessing a professor falling in front of them, his life or death unknown, the entire hall was briefly stunned for a few seconds before instantly erupting into chaos. Dumbledore had to use his wand to explode a few purple fireworks over everyone's heads to calm them down.
"Heads," Dumbledore took a deep breath and rubbed his brow, "Please immediately lead the students of each house to their dormitories."
"Madam Pomfrey, Professor Snape, the treatment of Quirinus is entrusted to you two. As for the students' reassurance work, it will be temporarily coordinated by Professor McGonagall..."
Dumbledore glanced at Quirinus Quirrell, who was covered in wounds and unconscious, and sighed helplessly.
"As for me...I will now go to the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest to see what exactly happened. Everything, I will talk about when I come back."