Orochimaru travels to Hogwarts

Chapter 15 "Child, something is wrong with your soul."

Nicolas Flamel.

This was yet another unfamiliar name. Orochimaru followed Dumbledore, listening to the professor recount his past with Nicolas Flamel, while secretly marveling at it.

He truly never imagined that someone in this world could live for six hundred years.

For Orochimaru, who was born in Konoha, this was even a mockery.

Because from the time Konoha was founded by the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, until he implemented the Konoha Destruction Plan, only sixty years had passed.

He is less than one-tenth the age of Nicolas Flamel.

"The expectation in your eyes is far greater than I expected," Dumbledore said, gazing at Orochimaru's slightly dilated snake eyes. "It even makes this old man a little jealous."

"That's immortality, after all, Professor." Orochimaru didn't hide his feelings.

Dumbledore didn't reply, but merely raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly. He then stood shoulder to shoulder with Orochimaru, gazing at the library at the other end of the street.

Orochimaru could see clearly that it was obviously an old library.

The once pristine white marble facade, stained by dust and rain day after day, has become like a filthy white robe.

The wooden door was also somewhat rotten, making one suspect that a gust of wind could blow it to pieces.

But here's the strange thing.

Orochimaru witnessed a salesman in a suit lingering at the door for a long time before finally mustering the courage to knock.

But as soon as the man stepped onto the gray cement steps, he seemed to suddenly remember that his house was on fire, and he abruptly turned around and ran away.

"This is a Muggle banishment charm. It lacks your warning and concealed barrier, but its effect is far superior."

Dumbledore seemed to have guessed Orochimaru's doubts and explained with a smile.

"Muggles and wizards are practically two different species, Professor," Orochimaru said in a low voice.

"But Muggles are great too, aren't they?" Dumbledore said softly, as if trying to convince himself.

"Okay, I'm going to start knocking now."

Before Orochimaru could answer, Dumbledore started moving on his own.

He took out a small cloth wallet from his pocket, reached inside with both hands, and pulled out a hard card about the size of a book page.

"That's magic too, Mr. Slack Anguilloché," Dumbledore explained with a smile. "I hope you're not too surprised."

Not surprised...

In the ninja world, we also have sealing techniques to store ninja tools.

Orochimaru silently compared the tools, then gently shook his head. Because the process of retrieving ninja tools would never be as effortless as Dumbledore's.

As he pondered this, he glanced at the hard card, about the size of a page, in Dumbledore's hand.

The card's left edge is uneven, making it look like a page torn from a book.

However, the card itself is made of a rather extraordinary material, with silver trim that flows like water at all times.

When Dumbledore took out the card and tapped it lightly with his index finger, the silver water around the edges suddenly gathered in the center, and then, like the curtain of an opera stage, it was slowly pulled open from the left and right by an invisible hand.

"That's magic too, Professor," Orochimaru whispered, interrupting.

Upon hearing this, Dumbledore winked mischievously and turned his gaze to the center of the stage.

There, an elderly man, whose face could no longer be described as aged, was wearing a soft white felt nightcap and was gazing sleepily out of the stage.

It took him a while to recognize the person knocking on the door.

"Dumbledore, you've disturbed my already precious sleep." He said, almost crawling, as he slowly removed his nightcap. "I remember our agreed moving date was the third of next month."

Without Dumbledore's introduction, Orochimaru, who was standing to the side, guessed the identity of the speaker.

Nicolas Flamel!

Nicolas Flamel, who lived for six hundred years!

Orochimaru could swear that, despite all the human experiments he had conducted, he had never seen anyone so old and frail.

He was practically a rotting corpse.

Although the body had been dug out of the grave and injected with countless amounts of formalin, his skin, eyes, and even the tone of his voice all indicated that the embalming measures were failing.

Orochimaru suspected that if he used a little force to shake hands with him, he could easily break Nicolas Flamel's hand.

"Is this the price of immortality?" Orochimaru's voice was slightly bitter.

"I thought you'd say this is the torment of immortality." Dumbledore turned his head, glanced at Orochimaru, then smiled again and said to Nicolas Flamel, "Sorry to bother you, Nico. I'm here to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone, and by the way, I've brought along a young wizard who's interested in immortality. I think you can answer many of his questions."

A young wizard interested in immortality...

Nicolas Flamel slowly wiggled his neck, seemingly wanting to be the first to see what the little wizard Dumbledore had specially brought looked like.

But after a slight cracking sound, Nicolas Flamel abandoned the risky move that could have broken his neck.

"Welcome, I also look forward to meeting young people."

After Nicolas Flamel finished speaking, the stage in the very center of the card was drawn back up, and then the silver water flowed out again, embedding itself around the edge of the card.

"Alright, we've knocked on the door."

Dumbledore put away the card and smiled at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru, who was crossing the street with Dumbledore, suddenly recalled a very distant memory.

Those were Jiraiya's complaints to himself.

"Minato knew the Flying Thunder God Technique, yet he was still excessively polite!" Jiraiya shouted excitedly in front of him at that time, "He suddenly appeared at my door, but instead of going in, he insisted on knocking, saying that he had to maintain respect for his teacher."

"Isn't this great?"

"But that brat Minato always deliberately knocks on my door at four in the morning, when I'm rushing to finish my manuscript!"

Orochimaru gently shook his head, trying to dispel the inappropriate memories from his mind.

He had only been in this world for four days, but his past memories were already appearing in stages, like the tides.

Orochimaru could only guess that it was the result of the new body's bloodline limit, but he felt more and more that something was wrong.

Just as he was about to think further and design several experiments to verify this, Dumbledore stopped in front of Nicolas Flamel's wooden door.

He was waiting for Nicolas Flamel to open the door, just as politely as he had been for Minato Namikaze.

Orochimaru was also listening to the commotion inside the door.

Nicolas Flamel, who had lived for six hundred years, was running all the way to open the door.

However, he was not much faster than a tortoise, and it took him almost a full minute to cover a distance of just a few meters.

As Nicolas Flamel's white figure peeked through the glass of the decaying wooden door, Dumbledore turned and winked at Orochimaru, as if to say that immortality is far more torturous than you imagine.

Unpredictable...

The wooden door, which hadn't been opened for who knows how long, was slowly pulled open from the inside by Nicolas Flamel.

Orochimaru immediately took a look at Nicolas Flamel, who had lived for six hundred years and was, in some ways, his ideal embodiment.

Nicolas Flamel had a head of white hair that had lost all its color, pure white, so old and decaying that it was hard to think of him otherwise.

Next came his skin and muscles. For Orochimaru, who had handled countless corpses, he could accurately assess Nicolas Flamel's physical condition.

If he dies today, his body will swell and bulge tomorrow, and rot and decompose the day after.

What Orochimaru found most unacceptable was Nicolas Flamel's eyes.

This was something he had never seen on the card before.

Those should have been bright and spirited gray eyes, but although the color hadn't faded, they inexplicably revealed an indescribable emptiness and weariness, as if they were the souls that had undergone countless resurrection techniques.

Orochimaru was slightly saddened; this was not the immortality he had imagined.

Dumbledore, however, carefully bent down and gently embraced Nicolas Flamel.

After the two exchanged another cheek kiss, Nicolas Flamel slowly turned around and looked at Orochimaru, who had piqued his curiosity.

Suddenly, a rare flame appeared in those empty and tired gray eyes.

"Child, something is wrong with your soul."

Nicolas Flamel said this.