Hogwarts: I graduated before the system came

He bit his fingertips and black blood with a sweet and fishy smell gushed out.

He dipped the tip of the pen in his own blood and signed his name on the parchment with runes squirming on it.

"ValeriUS".

When the last stroke was made, the entire parchment instantly caught fire, turning into a blinding red light.

The red light had no temperature, but it carried an irresistible will and suddenly penetrated into his chest.

Valerius groaned and took a step back.

He felt his soul being grabbed by an invisible hand and then forcibly put into a cold, conceptual shackle.

He could clearly sense the contents of the contract.

Absolute obedience.

No betrayal.

Douglas Holmes and his designated allies must not be harmed in any form.

Any thought of going against the will trigger the scar deep in the soul.

But...then what?

What happens after the brand is triggered?

Is it the burning of the body or the tearing of the soul?

There is no explanation in the contract.

This blank space is more terrifying than any description of torture.

Douglas withdrew his hand with satisfaction, as if he had accomplished a trivial task.

He walked up to Valerius, extended his hand, and patted his stiff shoulder affectionately.

The action was like comforting a frightened student.

"Welcome to join my research team."

Douglas had a sincere and gentle smile on his face.

"Assistant Valerius."

The wind in the valley carried a smell mixed with damp soil and rotting leaves.

Douglas walked in front, his pace neither fast nor slow, as if he was just taking a stroll under the moon.

His pair of shiny dragon-leather shoes stepped on the dead branches and leaves, making a rustling sound as regular as a metronome, counting down the time for the collapsing heart behind him.

Valerius followed behind, trying to straighten his back and maintain the last dignity of an ancient vampire, but the tattered silk robe made him look like a fallen noble who had just crawled out of the grave.

There was a distance of three steps between the two of them, neither far nor near, but it felt like there was an invisible abyss between them.

He had been to this forest hundreds of times, each time as a predator, enjoying the shelter of the night.

But tonight, he felt like he was the prey nailed to the ground by the moonlight.

"Assistant Valerius."

Douglas's voice suddenly sounded, calm and gentle, breaking the silence in the forest.

Valerius's body shuddered, and he replied almost instinctively, "Yes, Mr. Holmes."

"Relax, we are colleagues now."

Douglas didn't look back, and there was a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Colleagues should communicate more and enhance understanding.”

Valerius remained silent, unsure how to respond to this cat-and-mouse exchange.

"I'm just curious."

Douglas' tone remained relaxed.

"That tribesman of yours whom I trained in Bucharest...how is he doing now?"

His voice was calm, as if he was asking about an old friend's recent situation.

The word "trainable" was like a red-hot silver needle, piercing Valerius's ears.

He could even feel the red mark of the contract deep in his soul heating up slightly, as if scrutinizing every word he was about to utter.

He saw the family emblem ring on his hand that symbolized his ancient bloodline, and his cousin was wearing an identical one on his hand.

He immediately understood that the other party had connected him with his unfortunate cousin the moment he saw him.

Valerius's Adam's apple rolled with difficulty, and an extremely complicated emotion flashed in his eyes.

There was fear and pity in that emotion, but more than that, there was an indescribable... disgust.

He recalled the secret room deepest in the Red Moon Brotherhood, a place that never saw the sun all year round.

There was no wailing, only a sticky, gurgling sound like the movement of rotten flesh.

His cousin, the vampire who had once been as handsome and proud as he was, was now just that pile of shit.

A pile of rotten flesh that is unrecognizable as human, barely maintaining the concept of being alive thanks to the vampire's powerful vitality...

"He... he's my cousin." Valerius' voice was extremely dry. "He's still alive."

He felt that the imprint deep in his soul was like a sleeping beast, and it did not awaken because of his words.

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he had not lied.

Yes, every word is true.

He simply cleverly concealed the most crucial part - that pile of rotten meat was the Holy Grail that the Red Moon Brotherhood most desired, and the key to their new era.

"only……"

He paused, weighing his words, trying to circumvent the contract's judgment with the most objective statement.

"I just couldn't...return to human form."

Douglas didn't stop.

Of course he noticed the reservation in the other person's words, the deliberately concealed, deeper fear, like a hint of blood hidden under the scent of perfume, which could not be hidden from him.

He didn't delve into it, nor did he use Legilimency.

He knew that a beast that had just been shackled would be at its most alert.

Forcibly prying its mouth open will only make it more difficult to tame.

It's still a long time.

He had plenty of time to let the teaching assistant vomit out everything in his stomach bit by bit.

He's not in a hurry.

"The Red Moon Brotherhood is an interesting organization."

Douglas changed the subject, his tone still relaxed.

"A vampire and a totemic werewolf can actually get together for tea. I'm curious, who do you listen to?"

Chapter 418: That’s right, I was the one who destroyed that organization!

Valerius was stunned for a moment, then felt a faint sense of relief.

As long as he didn't talk about that cousin who made him sick, anything was fine.

In order to demonstrate his worth and satisfy this terrifying colleague, he sorted out his thoughts almost immediately.

He raised his head, his voice a little hoarse from trying so hard to remain calm, but with a desperate allure:

"Professor Holmes... perhaps you would be interested in the true power center of the Red Moon Brotherhood. A power center... that has not been unified in decades."

This is a chip with enough weight.

"The previous leader was an extremely powerful totem werewolf, whose bloodline can be traced back to the giant wolf Fenrir of Northern Europe."

"But during the rise of Grindelwald, he refused to submit and was killed... by the Dark Lord himself."

There was a hint of awe in Valerius' tone, both towards the former werewolf leader and Grindelwald.

"Since then, the Brotherhood has been in a long period of division. No one person has enough power and prestige to suppress all factions at the same time."

"Faction?" Douglas keenly grasped the key words, but did not stop.

"Yes."

Valerius hurried after him, following closely.

"There are mainly three forces. One is the vampire clan headed by me. We control intelligence, wealth, and connections with the outside world. We are good at strategy and infiltration."

"The other group is the totem werewolf."

He glanced sideways at Douglas's back and chose his words carefully.

"They are the fist of the Brotherhood, pure violence and armed force. We check and balance each other, and no one can do anything to the other."

"Three forces, you only mentioned two."

Douglas's voice was flat.

Valerius's body stiffened again. He hesitated for a moment before speaking in a voice almost whispering:

"The other group... is the Dark Wizards. They are the most mysterious and strange, responsible for studying those forbidden ancient magics and the rituals of communicating with... certain beings."

"But that faction...disappeared a few years ago."

At this point, Valerius' voice began to tremble uncontrollably and he stopped.

A memory that he had deliberately forgotten, like a dam breached by a flood, flooded into his mind.

The time when that dark wizard faction was wiped out... and the time when his cousin fled back from Bucharest in a panic... almost overlapped!

The few remaining dark wizards at the time vaguely mentioned that the raid was led by a British wizard whose spells were unheard of.

British wizards...

Valerius's breathing suddenly became rapid. He raised his head and looked at the still calm figure in front of him. A terrifying hypothesis, so terrifying that it almost froze his blood, formed in his mind.

"That...that British wizard..."

His teeth were chattering as he stammered.

"I heard...I heard..."

Douglas finally stopped.

He turned around slowly, the moonlight illuminating half of his face, and there was a hint of an all-knowing smile in his deep green eyes.

"What do you want to ask?"

Valerius looked into those eyes, and all the words got stuck in his throat.

He understood, everything made sense.

Douglas seemed to find his reaction amusing, and he read in Valerius's eyes the question he hadn't been able to ask.

At the same time, he also pieced together a long-missing piece of the puzzle from the other party's words.

It turned out that the lair he destroyed that year was actually an important branch of the Red Moon Brotherhood.

And the mysterious leader of that organization...

Douglas still remembers the face he saw when he lifted his hood.

That was not a typical dark wizard, but a pale-faced, fanatical-eyed cardinal of the Vatican.

The cardinal of the Holy See was actually the leader of a faction of the Red Moon Brotherhood.

what does this mean?

This means that the huge and chaotic Red Moon Brotherhood has always been under the surveillance of the Holy See, and even... it itself is a vicious dog raised in the dark by the Holy See.

They used the Brotherhood to deal with heretics that the Holy See was not convenient to deal with personally, while at the same time controlling the movements of this vicious dog.

No wonder Lorenzo was so anxious. The situation faced by the Italian Ministry of Magic was more difficult than expected.

"Before you answer my question."