Edward hadn't expected Cohen to agree so quickly.
"When are we leaving?" Cohen asked.
"The departure date is set for the end of July, but there's no rush." Edward turned the steering wheel around a corner. "Remember to bring the Earl with you—have him tell us if anything comes up."
"It's strange, you managed to buy the most magical owl for the least amount of money—I've never seen a talking owl before. There must be a lot of little wizards at school envious, right?" Edward chatted casually. "Very few magical creatures can talk, and even fewer are domesticated."
"Envious?"
Cohen sensed that Edward might have a slight misunderstanding about the Earl.
"No child would like an owl that talks nonsense all day. I keep it purely out of kindness, to prevent it from going out and causing trouble for other little wizards."
However, this wasn't entirely true. Although the Earl was talkative, he could be quite entertaining sometimes.
Cohen continued to keep the Earl for another reason: it could be used as a backup weapon for surprise attacks—no one would expect an owl to be able to cast spells.
Cohen even made a small pouch for the Earl to carry his wand, which he coiled around the Earl's right paw.
Back home, Cohen gave Edward a little first-year shock—he led Edward into his own trunk.
"What's all this mystery?"
Edward asked curiously after Cohen mentioned there was a surprise inside.
"Merlin's trousers..."
After being pushed into the trunk by Cohen, and once the dizziness subsided, Edward was instantly stunned by the enormous area inside.
"This Unfathomable Stretching Charm—this sky—where did you get this?!" Edward exclaimed in shock.
"Professor Dumbledore helped make this trunk so Hagrid and I could keep things here," Cohen shifted the blame to Dumbledore. "Remember not to tell anyone about this place; it's illegal. You don't want Dumbledore to be on your mind because of this, do you?"
"I see…"
This explanation seemed more palatable to Edward. If it were Dumbledore, nothing outrageous would surprise him…
Cohen decided to show Edward the house first, and the two arrived at the cabin's door.
"Was it also infused with powerful shock-absorbing and isolation charms? I didn't see any signs of turbulence, and the Unfathomable Stretching Charm shouldn't be this strong…"
After his initial surprise, Edward became intensely interested in the box's construction.
He found the house inside to be an ingenious invention.
"This isn't the first one. Professor Dumbledore said one of his students, Newt, also had a similar portable base—used to keep some magical creatures," Cohen reminded him. "It's the author of *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, Newt Scamander."
"So what do you keep here? Or… what do you plan to keep?"
Edward asked Cohen expectantly. He hadn't seen any animals wandering around, and besides the house, there was only a hill with a cave.
"I remember Hagrid, the gamekeeper, really liked large animals. You guys aren't keeping them here, are you—" Edward had intended to joke about the dragon, but suddenly, he sensed a giant creature approaching from behind.
Besides the heavy breathing, the sunlight that had been streaming through the cabin door was completely blocked.
Cohen turned around to look behind the frozen Edward.
"Norbert, why are you out here?"
Cohen asked, pointing behind Edward.
Before Edward could turn around, he smelled sulfur.
"You've been keeping large animals, haven't you?" He swallowed hard.
Hiss…
Edward turned around with a determined look in his eyes, only to find himself face-to-face with Norbert—the enormous dragon's head was almost brushing against his nose, its orange-red vertical pupils staring at him curiously.
"Roar?"
"&%#@!"
Edward, though startled, uttered a jumble of words, but instinctively shielded Cohen behind him.
He frantically pulled his wand from his pocket—what spell should he use to deal with a dragon? What spell could even break a dragon's skin?
"It's alright, Daddy, it's very obedient." Cohen emerged from under Edward's elbow.
Norbert was indeed very obedient.
Hearing the relationship between the two from Cohen's words, it licked Edward's face affectionately.
"Ugh—" Edward's expression contorted; the slippery touch, the smell of sheep's blood mixed with a hint of sulfur, was pungent.
"Go back to sleep, I'll give you dinner later." Cohen shooed Norbert back; Edward was clearly quite frightened by its sudden appearance.
"A dragon!"
Edward exclaimed belatedly after Norbert flew happily back to the cave.
"Has your brain been frozen for that long?" Cohen asked incredulously. "I thought you'd really like dragons. There's a brass dragon girl in the sandbox you gave me that transforms into a dragonborn. I thought you liked that kind of thing."
"That's an adventure story, not reality," Edward corrected. "Keeping a dragon is too dangerous, and it's illegal—"
"Really?" Cohen blinked pitifully a few times.
"Okay... don't tell your mother..." Edward sighed. "She definitely won't let you keep a dragon here. She'll write to Dumbledore and give him a good scolding any second now."
However, after calming down, Edward began to feel a little curious about real dragons.
"But… is it really obedient? Will it bite if I touch it—you know, a normal wizard might never even touch a dragon in their entire life…"
"You'd better come with me, it seems to only listen to me," Cohen reminded him. "Your reaction makes me unsure whether I should show you another pet…"
"We've already seen a dragon, what could be more terrifying?" Edward said bravely. "What else do you keep?"
Cohen led Edward to the study on the first floor—this was temporarily being used as Ari's resting place, since unicorns couldn't easily go upstairs.
Pushing open the door, a jet-black "unicorn" stared directly at the two of them.
It exuded an aura of curse and death, its eyes only showing the whites, meeting Edward's gaze like that of a dead thing.
"—!"
Edward felt as if he couldn't catch his breath again.
But it's a bit safer than a dragon—a corrupted unicorn, after all, often appears in Muggle fantasy stories…
"Thump!"
Ari glanced at it briefly before turning back to continue what it had been doing before the two entered—
a solid boulder sat in the room, and it was tirelessly drilling at it with its horn.
The stone, enchanted by Cohen, had already been drilled into many cracks, but it would quickly return to its original state after Ari had completely shattered it.
"What's it doing?"
"Quitting alcohol," Cohen said casually. "Without alcohol, it's like it's crawling with vixens, so I gave it something to distract it."
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(End of Chapter)