Although absorbing soul power would plunge him into annoying dreams, the benefits he gained after the dreams ended were immense.
Therefore, if Victor Wick hadn't persuaded him to wait a couple of days to obtain a new body before absorbing more soul power, he would have been unable to restrain himself long ago.
In fact, if Victor hadn't arrived today, he truly wouldn't have been able to hold back any longer!
"I thought you'd forgotten what you promised me!" the Dark Lord snapped at Victor, looking quite displeased.
"Apologies, Dumbledore assigned me a temporary task on his end," Victor said, his face etched with exhaustion.
This fatigue wasn't an act; he had indeed come straight here without any rest after saving Dumbledore.
Upon seeing the exhaustion on Victor's face, the Dark Lord's anger subsided slightly.
It was clear that being late wasn't intentional. His weary state made it obvious he had rushed over immediately after finishing Dumbledore's task.
Voldemort was quite satisfied that Victor hadn't been merely paying lip service while secretly disobeying.
Besides, he needed Victor's help... reprimanding him now wouldn't be the right choice.
"Fine, enough time has been wasted. Let's begin immediately!" the Dark Lord said, suppressing his annoyance.
As for what task Dumbledore had given Victor? The Dark Lord, eager to absorb soul power, had no patience to listen.
Seeing that the Dark Lord didn't even ask about the mission, Victor knew the man had lowered his guard slightly—a promising start.
"Right away!" Victor replied, beginning to pull items from his pockets.
A cauldron, potion ingredients, and a large assortment of jars and bottles...
Regulus silently took the cauldron and set it up, while Victor quickly processed the potion ingredients.
While his proficiency in Potions didn't match Snape's, it was exceptionally precise.
Guided by the prompts from his database, his potion-brewing process was meticulous...
Soon, the potion in the cauldron gradually turned a pale green.
This wasn't a formula Snape had developed; it was something recorded in Secrets of Darkest Arts.
It was a transitional method for creating a temporary physical body during a non-permanent resurrection.
The Dark Lord wasn't at all surprised that Victor knew this recipe. Knowing Victor, the man had become a professor at Hogwarts; it would be more surprising if he hadn't checked that book in the Restricted Section! Years ago, Voldemort himself had praised the book highly in front of Victor!
As for whether Victor would realize he had used Horcruxes, the Dark Lord wasn't overly concerned.
That was the beauty of a Horcrux—even if you knew about it, there was nothing you could do.
How would anyone know what his Horcruxes were? Where they were hidden? Or how many he had made?
Furthermore, now that the Dark Lord's trust in Victor had been rebuilt, and being desperate to absorb soul power, he naturally didn't overthink things.
The Dark Lord had already unwrapped Quirrell's turban and sat with his back to the cauldron.
When the potion began to bubble, the face on the back of Quirrell's head suddenly opened its mouth, and a streak of black mist hissed as it plunged into the cauldron.
The potion erupted into a violent boil! The pale green liquid transformed into a vivid, seductive blood-red.
After Voldemort's soul fragment left his body, Quirrell collapsed to the ground and fainted.
Victor and Regulus stepped back, watching the cauldron in silence.
Before long, the bubbling in the cauldron subsided.
Splash!
A small, malformed hand suddenly thrust out of the potion!
Victor glanced at Regulus. Though a flicker of disgust crossed Regulus's eyes, he stepped forward, took a cloth, and scooped Voldemort out of the cauldron...
Voldemort finally possessed a temporary body, though its appearance was hard to describe—it looked like a grotesque goblin doll...
Victor didn't know how to describe the ugly thing either, but to summarize it in one sentence... the little creature looked somewhat human.
Only those scarlet eyes still gleamed with the same sharp intensity as before.
Victor stepped forward to wake Quirrell, and a relieved Regulus promptly shoved the ugly doll into the dazed man's arms.
Quirrell shook his heavy head.
'Who am I? Where am I? Who is this ugly doll?'
"Start immediately..." the ugly doll croaked, its voice rasping.
Startled, Quirrell's hands shook, nearly dropping Voldemort to the floor...
"Idiot! You're hurting me!" Voldemort roared in fury.
"Forgive me, Master!"
"Put me on the bed!"
Trembling, Quirrell placed Voldemort back onto the bed.
Regulus then kicked him over without mercy and immediately hit him with the Cruciatus Curse!
"Ah... ugh..."
Quirrell writhed on the floor in agony.
The Dark Lord's slit-like red eyes swept over Regulus, a flash of satisfaction in them.
'Very good! Quick-witted! Exactly what I expect from someone trained by Logic!'
"Can I begin absorbing the soul power now?" Voldemort asked raspily.
"I suggest you rest for two more days. After all, this body has only just been formed..." Victor offered some sound advice.
"I cannot wait!" Voldemort said angrily.
"Very well... if that is what you wish." Victor glanced at Regulus.
Regulus walked to the side and brought out the soul power Victor had left there.
"The time it takes for me to absorb soul power is inconsistent. During this period..."
"Rest assured, Master, I will take good care of you," Regulus said quickly.
"Hmm... watch this idiot! Don't let his clumsiness injure me!" Voldemort glared at Quirrell, who was sobbing softly on the floor.
"Understood."
Regulus opened the box and held it close. Voldemort took a deep breath, inhaling the soul power from the box in a single gulp!
He exhaled in ecstasy, like a heavy smoker who hadn't had a puff in days finally lighting one up and taking a deep, satisfying drag.
A sense of comfort gradually washed over Voldemort's entire soul, followed by an overwhelming wave of drowsiness...
In a daze, Voldemort felt as if he had a physical body again, and he was no longer in that cave.
"Heh... another boring dream," Voldemort muttered.
He looked around and found himself in a tavern, surrounded by a crowd in a heated atmosphere.
He seemed to be one of them.
At the front of the tavern stood a man with a small mustache, speaking in German. Although Voldemort had never learned German, he found he could understand every word!
"...Have any of you been to the market lately? Do you know how much a loaf of bread costs now? Five hundred thousand marks... Five hundred thousand marks! You'd probably need a wheelbarrow just to carry that much cash..."
Hogwarts.
When Victor woke up, Dumbledore brought him good news.
While Victor was away meeting Voldemort, Dumbledore had convened a meeting with the Board of Governors and successfully passed the multi-professor reform model.
In principle, the Board of Governors, led by Lucius Malfoy, would never have agreed to such an unreasonable request from Dumbledore that increased their expenses.
Unfortunately for them, the 'principles' were currently in Dumbledore's hands...
As soon as Lucius learned this was Victor's suggestion, his attitude did a complete 180-degree turn, and he agreed to Dumbledore's demands.
Seeing that Lucius had consented, the other board members offered no further opposition.
Thus, Victor's goal of reducing the burden was finalized with startling speed.
According to Dumbledore, while the Ministry representative was still hesitating, Lucius looked as if he were ready to pull the gold out of his own pocket right then and there.
After Victor saw Dumbledore out, the picture frame that had been lying face down on the desk suddenly stood up on its own.
Ariana's spirit drifted out. "My brother cares about you quite a bit. It's clear he's genuinely worried about you overworking yourself."
"He worries I'm tired, but he doesn't care why I'm so busy, does he? Heh, it's just his guilt talking," Victor said, shaking his head dismissively. "It's like someone who just cheated—once they're done, they suddenly become incredibly submissive to their partner for a while."
"You... you shouldn't speak about my brother like that..." Ariana said, sounding a bit anxious upon hearing Victor disparage Dumbledore.
But since she owed Victor so much, she couldn't bring herself to be truly angry. Instead, she just pursed her lips and looked at him with an aggrieved expression.
"I'm only joking, Ariana. You know your brother has never been particularly upright himself."
"Professor Wick!"
"Fine, fine..."
Ariana pouted for a moment before becoming bashful. "I'm sorry, Professor. I shouldn't have... I mean, I want to say thank you. If it wasn't for you, my brother would..."
"Alright, no need for that. I must continue working on your resurrection... Then, once your brother's curse is lifted, I'll bring the grown-up version of you before him. That'll certainly give him a surprise to cheer about."
Victor didn't consider himself soft-hearted, but he found it hard to resist when Ariana acted like this.
After spending so many years wading through filth, it had been a long time since he had encountered such an innocent girl.
There was another knock at the office door, and Ariana instinctively retreated into the frame.
Victor opened the door. This time, it was Harry Potter.
"I haven't seen my mother at the usual spot for several days... and then I suddenly received a letter from her today. Does that mean..." Harry looked at Victor nervously, his eyes full of hope.
"Severus didn't tell you? Your mother has already been successfully resurrected!" Victor said, surprised.
"That's wonderful! Can I go see her?" Harry asked, tears of joy streaming down his face.
The euphoria of his mother's return instantly washed away any resentment toward Snape for keeping it a secret. All he wanted now was to see her.
He had never experienced a mother's embrace; theoretically, he never would have...
But now, something that could only happen in dreams had actually become reality!
"Of course you can... it's just..." Victor looked at Harry with an odd expression.
He wondered what Harry's face would look like when he saw his mother, who now appeared even younger than he was...
"Would you be okay with your mother attending school with you?" Victor suddenly asked.
"Huh? Attending school together? Is my mother going to be a professor next term? But... isn't her resurrection a secret?"
"Uh..."