"Nonsense, of course it's you. Now, where's the storage room?" Kasen asked.
"Uh… directly behind the desk. Underneath it are three gems—you have to press them in a certain order. Each professor sets a different sequence, so I suggest you—" Grindelwald hadn't even finished speaking when two strange thunk-thunk sounds echoed.
Thunk-thunk…
"This the storage room?" Kasen knocked twice with his knuckles, leaving a gaping 2m × 1m hole in the wall.
"...…Yes. Now, what we need to do is find my research notes and the Soul Amplifier. I remember the notes were stored in a black leather case, and the Soul—wait, what are you doing again?"
Kasen, not the least bit picky, was already sending everything within sight back to his office through the ring on his hand. He replied matter-of-factly, "Taking your stuff back, obviously."
"…You don't actually need to take that much." Grindelwald said awkwardly.
"Ah, come on. We're already here—just treat it as bringing back some local specialties."
Kasen kept moving his hands without pause. Soon enough, even the shelving in the storage room had been hauled away.
And just as Grindelwald thought Kasen would finally head back, he noticed Kasen's gaze drifting toward the rest of the office outside the storage room.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk… this book—wait, what's this? How come I've never seen this school of alchemy before?" Kasen casually plucked a tome from the shelf, skimmed it with some curiosity, then smoothly sent it into his office with the Ender Ring.
Next came the entire bookshelf, the little trinkets on the desk, the cozy-looking sofa, and even the tapestries on the walls.
Wow! The carpet turned out to be made from pure Pegasus hair too!
Soon enough, poor Miss Rostamer's office was stripped down to nothing but a chair, a desk, and herself—the only things not automatically scooped away…
Of course, there were a few survivors. For instance, the piles of homework her students had turned in for grading—those Kasen hadn't touched.
"Eh, I'm such a decent person." Kasen sighed, then with a soft buzz, he blinked back into his office at Hogwarts.
Grindelwald, meanwhile, sat on the sofa Kasen had just hauled back from Durmstrang, staring at him with an odd expression.
That look… kind of like a parent staring at their disappointing child.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Weren't you the one who told me to steal things? Why that face now?" Kasen asked.
Grindelwald sighed. "I asked you to steal something, not move house… Forget it, I share some of the blame." He let out another long sigh and stretched out his hand. Kasen returned the monocle Portkey.
"Did you find that shred of your soul? If not, I can help you look." Kasen said, peering through the monocle at the pile of loot he'd brought back from the storage room. At least half of it carried some faint traces of soul energy.
"That won't be necessary. After all, it's part of my soul—I can sense it myself, more or less." Grindelwald said, pulling out a mini version of the Soul Amplifier. He picked it up and then… well, Kasen couldn't tell if he was sniffing it like fresh bread or like stinky tofu.
Either way, he inhaled deeply, utterly intoxicated.
"That thing's covered in dust. Aren't you afraid you'll inhale it straight into your lungs?" Kasen asked.
"My lungs are a little itchy… but it's nothing serious." Grindelwald muttered, rummaging around the pile again. After a bit, he found the research notes on Soul Branches and placed them on Kasen's desk.
"This is it." Grindelwald said, then made to leave the office as if boarding a little boat.
"Mm-hmm, bye-bye then. If I don't understand something, I'll come ask you." Kasen waved him off, then opened the case. The next second, he was greeted with pages and pages of dense German.
"...Bloody hell, Grindelwald!"
.......
Since Grindelwald had no classes that afternoon, he rather helplessly stayed behind in Kasen's office to translate the documents, no matter what—it all had to be turned into English.
Meanwhile, Kasen headed straight downstairs to the alchemy classroom. Grinning, he looked at the crowd of little wizards. Now was the time.
Time to give them just a small taste of industrial shock.
First, he had all the students gather around. Then, like performing a magic trick, he laid plank after plank on the desk. With a light tap from a small wrench—
Pop! A tiny gear sprang right out.
"So… Professor, isn't this supposed to be alchemy? Why does it feel more like Transfiguration?" Cedric asked in confusion.
"In order to teach you this lesson, I even borrowed a projector from Professor Snape to show you a PPT." Kasen said, pulling a projector from under the podium, along with a very retro film reel.
"Everyone, watch carefully. This is a documentary I went out of my way to find in the Muggle world, showing automated assembly lines and industrialization. It took me ages to have someone convert it into film—don't waste my good intentions."
Kasen said, moving to the back of the classroom and flicking on the projector.
The short video began with the earliest human tools—using stones to smash bones, then sails, waterwheels, levers, beasts of burden.
Later came the moment when humanity lit up another brilliant branch of the tech tree—boiling water.
From there: factories, ever more efficient, powered first by manpower, then beasts, then shafts, steam engines, generators…
.......
"So… what's the point of this?" Morgan asked, still not understanding.
"Didn't you notice? In all that footage of the changing means of production, there was one overwhelming force that never once appeared. Arthur, care to answer?" Kasen asked back.
"Uh… you know me, I'm no good at riddles." Arthur Morgan helplessly spread his hands.
"Magic, of course. I've looked into this for a long time, and across the wizarding world, no matter the country, there's never been a proper automated workshop. I've narrowed it down to a few simple reasons."
"First, when it comes to ordinary Muggle creations like steam engines or generators, they're prone to magical erosion and mutation. Even a simple, unconscious bit of Transfiguration or a stray Vanishing Spell effect from ambient magic can drastically interfere."
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