Chapter 192: The Game of Appearance Order

"Stop pretending, champions of Hogwarts," Renata said coldly. "We arrived even earlier than you."

Harry took off the Phantom Charm somewhat awkwardly. He noticed that Cedric's hands were also somewhat nowhere to put, and Luo En's ears were even red.

Only Zhang Qiu said indifferently: "Very good, now none of us laugh at anyone."

Hermione said with some surprise: "You arrived long ago? Just hiding invisibly here? To tell you the truth, this is very..."

She swallowed the last half of the sentence with a complicated expression.

"Sorry, Miss Granger, we didn't mean to," Krum explained somewhat flustered. "We originally just intended to avoid that dog."

"Oh right, it's called Kenan, isn't it cute?" Fleur said with a shallow smile.

"We are not here to talk about dogs," Renata said coldly.

"But dogs are so cute," Elena immediately retorted. "Don't you know how fragrant dog meat is? No, you don't know, you only care about yourself."

"Hey, hey, let's talk back to the competition," Hermione struggled to smooth things over. "Now everyone knows the first project is a dragon, right? Do you have any countermeasures? Of course, the countermeasures don't have to be said, but you can talk about who you hope to appear first."

"My countermeasure is to be fat enough, so that when I am eaten by the dragon, I can choke it to death," Elena said. "To avoid them calling off the competition, I think it's appropriate for me to appear last."

"Are you serious?" Fleur looked at her teammate with surprise.

"I think she should be serious, dragons don't have molars," Renata said. "So they never chew when they eat."

"So you agree to let us appear last?" Elena looked at her with a hint of provocation.

"No, killing one or two people won't cause the competition to be suspended," Renata said expressionlessly. "Let us appear last, so if the dragon hasn't digested you completely, we can still save you."

"They are talking nonsense with their eyes open," Luo En pretended to whisper to Harry, but the volume was just right for everyone present to hear.

"I don't think so, he's just joking," Harry pursed his lips and whispered back with the same volume.

"Two, how about this," Zhang Qiu suddenly stood out. "If you both intend to appear last, then let us appear first, and then you discuss who goes first and who goes second, how about that?"

"But I think it's better to let Elena appear first," Fleur suddenly recovered. "That way, after she is eaten, there will be two chances to be saved."

"Then if you don't want to appear second, we can consider being second," Cedric paused. "But in that case, we need some compensation."

"Good suggestion, Cedric," Harry's eyes lit up. "And whoever gives more compensation, we will support whoever in the competition for the ranking."

"I can teach you a spell," Fleur said without hesitation.

"I can give you a Firebolt," Krum immediately followed up.

"I'll give two, no, seven, enough for you to arm a team," Elena immediately followed up.

"I can accompany you for a night," Renata said something shocking, making everyone present silent.

"Hey, hey, I think there's no need to do this at all," Hermione once again withstood the pressure and came out to smooth things over. "Why don't we go back and discuss it separately, and discuss this problem tomorrow."

All the champions left at the same time. Although tonight had a tone of peaceful discussion, it actually ended somewhat unhappily.

"Seven Firebolts, my god, this is not something I can think of," as soon as they returned to the carriage, Luo En couldn't wait to say.

"I think she shouldn't have intended to fulfill it," Cedric said calmly. "And Renata saying that actually means she doesn't want to pay anything at all."

"Actually, we can't be led by the nose by them," Zhang Qiu said. "We need to think clearly about which one we want to appear in."

"One thing is certain, the competition side has prepared many dragons, about ten," Harry said. "And, I have sufficient means and confidence, even if I deal with ten dragons at the same time, I am not afraid at all."

Cedric showed a surprised and unbelievable look.

"I believe the competition content must be more than just dealing with dragons, there should be other tasks to complete," Luo En said. "Then when Harry is containing the dragons, Cedric, you can go handle those tasks."

"Can," Cedric nodded with a complicated expression, and then continued. "It's easy to infer that other combinations will also adopt the method of one person containing the dragon and one person completing the task."

"So, the key to scoring has two points: one is that I need to contain more dragons and perform more at ease," Harry said. "Two is that you need to complete the task faster and better."

"Then, the advantage of appearing later is that the person completing the task can observe how others complete the task and optimize it, so as to complete the task faster and better," Zhang Qiu summarized. "And the disadvantage of appearing later is that if the dragon is injured too much or in a bad state, the effect of containment will not be reflected."

"That is to say, our choice of first or later depends on who of you is more confident in performing better than other champions," Luo En said.

The four people in the carriage were all a bit silent. Harry knew more, but he also considered more.

He had the Seven Deadly Sins and could easily suppress those dragons, which was unquestionable. However, since Elena said "choke the dragon to death," this meant she had the intention to kill the dragon; Renata said she could "rescue Elena who hadn't been completely digested," which also meant her strength was enough to disembowel the dragon. So, if they appeared later, in case these ten dragons were injured too much by the first two people, and couldn't reflect his suppression, then it would be counterproductive.

And, their confidence also meant that the choice of who completes the task would be handed over to the match-throwing Fleur and Krum. They would definitely make some accidents, so even if Cedric completed the task perfectly after appearing later, he would be considered by the judges to have learned from the lessons of the first two people, which would lead to them not necessarily giving him a high enough score.

Harry also remembered another thing, that Fleur and Krum were preparing to throw the match, which could actually slightly infer the strategies of the other two groups.

Fleur refuted his suggestion of appearing first in the first discussion. And for these two, they should know that "the Ministry of Magic is determined to let Harry shine," so it is easy to guess that "Harry has a calm way to deal with dragons." Then what information did Fleur's sentence convey? Perhaps, her meaning was that Elena did not have the ability to injure more than five dragons.

Elena would at least not tell Fleur a lie, so Fleur thought Harry could appear later, which meant Elena's strength was not enough to injure more than five dragons. Ilvermorny thought Elena was enough to contend with Renata, so Renata should not be either. However, if both could injure four dragons, that would be disadvantageous for Harry.

And Krum, after hearing Harry's conversation, he might choose to continue using a flying broomstick after Harry, and Krum, who is famous as a star seeker, should be able to easily persuade Renata to accept this idea. In this way, it seems that the best choice for Harry is to appear second.

But this has a premise, that is, Fleur and Krum really have these thoughts. If the two of them are just seeing the wind and steering the rudder, following the crowd, and throwing the match in a lying-flat way, then the conclusions just drawn cannot be easily adopted.

Thinking of this, Harry organized his language slightly and said, "Then we can first infer how other combinations divide the work."

"There is a great possibility that Elena and Renata are responsible for dealing with dragons, while Fleur and Krum are responsible for completing tasks," Zhang Qiu said. "Because when mentioning dragons, the former's demeanor and actions are obviously more relaxed, while the latter will have a certain amount of nervous performance."

"You observe very carefully," Cedric sighed in admiration.

"Krum is best at broomstick flying, we must appear before them," Luo En said. "As for what Fleur and Elena's plans are, perhaps it remains to be discussed."

"But judging from Elena's joke, she might have the confidence to deal with dragons. If she injures more than half of the dragons, won't Harry's advantage not be reflected?" Cedric also thought of this layer.

"Hey! We still have an advantage," Luo En remembered something and clapped his hands. "We can go ask Hermione, she is one of us!"

"I think this is not very good for Hermione," Cedric frowned and said.

"In fact, you ignored Hermione's opening remarks. She said, now everyone knows the first project is a dragon," Zhang Qiu said. "Perhaps we felt this was a nonsense sentence at the time, but what if we didn't know? The situation should be Renata asking Fleur, and Fleur telling her. She actually wasn't sure if Harry and Cedric knew this, but she said it directly."

"That's right, this shows that she is inclined toward us," Luo En said happily.

"But before that, Renata said 'now everyone knows,' could she have inferred it from this?" Harry said uncertainly.

"Then the situation might be more complicated than we imagined," Zhang Qiu pondered. "Renata certainly learned the information about the dragon from Fleur, but she wasn't sure if Fleur was telling a lie. After she said that, she not only tested the truth of the dragon news but also confirmed Hermione's composition."

"I remind you, Renata and Krum might have overheard our conversation long ago," Cedric said.

"But in short, Renata is a deep-thinking opponent who must be guarded against," Harry touched his chin. "And our appearance order should be at least before Krum. As for Fleur and Elena's situation, and how to facilitate the order we want, perhaps we still have to chat with Hermione tomorrow." ===== CHAPTER 193 =====