Chapter 425: Reasoning at the Wine Table

"Oh no," Harry revealed a painful expression. "I really don't know where this Half-Blood Prince spread from, but I am really not!"

"Alright, but the fact is everyone says it's you. I simply can't talk about this topic with girls," Hermione shook her head with a smile. "Actually, I think the Half-Blood Prince thing is quite interesting, if you say it isn't you."

"What Half-Blood Prince, what is going on?" Luo En asked in confusion.

"It's that old Potions textbook I took from you guys," Hermione explained patiently. "The title page of that book says 'This book belongs to the Half-Blood Prince,' and then there are many alterations and notes in the book."

"So that's it. No wonder you would think Harry is the Half-Blood Prince," Luo En nodded. "But if it's an old textbook, it should be Fred or George's, right? It feels like they are the kind of people who would do this kind of prank."

"Yes, I also felt it was someone who liked pranks at first," Hermione looked at Harry seriously. "But I soon discovered that the content altered by the Half-Blood Prince in the book was correct, and Harry was doing it according to the Prince's way. Many potions are like this."

"What?" Harry was stunned. "But—"

"Usually, I don't approve of this kind of altering textbooks, especially in the case of not being sure who the Prince is, rashly believing his notes is not a wise practice," Hermione continued. "It's just that your behavior, Harry, caused me some misunderstanding. I thought the Half-Blood Prince was a nickname you took for yourself—actually, I heard you and Neville discussing something about the King of Avalon, and I felt it was quite reasonable."

"So, you felt relieved to choose to believe the Half-Blood Prince?" Harry scratched his head. "This is not good to say, but if I know the Half-Blood Prince isn't me, then who he is is a question worth deep thinking, especially, in case he is a bad person, continuing to believe his notes might not be feasible."

"But if this is the case, you have to explain, why is your potion technique exactly the same as the Prince's notes?" Hermione still seemed to think Harry was the Half-Blood Prince, and instead pursued the question.

"How would I know this? My potions were learned normally at school, I have never invented anything myself, let alone thought about refuting the textbook," Harry also felt confused. However, he vaguely felt that he seemed to have fallen into a thinking trap.

"And, the Sectumsempra spell you used in the Triwizard Tournament," Hermione continued. "And this spell appeared in the Half-Blood Prince's textbook."

"No, no, no, the Sectumsempra spell was taught to me by someone from the Ministry of Magic. He said this was once a specialty of a Death Eater," Harry decided not to rush to think about Sectumsempra, he had to hurry to turn his thoughts back and grab the inspiration just now.

"Wow, hahahaha!" A strong laugh suddenly interrupted Harry's thoughts. He frowned and looked at where the sound came from, finding it was McLaggen. He brought a flamboyant smile, squeezed to the side of the table very strongly, and said like a bell: "What a coincidence, didn't expect to meet you guys here! Hermione, when did you start playing with them?"

"What are you talking about! We knew each other in the first year," Luo En said dissatisfied. "Today just happens to be..."

"No, let me tell you," Hermione interrupted him, and then used a strange, can be called condescending tone to say to McLaggen, "We are discussing Masked Riders, do you understand? If you don't understand, go ask the big shots you know, kid!"

McLaggen was stunned all of a sudden. He seemed to be startled, but soon he came back to his senses, said "I will figure it out" unconvincingly, and didn't intend to leave, just insisted on staying here.

Now, Harry, Luo En, and Hermione were all a bit embarrassed. The topic about the Half-Blood Prince was also completely disrupted, and for a while, they didn't know what to say—but Hermione's reaction was still fast. She decided to really talk about Masked Riders.

"Actually, mentioning Moon Knight just now, we can start from Moon Knight's fighting style to find his weaknesses. In fact, I feel the advantage of the OOO system and the Double system is that once you find the opponent's weakness, you can take out targeted forms to form restraint. This is the key to victory."

"But Saber can't change forms? Or rather, from Brave Dragon to Elemental Dragon, what I feel is an all-around enhancement. No matter where Moon Knight's weakness is, I feel Elemental Dragon can break it."

"Yes, I also feel this is a very strange thing, did you guys notice?" Hermione held up two fingers. "When Double and OOO change forms, they sacrifice part of their attributes to strengthen another part, while Cross-Z and Saber have complete strengthening when changing forms, without any trade-offs."

"Should be two ways of using the Knight system," Harry nodded. "According to current information, Cross-Z and Saber should be the ideas recommended by the Celestial Empire side, and the core element should be constant strengthening through growth; while the ideas of Double and OOO are developed by the White House side, they are prepared to utilize existing conditions to the extreme."

"However, I want to say, but," Hermione's eyes were a bit bright. "This shows that the two ideas are compatible. In other words, Saber or Cross-Z should also have some derivative forms that can be replaced and have different focuses; and Double and OOO should also be able to unlock some special, all-around strengthened forms through growth."

"Aren't Fang Joker and Pteranodon Combo just that?" Luo En asked back.

"No, because both of these only strengthened attack power and didn't strengthen defense power. Your Elemental Dragon should be more comprehensive," Hermione continued to speculate. "This shows that they should still have further room for improvement."

"Yes... I also feel so. Elemental Dragon doesn't just rely on guidance, it also has to do with his new state of mind, or it can be called truly figuring out something," Harry added. "Actually, Luo En, you have been thinking about it before, right? The meaning of Knight power, etc."

"Yes, the birth of Elemental Dragon is half due to the trigger, and half due to my own determination."

"So, if the transformers of Double and OOO can also make up their minds, they can truly unlock their strongest forms," Hermione nodded. "This way, one of my confusions has been answered."

"One, you mean there is another one?" Harry asked. "But since Saber and Cross-Z already have strengthened forms, I think they shouldn't need derivative forms, right?"

"Although that's the case, but the derivative forms of Saber and Cross-Z are not what I want to say. My other confusion is actually, since the Celestial Empire is willing to release the Knight system, then they must have mastered the core technology and won't let us obtain power beyond their control range."

"That is also a reasoning within reason."

"And then we noticed one thing, the codenames of Masked Riders are all single words, among which Moon Knight (Kiva), this is a non-existent word, it is generated from abbreviations. What do you think this indicates?"

"Indicates that the codename of Masked Riders must be a single word," Harry quickly understood what Hermione wanted to say. "And considering language differences, maybe this restriction is that it must be two to three, or four syllables."

"Then, what is the rule based on?"

"Ah?" Harry didn't understand this. "Is this important? I think you are thinking a bit too jumpy."

"Actually, I am thinking, everyone knows the full name of the belt is Build Driver, but is it possible that the so-called Build is not an ordinary word, but the codename of another Masked Rider?" Hermione said seriously. "The strongest Masked Rider used by the Celestial Empire to control the situation, Build?"

Harry and Luo En were both silent. Harry thought further. Zhang Qiu said she wanted to cultivate Luo En into the strongest Knight, then what was going on with Build? If one stood from Xuanjun's perspective, indeed, the issuance of the Knight system was based on the Celestial Empire mastering the strongest Knight, sufficient to control the situation. Then if they were willing to let Saber become the strongest Masked Rider, this was a bit strange.

So, either Zhang Qiu's information had a deviation, or... the Celestial Empire had already led everyone by two steps, three steps, or even dozens of steps in this arms race of the wizarding world: they not only mastered Masked Rider technology, but also mastered some technology that could counter Masked Riders, and even mastered technology that could counter this counter-technology, and even various technologies to deal with various counter-technologies.

Harry shook his head, trying to throw the inexplicable sense of frustration out of his brain. No matter what, the Celestial Empire's attitude was still friendly, so just hurry up and develop yourself.

After a slight dullness, Hermione revealed a smile that eased the atmosphere again: "Then these things are just groundless speculations. Let's go back to the Half-Blood Prince. I think if we can figure this out today, it's a gain."

Luo En also smiled. He remembered McLaggen in the middle of the conversation, because he felt he couldn't understand and couldn't get a word in, and could only leave in a gray way, and couldn't help but reveal a very low-quality, mocking smile.

Harry wore an unprecedentedly smug smile at this question. In fact, when the Double Riders were repeatedly mentioned just now, he had thought of Cui Ge, and subsequently recalled the conclusion Cui Ge had once reached, only to be collectively refuted by the girls. Without a doubt, that conclusion was the correct one: the true identity of the Half-Blood Prince was Severus Snape.