After finishing all of this, Rhys once again walked out of the palace.
Daphne and Astoria, standing on the sand dune across from the ruins, were stunned. From their perspective, Rhys had been going in and out of the ruins nonstop, looking extremely busy.
But that busyness had nothing to do with them. In the end, it was because they simply weren't strong enough—not even capable of fending off a sneak attack.
"Maybe we really do need to focus more on practicing magic," Daphne sighed. "That's the only way we can help Rhys as soon as possible."
"Yeah." Astoria nodded, agreeing with her sister's suggestion.
After stepping into the palace ruins again, perhaps due to some sort of psychological suggestion, Rhys felt as though something within the corridor had changed—even though everything looked exactly the same, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was different.
He hurried deeper into the corridor.
Sure enough, the two jackal-headed statues had been restored, silently standing guard outside the grand hall's doors.
Having confirmed his hypothesis, Rhys turned to head back the way he came—but then, something unexpected happened again—he actually heard human voices!
[Ancient palace… full of mumbo jumbo… habits…]
The narrow corridor funneled the distant voices toward where Rhys stood. Though they were faint and unclear, he could unmistakably recognize—it was his own voice!!!
Rhys's eyes widened in shock.
In that instant, he realized he had been underestimating the palace all along. It didn't merely record a segment of time—it marked a segment, and then sent whoever entered it into that period!
If time was a river rushing forward, and people were fish swimming with the current, then this palace was a boat on that river, continuously dropping anchors along the shore. When a fish jumped onto the boat, it would be carried upstream to one of those anchor points.
Of course, it was also possible he was overthinking it, and the palace had merely recorded a projection of him and Daphne's group. But that was a gamble he couldn't take—the risk was far too great.
The greatest taboo of time travel was to come face-to-face with your past self.
Rhys took a deep breath, his mind racing: what should he do?
According to the timeline, he would be arriving at this very spot with Daphne and Astoria in just a few minutes.
Right now, he was especially grateful for his habit of being a long-winded teacher. If he hadn't stopped midway to lecture Daphne and Astoria about ruin mechanisms, he could've made it here in under a minute.
Though he had only a few minutes to act, Rhys wasn't panicking. Because he knew—he would find a place to hide.
The reason was simple: his past self hadn't seen "himself" in the corridor. That meant his future self had clearly managed to hide successfully.
He just needed to stay calm and patiently wait for that destined opportunity.
Soon, Rhys's gaze landed on a section of the wall.
The moment he saw it, he suddenly remembered—this was the exact spot where Astoria had noticed something unusual.
Behind the bas-relief on this wall was a hidden chamber.
He had examined it before as well, and upon noticing signs that the seal had been tampered with, he had moved on and paid it no further attention.
But now, the seal on this secret room showed no signs of ever having been opened.
A flash of understanding crossed Rhys's mind. He placed his hand on the relief, carefully sensing the magical circuitry within it.
Very quickly, his magic broke through the internal seal of the bas-relief. The sun motif held by the sculpted figure transformed into an opening just large enough for one person to squeeze through.
Without the slightest hesitation, Rhys cast a charm to fill the space inside with fresh air, then climbed in. The entrance sealed shut behind him.
Inside the secret chamber, it was pitch black—not a single sliver of light.
With the aid of a Lumos charm, Rhys was finally able to see the layout: the space was barely larger than a wardrobe, and inside were stacked over a hundred rolls of papyrus.
"Oh?" Rhys suddenly perked up with interest and carefully picked up a scroll to examine it.
He had expected it to contain ancient Egyptian spells, but based on the illustrations within the papyrus, it seemed to be a record of ancient Egyptian rituals honoring the sun god—possibly even containing so-called "oracles."
Rhys wasn't particularly interested in this sort of mystical mumbo-jumbo, but since he was stuck inside the hidden chamber with nothing else to do, he figured he might as well study the scroll—much like someone who forgets their phone in the bathroom and ends up reading shampoo labels out of boredom.
Just as Rhys was poring over the papyrus under the dim glow of his Lumos charm, voices drifted in from outside.
"Rhys—"
"That should be a secret room or hidden passage. The mechanism above has already been unlocked."
The three voices gradually moved farther away. Inside the secret chamber, Rhys understood that it was now safe to leave.
What he had just experienced sparked a bold new idea in his mind.
If, after adjusting the inner ring of the compass, he had been able to see a version of himself from an earlier visit to the ruins—then what would happen if he adjusted the outer ring instead, shifting the palace's timeline to when Helga Hufflepuff had entered?
There was a real chance… he might meet Helga Hufflepuff from a thousand years ago!
As for what would happen next, Rhys didn't know—but just the possibility of seeing an old friend again was enough to spur him into action.
After confirming that his other self had already left, Rhys stepped out of the secret chamber and exited the ruins through the corridor. Seeing the sun in nearly the same position as before, his heart beat a little faster.
He instructed Daphne and Astoria to stay where they were, then reentered through the middle passage and returned to the compass.
This time, he turned the outer ring of the compass, shifting it forward by one segment.
Instantly, an intense wave of dizziness surged through his mind, and Rhys's vision went black. At the same time, it felt as though he had been stuffed into a bag—and someone outside had sucked all the air out, leaving it a vacuum.
The sensation lasted only a few seconds before vanishing completely, but the intense aftereffects still made Rhys double over, vomiting uncontrollably.
Once the discomfort passed, Rhys slowly walked out of the palace. Standing at the threshold of the corridor exit, his heartbeat surged to its peak—he could almost hear the pounding in his chest, the rush of blood echoing in his ears.
As soon as he stepped out of the corridor, the first thing he did was glance toward the sand dune across from the ruins—and thank Merlin, Daphne and Astoria were still standing there.
Without another moment of hesitation, he sprinted toward the rightmost passage at top speed and rushed all the way into the deepest part of the palace.
After waiting patiently in the grand hall for a few moments, he finally heard a few crisp footsteps outside. Then the doors slowly opened, and an elderly witch with a travel-worn look stepped into the hall.
Rhys had been waiting here a long time for her arrival—
It had been nearly a thousand years since the last time they saw each other.
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