After forcibly suppressing those strange thoughts, Rhys patiently explained to Helga what the Internet was.
After listening to Rhys's explanation, Helga formed the most straightforward impression of the Internet. "So… the school's owls are going to lose their jobs?"
Rhys: Eh ??
"No, that won't happen. This would be limited to within the school. Students sending letters home, and families sending things back, would still have to rely on owls—at least for now."
Rhys had no intention of taking too big a step all at once. He planned to first try implementing it within Hogwarts—if he could even recreate the Internet in the first place.
Only after his network was running smoothly at Hogwarts would he gradually extend it to wizarding households.
As for the name of this network, Rhys decided to call it the "Magic Network"—Maginet. But all of this was still just his vision; he had not even drawn up a rough sketch yet.
"Then what use does your 'network' actually have?" Helga was a little confused. She could not quite understand why Salazar was putting in so much effort to build a "network."
"It makes transmitting information more convenient. For example, if I want to ask you today to help verify something with Dumbledore, with a network I wouldn't need to specifically run to your office. You wouldn't need to go to Dumbledore in person either to get the answer. And that's just one example—there are countless other conveniences."
"Is that so?" Helga immediately latched onto the key point. "So if I want you to come help me make automatons, I could just send you a message?"
Rhys closed his mouth.
For a brief moment, Helga dampened Rhys's enthusiasm for building the Magic Network quite a bit.
Of course, the innocent Rhys did not yet know that there was such a thing in the world as "read but don't reply."
After half-joking with Rhys, Helga left her room and headed for Dumbledore's office.
"Sherbet Lemon."
With the password spoken, Helga stepped into Dumbledore's "territory."
"Please, have a seat, Professor White. Would you like some tea or sweets?" Seeing that the visitor was Smith White, Dumbledore looked a little surprised. He quickly pulled out a chair for Helga and summoned a pot of hot tea along with a plate of sweets.
"I may not know much about health and wellness, but my intuition tells me that an elderly person shouldn't be eating so much sugar," Helga could not help but tease Dumbledore about his tastes.
Whether it was the password to his office or the sweets he served to guests, everything revealed this Headmaster's obsession with sugary treats.
Helga could not help but think of an old friend. That fellow's physical condition was far better than Dumbledore's—combined, she and Dumbledore still would not outlast that old monster.
"I'm already over a hundred years old. I'll eat whatever I want," Dumbledore said with a cheerful smile. "Besides, sweets make people happy."
"A familiar line of reasoning," Helga said, unable to hold back a laugh.
These two, of all things, actually shared a curious resonance on this topic. It really was amusing.
"So, what brings you here?" Dumbledore shifted the conversation and got straight to the point.
"There is indeed something I'd like to ask about." Helga told Dumbledore about how electronic devices would be interfered with around Hogwarts.
"Was this some defensive magic cast by a later Headmaster? Muggles in our time hadn't invented such novel devices yet."
Dumbledore shook his head, indicating that he was unaware of any such thing.
"You saw this in Hogwarts: A History, didn't you? This isn't a deliberate arrangement by the school, but rather an observation based on experience. Over long-term observation, people discovered that electronic devices malfunction once they enter the bounds of Hogwarts."
"That's rather interesting," Helga replied thoughtfully.
"Is it magic power?"
"That's unknown, but it's very likely. Other magical schools show the same phenomenon, and they don't have founders who could compare to Hogwarts's."
Dumbledore was just as puzzled as Rhys and Helga. However, over the course of many long years, he had arrived at a conclusion through observation: magic interfered with the electricity inside electronic devices.
"How did you even come to think about something like this?" After giving his answer, it was Dumbledore's turn to ask a question.
Helga tried to explain the Internet that Salazar had described to her to Dumbledore. However, after passing through her retelling, the information had become much vaguer. Dumbledore did not really understand what she was talking about either; he only grasped that it seemed to be a novel Muggle invention used for rapidly transmitting information.
"What a fascinating concept," Dumbledore sighed. "It seems I really should suggest that the Ministry of Magic update the Muggle Studies textbooks."
He also faintly sensed that the Muggle world had undergone earth-shaking changes, but Dumbledore did not pay much attention to such "trivial matters," because Voldemort was constantly lodged in his throat like a sharp fishbone.
Compared to Voldemort, what did a few minor Muggle inventions amount to?
Voldemort was like a leaf stuck over Dumbledore's eyes, leaving him with no room to spare for anything else.
"Actually, aside from the Internet, I have another consideration, regarding the school's concealment," Helga added after finishing her description of the Internet.
The Muggle-Repelling Charms and the series of concealment spells surrounding Hogwarts were largely based on the spells the four of them had set in place when they founded the school. Later Headmasters and professors might have added their own designs within this system, but the overall framework was still the one they had laid down back then.
Helga had already verified it. Those protective magical arrays guarding the school were not much different from how they had been a thousand years ago.
Using building a house as an analogy, Salazar and the other three were the ones who laid the foundation, built the load-bearing walls, set up the beams, and erected the main pillars. Later successors merely added a skylight to the roof or pasted a layer of wallpaper onto the walls.
When the school was first founded, the four founders had never considered the issue of electronic devices.
Although the magical world had been fortunate enough that magic could cause electronic devices to malfunction, this was ultimately not a real solution. No one could guarantee that Muggles would not invent even more powerful detection equipment, nor could anyone guarantee that such devices would not one day discover the existence of Hogwarts.
This time, Dumbledore fell completely silent.
"Perhaps we should further upgrade the school's protective magic," Helga arrived at her conclusion.
"Mm." A thoughtful glint flashed through Dumbledore's eyes.
Professor White had a point. After so many years, Hogwarts's defensive magic really did need to be renewed.
"Take your time thinking it over. I'll head back for now. We can discuss it again when there's a chance," Helga felt her task was complete and her goal achieved, so she returned directly to her office.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI