With no other choice, Minister Fawley went to Dumbledore for advice.

But Dumbledore had only one answer for him—

"Give it to him. If he wants it, give it."

That left Minister Fawley even more despairing…

He even began to suspect that Dumbledore might have reconciled with his old friend…

But Dumbledore's explanation was simple and direct: "If you wish to destroy him, you must first let him succeed... Grindelwald is most likely to slip up when he's full of pride."

So Minister Fawley had no choice but to start considering which positions of real authority to offer, trying to find one with the least actual power...

Positions like Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were clearly off the table.

After several days of deliberation, Minister Fawley finally came up with an answer.

...

A few days later.

When Grindelwald received the appointment letter naming him Head of the Department of Magical Education, he nearly laughed out of sheer disbelief.

But he also had to admire Minister Fawley's slipperiness.

Head of Magical Education was, without a doubt, the least powerful of all positions with actual authority…

But it might also be the one Grindelwald was most interested in.

Because while this position might appear to carry the least weight, it had a direct influence on young witches and wizards!

Even Voldemort had specifically returned after graduation just to find a teaching position—proof enough of how important it was to shape the minds of students still in school.

So naturally, Grindelwald was very interested in this role.

Of course, that wasn't the main point!

Everyone knew that only Dumbledore could stand against Grindelwald… and Dumbledore was currently still a professor.

So, by placing Grindelwald into the education system, it would inevitably lead to a clash between the two.

And once Grindelwald's attention was fully focused on Dumbledore, Minister Fawley could finally have some peace…

Besides, the current Head of Magical Education was already old and preparing to retire.

Replacing him wouldn't offend anyone!

It had to be said—Minister Fawley's plan was indeed quite thorough.

As expected, Grindelwald did not reject the appointment.

And once Grindelwald gladly accepted the position, Minister Fawley was pleasantly surprised to find that the personnel he previously couldn't mobilize were now suddenly responsive.

With that, the Ministry's reform finally began to move in the right direction…

With the recruitment system updated, countless wizards seeking advancement flocked to take part in the Ministry's assessments.

Even those who clearly lacked the necessary skills came to try their luck—

They knew they weren't qualified, but what if they passed? Wouldn't that mean a direct ticket in?

For a while, waves of wizards poured in to take the recruitment exams.

And as some talented individuals—who had previously never had the chance to shine—finally succeeded and "got in,"

Grindelwald's public reputation quietly began to shift.

...

While Grindelwald's public image was beginning to shift, Wade had stopped paying attention to what was happening in the outside world.

Because the seed had already been planted...

Just like when Grindelwald had once confidently claimed to have planted a seed in the hearts of Wade and Tom.

Only this time, the roles were reversed.

Wade had planted a seed in Grindelwald's heart—an invisible seed.

As for what kind of fruit this seed would eventually bear, that remained unclear.

Even the system couldn't accurately predict it yet.

Otherwise, with Grindelwald already having completely changed his approach, why hadn't the system suddenly rewarded Wade with a huge burst of Merit Points?

Wade had his own thoughts on that.

The future was uncertain—strictly speaking, there were countless possibilities.

In Wade's view, there were many different timelines.

And each timeline held a different future.

Back when Grindelwald decided on his ambition, the prophetic vision he saw—of himself successfully ruling the world… was that vision truly false?

Wade didn't think so.

Grindelwald's prophecy wasn't necessarily untrue. It was just that… the future he saw might have been only one among countless possibilities.

According to the original timeline, Grindelwald likely veered onto a path toward failure at some key turning point in the course of building his cause.

So, until a definitive anchor event occurred, the system couldn't determine which timeline the future would enter.

In other words, even if Grindelwald changed his approach, there was still a chance the future could turn out poorly.

Which meant that until that anchor event appeared, the system wouldn't award any Merit Points.

These so-called anchor events were actually easy to understand.

For example, when Wade used the Resurrection Stone to help Dumbledore resolve his inner conflict, which caused a massive increase in Dumbledore's strength and prevented him from being corrupted by Voldemort's Dark Magic in the future—

That was an anchor event. Because the existence of that event would clearly bring great benefits to the future, the system had immediately rewarded Wade with a huge burst of Merit Points afterward.

And even then, the Merit Points weren't considered that many.

Wade guessed it was because, while Dumbledore's survival promised a better future, it still wasn't certain just how good that future would be.

The system probably had its own conversion method—an algorithm that evaluated countless possible futures and then awarded Wade a certain amount of Merit Points accordingly.

However, Wade didn't bother digging too deeply into this…

Because anything involving timelines was incredibly complex, with far too many variables at play.

Even if he wanted to figure it all out, he didn't yet have the ability to do so.

In any case, as long as he followed his own understanding and continued to trigger the system's reward mechanisms, he would reap significant benefits.

So why insist on understanding everything perfectly?

Therefore, now that Grindelwald in the outside world had already begun changing his methods in line with Wade's expectations, all he needed to do was wait and see how things would develop next.

There was no need to interfere—for one, Wade didn't have the power to interfere right now anyway.

Though his strength was fairly decent at this point, it still wasn't enough to face a wizard like Grindelwald without massive injuries.

Wade still needed to grow.

So, his main task now was to study how to break past his limits and continue getting stronger.

Next was figuring out how to research new things to assist in battle...

Last time, he had barely managed to hold Grindelwald off with his limited strength.

Though extremely dangerous, it made him realize that some of those flashy backup tricks could actually be very useful when it mattered.

So, early the next morning after buying the mutated seed, Wade planted it in the garden's greenhouse.

For safety reasons, he planned to first cultivate the seedling in the greenhouse, then transplant it to the Somnolen wizard tower.

There was a large open space outside the wizard tower as well.

Wade planned to build a greenhouse there too.

In the future, any plants with potentially dangerous properties would be grown there.

After all, Dumbledore still dropped by the safehouse from time to time to visit them.

So planting things in the safehouse garden wasn't exactly "safe."

At the moment, growing things like Mandrakes wasn't too dangerous—Dumbledore could turn a blind eye.

But if Wade started planting Whomping Willows in there… Dumbledore definitely wouldn't let that slide.

Wade had no intention of letting the new varieties he painstakingly cultivated get confiscated just because they were a bit dangerous.

…

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

Time quickly moved into the end of July.

During this period, although the system's shop had refreshed with some high-quality items, none of them were things Wade urgently needed, so he didn't waste any Merit Points.

He spent most of his time busily tending to his "vegetable patch"...

That was what Tom called Wade's magical plant cultivation area.

Only during his free time would Wade crack open a book and study spells or Transfiguration.

Of course, the books he read were all system-produced, disguised as novels.

So, in Tom's eyes, those rare few hours Wade spent studying also looked like slacking off...

What kind of diligent wizard spends all day either "farming" or reading "novels"?

But seeing Wade slack off made Tom secretly delighted.

He shouted inwardly: "Yes! Keep slacking! As long as you keep this up, I'll definitely catch up to you in the shortest time possible! Then I'll be the one on top, and you'll be underneath— I mean in terms of status!"

__________

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