It wasn’t until a crisp cough sounded behind him that Ternas finally came back to his senses.
Feeling guilty as a thief caught in the act, he cautiously glanced behind him.
There stood his father in this world, Algie, at the doorway of the room, looking at Ternas with a slightly flushed face.
Although Algie was desperately trying to maintain his composure and preserve the dignity of a father, Ternas could still tell from his slightly trembling hand and somewhat unnatural expression that Algie was nowhere near as calm as he was pretending to be.
Seeing his father forcing himself to remain composed, Ternas hurriedly put on an obedient expression and quickly ran over to Algie.
Even though he felt disgusted with himself, Ternas knew better than to resist.
He put on an innocent look, raised his right hand, and showed Algie the sphere of light he was holding.
“Look, Father!
Am I amazing or what?
I made this light ball myself!” As he spoke, Ternas even put on an extremely proud expression, as though silently begging to be praised.
There was no helping it.
During the past five years, Algie had given Ternas a profound understanding of what it was like to have an extremely unreliable yet powerful father.
When this kind of father did something, he truly had absolutely no reservations!
Thinking back to when he was four years old, there had once been an incident where he and Neville wanted to investigate a magical item that had been brought into their home.
They had nearly caused a disaster.
At the time, Algie had simply turned the two of them into a pair of balloons and tied them to the roof of their house.
For two whole hours.
Heaven only knew how those two hours had passed.
Whenever the wind picked up, the two of them would involuntarily sway back and forth in the air with it.
Ternas had genuinely been afraid that if the magic wore off, he and Neville would fall and be smashed to pieces.
Or perhaps the rope might snap, and he and Neville would be blown away by the wind.
Ever since he had turned three, he had experienced no shortage of incidents like this.
Every single one had been filled with bitter tears.
Therefore, after lesson upon lesson, Ternas had finally understood that when facing his father Algie alone, it was better for him to act innocent and carefree.
Even if doing so made him feel a little sick to his stomach, it was still better than constantly living on tenterhooks.
After desperately restraining himself for a moment, Algie finally couldn’t hold back any longer.
He suddenly scooped Ternas up from the ground and looked at the little sphere of light held aloft in his son’s hand.
His eyes slightly moist, he said, “Well done.
Just as expected of my son.” Beside them, Neville had also finally recovered from the series of events that had just taken place.
Ever since Ternas had condensed a small sphere of light with his magic, Neville’s already rather slow brain had completely frozen.
After finally coming back to his senses, he heard the cough of that devil-like uncle of his.
The sound nearly made little Neville wet himself.
Now that he saw his uncle had no intention of blaming the two of them, Neville finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He obediently walked over to Algie’s side, lowered his head, and said nothing, doing his best to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.
For Neville, whose mind was not particularly sharp, this was one of the few times he managed to make the right decision.
At this point, Algie had also recovered from the excitement of discovering that his son had awakened his magical talent.
He knew that these two little rascals had caused some trouble again.
Their current behavior made that abundantly clear.
However, since he was in a good mood today, he decided not to punish the two little troublemakers.
He had known all along that his son was lively, active, curious, and eager to learn.
He wanted to ask about everything and get to the bottom of everything.
As for his nephew, because of what he had experienced during his childhood, he was rather quiet and reserved.
Only when he was together with his son would he actually behave like a child.
Seeing one little fellow desperately trying to curry favor with him while the other was doing everything possible to reduce his presence, Algie couldn’t help finding the scene somewhat amusing.
“Alright, you two little rascals.
We’ll let this incident go, but don’t do it again.
The things in this room are simply too precious, and they’re also far too profound.
They’re not something you two should be learning about right now.
So, unless you have my permission, you are not allowed to come here again.
Understand?” Hearing Algie’s words, how could Ternas not know that his father had decided to let them off this time?
He immediately answered happily, “Got it, Father.
We won’t do it again.” “I understand, Uncle,” Neville said, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
“Today, Ternas awakened his magical talent.
So, tell me, what kind of reward do you want?
I’ll agree to anything.” Algie was extremely happy at the moment, so he made the offer readily.
Hearing this, Ternas’s eyes lit up, and he was just about to make his request.
However, Algie spoke again.
“But don’t ask for anything too outrageous!
Don’t make things difficult for me.” Hearing the threat in Algie’s words, Ternas couldn’t help rolling his eyes.
Who could have imagined that a senior Auror from the Ministry of Magic, a powerful male wizard, would actually have the lowest status in his own home?
That’s right.
Algie might appear imposing and domineering in front of the two children.
But within the entire Longbottom family, his position was actually the lowest.
Of course, that was only when Grandma Augusta and Mother Aini, who occupied the first and second positions in the household, respectively, were not present.
Otherwise, the two children would still be the ones getting crushed under their authority.
Ternas thought for a moment before finally speaking.
“Then, Dad, I want a Persian cat.
A really beautiful one.” This request was something Ternas had carefully considered.
It was within Algie’s means to bear, while still pushing his father to the absolute limit.
After hearing Ternas’s request, Algie’s expression turned somewhat unpleasant.
It wasn’t that the request was particularly excessive or difficult to fulfill.
Rather, if he agreed to his son’s request, his pocket money for the month would undoubtedly be completely drained.
He had never expected his son to be this ruthless, or to have figured out his bottom line so precisely.
But now that he had already promised his son that he would fulfill one request, there was no way he could go back on his word as a father.