"You are a child born within this world, yet you do not exist within its destiny!"
Inside the Room of Requirement, Merlin's words echoed through the darkness.
Although Dawn could not see Lai's expression clearly, his own expression changed several times in succession.
What exactly did those words mean?
Was Merlin saying that Dawn possessed memories from a previous life and had "transmigrated" into the world of Harry Potter, meaning that he had never existed within the original "story"?
Dawn lowered his eyes.
But he listened even more intently.
He wanted to see whether he could learn the specific reason for everything that had happened to him from Merlin.
But—
The result left Dawn extremely frustrated.
He had been fully prepared, yet for a long time, he heard nothing more.
When he finally raised his head, he found that the entire scene before him had frozen.
Lai's mouth was suspended in midair, frozen in the middle of forming a word.
Then—
Crack!
The world around him suddenly shattered like a mirror.
The colors faded away, and the ground vanished beneath Dawn's feet as he fell once more into that familiar darkness.
Damn it! Why now?!
Dawn clenched his teeth so hard they clicked.
He was incredibly unwilling to let the opportunity slip away. As he fell, the remnants of his consciousness desperately reached out, trying to grasp the shattered fragments.
But in the end—
When light once again flooded into his pupils—
All he saw was the crisscrossing wooden ceiling above him.
The dream had clearly already ended.
He had awakened inside the small hut in the Vatican.
Bang!
"FUCK!!"
Dawn's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets as he lost control and slammed his fist against the wall.
Having a conversation cut off at the most critical moment caused his thoughts to churn uncontrollably, leaving him unbearably frustrated.
Still furious, he punched the bed frame several more times.
Only when his breathing became ragged and the flesh of his hands was crushed against the hard surfaces, leaving them swollen, did he finally stop.
The phoenix's healing trait continued to take effect.
A warm current seeped out from deep within his bones, and in the blink of an eye, his hands were restored to their original condition.
For a very long time—
Dawn finally exhaled slowly, suppressing the negative emotions in his heart and gradually returning to his usual calm state.
He rolled out of bed.
Barefoot, he walked to the desk, picked up his quill, and decided to organize and record the information while the memories were still fresh.
For a while, the only sound inside the little hut was the soft scratching of quill against parchment.
Line after line appeared on the paper, recording every detail of the conversation between the two people in his dream.
Looking at the fresh ink, Dawn narrowed his eyes.
Although the dream had left him with another mountain of questions, the conversation between Lai and Merlin had also explained quite a few things.
For example—
Why could no trace of Merlin be found anywhere in the world?
Because after the end of King Arthur's story, Merlin had once again become disconnected from the world, making it impossible for him to interact with anything.
In Dawn's view, this was another form of the World Correction.
The traces Merlin had previously left behind had probably all disappeared as a result.
But—
Why did it have to be so complicated?!
Dawn frowned as he compared it with his own experiences.
Logically speaking, wouldn't the simplest solution have been to modify the memories of everyone involved?
Why had something as unusual as becoming disconnected from the world occurred instead?
Dawn pondered the matter, narrowing his eyes.
There had to be some other secret hidden within it.
He also remembered Merlin saying that he had met this fate because of an accident during an experiment involving time.
Dawn was extremely curious about the exact nature of that experiment.
Unfortunately—
Lai had not pressed Merlin for details.
Instead, he had accepted Merlin's explanation that it was "not yet time," leaving Dawn unable to learn the answer either.
"Heh."
Dawn gave a cold laugh.
He found his former self increasingly irritating.
His thoughts scattered in all directions, like a bouncing ball leaping from one platform to another. Before long, they slid away from the current subject and landed on something else.
Why had he suddenly been able to hear Merlin's voice in the dream?
That had been extremely abrupt as well.
"Was it because the dream had evolved?"
Just as he had gone from hearing sounds to seeing images, was being able to hear Merlin's voice, just like Lai, another evolution of the dream?
Dawn very much wanted to believe that was the case.
But the fact that it had happened so conveniently in connection with the diadem made the wizard's instincts within him quietly raise an alarm.
Perhaps the truth was something else entirely.
Could it be—
That the Merlin whose voice he had heard was not the same Merlin Lai had encountered since childhood?
Could it instead have been Merlin from the future, who had solved the problem of becoming disconnected from the world and then traveled back from the present into the past?
If that were true—
It would not only explain why Dawn had suddenly been able to hear Merlin's voice within the dream.
The World Correction that had occurred not long ago could also be understood.
Perhaps future Merlin had told Lai that conversation, causing Lai to guide Harry toward discovering the diadem, which in turn altered the past.
Scratch.
Scratch.
The quill unconsciously tapped against the parchment.
Dawn's thoughts raced wildly.
But—
If that really was the case, why had the other party only changed events related to the diadem?
And where was he now?
One question was always blocked by another.
Dawn scratched at his hair.
His thoughts shifted once again.
This time, he remembered the sudden sense of unease he had experienced when destroying Slytherin's Locket, one of the Horcruxes.
Merlin had said that in order to recover from his disconnected state and once again interact with the world, he needed to follow the course of destiny.
In other words, he needed to help Harry destroy Voldemort.
Could the two things be connected?
This subconscious thought surfaced in Dawn's mind.
He immediately began thinking about it carefully, but all he could see was a thick fog. He simply could not determine exactly how the two were related.
Besides—
The destruction of the Locket had taken place without the involvement of the Chosen One at all.
Compared with the events in the dream, where someone had deliberately guided Harry to the diadem—
Could this also be considered following the course of destiny?
Dawn's fingers tapped against the desk.
After this dream, he felt as though he had vaguely grasped a loose thread.
But if he wanted to unravel the mystery more precisely, he still needed more information.
"Fifteen days..."
Dawn murmured about the interval before his next dream.
He set the quill aside, slowly gathered the parchment now covered in writing, and exhaled heavily.
This was all he could think of for now.
Continuing to speculate would not get him anywhere.
So he might as well proceed according to his original plan.
Dawn raised his head and looked toward the window.
The sunlight outside was bright and beautiful, but thick clouds could be seen gathering in the distance.
It was probably one of the last stretches of clear weather before the rainy season arrived.
Dawn stood up and prepared to return to Hogwarts.
But before leaving, he suddenly felt a strange urge and used the Levitation Charm to carry his bedding and sheets outside and hang them up in the sun.
Only then did he vanish with a soft pop, a flicker of flame carrying him away.
Britain.
Hogwarts.
It was just before the first class of the day.
The young wizards who liked to cut things close hurriedly swallowed a few bites of breakfast before sprinting through the corridors.
Pop!
The air shrieked as a ball of flame suddenly ignited out of nowhere.
Dawn stepped casually out of it, startling quite a few young wizards who happened to be nearby.
However, after all these days of getting used to it, they no longer reacted with fear.
They merely glanced at him before hurrying away.
Dawn paid them no attention.
He looked at the floor he had arrived on and decided to make a trip back to the space he had created with the Mysterious Spell.
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