Harry Potter World.
Returning once more to his frail body, Vincent found himself seated at a desk, a quill in hand, the sheet of parchment in front of him soaked through with a great sprawl of ink.
Hm? Was Bernadette still writing a note right before the swap?
Hadn't she always prepared them in advance?
He set down the tattered book in his left hand and glanced at the seven or eight cans of Coke stacked neatly on the desk. He pressed a hand to his forehead. That woman actually carted a whole case of Coke to Hogwarts?
That hooked, is she?
He popped one open, and while letting his body readjust, got up to take in the room around him.
Compared to the student dormitories, this professor's bedroom was not only larger, but considerably more comfortable — though it still felt far older than anything in the Mysteries World. That was only natural. Hogwarts Castle had been standing for over a thousand years, while the aesthetic of the Mysteries World — Leon-style — drew more from the Victorian era. The two were nearly eight or nine centuries apart.
"What the—?"
Why are there gold Galleons?
He suddenly noticed a small mountain of gleaming gold coins piled inside an open trunk and strode over to grab a handful. "They're real!"
Didn't I only leave Bernadette two hundred Galleons last time? This trunk has to have several hundred more. Where did she get all this? Don't tell me she… robbed some wizard in Diagon Alley?
Right. She was the Pirate Queen.
Vincent immediately put on his pained face. Last time she brought the police down on us — this time please don't go and summon the Aurors.
He hurried back to the desk and picked up Bernadette's note. The very last page was the one soaked with ink, and at the end of the message, a string of hasty, scrawled words: "Why does your world have…"
Judging by the state of things when he'd swapped back in, Bernadette had clearly not had time to finish before being pulled back into the Mysteries World.
But what had happened to make her so urgently scramble to leave a note in the final moments before the swap?
Vincent's gaze drifted to the old book he'd just set down. He picked it up and flipped it open — and his pupils contracted slightly. This is… a Chinese book.
Bernadette saw the Chinese writing inside?
She now knows Chinese exists in this world?
Is that why she was so desperate to leave a note?
She wanted to ask why this world has Chin— Rosellean?
In an instant, Vincent pieced together the whole sequence of events.
He wasn't surprised, honestly — if anything, he thought it had taken rather long. After all, this was London in 1991, and there were at least a few Chinese shops and restaurants around. Besides, as someone of Chinese heritage, Vincent's home had always had Chinese books in it. He hadn't made any effort to hide them, but Bernadette had apparently been so focused on learning English and magic that she hadn't noticed this little secret until now.
"Well, that works out."
At least now I won't have to pretend to be shocked and leave her a note asking about it the next time I come across Roselle's diary. And it meant the collapse of Emperor Roselle's grand image was now officially counting down.
Still, there was one immediate question — where had Bernadette gotten this book?
Vincent flipped through from the first page and found that it was a fairly aged Chinese text, covering magical creatures unique to ancient China — qilins, giant pandas (shí tiě shòu), zōu wú, and many others, along with their abilities, temperaments, and habitats. It read rather like a Chinese edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
But why did she only think to leave a note asking about it right at the very last moment? Unless… she had already brought up 'Rosellean' somewhere earlier in the note, and then suddenly thought of something else right before swapping.
He turned back to the first page and started from the beginning.
"Over the past seven days, I took Harry on a trip to Diagon Alley. In addition to replacing his damaged books and robes, I also acquired a 'wand' for myself — the one leaning against the desk. Yes, that stick."
What?
Vincent stared blankly at the gnarled twig-like thing. "That's a wand?"
"The reason I bought this 'wand' is that I've more or less confirmed I cannot use the magic of your world. However, I can channel the mana within my body to achieve a fairly respectable level of combat effectiveness."
"Think of it simply as this: I can use mana to reinforce my own body or weapons, and then combine that with the combat techniques of the Fighter Scholar to fight. Throughout this process, the wand is still capable of providing a secondary enhancement to my mana…"
Bernadette went on to explain how she was using her mana, leaving Vincent thoroughly gobsmacked. You can do that?
Wait — the way you're describing it, you're basically using mana like… battle qi?
Battle Through the Mysteries, is it?
"Originally, I only wanted to buy a sturdy wand from Ollivander's. He was the one who recommended this particular stick to me — it's long, rigid, and capable of amplifying mana. It also allows me to cast one spell: Lumos."
"I'm not yet certain why it can let me cast Lumos, but I think it might be a lead worth pursuing. If I can crack the secret behind it, perhaps I'll be able to cast more spells."
Starting with Lumos and then wading into close combat with a wand in hand… Why did that image feel so familiar?
Gandalf, is that you?
"Going forward, I intend to read more books on the origins of magic and mana so I can research the fundamental nature of magic. If you have any suitable books, remember to have them ready for me before the next swap."
The fundamental nature of magic…
In the world of Harry Potter, magic was often described as the power of emotion and of the mind — but that was a purely idealistic explanation, one that sufficed when Harry Potter was merely a novel. In a world that was actually real, however, wizards had never stopped researching the subject over the centuries. According to the findings of some, the reason ancient wizards needed neither wand nor incantation was that they could command the power of ancient runes.
Each ancient rune represented a distinct magical force. By wielding, combining, and recombining these forces, one could produce virtually any magical effect imaginable.
For this reason, certain wizards held that while magic might find its source in emotional power, its origin lay in the ancient runes — which were themselves a system of magical script born from the cataloguing and codification of magical forces. Much like the ancient Hermetic language.
The trouble is, my knowledge of ancient runes only goes as far as what the 'original owner' dug out of that old magical tome.
And clearly the original owner's command of ancient runes hadn't been particularly impressive either — otherwise he wouldn't have bumbled his way into conjuring some catastrophic ancient magic, and left Vincent, the one who came after, walking around with a fractured soul.
All I can really do is make sure the books on ancient runes are ready for her. The rest is up to her. Perhaps he could also point Bernadette toward Professor Bathsheda Babbling — Hogwarts' Ancient Runes professor, who ought to have access to a fair amount of obscure material on the subject.
"Oh, right — while I was in Diagon Alley, I ran into a blond man by the name of Malfoy. He claimed to be the first school governor to have approved your appointment to Hogwarts, and extended an olive branch to me."
"I then beat him up."
…???
Is there any causal connection between those two sentences?
"I hope this hasn't caused you any trouble."
Lucius Malfoy… shouldn't be too much of a problem, should he?
The note had originally ended there — until, right before the swap, Bernadette caught sight of the Chinese book and scrawled that half-finished question in a rush.
Vincent shook his head. Bernadette is probably going frantic over in the Mysteries World right now. After all, the key to unlocking Roselle's diary was practically within reach.
Still, she only had to wait three more days. When she swapped over next time, she could begin learning Chinese — and if her rate of progress with English was anything to go by, she'd probably be reading Roselle's diary freely by the swap after that.
Not my problem either way. I'll just… pour out a moment of silence for the Emperor in advance.
Vincent set the note down, got up, and stood by the window with a yawn. "Life really is so much more leisurely on this side. No roleplay, no Scale — no spinning like a top."
The moment that thought crossed his mind, he looked down at a few students chasing and playing below — and froze.
He could plainly sense something from them. A kind of need. It was a response from his spiritual intuition, the special ability of the Broker.
An ability from the Mysteries World… carried back into the Harry Potter World?
Two minutes later.
Vincent bolted downstairs, weaving through the puzzled looks of students around him, his gaze sweeping rapidly from one face to the next as the feedback from his spiritual intuition grew more and more frequent.
No doubt about it — this really is the Broker's ability!
If the Broker followed me over, what about the Secrets Suppliant?
He quickly determined that the Secrets Suppliant's abilities had not made the crossing — which made sense. If they had, Bernadette wouldn't have arrived here as a blank slate.
But if the Secrets Suppliant couldn't cross over, why was the Broker an exception?
"Could it be… that room?!"
That familiar sense of unreality washed over him again — and an instant later, he was standing in that mysterious room, now more than halfway filled with colour. Splashes of hues surrounded him on all sides, and the ancient Scale floated at its centre, a grey crystal in the left pan already noticeably larger than when he had last achieved balance.
The Scale was now just the smallest margin away from tipping into equilibrium once more.
"This mysterious room… it really did follow me here."
Vincent's first reaction was not elation but shock.
If this mysterious room, born of the Mysteries World, could manifest inside Harry Potter's world — did that not mean the two worlds were not entirely separate? And did it not mean that the gods and Outer Gods of the Mysteries World might also be capable of crossing over, bringing utter ruin to this world?
The Mysteries World had the Seven Gods and the Sefirot to protect it. But what did the Harry Potter World have?
Was he supposed to count on the greatest white wizard, Dumbledore?
Dumbledore: Me? Take on an Outer God? Alone?
To be continued…