Mu En's Moving Castle

Watching the two little brats flee in panic, Mu En openly wore a wickedly amused smile.

"Sir, what was that just now..." Harry asked quietly, a little embarrassed.

Mu En shook his head and waved his hands repeatedly. "How would I know? Don't ask me about things like that. I'm just an ordinary person."

Harry did not believe him at all. Ordinary people would not have encouraged what he had just done. On the contrary, they would have felt fear and anger.

"They were afraid because what you did went beyond their understanding." Mu En held out a hand as he explained.

"So, was that normal to you?" Harry suddenly remembered that this uncle had asked whether he was a wizard, a mage, or something else.

Mu En looked at Harry. "More or less. I've seen a lot, so that little trick of yours was nothing to me."

"So, sir... what am I?!" Harry asked uncertainly, staring blankly at his own hands.

What exactly was inside him...

"Hold the shovel and dig, brat. Don't start this nonsense." Mu En spoke without ceremony.

"Oh, sorry." Harry came back to himself and hurriedly apologized.

Only after seeing Harry return to work did he continue explaining. "That was the power of magic, kid. You're a wizard—a born wizard."

All of a sudden, Harry felt as though the world had frozen. The breeze stopped, the clouds in the sky became motionless, and even his own movements stiffened instantly.

"I-I-I... I... Sorry, sir, what did you say?" Harry stammered.

"A wizard!" Mu En repeated. At the same time, he opened his right hand, and a ball of flame ignited in his palm from nowhere.

Harry forgot even how to breathe. The arm beneath Mu En's rolled-up sleeve was covered in runes Harry could not understand, and the flames burning in his hand looked like something from a dream.

Snap—

He closed his hand into a fist, and the flames vanished.

"I'll just show you that much. I can't expose too much, or the Ministry of Magic might catch me."

"What's the Ministry of Magic?" Harry stared stupidly at Mu En's clenched fist and asked curiously.

"I don't know either. Probably some evil organization. They tried to kidnap me last time. If Lucifer hadn't cast a shielding spell, they might have found this place already."

He knew almost nothing about this world. He did not even know how the Ministry of Magic had found him in the first place. Hadn't he merely been flying around over London? Then they suddenly caught him.

Damn it, it was not as if he had been running around naked. What right did they have to arrest him?

Still, luckily, although he did not know how the Ministry of Magic had found him, those people had not located his hideout yet.

"So I can do what you did too? Make fire appear in my hand?" There was a trace of anticipation in Harry's eyes.

"I don't know." Mu En shook his head.

This world seemed to use sticks to cast magic...

And tiny sticks at that, like chopsticks.

After that, Harry asked many more questions, and Mu En's answers remained the same.

"Don't know." "Not sure." "Who knows?"

Yet Harry was still very happy. At least this gentleman had not shown any impatience. Other than constantly calling him brat and always wearing that expressionless face, Harry felt that this uncle was actually quite nice.

"All right." Mu En clapped his hands, signaling Harry to move out the completely unearthed Moonpetal Flower. Harry carefully cradled the cluster of flowers and waited for Mu En's next instruction.

"Come in." Mu En headed forward first.

"Okay." Harry was a little nervous, then turned back to look at Number 4, Privet Drive.

He vaguely felt that the house at Number 13 and this place were two different worlds.

With that thought, he steeled himself and walked in, carrying both fear and anticipation in his heart.

The inside of the house was a complete mess. A fire burned calmly in the fireplace, while a broom leaned against the door. All sorts of things were piled together haphazardly. At the sight of it, Harry looked again at Mu En, who was dressed in a fitted formal suit and impeccably groomed.

It was hard to imagine...

Mu En closed the door, and Harry noticed a disc in the upper-right corner of it.

The disc was divided into two halves: one brown, the other a lush green. A pointer rested in the middle of the brown half.

Then he saw Mu En turn the doorknob.

Ding—!

The pointer spun with a crisp, pleasant chime like a bell, then turned to the green half.

Mu En opened the door again, and Harry's eyes widened at once. Outside was no longer Privet Drive, but a stretch of emerald grassland, with a cliff farther ahead.

Mu En raised an eyebrow and walked outside.

"What are you standing there for? Get over here." Mu En said.

Harry stiffly hopped down the small steps. When he turned around, he realized that he was inside a castle roughly four or five stories tall, seemingly pieced together from all kinds of houses. He could even make out abstract eyes, ears, a nose, and a mouth on its walls.

Lucifer had chosen an excellent location. This was deep within the mountains. The castle itself was hidden along the edge of towering redwoods, while directly in front of it lay a meadow, followed by a cliff. The scenery was perfect, and it allowed the Moonpetal Flower to absorb moonlight efficiently.

"Let's begin. Transplant the flower." Mu En ordered without ceremony.

"Uh... ah, okay." Harry answered dumbly, still not fully recovered from the shock.

Mu En picked a suitable spot, tossed the shovel to Harry, and had him do it himself before returning to the house.

With no one around, Harry grew bolder. His thoughts began to wander, and from time to time he glanced toward the castle hidden among the redwoods.

Wonderful magic, a huge castle, and...

Harry looked down below the cliff. The wind blew over, revealing the scar on his forehead. Beneath the cliff was an endless green ocean, and beyond the distant mountains rose even more majestic peaks.

It was a view he had never seen before.

Then Harry remembered that he was a wizard too.

Were Dad and Mum powerful wizards as well?

He thought as he shoveled dirt.

Inside the castle, Lucifer asked lazily, "Who's that kid? The brat who damaged the Moonpetal Flower?"

Mu En nodded, took sausage and bacon from the refrigerator, then pulled out a rack of lamb, preparing to make lunch.

Crunch.

Lucifer emerged from the stove again and propped up the frying pan. Beside them, the kitchen knife and spatula sprang to life and began preparing the side dishes.

Mu En simply held the frying pan and cracked two eggs into it with practiced ease.

"That kid has magic in him. I'm planning to follow the trail from him and see if I can find a chance to learn about the magic in this world."

"If you ask me, munch..." Halfway through speaking, Lucifer opened his mouth and swallowed the eggshells first.

"If you ask me, you might as well fly around over London a couple more times. Someone will naturally come to arrest you. Once you've gathered enough information, break out of prison again." Lucifer spoke carelessly.

"You..." Mu En shook his head helplessly. Ever since they had spent several years as pirates in the Caribbean Sea, Lucifer's way of thinking had always carried a hint of violence.

"I'm not that strong anymore." Mu En explained, "Don't underestimate this world. I'm still under a curse."

"Oh, right. A pilot turned into a pig. And a wizard actually turned into a cat. That's really hilarious... munch..."

At some point, the disguise on Mu En's face had disappeared, replaced by the head of a somewhat plump silver-white cat.

"And a Maine Coon, at that..." Lucifer added.

"Damn it, if you're going to eat, can't you be quiet?!" Mu En snapped irritably.