Afterword to This Volume and Introduction to the Next

This volume is finally finished, and I have a lot of thoughts.

This volume is titled "The World of Magic." As Anton grew more adept along the Path of Magic, he finally entered the realm of Supreme Wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore.

He began to explore some wondrous fields: Fate Magic, Time Magic, Mind Magic, Fated Magic, Ego Magic, and more.

But that wasn't the only purpose of this volume.

I also wanted to use its story to portray the whole "World of Magic"—a worldview built on the foundation of "Wizards as Gods." Wizards are all madmen; theirs is a world of madmen, a world of magic, both wondrous and cruel.

The cruelty of magic affects every Wizard, and every decision a Wizard makes shapes the cruelty of the Magical World.

That was one of my impressions when I read the original books.

Perhaps there are a thousand different Harry Potters in a thousand readers' eyes.

In my eyes,

Dumbledore was so indifferent toward death, indifferent toward Harry, indifferent toward everything. And yet, when you looked closely, there was a unique warmth to him. His indifference and warmth were intertwined, as if the magical nature of Wizards and their Humanity were bound together. That was what made him such a complex character, one so easy to love and hate at once.

Snape was the same. His devotion was so intense that, against the backdrop of the original protagonist Harry Potter learning from his father to pursue other people's girlfriends, and the original protagonist's girlfriend Ginny changing boyfriends as often as she changed clothes, it had a uniquely cruel beauty to it.

Wizards as Gods: Magic magnified everything in the heart, making the whole World of Magic seem so bizarre and surreal.

And that, to me, is "The World of Magic."