Awake

His consciousness struggled upward as though from the depths of the sea, breaking through a heavy, viscous barrier.

Skofot jolted "awake" within his empty system consciousness space.

His first thought was not to observe his surroundings or assess the situation, but an instinctive urge—

Unequip the card!

The [Juggler] card was instantly stripped away.

The chaotic force that had lingered deep within his mind, driving him toward the brink of madness, receded like the tide.

What followed was a tsunami of crystal-clear memories and... indescribable embarrassment and shame.

Hanging upside down over Snape's bed, staring at him... drooling at small animals... gnawing on raw steak... and those bloody scenes in the Forbidden Forest...

Skofot felt his soul trembling. His toes could have carved out an entire Hogwarts in his consciousness space.

He could barely face the kind of absurd life he had been living these past days.

It had been a nightmare of public execution, with himself as the main character!

He forced himself to calm down and refocus on reality.

His senses gradually returned. He found himself lying face down on a cold stone bed, his body weak and powerless, his head feeling as if it had been filled with lead—dazed and muddled.

He barely lifted his eyelids and examined the unfamiliar, dust-covered enclosed room, as well as the restraining magic circle beneath him that emitted faint magical fluctuations.

He had been locked up. As expected.

Out of habit, he summoned the system panel. His gaze swept over his Emotion Points balance before settling on Today's Items.

[Today's Items: Large-Scale Memory Eraser Card - 900 Emotion Points]
(One-time use. Can designate a target group and blur or erase memories from a specific period.)

Skofot's mind went blank for a moment.

900 Emotion Points? That was nearly half of everything he had saved up! The price was outrageously high.

But... memory erasure?

His gaze swept over those memories that made his scalp tingle once more.

The professors' terrified expressions, Snape's gaze as though he were looking at a monster, and his own unbearable behavior...

If those memories could be erased...

He hesitated.

The cost was enormous, but so were the benefits.

By erasing this dark chapter of his past, he could shed the label of "dangerous lunatic." At the very least, he could gain some breathing room instead of being locked in this tower forever.

He needed freedom.

He had to erase those memories.

In the end, he gritted his teeth.

"Purchase [Large-Scale Memory Eraser Card]."

[Emotion Points -900]

[Emotion Points: 1310/100]

A virtual card with a strange gray glow flowing around its edges dropped into his Backpack.

He did not use it immediately. He was waiting for the right moment, making sure this expensive card could have the greatest possible effect—at the very least, until all the key people were present.

Just then, footsteps and the faint sound of chains sliding came from outside the door.

The heavy oak door opened a crack, and Madam Pomfrey cautiously poked her head in, holding a bottle of medicine.

Her eyes met Skofot's, which had just opened on the bed.

As though she had been burned, Madam Pomfrey's hand jerked, and the medicine bottle nearly slipped from her grasp.

The color instantly drained from her face, her eyes filled with terror. Almost instinctively, she tried to pull her head back and lock the door again.

"Madam!"

Skofot spoke in time. His voice was somewhat hoarse from weakness, but his tone was unusually clear and steady.

Madam Pomfrey froze. Her neck turned back little by little, painfully slowly, like a rusty hinge. The muscles in her face were taut, her gaze evasive as she did not dare meet his eyes.

Her voice was dry and tight, as if someone were choking her.

"Er... M-Mr. Leoqi? Is... is there something you need?"

Looking at her as though she were facing a deadly enemy, as if he would leap at her and bite her the next second, Skofot felt a surge of irritation.

But he forced a weak smile onto his face, one that looked as normal as possible, even faintly apologetic.

"Please tell Professor Dumbledore," he said, slowing his speech to make his words sound more credible, "I... I seem to have been unconscious before and did many things... that even I cannot understand. But now I feel... awake, and I'm in good condition. I am deeply sorry for the trouble I caused."

He deliberately emphasized "unconscious" and "awake," attributing his previous madness to some temporary, uncontrollable state.

Madam Pomfrey looked at him uncertainly. The boy before her was still pale, but his eyes no longer held that terrifying chaos or animalistic ferocity. Instead, they had returned to a sort of... almost normal calmness, along with the exhaustion of someone recovering from a serious illness.

She was completely different from the image Madam Pomfrey had seen before, snarling and demanding meat.

Could it really have just been a severe, temporary mental breakdown...?

The thought eased her taut nerves ever so slightly, but her long-honed professional instincts and the vivid memory of what she had witnessed earlier kept her from lowering her guard completely.

"I... I'll inform the Headmaster," she answered cautiously, still lingering by the doorway without coming any closer.

"Y-you get some rest. I'll leave the potion here. D-drink it when you need it." She quickly set the bottle on the floor just inside the door, as though an invisible boundary lay there.

Then she retreated almost immediately. The heavy wooden door closed once more, and the sound of the lock clicking shut was clearly audible.

Skofot looked at the tightly shut door, and the weak expression on his face slowly faded.

The first step—showing weakness and clearing things up—was complete.

Next, he only had to wait for Dumbledore to arrive, and then... for the right moment to use that card worth 900 Emotion Points.

He needed a bout of "collective amnesia" to erase the greatest obstacle on his path to freedom.

[Emotion Points +30] (from Madam Pomfrey's shock, wariness, and slight wavering)

[Emotion Points: 1340/100]

About fifteen minutes later, footsteps sounded outside the door again, steadier this time.

The oak door was pushed open, and Albus Dumbledore entered alone.

He was still wearing those star-and-moon robes. His silver-white hair and beard were impeccably groomed, and the blue eyes behind his half-moon spectacles were sharp yet calm as they settled on Skofot atop the stone bed.

Skofot braced himself on one arm and sat up a little straighter. A perfectly measured expression of weakness and respect appeared on his face as he softly called out:

"Professor."

Dumbledore did not respond at once.

He slowly approached the bed, keeping a safe distance. His gaze was like the finest probe, carefully examining every inch of Skofot's expression and every subtle shift in his eyes.

He was assessing, weighing whether that "Professor" signified genuine clarity—or a more elaborate disguise.

The room was so quiet that one could almost hear dust settling.

"I received Madam Pomfrey's message," Dumbledore finally said, his voice gentle and unreadable. "She said you feel that you are... lucid again."

Skofot met his gaze, striving to keep his eyes clear and sincere. He nodded lightly.

"Yes, Professor. Earlier... I'm sorry. It seemed that I... had some sort of mental problem, and I lost control and did some... terrible things."

He deliberately obscured the specific cause of his "mental problem," placing the emphasis on "losing control" and "being lucid now."