23: Studying Before School Even Starts

Things from the Misty Illusion could actually be brought out!

Ian felt as though he had discovered another incredible secret.

Come to think of it, that made sense.

Since he could bring candy, chocolate, and similar things into the Misty Illusion, it did not seem all that surprising that he could bring things from the Misty Illusion back out.

"It really is a fantastical world."

Staring at the Gown Fragment in his hand, Ian could not help letting out a breathless sigh.

No wonder they called it a world shaped by the mind.

There were still far too many mysteries in this world waiting to be uncovered.

If Ian had not been fortunate enough to gain such a talent, who knew how many more years it would take before the living in this world came into contact with anything related to the Misty Illusion.

The living must stop.

Only the dead could enter.

Even if Ian told other wizards or scholars studying the Misty Illusion about his discoveries, they most likely lacked the means to verify them.

For most wizards,

everything within the Misty Illusion was an adventure they could only experience after death.

Precisely because of that,

even the greatest wizards in the world knew very little about the Misty Illusion.

It was a domain only ghosts could set foot in, yet Ian had somehow brought back clothing from a ghost. He had no choice but to reconsider his understanding of the Misty Illusion.

"So it isn't merely a pure realm of the dead..."

Logically speaking,

ghosts were merely a form of energy.

Yet the Gown Fragment in his hand had an undeniably real texture.

The boundary between illusion and reality had clearly become blurred. Ian could only speculate based on his memories. Perhaps this kind of gift to the living could not simply be given at will?

He had noticed it.

Teacher Mara had deliberately torn a piece from her own gown. With her abilities, she could surely have transformed any nearby object into parchment convincing enough to pass for the real thing.

And yet,

she had needed to tear off a piece of her beautiful, proper gown... Did that mean this was the only way Ian could bring it from the Misty Illusion into the living world?

"Very likely!"

Ian looked at his other hand. Before his figure vanished from the Misty Illusion, he had clearly been holding the wand Teacher Mara had transformed from a metal Picture Frame.

Yet,

that wand had not come out with him. It was just like the experiments Ian had conducted with the flowers and plants in the Misty Illusion when he had first gained this talent.

Originally, Ian had thought it was only natural that Flowers from the world of the dead could not be brought back into the living world. He had always believed the Misty Illusion might be a world composed entirely of "energy."

But now, that understanding had been overturned. The Gown Fragment in his hand, which even seemed to retain a trace of warmth, forced Ian to rethink the Misty Illusion.

Even if bringing things out of the Misty Illusion required certain conditions or rules to be met, it still proved that the boundary between life and death was not impossible to cross. If a dead person's clothing could cross that boundary, did that mean... the dead themselves could return to the world of the living?

"Hiss... That's a truly audacious thought!"

The more Ian thought about it, the more his heart raced.

This was absolutely a taboo subject.

Still,

if there truly were a way to bring the dead back into the world, then setting aside Ethics and Morality and all the other messy factors, it would be an achievement worthy of going down in history!

His great accomplishments might even be Recorded on Chocolate Frog Celebrity Cards!

"Fame and fortune are secondary. If I could find Lily Potter's soul and bring her back to this world, wouldn't Harry Potter give me every Galleon in his vault?"

"And with Lily Potter cheering him on, why bother watching the traditional Harry Potter grind through monsters and level up? We could skip straight to Snape going berserk and smashing Voldemort over the head!"

Perhaps such thoughts were nothing more than Ian's childish flights of fancy.

Still,

who could truly say for certain?

After all, this world had a rule: love was the strongest magic... And wasn't the love of an utterly devoted simp, taken to the extreme, also a form of love?

"This has potential! It really has potential!"

The more Ian considered it, the more he felt this was a direction worth investing his energy into.

Perhaps,

the next time he entered the Misty Illusion, he could ask Teacher Mara, who clearly knew plenty of profound knowledge, about it—though the Witch in the Castle did not look like a good person, she truly was teaching Ian magic. Whatever her motives, Ian had already become her apprentice.

Whether this teacher-student relationship would prove good or bad in the future,

No One could know.

At least for now, having a teacher who could answer his questions and pass on knowledge was certainly not a bad thing for Ian.

"I wonder whether the Mirror Teacher Mara wants is the magic mirror at school." Ian had not forgotten the request the Witch had made when they first met. Although she had accepted him as her apprentice even without getting the Mirror, he could tell that she still cared deeply about it.

If one took something,

one naturally had to give something in return.

That was Ian's principle for dealing with people.

No One owed him anything from birth, nor did anyone need to give to him unconditionally... Even the bag of Gold Coin Snape had left behind, as well as the Galleons spent on books and necessities, Ian considered nothing more than things Snape had lent him. He neither liked nor intended to enjoy taking advantage of others.

"Maybe if I find the magic mirror and bring it to Teacher Mara, she'll be so happy that she'll teach me the other two of the Three Unforgivable Curses as well."

He had already learned the Killing Curse.

His place in Azkaban was practically reserved.

Ian felt it would be a real loss not to complete the full set.

It was just like playing Genshin Impact.

You always wanted to collect every character card.

Chocolate Frogs sold so well for the same reason card-collecting campaigns did in the magical world Ian remembered: they all exploited roughly the same compulsive urge to complete a set.

"This homework isn't some kind of Dark Magic, is it?" Having sorted through some of his guesses about the Misty Illusion, Ian finally turned his attention back to the Gown Fragment.

The moonlight beyond the window was bright and clear.

Yet it still could not illuminate the dim writing on the Gown Fragment.

"Lumos!"

Ian drew his Elder Wand. As he successfully cast the spell and lit up his surroundings, he also gained three proficiency points in the Lumos Charm.

"I've learned a new spell!"

Excited, Ian brought the Light Source closer to the Gown Fragment.

The next moment,

he froze.

The writing etched onto the Gown Fragment through some unknown method was crooked, twisting, strange, and bizarre, forming a text he could not understand in the slightest.

"Ancient Text?"

Ian felt that something was off.

He seemed to have seen an introduction to this sort of writing somewhere before.

"Textbook!"

With a thought,

Ian sprang up from the bed and rushed to where he had piled his textbooks and miscellaneous belongings. He pulled one textbook from the heap.

Magical Theory, by Adalbert Wulfelin.

Flipping through its pages from memory, Ian soon stopped at the section introducing the origins of magic. In the explanation of Ancient Runes, he found what he had been looking for.

The same crooked, twisting, strange, and bizarre writing.

"These are Ancient Runes!"

Looking at the textbook—which, being only a first-year textbook, was vague on the subject and offered merely a brief introduction—Ian finally understood what the Witch had meant by homework.

It was not simply learning magic.

He also had to learn the Ancient Runes that Recorded this new spell.

Yes.

The magic Recorded in runes might only have been secondary.

These twisting Ancient Runes were the real homework!