Night Falls (Thanks to Min Zuishang for the tip; there's an issue with the Q Reader backend, so I can't send a thank-you card)

Kaledi treated Helga's portrait with great respect. When he positioned it, he was excessively precise about its alignment in every direction.

Jon watched as Kaledi hung up the portrait, concealing the Magic array painted on the wall and leaving only a tiny edge exposed for Jon to channel magic into it.

Helga in the Magical portrait wore a gentle smile, but it possessed no soul and looked rather stiff.

As a participant and executor of the plan, Jon naturally knew why.

Helga's magic had been cast and completed within Hogwarts Castle. The completion of this large-scale magic depended on the High-Magic Environment and the mysterious connection between Magical portraits. At first, several portraits had circulated outside, but they were later lost, and over the long years, damaged for various reasons.

That was why Helga had initially been able to visit her descendants through portraits, while later on, she had needed to ask Dumbledore for help.

Helga's Portrait Space was a Magic Space. To put it more concretely, it was a dimensional space that existed by relying on the Muggle world, but its existence came with conditions.

The size of this space was proportional to the size of Hogwarts Castle. At least from Jon's subjective perspective, this dimensional space was not large—only about the size of a living room.

Of course, there might have been other areas Jon had not seen.

The other condition was also this space's limitation: once a portrait left Hogwarts Castle and lost the support of the High-Magic Environment, it would inevitably lose its connection to the space.

The purpose of this Magic array was to use the mysterious connecting magic within the Magical portrait and a certain amount of magic power to reconnect the portrait to the Magic Space.

Moreover, Jon and Helga speculated that once this connection was completed, Helga's Portrait Space might expand to some extent.

But what it would ultimately become, even Helga could not say.

"Then shall we begin now, Master?"

Kaledi asked, but Jon did not immediately decide to begin.

"The time isn't right yet. The Magical fluctuations in the air aren't stable enough at the moment. We should wait until nightfall, and my magic power needs to recover as well."

After giving it some thought, Jon took Ravenclaw's Spectacles out of his ring and put them on.

Jon had currently discovered one ability of these spectacles. It was also the only function Ravenclaw had recorded in the design manuscript: observing the flow of magic in the air, as well as the flow of magic within certain other objects.

The Magic Glasses indeed had more than that one function. After looking over the manuscript, Helga had said that Ravenclaw had discovered other abilities after completing them, but had not recorded them in the manuscript.

Jon would have to explore that part himself. Helga was, after all, only a soul form and had no way to help.

After replacing the frames, Jon no longer needed to emit Magical fluctuations through his eyes to activate the magic on the lenses. He only needed to channel magic power from around his ears, send it through the magic-conducting frames, and into the lenses. Furthermore, when he activated them again, the words that had appeared during the first activation did not reappear.

In Jon's understanding, it was like a computer that had gone unused for too long and automatically shut down. After a fairly lengthy buffer period, when it was turned on again, it entered standby mode.

When Ravenclaw had first designed them, the lenses had not needed activation. Both the extremely powerful magical environment and the enhancement of a Legendary Wizard herself had greatly amplified the magic item.

But now, the user was Jon, the environment was no longer as favorable as before, and so much time had passed that the entire magic item had weakened.

Still, objectively speaking, this ability remained very powerful. At least for a long time to come, it would be of great help to Jon.

The direction of magic power often determined the direction of certain outcomes.

Whenever wizards did anything, they could guide magic power to gather toward the outcome of that action. The Magic Glasses allowed Jon to see that outline. For example, right now, he could see a pale blue halo of energy radiating around Helga's portrait.

The "Magic Factors" in the air were invisible and intangible, but just as the Muggle world could observe molecules through microscopes, it was not impossible to observe the relatively much larger Magic Factors. Jon had once suspected that Dumbledore's glasses were a magic item.

The Magic Glasses Jon was using now could observe Magic Factors. Once activated by Jon, the vision in his left eye filled with all sorts of colors. Different colors represented different magical intensities—in plain terms, the activity level of the Magic Factors in the air.

Ravenclaw truly deserved to be called a top-tier genius. The design of these spectacles was simply incredible, and Jon admired her talent from the bottom of his heart.

For someone like him, who had to rely on hard work most of the time, there truly was a barrier between himself and geniuses of that era.

But never underestimating oneself had always been Jon's rule for survival. He would not see the gap between himself and Ravenclaw and conclude that he could not become a formidable wizard. After all, his goal was not to become a Legendary Wizard.

There was no need to say so much. He only needed to work hard.

Time gradually moved toward nightfall, and Jon did not remain in the study the whole time.

Holding a copy of Selected Medieval Literature, he spent the entire afternoon reading in the garden.

European literary works actually possessed a certain depth. This was also because philosophical thought had once been widely prevalent here, and Jon improved his own intellectual level while reading.

When exploring the nature of the world through mysterious things like magic, philosophy was always unavoidable. To ensure that he would not lose himself in philosophical questions, reading more books became very important.

Just as in Jon's previous life, he had made sure to regularly read books. Even web novels sometimes contained authors' views on the world, and he would select such content to enrich his worldview.

He treated it as an extracurricular activity. After all, studying and working were both exhausting. Only by learning to reconcile with one's own life could one live a little more comfortably.

After finishing the last article, Jon placed the bookmark, closed the book, tucked it into his ring, and headed toward the house.

Night had already fallen.