Magic Power Riot

"Look at you, Yulian! All you do is draw, your mind's never here."

Leah, with her pigtails, spoke at machine-gun speed, interrupting the drawing of a boy next to her.

"You're... Leah? Oh, no, I mean, what's wrong?"

Yulian looked up, his eyes a rare emerald green, like olive leaves after the rain.

Leah didn't look at him, her eyes fixed on poetry and distant places, and continued, "Yulian, you're a good person, but I don't want to be your girlfriend anymore."

Yulian's head buzzed. It wasn't because of the "good person" card, but because a massive amount of information had just been crammed into his brain.

"What did you say? What's going on?" Although Yulian felt dizzy, he didn't lose his mind. He endured the dizziness and Kaidō, "What girlfriend?"

"You only like looking at bugs and drawing leaves, but Kevin can play with me all the time." Leah didn't notice Yulian's abnormality, she just thought he was hit hard by her words.

"Kevin said he could apply to St. Louis Royal Middle School with me, instead of going to some school in the United Kingdom."

"Kevin said he could pluck the stars from the sky for me."

"Kevin can give me things you can't."

"So... let's break up."

If these words were spoken between two adults, it might be normal, but if they were spoken between two 10-year-olds, it would seem ridiculous.

"Kevin's lying to you. You can't pluck the stars, they'll burn your hand." Yulian's mind was hazy, and a Library seemed to appear in his head?! He could only answer instinctively.

"No way! Kevin said you can catch them with a telescope!" Leah stomped her foot. "And he can recite The Little Prince! Can you?"

"Yes," Yulian nodded, "but The Little Prince says that what is essential is invisible to the eye, and must be seen with the heart."

"Hmph! Then use your heart to see if I'm really angry!" Leah stood up, turned her back to Yulian, and shouted, "I'm going to tell everyone that Yulian Black is a freak! He said yesterday that the grapevines dance by themselves!"

The other children laughed.

Yulian wasn't angry, and didn't have time to speak. Because the floodgates of memory burst open.

This was September 17, 1990, Bordeaux, France, Black Vine Winery.

In the autumn on the right bank of Bordeaux, the sunlight was like melted amber, pouring down on the rolling vineyards. The leaves on the vines were copper-red, and the Merlot fruits were as plump as purple jade. This was the season of harvest, and the moment of glory for the wineries.

Today, Black Vine Winery was officially awarded the title of Premier Grand Cru Classé A.

This meant that on this land, once shrouded in war and oblivion, a new legend was born. It would be on par with Cheval Blanc, Ausone, and Bel-Air, becoming another of the most dazzling pearls on the right bank of Bordeaux.

In front of the manor house, under the century-old sycamore tree, several white silk tents were set up.

Champagne towers stood tall, and waiters moved among them with silver trays, carrying foie gras with figs, truffle tarts, and Black Vine Winery's special 1985 vintage red wine - the liquid as deep as the night sky, with a pomegranate-red halo at the edge, but as smooth as silk in the mouth, with an unspeakable "coolness" in the finish, as if drinking a ray of moonlight.

The guests came from all over the world: wine critics from Paris, collectors from New York, tycoons from Tokyo, and celebrities from London. They spoke in low voices, their tones full of amazement.

"Unbelievable... a family winery, rising from an unknown estate to the top in just thirty years."

"I heard the owner is from the United Kingdom? He only moved here twenty years ago?"

"Yes, his name is Alphard Black. But this Alphard is very mysterious and doesn't show up much. Usually, his wife, Elodie Black, takes care of the specific affairs of the winery."

"This Mrs. Black comes from the famous Moreau family, whose businesses are all over France."

"Then this Black with an unknown origin is really lucky!"

"Don't say that, the winery has actually been around for hundreds of years. It's just that after Mr. Black took over the winery, the quality of the wine has continued to improve. Look, he's coming over."

At this moment, a tall man in his fifties walked over from a distance, smiling and holding a wine glass in his hand, exchanging greetings along the way.

His hair and beard were a little gray, but they were neatly groomed. He was wearing a well-tailored dark green handmade wool suit, with silver vine patterns on his silk tie.

On the ring finger of his left hand, he wore a plain wedding ring, with a line of small characters engraved on the inside that only his wife knew: "In vino veritas, in amore libertas."

"Look at his eyes, like his name Alphard (the brightest star in the constellation Hydra, meaning a loner), the pupils seem to hide the entire universe." A middle-aged noblewoman said infatuatedly.

But no one knew that the "universe" came from a pure-blood Wizard who had been expelled from his family.

In the back garden of the winery, away from the noisy main venue, a corner was surrounded by colorful flags and balloons to create a "children's area." There were juice, macarons, and mini sandwiches on the small tables.

Several six- or seven-year-old children were playing a "treasure hunt" around the sandbox.

The cast-iron bench in the back garden faced the endless green waves, which were the vineyards stretching to the horizon.

The freshly cut lawn still had the freshness of dew, and when the wind passed through the vines, it suddenly became mellow, carrying the sweet fragrance of green fruit and sunshine intertwined.

Perhaps the gardener forgot to close the gate tightly when watering last night, and at this moment, a silver line of water was slowly crawling along the furrows, soaking the entire hillside.

The young boy and girl had just been sitting on the bench under the oak tree, not participating in the children's games.

The boy was wearing a dark blue suit, his bow tie was a little crooked, he was holding a grape leaf in his left hand, and his right hand was originally using a pencil to draw the veins of the leaf in a sketchbook.

But for some reason, he suddenly seemed to be stunned, looking at the vineyard in front of him, and then looking back at the girl. A look of confusion appeared in his eyes, as if he had just woken up from a great dream.

The girl, Leah Dupont, was Yulian's elementary school classmate, and the daughter of a local wine merchant in Bordeaux. She had a lively personality and usually got along well with Yulian, so they were good friends.

The boy's full name was Shilam Yulian Black, 10 years old this year, and the grandson of Alphard, the owner of the winery.

Because his grandfather came from an old family in the United Kingdom. The family named people after stars. So his father was Altair Étienne Black, Altair being the brightest star in the constellation Aquila.

And his name, Shilam, is also a constellation name, meaning sculptor, which can be extended to mean changer. As for Yulian, it's just a French name added on.

At this moment, he remembered.

Previous life: Yulian.

His original name was Yulian, born in China in the early 21st century. His parents were university professors, from a well-off but distant family.

He was quiet, precocious, and addicted to reading from a young age, especially astronomy and classical literature. In college, he spent all day in the Library, reading widely, to the point where some classmates called him a human Library.

While in school, he studied physics but secretly took Introduction to Western Mysticism. This was all because he had read a series of Harry Potter books as a child, and since then, he believed that "another world" existed.

1980? No, for him, it was 2025.

Late that night, he was rushing to finish a paper in the Library, the topic of which was A Comparative Study of Quantum Entanglement and the Concept of "Resonance" in Ancient alchemy.

Outside the window, there was a thunderstorm. He leaned back in his chair, exhausted, and muttered to himself, "If there really was magic... how wonderful that would be."

A bolt of lightning struck an ancient tree on campus, and the current traveled through the old lines into the Library. His last memory was the blinding white light suddenly emitted from the Black Family Tree Study (an obscure fan-made collection of information) in his hand...

When he opened his eyes again, it was 1980 in Bordeaux, in a private birthing room of a winery. Amidst the cries, he became Shilam Yulian Black.

For 10 years, he thought he was just "precocious." He remembered the alphabet, could recite multiplication tables, and could say that the Earth revolved around the sun. But the adults just thought he was smart. He never showed anything unusual, until today.

"So... I really did transmigrate." He muttered to himself.

This realization crashed through his reason like a tsunami, and in this moment of emotional turmoil, magic manifested:

The pebbles at his feet slowly rose, hovering three inches above the ground;

The plastic shovel in the sandbox automatically flipped over, pointing north;

The water flow of the fountain not far away swirled backwards, forming a brief water lotus;

The butterfly hairpin on Leah's head untied itself, and her long hair rose upwards, scaring her into a scream:

"Mom! Yulian cursed me with witchcraft!"