People Better Than You Still Work Harder Than You

Harry slowly took two steps back. "You don't need to explain. You don't need to explain anything. Everyone has their own aesthetic preferences. I totally under... understand, hahaha!"

At first, Harry had managed to keep up the act of being a serious person, but in the end, he could not hold it in and burst out laughing.

Kane's lips remained fixed in an awkward, almost-smiling expression at an unnerving angle. He now needed to find out how much his Sanity had recovered as quickly as possible, then get the flower crown off his head.

After returning to his room, he wrote a short, straightforward message across the parchment.

I want to learn magic that lets me clearly see my own attributes. Teach me!

Suddenly, he felt that it sounded a little too stiff. After considering it for a while, he added one more line at the end.

Dear Professor Dumbledore.

He placed the envelope beneath the raven's feet and patted its warm back. "Fly, Raven."

Unfortunately, Raven did not show the slightest intention of flying.

"Did Hagrid buy me a defective one?"

Just as Kane stared helplessly at Raven, Harry pushed the door open behind him. Looking at Kane and Raven staring each other down, he said, "Could it be because you didn't give it a name? If someone called me 'human' and told me to deliver a letter, I'd spit right in his face."

"A name?" Kane looked at the pitch-black raven and thought for a moment. "You'll be called Hujin. Now, Hujin, please deliver this letter for me... thank you."

This time, Hujin immediately spread its wings and flew into the sky, heading toward Hogwarts.

"You named it Hujin? Should I rename Hedwig too? Maybe Morin?" Harry glanced at Hedwig, who was drinking water in her cage. She hurriedly shook her head, then glared angrily at Kane.

"Your owner wants to rename you. Why are you glaring at me?" Kane pouted innocently.

Dumbledore replied very quickly. That afternoon, Hujin flew back with the envelope in its claws.

Dumbledore's letter said quite a lot. First, he asked why Kane needed such magic and whether there was something wrong with his body. He also explained that because a wizard's power could not be quantified, no one had yet invented such a spell.

However, Dumbledore did teach him a little trick. He could disperse all his magic outside his body, then pour it back into himself. This would create an effect similar to ultrasound.

Although it could not reveal specific values, it allowed him to observe the current state of his soul—whether it was vigorous or listless.

Finally, Dumbledore reminded him that the trick was extremely difficult. If he could not learn it, he should not force himself. On the night Hogwarts opened, he could go to the headmaster's office, and Dumbledore would teach Kane then.

In the blink of an eye, it was September 1st. As for the little trick Dumbledore had taught him... Kane had learned it that very day. It was pretty simple.

Through that trick, he could see the distinctly different states of his flesh, soul, and magic. The state of his soul roughly corresponded to his Sanity.

Whenever he felt mentally exhausted and the shadows closing in, his soul was always listless. Just like now: Kane and Harry had finally found an empty compartment, and the moment Kane sat down, he put the flower crown on his head and shoved two pieces of chocolate into his mouth.

During this time, aside from reading magic books in his room at the Leaky Cauldron, Kane had been reading magic books on benches in Diagon Alley.

Accordingly, ever since he had started learning magic, his Sanity had never been full.

"Looks like I need to upgrade my technology as soon as possible. Otherwise, with Hogwarts' intensity of magical study, I'll probably enroll in the morning and spend the afternoon being chased all over Hogwarts by shadows." Kane read while setting another small goal for himself.

Knock, knock, knock.

Harry opened the door. The person outside was, coincidentally, someone they knew.

"Harry!" Ron said excitedly.

"Ron!" Harry excitedly hugged Ron, then pulled Kane out of his book. "Kane, look who's here!"

"So what if someone's here..." Kane looked up at the visitor. "Ron!"

Kane immediately shouted at full volume as well. Well, he was not actually that excited, but it seemed more polite that way, and it fit the mood.

Ron kept the mood going. "Kane! What the hell is that on your head?"

"...An accessory. Don't worry about it."

The little compartment gained another member, but this did not disrupt Kane's enthusiasm for studying magic. It merely gave bored Harry and Ron another good friend to chat and joke around with during the journey.

Well, he should not speak too absolutely. They did disrupt him a little—for example, right now.

"Kane, which House do you plan to join? You know about Hogwarts' four Houses, right?" Ron asked.

"I know. To me, the Houses are all pretty much the same." Kane calmly turned a page.

"How can they be pretty much the same? Gryffindor rejects cowards, Slytherin rejects non-pure-blood wizards, and Ravenclaw rejects people who aren't smart. Surely people should find the House that suits them best?" Ron shook his head and explained his understanding.

"They're all just rejecting people. I don't care. Even if I dug up the entire House's ancestral graves, I wouldn't think they could do anything to me." Kane slowly closed his book. "But if I had to choose..."

"I'll go with you two. It's a boarding school, after all. If I'm not in the same dormitory as my friends, I won't even have anyone to talk to after class. That would be too lonely."

At the thought of a loneliness utterly different from that in the Eternal Realm, Kane felt his scalp tingle.

If you had no friends at a boarding school, you truly would not have the slightest motivation to stay. You would not want to return to the dormitory, and you would not even want to eat. Everyone else would be surrounded by friends while you sat there all alone. Ugh...

Not that it wouldn't be a good way to lose weight.

"Then we should all go to Gryffindor. I'm sure we can all get in!" Ron said seriously.

"Do we get to choose ourselves?" Harry asked.

"Umm... maybe there's an exam? Or maybe something else? I don't really know." Ron's previously excited face instantly fell.

What if the Sorting test was too hard? What if the Houses chose the young wizards and he was not selected? Would his three brothers be of any help?

Knock, knock, knock...

"Come in," Kane said, opening his book again.

"I'm looking for a Toad. Oh, familiar faces. Do you remember me? Hermione Granger." After opening the door, Hermione saw the magical aristocrat who had left such a deep impression on her at Ollivanders' Wand Shop in Diagon Alley, along with his two friends.

Wait... what was that aristocrat doing? That magical aristocrat, whose family was influential enough to make Britain's only wand shop custom-make a wand for him and even pay him for it, was still reading on the train despite having such heavy dark circles under his eyes. And what was she doing? Looking for someone's Toad?

Just as the saying went, people better than you still worked harder than you.

Hermione, Hermione, how could you agree to look for that stupid Toad!