Belated and Late-Unwrapped Birthday Gifts

After the embarrassing incident of having soothed himself to sleep, Manus had not come away empty-handed.

At the very least, he had discovered one of wizards' innate talents: the ability to convert physical stamina into magical power. The conversion rate currently appeared quite high; consuming only a tiny amount of stamina could produce a great deal of magic.

Previously, he had cast so many protective spells in the old manor's library without feeling a thing, and he had not noticed any significant drop in his stamina.

If he had not returned and then consecutively cast a fourth-circle spell and a seventh-circle spell to test things, he would never have discovered this—yet he had actually completed both spells in full. That was the truly terrifying part.

"What an extremely specialized spell-artillery talent."

Lying in bed, Manus could not help but sigh.

With mental enhancement, wizards' magic already reduced consumption to an extremely low level without requiring such rigorous precision. Coupled with a talent like this...

For spells below the fourth circle, he could probably keep casting until he could no longer lift his hand without running out of magic, right?

With that thought, Manus closed his eyes.

His current state had merely recovered from utter exhaustion to feeling utterly exhausted. He needed to meditate properly, recover some stamina and magic, then cast False Life on himself and use the extra stamina granted by the temporary life force to regain the ability to move.

Otherwise, he probably would not even be able to get out of bed today. If Griffin and Aivina discovered him, the magical permission he had worked so hard to obtain would surely be revoked on the spot.

By breakfast, Manus had finally dragged himself out of bed at a reasonably normal hour, though his steps were still somewhat unsteady as he went downstairs.

Fortunately, Griffin and Aivina took it as discomfort caused by sleeping too long after going to bed too early the previous night, and did not pay it much attention.

"Manus, an owl delivered a letter and package for you this morning."

After breakfast, Manus was about to head upstairs for more rest when Aivina handed him a small package wrapped in string and oil paper, along with an envelope.

"A letter and a package?"

Manus was somewhat puzzled. Who would write to him, and even send him something...?

The envelope was unsealed. After opening it and unfolding the letter inside, Manus first looked at the signature at the bottom and found that it was actually Dumbledore?

"Go upstairs and read it slowly."

Aivina waved Manus off upstairs. She was about to start cleaning, and everyone else would do best not to appear before her at this time. Had he not noticed that even Griffin had gone out for a walk?

Returning to his room with the package and letter, Manus read it. Setting aside the pile of social pleasantries, Dumbledore's main point was that they had enjoyed talking so much yesterday that he had only remembered after returning home that he had not wished Manus a happy birthday.

In the letter, he offered Manus belated birthday wishes, along with a birthday gift enclosed with the letter that was one day late.

"A birthday gift..."

Manus did not hurry to unwrap Dumbledore's birthday present. There was another package on the table that he had yet to open.

"I meant to rest properly before opening it, but once I had rested enough, I went to test the issue with magical power... I hope it isn't the kind of gift that's best opened on the very day."

Even if it was some living creature, one night should not make much difference.

Pulling apart the ribbon, Manus opened the wrapping paper around the gift box Severus had given him. Inside was a cardboard box that had clearly been modified a second time, with a glass bottle full of liquid embedded in a hollow at the center of the cardboard to keep it from being bumped or damaged.

"A bottle of Potions..."

There was no doubt that this was Severus's birthday gift. However, there was no indication in the box of what kind of potion it was, so...

"It was also a riddle?"

Identify the type of potion in the bottle, or admit defeat and ask Severus directly—that was the content of the riddle.

With some interest, Manus took out the bottle of Potions.

The pale blue, clear, transparent liquid swayed inside the glass bottle with Manus's movements. Quite a few potions shared this color, and it really was difficult to distinguish them based on appearance alone.

But... this was not the key to the gift. The gift itself was ultimately this bottle of Potions, and therefore it should have been made by Severus himself.

Considering Severus's learning progress, the price range of the potion ingredients Aunt Eileen was willing to provide him with, and its appearance, there were not many possibilities.

However, since Severus had posed this question, he certainly did not expect Manus to solve it through social logic.

Unscrewing the stopper, Manus sniffed the potion. It had a faintly pungent scent, and if he paid close attention, he could even feel a vague bitterness and sourness at the back of his nasal cavity after smelling it.

After the sour sensation faded, an extremely faint wisp of vapor drifted from Manus's ear.

This signified that the potion's power had not been fully contained and had affected Manus as he smelled it. Severus's bottle of Pepperup Potion was not actually perfect.

Still, counting his learning progress, Severus could not have been brewing Potions for more than a week at most.

Because when they had last attended class, Severus had still been wrapping up his theoretical knowledge.

"Severus's talent for Potions seems even greater than I originally imagined? Then if I speed up my learning based on his standards, wouldn't that..."

Having realized this, Manus fell silent for a moment.

"Forget it. It's already in the past. Since I can't change it, I'll just let nature take its course."

Having found the evidence proving the potion's type in the manner Severus had intended, Manus casually picked up the wand from the table and pointed it at the bottle.

His stamina had more or less recovered, while his magic had deceptively returned to full. Since conditions were right, Manus intended to try Scarpin's Revelaspell, which had once greatly interested him.

As the incantation sank into the potion, rays of light in different colors and brightnesses lit up.

For most wizards, the difficulty of Scarpin's Revelaspell lay in the fact that the feedback it gave depended on one's own knowledge of Potions.

Although there was a corresponding chart for the colors and brightnesses of the light alone, a light's exact shade...

Just thinking about it made clear how vague and difficult to define such a thing was. At most, obtaining such clear results meant that all the ingredients in the potion were ones you recognized.

Only a sufficiently experienced Potions master could use the sense of familiarity evoked by that feedback to further determine exactly what ingredients a bottle of Potions contained.

But for Manus, Scarpin's Revelaspell gave much clearer feedback. This applied both to the light itself and to the sensory feedback, and he could even pinpoint the particular symbolic trait originating from each specific ingredient.