After Manus spoke, Severus and Lily both looked at Barty Jr. with subtle, curious expressions.
As people who had been through it themselves, they were naturally delighted to see someone else about to step into this bottomless pit—ah, no, embark on this profound and obscure path of magic.
But as people who had been through it themselves, their consciences also told them that they should stop him now. Once he set foot on this path, his entire world would change, and he would never be able to return to his old life.
Although Barty Jr. had already studied the other subjects, those were still only preparatory stages, meant to fill in the prerequisite knowledge.
With those things, knowing a little meant knowing a little. But with magic, not knowing even a little meant knowing nothing at all.
Yet after going back and forth over it in their minds, neither of them spoke. After all... what if Barty Jr. actually listened to them?
"I'm sure—what time could be more free than a holiday like this?"
Barty Jr. had no idea what the other two were thinking. He looked at Manus with unwavering determination as he said it.
"Hiss—"
For a moment, Severus and Lily looked at Barty Jr. as though they were looking at a Champion, a hero straight out of myth.
Come to think of it, had they been this brave back then?
Probably not... right?
"All right, I'll get you the books... Before bed these next few days, you can spare some time to look through them first. Then, during this holiday, read through all of them."
Under Manus's standards, reading through them did not mean merely reading them once and calling it done. It basically meant previewing everything. There was no need to study them in detail, but