He placed his finger on the Apprentice slip. "This one might suit you better."
"I trust you!"
Edward spoke firmly, without the slightest hesitation.
"Uh..." Klein, who had prepared a whole slew of reasons, was taken aback. Why aren't you following the script? You were clearly a severe case of indecision just a moment ago. How did you suddenly become so decisive?
"Oh, Mr. Moretti, thank you so much." Edward stood up and seized Klein's hand. "Otherwise, I might have spent another ten or fifteen days agonizing over it, only to choose something completely wrong for me."
Edward took out another ten-pound note. "A small token of appreciation."
"Uh, you're too kind."
Klein felt uncomfortable with his enthusiasm, but soon lost himself in the joy of earning another ten pounds. Being a Seer really was a profession with lucrative prospects!
Edward put on his hat, stepped back, and bowed, ready to leave. Just then, Angelica arrived again, looking apologetic.
"Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Moretti. Another client is here to see you-Miss Megose."
Edward instinctively glanced toward the club's reception area.
A blonde girl in a ruffled hat stood there with a vacant look in her eyes. Her skin was unhealthily pale, and her slender fingers absently stroked her slightly swollen belly as she murmured something.
As though sensing Edward's gaze, the girl looked over. Her bewildered eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.
"Is it you?"
She stared straight at Edward, her question sounding like a delirious murmur.
In an instant, Edward felt like a frog caught in a venomous snake's gaze. He was utterly terrified, yet his legs refused to move an inch.
"Is it you?" She drew closer, her question growing louder.
It's not me! It's not me! Edward screamed inwardly, but not a single word escaped his mouth.
Despair, terror, bone-chilling dread-at that moment, Edward experienced firsthand what Klein had felt in the original novel.
"Mr. Edward, what's wrong?"
Klein came out and gave Edward a puzzled pat.
Edward shuddered, finally regaining sensation. He immediately turned and headed in the opposite direction. "I... I'm heading back. You... be careful."
Before Klein could react, he hurried away. Once out of sight, he vanished with Apparition.
"The exit's over there."
Utterly baffled, Klein turned to Megose. "I'm very sorry, Miss Megose, but I still don't have any leads on Lanevus."
Megose did not even glance at him. She stared at the spot where Edward had disappeared, her expression turning vacant again. "Gone. Gone..."
She gently stroked her belly. "All right, let's go home."
Still muttering, she walked straight out.
Only Klein remained, looking utterly bewildered.
"What... is going on?"
Tingen City Outskirts.
Edward appeared out of thin air, staggered forward a few steps, and nearly fell.
"That scared me to death!"
He hurriedly took out the Secrets Suppliant formula slip and tore it to pieces, then burned it to ash with Incendio and scattered it on the wind. Without pausing, he used Apparition several times in succession, finally returning to his villa in Empress Borough.
"That was close. I almost died!"
He collapsed onto the sofa, picked up the teapot from the table, removed its lid, and gulped down its contents. His frantic thoughts gradually settled.
"Megose, the vessel for the True Creator's descent, the first boss-level enemy Klein faced in the original novel. But why did she come after me? Was this connected to Mr. A again? No, he shouldn't have that much power."
"Could... that evil god have discovered who I am?"
Edward's breath caught.
As an "invading outsider" with little strength, he had long since prepared himself for the gods of this world to discover him-
Yet now that it had actually happened, Edward still felt a wave of despair and profound helplessness.
"I hope... I'm just overthinking this. I hope Megose was merely attracted to something I have, like that Snake of Mercury."
He suddenly froze. Perhaps the Snake of Mercury already discovered that I'm an outsider, too?
At that thought, Edward felt as though he were running naked in broad daylight under the eyes of a host of powerful figures.
He hurriedly slapped his forehead several times, forcing himself to stop letting his imagination run wild.
"What's the point of thinking so much? Right now, I should hurry up and drink the potion to become a Beyonder."
Despite saying that,
Edward did not rush things. Instead, he went out for a lavish meal, then enjoyed a good, long sleep, resting up and getting himself into the best possible condition.
He also visited Audrey in between and committed every detail of potion preparation to memory. By the time he returned to the villa, night had fallen.
The half-full crimson moon shone through the bay window, casting blood-red moonlight onto the floor. Even after living here for nearly a week, he still found it unsettling.
As usual, he first cast a Repelling Charm, then took out the Apprentice formula.
Main ingredients: 20 milliliters of Hornacis Gray Mountain Goat blood + 30 grams of star crystal. Supplementary ingredients: 100 milliliters of pure water + 9 drops of mandrake juice + 7 golden mint leaves + 4 drops of hemlock juice + 7 grams of dragonblood grass.
He then took out the Cauldron and poured the main and supplementary ingredients into it in order. The liquid slowly began to boil, and illusory mist instantly rose, shrouding the room in a haze.
A few seconds later, the mist dissipated. Only a small blob of thick, dark-gray liquid remained in the Cauldron. Like a bead of water on a lotus leaf, it barely seemed to touch the sides.
He carefully poured this "droplet" into a glass. Through the glass, he could faintly see what looked like a sky full of stars hidden within the black liquid, radiating tiny points of light.
"So this is the Apprentice potion?"
"Then let's give myself a buff first!"
Edward took out a small bottle of Felix Felicis and gently took a sip. In an instant, he felt as though he had been completely transformed.
"Now we're talking!"
He picked up the Apprentice potion and downed it in one gulp.
A cool sensation slid down his throat into his stomach.
Before he could make out its taste, he began convulsing violently.
His vision rapidly blurred. Everything in sight seemed overlaid with overlapping images in alternating red, yellow, and blue, while mysterious information beyond words flooded his consciousness.
His body felt as though it had landed on a trampoline and was flung upward. He struggled to open his eyes and discovered another version of himself lying on the sofa, convulsing nonstop. His consciousness must have left his body-or rather, his soul had.
All around him were streaks of clear light in different colors. These lights seemed alive, or perhaps they held endless knowledge.
Edward immediately understood: once he sank his consciousness back into his flesh, he would have successfully consumed the potion and officially become an Apprentice.
He immediately plunged his consciousness downward, merging with his body.
Edward's eyes snapped open as he lay on the sofa.
"It worked!"
Just then, a ray of crimson moonlight entered his eyes. The world before him abruptly turned blood-red, and endless ravings poured in from every direction.
"Don't save me! Don't save me! Don't save me!"
"Don't save me!"
"Don't save me!"
"Don't save me!"
The voice was piercing and shrill, making him once again experience the agony of nails scraping a blackboard and silver needles digging beneath his fingernails and twisting. It was countless times worse than his last return to the Harry Potter World!
In an instant, his brain felt as though it were about to explode.
"These are... Mr. Door's ravings!"
Screaming, Edward rolled off the sofa onto the floor and thrashed in agony. His fingernails and hair grew unnaturally long, and he clawed bloody gouges into the floor.
"I'm... losing control?!"
"Why... is this happening? Why?"
Edward's agony intensified. He felt as though his entire body were being subjected to intense heat, about to turn into steam and gush out through his seven orifices... no, through every pore in his body.
"No, I can't just accept this. There must, there must be another way."
Suddenly, a fierce burning sensation spread across the back of his hand. The next second, he found himself in a dark night sky, with a barely discernible door before him.
"A door?"
Is this the door-the cheat-that brought me between worlds?
He had no time to think. He reached out and pressed his hand against the door.
The next second, his mind cleared. The bone-deep agony, agitation, madness, and despair from before seemed never to have existed, as though they had been nothing but a hallucination.
Tingen City.
Klein was immersed in a sweet dream of earning a thousand pounds a day when he suddenly heard illusory pleas echoing layer upon layer.
"Who's calling this late?"
Klein sat up, seething with irritation at the bastard who had ruined his lovely dream. But he quickly realized that someone was praying to him using a three-part description.
He listened carefully, but could only confirm that the petitioner was a man. His voice was hoarse, as though he were suppressing some kind of pain. "Have the Hanged Man or Little Sun run into trouble?"
He hurried out of bed, took four steps counterclockwise, and entered the towering, majestic palace.
An illusory star pulsing with deep-red light immediately caught his attention. "Someone new?"
Klein sat at the end of the ancient, mottled Bronze Long Table. After a brief hesitation, he pointed with his left hand, extending his spirituality to touch the red star rippling with waves of light.
The surrounding scene abruptly changed. He saw a room in utter disarray and a man wailing in agony.
Judging by his appearance, the man was clearly losing control. Not only was his hair lengthening at a visible rate, but an eerie white glow had also covered the outer layer of his skin.
Suddenly, the man calmed down. He rolled over unconsciously, allowing Klein to get a rough look at his face.
Before you continue