Earl Hall's face was filled with a rare fury. "Whoever did this, I won't let him get away with it!"
Just then, accompanied by sobbing, the Earl's Wife entered with a maid supporting her. "Oh, my daughter."
Earl Hall pressed a hand to his forehead in exasperation. "Didn't I tell you not to tell your mother yet?"
"But there's no way we could hide something this serious. Besides, Audrey is fine."
The Earl's Wife approached the bed to take Edward's hand, but Earl Hall quickly put an arm around her shoulders, ushering her out with a mixture of coaxing and pushing. "All right, all right, Audrey is fine. What she needs now is a good rest."
The door closed softly behind them, leaving the room empty of everyone else.
Only then did Edward dare relax a little. He had made it through this hurdle, but how was he supposed to escape next? The Church of Evernight surely still had people watching nearby, not to mention those Old Storm Doves who could kill him at any moment.
If he stayed, his disguise would fall apart before long. For a modern man like him, playing a noble young lady who even had to pretend to faint when embarrassed was simply too difficult.
Besides, he didn't have enough Polyjuice Potion.
Edward sighed, at a complete loss. Suddenly, he sensed someone watching him. His heart jolted, and he hurriedly looked over.
In the shadows, Susie the golden retriever lay on the floor. Her face clearly displayed a complex mix of remarkably human emotions: conflict, hesitation, worry, and fear.
The man and the dog stared at each other for a moment.
In the end, Susie spoke first. "You're... not Audrey, are you?"
With her tail drooping, she slowly emerged from the shadows. "How is she? Is she still safe? Could you let her go?"
Edward immediately sat up and watched Susie warily. He didn't have his wand with him. If they really fought, there was no telling who would come out on top.
Susie moved a little closer, lowered her head slightly, and avoided his gaze. Once again, she made the air vibrate to speak. "Is she... still alive?"
"She..."
Edward was just about to answer when everything around him abruptly lost its color, becoming a gray-white void. Time and space seemed to freeze at that instant.
A second later, a powerful falling sensation struck him. Everything in his vision blurred as he plummeted, while sharp, piercing whispers filled his ears. They sounded like nails scraping a blackboard, yet also felt like silver needles stabbing beneath his fingernails and stirring wildly.
Edward felt as though all sorts of jumbled things had been crammed into his head in an instant, as though it might explode at any moment.
His skin began to boil, his entire body turning crimson, yet his heart beat slower and slower.
Nausea, dizziness, pain, agony.
Just as all those sensations were about to reach their peak, they abruptly vanished, as though everything before had been an illusion.
Edward knelt on the floor, bracing himself with both hands, and gasped violently like someone finally rescued after nearly drowning. The vanished colors began to return, and the void around him became real again.
The vast, dim space, the old bookcases, tables, and chairs piled haphazardly together, the ancient, battered flying broomsticks-everything told him this was the Room of Requirement!
"I'm back?"
After a brief moment of astonishment came boundless joy.
Compared with the incredibly dangerous world of Lord of the Mysteries, filled with madness and corruption, he naturally preferred this place. Sure, Voldemort was here stirring up trouble, but overall, it was still safe. Besides, the various spells he had mastered gave him a greater sense of security.
Unlike in Lord of the Mysteries, where a Stunning Spell couldn't even deal with a dog.
Sizzle.
A burning sensation once again came from the back of his left hand.
He still looked like Audrey, and at some point, a Square Mark glowing orange-red had appeared on the back of his hand, its skin as white as jade.
The glow lasted for over ten seconds before gradually fading, leaving only a faint square tattoo, like a door outlined in simple strokes.
"This is..."
Before he could think it through, a stream of information abruptly flooded his mind: this Square Mark was the key to his travel into the Lord of Mysteries World. After its first activation, he would travel between that world and the world of Harry Potter once every fifteen days.
Fifteen days in Lord of the Mysteries, fifteen days in Harry Potter.
But whether he was away or present in the Harry Potter world, time here would continue to flow normally.
When he went to Lord of the Mysteries, however, he would return to the exact moment he had left.
That's... such a strange setup for time. Judging by the strength of Beyonders, the Lord of Mysteries World clearly has a higher level of existence than Harry Potter. So why does time freeze in the former but flow normally in the latter? Freezing a higher-level world should be harder, shouldn't it?
Still, if the world of Lord of the Mysteries is frozen, does that mean I don't have to worry about certain powers and consciousnesses there, like the Primordial, sneaking over with me?
Wait, compulsory travel? Doesn't that mean I'll never be able to escape that dangerous world of Lord of the Mysteries?
He glanced at the clock on the wall: five in the afternoon.
Does that mean I'll travel back to the Lord of Mysteries World at five in the afternoon, fifteen days from now?
"I still can't restore those deleted memories for now. Otherwise, I'd have to hit myself with a Memory Charm every time I went over. I'm afraid I'd end up like that Bertha Jorkins. But facing the Lord of Mysteries World with incomplete memories... who knows what traps I'll stumble into? I might die without even knowing why. No, I'll have to find time to restore them once and jot down some precautions in a little notebook, just in case."
As he thought this, Edward's viewpoint began to rise slowly. The dress that had fitted him grew tighter and tighter, then tore as his body grew taller and broader.
The Polyjuice Potion had worn off.
The leather pouch concealed against his body slipped loose and fell to the floor.
"Right! Audrey is still in the pouch. Did she come over with me too?!"
He hurriedly opened the pouch and stuck his head inside. At a glance, he spotted Audrey asleep, leaning against the sofa with a black book in her hand.
"She really... came over with me!!" Edward couldn't help exclaiming. Audrey immediately woke and tilted her head up to look at him. "Huh? You've changed back again? Can I come out now?"
Edward hesitated. "I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
Audrey firmly resisted the unladylike urge to puff out her cheeks. Pressing her lips together, she said, "Mr. Beyonder, are you teasing me again?"
"Well... why don't you come up first?"
He stepped back a few paces. Once Audrey had struggled out, he gestured at their surroundings. "The bad news is that you're no longer in Backlund. The good news is..."
Edward placed his right hand over his chest and bowed slightly, like a gentleman.
"Welcome to Hogwarts."
Chapter 4: Audrey at Hogwarts
Audrey stared blankly at Edward. After a moment's hesitation, she asked quietly, "Are you... sure you want to keep wearing my dress?"
"..."
Edward was speechless. It felt like punching cotton, like saying, "I kill without blinking," only to be asked, "Don't your eyes get dry?"
You've missed the point, haven't you, Miss Justice?
Audrey looked around and asked curiously, "The decor here really does seem different from Backlund. To be precise, it's unlike anywhere in Loen. So have we left Loen? Is this the Feysac Empire, or the Republic of Intis?"
Her question actually stumped Edward.
"This place... isn't any country you know." Edward considered his wording. "You can think of it as a completely hidden... place, far removed from the world of ordinary people."
"Could this be the legendary Forsaken Land of the Gods?"
"No, not that either."
"Then where is it? And why did you bring me here?" Audrey stared steadily into Edward's eyes. Her emerald-green eyes seemed to hold an indescribable light, giving him the urge to simply tell her everything.
"!!"
Edward abruptly looked away, his voice growing stern. "Miss Audrey, are you using a Beyonder ability on me?"
She blinked, her face innocent. "I'd like to, but I haven't mastered any Beyonder abilities."
Edward quickly searched his memory. The early stages of the Spectator Pathway really did seem to lack Beyonder abilities. Only at Sequence 7 did they gain a whole set of abilities at once, including intimidation, frenzy, and mind reading.
No!
To be precise, they lacked "Beyonder skills" they could actively cast. But starting at Sequence 9, a Spectator could observe another person's words and behavior to discern their true thoughts, then subtly influence and guide them toward the desired outcome.
So ever since she innocently asked whether my eyes were dry, she's been deliberately steering me?
Sure enough, a Sequence 9 is still a Beyonder. Even a shrimp counts as seafood.
But Miss Justice, don't you think you're being too reckless? Aren't you afraid I'll lash out in humiliation?
Oh, recklessness runs in the Tarot Club.
Okay, forget I asked.
But this makes things difficult. They say one lie takes countless others to cover it up, but lying to a Spectator clearly isn't wise.
Maybe I should just keep her locked in the leather pouch, let her go when I return in fifteen days, and never have anything to do with her again.
Just then, Audrey raised the Black Book she had been holding all along. It was one of the many Chinese books in Edward's collection. "The writing in this book is exactly the same as the writing Emperor Roselle invented. But Emperor Roselle's writing only appears in his manuscripts, while this book uses perfectly standardized printed script."
As though she had uncovered some earth-shattering secret, her expression grew increasingly astonished. "Could it be that the emperor didn't actually invent that writing? Was he... from here too?"
She left another question unspoken: that mysterious Mr. Fool, who seemed to be a god, could also read Emperor Roselle's writing. Could he have some connection to this place too?
Miss Justice, could you please stop being so clever? You're making me look stupid.
"Mr. Beyonder..."
Audrey wanted to ask more, but Edward quickly raised a hand to stop her. Then he rubbed his temples and paced back and forth. "Hold on. Let me sort this out-or make something up."
"You... can think of this as somewhere similar to the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Emperor Roselle might, possibly, perhaps have come from here too... We..."
The more Edward said, the less he knew what to say next.
Rationally speaking, he had only three choices: kill her to eliminate future trouble, erase her memories, or keep her here from now on.
But she had been minding her own business at home, happily "eating hot pot and singing," when he suddenly kidnapped her and brought her here. Killing her to protect his secret would be utterly unjustifiable!
Erase her memories of him with a Memory Charm? He could, but the danger was that once she reached a higher Sequence, she would surely discover the problem with her memories easily. Manipulating memories was a specialty of the Spectator Pathway.
What about keeping her in the Harry Potter world?
That would be fine in the short term, but without a wealthy benefactor like her throwing money around in the Tarot Club, could Mr. Fool still advance through the Sequences as quickly as he did in the original story? Edward himself now counted as half a resident of the Lord of Mysteries World. Without the Fool holding things together, the day the apocalypse arrived would probably be the day he died too.
Huh? Why did I think of the apocalypse? What was the apocalypse again? Did I delete that part of my memory?
Wait! This is Harry Potter. There's clearly a better way!
This method required no lies, left no need to worry about her leaking his secrets, and would tie the two of them closely together. Several benefits in one stroke!
In just a few dozen seconds, a storm swept through Edward's mind. Only once he had made up his mind did he let out a long breath and look at Audrey seriously.
"I don't know whether you can understand this, but we're in another world now."
Before you continue