By the time they returned to the orphanage, night had fully fallen, and the last trace of sunset had vanished from the horizon.
The orphanage's outline looked especially desolate in the darkness.
Harold let out an unconscious sigh. The past two days had been more fantastical than his entire life before them combined.
"How was it?" Morris asked calmly.
"Pretty good," Harold replied casually.
He hadn't bought any souvenirs in Diagon Alley, only a few hopping frogs made of chocolate-but he had already eaten them.
Magic actually existed.
Unfortunately, he couldn't reveal any of this to anyone other than wizards.
This was a world ordinary people had no access to.
It was also a world his former self had had no access to.
Morris stretched. "Goodbye, Mr. Green. I'm going to get some rest."
An inexplicable mix of emotions stirred in Harold's heart.
Judging by their interactions over the past two days, even setting aside his identity as a wizard, the child named Morris before him was far from ordinary. If not for his youthful appearance, Harold would have felt he was talking to someone his own age.
"Morris," he called, stopping the boy as he carried the birdcage and was about to turn away. He took a business card from the inside pocket of his suit and handed it over. "If you need anything, you can try giving me a call."
He paused, then added, "You should be able to find the number in the phone book too, but having this will be more convenient."
"Thank you." Morris accepted Harold's business card.
He knew Harold was showing him goodwill.
And that benefited him too.
"Ah, one more thing." Before leaving, Harold seemed to remember something. "If you really do bring this owl back to life, could you let me see it?"
Morris thought for a while, then slowly nodded. "Sure."
He had nothing to lose from that.
Besides, he rather liked Harold-even if he was bald.
When Morris returned to the dormitory, his roommate Scott was playing with a dagger he had picked up somewhere.
"It's a little rusty," he said. "I'm trying to restore it... What's that?"
He had noticed the birdcage in Morris's hand.
"An owl," Morris said matter-of-factly, then set it in a corner of the room.
"And?" Scott studied the listless, large black bird in the cage curiously. "Shouldn't you explain?"
"It's a gift from Mr. Green," Morris explained.
That only added to the mystery.
"Mr. Green?" Scott put down his dagger and frowned, searching his memory. "Which Mr. Green? I don't think anyone we know... has the surname Green."
"Harold Green, the man in charge of this children's home."
Only then did Scott understand.
He could hardly be blamed. When Morris had met Harold, he had almost failed to remember who he was too.
"So why did he give you an owl?" Scott was even more puzzled.
"A gift for starting school." Morris rocked the birdcage, and the great gray owl inside stirred its wings slightly.
Scott still didn't understand.
Who gave someone an owl as a gift for starting school?
"Ah, I've got it." A look of sudden realization appeared on Scott's face. He lowered his voice and leaned closer to Morris. "Harold Green is actually your dad, right?"
"Your imagination is far too active." Morris continued what he was doing, carefully taking the great gray owl out of its cage.
The large black bird lay docilely in his arms, still looking weak.
"It makes perfect sense!" Scott analyzed excitedly. "The man in charge, who normally never shows up in front of us, suddenly gives you such a special present-and an owl, at that! This definitely isn't an ordinary present. It has some special meaning..."
Morris ignored Scott's nonsense and continued examining the owl's condition.
According to the pet shop clerk, the owl had ended up like this because a dark wizard had cursed it.
It had presumably suffered quite a bit of torment too.
"Looks like I'll have to prepare the transformation spell as soon as possible," Morris murmured.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Scott was still rambling.
"Go to sleep." Morris put the owl back into its cage and climbed into his bed.
Early the next morning, the first thing Morris did after getting up was look at the owl in the corner.
The great gray owl lay on its side in the cage, its already dull eyes now entirely devoid of light.
It remained in the same position it had been in before he went to sleep last night, but its chest no longer rose and fell.
It was dead.
Morris quietly watched the owl, now lifeless, his face showing no particular expression.
"So it didn't make it after all," he murmured to himself.
Naturally, no miracle had occurred.
The great gray owl had not even lived the two days the clerk had said it could survive.
Morris carefully carried the birdcage containing the corpse out of the dormitory and went into the storage shed in the backyard.
He didn't know whether the Undead Creature Transformation Magic Circle had any requirements regarding how long a corpse had been dead, so it was best to finish as soon as possible.
The storage shed.
Thanks to his previous experience, Morris took only half an hour to finish setting up the Undead Creature Transformation Magic Circle this time.
The difference was that this time, Morris intended to add a little "extra" to it.
Morris stood beside the magic circle and extended his right arm straight forward, palm down.
"Blood Extraction Spell!"
This was a very simple spell (compared with the Weakening Curse), and Morris had taken only an hour to master it completely.
Its effect was simple: it extracted the caster's blood without causing any wounds.
As Morris chanted, blood slowly dripped from the center of his palm.
"Drip, drip..."
The blood fell to the ground and merged into the magic circle as though it were alive.
The magic circle, already drawn in red paint, grew increasingly lurid and began to give off an eerie, dark red glow.
After feeling slightly dizzy, Morris stopped the Blood Extraction Spell.
He didn't know how much blood he had mixed in, but it certainly couldn't have been a small amount.
Then he walked over to the cage, picked up the cold, stiff owl, and gently placed it in the center of the magic circle.
The results this time should be very interesting.
"The world of the living has not yet forgotten you; the slumber of death is not your final chapter."
The moment Morris finished chanting, the magic circle stirred.
Just as before, the scarlet lines flowed slowly, all entering the owl's corpse.
This time, however, a few fine strands of dark gold were faintly visible within the blood-colored patterns.
As the last trace of red light sank into the owl's body, the storage shed fell deathly silent.
Suddenly, the owl's eyes snapped open. Two pale blue flames ignited in its hollow eye sockets, replacing its original eyes.
Morris crouched down in front of it.
"Hoo-"
It stood up and gazed at Morris with those burning eyes, then slowly lowered its head and gently touched its beak to his fingertips.