After briefly tidying up the storeroom, Morris returned to the dormitory with his cat in his arms.
Scott's bed was empty. He had probably gone out for a stroll.
That worked out nicely. Morris casually set the black cat on his roommate's bed.
The generous Scott surely wouldn't mind a few extra black paw prints on his sheets.
Watching the black cat romp around on the bed, Morris closed his eyes and silently called out in his mind:
Book of the Mage.
The next second, the phantom image of a book slowly appeared in his mind.
The book had a dark cover of an indescribable material, covered in interwoven starlight.
But that wasn't important.
With a thought from Morris, the book opened to a page.
"Undead Creature Transformation Magic Circle."
This was the title of the page, as well as the magic circle Morris had successfully put into practice in the storeroom earlier.
As expected, this thing isn't a delusion.
Morris opened his eyes, finally coming to terms with reality.
Wonderful, he wasn't mentally ill.
Having established that, Morris let out a huge sigh of relief.
This strange Book of the Mage had suddenly appeared in his mind a few days earlier.
Just like a real book, he could examine and flip through the Book of the Mage in his mind whenever he liked.
However, most of its contents seemed to be sealed by some sort of power.
At first, Morris could only see the first few pages, but as time passed, more and more of its contents became visible to him.
The Undead Creature Transformation Magic Circle, for example, had appeared just last night.
But one strange thing was that, although the book was called the Book of the Mage, everything unlocked so far seemed to concern things like the undead and curses.
Generally speaking, a normal person would certainly have felt some reservations and unease upon suddenly acquiring such ominous abilities.
Morris, however, didn't mind.
Since he had acquired this special ability, he might as well embrace it.
Besides, with his current level of knowledge, trying to learn where the book came from was nothing but a pipe dream.
Having sorted all that out, Morris climbed onto Scott's bed and happily rolled around with his undead cat.
The touch of the cat's body was still as cold and familiar as ever.
The last day of July.
A week had passed since Morris received his letter from Hogwarts.
That afternoon, Morris was weeding the orphanage's yard.
Having gone untended for so long, the yard was overgrown, with rampant weeds engulfing even the paths and leaving nowhere to step.
Naturally, the government wouldn't waste precious funds on something so unimportant.
And naturally, the orphanage's children served as cheap labor.
Morris wasn't about to refuse.
But nearly half the children had slipped away while the caretakers weren't looking, and most of those remaining were either dragging their feet or fooling around.
This offered a glimpse into the personalities of the children in this orphanage.
They really were an awful bunch.
As he had said before, the children who ended up in this orphanage all had some personality issues, to one degree or another.
He wasn't bad-mouthing them behind their backs.
Nothing shaped people more than their environment, and the children here had little choice in the matter.
Fortunately, Morris had been an adult in his previous life, and this environment hadn't warped his personality.
The two caretakers didn't seem to care either, merely strolling lazily around the yard on their rounds.
At this rate, they might not finish tending the yard until the end of summer vacation.
Seeing this, Morris naturally joined the slackers.
Of course, even while slacking off, he wouldn't be idle.
He could still flip through the Book of the Mage in his mind and study its contents.
To everyone else, he simply looked as though he was spacing out.
That was another advantage.
Slacking off without giving anything away was an ability every working person dreamed of.
Over the past week, he had been trying to learn the magic in the Book of the Mage.
For example, the curse spell called Weakening Curse.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be a little harder than he had imagined.
The key to casting a spell lay in "construction."
Although incantations and gestures were necessary, they were more like auxiliary aids.
The true core lay in manipulating mental power.
Simply put, it meant using mental power to construct a complex, precise energy structure within the mental world-a spell model.
As long as he constructed the spell model for Weakening Curse, he would be able to cast the spell successfully.
At this thought, Morris pressed a hand to his forehead in mild frustration.
Even though he had already picked up a few tricks, it was still somewhat difficult for him as he was now.
During the construction of a spell model, even the slightest distraction would cause immediate failure.
He had already tried hundreds of times, but had succeeded only once.
Yes, once.
Morris had always considered himself good at concentrating, so this result left him somewhat discouraged.
While he was fretting over it, his roommate Scott spoke to him.
"Hey, Morris, isn't that your cat?"
Morris looked in the direction Scott was pointing.
His undead cat was standing atop a boundary wall that had lost its plaster, baring its teeth as it faced off against a burly, mottled stray cat.
Are they going to fight? Morris became interested.
The undead cat's gaze was sharp, its pupils narrowed to two vertical slits.
Hah, it was a house cat now. How dare a mere stray provoke it?
Besides, its master had already bestowed extraordinary power upon it.
At this thought, the undead cat arched its back, every hair standing on end. Its hind legs drove hard against the wall, and it lunged fiercely at the mottled stray like a black, black arrow!
Then...
Smack!
The mottled stray swatted it off the wall with a single paw.
"..."
"Your cat really is weak," Scott remarked rather speechlessly, standing beside him with his arms folded.
Watching the undead cat roll around on the ground and whimper at him, Morris suddenly felt a little reluctant to acknowledge it as his cat.
How embarrassing.
You're a noble undead creature, at least.
Fine, you can't beat a stray, but could you show a little backbone?
"Maybe it's just a stray that looks like mine." Morris looked away expressionlessly.
"?!"
As though it had heard its master's words, the undead cat immediately stopped its clumsy performance, darted to Morris's feet like a shadow, climbed up his trouser leg, and burrowed into his arms.
Watching the undead cat rub its head hard against Morris's chest, Scott's mouth twitched. "...This cat really likes you. Its name is Guantou, right?"
"Yes." Morris gave him a helpless look.
"Guantou" was the name he had given the undead cat.
It commemorated the spilled can of fruit he had treasured for two months.
Incidentally, Morris had also embalmed Guantou according to the undead creature preservation guide in the Book of the Mage.
"Mr. Black, let me remind you again that cats are not allowed here," a caretaker said expressionlessly as he approached.
"Yes, sir, but this is just a stray." Morris nodded obediently, then tossed Guantou aside.
Guantou moved nimbly, quickly disappearing behind the boundary wall and leaving only a blurry black shadow.
The caretaker nodded and said nothing more.
Morris was already well practiced in dealing with the caretakers.
As long as he didn't talk back and obediently did as he was told, most caretakers wouldn't give a child much trouble.