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Chapter 459: Chapter 417

Frankly, this was just me keeping busy without forcing myself to deal with the truly stressful and important matters. It certainly helped with how high-strung I\'d been recently, a nice relaxing shopping evening.

That was until I found all that was unholy in this world.Th

Racist assholes? I could deal with that.

Hell, give me petulant Gods back home.

This, however, was too damn far.

I felt my pyromantic tendencies flare up. No one would ever know, a little bit of fire, and this place would burn down. I\'d honestly be doing the world a favor.

I\'m not usually someone who takes shots at other cultures. I honestly believe it\'s the height of ignorance and the domain of the uneducated to dismiss another\'s societal differences out of hand. That isn\'t to say, you should blindly accept everything about someone else\'s home. If you go to another country and they perform ritual sacrifice, you wouldn\'t be xenophobic to say something bad about that. But to simply point at and label it backwards or barbaric because it\'s different is where a line should be drawn.

And I found myself stepping over that line.

Because this is unacceptable.

What is God\'s name was this monstrosity?

I was curious, and decided to take a look over at one of the fashionable clothing stores. And staring at one of the window displays, it nearly made me throw up in my mouth.

I don\'t mind Robes. They\'re not for me personally, but they\'re a staple in many Magical societies. But this....I had no words.

Why would any living creature want to wear something like this? It\'s like they took all the worst parts about Victorian Era clothing, and stitched it together with the cliché Wizard attire, then thought they could do worse by adding some flamboyant feathers, fur, and lace.

And if that didn\'t make it bad enough, there were genuinely people pressed against the window admiring it.

[It\'s just clothing.] Ddraig snorted within my head. [Honestly don\'t know why you\'re so obsessed about it.]

Imagine if instead of clothing, it was the equivalent of scales.

[.....burn it down.] Ddraig spoke after a beat.

I knew you understood me best, Ddraig.

I could feel my Magical Energy rise to the surface.

Fire is the answer to every problem. If you claim it doesn\'t solve the problem, you\'re just not using enough! Or you can just burn any dissidents. If there\'s no one to tell you it\'s not working, then no one can prove otherwise!

{Am I really going to have to be a voice of reason here?} My Zanpakutō chimed in.

[Burn it!]

{Don\'t take advice from the Dragon about burning things}

Oh fine.

[Party pooper]

{You have other things you\'d rather be doing anyways. Don\'t waste your time caring about something that won\'t overly concern you.}

Yeah yeah.

The only reason I was checking out this place was because it was near where I actually wanted to go.

\'Flourish & Blotts\'.

A bookseller.

Color me interested.

I hummed as I pushed the door open, the insides being vastly larger than the building would appear from the outside.

At this point, it seems like a standard magical effect to increase the space of facilities. Perhaps a necessity that came from hiding in modern times? Diagon Alley wasn\'t that big to accommodate what was thousands of Witches and Wizards, it made sense that they needed to add more.

However, I felt my eye twitch as I saw the state of this place.

Stacks and stacks of books, which was good....if they weren\'t haphazardly thrown all over the place.

Literally towering stacks of books that were tilting back and forth because they were about to fall over. There were more, on the staircase leading to the second floor, a hazard for anyone trying to walk. There were archways made from books barely held together by friction.

What the fuck was wrong with this world?

Ignored it, Wilhelm, you had other things you wanted to do before going back home.

Instead of being supremely bothered by the layout of this place, I walked to the front desk.

"Can I help you, Dearie?" A kindly old woman looked up from the counter.

"Yes, I was wanting to make a rather...large purchase. I figured it would be more appropriate to ask rather than find everything myself. Would it be possible to get two sets of compulsory texts for Hogwarts students?"

"For which years?\' She responded.

"Every year?" I blinked.

"The Texts sometimes change from year to year." She gently explained. "Do you have someone attending?"

"Possibly my Daughter. Just came over from out of Country and wanted to take a look at everything before making a decision." I casually explained.

"Oh wonderful!" She happily clapped. "You\'ll find that Hogwarts is the foremost Magical School in the entire world."

"So I\'ve heard." I had yet to form a thorough opinion.

"It makes sense then." She nodded in understanding. "Especially with the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher changing every year, the books needed also change."

"Pardon?" I frowned. "What do you mean that a Teacher is changing every year."

"Oh forgive me." She placed her hand lightly on her chest. "You just told me and I already forgot." She leaned, looking around. "You-Know-Who did something, a curse or what-have-you, and no Teacher can persist for more than a year in the position."

"A teacher dies every year!?" I was now very concerned.

"Oh Merlin, no!" She laughed. "Just some reason or another that they leave or are.....forced to leave."

I.....am finding it difficult to understand. "Why don\'t they just remove this Curse?"

"You-Know-Who was a very powerful Wizard, not even the Great Dumbledore was able to remove it. Who would you expect could do so?" She said as if it were obvious.

"You-Know-Who?"

"Indeed." She nodded.

"Who is that?"

"It\'s you-know-who"

"Yes, I don\'t know who."

"The Dark Lord"

"Grindelwald?" That was the only Dark Lord I\'ve heard about.

"Grindelwald? What does he have to do with anything?" She looked confused now. "Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore during the War."

"Yes, and who is this Dark Lord then?"

"It\'s You-Know-Who!"

"I don\'t know who!"

"How do you not know!?"

"I was living in Japan my entire life." I fought off a sigh.

She hesitated, looking around again before once more leaning in. "His name was....Voldemort." She whispered, a tinge of fear present in her voice.

...that\'s a stupid name.

"And this Dark Lord did something after Grindelwald?"

She looked clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning. "It was a Dark Time, you shouldn\'t ask about it. But it doesn\'t matter any longer, he was defeated by the Boy-Who-Lived."

"....."

She looked at me again. "Don\'t tell me you don\'t know about that either?"

"I have no idea."

Her expression changed drastically. "Why, Harry Potter of course!"

"Oh, is Harry Potter some kind of powerful Wizard like Dumbledore?"

She let out a laugh. "He\'s just a child. Bought his books right from me just this last year for his first year of schooling!" She puffed up proudly.

"Pardon, are you saying that a School Student defeated this....Dark Lord?"

"Yes, it was just about ten years ago." She looked off into the distance. "If not For Harry Potter, who knows what would have happened?"

"Ten Years...and you said he just bought books. Wouldn\'t he have been an infant?"

"Why, of course." She nodded.

"....an infant defeated this scary Dark Lord of yours?"

She nodded as if it weren\'t the most ridiculous thing I\'ve heard in a long while.

"....how?"

"Well....I don\'t know. All we know is that he survived the killing curse! And destroyed that monster for good!"

"....an infant?"

What the hell was this \'killing curse\'.

I felt it should be even something a foreigner should know, so I kept my mouth shut.

"He\'s destined for Great Things!"

Alright then.

There seems to be a Dark Lord problem here if there were two in such a time frame. Then again, if we were to toss the label around back home, half the clock Tower would get the title.

I decidedly chose not to comment further on the topic. If he was killed, then I didn\'t care anymore. I would have simply gone to kill him myself so Kunou\'s schooling wouldn\'t be interrupted by any stupidity.

If we ended up deciding on this place.

It was looking good so far though. Despite my current misgivings, which were admittedly my own personal hang ups. It was shaping up to be something that I think Kunou would enjoy.

Of course, I needed to look into the actual learning material to form a better opinion.

Thus, here we were.

If their problems could be solved by literal babies, I\'m sure it\'s nothing important.

"Back on topic, books." I shifted back to the reason I was here.

"Oh yes." She snapped back as well. "What books would you like?"

"How about...last year\'s material? Otherwise, the standard sets for each year for each major subject would be appreciated. Two sets, that is. And....honestly, throw in anything you think would be helpful for a parent wanting to see what the education is like over here. I can pay very well. So please, don\'t hold back."

The twinkle in her eyes told me that she would be more than happy to add anything she thinks I would need.

[***]

Finding a nice quiet place had actually been....a test in futility for the most part. This place was fairly packed full of people, but I was lucky enough to find a little rotunda with a tree and some benches with a little grassy garden a tiny bit out of the way.

No one around, I took out one of the books I acquired, starting from the beginning.

\'The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)\'.

A compulsory text for every first year it seems.

Good, they streamlined their education enough to have something like this, which gave me hope. Even back in the Clock Tower, they had standardized books for new students.

I opened it up to read the first page to get an idea of what I was getting into.

"An Introduction to Charms." I hummed to myself. "Through this text you will be learning the basic Charms any Proper Wizard and Witch will utilize in their lifetimes. These range from Kitchen Cantrips to Deceptively Dreadful Defensive Measures for the quick thinking. However, this text will not include the Dark Arts, that is to say, there will be no learning of Jinxes, Hexes, and Curses. This text does not deal with Dark Charms."

There was a bit more, but I skimmed over the introduction.

Interesting that they broadly labeled a bunch of things simply as \'Charms\'.

[Baby Magic then?]

"So it would seem." I mentally shrugged. "It\'s fine though, this is what Kunou can use as a springboard. Magic is Magic, even if it differs wildly from one place to another, it all has some common ground to work from."

{Once she understands basics from here, she can learn the more complicated matters that we are familiar with. I believe the Magic possessed in Skyrim would be a good route for the equivalent of higher education before stepping into the Magecraft you are more familiar with.} Musū Tengai also noted.

"Agreed, it\'s a good first step on the ladder from what Gramps said." Something basic and easy to understand with minimal danger. What more could I ask for with my Daughter\'s education?

I went to the first page of spell work.

The Very First spell the kids would be learning.

"Lumos." I read aloud. "The Wand-lightning Charm. A Charm that illuminates the tip of the Caster\'s wand, allowing for the Caster to see in the dark. The Counter Charm, provided below, is known as \'Nox\', which is used to extinguish the light from the Caster\'s Wand. This Charm can also be sometimes used to reveal magically hidden things."

It went on a bit more but I skimmed through that. Instead, I focused on a Magically moving picture that showed a wand movement and the effect in black and white. While not as noticeable since it was dealing with light, the shades did change and I could make out what happened.

"Reveals Magically Hidden things? That implies it\'s not simply light but more of a revelation, which supports the banishment of Darkness due to the inherent concepts behind the two ideas. Light lets you see in the dark, ergo, a revelation spell would push away any darkness around you." I was just thinking out loud at this point.

[Don\'t accidently exorcise yourself]

I....was about to retort something snarky, but that is genuinely a curious idea.

Regardless, shall we test it?

It specifies Wand-Lightning, but I doubted I actually needed one.

The only issue is that it doesn\'t really go into depth on how the Spell operates only....follow the outline and it works.

I guess they don\'t cover the mechanism this early. But that did earn an eyebrow raise either way because simple Spell Words and Motions shouldn\'t actualize a spell like this unless it was a manner of ritual that was engraved in the world.

Well, let\'s test.

I held a finger out and followed the motions described in the book. "Lumos!"

.....

Nothing happened.

"Lumos."

"Lumos!"

"Lumos"

My Magical Energy didn\'t....respond properly. Something was off and I didn\'t know what it was.

Realistically, I didn\'t churn my Magical Energy like I would with a normal spell from my end because this was supposed to work for utter beginners. That is to say, they shouldn\'t have the same control that I have, therefore it\'s not a leap to guess that it would work by itself without the user needing further control of their Magical Energy.

Wand Movements in general were something I was iffy on. Why were they needed? Was it similar to the creation of a Rune in that the \'character\' was a representation of itself? In that case, why would a Spell World be mandatory too?

Further on that train of thought, is \'Wandless\' and \'Wordless\' Magic even possible here?

"Lumos!"

Again, nothing.

[So this is the first spell?]

"Yes, Ddraig."

[The ones that literal children learn for their first spell?]

"Yes, Ddraig." I groaned.

[Like, they hand the kids their sticks, and this is just something that is easy for kids who probably still wet the bed?]

"Yes, Ddraig."

[Just checking!]

Fuck you, Ddraig!

"Lumos!"

Again, nothing. And I was starting to get annoyed.

I could produce light at the tip of my finger without a second thought required. But why wasn\'t this working?

What was I doing wrong? Was a Wand literally required? It was in the name, but I was 90% sure that was a misnomer. And how did people practice magic without Wands if this was the case? I doubt Magic suddenly popped up because someone thought \'hey, let me say some magic words and wave my stick around this specific way\'.

I\'m missing something.

I recalled what Gramps said, and it was obvious that he thought this would be an exercise for me to figure out.

Meaning, there is something to figure out on my end.

"Lumos!" I concentrated on the Mana in the air, and I noted a faint ripple. Like it failed to take hold of my spell.

As if....the world assisted with the spell casting?

That was absurd, this was no Grand Ritual.

And there were certainly no Gods here to facilitate this kind of thing.

What was I missing?

"Lumos!" I watched again, and it reacted nearly exactly the same way.

"Lumos!" I tried to latch onto the Mana in the air with my own Magical Energy. I felt something, but nothing Actualized.

I held up my other hand, and cast a similar spell, allowing a small light to appear above my finger. Nothing happened, the Mana didn\'t react at all, but my own Spell came out without any issue.

"Lumos!" I cast in my free hand.

Once more, the same happened.

[Maybe you can ask that baby to teach you? He\'s apparently beating Dark Lords while in a Diaper.]

"Shut up, Ddraig." I grumbled.

[Just saying, it makes me depressed to see my user not be able to use even the most basic of baby spells. You think if we get Kunou she could figure it out before you?]

"I\'m ignoring you."

[It\'s alright to admit.]

"....admit what?" I was annoyed that he got an answer from me even after I said what I did before.

{Don\'t – }

[That it\'s too difficult for you.]

Caution to the wind then.

I took out the Staff of Magnus.

"LUMOS!"

A second sun appeared overhead.

[***]

Canon-Omake, Date with Venelana.

I had my chin resting on the table, and across from me Venelana was doing the same.

I don\'t know how long we\'d been like this, but we were staring at each other for a good while at this point.

"You blinked, I win," Venelana suddenly smiled.

"Dammit, I got lost in thought!" I huffed.

"No being a sore loser~" She giggled.

"I\'ll make you sore."

"I\'m sure you will." She smiled. "We can do that now if you want."

"Oh?" I perked up, but forced myself to settle down. "Jeez, I thought I was the horny one. Is there even an off switch for you?"

"Sweetie." She reached over, playfully patting my cheek. "I\'m almost always horny."

That explained a lot.

And I could relate.

"It\'s not that don\'t want to take a tumble in the bed sheets –"

"Or anywhere, I don\'t mind getting adventurous." She interjected.

Jesus Christ, this woman was going to be the end of me.

"But! I wanted to spend some time with you too." I took her hand into mine, giving her a smile.

"And I enjoy this about you immensely." She returned the warm smile. "What did you have in mind?

I\'m up for just about anything."

"Impromptu date?" I hummed. "Uh...."

"Would you like some suggestions?" She offered.

"Please, I\'m floundering here."

She giggled, and touched the Bracelet I gave her before, taking out a piece of paper. "Here you go. This is my bucket list this decade."

I took it, but looked at her first. "Bucket list for this decade? What\'s that supposed to mean."

"Oh, I just make a list of things that pique my interest every decade or so that I want to do. Not all of them pan out, but it is what it is." She shrugged.

I read the first on the list. "Fly to the Moon?" I furrowed my brow.

"Humans landed on the Moon some years ago, I thought they would have had commercial flights within a few years back when I made this list. Unfortunately, it looks like I\'ll have to put that one off."

"I could take you there myself...?" It would take ample preparation, but it was....possible.

"Part of the fun would be the flying. I wanted the whole experience, breaking through the Earth\'s gravity well. The blast off, the landing. All of that good stuff."

"Understandable." I didn\'t bring it up again. "That sounds like fun. It\'s something we can do together in the future."

"Then we can have sex on the way back. It would be exciting to do it without any gravity~"

I couldn\'t even say anything because I had that same exact thought.

I skimmed the list, most of it were things that would require a bit of setup or weren\'t really possible on short notice, but I did land on one that did make me pause. I flipped the page over and held my finger to it. "Really?"

"What?" She chuckled. "I saw it on T.V. some years ago and I\'ve been wanting to do it since. But everyone I\'ve asked didn\'t really seem interested. And I wouldn\'t want to go alone, that would be weird."

"Fuck it, let\'s do it. I\'ve never done it before either."

She smiled brightly, like a genuine excitement. "Oh, this is going to be fun!" She shot up out of her seat. "But I should probably change." She looked down at the dress she was wearing. "Unless you want me to flash my ass at people when I run."

I reached over, and lifted her dress up to get a good look. "Nope, that\'s mine." I shook my head, giving her a little pat on her butt for emphasis.

"I should put on some panties too." She noted. "Give me ten minutes, and I\'ll be right back!"

Who\'d have thought she\'d want to play Paintball of all things? I wasn\'t complaining, it sounded like a fun time!

[***]

Venelana and I sat there in silence.

We were sweaty and covered in Paint.

"Here are your participation Trophies." The owner handed us these two little plastic gold-colored cups. "If you come back, we will call the police."

Neither Venelana nor I said anything as he walked away.

"Wow...."

"Yes." She agreed.

"Those kids were ruthless."

"I am surprised myself." She rubbed her boob. "I got shot in the tit several times."

"I don\'t think it was an accident..."

"Oh, it definitely wasn\'t. Otherwise, you wouldn\'t have gotten so worked up and shot those kids in the mouth every time they opened them."

"I confess to nothing."

I expected a fun little outing, shooting each other and some other people with some little balls of paint. We both intentionally kept our standards to that of a normal human, otherwise there would be no point.

But Jesus Christ, those Kids were monsters.

"And we\'re banned now." She mused. "Do you think we did something wrong?"

"No, I\'m sure it wasn\'t that you went on a rampage screaming \'My Dick\' when I got shot in said dick." I deadpanned. "Didn\'t you say you were a Child Psychiatrist? Cause some of those kids are going to need some recommendations."

"I did indeed."

"Well, a little trauma probably never hurt anyone...." Those kids are going to need a therapist later.

"It builds character." She defended.

"I don\'t think kicking some teen down to the ground and unloading everything you had into their groin is \'character building\'. But then again, I\'m not a licensed Psychiatrist."

"Trust me, I went to school."

"That response probably wouldn\'t make me this speechless if I wasn\'t technically a high school dropout."

She patted my leg. "There there."

"Well....what now?" I asked.

"I don\'t know. I didn\'t expect us to get kicked out so soon."

"So soon?" I raised an eyebrow.

"There were only two ways this could have gone." She shrugged. "Believe me when I say, this is pretty normal for my family and I\'m used to it."

Wow, that was something I didn\'t think was worth unpacking here.

Regardless.

".....wanna go find another one to get kicked out of?"

She smiled brightly. "I would love to."

[***]

A/N

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