The night was as dark as ink.

  The soft moonlight filtered through the window, casting its glow on the quiet bedroom. Ian's eyeshes slowly fluttered open uhe gentle caress of the moonlight, and his emerald green eyes shimmered with a brilliant light.

  Returning to sciousness, Ian instinctively g the clo his bedroom – no surprise, the hands of the old-fashioned wall clock were fixed at 12:07.

  This had been the case for years.

  Whenever he returned from the Twilight Zohe time was always the same. The hour hand might point to different numbers, but the minute hand would aloint to that number imbued with magical power.

  Seven.

  Ian didn't uand the secret behind it, but he khat every week, he would have an experience almost identical to this one.

  In the past, the only people he entered iwilight Zone were Ariana and occasionally Pandero. This time, however, a mysterious, aristocratic witch had appeared.

  "She wants me to help her find the mirror she left behind in the real world..."

  Ian wasn't sure whether the witch was benevolent or malevolent. Perhaps judging a soul purely by its goodness or evilness was too simplistic. What intrigued him most was the witch's enigmatic identity.

  A witch living in a mysterious castle withiwilight Zone.

  Had she once been a renowned figure in the wizarding world? After all, her aristocratic demeanor clearly wasn't something an ordinary witch could possess.

  "Was she a wizard from the st tury, or was she an active figure from the Middle Ages?"

  Ian's uanding of the fantasy world he found himself in was limited to a few special effects-den films and some spiracy-den fanfi.

  Because of this, Ian could only grasp a general sense of the many mysteries hidden within this world. The only mirror he could think of was the Mirror of Erised, which cealed the Philosopher's Sto the beginning of the story.

  It could shoerson their deepest, stro desires.

  If the mysterious witch was seeking that mirror – the ohat would eventually appear at Hogwarts – then perhaps Ian truly had a ce t it into the Twilight Zone and give it to her.

  "I just don't know if I bring such a rge objeto the Twilight Zone like I would bring in dy." Ian was unsure, as he had tempted anything like it.

  Holy, Ian still didn't fully uand the special gift he had possessed since childhood. He didn't even fully grasp why he could bring dy into the Twilight Zone, yet his own bed, where he slept, didn't follow the same rule.

  Of course.

  To ehe Twilight Zone in his sleep must have been a very special gift – just as the mysterious wit the Twilight Zone had said.

  Ian… ecial enough.

  What this speess entailed, however, only the witch could truly answer. Ian could clearly sehat the mysterious wit the Twilight Zone was quite ed with this fact.

  "Learning magi her…"

  Ian couldn't deny that the proposal had tempted him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the witch's iions might not be entirely genuine. Perhaps it was just a ruse to achieve some goal reted to his uniqueness.

  If she truly was the former owner of the Mirror of Erised, she was certainly an a spirit who had lived for tless years. Her thoughts, as a spirit, might be even more difficult to prehend than those of a living woman.

  "She's also a very beautiful ghost."

  "I don't o take this risk… Magic, I learn at school. The professors there might not be any weaker than the old wit the dream."

  Reason triumphed reed.

  Ian suppressed the stirrings of desire in his heart.

  What if the other party truly was an old witch who enjoyed pying with young boys?Or what if the so-called "pying" by the witch wasn't the same as Ian's kind of "pying"? Ian definitely wasn't willing to take that risk.

  "Phew~ Namo Gatling Merlin Bodhisattva… This really 't be a gamble."

  After weighing the pros and s, Ian repositioned his pillow, closed his eyes, and fell bato a deep, restful sleep.

  In the years without the ce to learn charms, the biggest be of having wizarding blood was that he could easily learhod of lucid dreaming.

  …

  One night, a dream.

  The day, Ian woke up feeling refreshed.

  With every movement, he seemed to carry just a little extra fidence, a carefree, elegant aura – no one knew what kind of beautiful dream he had jured up for himself st night.

  [Successfully improved nguage skills][Successfully improved nguage skills][Successfully improved nguage skills]

  Before the m sun had even risen, Ian had already started his daily studies. He had always been serious about improving his nguage skills.

  After all.

  In Ian's heart, there had always been an expectation: he hoped to use the extraordinary abilities gained from this skill to tap into the ualents that only a few in the magical world possessed.

  unication with animals.

  He was not aiming to bee a Parselmouth who could unicate across species, but at least to uand animals' emotions and iions, like Sder. Then it would be alright.

  "Of course, if I could hear the voices of all living things, I wouldn't miher." Five Ian, his past literary is were quite diverse, and st night, he had dreamed of being the king of mountain bandits.

  [Successfully improved nguage skills][Successfully improved nguage skills]

  …

  Just as Ian was letting his mind wander, gaining about ten points in his nguage skills, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed in the hallway outside his room.

  There were also cttering sounds.

  It was unclear whifortunate kid had knocked something over in the hallway.

  "Ian! Ian! e! Uh… the school teacher's here again!"

  Catherine's voice rang out from outside, breathless, along with the sound of small hands urgently knog on the door. It seemed the kids were more eager about school than Ian was.

  The kids gathered around Ian, chattering away, some of them even speaking with a somerecocious tone – orphans often grew up faster in many aspects than their peers.

  "Ian! Ian! Ms. Helena is calling for you! Are you going to school?""Are you ing back? y us a teacher too?""You use your charm to persuade those female teachers, oh!"

  …

  "Ian, I don't want to go to that school anymore. I'll just wait for you to teach me how to make dy! Oh, the teacher who came today looks just like the one you talked about, the oh the weird dress!"

  On the way, Catherine leaned closer to Ian and whispered, sounding a bit scared. Her words made Ian, who had already been curious about which professor was ing, feel a tightness in his chest.

  "Looks like the oh the weird dress?"Is it scary?Ian had a bad feeling.

  At that moment, surrounded by a crowd of kids, Ian arrived right in front of the Director's office.

  The door en.

  So.

  Ian could clearly see the figure sitting across from the Director, almost shrouded in a gloomy aura. Just the back of the figure alone made the atmosphere tense and oppressive.

  It was somewhat remi of the dark wizards he had entered before.

  "Why is it him!?"

  Ian looked dumbfounded.

  "They have a big fluffy Dumbles at home! Why is this bck bat here instead!!"

  (End of chapter)