Chapter 392

Chapter 392: Chapter 392

Night had settled over the village, and moonlight filtered through gaps in the clouds, casting a silvery glow across the dirt roads.

Once Agnis had drifted off to sleep, Lynn left the hut and strolled toward the lord’s manor. Its gates were built from thick, heavy planks reinforced with rusting iron bars. A household guard stood on either side, each wearing crude chainmail and an iron helmet, a spear gripped in one hand.

Both men were clearly exhausted. Their eyelids drooped, their bodies swayed, and one yawned so widely that he looked ready to swallow his own helmet.

Lynn stopped a dozen paces away and opened his mouth, exhaling a cloud of pitch-black mist that drifted silently toward the manor.

As it passed over the guards on duty, their eyes rolled back and their bodies went slack. They slid down the walls as though their bones had dissolved, settling on the ground with their heads lolling to one side. Soon, faint snores joined the quiet sounds of the night.

Lynn sauntered into the manor without the slightest attempt at concealment and quickly located the study.

The map hung exactly where Agnis had said it would. He stood before it and examined the inked lines drawn across the parchment. Its edges had yellowed, and insects had eaten several small holes through it, but the markings and place names remained perfectly legible.

After making a copy, he left the study with what he had come for.

All things considered, his first day in medieval Europe had been reasonably productive. At the very least, he now had a good idea of where he was: somewhere in the Somerset Levels of southwestern Britain, a region of mild weather, fertile soil, and plentiful farmland.

If Hogwarts had already been founded, it should lie roughly seven hundred kilometers away.

That was hardly an intimidating distance for him. Traveling on horseback would take days, and a carriage would be slower still, but flying would shorten the journey considerably.

Lynn felt much more relaxed as he walked back toward Agnis’s hut. He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, as though expelling some of the tension that had settled in his chest.

Tomorrow, he would say goodbye to Agnis and head for the Scottish Highlands to try his luck.

He couldn’t remember the exact year Hogwarts had been established, only that its four founders had built it sometime around the tenth century, during the Early Middle Ages. He still didn’t know what year he had landed in, but judging by the village’s size, architecture, and living conditions, he suspected he was somewhere around that period.

With a little luck, Hogwarts would already exist.

He wanted to see the castle before a thousand years of wind and rain had weathered its walls, and he was equally curious about the four legendary wizards who had founded it.

Before leaving, however, he intended to improve Agnis’s circumstances. A child her age shouldn’t have to survive on watery porridge and wild vegetables every day.

Since it was already night, he might as well modify the villagers’ memories and arrange for her to become a nun.

As a member of a religious community, she would enjoy the Church’s protection. She would have shelter, regular meals, and clothes to wear—a reasonably safe and stable life.

...

At dawn, the eastern horizon gradually paled, and the first light of morning washed the sky in faint shades of violet. The village still slept, with only a few early birds calling from the treetops, their clear notes carrying through the quiet air.

Agnis opened her eyes beneath her coarse blanket. She lay on her bed of hay for a few seconds, staring at the beam overhead, before sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

When she turned toward the doorway, she found Lynn standing there, looking out at the distant horizon.

"Lynn... are you leaving?"

Her voice was husky with sleep.

"This isn’t where my journey ends," Lynn replied calmly. "I shouldn’t stay too long."

Agnis lowered her head. "Then... I hope you have a safe journey."

Lynn nodded. "You should move to the church today. I’ve spoken to the people there, and they’ve agreed to take you in."

Her head snapped up. With her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open, she stared at him as though she couldn’t quite understand what she had heard. Then her eyes reddened, and tears began to gather.

Lynn had never known how to deal with that sort of reaction. He waved a hand and offered a farewell.

"Perhaps we’ll meet again someday."

He had barely taken a step when he felt someone watching him.

The sensation lasted only an instant, but he was certain he hadn’t imagined it. He turned sharply, just in time to see a gentle surge of power spill from Agnis’s body and strike the wooden door.

The long crack running from top to bottom vanished. The wood grain joined seamlessly across the repaired surface, leaving the plank looking as whole and sound as if it were new.

Agnis stared at the door, utterly bewildered. She didn’t understand what had happened, what she had done, or why the door that had been broken for years had suddenly repaired itself.

"Accidental magic!"

The words escaped Lynn before he could stop them.

It was different from the destructive outbursts so common among young witches and wizards, but there was no mistaking what he had just witnessed.

He withdrew the foot he had already placed outside and stepped back into the hut.

Only then did Agnis emerge from her daze. She looked from the door to Lynn, then back again.

"I... did I just do something?"

"Yes." Lynn approached the door and ran his fingers over the restored wood.

"What did I do?" she asked, her voice rising with the nervous urgency of a child afraid she was about to be scolded.

Lynn lowered his hand and turned to face her.

"It’s called accidental magic. If you attend a school of magic, your teachers will explain it to you. Almost every witch and wizard experiences something like this while growing up."

"A school of magic? Witches and wizards?"

Agnis looked down at her hands, turning them over as though she expected to find something different about them.

"Do you mean I’m one too?"

"Unless I’m very much mistaken, yes." Lynn met her gaze. "You’re a witch, Agnis. You were born with magic."

She stood motionless, her eyes growing brighter as his words sank in.

Lynn sighed inwardly. Leaving her in the village no longer seemed like such a good idea.

He had assumed she was an ordinary girl without any magical talent, simply another child struggling to survive in a harsh era. His plan had been to secure a safer, more comfortable future for her and then continue on his way.

Her newly discovered magic changed everything.

As far as Lynn understood it, medieval Europe was hardly a welcoming place for wizards, and witches faced even greater hostility. The witch hunts might not yet have reached the scale they would in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but fear and suspicion of magic already existed.

If he left Agnis in the Church’s care and she experienced another magical outburst, there was no telling whether the people meant to protect her might decide to burn her instead.

A nun’s position, the shelter of a religious community, the Church’s protection—all of it could become meaningless the moment someone accused her of witchcraft.

Even so, any change of plans would have to be her choice.

"Agnis."

His voice drew her out of her delighted reverie.

"Now that we know you’re a witch, there’s another possibility I’d like you to consider."

"What is it?" she asked eagerly.

"You could come with me. There may be a school of magic where I’m going, somewhere you can learn how to control your abilities. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. The choice is yours."

"I want to go to the school of magic!"

She answered without the slightest hesitation.

Lynn studied her for a moment, then nodded. "Pack your things, then. We’ll leave shortly."

Agnis nodded repeatedly and hurried to gather her belongings.

Calling it packing was something of an exaggeration, since she owned very little. She retrieved a cloth bag from a corner and began placing her possessions inside. Among them was a spherical pendant hanging from a faded leather cord. Its dark-red surface was covered in fine scratches, though traces of its original luster still shone through.

She told Lynn it was a keepsake from her grandmother.

She also changed into a new dress made from dark-blue homespun cloth, with simple patterns embroidered around the collar and cuffs. Its long skirt fell almost to her ankles.

Her father had bought it for her before he died, and she had never been able to bring herself to wear it.

Apart from those few treasured possessions, there was little in the hut that Agnis felt she needed to take.

"I’m ready."

She appeared in the doorway with the bulging cloth bag clutched in her hand.

And so, the two of them set out for the Scottish Highlands.

Lynn had initially considered asking Levi to take them there directly through Apparition. However, this was Agnis’s first journey away from home, and he wanted her to have a proper chance to see the world. He therefore chose the slower, more troublesome option of traveling by carriage.

Where had the carriage come from?

Why, the lord had generously donated it, of course, without asking Lynn for a single coin.

He had even selected his finest horse, harnessed it to his best carriage, and arranged for a thick layer of hay to be spread inside the cabin.

Lynn settled onto the driver’s seat with the reins in his hands, while Agnis sat beside him, still clutching her bag.

"Hyah!"

He gave the reins a gentle shake. The horse stepped forward, and the carriage wheels began to rumble along the village’s dirt road.

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