Chapter 76

Harry Potter POV

'That's the life.' He thought as he was enjoying his breakfast.

Celeste sat on the very same table, enjoying her own breakfast as they were served by the maids of Viscount Jackson's household.

While Celeste is supposed to be his maid, she could be considered more of a personal assistant handling organizational matters so he could have more time.

"Sir!" The door to the dining room opened, and the Viscount himself entered, "The party you told me to look out for has entered the city!"

Hearing him, his smile widened as he ordered, "Good, I hope your men are leading them here."

"Yes, as you instructed, they have immediantly greeted them and are leading them here this moment." Viscount Jackson replied politely.

"Good, you may leave. Notify me once they have arrived." Harry ordered dismissing the Viscount in his own home.

The man accepted it without questions and left under the strange gazes of his own household maids, who were still present, ready to serve.

While many of them and even the other people in the household were questioning what was happening here, in the end they had to accept it. After all, the rest of the Viscount family, the headbutler, and the head guards after all did so too under the Imperius.

"The rest of you may leave too. I have matters to discuss with Celeste!" He ordered dismissing the maids.

As soon as they were out, Celeste asked him, "Did you force them under a contract?"

"No, the maids are completely free. As for the Viscount, the high-ranking members of the family are under a spell that I have improved." Harry answered as he took a sip of his coffee, "The Viscount probably would rather die than sign such a contract." And I have no interest in having permanently in my employ. He is just temporary, a means to an end."

"You have to teach me that spell." Celeste said with glittering eyes and a sadistic look on her face.

Yup, she is still a spoiled noble, even as his maid.

"It is more advantageous to focus on different spell models. They take a bit of time to understand, and this one is useless against most acolytes since their mental resistances are too strong and they will manage to break free. Any Acolyte who doesn't break free isn't worth the effort." Harry explained.

While this was an improved version of the Imperius Curse, placing a permanent rune brand on a person makes it stronger.

Anyone becoming an acolyte had already a natural resistance against magic, negating the Rune brand, and the Imperius Curse itself could be broken with a strong enough will.

The main training method in becoming a magus was developing one's mind.

"Then why did you learn it?"

"I created it."

"I see. So who are these people that did arrive?" Celeste asked interestingly; she hadn't learned much about himself yet.

"The other members of my organization, you will see for yourself. They should be here soon. Anyway, did you manage to buy every apothecary and fruit producer in the city?" He asked.

"Yes, I did. A bit of assistance from the Viscount, and they sold them to me for a reasonable price. While I get that you want the apothecaries for the ingredients you use in your potions, but are fruit potion ingredients too?" She questioned a bit puzzled.

"They may be. But I wanted them for a different reason. You will see." Harry answered, and Celeste just accepted his reply. She knew he wouldn't share more with her until he felt it was the right time.

Soon there was a knock on the door to the dining room, and Viscount Jackson led three women in.

"Finally, Bessita, Neela, and Bicky. It took you long enough!" Harry greeted them, "This is Celeste, a new recruit and my maid. She is mainly responsible for organizational matters."

Harry stood up to greet them and received kisses from each of the girls as soon as he was in their range under the watchful eyes of Celeste.

"You seem to have been busy." Neela said as she still in his embrace and looked at Neela,

"Nice to meet you, Celeste. A cute outfit you are wearing there."

This made Celeste blush; she was wearing a skimpy black and white outfit with frills, something Harry would call a French maid outfit. "It's one of the uniforms Harry ordered me to wear!"

"Hmmm, Harry ordered you to wear something like this." Bessita asked as her eyes predatorily returned to Harry.

"Nothing that you are thinking of happened. I will not force myself on her, and like with yourself, she needs to be 18 for me to interfere with her." Harry cut her train of tought directly off, "I just like the look of it."

"So you like the look of these kinds of clothes?" Bicky asked interested.

"He calls them French Maid Outfit, though I have no idea what French are." Celeste replied.

All three newcomers stared at the outfit, while Viscount Jackson stood unmovingly in the corner.

"Anyway, you may leave Jackson!" Harry ordered, before he turned his gaze onto the girls, "How was your journey? I didn't expect you to arrive together."

"We coincidentally met up with Neela outside of the Dark Night Woods!" Bicky replied happily as she took an apple from the table filled with different foods.

While these weren't the spiritual-grade foods beneficial for a Magus that were available in the academy, it was still quite the luxurious collection fitting for a noble household.

"Lucky for you. But you were no longer in Danger. I already took care of the mission. It was a half-adult Mankestre snake that had caused the withering woods." Harry gave them a short overview before asking, "How was your journey?"

They had managed their goal, selling every potion they had with them, bringing some of the ingredients they had on their list, and most importantly, finding as many magus markets in the Poolfield Kingdom as possible.

Every region of the kingdom had at least one.

"Good, I am happy that you have arrived safely. This entire floor is for our personal use. The Viscounts family was so gracious and moved to one of the lower ones. The only people allowed to enter are the maids and Viscount Jackson himself. You can pick any room you want, though I have already guessed which one you will pick. Still, you will need your own laboratory!" Harry explained, already knowing they would move into his bedroom.

They would have a lot of work in front of them, while he had already begun with his more in-depth research, especially studying Roman's soul, which had caused a different color in his philosopher stone.

But to really start with his research, there was one thing he had to do first.

———

Harry stood on the edge of a cliff, looking out into the wild ocean. He was surrounded by a field of yellow flowers.

The hearts of these flowers were filled with a bright red. These flowers, while blooming, were almost the size of two human fists.

The whole top of the cliff was filled with these flowers, their aroma filling the area. Their name is Beta Daisy.

It's located in the Zither Moon Mountain Plaines, quite a dangerous place, even moderately dangerous for an average Rank 1 magus. What made this place even more troublesome to reach was its geographical location.

Not only had he to pass through the whole Poolfield Kingdom again, thank god he still had his Firebolt and travels alone, it was also located in between the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy and Sage Gotham's hut, who were at war with each other.

He had to avoid multiple parties of Magi from each faction since he didn't want to get their attention. No doubt he could fight them head-on, but it would be troublesome, and he wanted to remain unbothered in this place.

For this purpose, his good old Invisibility Cloak came in really handy. Combined with a few spells, it pretty much concealed his presence from anyone on the South Coast. Nobody could see through his Invisibility Cloak, neither himself.

Based on his initial research with the AI chip, while it was not an offensive or defensive item, it was a supportive one, at the very least on the level of a high-grade magical artifact, if not higher.

It was far too complex for him to really learn it's inner workings at this point in time. He simply lacked the understanding and knowledge and the tools to really study it.

Which made him wonder if there was more to the Story of the Three Brothers in the Wizarding World, explaining the origin of the Deathly Hollows. Was Death a real entity that could think?

According to his old system, it should be; after all, he had gotten a mission that decreased his affection for death if he failed.

Was that mission still active? Probably better if he completes it; no need to piss off a higher entity like Death.

He probably had already pissed off one of them by accidentally removing his old system. Whatever kind of entity the shadow was.

Every time he thinks about him now, it gives him a dangerous feeling, but while he had his old system, nothing had felt wrong. Which was fishy!

Well, he met another higher entity too. Truth. Who had sent him here? Truth clearly was oposed to the being that had given him his system.

The whole multiverse was far too complex. Especially with higher entities, whose ranges reach beyond their own universes. Just how do they scale up to a Rank 8 magus, the current peak of this universe?

Death is probably far stronger, since she exists in pretty much every universe. About the shadow, he had no guess at all; he wasn't even sure who or what that shadow was or which universe it comes from. Truth may be on the level of a Rank 8 magus, but probably higher.

Rank 8 Magi, at least to what he knew from the novel, couldn't travel between universes, just worlds, while Truth sent him here.

It didn't matter for now. One thing was obvious: there were some kind of rules or limitations in place for directly interfering with 'lesser' beings.

Or the Shadow wouldn't have used the system on him for some reason, Death would collect the Deathly Hollows herself, or Truth would just have killed him.

Right now, they didn't matter to him. Sure, he had to keep them in mind, but there was nothing he could truly do about them at his current level. First he had to get home. For that, he also needed more strength.

That's why he was here in the first place.

The Entrance to Dylan's Gardens, the last place where the Great Magus Serholm had lived after moving away from his secret laboratory close to Extreme Night City.

He plucked one of the Beta Daisy's out of the earth and went over to the Edge of the Cliff. And jumped.

Was he trying to kill himself? After all, at the bottom of the cliff waited sharp rocks for him.

Entering Dylan's Garden had been accompanied by a riddle in the original story. While he didn't possess the original map with the ridge, he still knew the information.

To enter the Secret Plane, a pocket dimension created by Magi, one needed courage and respect.

The Beta Daisy represents 'respect' and the jump from the Cliff represents 'courage'.

As he fell, the wind pressed against him, but it didn't affect him strongly thanks to his powerful constitution.

Harry fell and fell, until suddenly a circle of light appeared, swallowing him.

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