"..."
Morgan was clearly a bit thrown off by Ian's wild imagination.
But.
She was silent for a moment.
In the end, her voice floated out, quiet and enigmatic.
"Then, you'll never be able to return to your own time again, you'll be taken by fate to replace the one you killed, and end up being swept into a life that never belonged to you."
No one really knows how Morgan the Witch came by this answer.
Her tone didn't sound like she was guessing.
Maybe she'd wondered about this before as well. To put it simply, perhaps the fact that the Black Witch and Ian became teacher and apprentice, and the similarities between them, played a part in it.
"Tsss~"
The witch's answer made shivers run down Ian's spine.
"Alright then."
His bold curiosity was completely extinguished. Sure enough, the more powerful the wizard, the more they respect fate—it really isn't without reason. He definitely didn't want to turn into another noseless guy and get "Avada Kedavra'd" with a big "ga ga ga."
Actually, the way noseless guy is now, you don't even need to go back in time to kill him. Ian only asked this out of his own curiosity about the mysteries of fate.
"Has anything like this ever happened in history?" Ian's curiosity flared up again. He couldn't help it—Bad Witch's tone made anyone's imagination run wild.
Morgan wasn't annoyed at Ian's string of questions.
"If it had never happened, would I be able to tell you the answer? All my knowledge comes from experience." Turns out Morgan was actually a faithful adherent of the scientific school of witchcraft.
"Don't tell me it's someone from the history books I'm familiar with!"
The question barely left Ian's mouth before the witch gave him a solid bonk on the head.
"Being too curious isn't always a good thing. Sometimes just 'knowing' will bring about fate's backlash. All I can tell you is that yes, it truly happened."
"In an era before you and I were even born."
Morgan's tone was meaningful, tinged with a sense of nostalgia, but that didn't quite kill off Ian's curiosity. Still, her whack to the head let him know it was time to shut up.
"This is the kind of Magic History I really want to learn. Once again, so grateful to you, Professor." Sensing the witch's impatience, Ian immediately started giving her a back massage with great enthusiasm.
After all, the witch was right here.
There would always come a day when he'd learn more secrets.
As long as he didn't go pester the witch, following in the footsteps of that Queen senior.
...
The limited-time Experience Card for the Misty Illusion Realm was halfway used up, and Ian really wanted to go down to town to see his friends. The Legendary Witch had no objections to this at all.
"Tell your friend the dragon got taken by you, so he still owes me…" She even wanted Ian to serve as a messenger and send a word to Pandro for her.
As for what kind of grudge the two of them had, Ian could only vaguely guess. Asking was out of the question—after all, that ancient dragon who nearly had his head twisted off was warning enough.
If even a soul could get half its head twisted off and still get patched back up, if he, a whole live person, lost most of his head, he'd definitely just die on the spot and then get kept by his professor forever and ever.
"Of course, don't worry, Professor. I'll even throw in a good hard kick to his butt for you," Ian said, sacrificing his friend's butt health in exchange for the Witch's good mood.
"Make sure you kick him hard enough!"
A wide grin spread across Witch Morgan's face, clearly delighted with Ian's promise. She raised her hand, and instantly Ian's shoes sprouted a bunch of brambles. As for the glowing green sheen on those thorns, with all his magic potion expertise, Ian couldn't identify it—but he definitely wasn't about to ask.
If the answer was especially terrifying, how would he ever bring himself to do his friend in? Sometimes, not knowing is bliss.
"Your soul isn't going to die a second time anyway."
Ian gave himself a pep talk.
As soon as he walked out of the castle—
"Are you going to take me back to the Human World?"
The giant dragon lying outside immediately leaned in and asked, curious.
Morgan had handed it over to Ian and guided him to mark it up with some symbols. The dragon had no choice in the matter, but it didn't exactly feel upset or resistant, either.
"The Human World has changed a lot! Not only will you get to see Hogwarts, you can also help me deal with enemies. Of course, most of the time, just showing up is enough." Ian hoped to have a good relationship with this last Ancient Dragon—as much as he could, he didn't like forcing servants.
"Of course, I can hold down the fort for you, and even bite your enemies to death," said the gigantic Ancient Dragon, very much on the right track, immediately giving him a solid promise.
Its personality was wildly different from its majestic, massive form, almost chatty, and its dragon face, with expressions even richer than Snape's, showed a touching nostalgia.
"My bones will be especially cool, too! If I can, I also want to help you teach the other Little Wizards—after all, even when I was alive, I always wanted to be Hogwarts' first Professor of Dragons." It asserted that it was a dragon with dreams and ambitions, not as lazy and greedy as Morgan the Witch described.
"Did you know? The regular cleanup of the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest, I've always been in charge of that. Gryffindor called me the head caretaker, and Slytherin said I had the qualities to be Professor of Dragons."