HP: Sacred Gear Chat Group (2) - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18 - Homecoming

— Second-Largest Bedroom, Diagon Alley, London —

21st May 1994

Purple mist sprouted out of nowhere in the middle of my bedroom, and I stepped into the familiar room I had called mine for the majority of my life.

Regrettably, at that exact moment, my field of vision was completely overwhelmed by a myriad of colors that my brain seemed to have trouble even comprehending. I instantly developed a massive headache.

Not one of those mild ones, either, but a bitch-ass headache with piercing pain. My balance started to go with it.

To be completely honest, I may have acted too fast by asking for a second Demon Eye. After gaining control over my Eye of Foresight almost instantly, I had probably gotten a bit too cocky.

Having another Demon Eye to control was like having to watch left and right at the same time. Just unlike Naruto, I couldn’t simply make a Shadow Clone to control my second Demon Eye for me.

The Eye I picked as my second one was the Magic Power Eye, which allowed me to directly see the flow of Magic. In my opinion, it was the best second choice I could have made.

As a Wizard, I was always going to specialize in Magic. The fact that I had become a Devil didn’t change that, since Magic was still the most accessible power to me.

My Sacred Gear lacked any combat applications for now, anyway.

And being able to see Magic, like enchantments, spells forming, wards, and all that, sounded pretty useful for a Magic User.

I could bear it on the Demon Continent, since Magic wasn’t that highly concentrated there in general.

But here in Diagon Alley? It was a completely different matter.

Not only was the concentration of Magic in the air extremely dense, since a ton of Witches and Wizards lived here, but the whole place was filled with Wards, enchanted Objects, cursed Objects, Charms, Magical Creatures, and much more.

[ Feat Achieved! -

Ugh, not now, System. Right now, I was literally experiencing sensory overload, and I’d only been here for a few seconds.

Followed by two things happening at the same time, a hand grabbed me, and the door to my room flew open.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING TO MY SON, YOU SKANK!”

Before I could react, a Spell came flying toward Ghislaine, who had caught me before I could drop to the floor.

Ghislaine wasn’t on the level of a Sword King for nothing. She easily reacted and dodged the Spell while keeping me steady as I regained my footing. Closing my new Eye helped a lot.

Shit, I didn’t want to wear an eyepatch.

“Mom, stop! She isn’t doing anything!”

“ALISTAIR CORVUS DAVIS! ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU BROUGHT THAT SKANK INTO MY HOME? WE’VE BEEN WORRYING OURSELVES SICK ABOUT YOU, AND YOU WERE OUT THERE PLAYING AROUND WITH WHORES!”

Oh, boy... It was worse than I could have ever dreamed.

I guess I understood Mom’s perspective. She had been raised like a proper Pureblood Witch, and conservative was a very mild description of that.

Meanwhile, Ghislaine, in a sparse leather outfit that could best be described as a leather bikini... No matter how I looked at it, her character design, especially her clothes, was basically pure fan service.

“Please, Mom, calm down! It’s not what you think!” I tried, but the moment the words left my lips, I knew I had screwed up.

I’d been away from the Internet for too long and had made such a basic mistake.

“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!” she screamed at me as a stinging Hex hit my arm. “WE DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU WENT. ALL WE GOT WAS A SHORT NOTE SAYING YOU WOULD BE GONE FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTHS! AND YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN?”

“I also wrote that I would explain once I was back!” I tried again.

My mother kept glaring at both me and Ghislaine. “Then start. And this better be good, or you will be grounded until you are old and grey. First of all, who is this? What is she? Did she drink Polyjuice Potion with a cat hair?”

Man, the Adventurer life had been so relaxing. Sure, the jobs could be quite dangerous at times, but I had completely forgotten how parents could be.

Fortunately, I was getting used to it again, and I caught myself before I could say something stupid and point out that I was already of age and she couldn’t ground me.

“I guess I should make the introduction first. This is Ghislaine Dedoldia. She has been my Party Member for the last six months, and we’ve protected each other’s lives countless times. And no, she didn’t use Polyjuice Potion with cat hair. She is a member of the Beast Tribe.”

A reasonable and calm introduction was my best option right now.

“She chose to come with me. Ghislaine was quite stubborn about that, so she needs a place to stay. I guess?”

No matter what I told her, she wanted to follow me, even if it was extremely difficult and she would have an entire language barrier to overcome.

I guess I earned her Loyalty?

“What do you mea—”

Before my mother could launch into another tirade, I quickly interrupted her and spoke to Ghislaine in the Beast Tongue.

“Ghislaine, this beautiful and protective lady is my dear mother, Leonie Davis. Don’t let her enraged state give you a false impression of her. She is usually very kind and nice.”

Ghislaine gave my mother a nod but chose to remain silent because of the language barrier.

“What language was that? I’ve never heard anything like it. It had quite the feral undertone.”

My dear Mom asked while immediately analyzing the shit out of every word coming from my mouth.

As expected of an Unspeakable. She had never clearly explained what her position in the Ministry was, but at this point, it had become quite obvious. Especially with how often she couldn’t reveal anything about her work.

The moment of truth was here. I’d had six months to come up with an explanation for why I had to leave and where I had gone.

I think I came up with a pretty good one.

“It’s a language from a different world. I spent the last six months in a different world. Ghislaine was in trouble, and I was the only person in a position to help her.”

Yep, the good old truth.

It sounded so stupid that she wouldn’t believe me anyway.

But no matter what explanation I could come up with, none of them sounded believable. So I went directly for the nuclear option instead.

Here comes the next round of shouting in 3... 2... 1...

“You really passed through the Dimensional Gap? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

See, there it is. She doesn’t believe me and will chew me out for ly—Wait, what?

“How do you know about the Dimensional Gap?”

That was all I could wonder about at that moment. I was pretty sure it wasn’t mentioned in any of the books in our home.

To be honest, I didn’t think any Witches or Wizards were even aware of it.

“That should be my question instead, young man! I know you have been to another world. Do you have any idea how restricted any knowledge about the Dimensional Gap is? Possession, trade, or sharing of any book or knowledge about it is a direct ticket to Azkaban! Tell me honestly, have you been visiting Knockturn Alley? How did you gain the trust of a trader to even sell you such a book? Even worse, you somehow applied the knowledge!”

Mother asked me, her eyes completely filled with worry.

The Wizarding World seemed to run deeper than I had initially expected.

“I didn’t buy any books about the Dimensional Gap or apply the knowledge. Uh, have you ever heard of a Sacred Gear, Mom?”

“That’s not possible. In over 7,000 years of recorded history of Wizardkind, there has not been a single case of any magical person ever awakening a Sacred Gear. It’s just not possible.”

Good, she knew about Sacred Gears.

Then she probably also knew about the Supernatural World.

“I did. I awakened a Sacred Gear on my birthday.”

“No, I don’t believe you. That just isn’t possible. Our kind... the Origin of our People made sure that we couldn’t awaken Sacred Gears.”

Oh, she even knew about that.

Somehow, she made the Ministry sound competent. Well, I guess the Unspeakables were a bit of an exception. That fit with them being a super-secret magical R&D Department.

“You mean that we were a failed attempt to create more Devils for the Great War, and Big G made sure to ban us from his fancy System?”

“How can you even know that? Not even the Ministry has any records about such an ancient history!”

Okay, that was strange.

“I have my sources. If the Ministry doesn’t have such information, how do you?”

“Our family is old. Probably the oldest Wizarding Family there is. We have records from the very beginning of our People.”

She sighed.

That was new information. I knew they were from the so-called Sacred 28, but that was just a fancy list to support racism.

I knew they were old, stuffy, rich, and into all that Pureblood stuff, but it sounded like her family was a much bigger deal than I had ever thought.

Still, I couldn’t exactly tell her that I was a reincarnated Human and had a Human Soul, which was probably the reason I had awakened my Sacred Gear.

While I was still the same person she had known since she gave birth to me, it would understandably cause some reasonable doubt if she learned that I had basically been playing a role.

No, the reincarnator part had to remain my secret.

“Well, since you know about all that, I guess I am not a real Wizard. That’s probably the reason why I got my Magic so late, too.”

I bullshitted my way through the explanation as a pair of black bat wings sprouted from my back.

“The current theory is that I am considered a Devil/Human Hybrid by Heaven’s System, granting me a Sacred Gear.”

Sorry, Mom, but I really had to lie there.

Man, she really went pale at the sight of my wings.

“It’s all true...” she muttered, barely loud enough to hear.

I only caught it because of my enhanced senses after becoming a Devil.

“What’s true?”

Mom gave me a deep look before rubbing her head.

“You will have to visit your Grandfather with me. Soon. That’s all I am saying for now. Now then, what is with your Eye? And what about her? And what kind of Sacred Gear did you get?”

“Well, all of that is a bit of a long story. I got a Sub-Species of a Longinus. My Dimension Lost manifested as a Multiversal Chat Group, which connected me to other Worlds, let me visit them, and allowed me to talk to people like Ghislaine, or even a Devil from our World who gave me a lot of information about everything. That’s also how I know about the Dimensional Gap.”

Better lie than telling her I was a reincarnator.

“As for my Eyes and Ghislaine, that’s part of my Journey. And I would feel bad talking about her without her understanding what we are saying. The short version is that I gained her Loyalty after saving her, and she decided to follow me from now on. I would like her to live with us. We have a free Guest Room. Otherwise, I will have to rent a Room in the Leaky Cauldron.”

“Do you even have that kind of money?”

“I made quite a lot in the other World, so I can afford it,” I replied easily.

“Fine, she can stay.”

“Is there any Translation Spell that can help her? I know there are some for specific Languages, but she only speaks a Language from a different World.”

My mother looked thoughtful for a moment, as if she were contemplating something, before giving me a reply.

“There is. I know the Spell, but it isn’t perfect. It translates the intent behind Words.”

“Huh, that sounds perfect. That should pretty much work with any Language.”

“It does, but it can easily lead to misunderstandings. It pretty much always reads between the lines and can even convey things the Person may not actually want to say. It’s only a temporary measure. She will have to learn proper English.”

“I already planned to teach her.”

“Have you forgotten? You will be heading to Hogwarts in three months! You need to prepare for your Classes.”

Mom immediately got to the point again. This had probably been bothering her for a while.

“I know, Mom. I didn’t slack off, and I worked through most of the necessary Course Work during my Journey. I got a ton of practical experience. I will have to work on the Theory more for now, but I won’t be doing that all day. I can afford to use part of my time to teach Ghislaine English!”

“If you say so.”

Mom raised an eyebrow at me, clearly not believing me.

“Then you won’t have anything against me testing you right now?”

“Works for me. But first, cast the Spell on Ghislaine. I really don’t want her to feel unwelcome.”

“You do realize we are in Wizarding Britain. There will be a lot of discrimination against her. The Purist crowd will consider her a filthy half-breed,” Mom pointed out.

“I know. But what should I care about them? So, the Spell, please.”

“Alright. Instead, you will cast it. I will teach you. This will be your first test. If you really put effort into your Wandwork, it shouldn’t take you long to figure it out.”

———

For the rest of the afternoon, Mom didn’t give me any rest. She spent the entire time testing me on my progress. She also spent an extensive amount of time questioning Ghislaine and me about our experiences in the world of Mushoku Tensei.

She was probably also looking for any gaps in our stories.

Mom could be quite intense when she was worried about her children.

Only Dad returning from work saved us.

I really felt bad about how much I had made them worry. It was visible on both of them.

Fortunately, Dad was far more accommodating, just being happy that I was back.

And he probably got some wrong ideas about me and Ghislaine, sending me those kinds of looks and thumbs-ups whenever Mom wasn’t looking.

Besides being reunited with my Family, I also learned that while six months had passed for me, it had been just under five months here.

Time wasn’t synchronized between Worlds.

I wasn’t sure how I should feel about that. It could make World Jumping quite a bit more risky. What if Time was so far out of sync that I ended up with an extreme difference that wasn’t in my favor? Like spending a day in another World while an entire year passed here?

For now, I had gained a month, but it was a very real risk.

But I guessed the Worlds of Chat Group Members should be fairly well synchronized, since we could reply quite simultaneously without any noticeable delay.

Maybe my Sacred Gear already took that into consideration.

Only hours later, when I finally got to relax in my own bed for the first time in six months and my mind began to wander, did I realize something.

How did Mom know I was in another World?

[-- End of Chapter --]