The thought had barely finished forming when everything changed. She was in the other world again — back in the same room where she'd first woken up last time.
"Hello!"
A voice materialised in her mind, sudden and clear.
Bernadette spun, pulling at the energy in this body — the magic — and looked sharply around the room. No one.
"Meeting you this way is both a pleasure and deeply inconvenient. Let me introduce myself — my name is Moriarty Yuan..."
The voice continued. Bernadette noticed the strange square box not far away — with a familiar figure inside it. The voice was coming from him.
It clicked: the person in the box was "herself." The body's rightful owner.
"A moving photograph. With sound."
The Moriarty Yuan on screen went on: "First, I want to apologise. While I was controlling your body, I caused you a great deal of trouble — especially sending you straight into a crisis the moment you swapped back. None of that was intentional. Please believe me — it was an accident."
A crisis.
She nearly smiled. He meant those mid-to-low sequence official Beyonders. That hadn't been a crisis.
Wait — why can I understand him?
"...You're probably wondering why you can understand me right now. It's because of the bone whistle around your neck — it's an alchemical magical object, and its purpose is exactly that."
Bernadette looked down and closed her fingers around it — pale as white jade, with something flowing quietly through it.
"Unfortunately it can only help you understand. You still won't be able to speak. But learning a language should be considerably easier when you can already follow what people are saying. On your right, you'll find some tapes — study materials I prepared for you."
"The tapes work like this — simple enough, yes?"
"This is a camcorder — it's how I recorded all of this. Before the next swap, you can use it to record whatever you want to say to me. Here's how it works..."
Tapes. Television. She'd seen the concept drawings in her father's notebooks — same as the "automobile." Things he'd imagined but never lived to see built.
On screen, Moriarty Yuan was still going: "...As for my identity — I'm a wizard. Or sorcerer, if you prefer. I have certain unusual abilities, and I'd be considered a Beyonder in the context of this world."
A wizard.
Sequence 7 of the Seer pathway was called Magician/Wizard.
"...My world and yours appear to be similar in this respect. Beings with supernatural power exist, but most people have no idea. The majority of the population are ordinary people who've never heard of wizards."
"I've left a book on your left that covers the basics, in case you manage to pick up the language and want more detail."
"Do you remember the white-haired old man? I imagine last time, without a shared language, there were some misunderstandings. Don't worry — I've already smoothed those over. The explanation I used was 'amnesia.'"
"You can use that excuse freely going forward. But what I'd actually prefer is that you impersonate me convincingly. Because I'm currently in the process of applying for a teaching position at Hogwarts — oh, I should explain — the old man is one of the most powerful people in this world. He's the Headmaster of a school that trains wizards. That's Hogwarts."
"It's a school specifically for teaching magic. We'll likely be spending a significant amount of time there. The following is important, so remember it."
Bernadette's expression shifted with genuine surprise. In this world, supernatural ability could be learned? Which meant that with sufficient aptitude, a person could acquire any ability they chose?
"The four houses of Hogwarts are... the heads of each are... the other staff members are..."
For each person mentioned, he held up a photograph.
"As for why I'm going to Hogwarts at all — the salary is part of it, but it's mostly because of a problem I need to solve. Something you probably got a sense of during the swap — a complication left over from my early attempts at magic, years ago. I'm hoping the library there can help me find an answer..."
"Which means that if the Headmaster found out I was losing my memory every few days, he'd never let me teach there. The safety of his students comes first."
A sigh. "To be honest — seven days ago, I considered giving up on Hogwarts entirely. But this body isn't just mine now — it's yours as well. And I don't imagine you want to come back to it in worse shape every time we swap."
The corner of Bernadette's mouth curved. He'd taken the same route she had — I'm not asking this for myself, I'm asking it for you.
Next came a demonstration of magic — a walkthrough of the basics, enough to give her a working impression of what "magic" was. Some of it bore a surface resemblance to the sorcery she'd used as a Sequence 7 Beyonder. But this world's magic was more varied, and stranger.
Especially that Reparo — it looked practically identical to time reversal.
After the magic demonstration, he went through the house — appliance by appliance, object by object — "You need to know these, they're all part of daily life."
Then outside, into the street: a systematic breakdown of the country, the city, the neighbourhood, and a long list of practical cautions about living in this world.
Near the end, his tone became serious. "Finally — I genuinely ask that until you've learned to read and speak the language here, you stay inside as much as possible. This is for both our safety. And above all — do not let anyone find out we've been swapping. Do not. Please."
Hm. She'd said something almost identical in her own message to him.
"Oh — one more thing. Some of what I've said might be hard to take in all at once, so I've set this to loop. Watch it as many times as you need."
A breath. A smile. "Then — good luck. To both of us."
The tape ended. Screen black. A mechanical clunk from inside the player as it began to rewind.
A minute later, the television came back on. Moriarty Yuan in the frame: "Hello..."
Before he'd finished the first sentence, Bernadette pressed a button on the remote and ejected the tape.
"Treating me like I've never seen technology before."
She could admit this world's advances ran well ahead of her own. Most people would have been overwhelmed. But she'd grown up listening to her father talk through ideas exactly like these — and she'd always been quick to draw connections.
She got to her feet, walked a slow circle around the television and the player, something quietly curious turning over in her mind. "Why do these things look so much like his design sketches? Is it just that brilliant minds arrive at the same ideas independently — or is there something else?"
She didn't dwell on it. There'd be time to explore later.
She slid the tape back in, found the fast-forward, and skipped to the section on household appliances. Went through each one. Then moved on to his self-introduction: his personality, his habits, his preferences, his expressions and mannerisms, how he dressed.
She watched it several times, testing each detail in front of the mirror. The personality she couldn't fake in the short term — but his physical habits were learnable.
"I wonder if that man — Moriarty Yuan — what a peculiar name — can manage to pass as me, just from what I've left him in writing."
At that same moment, the Lord of the Mysteries World.
Vincent looked at the parchment before him, the opening lines of a self-introduction, and felt a stillness settle over him.
Hello, stranger.
I am Bernadette Gustav. What you're reading is a message I've left for you...
Bernadette Gustav.
Was this the Bernadette he was thinking of?
To be continued…