“Consider yourself lucky to keep your life.”
Shiro noticed the hooded wizard’s subtle movement.
Raising an eyebrow, he let out a cold snort in his mind.
If the hooded wizard refrained from bothering him tonight, Shiro wouldn’t mind letting the matter slide.
But if the man refused to realize what was good for him…
It would serve as the perfect opportunity to secure a new puppet for *Death March*.
Although *Death March* could be utilized by all the parallel versions of Shiro across different universes, it did possess a slight technical flaw: puppets could not be shared.
Each Shiro could only deploy the puppets they had personally collected within their own respective worlds.
At the moment, the Shiro of the Harry Potter world possessed a completely blank slate for his *Death March*.
“Then I will have to trouble you to open a room for me, innkeeper.
As for the accommodation fee, would it be alright if I pay you tomorrow morning after I visit Gringotts in Diagon Alley to exchange my money?”
Shiro relaxed his tense muscles, flashing a completely harmless smile at the pub owner, Tom.
“Of course you can.
Not even the Leaky Cauldron would make things difficult for a child,” Tom replied, before casting a deeply meaningful glance back toward the hooded wizard.
The dark wizard remained tight-lipped, lifting his tankard to silently sip his ale.
“Follow me, young wizard,” Tom said, turning to lead the way toward the staircase.
Compared to the cluttered and chaotic pub downstairs, the guest rooms on the upper floor were unexpectedly tidy.
A brass-colored number was affixed to each door.
Tom placed the key to Room 5 into Shiro’s hand and said in a grave tone, “If anyone asks you to open the door tonight, absolutely do not agree to it.
If they refuse to leave, make as much noise as you can so the others can hear you.”
Shiro nodded, accepting the elderly wizard’s kindness.
If he truly were just an ordinary young wizard, Tom’s advice would undoubtedly be the best course of action.
Unfortunately for any potential intruders, he was not just a wizard; he was also a Soul Reaper, and he possessed a far superior method for resolving conflicts.
Once Tom departed, Shiro lay down on the bed, staring directly at a painting hanging not far away.
Inside the frame, a cow was acting exactly like a living creature, lounging right by the edge of the border and snoring softly.
It seemed completely indifferent to the fact that an extra person had suddenly entered the room.
“The principle behind this thing should be quite similar to a basic puppet.
It’s endowed with a rudimentary trace of spirituality, but not much.
It can’t compare to a real living being at all,” Shiro remarked, rising from the bed to examine the painting closely.
The technical complexity might not be incredibly high, but it did subtly touch upon the concepts of creating artificial life–an art that would absolute be classified as a forbidden technique in certain other worlds.
*Knock, knock, knock!*
Suddenly, a series of urgent, heavy thuds echoed against the door.
The person outside hammered with so much force it sounded as though they wanted to smash the wood to splinters.
Shiro’s gaze turned instantly razor-sharp.
His Zanpakutō, still encased in its scabbard, materialized in his grasp.
It appeared the hooded wizard was destined to die at least once tonight.
Shiro had no intention of using Kidō.
Any Kidō cast without an incantation would lack significant power, and more importantly, utilizing Kidō inevitably generated distinct sounds.
It would easily tip off the other lodgers or old Tom.
He had absolutely no desire to be escorted to Azkaban before his school term had even begun.
“Alohomora.”
A raspy, drake-like voice drifted in from the corridor.
The lock on the door rattled violently, as if wrenched by an invisible hand, before breaking entirely and hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
Seeing this, Shiro’s level of anticipation plummeted significantly.
A truly proficient execution of the Unlocking Charm would never destroy the locking mechanism; instead, it would cause the mechanism to slide open smoothly, as if turned by the correct key.
In the original story, Hermione Granger’s execution of the charm during her first year was vastly superior to this dark wizard’s attempt.
A single glance was enough to judge the whole.
If he couldn’t even cast a basic Unlocking Charm cleanly, then even if the man claimed to be a dark wizard, his actual mastery over magic was shockingly abysmal.
Forget comparing him to the professors at Hogwarts; he likely fell short of even upper-year students who hadn’t graduated yet.
“Hehehe…
little brat, don’t bother trying to run away or call for help.
I’ve already placed a Silencing Charm around the area; no one will hear a peep from you,” the dark wizard cackled maliciously, thoroughly convinced he had Shiro completely cornered.
Shiro knitted his brows, tilting his head slightly as he looked at the intruder in sheer bewilderment.
*Does this fool not see this massive sword right here in my hand?
Or is he actually blind?*
He wasn’t.
The dark wizard saw the Zanpakutō clearly, but he paid it absolutely no mind.
What could a child armed with a blade possibly accomplish?
The wizarding world possessed countless spells specifically designed to neutralize cold weapons.
“Judging by your age, you must be a lower-year student, or perhaps you haven’t even enrolled yet,” the dark wizard noted.
He halted five meters away from Shiro–maintaining a safe and optimal distance to cast spells–before pulling down his heavy hood.
The man’s head was entirely devoid of hair, and the center of his face was tightly bound by a crimson, thread-like scar, making his eyeballs bulge outward as if suffering from intense intracranial pressure.
His features practically screamed “villain.”
Even Shiro, who had seen his fair share of bizarre anomalies, found himself slightly unsettled by such an unsightly countenance.
*Don’t tell me that the first puppet I acquire in every single world is doomed to be a hideous creature?* Shiro grumbled inwardly.
Shiro Kamado’s first puppet had been the Ugly Demon, and now the dark wizard about to become his own puppet looked equally offensive to the eyes.
“Become my apprentice,” the dark wizard commanded, extending a hand in an invitation.
“Trust me, the knowledge you will acquire under my guidance far surpasses anything taught at Hogwarts.
Furthermore, I don’t enforce any of those tedious, suffocating rules.”
Shiro looked at him as if staring at an utter idiot.
“Do you take me for a fool?
Self-taught rogue dark wizards like you always use the guise of ‘taking an apprentice’ to secure a free servant, or worse, a fresh test subject for experiments.” Shiro pointed a finger at the dark wizard’s hand–which was smoothly flawless, completely incongruous with his grotesque facial skin–and spoke with deep disdain.
“That isn’t even your original hand, is it?
In fact, I doubt most of the organs in your body belong to you.
Stitching yourself together using other people’s body parts…
you truly are disgusting.”
Shiro no longer wished to waste words.
The stitched-together abomination before him triggered nothing but revulsion.
In an instant–one far too rapid for the dark wizard to comprehend–Shiro bypassed the five-meter gap without leaving a single afterimage, appearing directly inside the man’s guard.
His Zanpakutō turned pitch-black as it lunged straight toward the wizard’s heart.
The ominous aura radiating from the blade instantly triggered a primal, fatal alarm within the dark wizard’s mind.
Having survived as a rogue dark wizard for years, his survival instincts were sharp.
His body instinctively twisted backward in a desperate bid to evade, his hand frantically reaching for his wand to erect a defense.
But the blade in Shiro’s hand was far swifter.
Before the wizard could fully raise his wand, the Zanpakutō tore through his chest, impaling his heart.
*Pfft.*
Shiro withdrew the blood-slicked blade, immediately using a swift follow-up arc to sever both of the dark wizard’s arms to prevent any final, desperate counter-spells.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t go for a clean decapitation; he simply felt that granting such an easy, instantaneous death would be far too merciful for a creature like this.