Time flowed quietly for a few seconds.
Vid lifted his eyes to look at Dumbledore, his gaze complex. After a long moment he asked, "Professor, that fragment of her memory… to you, is it of any value?"
"Of course." Dumbledore said, "It has answered some questions that have long dwelt in my mind. Sophelus Reck… I truly did not expect that he would still be pursuing those delusions of his."
Vid's spirits lifted. "You know that man?"
"Yes, I have heard of him—"
Recalling the past, Dumbledore's expression grew somewhat heavy. He leaned back slightly, sinking into the chair, and only after a long time did he let out a soft sigh:
"The genius of Ilvermorny School, he enrolled a few years later than I and… later than I did."
At that time, Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts, Gellert Grindelwald, who had been expelled from Durmstrang, and Sophelus Reck, who once caused extensive discussion at Ilvermorny, were the most renowned rising stars of their respective schools.
Although Reck began to make his name known when Dumbledore had already graduated from school several years earlier, he had always maintained close correspondence with his former professors, and at the same time frequently exchanged letters and discussed matters with many notable figures in the Magic World.
Even in the distant United States and Russia, Dumbledore had several pen pals.
Precisely because of this, more than once he glimpsed, between the lines of different letters, that name which was gradually becoming impossible to ignore.
"Sophelus Reck, in his youth, once stirred up some brief and unpleasant discussions in academic circles, and was called a 'disquieting genius'."
"It was also because of him that Ilvermorny Magic School set extremely harsh conditions for students applying for Time Turners, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, permission could not be obtained."
Of course, this was also because Ilvermorny Magic School had several times more professors than Hogwarts. Even if students chose to study all courses, the school could, by adjusting timetables or moving classes to weekends, ensure that the students could complete all their subjects.
Vid thought of that refined, elegant old man in Abigail's memory, and asked curiously, "What kind of person was he, really?"
"A genius—pure, astonishing genius."
Dumbledore frowned and said slowly, "It is said that Reck was born into an ordinary Pure-Blood family. His parents were extremely poor; when he started school they did not even have money to buy a Magic Wand, and in the end his father gave him his own Magic Wand."
"In such circumstances, he, like you, learned everything the school could teach him in merely two or three years, read many books, and even developed a curiosity toward certain scientific theories of the Muggles."
"But at that time Ilvermorny was strictly governed. Students were not allowed to research non-curricular subjects on their own, and even less permitted to read books written by Muggles within the school."
"Yet Reck was also unlike you… After studying Alchemy for a period of time, he lost interest in that discipline and turned instead to souls, history, legend…"
Dumbledore looked at Vid, a trace of admiration and melancholy in his expression:
"Vid, I have noticed that you never try to seek out or reconstruct those legendary powerful Magic Items. You are always creating things that have never existed before, forging 'possibility' itself with your own hands."
"In this respect… it is truly remarkable."
"Whereas in our time…"
His gaze grew more distant, as though he were staring at some scene that existed only in memory.
"We all loved to chase after legend, Holy Artifact… even gods!"
"They are ancient and perfect, powerful yet mysterious, symbolizing some ultimate answer—conquering death, grasping power, omniscience and omnipotence, able to bring destruction to the world with a mere gesture, and just as able to bring salvation."
"This was also what Reck desired…"
For a moment, Dumbledore seemed to have returned to the time when he first heard those theories of Sophelus Reck.
The ambition of that young man made Dumbledore, who had once thought only of seeking the Death God's Three Holy Artifacts, feel that his own goal was utterly trivial;
while the other's theories were so cold that Dumbledore felt a chill even in Godric's Hollow.
Dumbledore went on:
"He was not content with the existing Magic System, believing it to be a degeneration of Magic. What Reck sought was a source of power more ancient and remote."
"He even wanted to employ Muggle instruments and methods to analyze the very origin of Magic. Such proposals would be unacceptable to most Wizards even now, and at the time they provoked enormous controversy and rejection."
"Vid, the research Reck proposed then was different from what you now call 'science'. Muggles of that era would dissect living bodies, would place themselves on the verge of death to study the soul, and would even electrify corpses to make them sit up, proclaiming that they had discovered a way for the dead to return to life."
"And Reck…" Dumbledore weighed his words, then said with some reserve, "The cruelty of his experimental methods surpassed even that of the Muggles."
"He stripped away all emotion, morality, tradition, life itself; what remained was nothing but an endless, ravenous craving for principles and power."
"His wickedness did not lie in brutality or bloodlust—though he would never balk at using such means—but more crucially, in that inhuman coldness of his. Everything in the world, in his eyes, was merely material to be consumed at will."
At this point, Dumbledore drew a deep breath and sighed.
At that time, in a short span he had received three letters in succession from the same person, all of them concerning Sophelus Reck.
In the first letter, his friend introduced this young genius to Dumbledore with the highest enthusiasm, using such extravagant praise that even Dumbledore, who considered himself a genius, felt somewhat jealous and unconvinced.
But that very afternoon another letter was delivered to Dumbledore's window by an exhausted Arctic tern. In this letter his friend from the United States listed several of Reck's public statements, and in the end asked uneasily:
"Is this young man's thinking not a little too unusual? But he is, after all, still young… Perhaps as his knowledge grows, he will come to realize how absurd and laughable his ideas really are."
"How could a mortal possibly become a god?"
"The thought is simply far too fantastical!"
Two days later, while Dumbledore was still weighing his reply, the third letter had already crossed the sea.
Judging by the dates, when that friend wrote this third letter, Dumbledore had not even received the first yet!
In the third letter, his friend cursed Reck roundly, every letter etched sharp and deep, as though the man wished to stab Sophelus Reck to death through the parchment itself.
"Reck's radical views were but a brief flare." Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Dumbledore said to Vid, "Because they met with fierce opposition and censure, Reck quickly vanished from sight after graduation. From then on, I never heard news of him again."
"Many believed that his theories had reached a dead end, or that he had finally abandoned those naive ideas. Times were turbulent, and some thought he had come to harm."
"Yet as it now appears, Reck neither lost himself nor died. He knew he could never obtain broad recognition and support, and so chose to conceal himself willingly and completely in a deeper darkness."