Vincent thought it over. "About the person hunting the unicorn — and framing you — I have a theory."
Since they weren't swapping back anytime soon, certain key pieces of intelligence had to be shared with Bernadette, so she wouldn't be blindsided by Voldemort, Quirrell, or the Death Eaters lurking in the shadows.
"Professor Quirrell is not what he appears to be."
"Mm, that much is obvious," Bernadette said without any surprise. "Everything about his behaviour screams that something is wrong. And yet somehow, nobody treats him with the slightest suspicion."
"The students are inexperienced, that's one thing — but the professors, and especially someone as shrewd as Dumbledore, have no excuse."
That was something that had been argued over in Vincent's previous world too. One popular theory was that Dumbledore was playing dumb all along — that he'd had a clear picture of Quirrell and Voldemort's situation from the very beginning, and had deliberately chosen not to expose it: partly to gather intelligence about Voldemort's condition and prepare for what was coming, and partly to give Harry — the Chosen One of the prophecy — a chance to be tested.
Quirrell's erratic behaviour, by this reading, was his own desperate attempt to draw someone's attention — a cry for help.
Of course, that theory could also be complete rubbish. When Rowling first wrote the books, she may simply have been writing a fairy tale, without worrying too much about internal logic.
"You know the Dark Lord Voldemort, I assume."
"Mm."
"I suspect Professor Quirrell may have some sort of connection to Voldemort."
"Hasn't Voldemort been killed — by Harry, or by his parents?"
"His Death Eaters are still very much alive, though — plenty of them. And who can say what those madmen would do for their old master." Vincent paused. "On top of that, Voldemort may not have died completely. Dumbledore seems to have never let his guard down, as though he's been preparing for His return the entire time."
Bernadette gave a slow nod. "Understood."
"I'm telling you all this so you'll be careful around Quirrell — and around the Death Eaters who may be hiding in the shadows."
Vincent couldn't shake his concern. "If anything dangerous comes up, go to Dumbledore. In my world, you are not a Sequence 3 demigod — caution above all!"
"Don't worry. Until I've fully mastered the ancient runes and ancient magic, I'll be as careful as possible."
"Good — wait. What do you mean, 'before I've fully mastered it'?!"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
This woman...
"Oh, I've been meaning to tell you — the ring on my finger is under an Undetectable Extension Charm. Virtually all my belongings are stored inside it."
"I know."
"???"
"Once I grasped the spatial runes, I could sense its presence. At the time, it also had something like a seal on it, so I studied the relevant runes and lifted that as well. I can use it freely now."
Is this what a genius looks like?
I concede.
When I finally find a way to swap back, is she going to have completely wrecked the Harry Potter world? Though if she ends up genuinely powerful enough... maybe that doesn't matter. The main reason I was so careful about not disrupting the plot was because my own abilities were limited. If I had the power to walk over Dumbledore and punch Voldemort in the face, I'd have never played things so carefully.
Just please don't end up in a ditch somewhere.
Some time later, in the Harry Potter world, the Bernadette who was controlling his body opened her eyes, feeling something shift in her body or her soul. She murmured quietly to herself: "Prosecutor. Words of Order."
On the other side, the moment Vincent returned to reality, he heard Bernadette's voice: "Was that the other one contacting you?"
"Yes — we exchanged some information."
He relayed the conversation.
Bernadette listened and gave a quiet hum. "She's adapting rather well."
"Well, not adapting isn't really an option."
"Defending her when she can't even hear you. How generous."
"???"
I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would fantasise about a pair of twins. Having one Bernadette split into two is already more than I can handle.
She didn't dwell on that. "What are your thoughts on the Acting Method for the Prosecutor?"
"I haven't got one yet. I think I should get out and get a feel for it first."
"Where to?"
"The East End, the Docklands — wherever. I need to experience the Prosecutor's abilities in action before I can form any idea of how to approach the Acting Method."
While they were talking, he stepped out onto the street. It was morning, and a thin trickle of early-rising workers moved along the pavement.
Vincent focused inward, and something in his perception shifted. As he looked at the passing pedestrians, information — labels — began surfacing in his mind. The most common one was fraud; occasionally assault; very rarely blasphemy. Most passers-by showed nothing at all.
These labels represented the crimes those people had committed.
His spiritual intuition told him that if he invoked the Words of Order against these individuals right now, they would inevitably receive some form of punishment — though what precisely, he had no way of knowing in advance.
"Can you see them too?"
"Yes." A thoughtful note entered Bernadette's voice. "Though I'm curious — what determines whether something is a crime? It surely isn't the law of any one nation. As I understand it, there are quite a few primitive tribes out in the Sunia Sea whose customary 'law' can be rather extraordinary."
"Probably the crimes that the vast majority of humanity recognises as crimes — blasphemy, murder, rape, fraud, theft, and the like. Nothing more granular than that."
She raised another question. "In a chaotic world where anyone can do anything — including killing and blaspheming — does the Words of Order simply have no use?"
"I think — given that it's called Words of Order, what it represents is Order itself. The chaos of the world is a problem with the world, not with Order."
He thought it through. "The Nation of Disorder granted me a special ability when I advanced to Prosecutor. I can borrow its divine status and declare a certain area my own divine domain, within which I can freely set the charges and issue Accusations. So my own reading is: under normal circumstances, the Prosecutor draws on the crimes recognised by most nations and most of humanity — like fraud..."
He looked at a woman walking toward him. And then, further away, a well-built man.
"...assault."
"...and blasphemy, murder, rape, and so on. But once the Prosecutor accumulates sufficient power or divine status, they can set their own definitions of crime at will, Accusing and punishing however they see fit."
Bernadette mused, "That has some similarities to the Arbiter Pathway's Prohibit ability. But Prohibit is accessible from Sequence 6 — it doesn't require a high divine status, and carries no restrictions. Total freedom."
"That's probably the distinction between the three Chaos Mist Pathway variants: the Adjudicator formulates and upholds the rules — Order. The Lawyer exploits, twists, and dismantles them. And the Broker sits somewhere between the two."
Vincent continued, "And unlike the Adjudicator's Prohibit, which applies indiscriminately — including to the user — the Broker's Accusation is targeted at a specific individual, leaving others unaffected."
To illustrate: when an Adjudicator Prohibits breathing in this area, everyone within range — including the Adjudicator — is unable to breathe. But when a Prosecutor declares breathing a capital offence, they can direct the punishment at a specific target without any collateral effect.
From that angle, the ability to freely declare crimes requiring a high divine status made perfect sense from a balance-of-power perspective.
He stepped off the street and hailed a cab heading for the East End. Everyone knew the East End and the Docklands were the two most dangerous districts in Backlund — you could hardly walk a block without running into someone with a serious crime to their name. A paradise for a Prosecutor.
"The one thing I'm worried about now," he said, "is that properly Acting as a Prosecutor requires actually being one — just like with a Lawyer or a Judge. The role has to be real."
"Actually," Bernadette said, "Sequences with a corresponding real-world profession are often the easiest to Act — especially for people who don't know the Acting Method. They'll end up fulfilling the role unconsciously. The risk is that the pace of digestion will be very slow."
To be continued…
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