Chapter 313: The Desecrated Card
"The Emperor?"
Dudley's pupils shrank sharply. He froze on the spot.
"Yes, that's right, Mr Dursley. It said 'The Emperor'. I saw the words very clearly," Dobby said excitedly, completely unaware of the change in Dudley's expression.
"Wait. No. Something is off."
Dudley's face shifted.
He realised he had let his thoughts run ahead of him. His first instinct had been to assume that this Emperor card was one of Roselle's Desecrated Cards. But on second thought, how could Dobby possibly read the script on a Desecrated Card?
That did not make sense.
Although it was not entirely impossible.
Once created, the Desecrated Cards had special ways of being activated. If they were not opened correctly, what they showed would appear perfectly normal. That might be one of their self-protection mechanisms: displaying only content that fits the viewer's knowledge, rather than any eerie or alien script that would draw attention.
"Dobby, were there any other details on the card?" Dudley pressed.
Right now, he needed to know exactly what he was dealing with.
If the Trunsoest Brass Book could cross worlds with him, then it was entirely possible one of the Desecrated Cards had done the same.
"No, Mr Dursley. That was all I could see," Dobby said regretfully.
"You have done brilliantly, Dobby. The information you brought is very useful," Dudley said sincerely.
Without Dobby, he would almost certainly never have known that Lucius had gotten hold of an Emperor card. However incomplete the report was, it was more than enough to spark Dudley's interest and wariness.
"Dobby, has Lucius done anything unusual these last couple of days? Or, compared to before he got the card, has his behaviour changed in any particular way?" Dudley asked after a moment's thought.
"Let Dobby think..."
Dobby tilted his head, looking thoughtful.
"Master Malfoy has spent most of his time in the study lately, researching the card. He ordered that none of us was to disturb him."
"Today, I only got in because the Missus told me to bring tea, and that was how I saw the card at all," Dobby said.
"If there is something strange, maybe it is that Master has bought lots of potion ingredients and such. It feels like he is trying something," Dobby added.
"Potion ingredients?" Dudley's expression changed at once.
If the card in Lucius's hand really was a Desecrated Card, and if he had already activated it, then he would have seen the potion formulae recorded on it. In that case, buying ingredients and brewing potions would be a natural next step.
But that was destined to fail.
The potions from that strange world were effective because the materials they used contained Beyonder characteristics. That was the key. Simply taking a Beyonder characteristic, properly prepared, was enough to make someone a Beyonder. The auxiliary steps were there to lower the risk of losing control and to help the drinker pass through the transformatory phase more smoothly.
In the magical world, however, no material contained Beyonder characteristics. Even if one had the recipe, one could not brew a potion capable of putting someone on a Sequence Pathway.
Still, Dobby's report made Dudley even more certain that the card in Lucius's hand was not ordinary.
"Dobby, can you touch that card?" Dudley asked, already expecting the answer.
Sure enough, Dobby shook his head.
"No. Master Malfoy always keeps it on him, or locks it in a magic box that no one else can open," Dobby said. Then his ears perked up. "But it is not completely impossible. If you need it, Mr Dursley, Dobby can snatch it from his hand!"
He mimed a fierce grabbing motion, then beamed up at Dudley.
"Er... let's not do that for now," Dudley said.
Dobby was proving quite useful as a hidden piece inside Malfoy Manor. Unless there was no other choice, he did not want to waste that by having Dobby openly grab the card and expose himself.
"Oh! It is getting late. Dobby must go back," the elf said after glancing at the time.
"Goodbye, Dobby," Dudley said quickly.
"Goodbye, Mr Dursley."
Dobby snapped his fingers and vanished from the bedroom.
Once he was gone, Dudley sank into thought.
"I need a way to confirm whether that card is a Desecrated Card."
"Right now, there are two options. First, I sneak into Malfoy Manor myself and either steal it when Lucius is not around or just take it from him," Dudley mused.
"The second is to act through Draco."
Draco was a believer of the Night Emperor. After everything that had happened this past year, he trusted the Night Emperor deeply. It was time to make use of that.
With that decided, Dudley immediately chose to move through Draco first. If that failed, he could act personally.
Having a plan, he acted at once. He stepped into the mysterious inner space. The mist there seemed even thicker than before.
Following the link between himself and Draco, Dudley quickly located him.
A moment later, Dudley was looking at Draco Malfoy, already fast asleep.
"Sleeping like a baby, are we?" Dudley noted the smug little smile at the corner of Draco's mouth.
After a brief pause, Dudley raised his wand slightly and cast the spell on the sleeping boy.
"Sleep in peace," he said softly.
Draco, who had already been asleep, sank into an even deeper slumber, and Dudley followed the magic's pull into his dream.
Thump, thump...
The sound of fists pounding flesh echoed through the dream. Draco was in the middle of it, swinging punch after punch at a figure in front of him.
It looked like several boys, all beaten to a pulp by Draco's iron fists.
"That will teach you to act smug."
"That will teach you to be famous."
"That will teach you to humiliate me."
"Die for me!"
Every time Draco's fist came down, he shouted, his face flushed with savage excitement. Then he leapt forward, straddled one of the boys, and rained blows down on his head.
"Admit it."
"Call me Dad!"
Dudley watched the scene, the corner of his mouth twitching.
No matter how he looked at it, there was something uncomfortably familiar about this.
Then his gaze settled on the boy pinned beneath Draco. Even after being punched beyond recognition, the handsome features were still just about discernible.
It was, unmistakably, Dudley himself.