The bright sunlight outside the window seemed endless, filling the entire hospital room with warmth.
Tver looked around with reluctance.
The blue sky and white clouds, the brilliant sunlight, the little green plant on the table, even the heart monitor that made no sound. All of these had once been important sources of strength that kept him alive.
"Is it time to go?" he asked reluctantly.
"Mm."
Tver nodded softly.
"The world still needs me. I really, really want to stay here and keep talking with you, but for the sake of... our ideals, I can't lose myself here."
"I understand. I was being selfish." He fell silent for a moment, then smiled.
"Of course. We're one and the same. I'm looking forward to it too... looking forward to creating a better world with my own hands."
When he finished, both of them grinned at the same time.
Beneath the sunlight, his self from the past and he from the present, both filled with youthful spirit, stepped onto the journey rushing toward the future.
Just like this bright world.
Yes, Tver had already realized it. This was a Limbo that belonged to him alone.
Perhaps he had once complained about why he was so unlucky, trapped in this tiny hospital room when the world outside was so wonderful.
But to him, there was no place more worth remembering than this.
Death was merely another great adventure.
This was the place that held most of his memories. His life had once ended here, and it had also continued here.
And now, as a brand-new self, he would set out from here once more.
"Do your best."
Amid the dazzling white light, the self on the hospital bed clenched his fist with difficulty but also with determination, the gentle smile in his ink-dark eyes growing deeper.
"Mm!"
This time, Tver nodded firmly.
In an instant, the white light bloomed like a flower crown, covering everything before his eyes.
When the light was no longer so blinding, Tver blinked and realized that he had not returned to reality. Instead, he was floating in a space so white that nothing else seemed to exist.
He looked around in confusion.
There was nothing here. No objects, no exit, not even another person.
Logically speaking, Limbo was a border between life and death. If he had died, he should have gone straight to the world of the dead.
If he had not died, then after gaining release, he should have been able to leave Limbo.
That had been true for Harry in the original story, and for Marvolio before him.
So why did it not work for him?
Wait...
Tver seemed to remember something.
If this place belonged to Limbo, then in a sense, it was also territory that death did not govern.
For him, reconciling with himself here was only the first step. The most important thing was to resolve his disruption of the rules of death.
A faint understanding gradually rose in his heart, but before he could act, a lively commotion suddenly rang out.
"I told you he wouldn't just sit back and wait. If we delayed any longer, he'd probably poke a hole straight through this place!" a smug voice said loudly.
"Oh, please. You're the one who suggested scaring him a little," another cool voice snapped back.
Just from the voices, Tver could guess who had suddenly appeared.
The four founders of Hogwarts.
There were not many people who could transcend death and had the power to appear in Limbo. Aside from Dumbledore and his teacher, the people most closely connected to Tver were these four.
In a sense, they were the very cause of Tver's Transmigration.
"So," he turned back helplessly, "are you not planning to give me an explanation?"
"Or is this so-called Death's curse actually just one of your pranks?"
He seemed to understand why Mr. Munter had believed his badge was the key to everything.
What mattered was not the badge itself, but the source of the power on it. In other words, these four founders, who were smiling at him as if nothing were wrong.
"You've mistaken cause and effect, Tver," Rowena Ravenclaw said softly, shaking her head. The smile on her face faded a little, but her gaze remained earnest as she looked at him.
"When we made the badge, we never imagined that the final heir would be someone from another world."
"In our original vision, it would be a wizard of extraordinary talent. Someone who, after experiencing all kinds of conflict between the wizarding world and the muggle world, would still hold the ideal of making this world a better place."
"That's not to say your talent isn't strong," Godric hurried to explain. "It's just that for such a young soul to have such mature ideas really was beyond what we expected."
Rowena nodded in agreement.
"What surprised us even more was that the rules of this world targeted you because of your Transmigration. So, in order to protect you, we had no choice but to turn the badge's power into a protective ability."
"But what comforts us is that even so, your strength has already become enough to support that great ideal of yours."
Tver frowned, feeling as if he had lost out somehow.
If not for Voldemort's curse, would he not have been able to rely on the badge's power long ago to punch Voldemort and kick Dumbledore?
"So the so-called Death..."
"Is the deeply rooted rule of this world," Rowena said with certainty.
"At the very least, the four of us have never found where Death is, assuming He truly exists."
That did fit with what Tver had always suspected. What he had sensed in the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic was also the rule of death conveyed through Limbo.
But the problem was, rules were even harder to deal with than Death.
"If it's a rule of this world, doesn't that mean I have almost no way to break it?" he asked with a frown.
But the four founders suddenly began chuckling, as if he had said something very amusing.
Before Tver could grow angry from being laughed at, Helga pressed her lips together and hid some of the smile at the corners of her mouth.
"Why would you think that?"
"From the moment you came to this world, you were already breaking its rules. From the moment you decided to change this world, you were already changing the rules of this world. And once you freed yourself from the past..."
"Tver..."
She, along with the other three founders, showed gentle smiles. Their gazes were filled with expectation, relief, admiration, and more, as if they were deeply satisfied with Tver as their heir.
"You are the new controller of this world."
"I always feel like this is just your way of dumping the burden on me and pushing me into this position."
Tver muttered the words. Looking at the founders as they exchanged glances, he finally gave a faint smile.
"Of course, I'm more than happy to do it."