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"Leonard, could you go find Jonathan for me? I can’t seem to locate him anywhere."
"Yes, Headmistress. I’ll find him right away."
Looks like Jonathan had gone out to play again today.
I’d told him over and over not to wander around so much. This neighborhood was a complete mess when it came to safety.
Still, if you listened to him, he was just a kid.
"Tsk, tsk. Where the hell did that brat go this time? Jonathan~ Where are you~ If you come out now, I’ll let it slide."
As I trudged through the filthy alley, I spotted a few kids far ahead.
"Agh! Stop hitting me! I’m telling Leonard!"
"Quit your damn whining. Leonard’s not here. Hand over your money already."
"Why wouldn’t Leonard be here, asshole? You wanna die?"
"Leonard hyung!"
"Huh?! Shit, when’d this bastard get here? Run!"
It was the same bunch I saw every day. They didn’t seem to get tired of this.
The punks tried to bolt when they saw me, but they didn’t even make it a few steps before every last one of them sprawled flat on the ground.
"If you tried to rob other people and failed, you should’ve been ready to get robbed yourselves, right?"
"S-screw... We really don’t have anything today."
"Oh, please. Dogs don’t stop eating shit. Quit your whining and empty your pockets. If I find anything after that, it’s one punch per penny."
The three would-be thugs in front of me had tried to steal Jonathan’s pocket money, only to end up having every last coin taken from them by me.
"What? That’s really not much."
"See? I told you we didn’t have anything."
"Oh, shut up. You said you had nothing, not that you had almost nothing."
I smacked one of them on the back of the head as he puffed out his lips in protest, then stuffed today’s haul into my pocket.
"Now get lost. And stop stealing other people’s money, you brats. How long are you planning to live like this?"
I drove off the local delinquents and spoke to Jonathan, my younger brother from the orphanage.
"Jonathan, didn’t I tell you at least three times a day? Don’t go wandering outside on your own."
"But... there’s nothing fun at the orphanage..."
"You could get yourself killed looking for fun, Jonathan. You come back beaten up every day. One of these days you’ll really get hurt."
"Hehe, but you always save me whenever I get hit, big bro."
"Idiot, it’s not like getting beaten is fine just because I rescue you afterward. Listen when people talk to you."
Supporting the injured Jonathan, I brought him back to the orphanage and took him to the headmistress.
"Oh dear, Jonathan, you got beaten up again? Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you."
The headmistress took out some medicine from a drawer and applied it to Jonathan while looking him over.
"You should listen when the headmistress says that too."
"Yes... I’ll go out less from now on."
So he still wasn’t saying he’d stop going out entirely.
"Anyway, Headmistress, I should get going now. Jonathan, get treated properly."
"All right, off you go."
After leaving the headmistress’s room, I returned to mine and climbed onto the old bunk bed.
No, to be exact, I floated up onto it.
whoosh
My name is Leonard Oppenbach.
I’m eleven years old this year.
And I’m a psychic.
I can’t remember exactly when I became able to use my powers, but it was ever since I was very young.
The first time I realized I had this ability was when a pile of junk stacked haphazardly above Jonathan’s sleeping head came crashing down. The moment I thought, "No!" the falling junk returned to its original place.
That was when I realized something.
I’d really made the right choice by reincarnating.
See? You have to live a good life. That’s how you get a reincarnation bonus loaded up nice and generously, right? Now that’s a proper world.
On top of that, this body is pretty outstanding in the looks department too, so I’m very satisfied with this life.
So please, no ugly duckling transformation. Let’s just keep going like this.
Of course, I hadn’t been born with everything.
The place I was born in was Spinner’s End.
The worst crime-ridden district in England.
This hopeless neighborhood was the kind of place that felt like someone had dragged a Kim Sung-mo-style world straight into reality.
So the men born here all became thugs, and the women became prostitutes.
It was a completely insane place.
If there was almost any exception at all, it was probably our headmistress.
Still... the fact that I’d reincarnated in a place I knew was Earth was a stroke of heaven’s luck.
It wasn’t Korea, sure, but still. It was Earth, right?
Even if Spinner’s End looked like a place with no dreams and no hope, it was still much better than a place like Azeroth, where there really was no hope.
Anyway, if I’d gone through reincarnation, then I should live this life doing everything I wanted and having fun, shouldn’t I?
So I trained my psychic powers diligently every day.
At first I could only move light objects, but after continuous practice I could now move things about the size of a person, or more precisely, anything up to about my own weight, with ease.
There was even a day when I pushed myself so hard during training that I collapsed, and when I came to, my powers had grown much stronger than before.
Muscles get bigger when you train them, so maybe psychic powers are the same.
After realizing that, I redoubled my efforts, and now, as you can see, I can easily lift about my own body weight.
Of course, the whole orphanage had been in mourning the day I collapsed...
Lying on the bed, I began training again by lifting my own body about one centimeter above the mattress.
That was about the limit if I wanted to practice without getting caught in a place where so many people could see me.
Still, it was helpful in its own way.
At first I could barely move a few small objects a couple of times, but now I could do this for hours.
If I developed this ability properly, I wouldn’t have to worry about getting beaten up anywhere. I’d already been reincarnated, so I might as well work hard.
And if I combined that with the history I knew from my previous life, making money would be easy.
I didn’t even need to go as far as Bitcoin.
This was Europe, where gambling was thriving, so all kinds of bets were open. And since this happened to be 1991, betting on the collapse of the Soviet Union would solve my seed money problem for this life.
whoosh
After finishing my psychic training, I went to the headmistress’s room.
"Jonathan’s treatment must be finished by now, right?"
"Yes, Leonard. Still, the kids in this neighborhood are kind enough in their own way that they don’t hit too hard. They only come back with a few scratches on their skin each time, so it’s easy enough to treat them."
"I feel like the hitting itself isn’t exactly kind..."
"Leonard, this is Spinner’s End."
"Fair point. The delinquents in this neighborhood are such trash that kids Jonathan’s age count as pretty kind by comparison."
"Leonard, you shouldn’t be learning such bad words already~ You’re the hope of this orphanage."
"Oops, sorry, Headmistress. But that’s not what I came to talk about. I came here for something very important."
"Oh my, what important matter could our Leonard have come for?"
"Headmistress. I need some money."
"Leonard needs pocket money, does he? No matter how hard up we are, we can at least give our good Leonard a bit of spending money. All right, how much do you need?"
"Um... would about one hundred pounds be possible...?"
"Leonard, you’re only eleven. That kind of large sum is still too early for you. What on earth do you need that much money for?"
I could never say I wanted to use it for gambling, even if it killed me.
"It’s a secret."
"... Hah. Well, if I give pocket money to the other children, they’ll just get robbed and come back with nothing anyway... It might actually be better to give it to you. One hundred pounds, was it?"
The headmistress let out a sigh and agreed.
"... Thank you, Headmistress."
"Just don’t you go getting your money stolen by the other kids too. I always say this, don’t I? If you’re going to get robbed, you might as well rob first. Though of course, the best thing is not to do either."
"Of course. When have you ever seen me get robbed?"
"All right, then let’s end that conversation here. Go back to your room and get some sleep. Children should sleep early if they want to grow tall."
"Haha, Headmistress, you really are something. You know I’m already the tallest one in this neighborhood."
"If you’re going to grow, you might as well grow properly. Being short only makes you lose out; being tall never hurts. Especially for men."
"Well, that’s true enough. Anyway, I’m going to sleep now. Good night, Headmistress."
"Yes, Leonard. Sleep well."
And so I managed to squeeze one hundred pounds out of the headmistress.
I didn’t know the full details of the Soviet Union’s collapse, but judging from the circumstantial evidence, it looked like the Soviet Union would fall soon in this world too.
Last year, Lithuania had already declared independence from the Soviet Union, and even now, the news kept bringing up developments that were bad for the Soviets.
At this rate, the Soviet Union would probably collapse before the year was out, just as history had planned.
Adding the one hundred pounds I’d just received to the four hundred pounds I’d extorted from the would-be thugs over time gave me more than enough gambling capital.
What? What if I lost it all gambling?
If I was too scared to bet five hundred pounds, then I’d never have been able to bet on Bitcoin either.
You have to make full use of the knowledge you have.
I left the headmistress’s room and returned to mine.
The moment I opened the door, I heard children cheering.
"Happy birthday, Leonard hyung!"
"Happy birthday, Leonard!"
"Happy birthday, Leonard~"
Ah... come to think of it, it was already my birthday.
Ordinary orphans usually had the day they were abandoned at the orphanage become their birthday, but my case was a little different.
The parents who abandoned me had left behind a note with my name and birthday written on it.
Sometimes I did think, "If that was the case, why not just not abandon me at all?" But still... this was Spinner’s End, wasn’t it?
It was far better to grow up in an orphanage than to be raised as a thug under thug parents.
Anyway, that meant today, August 1, was my birthday.
"Thanks, everyone. Let’s cut the cake and eat it quickly. It looks really delicious."
As a reincarnator who had lived through the age of zero-calorie drinks, I knew sugar wasn’t good for the body, but every now and then, it was fine to eat it. The food wasn’t to blame.
Just as we were blowing out the candles and cutting the cake to share it, there was a knock at the door.
A moment later, the headmistress opened the door and called for me.
"Leonard, sorry to interrupt your party. A visitor has come looking for you."
"A visitor for me? At this hour?"
"Yes. It is rather strange."
"I’ll go take care of it quickly and come back. Let’s go, Headmistress. Oh, and you guys. Eat all the cake."
Leaving the children behind as they happily ate cake, I followed the headmistress into the sitting room.
The first thing I saw when the door opened was a tall man in black clothes, with hair that looked a little greasy.
No matter how poor this neighborhood was, he could at least wash up a bit.
"This child is Leonard Oppenbach, the one you asked for. Say hello, Leonard. This is Mr. Snape."
"Hello, Mr. Snape. I’m Leonard Oppenbach. Wait, Snape?"
"Yes. I am Snape. Why, do you know another Mr. Snape?"
"Um... no, not exactly."
"Honestly, what a dull boy."
I didn’t know any Mr. Snape in real life, but I did know a Mr. Snape from a novel I knew.
Hold on.
England, black hair, greasy hair, that sharp hooked nose, and the name Snape?
This was absolutely that guy...
"I should introduce myself first. I am Severus Snape, and I teach Potions at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Shit, it was him! No wonder the name Spinner’s End had sounded familiar.
"Magic? Mr. Snape, you really do have a wild sense of humor."
No, Headmistress. I don’t think this is a joke...
"It is admittedly a difficult story for Muggles to believe. I suppose I’ll have to show you to make you understand."
Snape drew out his wand, gave it a light flick, and produced a flower.
That was definitely a lily... So it really was Snape.
"Oh my goodness! How did you do that?"
"As I said. Magic."
The headmistress kept looking back and forth between the white lily hanging from the end of the wand and Professor Snape.
"Is that perhaps some sort of tool used for stage tricks?"
"This is not some cheap prop. Since you still don’t seem convinced, I’ll show you one more demonstration."
Snape flicked his wand and opened all the curtains by the window, then closed them again.
I stopped Snape, who was showing off his power in front of a Muggle.
"That’s enough. All right, Snape—uh, Professor?"
"Yes, you may call me Professor Snape."
"Yes, Professor. Since you came looking for me personally, I’m guessing you’re here to enroll me in a place called Hogwarts?"
"Indeed, Mr. Oppenbach. You’ve grasped the situation exactly."
Dammit... so I really did have some ridiculous ability like psychic powers after all... There’s no way something like this should exist in reality.
"But I’ve never even heard of a school called Hogwarts. How am I supposed to get there?"
How else? You go from that station, of course...
"That is why I came in person. I’m here to tell you everything you need to know about enrollment."
"Thank you, Professor."
The bewildered headmistress stepped in.
"Just a moment, Professor Snape? I haven’t said I’d send Leonard to this Hogwarts place yet."
"No, Headmistress, I want to go. Please trust me. I’m the hope of this orphanage, Leonard, aren’t I? I believe I can do well there too."
"Hmm, that’s quite the confidence. For a Muggle-born, not bad. Most people would find this hard to believe, but you’re adapting very quickly."
"From what I hear, that word Muggle seems to mean people who aren’t wizards, right?"
"... You’re quick on the uptake too."
"Well, that’s not the important part."
"Yes, it isn’t. It’s late, so I’ll get straight to the point and then return. You will be entering Hogwarts on September 1 of this year, and tomorrow I will come here again to take you to buy the supplies you need for enrollment. Do you have any pounds?"
"Um... I’m not sure?"
The headmistress, who had been watching, stepped in again.
"Of course. How much do you need?"
"Wizards use a different currency from Muggles. There is a bank exclusively for wizards, and tomorrow we’ll exchange money there for their currency. The rate is five pounds to one Galleon, and the annual exchange limit is five hundred pounds, or one hundred Galleons."
"If that’s all, then that’s a relief. We can manage that much."
"Wait, Headmistress, do we really have that much money?"
"There’s a little set aside as your independence fund."
"... I’ll gratefully use it. I’ll live up to the expectations you’ve placed on me, and then some."
"Goodness... orphanage children really do grow up early, don’t they..."
Snape, who had been watching, spoke again.
"It seems everything has been settled, so I’ll return tomorrow morning. Have a good night."
"Yes, Mr. Snape. Take care."
"Good night, Professor Snape."
Snape vanished in an instant with a pop.
"So magic really does exist. Seeing him disappear like that."
"It really does. Anyway, it’s late, so I’m going to bed for real now. Good night."
"Yes, Leonard. Sweet dreams. And happy birthday, belatedly."
On August 1, 1991, I realized that I was a wizard.
No, wait. 1991? Don’t tell me I’m in the same year as Harry Potter...?
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