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Faced with Ian's direct question, the cheetah did not answer directly.
The cheetah did not answer directly; however, not answering was already an answer in itself.
Of course...
Seeing that Ian was still staring at it, the cheetah seed sowhat helpless. A faint, inscrutable gleam flashed through its deep green eyes, yet it still refused to answer plainly.
Instead, it let out a low rumble that sounded as though it ca from ancient tis itself.
"God? Titles are unimportant. We are ancient echoes, guardians of the laws and the dreams of all living things that dwell on this land."
It elegantly swished its tail, and its gaze sharpened as its tone turned warning.
"Foreign traveler, you possess great power, but upon this land, you must rember restraint. A light that shines too brightly will attract unnecessary attention and may even awaken ominous things slumbering within the seas of sand and among the stars."
Ian's heart tightened.
"I've always acted cautiously," he explained at once. "This ti I rely passed through here by accident. I have absolutely no intention of offending the local gods or violating your rules."
Thinking back to his actions in the marketplace, aside from his exchanges with Caleb, he had not really displayed much of his power. Ian himself was not soone with a flamboyant personality.
After all, he was a Ravenclaw student, not a Slytherin or Gryffindor student. The latter two houses were the ones most likely to cause trouble and draw attention.
Yet, upon hearing Ian's reassurances, the cheetah's expression beca rather strange.
It shook its head, its voice carrying a trace of helplessness.
"Your existence itself is not a threat to us. In fact, your arrival may even be so kind of inevitability."
"We do not object to your activities on this land."
The cheetah's response exceeded Ian's expectations.
Ian fell silent.
He could hear the superior tone in the creature's voice, which convinced him even more that the being before him was no ordinary magical creature. It was a transcendent being beyond mortal comprehension... a god.
"Then why have you appeared before ?" Ian asked carefully. "Have I offended you in so way?"
The cheetah slowly rose to its feet, its form flickering indistinctly beneath the dreamlight.
"No. You have been very restrained. You did not summon the dead, desecrate sacred grounds, or attempt to steal the resin of the Tree of Life. You even respected Caleb's craft."
Perhaps this god was sohow connected to Caleb's lineage and inheritance.
"So my study of alchemy disturbed it..."
Ian relaxed slightly.
However, the cheetah's next words sent a chill down his spine.
"But the 'Divine Grace' upon you… shines too brightly." It paused briefly before continuing in a solemn tone.
"Yes, the problem lies in the "blessing" you carry.'
"Blessing?"
Ian frowned, imdiately thinking of the blessing bestowed upon him by the Sun God Ra.
Indeed, that was exactly what the cheetah ant.
"The mark of that foreign Sun!"
The cheetah's gaze seed capable of piercing Ian's dream form and seeing the golden divine power flowing within him.
"Beneath this sky, it is like a lighthouse in the darkness; it is far too conspicuous. It will draw certain... unpleasant gazes, just as we ourselves are watched."
"Certain things are extrely sensitive to divine power."
Its voice beca vague and cautious, as though it feared ntioning sothing directly. It even subconsciously glanced upward towards the false stars in the dream sky, as though sothing lurked there.
"Unpleasant gazes? From what?" Ian asked urgently, sensing that he had touched upon sothing crucial. "Evil gods? Or sothing else?"
Ian still rembered what had happened to him in ancient Egypt.
Surely it couldn't happen again?
How could anyone possibly be that unlucky?!
He had never imagined that the "blessing of the Sun God," which he had not even had the chance to return to Hogwarts and brag about yet, would beco so kind of dangerous signal upon this land.
He had once believed it to be purely a symbol of power.
Yet now it seed it might also be a double-edged sword… Sothing capable not only of dispelling darkness, but of awakening even deeper darkness.
"You an… there are existences that will be drawn to my Divine Grace?" Ian pressed further.
This ti, however, the cheetah did not answer imdiately.
It stared deeply at Ian, its gaze impossibly complicated, filled with warning, pity, and even a faint trace of expectation that was difficult to describe.
After a long silence…
"It is not 'attraction,'" The cheetah corrected softly. "It is resonance. Your Divine Grace shares the sa origin as certain ancient things. They may mistake you… for a 'key.'"
"A key? A key to what?"
The cheetah did not answer.
"May I at least know your na?" Ian changed tactics. If he could learn the being's identity, he could investigate further once he returned to reality.
"Who I am is unimportant," The cheetah replied, its voice distant and ancient. "You may think of as one voice of this land, an observer. What matters is why you have co, Star Traveler. Your arrival has created ripples upon this ancient spiritual web. Are you rely a passerby… or a herald of change?"
"You claim to be lost. Yes, you have strayed very, very far from your original course. The road ho is filled with thorns, and the light of the stars has already been obscured by storm clouds."
It sounded almost like a revelation born from divination itself.
Its gaze seed to pierce through the dream itself, staring directly into Ian's essence.
"There is the scent of change upon you, and also the aura of danger. You have touched branches of ti that should never have been touched, and you carry certain Divine Graces upon your body. That makes it very easy to awaken existences that should never be disturbed. My warning to you ends here."
After speaking, it lowered itself once more onto the thick branch. Its figure gradually rged with the shadows of the tree until its entire form beca vague and indistinct.
"Rember this, traveler… respect the rules of this land, and beware the whispers within the shadows. Your choices may bring forth either a different dawn… or an even deeper dusk."
As the words faded… The entire dream began to fluctuate violently.
The savanna dreamscape trembled as though the reflection of water had been shattered by a thrown stone. The starlight dimd, the herds vanished, and the vast land crumbled apart before Ian's eyes.
The grassland scenery was fragnted and dispersed like a reflection breaking upon the surface of a lake.
Ian abruptly sat upright in bed, his heart pounding wildly, a thin layer of cold sweat covering his forehead.
Outside, dawn was just beginning to break. Several rays of morning light slipped through the cracks of the hut's windows, casting mottled patches of brightness across the dirt floor.
The lingering sensation of the dream remained crystal clear. The cheetah's cryptic words echoed repeatedly within his mind.
"Unpleasant gazes"… "Whispers within the shadows"…
'Could it be that so enormous hidden threat also lurked upon the continent of Africa?'
'And judging by the implications, that threat seed connected to gods as well.'
Perhaps it was the prelude to yet another Twilight of the Gods.
"Could this really be a coincidence?"
Ian could not understand it.
Whether functioning properly or malfunctioning, Claire's ti machine always seed to bring him to eras standing upon the brink of divine decline.
Ian absolutely refused to believe there was no deeper aning behind that. After all, in the wizarding world, there were no coincidences, especially not arrangents involving Titans.
That Female Titan had originally been the source of all things, the very first prophet to appear upon Earth, the origin of all Seers. If anyone could manipulate such events, it would only seem natural for her.
"But what's the purpose?"
Confusion continued to swirl within Ian's mind.
Taking a deep breath, he suppressed his chaotic thoughts and rose from bed. He walked to the window and pushed open the crude wooden shutters.
Cool morning air flooded inward, carrying the scent of damp earth and fresh grass.
His gaze instinctively drifted toward the vast projected forest scenery outside, faintly visible through the morning mist.
And at that very instant,
At the deepest edge of the forest shadows, he seed to glimpse a vague, slender figure composed entirely of darkness itself flashing past.
The figure moved so quickly it was almost like an illusion.
It even seed to turn back and "look" at him once, carrying a cold, inhuman sense of scrutiny.
Then it completely rged into the shadows and vanished.
"Was that the god from before… or one of those so-called shadows?"
Ian's pupils contracted slightly as he imdiately focused his senses. But aside from the ordinary aura of the forest, there was nothing there.
'Was it rely a hallucination caused by the lingering influence of the dream?'
Or…
'Had the "unpleasant gaze" ntioned by the cheetah already silently descended?'
No one knew.
The confusion of the early morning was interrupted by a knock at the door.
The innkeeper, that taciturn old wizard, stood outside, holding a wooden tray. On it was a steaming bowl of corn porridge, several pieces of flatbread, and a pot of tea with a strange fragrance.
"Breakfast," The innkeeper spoke concisely as he handed over the tray.
Ian hadn't expected a place like this to provide breakfast. The service was surprisingly attentive.
"Thank you."
Ian accepted the tray and casually asked, pretending indifference:
"Boss, has anything unusual happened around here recently?"
"I just arrived not long ago and wanted to learn more about the local customs."
Ian concealed his true purpose sowhat. In reality, he wanted to find out if any strange incidents had occurred nearby.
Just as in ancient Egypt or Greece before the twilight of the gods or major disasters, unusual phenona often began to appear in advance. Ordinary people could not perceive them, but Ian could recognize the signs.
After all, he had seen and experienced a great deal.
These experiences had given him an exceptionally sharp mind and an abundance of judgnt born from experience.
Put simply... The super-intelligence he had always been proud of had beco even more superhuman.
Of course, most Hogwarts students probably wouldn't understand that.
But that was normal.
After all, surpassing one's era by even a small amount makes one a genius.
Surpassing it by too much, however, simply turned one into a marvel that was incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Ian did not know who had first said those words, but he thought they were reasonable.
"Hm?"
The innkeeper raised his cloudy eyes and glanced at Ian, seemingly judging his intentions, before replying slowly.
"You want to hear about unusual things?"
"Let think…"
"The Centaur tribes haven't been very peaceful lately. They've clashed several tis with the river-spirit tribes to the east over a few hunting grounds. The disturbances have grown rather large and will probably continue for quite so ti. Of course, to outsiders like you, that might count as sothing unusual. You could even watch them fight from a distance if you wish. But for us, it's already beco sothing ordinary."
"Just don't get involved with those half-breeds, and you'll be fine."
"And a few nights ago, Old Babu's Warthog over at the southern end of the market got bitten to death by sothing unknown. Its blood was completely drained, which terrified everyone and had people worrying that a vampire was on the loose."
"In the end, it turned out his son had brought back an enormous vampire bat. False alarm. Well… this place isn't exactly very big."
"As for other unusual events, there's probably nothing else."
Although the innkeeper looked like soone who disliked talking, once Ian asked, he answered in remarkable detail.
Perhaps he was simply cold on the outside but warm-hearted within.
One could tell just from the fact that he prepared breakfast for guests.
After all, this was not an era obsessed with custor service. Most inns simply did not provide breakfast at all.
Even in the more developed cities of the Western world, whether among Muggles or wizards, breakfast, if available, usually required separate paynt. It certainly would not be free.
Which was perfectly normal.
Transportation and globalization in this era were still underdeveloped. Even wizards rarely traveled across vast regions, and anyone capable of such journeys, wizard or not, was usually wealthy.
And wealthy people rarely cared about small bargains. They paid generously, while innkeepers naturally wanted to earn as much as possible. Sotis breakfast itself could cost even more than the room fee.
Of course,
The food provided would generally be much better as well.
Still, Ian was not the sort of person overly concerned with satisfying his appetite, so the breakfast prepared by this innkeeper suited his tastes perfectly.
It was simple.
Certainly not especially delicious, but also definitely not terrible.
After being spoiled by the cooking of House-Elves, Ian had no intention of seeking gourt cuisine in this era anyway.
More importantly, Africa itself was practically a culinary wasteland.
"I see, thank you."
After listening to the innkeeper's explanation, Ian nodded repeatedly in agreent. On the surface, he showed no disappointnt or any other emotion.
But inwardly, he was sowhat disappointed.
Everything ntioned had rely been local tribal conflicts or ordinary mysterious incidents, not the information Ian actually wanted.
Naturally, none of that showed on his face.
After thanking him, the innkeeper nodded and turned to leave.
"So I'll still need to investigate personally later. I should find people with access to more information, officials of the marketplace, or perhaps local Ministry of Magic personnel."
Ian silently planned his next steps.
Carrying the breakfast tray back into the room, he carefully shut the door behind him.
He did not begin eating imdiately.
Instead, he skillfully pulled several small alchemical instrunts from his pouch.
As the saying went, whether man or woman, one had to protect oneself while traveling abroad.
Ian possessed quite a few tools:
A silver needle capable of detecting most common poisons.
A crystal shard sensitive to dark magical energy.
And even a tiny spider-shaped construct designed specifically to detect subtle curse fluctuations.
All of it reflected his cautious nature.
Ian worked with complete seriousness, testing samples of every dish and drink with smooth, practiced movents, as though he had repeated the process thousands of tis before.
The silver needle did not darken.
The crystal emitted no unusual glow.
The miniature spider construct also gave no warning.
The entire sequence of actions appeared utterly natural and effortless.
"Looks safe enough."
Only then did Ian relax and begin enjoying the African-style breakfast.
Though it looked like simple corn porridge, he knew it was called "Ugali."
After all, he was a knowledgeable student of Ravenclaw. Knowing all sorts of seemingly useless information was perfectly normal.
Not to ntion that Ian also possessed the System, which allowed him to turn such knowledge into experience gains.
One could only say,
Ian was simply too well-rounded.
The food itself had a coarse texture but carried a rich grain fragrance. Dipped into a spicy stew sauce, it tasted unexpectedly good, far beyond Ian's expectations.
The flatbread was crisp as well.
Also delicious.
As for the tea, it carried a unique herbal fragrance. After drinking it, Ian felt his spirits noticeably refreshed. It clearly contained so sort of mint-like invigorating herb.
Perhaps it did not qualify as a potion, but its dicinal effects were still quite effective.
While eating, Ian continued pondering the dream and the "illusion" from earlier that morning.
The warning from the local god was definitely not baseless.
What sort of existence could cause even the ancient spirits of this land to fear speaking openly?
Could it be sothing similar to Set or Apep, so kind of evil god?
That seed the most likely possibility.
Of course, it could also be sothing even older and more indescribable.
Whatever it was, it was clearly sothing the local gods deeply feared, perhaps even sothing they dared not ntion aloud.
"A creature whose na cannot be spoken… huh. What a familiar feeling. Voldemort really was ahead of his ti."
Ian could not help sighing inwardly.
Just as his thoughts wandered,
There ca another knock at the door.
The innkeeper's voice sounded from outside.
"Guest, soone is here looking for you."
(End of Chapter)
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