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From afar, the roar of engines grew louder and closer.
"They got here pretty fast," Ian thought as he narrowed his eyes.
He looked towards the end of the forest path.
The piercing wail of sirens shattered the village's stillness as two dark grey armored vehicles sped down the dirt road, kicking up clouds of dust like an ominous omen. They tore through the morning mist, their heavy frames radiating menace.
The vehicles bore a striking black eagle emblem. Mounted machine guns sat atop them, and their thick, reinforced tires made them look like true battlefield machines.
They rolled into the village and came to a stop. The doors burst open, and a squad of heavily armed 'security personnel' jumped out, though their appearance made Ian pause.
He calmly observed these uninvited guests.
These so-called 'police' looked more like elite soldiers. They wore uniform dark-grey combat suits adorned with peculiar triangular insignia. Their helmets and visors obscured most of their faces, and the weapons in their hands were clearly military-grade.
Ian's pupils contracted sharply.
"This… can't be…" He muttered.
He had studied this in history class. He knew that these people belonged to a terrifying, dark regime. The uniform movements, cold, emotionless gazes, and symbolic insignia confirmed it.
The information he had gathered from the villagers was correct.
This was the wrong timeline.
History had taken a wrong turn.
Frightened by Ian's magic, the villagers rushed towards the armored vehicles as if they were saviors.
"Who reported this?"
This time, it was standard German.
The leading captain was tall, with a hooked nose and sharp, blade-like eyes. As he swept his gaze across the crowd, the villagers immediately began reporting in a rapid, guttural dialect.
Ian couldn't understand them, but from their gestures and pointing fingers, it was obvious that they were accusing him.
This was especially clear because he had spoken English.
The security personnel immediately became more alert. The captain's expression darkened the moment he understood the situation.
"Achtung! (Alert!)"
He gave orders swiftly. The squad spread out and searched the village in a coordinated manner. They moved in pairs, covering each other as though they were a professional special forces unit.
Dozens of dark gun barrels were pointed at Ian as if they were the eyes of death itself.
Ian sighed.
He hadn't wanted to draw attention to himself, but avoiding conflict now seemed impossible. As a Legendary Mage, he certainly wasn't afraid of these ordinary soldiers.
In this unfamiliar timeline, perhaps he didn't need to worry about altering history after all.
He had encountered similar situations before. This kind of 'wrong timeline' was like a fragment abandoned by fate, its history already twisted beyond recognition.
"No... this isn't just abandoned history. Even if it's an incorrect development, it's still a real parallel universe."
Ian didn't know if this had anything to do with the mysterious force that had destroyed his time machine. But, as a legendary wizard, his understanding of the universe had long surpassed what it once was.
He sighed again.
He had intended to keep a low profile.
But now, conflict was inevitable.
As expected.
"Hände hoch! (Hands up!)," The captain barked in stiff English, his eyes filled with suspicion. "You remnants of the old era, surrender immediately! Otherwise, we will take necessary measures!"
The black muzzles of the soldiers' guns locked onto Ian, ready to fire at any moment.
Ian stood where he was, his white robe fluttering gently in the breeze.
He didn't raise his hands.
Instead, he slowly closed his eyes.
He had long transcended the fear of mortal weapons. No matter how well-equipped these soldiers were, they were nothing more than paper guards in the face of true magic.
"Get on your knees! Hands on your head!" The captain shouted harshly, his weapon aimed steadily at Ian's chest.
Ian opened his eyes again and looked around.
Immediately, every gun tracked his movement. Red laser sights danced across his chest.
"Do as you're told!"
Ten armed personnel and over twenty villagers surrounded him, each face filled with suspicion and hostility. In this world, which was ruled by a dark regime that should never have existed, a foreigner speaking English was undoubtedly seen as an extremely dangerous threat.
'I apologise for the trouble,' Ian said calmly in fluent standard German. "I'm just lost."
But his words did nothing to ease the tension.
In fact, the fact that he could also speak German only made him seem more suspicious.
Why would someone whose native language was English also speak German?
In Ian's current situation, everyone asked themselves that very question.
The captain let out a cold laugh.
"Lost? In a place this remote? Do you think I'd believe such a pathetic excuse?" He stepped forward. "You're one of those remnants of the old era, aren't you?!"
Ian didn't answer.
His gaze swept across everyone present as he calculated the optimal course of action. Dealing with so many people at once was still somewhat challenging, and wandless magic required extreme concentration.
"Last warning, get on your knees!" The captain's finger tightened on the trigger.
Ian sighed softly. "I suppose we can't resolve this civilly after all."
Before anyone could react, Ian had already completed the wandless casting.
No incantation. No gesture.
Only an invisible wave of magical fluctuation spread outwards from him.
"Stupefy," he said quietly.
A ripple expanded from his position.
As if influenced by an unseen force, the security personnel and villagers collapsed one after another, falling into a deep sleep. In an instant, every soldier, and even the surrounding villagers, went limp and dropped to the ground.
The entire forest fell silent, save for the rustling of leaves in the wind.
In less than three seconds, the captain was the only one left standing.
This was not because he was immune to magic, but because Ian had deliberately left one person conscious for questioning.
The captain stared at the bodies sprawled around him, his face filled with disbelief.
His subordinates. The villagers.
All felled by an invisible force.
Realization dawned on him as he trembled and looked up at Ian.
"Y-you… what did you do?" His voice shook and his weapon wavered in his hands.
Ian looked at him calmly. "I merely put them to sleep for a while. Now we can have a proper conversation."
The captain's eyes widened further and his face turned pale, as if something had clicked in his mind.
"Impossible… you… you are..."
"What am I?" Ian asked curiously.
"A Wizard!" The captain blurted out, almost screaming the word. His weapon slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground. "B-but that's impossible! Wizards were supposed to have disappeared!"
Now it was Ian's turn to be surprised.
In a world seemingly dominated entirely by ordinary people, could someone still recognize magic, and even know about wizards?
"You actually know about wizards?" Ian stepped forward, his golden eyes gleaming with an otherworldly light in the dim forest.
The captain recoiled in terror.
He didn't answer. He simply shook his head repeatedly, his lips trembling.
"Impossible… Wizards should have vanished… all of them…"
"How... how can there still be wizards?" He muttered repeatedly, as if questioning fate itself. "Wizards… should have been gone long ago…"
His whole body trembled. His teeth chattered.
At that moment, his entire worldview collapsed.
"…Hmm."
Ian frowned. He had intended to question the man further, but seeing him on the verge of a mental breakdown, he chose not to press the issue.
Instead...
Ian raised his hand slightly and flicked it aside.
Clang!
As if pulled by an immense force, the captain's weapon flew like a black shadow towards a distant rock before landing harmlessly.
Ian slowly walked forward.
"Now." His voice was calm and steady. "Your memories will give me the answers."
He locked eyes with the captain, silently activating Legilimency.
The captain's resistance was pitifully weak. His mind opened almost instantly.
Silver light seeped into his consciousness like a gentle stream.
Ian's awareness dove deep, like a diver plunging into the ocean, carefully exploring the captain's memories. Rather than using brute mental force, he peeled back layers of dust like an archaeologist, uncovering fragments of this altered history.
Memories surged like a tidal wave.
The first image was of a cold delivery room.
Amid the cries of a newborn baby, a nurse handed a swaddled baby to a man in a military uniform... his father.
The captain had been born in a military hospital; his parents were both dressed in standardized grey uniforms. As a child, he was raised in the state youth corps and trained in discipline and obedience.
At the age of ten, he took a societal classification test. The result determined his fate: to become an Enforcer.
He underwent rigorous training at an enforcement institution, learning to identify and deal with 'enemies,' most of whom were suspected to have wizard lineage.
The structure of this society reminded Ian of a science fiction concept he had once encountered, a world where one's destiny was fixed at birth.
It was like Krypton in the DC universe: the child of a warrior would always be a warrior, and the child of scholars would always be a scholar.
The bloodlines of Enforcers would only produce more Enforcers.
Individual talent and personal will were irrelevant. Everything had already been decided at birth based on genetic designation.
Of course, what Ian cared about most was information regarding wizards.
And in the captain's teenage history class, he finally found a clue.
In a classroom adorned with a large world map, the empire's territory spanned almost the entire continent.
"The most critical turning point in our rise to power," The teacher said, pointing at several locations on the map with a baton, "was when our great leader received assistance from 'special advisers'. These individuals, who had extraordinary abilities, helped us to uncover the Free Alliance's conspiracies and foresee their actions..."
The scene in the memory shifted.
Ian saw an illustration in a textbook of a blonde man in elegant robes standing beside the emperor.
His gaze was sharp and filled with strange charisma.
Even though the image was stylized, Ian recognized him instantly:
Gellert Grindelwald.
His face was exactly the same as his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's.
Of course, this wasn't the Grindelwald that Ian and most people knew. This was a counterpart from a parallel universe.
"…This is unbelievable," Ian felt a wave of dizziness, nearly breaking out of the Legilimency state. He forced himself to remain calm and continued to dig deeper into the memories.
Where was Dumbledore?
If he had been here, how could he have possibly allowed Grindelwald to participate in a Muggle war, let alone become a dominant force within it?
This wasn't magic.
This wasn't Harry Potter.
The memories continued.
More fragments surfaced alongside Ian's confusion:
Grindelwald and his followers openly siding with the Empire... Using magic to help the imperial forces break through defenses.
Predicting enemy movements in advance. Fighting directly on the battlefield with magic. The war that had belonged to Muggles had been altered beyond recognition by the involvement of wizards.
From it, an empire unlike any in history had risen... The very regime that now rules this land.
Ian was most shocked that Grindelwald had broken the International Statute of Secrecy, revealing the existence of wizards to the entire world.
He portrayed wizards as "the vanguard of evolution," and "the pioneers of a new humanity."
Everything seemed to be unfolding exactly as the Dark Lord Grindelwald had once envisioned: wizards, standing above the world.
It was also the kind of future a second Dark Lord like Voldemort might have imagined when looking into a mirror.
And because of that, disaster was inevitable.
The power of wizards was simply too terrifying, and no Muggle nation could ever feel at ease.
After the war ended, the victorious Muggles naturally grew restless. So, they began systematically hunting down and exterminating wizards.
The usefulness of wizards had run its course.
And now, it was time to discard them.
This, too, had been taught in history class. The teacher's voice in the memory became low and solemn.
Of course, the textbooks had clearly been altered.
"The wizard race, though powerful, is inherently arrogant, attempting to place itself above human order. In 1952, Grindelwald launched the 'Wizard Rebellion,' attempting to overthrow our king and establish a 'Magical Empire.' But our wise king foresaw the plot and initiated the 'Iron Curtain Plan,' using technology and anti-magic weapons."
"Our leader also allied with loyalist wizards to completely suppress the rebellion!"
The scene shifted again.
A towering magical structure collapsed under missile fire. Wizards in the sky were ensnared by electric nets, screaming as they fell. Newspaper headlines declared:
"The End of the Wizarding Age!"
In the textbooks, this purge of wizards was called the "Witch Hunt Operation." Wizards were described as spies modified by aliens, traitors to Earth.
Such explanations might sound childish, but for adults, they conveniently fed into conspiracy theories about extraterrestrials.
In reality, even the wizards who had switched sides did not escape the purge.
Wizards had a terrible instinct for politics.
Once external threats were eliminated, the empire turned on its former "meritorious vassals", the very wizards who had helped it rise.
After all, the power wizards possessed was enough to inspire fear in anyone. Perhaps the Statute of Secrecy had never truly been meant to protect Muggles but to protect wizards.
And so, those who had betrayed their own kind suffered the consequences.
One by one, they were eliminated through carefully orchestrated measures.
"From that point onward, all wizard records were destroyed. Magical bloodlines were hunted down and purified. By 1970, the last known wizard household had been eradicated."
"Evil wizards, and their alien magic, have become dust in history."
The memory ended abruptly.
Ian suddenly withdrew his hand, staggering back a step, his face pale as paper.
He stood among the fallen soldiers and villagers. Silence blanketed the forest, broken only by the mournful sound of the wind.
His mind raced wildly, trying to process the overwhelming truth.
In this parallel universe, history had been completely rewritten by Grindelwald's recklessness.
(End of Chapter)