Hermione’s Moving In for Good

Lake ultimately went with Secretary Kelly to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Why?

They were already there.

Besides, Mr. President had canceled his meeting with the Prime Minister of the Island Nation, who had come to apologize for the fifth time this year, just to hear their report. It would have been rather unreasonable to say he would not go after all.

However, once they arrived at the Presidential Palace, there was not much to say. At most, they could report that the Supervision Bureau established with taxpayers’ money had a secret agent named Saga, who was as dependable as a stabilizing pillar.

The Federal Magic World had colluded with Hell and tried to become humanity’s lackey. The evidence was conclusive. The fact that demons from Hell had emerged while the Federal Magic World had shown no reaction whatsoever was proof enough. Therefore, Secret Agent Saga’s destruction of the Magic World symbolized love and justice.

Mr. President proposed meeting Saga.

Unfortunately.

Lake apologized to Mr. President and explained that Saga was an ascetic. Convincing Saga to become an external agent of the Supervision Bureau had already required Lake to win him over with his looks. Now that the matter had just been resolved, Saga had returned to the Amazon rainforest to continue his ascetic journey.

Mr. President was deeply disappointed.

As for everything else, there was not much to report. At most, the real-time satellite footage had shown that some odd-looking little animals had escaped.

They were animals. How bad could they be?

So…

After the report was over, Lake and Secretary Kelly left the Presidential Palace.

Rachel’s apartment.

In the afternoon, Rachel had just returned home from work when she looked at Lake in the living room with pleasant surprise. He was teasing their now one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. "When did you get here?"

Lake rose, embraced Rachel, and kissed her. "Just now."

Rachel looked around. "Where’s Mia?"

"I came over, so naturally I gave her the day off," Lake said. "Especially since she said tonight was her date night with Brian."

Rachel walked toward the bathroom. "Then she’s probably going to be disappointed."

Lake smiled. "Why?"

After washing her hands, Rachel came out of the bathroom and picked up her daughter Helen, who was toddling toward her. With a smile, she said, "I passed the Hoover Building on my way back. Brian and Booth have another case."

Lake shrugged. "Understandable."

Criminals did not care whether it was your date night or not. Especially here in the Federation—and this was the capital, no less. Never assume that crime was low just because this was the capital. On the contrary, Washington’s crime rate was even higher than New York’s.

Rachel looked at Lake with a smile. "How many days are you staying?"

Lake tilted his head. "A week. How does that sound? If that’s not enough, I can add more."

Rachel smiled without saying anything. Her silence meant she could not exactly call that number satisfactory, but neither was she disappointed. After all, Lake was a senior official in a federal law enforcement agency. Managing to free up ten days a month on average was already remarkable.

A week later.

Lake took a private plane from Washington back to New York.

Starlight Tower.

With a bang.

Lake was having breakfast with Skye when a ball of flame suddenly erupted beside the electronic fireplace. Then Eevee, who had grown just a little from its palm-sized body, stood up. With a crackle, it hurled a bolt of lightning at the uninvited guest over there.

The lightning missed!

"Silencio!"

"Eevee… Mmph!"

Hermione appeared. She looked with interest at Eevee, whose mouth had been sealed shut after the Silencio spell and who was now puffing up angrily. Then she turned to Lake. "What species of Fantastic Beast is this?"

Skye, meanwhile, had her mouth hanging open.

Oh, shit.

A woman had emerged from the electronic fireplace. Santa Claus? No, Santa’s fairy?

Hermione’s gaze shifted to Skye, who was blinking her big eyes. She smiled, walked over, waved her wand to remove the Silencio spell from Eevee, and extended her hand to Skye. "Hello, my name is Hermione!"

Skye held Eevee, which had run into her arms for comfort. She looked at the offered right hand, stood up, and shook it. "Skye."

"I’ve heard Lake mention you."

"Really?"

Skye’s eyes suddenly lit up. She looked at Lake, then at Hermione, and said in surprise, "I’ve heard Lake mention you too. He said you were a witch. I never believed him, but now…"

Wow.

Skye suddenly remembered that Lake seemed to have mentioned it once. At the time, she had been half skeptical. Now, however, she could not find any reason to doubt it.

"Witches really exist in this world?"

"Of course. There are vampires too."

"Vampires? What about werewolves?"

"They exist too. There are witches and demons as well. Didn’t you have a demon incident here some time ago?"

"Uh…"

"There was one," Skye said, "but in the end, they said it was a demon-human caused by an accident in a biological experiment."

Hermione looked at Skye with a smile. "But you don’t believe that, do you?"

Skye shrugged.

Lake, who was beside them, saw that their conversation seemed likely to grow more and more lively. After coughing, he urged Skye to hurry to school before she was late.

Skye kept looking back every few steps. Hermione immediately wrote down a phone number and handed it to her, telling Skye that she could call her anytime. Only then did Skye reluctantly leave the apartment.

After a while.

Lake opened a bottle of wine. Looking curiously at Hermione, who had come straight over without avoiding Skye this time, he asked, "Why didn’t you want to check whether anyone else was home this time?"

Hermione sat on a barstool. "Did you want me to sneak in?"

That sounded…

Like a trap.

Lake smiled. "If you want, you can stay here."

He had nothing to hide, anyway.

He was not a scumbag. Even if he was, Lake felt he would be the kind whose relationships were perfectly clear—the kind where all the women knew about one another.

Hermione smiled. "Really?"

Lake shrugged. "Why not?"

Hermione nodded. "All right."

Lake’s hand paused slightly as he held up his wineglass.

Seeing this, Hermione’s smile did not fade. "See? You’re deceiving me again."

Lake came back to himself and shook his head. "No. You’re welcome here anytime, Hermione. Really. I’m just a little confused. Did you resign from that Department of Magic Law Enforcement?"

Originally, my intention had clearly been to find a stay-at-home wife, someone like Hawkeye Barton’s wife.

But…

Lake felt speechless as he thought about the women he had gotten involved with.

Emilia was unquestionably a queen—the Immortal Queen.

Rachel was a Washington reporter, the kind with overwhelming ambition. Even after having a daughter, she still wanted to work.

Seifer went without saying. Every time, she came and went in a hurry, leaving Lake feeling like nothing more than a tool.

Hermione was the head of the London Department of Magic Law Enforcement. Her ambition was naturally beyond question as well. She devoted herself wholeheartedly to freeing house-elves and fighting against discrimination toward Muggles.

And then there was Wanda?

She was even more mysterious than Seifer.

Lake thought it over carefully. The more he thought, the more he felt that ever since he had let himself go, he had been drifting farther and farther from his original intention. It seemed he had been charging headlong toward career-minded women.

Could this be what Karen meant when she said that, on the road to maturity, a man had to pay a price?

Or was it what some master of inspirational essays had said: the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility?

Hermione shrugged and drank the juice Lake had poured for her. "I didn’t resign. You could say I was promoted. After all, some idiot wiped out the Federal Magic World, then released so many Fantastic Beasts that could potentially expose the magical world to the outside."

"Fantastic Beasts?"

Lake looked at Hermione. "You mean those little animals that escaped? Nothing major has happened these past few days."

When Lake had returned yesterday afternoon, he had gone to the Homeland Building to look at the Psyduck they had captured. It looked very much like the Pokémon Psyduck, but it was not one. Aside from spitting water, the fat duck that resembled Psyduck had no other abilities.

Hermione said, "That’s because most of the Fantastic Beasts that escaped are still juveniles. A small number are in their growth stages, and almost none are mature."

Lake looked at Hermione, somewhat confused.

Hermione sighed and once again educated Lake. Most Fantastic Beasts were actually similar to ordinary animals. At most, they looked different and possessed some special abilities, but the majority were relatively gentle. A small number were mischievous, and the smallest portion had bad tempers.

Most Fantastic Beasts in their juvenile and growth stages cared about only two things: survival and reproduction.

Hermione looked at Lake. "If I had known you were going to attack them, I would have told you in advance why everyone knew that the Federal Magic World had sold itself to Hell, yet remained indifferent."

"What?"

"The Fantastic Beasts’ dimension is sealed within the dark side of the Federal Magic World."

That was also one of the major reasons why other supernatural individuals looked down on the South American magical world but could not be bothered to pick a fight with it. To put it simply, just as a criminal would take hostages when facing arrest, the South American magical world would threaten to destroy the Magical Creature Zoo whenever it encountered an enemy it could not defeat, forcing everyone to contribute their strength and help the Federal Magic World through the crisis.

That trick…

It did not work on certain groups. But for some upright factions, the South American magical world’s tactic had always worked. Otherwise, when Fantastic Beasts had caused a rampage in New York back then, everyone would not have contributed their strength to help the South American magical world restore order.

Lake rubbed his chin. "So when they threatened to fight me to the death, they were actually referring to the Magical Creature Zoo."

Hermione frowned. "What did you think they meant?"

Lake shrugged. "I thought they were referring to their own magical world."

"You didn’t ask?"

"Why would I ask?"

Lake smiled and asked Hermione in return.

It was the same old story.

He had always preferred to strike first. If there were any problems, he could discuss them slowly with his enemy’s corpse after the enemy was dead.