"What exactly do you mean by the Celestial Convergence?" Ted asked.
His throat felt dry.
A faint sense of dread lingered in his chest.
And sure enough, Mr. Giggs' next words made him suck in a sharp breath.
The Celestial Convergence was the term the wizarding world used to describe two worlds overlapping.
According to what people knew, it had happened twice so far.
The first time occurred in 1945, shortly after Albus Dumbledore defeated Gellert Grindelwald and imprisoned him in Nurmengard.
Back then, the heavens themselves had fallen into chaos.
The positions of the stars in the sky shifted and twisted.
Even in broad daylight, enormous celestial bodies could be seen slowly drifting across the sky.
The strange astronomical phenomenon lasted for four and a half months.
During that time, the climate was wildly abnormal.
Blazing heat could suddenly turn into heavy snowfall within just a few hours.
Rain fell over the polar regions.
Meanwhile, tropical rainforests were pelted with hailstones the size of eggs.
Even the length of a day changed.
The longest day lasted forty hours, with the sun never setting.
The shortest day had only twelve hours total between daylight and night.
And along with all these disturbances, the world gained many things that had never existed before.
Magical creatures from other worlds.
Strange herbs and plants.
During that time, those foreign magical creatures ran wild without control, which terrified the already panicked Muggle population.
Fortunately, it had happened right after World War II ended.
The Muggle world was still in chaos, and technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it was today.
Back then, people couldn't instantly capture photographs or videos with handheld devices.
Otherwise, the Statute of Secrecy would have collapsed entirely.
According to rumors, the wizarding world spent several exhausting months cleaning up the mess.
Using Muggle governments, experts, and media channels, they barely managed to suppress the truth.
Then they had to hide the newly appeared magical creatures and prevent them from wandering into the Muggle world and causing more trouble.
Even today, some magical creatures still occasionally appeared before Muggles by accident.
Because of that, the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic were constantly overwhelmed with work.
Whenever Mr. Giggs mentioned this, he would let out a gleeful chuckle.
Clearly, he enjoyed hearing about the Ministry being forced into embarrassing situations.
Ted suddenly remembered some bizarre urban legends he had seen in old newspapers.
At the time, he had assumed they were sensational nonsense created to boost sales.
Now it turned out…
They had been perfectly legitimate news reports.
As for the dwarves, they had appeared during the second Celestial Convergence.
Mr. Giggs continued,
"The second Celestial Convergence happened ten years ago, after the Dark Lord was defeated by the Boy Who Lived."
He paused and asked,
"You know about the Boy Who Lived, right?"
"I do," Ted replied.
Harry Potter, obviously.
Mr. Giggs slapped his thigh excitedly.
"Exactly! Neville Longbottom!"
Ted: …What?!
"Neville Longbottom?"
Ted's throat became even drier.
It felt like sparks were about to shoot out of it.
Ted thought to himself:
This is bad. Really bad.
Mr. Giggs nodded matter-of-factly.
"That's right. Thanks to Neville Longbottom. When he was just over a year old, he defeated the Dark Lord and ended the chaos. The second Celestial Convergence happened shortly after the Dark Lord fell."
He gestured toward the street outside.
"Dwarves, elves, beastfolk—those kinds of races. And also the ugly and nasty ones like merfolk, kobolds, and goblins. They all appeared after the second Celestial Convergence. That was ten years ago now."
Ted nearly crushed the turtle shell he was holding.
Dwarves… and elves too?
And what exactly were beastfolk?
Merfolk, kobolds…
Ted felt his whole body trembling with anger.
Even though the day was warm, cold sweat soaked his back.
His hands and feet felt icy.
Hell was empty.
All the devils were here on Earth.
Could this world get any worse?
What exactly did fate want from a transmigrator like him before it would be satisfied?
Tears welled up in his eyes.
This world was filled with hostility toward transmigrators.
When would they finally be able to stand tall?
Meanwhile, Mr. Giggs kept talking enthusiastically.
"Anyway, dwarves and elves have a fairly good relationship with wizards. That new dwarven blacksmith shop is the first store run by an otherworld race in Diagon Alley! Everyone's over there watching the excitement."
Then he added,
"Hey, Ted, you should go take a look too! Work can wait, can't it?"
Ted stood up stiffly and walked out the door like a puppet with its strings cut.
His mind was still stuck on the words Celestial Convergence.
If things had changed this much…
Could the original storyline even still happen?
A famous strategist once said:
A transmigrator's greatest advantage is knowing the plot.
But Ted hadn't even done anything yet—and his advantage was already gone.
Damn it!
Ted went to see the dwarves.
They looked exactly like the ones from classic fantasy settings.
About four feet tall, thick and muscular, built like barrels.
Their beards were long and braided, tied with copper rings.
The dwarf shop owner had a booming voice, as if he were constantly under the effect of a Sonorus Charm.
He was clearly unhappy about being stared at by curious wizards.
His beard bristled as he glared around.
"By the beard of the ancestors! I don't know whether the elders have gone senile, sending us here to open a blacksmith shop! Standing here like circus animals for people to stare at! What do these stick-thin wizards even need forged anyway?!"
His voice thundered through the street.
Beside him stood a dwarf woman who lacked a beard but was still short and sturdy.
She tried to calm him down.
"Lower your voice. The elders want us to integrate into wizard society. Opening a shop is only the first step…"
It took Ted a long time to regain his composure.
Later that afternoon, while stocking shelves at the bookshop, he struck up a conversation with one of the clerks.
"Aaron, do you know any books that explain the Celestial Convergence?"
Aaron nodded.
"You got curious because of that new dwarven blacksmith shop too, huh?"
He pointed toward a book.
"Try 'Magical Creatures Discovered in the Last Ten Years – Supplement Edition.' It came out two months ago. Other than that, the only thing that mentions it is the recent chapters in A History of Magic."
He shrugged.
"You've got to remember—we still don't fully understand how many new things appeared in this world after the Convergences. Ten years just isn't enough time. Who knows what strange creatures might still be hiding in some remote mountain valley."
Ted quickly skimmed through the book Aaron recommended.
It recorded creatures ranging from goblins to kobolds.
For now, species like merfolk, goblins, and kobolds were all classified by the Ministry of Magic as magical creatures.
And particularly dangerous ones.
Which made sense.
Communication with them was difficult, and they often showed hostility.
In many fantasy worlds, those races were simply considered monsters.
As for A History of Magic, Ted had never bothered opening that textbook.
Who willingly read that thing?
And yet, it turned out that the past ten years of history contained such a massive surprise.
After finishing his shift that afternoon, Ted returned to the Leaky Cauldron.
Old Tom was still behind the bar, polishing oak tankards.
It seemed like he had been doing the same task forever.
Ted walked over and asked quietly,
"Mr. Tom, I heard there's a new shop in Diagon Alley today—a dwarven blacksmith. I also heard a new term: Celestial Convergence. Could you tell me more about it?"
As the owner of the tavern, Old Tom naturally knew plenty of news.
Ted wanted to confirm whether the information he had heard was accurate.
Perhaps Old Tom knew even more details.
"Ah, the Celestial Convergence," Old Tom said.
"That was a real mess ten years ago. Quite a few careless wizards were even killed by monsters and strange races from other worlds."
Old Tom began telling stories about the otherworld races and creatures that had appeared during the past decade.
The elves, dwarves, and gnomes who came from other worlds were more or less similar to what Ted had imagined.
They had their own civilizations and magical traditions.
Because of that, they integrated relatively well with the wizarding world.
Elves in particular were admired by many wizards.
They were beautiful.
Elegant.
Wealthy.
Powerful in magic.
And long-lived.
Those traits were all major advantages in the eyes of wizard society.
"One of the elder elves," Old Tom said, "was invited to join the Wizengamot in the fifth year after the second Celestial Convergence. The Daily Prophet reported on it for an entire week."
The Wizengamot was the highest authority in the British wizarding world.
It had existed long before the Ministry of Magic itself.
Its members included the Minister for Magic, senior ministry officials, and many famous witches and wizards.
It held enormous influence over the British magical government.
For an elf to be accepted—and even invited to join the Wizengamot—in just five years showed how impressive their abilities must be.
As for beastfolk, they were people with certain animal characteristics.
Things like animal ears or tails.
Compared to brutal races like merfolk, kobolds, and goblins—who were considered humanoid monsters and known to kill and eat people—beastfolk were recognized by the magical world as humanoid races.
In other words, they were treated as people.
However, unlike elves, who enjoyed extraordinary prestige, many pure-blood families disliked beastfolk intensely.
They considered them as lowly as Muggles.
Or worse—half-breeds.
As for monsters from other worlds…
There were far too many to list.
Old Tom joked that he could talk about them for an entire day and night without finishing.
Before Ted left, Old Tom lent him a book.
"Magical Creatures You Should Know."
It had been published just last year.
The book recorded not only common magical beasts and dark creatures, but also many dangerous species that had appeared after the two Celestial Convergences.
"Take your time reading it," Old Tom said.
"No rush to return it."