Karmit rolled out of bed, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and pulled a book from the shelf.
[The Standard Book of Dark Magic]
He drank his milk while flipping through the pages.
Ever since he transmigrated, he discovered that his memory and learning abilities were absurdly strong.
When it came to spells, reading them once was enough for him to grasp the basics. A few tries, and he mastered them completely.
This, he figured, must be his cheat ability.
Yes—Karmit was a transmigrator, and a reincarnated one at that.
He was born into a body that never existed in the original story. The sole sixth-generation descendant of the Black Family.
His father was Regulus Black—
the sixteen-year-old who joined the Death Eaters thinking Voldemort was another Grindelwald-like figure worth following…
Only to realize too late that Voldemort was nothing but a psychotic terrorist.
When Voldemort harmed the Black Family's house-elf, Kreacher, that became the final straw for Regulus.
At eighteen, he stole one of Voldemort's Horcruxes—the Slytherin locket—and died in the cave, dragged under by Inferi.
But what no one knew was that before searching for the Horcrux, Regulus secretly met his girlfriend from Hogwarts.
They spent one last night together.
And that night resulted in Karmit.
Unfortunately, Regulus never knew.
If he had… perhaps he wouldn't have rushed toward death.
After Regulus died, Kreacher obeyed his master's final instructions and delivered a few heirlooms to the woman he loved.
It was only then Kreacher learned—his young master had left behind a child.
Tragically, when Karmit was born, his mother died from complications during childbirth. Just before passing, she saw a comet streak across the night sky.
Following Black Family naming traditions, she named the baby accordingly—Karmit—and then breathed her last.
Kreacher brought the infant to the Black Family estate.
Had this been the Black Family of earlier years, Karmit would have been born into pure privilege.
But he arrived at the worst possible time.
With Sirius and Bellatrix imprisoned in Azkaban, the Ministry and several pure-blood scavengers carved up the Black Family's fortune.
If his aunt Narcissa hadn't later reclaimed a portion of the inheritance, Karmit might have starved to death as a toddler.
Ridiculous— the sixth-generation heir of the richest family in wizarding Britain nearly dying of hunger.
When Karmit was six, using memories from his previous life and a single hundred Galleons, he opened his first shop in Diagon Alley.
The Black Coffee House— where he adopted the "fill the cup with ice, let the coffee sit between the cracks" philosophy.
It earned him his first pot of gold.
In the following years, he opened the Black Dessert Shop, the Black Clothing Shop, and the Black Bookstore, carving out pieces of profit from businesses traditionally monopolized by others.
His commercial territory gradually expanded.
Naturally, a declining Black Family suddenly regaining wealth drew envious eyes.
Among pure-blood families, the web of relationships was complicated—they wouldn't openly make a move.
But wandering wizards didn't care.
A wealthy family without a powerful guardian? That was a feast waiting to be carved apart.
Many wanted the Black Family fortune.
What they didn't realize was that as Karmit grew, so did his terrifying talent.
His photographic memory and monstrous learning speed allowed him to master the Killing Curse first— and after only two attempts, he could cast it.
Within a single year, he developed enough combat strength to act.
He hunted down the wandering wizards himself.
That day, Knockturn Alley saw a massacre. Many died. Many more surrendered.
Bilair Nelson and Belinda Edwards—his two most capable subordinates—were among those he subdued.
With his power accumulating, last month Karmit finally decided to enter a business fit for wizards.
He first considered potions.
But despite his talent, he lacked reputation—selling self-brewed potions would take too much time and bring too few customers.
After thinking it over, he shifted his focus to magical creature materials.
Two reasons guided this choice:
First, the business was incredibly profitable. Second, he would soon attend Hogwarts.
And Hogwarts had the Forbidden Forest— one of the largest magical-beast resource pools in the wizarding world.
But this choice inevitably crossed into someone else's territory. For example, the Yaxley Family, who owned Diagon Alley's largest magical creature materials shop.
Other pure-blood families ran similar businesses, but they had enough power to defend their turf.
Yaxley didn't.
So why should the Black Family be allowed to take a slice? They couldn't attack openly—it would damage their pride.
So they chose underhanded methods.
If Karmit hadn't discovered the scheme in time, the materials Belinda's group had risked their lives to seize from Yaxley's supply team would have been reduced to ashes.
Pure-blood families really couldn't handle losing, it seemed.
Karmit shook his head.
He changed out of his pajamas and put on a black suit, then left the room.
The moment he reached the staircase, a sharp, hysterical voice shrieked through the hallway:
"Filthy creature! What is wrong with your useless brain? Oh—my mistake. House-elves don't have brains!
Look at this mess, you disgusting little half-breed!
I told you—white shoes for little Karmit! White! Do you not know colors? You stupid, wretched thing!"
Karmit felt a headache coming on.
That voice… he knew too well. He heard it every morning.
The source was the only portrait in the Black household that still moved:
Walburga Black.
Fourth-generation member of the Black Family. Regulus's mother and his grandmother.
A mean, foul-mouthed old woman whose nagging could beat even Peeves.
She used to scream at Karmit too—
until the day he held Fiendfyre in his hand and nearly burned her portrait.
She'd been much quieter after that.