Before coming here, he had hardly given any thought to his parents.
Firstly, it was because the time he spent after transmigrating was too short to build deep emotional ties before he "transmigrated" again; secondly, that pair of parents always gave him an indescribable sense of oddity.
When he first met Shane, he gave his mother's surname, "Green." This was actually because he had no idea what his own, or rather, his mysterious old man's, last name actually was.
At that time, he had just transmigrated and was recovering from a serious illness, his mobility as weak as a newborn baby's. In his memory, his parents only ever called him "Louis."
Others were even more tight-lipped about his father, never even mentioning a name, only referring to him respectfully as "Sir." If it weren't for the fact that his old man was very handsome and actually had a nose, he would have almost mistaken himself for a descendant of Lord Voldemort!
His deepest impression of that cheap old man was the man's unfathomable level of magic, often casually performing strange spells that he had never even heard of.
And his mother, although she always claimed her surname was "Green" to outsiders, Louis had once caught a glimpse of the full signature in cursive at the corner of an old parchment document at home—"Greengrass."
He had seen this surname in the History of Magic; it was one of the ancient "Sacred Twenty-Eight" families in the British wizarding world.
"So... who exactly left this trunk behind?"
Louis's fingers brushed across the trunk. Judging by the preciousness of the materials, it looked like the work of the Greengrass family; yet that silver magical fluctuation capable of cross-world communication felt exactly like his mysterious father's style.
"To the stray bloodline..."
Louis's gaze grew profound.
Whether it referred to a pure-blood descendant cast adrift or a son missing across worlds, the word "stray" truly felt as if it were tailor-made for him.
But this only explained the "qualification," not the "timing."
Why last night? Why did the trunk suddenly open only after he had been transmigrated for so long?
He carefully recalled every detail of what happened last night.
The battle, the judgment, the execution, the heavy rain... and finally, as he left, that roar filled with malice and resentment that rang in his ears—
"Why...?"
It was after that auditory hallucination appeared that he suddenly noticed the issue with the trunk and subsequently discovered its secret.
"Is it because of... death?"
Louis made a bold conjecture.
That voice was very likely a powerful emotional fluctuation erupted before death by either The Shepherd or some member of The Believers who died in the factory.
That soul resonance, containing despair, pain, and resentment, penetrated the curtain of rain and was perceived by him, a "Wizard," thereby becoming the "key" to activate the trunk?
If his conjecture was true, the activation conditions for this trunk were a bit too troublesome.
Did he need to witness, or even manufacture, a tragic death every time he wanted to contact Hogwarts or open a portal?
"Tsk, I hope it's not what I think it is."
Louis rubbed the space between his eyebrows, temporarily suppressing this somewhat dark suspicion in his heart.
Regardless of the truth, the current sample size was too small to draw a conclusion.
In any case, being in an apocalypse, the one thing not in short supply was death. Once he encountered a suitable subject, he would have to experiment as soon as possible to figure out the specific mechanism.
After all, there was currently only a useless Lockhart novel in that trunk.
If he wanted to truly exploit this cross-world channel to get some life-saving gear for himself, he had to learn how to actively "knock on the door."
Just as Louis was immersed in a brainstorm regarding magical principles, a wave of drowsiness hit him again.
No matter the principle, he had already reached his limit.
Louis's head tilted as he leaned against the back of the sofa. Amidst the low-voiced conversations and worries about the future from the others, he fell completely into a deep sleep... Some time passed, and the night grew deep.
Dr. Jenner was sitting alone on the porch steps, holding a half-finished bottle of liquor, staring blankly at the pitch-black night sky.
"Not asleep yet?" Rick walked over and sat down beside him.
"Can't sleep." Dr. Jenner gave a bitter smile. "I've probably stayed underground for too long. Suddenly seeing so many stars, I'm a bit unaccustomed to it."
The two were silent for a while. Rick pulled a pack of cigarettes seized from the factory out of his pocket, handed one to the doctor, and lit one for himself.
Amidst the swirling smoke, Rick suddenly spoke, his voice low and serious.
"Doctor, before leaving the CDC... you called Louis aside. What did you say to him?"
Dr. Jenner's hand holding the cigarette paused slightly. He turned his head, his gaze somewhat evasive as he looked at Rick: "Nothing, just... told him to stay safe."
"Don't lie to me, Doctor."
Rick looked him straight in the eye, his sharp intuition as a police officer fully on display at this moment. "I felt something was off back at the factory."
He took a deep drag of the cigarette and slowly exhaled: "At that time, Louis very solemnly instructed me that when exchanging fire with the enemy, regardless of whether they had been bitten by a Walker or not, as long as they were dead, I had to destroy their brains."
"I did as he said." Rick's voice became somewhat dry. "And then I found out he was right."
"In the factory, I saw with my own eyes several members of The Believers who had clearly only died from gunshot wounds—who had absolutely never been touched by a Walker—get back up... not long after they fell."
Rick threw away the cigarette butt, crushed it with his foot, and locked his gaze firmly onto Dr. Jenner:
"Tell me the truth, Doctor."
"Is it... that we were actually all infected long ago by something in the air, or somewhere else?"
Dr. Jenner remained silent for a long time.
In this prolonged silence, only the sound of distant insects could be heard.
Finally, he let out a long sigh, as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted.
"Yes, everyone is infected."
He no longer hid it and admitted frankly: "That was the final conclusion of the CDC. Regardless of the cause of death, once death arrives, the virus takes over the brain."
"We... are already The Walking Dead."
Although he had already suspected it in his heart, when this cruel truth was actually spoken by an authority figure, Rick still felt a wave of dizziness.
A deep sense of powerlessness swept over his entire body. So, no matter how they struggled, was the final outcome already predestined?
But immediately following, this powerlessness transformed into uncontrollable anger.
He abruptly stood up, grabbed Dr. Jenner's collar, and growled in a low voice:
"If this is true... then why did you tell this to a child?!"
Rick recalled Louis's pale face and his desperate actions to save people over the past few days.
"He's only eleven years old! Do you know what this means to him?!"
"You told a truth so heavy that even adults can't bear it to a child?" He looked like he really wanted to punch the man, but his reason pulled at him, making him want to hear the doctor's reason first.
Facing Rick's accusation, Dr. Jenner did not resist or defend himself.
He simply let Rick hold him, a hint of pity and complexity showing in his eyes.
"Answer me! Dr. Jenner!"
"Because I am different."
Rick and Dr. Jenner were both startled and whipped their heads around.
They saw Louis standing behind them at some unknown point, still draped in that somewhat oversized coat. His face was still pale, but his eyes were very bright.
"Louis?" Rick was stunned and subconsciously let go of Dr. Jenner's collar. "You're awake? You just said..."
"The doctor told me this not to make me despair, Officer Rick."
Dr. Jenner opened his mouth as if to stop him, but seeing Louis's determined gaze, he ultimately chose to remain silent.
Louis looked at Rick, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly into a smile.
"The reason he only told me... is because, in this infected world."
"I am the only one who is not infected."