Harley stood there dumbfounded, but Shiller seemed to suddenly remember something and said, "Oh, you're an American, right? America has its own native magic school, what's it called? ... Ilvermorny? I think it's in Massachusetts, they should take native American children..."
Slowly, light began to shine once again in Harley's eyes, but then Shiller continued, "Although they don't use owls for delivering messages, the age of admission and other aspects of the magic school are the same. Little wizards must get educated at the proper age to better control their power, and if you miss this age, I'm afraid there won't be another opportunity to enroll."
Harley's eyes gradually turned red, she stared at Shiller in disbelief and said, "Impossible! How could this be?!!"
Shiller looked into her eyes indifferently, "Not everyone is so lucky to have magic talent, those without talent will never come into this circle, and naturally will have no destiny with a magic school."
"Impossible." Harley shrieked, she took two steps backward and stared intensely at Shiller's face, "What are you talking about?!! I can't be talentless!!! And how could I be unlucky?!!!!!!"
She waved her arms in front of Shiller, "Did you see it?! All these houses, I gained them through my talent and luck!!!!!!"
"My talent helped me protect my inheritance, and my luck helped it increase in value dozens of times over, I'm the luckiest and most talented person in the world, how could I not have magic talent!!!"
"I'm sorry, as I've said, Miss, this is innate," Shiller looked at Harley and sneered. "Even if you possess all the luck and talent in the world, you'll forever be missing a piece, something that can't be compensated."
Harley screamed a piercing scream, started to babble and tried to run outside the house, but Shiller grabbed her.
Shiller squatted down again and held Harley in his arms like a father hugging his daughter, he patted her back, soothing her, "All right, Miss Harley, it was just a terrible joke, I lied to you, hope you don't mind."
Shiller kept repeating this phrase, apologizing to Harley, admitting his mistake, saying that he shouldn't have made such a terrible joke.
Harley, whose face was covered in tears, stared at Shiller and spoke, "I knew it. I knew you were lying to me. How could I lack magical talent?"
Shiller wiped the tears off her face, expressing surprise, "What did you say? Magic Talent? ... Oh, sorry if you misunderstood. When I said I lied, I meant, there are no such things as magic schools in this world. Everything I just said, I made it up."
Harley's face fell again, she covered her ears tightly with her hands, shook her head, took two steps back, and screamed, "You demon! Get away! Don't try to deceive me anymore!!!"
"Everything I said is true, if you don't believe me, you can ask the young Miss Magician ... There's no Hogwarts or Ilvermorny in this world, no owls, no magic wands, and this dilapidated bookstore, which has been leveled to the ground, is the last remaining Lihen bookstore."
"No!!!!" Harley shouted in a broken voice, babbling in despair, "How could this be?!! I was supposed to be able to escape this mediocre life!!!!!!"
Harley crazily ran out of the bookstore, grabbed the arm of Zatanna, the female mage who was investigating the bookstore attack. Zatanna turned her head and saw Harley, who looked like a crying kitten."
Zatanna liked children. So she squatted down to help Harley wipe her tears and asked, "What's wrong? Did Shiller berate you?"
Zatanna glanced at the scene inside the bookstore and shook her head helplessly, "Don't mind him. Speaking of which, what's your relationship with him? Are you his daughter?"
Harley paid no attention to her question, instead she stared at Zatanna and asked, "What's the magic realm like? Is there a magic school that selects the luckiest and most talented children and teaches them magic?"
Zatanna was taken aback by Harley's question, she made a surprised face, then asked, "Who told you about that?"
"The magic realm is not a good place." Zatanna arrived at a conclusion everyone knew, "All mages are cursed. We pay a painful price when we use magic power. Nobody can get away with owing a debt."
Harley anxiously asked, "Then how did you … how did you learn to use magic?"
"Magic doesn't require learning," Zatanna answered truthfully despite not quite understanding what Harley was asking. "You might just be walking down the street, annoyed a back spirit, and made a deal with it. Then you could use magic. Of course, you have to pay up on time."
Harley was stunned once again, she took two steps back in disbelief and spoke quickly, "How could that be? Can ordinary people also use magic at will? Don't you need to learn how to use spells?!"
Zatanna gently shook her head, "Ordinary people can use magic, but they might break their soul after paying the price once, while so-called mages are just people with more resilient souls."