"What kind of person is that! After being rescued, he doesn't even say thank you, just leaves when he wants to, and tells us to beware of the leader!"
"How could the leader harm us! If not for the leader, many members would have died at the stake long ago!"
"How could a cypress wand choose such a person!"
Della stood with her hands on her hips, looking thoroughly indignant at the spot where the old man had vanished.
But Evans was analyzing the words old Bellance had spoken before departing.
That old man's warning was definitely not groundless, and Evans had sensed something was wrong with the Blasphemous Sword's leader from the beginning.
He simply hadn't found any substantial evidence. The unicorn's talent could only confirm that Lavok had killed many people but couldn't determine the identity of those victims.
The Blasphemous Sword was, after all, a resistance organization whose main activity was attacking church personnel. It was reasonable for their leader to have more blood on his hands.
Without concrete evidence, Evans couldn't explain to Miss Ollivander what exactly was wrong with their leader.
Although he got along fairly well with this girl, it obviously wasn't to the extent where she would question her leader based on his word alone.
However, the three rescued witches looked somewhat uncomfortable after hearing Della's words. Though they said nothing, Evans knew they had taken the old man's warning to heart.
After all, if not for Evans's intervention, they would probably have died alongside that old man in tonight's so-called trial.
Those who are abandoned always harbor some resentment in their hearts.
Not dwelling further on the leader, Evans looked at Della.
"Do you know the Bellance family?"
"Bellance?"
Hearing this, Della's expression froze, as if searching for this surname in her memory.
Soon, her face twisted with disgust, as if she had tasted something revolting.
"Those people! They're traitors among wizards!"
"Being wizards themselves, yet always standing on the Muggles' side, helping them resist us!"
"Several of our operations have been ruined by them!"
Listening to the girl's continuous complaints, Evans gained insight into the Bellance family's reputation in this era.
It was even worse than described in magical history, probably because these wizards had personally experienced Muggle persecution and were deeply contemptuous of what they saw as the Bellance family's betrayal.
Shaking his head, Evans waited for the girl's tirade to end before suggesting they part ways.
The three witches who had just been rescued weren't in good condition, and his act of destroying the church's forbidden zone would probably provoke every judgment knight in the city. It wasn't safe for them to linger here.
Moreover, Evans was curious to try what the cuisine of this era's Rome was like.
It should be decent, right? At least better than British food?
Under the setting sun, beside an ordinary Muggle square, Evans found himself in an unexpected situation.
After parting with Della and the others, Evans, who had planned to sample some exotic dinner, had now been following someone for over an hour.
Of course, he wasn't stalking some beautiful woman, but rather an extremely gaunt old man.
His original purpose in coming here had genuinely been to eat, but he'd unexpectedly encountered this old man again.
This was what they called fate, wasn't it?
Although he didn't know when "survive until the end" would be fulfilled, Evans had now completed the jailbreak portion of his mission. As for the goal of changing fate, he still had no clear direction.
Since that was the case, observing this old man wasn't a waste of time.
Having found a convenient excuse for his procrastination, Evans propped his chin and continued watching the old man stroll along the street.
In this past hour, he had witnessed the old man help a desperate vagrant, providing him with food, water, and clean clothes.
But that Muggle, merely glimpsing his wand, had fled in terror and even attracted an entire team of penance knights, forcing them to waste considerable effort escaping.
He watched the old man return a lost child to his home, but the child's mother saw him off with suspicious eyes, saying nothing.
Later, she even went to the authorities, swearing that it was that old man who had kidnapped her child.
He watched the old man pour a healing potion into the mouth of a critically ill young man, but the patient's wife was filled with hatred, repeatedly claiming his potion was poisoning her husband.
She had no idea that the Galleons used to brew that potion, if converted to Muggle currency, would be enough to buy both her and her husband's lives in this era.
Until...
He watched the old man slowly turn around, look directly at him, some helplessness appearing in those eyes filled with deep sorrow, and speak softly.
"You seem quite idle?"
"Ah? Oh."
Snapping out of his observations, Evans displayed his most innocent smile, as if he was doing something perfectly normal.
Seeing Evans's expression, the old man sighed slightly and prepared to turn back to continue his charitable acts.
But the young man's next words stopped him in his tracks.
"Will you continue? Even when those people treat you like that?"
Just from watching for this hour, Evans felt the person before him already possessed a touch of genuine saintliness.
If it were him, after helping others and receiving such responses, even if he didn't turn hostile immediately, he would secretly teach those people a lesson.
But the old man before him seemed to have no emotional fluctuations. Although his eyes were filled with sorrow, he calmly faced all malice and continued performing similar acts of kindness.
And his luck was remarkably poor. The low-probability event of receiving hatred for helping others had happened to him three times in a row.
There couldn't really be such a curse, could there? Evans had never heard of one.
Seeing that the old man didn't respond, merely shook his head, and moved to help a boy with a disabled left leg, Evans's eyes flickered before he followed once more.
This time, he witnessed a better outcome.
Amid the boy's quiet gratitude and heartfelt promises, the old man turned back to look at Evans. His eyes were still filled with sorrow, but his wrinkled face showed a very gentle smile.
As if to say, this was the meaning behind doing these things.
By evening, the sun had set, leaving only a faint afterglow to keep the city from falling into complete darkness.
Looking at the sky, then at the now-empty roads, Evans crossed his arms and watched the old man approach him.
"At this time, there shouldn't be anyone needing help, right?"
"No." The old man shook his head. "In this world, every moment there are people who need help."
"However..." Seeing the young man's incredulous expression, the old man's face showed a trace of barely perceptible amusement. "I am also human. I also have my own life. I cannot help others from dawn to dusk."
"I thought you were just an emotionless rescue machine."
The emotions he had inadvertently experienced when touching the old man earlier were still buried in his heart. He wanted to ask about them but didn't know how to begin, so he could only look directly into those eyes full of pain and sorrow.
Those eyes seemed to always carry sadness, yet never showed despair.
The old man seemed to sense the question Evans wanted to ask, but he didn't respond directly. Instead, he smiled slightly and extended an invitation.
"You've followed me for so long, you must be hungry, right?"
"Would you like to come to my house for a meal?"
Evans raised an eyebrow. "Is this also part of helping others?"
"No," the old man shook his head. "Just a simple meal."
After hesitating for a moment, Evans drew his wand and offered the handle to the old man, making the preparatory gesture for Side-Along Apparition.
"Then I'll respectfully accept your kind offer."
[Chapter Complete]
***
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