She Said I Was Charming

"I found traces of Nagini in time. I tried every possible way to guide her back to my side, but I couldn't. Time kept correcting everything." Rosier's voice was filled with bitterness. "I kept trying to change things, but all I could do was make her suffer more and more."

"So I went back to an even earlier time, to when I took Nagini to find Pedro, and tried to make changes there."

"After repeated attempts, I discovered that I had succeeded!"

Rosier smiled happily. This once-handsome old man, his face covered in weariness and the marks of time, smiled like a child.

"It was incredible. I changed countless things, and in the end, they were all corrected. But after Fiennes obtained a scroll of magical books I had left behind, things quietly began to change."

"???" Everyone turned to look at the Old Wizard.

The Old Wizard secretly glanced at Anton. That book had been full of bizarre miscellany and disreputable secret arts, including an ancient witchcraft for summoning demons.

Back then, he had merely tossed the corpse of that little apprentice onto the Altar for an experiment, simply as a pastime.

"I don't know. I don't remember. It was too long ago—I don't even know whether I ever read it." The Old Wizard denied it smoothly.

Rosier merely smiled without saying anything. He clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention.

"There was a slight change in time. In my castle, I saw traces that it had been used."

"So I kept returning to this point in time, and finally, I found all of you."

"I don't know whether you can succeed, but I have enough patience to wait thirty-eight years and see whether a miracle happens."

"Of course, I couldn't place all my hopes on others. I began returning to even earlier times. Since Pedro could invent the Blood Curse, the great figures of that era surely had a way to lift it."

"The rules of time... I was still powerless against them."

Rosier sighed and stroked Anna's head. "Child, believe me. Time travel can only bring despair in the end. Don't touch it again in the future. It will only make you miss out on your real life."

Anna gripped Rosier's hand tightly. "Mm. As long as Father and Mother are by my side, Anna won't go anywhere."

Rosier's face was full of tenderness. "Running around through time so freely has left my appearance frozen in middle age, but my body is already very old. I'll cherish every minute I have with Anna."

Anna's eyes widened, and she gripped him even tighter.

No matter what, this was a good ending.

Before Pedro the Goblin could reach out, Anton snatched the necklace first and put it around his neck.

"That's mine." Pedro glared.

Anton leisurely adjusted the necklace and tucked it into his shirt, then chuckled. "You still need me to use it to help you recover your memories."

He stood up wearily and stretched. "I need to go back to sleep. You can talk among yourselves. We'll begin once we've rested up."

The consequence of overusing spells was endless fatigue. The moment he rolled onto the bed, he fell into a deep sleep.

Anna pulled Rosier toward Nagini's room.

Pedro sat in the hall in a daze. "That's insane. Going into time more than ten thousand times... no wonder something went seriously wrong with me."

The Old Wizard cackled. "You brought it on yourself. If you hadn't invented the Blood Curse, none of this would have happened."

"Yeah." Pedro sighed. "Sometimes, I really want to travel back in time and slap myself hard across the face."

The Old Wizard laughed even more happily.

After tidying himself up, Lupin prepared to go to work after hearing so many fascinating stories.

That was just how he was. He could stand amid a lively crowd, yet everyone would unconsciously overlook him.

But just as Anton had said, he had to find his own way to survive.

A life that belonged to him alone.

In his life, he was the protagonist.

He came out from the residential stairwell of the Little Building, went around to the front, then climbed the stairs from the first-floor lobby to the second floor.

Everyone greeted him, and he responded with a smile.

"Manager, Andor Machinery Company is planning to default on the payment. Mrs. Andor said our company only provided one sentence, yet they have to pay an astronomical price. She says it isn't reasonable." A young secretary hurried over with a notebook, looking anxious.

Lupin smiled and nodded to someone else who greeted him before speaking to the secretary. "Tell them that they can't be short even a penny on the information service fee. If they don't intend to pay, we'll provide some interesting information to their competitors."

"It's a small matter. Don't be nervous."

The secretary nodded.

As they spoke back and forth, they arrived at the office door, and the secretary's notebook was already filled with notes.

"Anything else?" Lupin appeared calm and composed.

"No, Manager." The secretary looked at the notebook in amazement. "You're incredible. You solved so many difficult problems so easily."

"No."

Lupin waved his hand bashfully.

"I couldn't do it at first either. But if you're patient and attentive, you'll find a solution. These problems once kept me awake all night, agonizing over them."

"If there's nothing else, hurry up and get to it."

The secretary nodded and helped push open the door. "Have a pleasant morning, sir."

Lupin smiled and nodded.

However, this was destined to be an extraordinary day.

As the noise outside the office grew louder and louder, Miss Ilsa rushed in.

"Lupin, have you heard?"

Lupin looked at her in confusion.

"The United States headquarters is shutting down the British company!" Ilsa was clearly frantic.

"What kind of rumor is this?" Lupin laughed. They were in the information business, and employees always had channels to hear things ordinary people did not know, but such information was sometimes difficult to distinguish between true and false.

"It's true. I had colleagues in France confirm it."

Lupin frowned, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the desk. "There's no reason for this. Our British branch's business volume has been increasing by the day, and the money we send to headquarters every month is an enormous sum."

As he grew more adept at controlling everything, business had been improving day by day. They had even begun looking forward to the glory ahead, and now they were talking about shutting them down? Had the people at the United States headquarters gotten their brains bitten off by a Werewolf?

"I'll personally call Mr. Smith at the United States headquarters. We have some rapport; he'll tell me the truth."

"Go notify everyone outside. We'll hold a meeting shortly."

"No matter what, we need to stabilize everyone first."

"Okay." Ilsa hurried out, but suddenly stopped at the doorway and turned back to smile at Lupin.

"Is there anything else?"

Her golden wavy hair swayed, and her blue-green eyes seemed to smile. "You're so charming when you're calm and collected."

Her long eyelashes fluttered as she gave him a flirtatious wink, then she turned and walked out.

Lupin was left alone in his office chair, grinning foolishly. "She said I was charming. Hehe, she said I was charming!"

"What?"

Lupin looked somewhat dejected. "Anton, you heard correctly. The American company is shutting down our company."

"That's really something." Anton cut up a sausage, speared a piece, and chewed it vigorously.

Lupin's expression was strange, as though he did not quite believe what he was saying. "Several young masters in the family are fighting over the inheritance. For a bunch of messy reasons, the young master in charge of the information consulting business decided to admit defeat and cut off an arm to save himself. He plans to sell every company in his hands to show that he only wants to live a life of indulgence and stay far away from the center of power."

"That's absurd." Anton clicked his tongue and continued dealing with his lunch.

Lupin sighed. "Other companies would be easier to handle, but there isn't a buyer for an information company anywhere in London. Everyone is lost right now. So am I. We're the only information consulting company in all of London, so we can't find suitable work in the same field."

"Lupin!"

Anton put down his knife and fork, picked up a napkin, and wiped his mouth. "Have you considered that you have some money on hand now?"

Lupin nodded.

"Buy this company and become your own boss."

Lupin was stunned. "I... I can do that?"

"Have some confidence. You absolutely can." Anton rubbed his temples wearily. "It's your life, so you decide it yourself. It's only a suggestion. I need to go back to sleep. I really want to know what potion Snape gave me back then that let me cast spells beyond my limits and still feel perfectly fine the next day."