At this moment, Noah, hidden among the crowd, saw Lys's condition and couldn't care about anything else. Clutching Crunch, he stumbled forward quickly and pulled Lys into his arms.
He had seen Senna check on Lys's recovery before, but he'd never seen his little star in such a state.
He embraced his daughter—who was actually slightly taller than himself—and brought Lys down with him as they bowed to the Dark Lord, whose expression was unreadable.
His arm clamped down hard on Lys's hand as she tried to raise her wand, earning a discontented grunt from her.
As the Dark Lord leaned back, a high-backed chair of black velvet appeared on the platform. With a flick of his wand tip, the courtyard damaged during Bellatrix and Lys's battle was instantly restored to its original state.
Actually, the Dark Lord had been there for quite some time, but the scene and conversation were so interesting that he'd watched from above the manor for a while longer.
It wasn't until he saw that curse which had once wounded Walburga taking shape in Lys's hands that he intervened to stop it.
Waving for Bella to stand behind him again, the Dark Lord then turned his gaze to Lys, whose condition was clearly wrong. What a pity—such a talented young person... her mind seemed broken...
The young one was right: fear would drive them to submit to him. Compared to that old fox who judged others with arrogance and prejudice, his own team was indeed more loyal.
Thinking this, the Dark Lord—whose mood had been sour due to those incompetent wastes—actually showed a rare satisfied smile.
"Bella, tell me, why do you suspect her of betraying me?" The Dark Lord propped his elbow on the chair and spoke deliberately.
There was no rush for action. He needed to first resolve the dissatisfaction stirred up by words. The temptations dangling before those people couldn't be too many or too few.
Too many bred greed, too few bred discontent. Fear was the same—too little produced fools, too much also produced fools.
Having a timely catalyst to discipline them wasn't bad either.
Noah knelt at the front of the crowd holding Lys, his mind surprisingly calm. During his Slytherin years, what he was best at was reading situations. He might be rusty after all these years, but whenever he had nothing to do at night, he would take out those bitter memories to chew over, so the rustiness was limited.
He quickly extracted information from Bellatrix's words, judged the Dark Lord's hidden protection of this woman, and began calculating in his mind.
After the Dark Lord finished listening to the whole matter, Noah looked up and tentatively said, "This lady's speculation is very reasonable."
Facing the Dark Lord's gradually raised eyebrow, Noah continued, "The timing of that previous incident was simply too coincidental. To serve you, one must naturally show the most serious attitude, so maintaining vigilance is proper. This is precisely a manifestation of this lady's great loyalty. But now that the situation is complex, I believe that having more concrete evidence for those who serve you would also be a manifestation of respect."
Even though Noah didn't know what his little star had done, he knew that in this situation, what this Dark Lord was probably considering might not be what his little star had done.
But rather the fluctuating hearts of those below.
The people below still maintained their bows, but at this moment, as Noah had thought, came the soft sounds of clothing rustling.
Lucius at the Dark Lord's side couldn't help but look at Noah with new respect before lowering his eyes again.
The Dark Lord looked at Bellatrix, whose face was flushed and pale—none of the three things she'd just mentioned had any evidence.
Those were just her deductions.
First: The Bones family operation was her responsibility. When the brats escaped, she was the primary responsible party. When Barty Crouch Jr. brought news that the brats might have been released by Stalys, he also said it was just speculation.
Second: Fenwick and those Order of the Phoenix members who had brought many obstacles to her and the Death Eaters' operations, escaping from this wretch's hands multiple times—also no solid evidence.
Third: Dumbledore... After that Black Bar incident, the Dark Lord's cooperation with Germany began stalling. After St. Mungo's, the Dark Lord's actions were obstructed, the Daily Prophet widely spread the Dark Lord's defeats—she suspected someone had passed information out.
And the only ones who fit the criteria were this person and Lucius!
Lucius's heart tightened. Just as he was about to step forward to say something, he heard the Dark Lord laugh, the laughter containing dissatisfaction. He hesitated and didn't dare move.
Signaling for everyone to rise, the Dark Lord addressed the fluctuating hearts below: "Of course... I will face every contribution you make directly, and I will also examine every mistake you make."
"I will get to the bottom of this matter. Now let's settle some things with concrete evidence..." He brought up the people and families Bellatrix had dealt with before, dropping Lys's topic.
Lucius gestured to Noah, who wisely dragged Lys aside.
Standing at the edge of the crowd, Noah heartbrokenly covered Lys's side wound while constantly muttering "what to do, what to do."
Crunch also climbed onto Lys's shoulder and raised its head—it seemed to have a deep impression of the Dark Lord.
From Bellatrix's words, Noah understood that his wife Senna was temporarily safe, but in the current situation, if little star really had done what she was accused of...
If Senna's words revealed any clues that could be used against them...
Just as he was worrying with his head down, Lys suddenly grabbed his hair and stood up.
"Dad, I don't want the surname Black anymore! Those idiot nobles all bully me because they know I'm a Black! I want to take Mum's surname La... ah! Waaaah..."
The scene instantly became so quiet that even passing ants would tiptoe, afraid to make the slightest sound that might attract killing intent.
Noah hurried to cover Lys's mouth, but it was too late. The Dark Lord, whose speech had been interrupted, had already glanced over, but what arrived first was a curse—
—"Langlock"
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
The story isn't over...
🤔 Want to know what happens next to the characters?
🤫 Eager to explore the untold secrets of this world?
✍️ Ready to read more of my wildest stories?
✨patreon.com/DarkGolds