Chapter 13: You Have No Choice .
The magical energy within him surged, like a sudden storm upon a calm sea.
Anton quickly gathered his emotions, ready to unleash his spell. With a pursed lip, he leaped from the oak chair and gazed calmly at the goblin.
The two stared at each other for a moment.
Anton's lips curled slightly, "Greetings from my teacher, Alex Fiennes."
Whether the old wizard and the goblin were enemies or not, the goblin had clearly linked Anton to the old wizard. To say something like, 'I'm not his apprentice' now would only betray his weakness.
In a place like this, weakness would only result in a curse.
Pedro the goblin let out a chuckle, pointing a thick finger at Lupin in the chair beside him. "If I'm not mistaken, this man must have been struck by your teacher's Cruciatus Curse."
Anton watched his movements cautiously, a polite smile on his face, but his eyes were cold. "Perhaps he was attacked by another wizard."
"No, no, no," the goblin shook his finger. "Every living creature has its own scent. As a master of the Cruciatus Curse, Fiennes's spells are slightly different from those of other wizards."
He looked at Anton teasingly. "You brought a wizard attacked by your teacher to me, and you're not a good boy, little one." Anton pursed his lips.
Something stirred in his heart, and a tangled and complex expression flashed in his eyes. He sighed and looked at Lupin. "I can't help it. He's my uncle, he's my uncle!"
Emotions filled his eyes, tears welling in his eyes.
It was the inseparable tangle of family ties and his mentor. It was too difficult for him, a poor child, to be caught in the middle.
This is so hard~~~~
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," the goblin let out a subtle sigh of admiration. "I like your purity. A young wizard, at least, hasn't been completely corrupted by that awful Dark wizard."
The goblin didn't notice that Mr. Rosier, behind him, was observing the two with piercing interest, his eyes shrewd enough to seem to see through everyone's hearts. The elegant middle-aged man secretly made a face at Anton.
Damn!
The sharp contrast instantly reminded Anton of Mr. Bean, and he nearly burst out laughing.
Forcing himself into the emotional atmosphere, Anton tilted his head back to stifle tears, his voice raspy. "Mr. Pedro," he suddenly lowered his head, his expression stern, and he glared at the goblin with a desperate look. "For my uncle, I'll do anything!"
The goblin strolled over to Lupin, fluttered his eyelids, and placed his fingers, a faint blue light, on Lupin's head.
"This isn't good."
The goblin pulled an elegant box from a nearby shelf, pulled out a cigar, shared it with Mr. Rosier, and lit one himself.
The cigar, against his thick fingers, looked like a chopstick.
Thick smoke billowed out, the goblin shoved one hand into his trouser pocket. "This is a very difficult treatment, and you might have to pay a heavy price for it."
He could treat it!
He would!
Anton breathed a sigh of relief, feeling even more relaxed. "How much?"
"Money?" Pedro the goblin laughed as if he had heard something truly amusing, even Rosier laughed.
Anton blinked, puzzled. "What's the problem?"
In his memory, the wizard and school healer at Hogwarts could easily heal any injury, no matter how severe.
This guy was asking for too much!
Anton instantly realized.
He must have overacted, letting the goblin think he had him. He was inexperienced with this kind of deception, so he could only reflect and learn slowly.
The goblin shook his head. "You often see your teacher casually unleash the Cruciatus Curse, so you think this is nothing special?"
Anton nodded in agreement.
Of course, it wasn't primarily because the old wizard could cast spells at will, but rather because of his own experience. He'd endured countless Cruciatus Curses, and the worst had only caused him to faint, recovering as normal.
"The Cruciatus Curse is one of the three Unforgivable Curses. Do you understand?"
The goblin watched Anton nod and sneered, revealing his thick, beige teeth. "No, you don't!"
"There are countless spells more vicious than the Cruciatus Curse, more vicious, more damaging, and more powerful. I've seen countless of them in my hundreds of years."
"But none of those spells are classified as Unforgivable Curses,"
Anton quickly recalled the novels and videos he'd read in his past life. "Is it because there's no counter-curse?"
Snap!
"Correct!" Pedro the goblin snapped his fingers.
"There is no counter-curse, which means that after being attacked by the Unforgivable Curses, there is no way to recover through spells, and there is not even any way to heal."
He exhaled another puff of smoke and talked freely, "The three Unforgivable Curses are simply the most evil spells developed by you human wizards."
"It attacks the soul, there is no way to remedy it." His eyes were full of sneers, "Do you know why human wizards are the masters of this world?"
"Because they invented the Unforgivable Curses and killed all intelligent creatures who refused to surrender."
"The ancient goblins were best at making sophisticated alchemical items. They conquered time and created time converters. They conquered space and created vanishing cabinets. They conquered too many fields."
Pedro shrugged, holding a cigar in his mouth, looking helpless.
"Then humans conquered the goblins with the Unforgivable Curses."
"So now goblins only know how to refine gold coins."
"The most ridiculous thing is this." Pedro sneered, "Human wizards killed all intelligent creatures, and when they found that there were no enemies, they began to kill each other."
"Their magic was therefore interrupted, and later wizards could only pick up wands, items they used to look down upon, and learn castrated and weakened spells."
"The wisdom of the ancient wizards is left with only fragments in books, and too much magic has disappeared in the long river of history."
"Only the Unforgivable Curses used to kill each other have been well preserved."
Pedro sang in an aria, "This is the Unforgivable Curse. It is unforgivable because it cannot be cured."
"You haven't been to St. Mungo's Hospital, it's crowded with patients injured by the Unforgivable Curse, and no one has recovered and been discharged."
Anton understood. The Unforgivable Curse is probably similar to a large-caliber firearm. With one shot, a bowl-sized hole will appear on the body, and no treatment can bring it back.
But he simply watched his performance with a cold eye.
Seeing the goblin finally finish, he silently replied, "But you can heal. Just tell me what you need from me."
He absolutely did not want to fall into the goblin's hands again, as he had with the old wizard.
If the goblin's demands were too much, he would definitely fire a spell and flee.
"Easy." The goblin snapped his fingers again. Suddenly, a metallic clang echoed from the wall. Countless gears and mechanical mechanisms shifted rapidly, and finally, a bottle the size of a human pinky flew out.
"Drop your teacher's food into it." He held the glass bottle between his fingers. The liquid inside looked like plain water, unsurprisingly.
Anton flatly refused. "No! How could I betray my teacher!"
The goblin chuckled. "You can only choose between the teacher and my uncle. Believe me, there's no one else in this world who can heal him except me."
Anton fell silent, his mind finally fully retrieving the information. Neville's parents, driven mad by the Cruciatus Curse, were members of the Order of the Phoenix. If the Hogwarts school doctor truly could heal him, why wouldn't he do it?
So he hesitated, looking at the goblin with red eyes, gritting his teeth, "This is my beloved teacher!"
The goblin laughed and said, "You have no choice."