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Chapter 832: A Distrustful Goblin
🕑 Added 2023-08-01 17:51:12 +0000 UTCIn a warm and peaceful atmosphere, a person and a cat were hugging each other so tightly, keeping this position and no one moved.
More than an hour later, after confirming that Gabrielle was asleep, Evan secretly sent Hermione back. The most nervous time was when he was waiting for Hermione to change clothes and heard her dressing through the bathroom door.
Hearing these sounds, Evan unconsciously recalled the feeling of just hugging Hermione tightly, and there was still some warmth in his hands.
He decided to go back and test the difference between Animagus wearing clothes and undressed Animagus.
After Hermione came out, she probably felt that it was not right to go on like this, so she took most of her clothes back from Evan.
Until they left Egypt, Evan didn't have to expect Hermione to take another bath in his room and ask him for clothes again.
As a return gesture, she surprised Evan by initiating a kiss when they said goodnight. Although it was just a light touch, it was an unprecedented breakthrough. It gave him an urge to let her stay here tonight, whether as a human or a cat...
"Good night!" Hermione kissed Evan, and then pushed him out.
"Good night!" Evan whispered and watched as the door slowly closed in front of him.
What he didn't know was that after closing the door, Hermione turned and stood against the inside of the door for quite some time.
She breathed a sigh of relief, with a sweet smile on her face, though it was unclear what she was smiling about...
As the night grew quiet, the emotions of both of them remained unsettled for a long time.
When Evan returned to his room, he looked helplessly at Gabrielle, who was sleeping soundly, wrapped up in the quilt.
"This girl is really obtuse. She hasn't noticed anything."
Evan climbed onto the bed and pushed the girl to the side.
Gabrielle then wrapped up like an octopus and hugged Evan tightly, as though he were a large doll.
"And I’m supposed to sleep like this!" Evan blinked. Holding this tightly in the middle of summer, didn't this child feel hot?!
Because of all the late-night fuss, the next day everyone's spirits weren't great.
Evan and Hermione kept yawning, apparently because of insomnia, and Gabrielle was also in a bit of lethargy because of the nightmares.
It wasn't until the second half of the night that Bill accompanied Fleur back, and the two had been out for a long time.
Fleur told them that she had gone out with Bill to a party organized by Gringotts Curse-Breakers.
"Then why didn’t you take us with you?" asked Gabrielle.
"Because you’re not members of the Order of the Phoenix. In order to fight against You-Know-Who, we need to contact foreign wizards," said Fleur, caressing Gabrielle's face. "Besides, you're too young for that kind of party."
"Too young … this is really a very convincing reason." Evan muttered.
Only Gabrielle was really young, he and Hermione were no longer young!
Although Evan thought there were many suspicious things, there was no way to refute what Fleur said.
Her reason was very good indeed; contact foreign wizards to fight Voldemort, which was Bill's main mission in Egypt.
After telling Bill about Hermione's reasoning last night, they went to Gringotts to meet the goblin Zoser.
Zoser and his team were still gathering in the side hall they saw yesterday and continued to sort out the antiquities just excavated.
"I have carefully considered it and decided to accept your invitation to join your excavation team," Evan went over and said directly.
"You’ve made a wise choice, Mr. Mason," said Zoser quietly, standing in front of an ancient Egyptian two-wheeled chariot higher than him. He was very close, holding a circular magnifying glass in his right hand, carefully watching the exquisite patterns on it. "We will set off in three days for a month and a half of excavation work. I hope you and your friends can be ready. By the way, I'll have someone inform you about the progress and what needs to be done.”
He stopped and put the magnifying glass in his jacket pocket.
"Rawya, come over here, hurry up," Zoser shouted. "Bring the drawing of Hall One."
The next second, the dark-skinned, energetic girl hurried over, holding a large drawing in her hand.
"Mr. Zoser?" said Rawya, looking at Evan and the others doubtfully.
"This is Evan Mason, a wizard who is proficient in Alchemy. He’s going to join us in this excavation of the ruins of Amun Ra and be responsible for solving the Alchemy-related mechanisms at the main entrance of the hall," said Zoser solemnly. "You hand over your work in hand to others, and you will be responsible for accompanying them for three days before departure and informing them about our current progress."
"All right," Rawya turned around and said cheerfully. "Hello, nice to see you again!"
Evan, Bill, Fleur, Hermione and Gabrielle hurriedly greeted her, and Zoser turned to study the ancient chariot in front of him.
"Mr. Zoser, since I have agreed to join your excavation team, what about my previous application to view the Emerald Tablet?" Evan reminded, frowning at the goblin.
"I believe we'll think about it when the excavation team comes back..."
"Watching the Emerald Tablet as soon as possible is very helpful for me to improve my Alchemy ability, and maybe it will help," said Evan. "You don't want to be in a situation where I can't help you unlock the mechanisms in the ruins because of my incompetence, do you?"
"Of course not, we need more trust and sincerity between us, Mr. Mason. Unlike humans, goblins keep their promises the most. I will take you there, but only you can go," said Zoser impatiently; seemingly very dissatisfied that Evan interrupted his research. "Let's go, the Emerald Tablet is in an underground vault.”
Evan spoke to Hermione and followed the goblin out of the hall through a door at the end.
Similar to the British Gringotts, behind the door was a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor.
"In the letter of recommendation from Nicolas Flamel, he praised your Alchemy talent very much. I hope you won't let me down and can successfully unlock the mechanism in the Ruins of Amun Ra," said Zoser in a dragged voice. "Otherwise, you will regret it..."
He stretched out his slender fingers, and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them.
Evan climbed into the cart and looked at the old goblin.
The threat in his words was very obvious. Since he allowed Evan to view the Emerald Tablet, then Evan must help him unlock the mechanism in the ruins of Amun Ra.
There was a lot of mistrust between the two people. This was just a transaction. Evan hoped there would be no surprises during the excavation process.
