I'm not sure if this elegant Mr. Grindelwald is just that powerful.
In short, the goblins' attitude was extremely respectful and efficient. Before long, bags of Galleons were being laboriously dragged from the vault to the lobby by a group of goblins.
They piled up into a small mountain.
The surrounding wizards, also there on business, glanced over frequently.
"You'd better be careful, beautiful girl." From the man's tone, one could tell he was indeed of a certain age, his vocal cords bearing the marks of time, yet his mischievous but elegant posture made one forget such things. "These things will attract... bad guys?"
The man made a joke, and as his playful eyebrows twitched, he radiated a natural leadership quality—his charisma was terrifyingly strong.
"It's fine, I'm best at dealing with—" Mori Tsukisa looked at the pitiful Imhotep, then back at Grindelwald. "Sorry, sir, what did you just say?"
"I said, these things will attract—"
"No, no, I mean, 'You'd better be careful,' and after that was...?" Mori Tsukisa put her hands behind her back and tilted her head up, staring at the man's chin.
"You'd better be careful, beautiful..." Grindelwald smiled. "Yes, beautiful girl. If you're happy to hear it, I'm more than happy to say it. After all, who would deny a fact as true as the truth itself?"
"You are absolutely a beautiful and elegant girl."
Mori Tsukisa was overjoyed.
Arrietty felt nothing at all, though she agreed with Grindelwald's words—but the Little Sprite also knew that there was a fundamental difference between a beauty and a crazy beauty. Mori Tsukisa belonged to the type that should only be viewed from a distance.
Get too close... and you'd easily be toyed with by her.
Sigh.
Of course, this man who seemed to possess an incredibly rich noble temperament laughed quite happily at Mori Tsukisa's acting cute and her eccentricities. A few minutes later, he gladly agreed to help transport the piles of gold coins packed in silly black velvet bags.
With a light wave of the wand, the mountain of bags turned into a handbag.
"Wow! With the little baton, big bags are no longer a burden!"
Imhotep actually really wanted to say that even without the little baton, those big bags weren't your burden.
They were mine... "Are you exchanging so much money because you want to buy property here?" After leaving the bank, the man didn't seem to mention leaving, nor did he urge Mori Tsukisa to quickly find a place for him to lift the magic. Instead, he followed the girl leisurely, chatting as they walked.
"I won't be settling here; I'll be leaving soon." Mori Tsukisa had a piece of flaming blueberry candy in her mouth, her slightly upturned lips stained a bit of silk blue. "I'm going to buy some things to take away, and by the way, sponsor a few orphanages."
Grindelwald nodded and mentioned a few names. "You can go and check out these places. They're nearby and indeed going through hard times. If they had your sponsorship, I think they should be able to live peacefully for a few years."
"You are very kind."
This time, whether it was the couple Anck-Su-Namun and Imhotep, who were keeping their presence to a minimum, or Arrietty and Nagini hidden in her hair, they all looked at Grindelwald with the same expression.
Kind... Right, has the brilliance of the Galleons blinded this middle-aged gentleman's eyes?
Oh, wait, did he already have a problem with his eyes?
"Of course, I am a kind and beautiful girl."
The shameless girl accepted the compliment very seriously.
Browsing and buying all the way, the man named Gellert Grindelwald didn't seem impatient at all. With his hands in his trench coat pockets, he watched quietly as Mori Tsukisa skipped to a stall and bought out everything the stall owner had—absolutely everything; then, he watched the girl skip to another stall and empty it out again.
As they moved forward, the street became visibly quieter... This was 'buying a few things to take away'...?
He didn't ask things like 'Why don't you buy less' or 'Buy it next time.' Instead, he chatted with Mori Tsukisa about things that a girl of her age shouldn't really be hearing.
But the man felt that compared to before, the girl's answers were much more interesting.
"Oh, wizards ruling humanity?" The girl kicked a waist-high package, signaling Grindelwald to wave his little baton, then hung the shrunk package on Imhotep again. "If we're fast... it's possible. But soon it will be too late."
Grindelwald leaned in to show he was listening.
"Yeah, it's just really hard." Mori Tsukisa waved her hand. "Humans are even more terrifying creatures than you imagine. In your era, you can still barely hold your own—in a few more decades, wizards won't stand a chance."
The girl didn't care what her words about 'your era' might have exposed, and the listener didn't care either, acting as if he hadn't heard.
He said, "We have many spells, and we will stand closely united."
Mori Tsukisa nodded. "I've seen it, and I can imagine it. It's nothing more than powerful damaging curses and highly secretive control curses, right?"
Several people sat down under a huge parasol. Grindelwald skillfully ordered a glass of water and asked Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun what they wanted.
"Yes, I think most humans have no way to escape the Imperius Curse, and it's hard to distinguish it."
Mori Tsukisa took the cardboard menu the man handed her, chose the most expensive drink, and then looked up with a smile. "Is it hard?"
"Since I entered the Wizarding World, I've noticed a very strange phenomenon." The girl looked around. "You... are practically living in the old age."
"Ah... I don't quite understand how powerful future technology will be, making you unable to hide like rats in a sewer—let's just talk about the simplest point."
The girl rested her chin on her hand, her bored emerald-green nails tapping the old-fashioned wooden table one by one.
"Take that bank I just saw..."
"A trader with two or three years of experience could collapse your Wizarding World's economy in a few days."
Seeing the man remain silent, Mori Tsukisa added, "And what about the population?"
"Your 'magic' can't even conjure flour and rice, can it? Isn't all the food now imported from the Muggle World?" She took two drinks and handed them to Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun, then turned back to look at the contemplative man. "War isn't just about the noisy parts."
"There are also silent ones, sir."
"So..."
Grindelwald picked up his water glass, took a sip, and set it down gently. "You really don't like wizards."
"I don't like boring things," Mori Tsukisa retorted, looking at the dazed waiter and wondering why her 'most expensive' drink hadn't arrived yet. "If you guys made things a bit more interesting, I'd like you and dislike Muggles."
"Who cares about winning or losing anyway."
Interesting? For example?
Under Grindelwald's curious gaze, Mori Tsukisa used her nail to dip into the condensation on the ice water glass and drew a circle.
"What wizards care about is... bloodline, right? You look down on those Half-bloods and... magical creatures." She tapped the circle, then drew a larger circle next to the small one. "But what Muggles care about is—"
"Do you know what Muggles care about, sir?" Mori Tsukisa touched the black velvet bag on Imhotep, the gold coins inside clinking. "They care about these little things. They're much more powerful than the 'Imperius Curse'."
"This is the'sober version' of the Imperius Curse."
At this point, the girl seemed to have lost interest. She boredly pressed down on the water stains and wiped away the marks on the table. "You don't understand Muggles at all, nor the terrifying malice and greed in their hearts. Rashly poking your heads out will only drag all wizards into the bottomless mire of ambition and war."
"And there will never be peace."
Grindelwald pursed his lips. In his line of sight, the girl with her chin in her hand was looking with delight at the 'Extra-large Diving Toad Strawberry Juice' brought by the waiter, and even let the toad stay on her emerald-green nails for a while.
He could see the future wars, the roar of cannons and the smoke, the explosion of gunpowder.
But he couldn't see the future of the girl in front of him.
She was like a distorted, dark black hole whose bottom couldn't be seen, constantly radiating and infecting her surroundings with purple energy spreading from the center.
Since meeting her in front of the bank, Grindelwald had sensed that this girl was extraordinary.
"Are you interested..." The man mirrored her posture, watching the girl suck hard on the juice, his lips curving up, his tone carrying a low-pitched seduction. "...in participating in an interesting battle?"
Grindelwald thought he might need her.
Hearing this, the girl looked completely surprised. She covered her mouth, and the toad she had just swallowed was still 'ribbiting' in her stomach. "No? Sir? Why would you want to invite me?"
The girl extended her two index fingers and drew a frame in the air—a birdcage.
In a birdcage, there were two birds, one black and one white.
The black one wanted to eat the white one, while the white one knew nothing about it. See, secretly instigating them to fight and clash, starting a war where black and white feathers fly, what an interesting thing that is?
But... that doesn't mean the person outside the cage should get involved.
The person outside the cage can just quietly enjoy the show.
"Right?" Mori Tsukisa looked at the solemn-faced man, put down the cup she was holding with both hands, took out a few Galleons, and placed them on the table. "I'm going to find the orphanage now."
"Goodbye, Mr. Gellert!"
"You're much more fun than Dumbledore!"
"I wish you success in your battles!"
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