Chapter 175 Meeting with Rochiel
In Beauxbatons' research institute, there is only the concept of "research day", and the working hours are completely flexible. As long as you complete the required results of a stage, there may be only three research days a week.
What if the results are not achieved?
Then I'm afraid you have to divide the year into 400 days. The stars at night will remember your efforts.
The progress of Della's laboratory has never been delayed, but in order to get promoted faster or achieve more results, they usually work five days a week. As a mid-level researcher, Livia sometimes uses the sixth day to complete some orders (Zhou Yushi would often stay in the laboratory at this time).
Della implemented a five-day work week and scheduled her meeting with Rochelle on Saturday evening at a Muggle restaurant recommended by Belinda that had delicious cakes.
Rocher and his daughter sat down in the restaurant early. Della, who arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early, saw them through the glass wall. The two of them were wearing appropriate Muggle clothes, and their black hair was neatly combed to both sides. They looked no different from the well-dressed Muggle guests around them.
As for the fact that the meeting place was a Muggle restaurant, the Rochers had no doubts from the beginning. This actually made sense, after all, it would be too conspicuous for Della Riddle to appear in a wizard restaurant.
Is this what Della thought?
It depends on what Rocher and his daughter think.
"Hello, Mr. Rochel, Miss Rochel," Della walked to the table that the Rochel family had reserved. The father and daughter immediately stood up. Della smiled and stretched out her hand, shaking hands with them one by one. "Nice to meet you."
"It's our honor." Dag Rochir said with an attentive but not overly flattering smile. After being out of Azkaban for a few months, he has recovered some energy. Compared with the average middle-aged man, Dag is just a little thinner.
But the blow that Country F dealt to him was actually quite great. His wife remarried, and his eldest daughter Maria was about to change her name to her maternal grandmother's surname. Only his youngest daughter Annika gave him some comfort and immediately chose to return to him.
Annika, who was standing behind Dag, nodded and smiled at Della, not trying to compete for the opportunity to show off in front of her elders. She had a pointed chin and a pale face like most wizards. There were freckles irregularly arranged under her eyes with dark circles, making her pretty face look a little gloomy, but her black eyes were quite bright.
Probably a pair of eyes that a Slytherin would have.
The three of them sat down and the waiter brought the menu. Della took the menu without any change of expression and began to order. She also specifically told the waiter to pack some cakes. The Rochers were still a little awkward in front of Muggles. They tried their best to focus on the menu and ordered hastily.
Della looked at the embarrassed father and daughter and didn't rush to get to the point. She first showed concern for Mr. Rocher and expressed regret for his three years in prison. Then she carefully inquired about the situation in Country Y and asked about the sentence of Savija Nanni.
"The Ministry of Magic fired a lot of people, but only Nanny was punished. She took the blame and was imprisoned in Azkaban." Dag Rochir said with a glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes.
"She deserves it." Della was not surprised by the result. She said calmly, watching the waiter finish serving their last salad. Annika had been silently paying attention to Della's movements. As soon as the waiter left, she immediately put the box of jewelry on the dining table.
"I want to make a coming-of-age gift for my sister," Annika opened the jewelry box and showed the glittering gemstone necklace inside. She pushed the box towards Della, "I want to ask Miss Riddle -"
Della raised her hand and made a pause gesture. Annie stopped talking and Dag paused for a moment. Both of them unconsciously looked at Della's hand that was suspended in the air. They watched the hand pause for a moment, and then float down lightly.
The moment Della put her hand down, everything flashed before their eyes. When they came to their senses, they were still in this Muggle restaurant with a delicious meal in front of them, but the people around them were gone.
Dag subconsciously looked out the window, and all the pedestrians on the road had disappeared.
The 13-year-old child in front of him changed the space they were in with just a wave of his hand without using a wand or chanting any spells.
"Please continue, Annika," Della smiled slightly. Maggie, who was hiding in her hair, emerged from Della's shoulder and stared at the Rocher father and daughter with her yellow snake eyes. "You can speak freely now."
Annika swallowed unconsciously, her eyes widened, no longer gloomy, and after hearing what Della said, she rolled her eyes twice quickly, suppressed the urge to look at her father, and said in a hoarse voice, "Miss Riddle, please take a look at this jewelry first. We fully respect your opinion."
Maggie slid onto the table, spitting out his bright red snake tongue. Under the gaze of the three people, he slowly stroked every part of the necklace with his slender snake tail. After confirming that there was no problem, he picked up the necklace and presented it to Della.
"Please forgive his caution, he just cares about me too much." Della said, without waiting for the response from Rochelle and his daughter, she took the necklace directly from Maggie's tail. As soon as she got the necklace, the various gems inlaid on it began to shine. After two or three breaths, the necklace in Della's hand turned into a book with a gem cover.
Della looked up at the Rochier father and daughter, and opened the book with a gorgeous cover, which listed in detail the wealth of the Rochier family. To be precise, it should be Dag Rochier's wealth. Della noticed that many of the things in it were not obvious.
But wealth?
Wealth cannot buy peace, and wealth that can be taken away is not wealth.
This is not what she wants to see.
Della flipped through a few pages and closed the book, looking at the Rocher father and daughter again. Annika obviously didn't expect Della to have such an attitude, and now she couldn't help but look at her father.
Dag frowned slightly. He guessed Della's intention and tentatively reached out to turn the gem book in Della's hand to the last page. "Please take another look at this."
Dag knew that if you lowered your stance and were found to be holding back, the consequences would be devastating, so he was truly prepared to give it his all.
"Gold?" Della read along, and Maggie came over. When she read to the end, she raised her eyebrows, "Gold in the Muggle world?"
"Gallons are made of gold. The wizarding world and the Muggle world share the same gold," Dager explained. "If you can influence the currency and gold price of the Muggle world, you can influence Galleons. In times of war..."
"And you have this means," Della looked Dag up and down. "Tell me, Mr. Rocher, did you offer this to my father?"
"No, never." Dag looked at Della's face and carefully organized his words. "This is the most fundamental thing in a family-"
"No, no, Mr. Rochel, this has nothing to do with what you think," Della interrupted Dag. She closed the Rochel family notebook without a trace of extra emotion in her eyes. "Why should my father and I go through the trouble of influencing Garlon when we can directly influence the outcome?"
"This..." Dag opened his eyes and was stuck for a moment, but Annika's mind was working rapidly and she quickly figured out the subtext of Della's words.
Because Voldemort and Della Riddle can directly influence the outcome, they only look at the outcome. What you should offer them is not capital, but loyalty, ability and determination. You should try your best to be a person who can achieve the expected results in front of them.
"Ms. Riddle," Annika said boldly, "You showed your strength just now when you raised your hand. We are really impressed. No one has the courage to question your authority."
Annika demonstrates Rochil's loyalty.
"Our things are really nothing compared to yours," Annika continued, "We are not proud of them. My father just wants to use his experience and these things to do his best to meet your expectations."
Annika demonstrates what Rochil is capable of.
"For now, Rochiel only has the means, but not enough power," Dager took over the conversation. "I gave up the reputation that no longer works in my homeland, and started over in a foreign country with my fragile wealth. In a foreign country, even if I naturalize, Rochiel will only be regarded as a new plunderer, but I must restore the glory of the Rochiel family here."
"So we have to give you everything, Miss Riddle. Rochiel has no choice." Dag looked at Della's still calm black eyes, and quickly recalled what he had learned about Della Riddle's first and second grade style. "We can only seek the protection of the strongest, so that we can keep Rochiel, who has no foundation in a foreign country."
Della Riddle, the descendant of Slytherin and the Dark Lord, with a snake in her body, was able to keep a low profile in her first and second years. Obviously, if she had just revealed a little that she was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, all the children would have gathered around her, but she never publicized her opinions in public, never formed cliques, and even her boyfriend Draco Malfoy didn't know her identity.
She doesn't care about surname and ancestry.
Or rather, she saw through the trick.
Public opinion is always controlled by powerful people, and the emergence of the theory of bloodline is no exception. They initially relied on this statement to exclude some people who had the opportunity to replace them from power and wealth.
This strategy was successful at first, but sadly, their means of monopolizing power did not keep pace with the times. In an age when ideas need to change, they instead accepted this rumor, which no longer brings benefits, as truth.
If Della Riddle wanted them, they would all gather around her, but Della Riddle didn't want or need them, and she had no intention of cooperating with them in playing that public opinion game.
"Even if, even if," Dagur figured it out, his lips trembled, and the loose skin on his face began to tremble, "even if you are a mud-mudblood, Rochiel will crawl under your robes."
Dag used that discriminatory word towards the distinguished person in front of him, but it was only to crush his own former dignity and truly degrade himself into that layer of mud.
Dager showed Rochell's determination.
Della smiled slightly. She put the gem book into her bag. "I will write to you, Mr. Rocher."
As soon as he finished speaking, the restrained conversation in the restaurant once again surrounded Rocher and his daughter. The servants were walking around them again, the diners were still enjoying the food, and the pedestrians outside the glass wall hurried past.
"Goodbye." Della stood up, nodded slightly to them, and left with the packaged cake brought by the waiter.
Dag Rochir looked at Della's back without any reluctance, then looked at the three untouched meals in front of him, and let out a sigh of relief. He felt more pressured than when he was under Voldemort.
"Dad?" Annika relaxed at this point, and nervously held her father's arm.
"She accepted it, Annie, she accepted it, she accepted it..." Dag said, not knowing whether it was to comfort his daughter or himself, and he unconsciously repeated it several times.