Chapter 192: Changes in the House-Elves
"Della, we only bought one item this time..."
As soon as Belinda entered the dormitory, she heard Quasi's shy voice. She raised her eyebrows and looked curiously at the two house-elves standing in front of the coffee table as if they were being punished.
"Oh, welcome back, Belinda," Della greeted Belinda first, then gently asked Kwasi, "What did you buy?"
"Ring, ring," Naila, who was behind Quasi, carefully placed the ring on the coffee table, "It cost forty Galleons..."
"Forty?" Belinda raised her voice and sat on the sofa next to Della. "Isn't your weekly budget only ten Galleons?"
"Yes, there are only ten." Della answered Belinda with a subtle smile on her face.
"We never used it up before, so this time we spent all the money we had before." Quasi looked at Della and then at Bellinda, and said guiltily.
Della didn't ask them for the unspent money, but she didn't tell them they could use it. They had put it in a jar, ready to give it to Della when she asked for it. But this time...
"I see," Della said, without saying anything else. She looked at the ring on the table and reached out to take it. "This ring looks familiar."
Bellinda also came over to take a look. At a glance, she remembered it immediately. "It looks like the one in Tongte Lane at the beginning."
"Yes!" Hearing them say that, Nayla exclaimed in surprise, then immediately lowered her head in embarrassment, "We saw the real thing this time. Counting the money in the jar, it's barely enough."
"Actually, it's still a little short," Quasi added, his voice rising a little before sinking again, "We negotiated a price with the boss."
"That boss is so kind!" Nayla was a little happy again. "As soon as we said we wanted to give it to Della, he agreed to lower the price!"
"Really?" Della listened, turning the opal ring on her hand over and over again. It was just as gorgeous as the last time, but the texture was completely different. She slowly put it on her hand. "I'm so glad you're willing to do this for me, Quasi, Nella."
"No, you won't be angry because of our self-willed decision," even though Della said so, Quasi still felt panic, "After all, we didn't complete Della's work this time, we just wanted to bring her a gift..."
"This is actually my fault," Nayla timidly pinched Kwasi's white apron, but she took the responsibility, "I wanted to buy this too much."
"No need to apologize, I'm very happy," Della emphasized that she was not angry. She showed her hand with the ring in front of Belinda and the two house elves, "but I'm even happier that you are willing to do this for me."
"Huh?" Quasi asked, looking up. Nella behind him was as confused as he was.
"It must have been an difficult decision to make," Della walked over, squatted down and held the hands of the two house-elves. Quasi and Nayla looked at her with wide eyes, "How does it feel to not complete the order?"
"Feeling?" Quasi was so focused on Della's question that he didn't notice that she had changed her concept of work and orders.
Nella blinked her eyes. She looked at Della and felt an indescribable itchy feeling in her heart. She just realized that she had only been thinking about Della.
And failing to complete the order felt nothing compared to making Della happy.
Not completing the order...no feeling?
Nella felt that she shouldn't have this idea, but looking into Della's eyes, she couldn't suppress this idea.
"No... I don't feel anything..." Naila said this in the end, but there was an obvious cry in her voice. Quasi looked at her in surprise, but Naila didn't know why she was crying.
"You, you are too tolerant to us," Naila cried and held Della's hand tightly. She sobbed, "I, I have always been happy, so I also want to make Della happy, but I am too bad. I have nothing. I can only use Della's things to make Della happy. Even so, Della is still happy for me..."
Nayla spoke incoherently, her words were not very logical, but after hearing them, Quasi also started crying. They did not have any profound philosophical theories in their minds to sort out their complicated feelings. They only had a simple and plain idea with a bit of ambition -
If only I could always be Della's house-elf.
Here at Della, they were almost "free". "Free" was not a good word for house-elves, but there was no other word to describe their feelings at the moment.
After arriving here, although it was Della who gave them so-called jobs, the actual situation was that they had money and could go out shopping. For the first time, they had the freedom to shop. The scarves and marbles they bought before had already reflected their desires.
Desire-desire?
Quasi thought of himself asking Dumbledore to let him out, and Nayla thought of the various streets she had walked through here.
"Of course I'm happy for you," Della looked tenderly at the two house-elves who were crying in front of her, "I've always been grateful to you. You always clean the room so clean and pay close attention to the diet and living habits of me and Belinda."
"Yes, you even patiently dealt with my troublesome clothes, which saved me a lot of money." Belinda also came over, but unlike Della's gentleness, her eyes were full of interest in seeing new things. "To be honest, not only Della, but also I should pay you a salary."
“No…” Quasi and Nella both knew they should refuse, but they were speechless as soon as they started speaking.
While shopping, Quasi thought about himself with a full set of travel equipment, and Nella thought about a jewelry box like Belinda's. Most importantly, they wanted to use their own things to give Della a gift next time.
"Are you willing to accept my salary?" Della said in a pleasantly surprised tone. She did not give the two house-elves a chance to refuse and immediately took them into her arms. "That's great. I've always wanted to thank you."
Quasi and Nella cried even harder, until Belinda finished her cake and returned to the bedroom with Della. The two house-elves who were snuggling together outside kept wiping away tears.
Della gave them this month's salary, seventy-five Galleons for a house-elf, and then deducted the cost of the opal ring, so they each got fifty-five Galleons.
And they will go out tomorrow to get another ten Galleons to buy this week's goods, and this time, they can really buy what they want and continue to buy gifts for Della.
"So this is why you asked them to go out?" As soon as she closed the bedroom door, Belinda couldn't help asking Della.
"It didn't go as I expected," Della sat down at the desk, took off the ring and put it into her jewelry box. Maggie immediately came over and swam to her shoulder. "I thought they wanted it, but I didn't expect it was for me."
"They want it for you. That actually makes sense. Otherwise, why would you do that to them?" Belinda also sat down and took off her jewelry. "Now they will definitely want it. I am really impressed, Della. I have never seen a house-elf like that before."
"You can also praise me in another way," Della snorted and laughed, and made a arrogant tone, "For example, Della Riddle corrupted the most simple house-elf with only ten Galleons."
"Has the powerful Miss Riddle also solved my class time problem?" Bellinda turned around and looked at Della, hearing her hint.
"Have you planned Halloween?" Della also turned around. She looked at Belinda and blinked, "Beauxbatons?"
"How about asking Livia and Zhou to go to the Muggle world together?" Belinda pouted and finally suggested, "Having two people to look after you will give you a sense of security, right?"
Della thought for a second. Although she felt it was a bit strange to go out with Bellinda's exes, she would not be the one who would be embarrassed. "That sounds good, but are you okay with it? Why don't you find two other people?"
"What's the difference?" Belinda said she didn't mind going out with her exes. "They all wanted to be with Belinda anyway, and they were just lucky enough to be with me."
"..." Della and Maggie both paused. They looked deeply at Belinda, who looked as if it was a matter of course, and questioned for the first time in a long time what kind of person Belinda was.