"Tom, leave this to me. Go back to your room and rest."
Lyle took the ragged cloth from Tom's hand and waved him away.
Tom snapped his head up, staring at Lyle with an expression of sheer disbelief.
To be honest, heaven only knew what madness had seized Lyle these past few days; he was completely obsessed with doing good deeds...
It was bad enough that he was losing his mind himself, but he actually dragged Tom along to help!
Let's be reasonable: as long as Tom had lived, though he was an orphan, when had he ever done a lick of manual labor?
Even when chores were assigned to him, he simply got the other kids to "voluntarily" do them for him!
But...
Who made him unable to beat Lyle in a fight?
He just hadn't expected that after enduring humiliation and doing odd jobs behind Lyle for a few days, this bastard would today, of all days, break precedent and let him go back to rest early?
Something was wrong! There had to be a conspiracy!
"No... I'm not tired at all, really. I can keep working." Tom silently took back the rag and flashed a standard, pleasant smile.
He didn't know what kind of evil plot Lyle was hatching, but as long as he refused to do as he was told, he couldn't possibly lose out!
"Hmm? I was thinking about something else just now and didn't catch that. What did you just say?" Lyle looked over at Tom.
Meeting Lyle's benevolent gaze, Tom's smile gradually faded...
Fine. Whether disobeying Lyle would bring trouble later, he didn't know, but right now... it would definitely bring immediate trouble!
"I said I'm actually a bit tired, so I'll leave the rest of the work to you, if you don't mind."
Prudently, Tom handed the rag back to Lyle and swiftly vanished around the corner of the stairs.
Naturally, Lyle hadn't told Tom to go back to his room for no reason. If Dumbledore wanted to see Tom later, it would be much better in Tom's room.
After all, Lyle still wanted to witness the legendary scene of Dumbledore setting fire to the wardrobe.
Lyle put down the rag, turned around, and hurried toward his own room.
To prevent Dumbledore from making his room the first stop, he needed to move the jars and bottles he had hidden under the rug to a new hiding spot. After all, a wizard of that caliber could always spot traces that others missed.
These past few days, the system shop hadn't actually refreshed with anything particularly good; most of it consisted of potions and some oddly shaped materials.
You could buy these things in the wizarding world anyway, so after selectively purchasing a few potions as backups, Lyle hadn't bought anything else.
Over the last few days, Lyle had discovered another thing: if he went out and did good deeds entirely on his own, the increase in merit points was negligible.
However, if he dragged Tom along with him... the result was completely different!
Lyle guessed that the more wicked the psychological state of the person he forced to do good, the more merit points he would receive.
Perhaps it was because his actions slightly lowered the probability of that person doing evil in the future?
After all, when the system had previously awarded him 100 merit points, it hinted that it was because he had altered some of Tom's life trajectory...
Of course, this was just a guess, and Lyle planned to find another villain to test it out later on.
Still, because of this reason, after Lyle put Tom through a round of "thought reform through labor"... he had successfully accumulated a full 300 merit points!
Oh... Tom, may Merlin protect him!
After hiding the potions, Lyle nonchalantly returned to the corner of the stairs and picked up the rag again.
Right at that moment, Mrs. Cole walked out of the office with a flushed face, and Dumbledore followed slowly behind her. Evidently, their business was concluded.
"Oh... Wade." Seeing Lyle, Mrs. Cole immediately called out to him.
As Mrs. Cole drew closer, Lyle caught the scent of gin. He figured her flushed complexion was due to alcohol.
"This is Mr. Dum-biliton... sorry, Mr. Dum-bul-dor... he's here looking for you and Tom, to tell you—never mind, I'll let him tell you himself. Where is Tom?"
Meeting Dumbledore's gentle gaze, Lyle replied, "Tom went back to his room to rest."
"What's his excuse this time? Sigh... whatever. Ever since he started hanging out with you, he's changed a lot... What more can I ask for? Good god, when have I ever seen Tom help out the other kids? My dear, this must be your doing." Mrs. Cole said with deep emotion.
Ever since Lyle had arrived, the isolated and eccentric Tom had seemed like a completely different person.
Not only did he stop bullying the other children, but he would even go with Lyle to help the little ones in the orphanage!
He hadn't skipped a single one of the odd jobs around the orphanage, either.
For a bad child to undergo such a dramatic transformation in just a few days left Mrs. Cole somewhat puzzled, but she felt mostly a profound sense of relief.
"Mrs. Cole, I didn't really do anything. Tom was always kind at heart; he was just a bit introverted in the past and didn't really know how to communicate with others," Lyle said with a smile.
*Right, in front of me, Tom has always been kind and introverted.*
Kind? Introverted? Was that supposed to be Tom?
Mrs. Cole couldn't help curling her lip, but with an outsider present, she didn't say anything further.
"I still have plenty of things to do. Since this gentleman is looking for both of you, you can take him to Tom's room..."
"Mrs. Cole~"
Before Mrs. Cole could finish, Ellie's call rang out from the distance.
"Coming!" Mrs. Cole shouted back, then looked helplessly at Lyle. "Will you be alright by yourself?"
"Of course I will." Lyle nodded.
As soon as Mrs. Cole hurried away, Lyle looked at Dumbledore. This was his first time alone with Dumbledore.
Just by exchanging a single glance with Dumbledore, Lyle knew that while this man looked mild-mannered, he was definitely not someone to be trifled with.
It was an instinctive feeling, like standing at the foot of a towering mountain... filled with an indescribable sense of oppression, giving the impression that he was impossible to scale.
Lyle said politely, "Sir, please this way."
With that, he turned and led the way toward Tom's room.
Dumbledore immediately followed, and Lyle acutely sensed that Dumbledore's gaze remained fixed upon him the entire time.
"Aren't you curious about why I'm looking for you two?" Dumbledore asked suddenly from behind him.
"Of course I am."
"Then why didn't you ask me anything? You don't seem like a particularly introverted child."
Dumbledore was genuinely a bit puzzled. Normally, children this age possessed boundless curiosity.
Knowing full well that he was here for both him and Tom, this boy hadn't asked a single question the whole way?
"Since you're looking for both me and Tom at the same time, it must be for the same matter. Since that's the case, we can just discuss it together once we find Tom, saving you the trouble of repeating yourself."
"Hmm... That's true enough, but I actually don't mind repeating myself a few times. After all, what I'm going to tell you next isn't something that can be explained in just a sentence or two."
Dumbledore looked with vested interest at Lyle's small, slender back. He had seen plenty of eleven-year-old children, but he had never met one as remarkably composed as Lyle.
Moreover, according to Mrs. Cole, this boy with an East Asian face had been picked up off the street by her, and he had always kept his past tightly guarded, refusing to speak of it.
Mrs. Cole guessed that he must have suffered unspeakable hardships in his past, so she hadn't pried deeply into his origins. Still, his speech and manners suggested his birth was by no means ordinary.
This piqued Dumbledore's curiosity about Lyle. Perhaps this boy came from some pure-blood family in the East?
"I've heard... Tom did quite a few bad things before he met you, but after meeting you, he suddenly changed. How did you manage that?"