Chapter 917
Heroes and Villains
Chapter 917 Heroes and Villains
Behind the door was a narrow, cramped room, dimly lit.
Rolando Stern sat alone in the center of the interrogation room on a hardwood chair, shackled and with his hands strapped to the back of the chair.
He looked much more haggard than before, with sunken eyes, disheveled hair, and his head hanging down, yet his face still had an unnatural slackness.
There were two Aurors guarding the dangerous prisoner in the room. One of them was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, pretending to be asleep, while the other was sorting through a thick stack of parchment.
The middle-aged official who led the way knocked on the door, went in, whispered a few words to the two men, and then the man who had been feigning sleep walked out of the interrogation room.
“Please come in, Miss Vanderbilt,” the grey-haired Auror whispered. “We’re just outside the door—this fellow is a ruthless purgeer, so be careful.”
"Yes, thank you."
Elsie straightened her cloak and walked into the interrogation room.
Wade saw that the younger Auror inside had intended to take all the documents on the table, but was pulled on the arm by an official, so he hesitated and put the documents down.
"You can probably have about half an hour for the meeting."
The middle-aged official glanced at his pocket watch and said with a smile, "No one will disturb your meeting during this time."
Just as he was about to leave, he turned back as if he had just remembered something and said:
"By the way, this guy has been drinking too much truth serum lately, his mind is a bit muddled, and he's talking incoherently... I hope you're prepared for that."
The middle-aged official walked out of the interrogation room, and the Auror's gaze lingered briefly on Vader, with a professional scrutiny.
Then, the door was gently closed.
Stern knew a stranger had entered the room. He barely managed to lift his head, as if trying to see the person in front of him clearly, but his cloudy eyes were unfocused and unfocused.
Wade had no interest in humiliating his enemy, and he wasn't there to see Rolando Stern's miserable state.
Although he had been assassinated by the Purifiers, Vader didn't harbor any hatred towards them; it was simply a matter of differing stances.
For him, eradicating the Purge was simply a necessary task, nothing more.
Elsie drew her wand and gently tapped it against the door, instantly making the transparent glass appear as if it were covered with a light veil.
In this way, even if the people outside the room wanted to peek, they wouldn't be able to see what the people inside were doing.
She shook her wand again, and this time not even a sound could be heard.
Wade quickly flipped through the interrogation documents on the table.
It's clear that the Aurors of the Magical Congress are incredibly efficient; the interrogation records meticulously document the Purge's network of contacts, action plans, personnel lists, and the locations of their training bases...
Unfortunately, most of the intelligence is outdated, but the children who are still locked up in the training base and being brainwashed by the Purge organization still have a chance to be rescued.
Wade's finger stopped on a page of the parchment.
He saw the names of Khalil and Abigail.
After carefully reading through all those contents, Wade's eyes were initially filled with chills.
However, after he finished reading it all, the tension on his face gradually eased, and the anger in his eyes lessened.
After putting down the documents, Wade closed his eyes and remained silent for a moment before looking at Stern.
“Rolando Stern,” he said.
The man in the chair seemed to have been triggered by some kind of conditioned reflex, and he couldn't help but shudder.
Vader asked, "Why are you reminding Abigail? Her beliefs in the Purifiers are no longer pure; shouldn't that mean she's doomed for you?"
Stern's numb expression wavered, and a deep sense of confusion appeared on his face.
“Abigail…Abigail…”
He murmured, "She...she's different..."
Elsie asked, somewhat surprised, "What? You like her?"
She had just been standing next to Wade and had a general idea of what the interrogation documents contained.
After Elsie finished asking her question, her gaze towards Stern was filled with deep contempt and disgust.
Liking someone doesn't mean cherishing and caring for them; instead, it means slandering, hurting, and questioning them behind their back, only to offer a helping hand when they're on the verge of falling into despair... What kind of insane behavior is that?
But Stern shook his head vigorously: "Like? No, it's not liking... I just... I just..." He looked pained: "She's a comrade-in-arms. Although I doubt her loyalty, but..."
His breathing became rapid, and his eyes were unfocused, as if he were struggling violently with something.
"But... the ideals of the Purgers should be noble and pure! They shouldn't be like that... they shouldn't use that... inhumane approach..."
Elsie looked at him in surprise. The interrogation room fell silent for a moment, with only Stern's heavy and disordered breathing remaining.
By this time, Wade had turned to the last page.
He suddenly realized that while the purges were concerned with what they had done and what they were going to do, there wasn't a single word that tried to understand why they were doing it.
It seems that in their view, a criminal is a criminal, and it is enough to eliminate them physically; there is no need to know how they got to this point.
So Wade asked softly, "Stern, you yourself are a wizard. Why do you hate wizards so much, even wanting to exterminate your own kind?"
"similar?!"
Stern jerked his head up, his face contorted with a sudden, explosive frenzy, a mixture of immense pain and mockery. The truth serum had stripped away all his pretense, revealing the wounds he least wanted to show.
"Haha, do you know how I came to be? Do you know who my father is? He's a wizard!"
The man stared blankly at the ceiling, his voice becoming ethereal and numb, as if he were telling a distant story unrelated to himself.
"She could have had a wonderful life..."
He muttered to himself, a smile that looked more like a grimace than tears.
"My mother... the daughter of an ordinary family, beautiful and outstanding, has received an acceptance letter from Princeton University... and has a bright future."
"Until that wizard appears!"
A chilling hatred seeped into his voice.
"He fell in love with her, how 'romantic'! But what about him? Bald, ugly, and an insignificant figure in the magical world. How could my mother possibly be interested in him?"
"Thus, potions became his most convenient tool... aphrodisiacs."
Stern scoffed: "He made girls 'fall in love' with him, abandon everything, and elope with him!"
"And then, they had me."
His tone was frighteningly flat.
"But a few years later, the wizard finally grew tired of the game and suddenly one day he disappeared... like throwing away an old robe, leaving behind the woman he had deceived and the children they had borne."
"The effects of the aphrodisiac wore off not long after."
Stern's voice trembled slightly.
"When she finally came to her senses and discovered that she had been deceived, kidnapped, lost everything, and given birth to a child with the blood of her enemy... she could not bear this utter destruction..."
He paused for a long time, so long that it seemed as if he were suffocating.
"...She committed suicide."
The last three words were so light they were almost weightless.
"And do you know what the most ridiculous thing is?"
Stern abruptly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, filled with unvented resentment and anger.
"That wizard, the man I planned to kill with my own hands when I grew up, died in a conflict against a dark wizard!"
"In the records of the magical world, he became a 'hero' who died in the line of duty! A hero! Haha... Hahaha..."
He burst into wild laughter, which echoed in the empty interrogation room.
"What makes him a hero? What secrecy laws! What Magic Congress! When my mother was harmed, who stopped that damned bastard who deserves to go to hell?!"
He stopped laughing and said in a tone of utter despair and utter coldness:
"Shouldn't such a world be cleansed? It's rotten to the core."
(End of this chapter)