Chapter 3 - Kingdom of Arkham

It's crazy to think about, but apparently my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, are the rulers of the Kingdom of Arkham, meaning they're the king and queen. However, when my gentle mother became pregnant, she shared with my father the desire to give birth away from the hustle and bustle of the city, so I was born in a country home. They enjoyed the peace and quiet so much that even after I was one month old, they decided to stay on the property surrounded by wheat fields for another two months.

But in my third month of life, we finally moved to the castle in the center of Gotham. And even now, six months after I woke up in this new, strange body, I still vividly remember my time as Batman. So even though I'm the prince of this huge kingdom, I don't feel any great weight or responsibility on my shoulders. Nothing has changed, right? In my world, I knew I couldn't change Gotham by acting as Bruce Wayne, so why should it be any different now?

The truth is, kings are not born, they are made, so maybe I will learn some things from my parents that will change my thinking. And I can't think of a time when I've been more excited than right now. I can finally crawl! I look at my little hands and move them back and forth on the floor, in awe of my new ability. It took so many weeks of trying to crawl, and I could barely pull myself in place, but I finally managed to crawl.

My only motivation for trying this every day for all this time was to sneak into my dad's library, because I still can't exercise my body because I have almost no motor coordination. So the only way for me to evolve is to learn more about this alternate version of the world I'm in.

While the nanny who takes care of me takes her nap this afternoon, I crawl to the library door with great difficulty. My mother lamented the day she saw me trying to open the door and sighed, "I swear you're going to be as difficult to take care of as your father. Fortunately, my mother understood that I wanted to "play" with one of the books my father always read and thought I was trying to imitate him. This made her proud, and she picked out a children's book to read to me that night. As the days passed and I refused many children's books, she finally gave me an old encyclopedia. Apparently the books are very expensive because they are all handwritten, but my parents have hundreds of them, so she didn't see any problem in giving me one.

Looking through the encyclopedia, I notice that there is little information about other cities, kingdoms and continents, which is strange since there are carriages that transport goods and passengers out of Gotham. Also, the fact that magic is more common in this new version of Earth is hard to get used to. Whereas in my world, practitioners learned through their connections and talents, traits directly intertwined in their bodies, here magic is a not-so-uncommon source of power. This is unsettling for someone like me.

In this regard, I don't feel any different from my past life. Even though I'm a prince, I still feel like an ordinary person with no power. But even with this feeling of powerlessness, I refuse to accept defeat. I'm still Batman, and I still have my intelligence and my determination, and if there's one thing I learned in my past life, it's that information is power. I must find a way to learn more about this world, how to use it to protect my family and my kingdom, and how to uncover what happened to me.

Cautiously, I open the encyclopedia again and flip through the pages. Maybe there's something I missed the first time, something that can give me a clue about what's happening in this world. I can't let my lack of knowledge make me powerless, not when there are so many questions that need to be answered. What would I do if the old fate of my parents repeated itself this time because I don't know what's going on? I couldn't bear it.

I remember that day like it was yesterday, I was in that alley and I saw my parents killed in front of me. I felt weak for months, no, years, until I finally decided that I had to prepare myself to fight for a kind of justice that must be applied impartially and that those who violate the law must be held accountable for their actions.

As I continue to examine the encyclopedia, flipping through the pages for the second time, I finally find something interesting. One section talks about a king named Kent who rules a kingdom adjacent to Arkham Kingdom.

Is this even real? No, it's probably just a trick of fate. The existence of a King Kent doesn't necessarily mean that Clark is here, after all, that's his adopted name. I carefully read the page dedicated to King Kent, a ruler who, according to the encyclopedia, was known for his wisdom and justice. This king rules over a neighboring kingdom, which to my surprise is called Krypton.

When I read about it, I can hardly believe it. All I can think about is the possibility of being reunited with my friend Clark, but that will have to wait, for before I go in search of my friends, I must prepare myself for the challenges that lie ahead.

And so the time passed quickly, and before I knew it, I was already seven years old.

...

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