Chapter 41 - The Dinner Party

"I'm done!" the girl came running back and noticed that I had already restored the glass and removed all the cracks on the floor with scorch marks. "I don't really support killing, but since he's been hanging out with demons looking for power, it's probably better that way."

"Very interesting, but what did you want? I have other things to do, you know." I urged her.

"Ahem, you're a skilled magician, aren't you? All these strange magical seals that I remember from our last meeting ..." the sorceress, as if by chance, stood up to favorably emphasize her body.

"Do you want to know my magic secrets?" I chuckled. "Don't you want a lot? And you won't be able to seduce me... why are you dressed like a stripper at all?"

"Hey, pay attention to me! I'm fascinating" She shook her head and ran her hand through her silky hair. "And I already said that this is my stage image. I'm a magician." she drew a semicircle in the air with her hands, and multicolored sequins fell out of there. "And I had a performance in Gotham… haven't you heard of me?" there was even some resentment in the voice.

"No, I'm not particularly interested in this kind of activity. How old are you anyway?" I decided to ask. However, she really looks very good, I can definitely say that she is still quite young.

"Such questions are not asked of girls." She snorted, crossing her arms under her chest. "Twenty." she said it anyway.

"You're lying." I noticed.

"No." she said confidently. "Why would I lie?"

"To hide your age?" I made an obvious assumption. "What do you want from me at all?"

"I'm looking for help in a case right now… I wanted to go to the Oblivion bar to find a partner, but since fate brought us together twice already…"

"I refuse." I said, taking a step away from her. "I think you'll find some other help. Moreover, you are clearly still too young for such an outfit…"

"Ghr." she clenched her fists and clearly became dissatisfied with my words and began to directly drill me with her eyes.

"I'm seventeen, soon eighteen." still, she revealed her age. "You know my dad, right?"

"You could say that. I know about him, but I haven't met him." I said vaguely. And it was at this moment that some piece of iron with a bat symbol almost flew into my face.

"Who's throwing scrap metal around here?" catching the Batarang with my hand, I looked at the one who threw it.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my city?" a man in a bat suit asked us from the shadows. (Picture here)

"Your?" Zatanna snorted. "It's Batman... right?"

"Yeah, that's him." I nodded. "We're already leaving, bat, don't worry." I raised my hands, showing that I was not armed. I've already put the sword in the ring.

"Although the fact that you consider the city your own is funny enough." he clearly noticed what was happening through the cameras, as Cortana did. So I arrived at the scene of the action with a collection of such suspicious individuals.

"There was a third one here, where is he?" He ignored my words and came even closer threateningly.

"The third who?" I said 'uncomprehendingly.' At that moment, Batman, being already close enough, dashed, apparently believing that I underestimated him because of arrogance. But, to his surprise, he met a hard block, and then I 'gently' kicked him in the chest, sending him into the wall. But he managed to group up and left only a small dent.

"Super strong ... " he realized and stood up as if he had just not crashed into the wall. "What do you need in the museum?"

"Pots" Zatanna got tired of all this, and she used a spell on Batman. That is, she said "Stop" in reverse. "We need to erase his memory, too." The sorceress said confidently.

"Are you sure you can do this without consequences?" I looked at her, for which I received a sharp look in response. The girl approached the immobilized hero and erased his memory of the last minutes.

Except there were a lot of electronics on it, so I'm sure Alfred heard everything. After the sorceress erased the memory of the hero of Gotham, we went outside, and she still convinced me to at least go to her performance tomorrow.

Zatanna's age shows me that she is not yet familiar with Nick Necro, who even seems to have trained her together with John Constantine before he decided to go down a crooked path. Of course, it would be possible to ignore her and just leave, but Zatanna may well become the strongest archmage of the Earth in the future, without taking into account all sorts of Doctor Fait, so it would be nice to be in good standing with her.

"Tony, where have you been?" my sister, who was already awake, met me in the room.

"I was walking to the museum. By the way, I met a sorceress." I said.

"The sorceress? At the Gotham Museum?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, there was some old book of magic and a not-very-good magician wanted to take it. But in fact, it is just a copy of the book, although perhaps it could be useful to someone."

"Okay, never mind." she shook her hand.

It was still a few hours before the dinner party, so Lena and I still had time to walk around the city. Visit the East End, Burnside, walk to Grant Park, another city park. Surprisingly, no one tried to rob us this time, so we came happy with our pastime and began preparing for dinner. More precisely, Lena started this very preparation, but she still needed to put on a little makeup and choose a suitable outfit from those that she took with her.

Wayne's mansion had been renovated a couple of years ago, so the building looked very nice now. There were also a lot of cars near the building, which showed that a sufficient number of people were invited to dinner.

"Exciting."

Sister said as we drove up to the estate. This, we can say, is our first appearance in the world, in some way. Even though we went to meetings with various high-ranking people, this is the first time we receive an invitation to a dinner party from someone like Wayne.

" Don't worry, you look great." I paid a well-deserved compliment to a beautiful lady.

"You've already said that." Still looking at the mansion excitedly, she replied.

"Because it's true." I looked at her again ...the little sister is beautiful, what can I say.

A man in his fifties in an expensive butler's suit stood at the entrance to the estate, and it was he who let the guests through.

"Mr. and Lady Luthor." He nodded to us in greeting. "I am pleased to welcome you to a dinner party in your honor. Master Wayne himself decided to invite you to meet new colleagues. But I didn't tell you that." said the man with a British accent.

"Glad to meet you…"

"Alfred Pennyworth." he gave his name and opened the door wider.

There were already some rich people in the main hall, even reporters from the Gotham Newspaper and the Daily Planet. In the center of the hall were large tables with all kinds of food and snacks.

"So many different kinds of food..." my sister whispered in my ear.

"It would be strange if there was nothing here." I took a glass of wine from the table and took a sip. "Hmm, Chateau Margaux one thousand eight hundred and eighty. Very good indeed." I nodded.

"I see a connoisseur here. " a slightly rude male voice sounded. He was a tall and fit brunette with a small smile on his face. "I am glad that you accepted my invitation. I am Bruce Wayne, the owner of this mansion." (Picture here)

"The famous playboy and philanthropist of Gotham?" Lena grinned, but allowed the man to make a welcoming kind of kiss on her outstretched hand.

"I am called in different ways." Bruce grinned at something and turned his gaze to me. "You look very young, however, that's how it is." he shook my hand. "Sometimes wealth drops unexpectedly, I'm glad to see that in this position you are trying to keep Lex... oh, sorry, LuthorCorp is already afloat."

"It's all my sister. If it wasn't for her, I would have drowned in papers."

"It's not true, you clearly have talent. " Lena did not accept these words. "You figured out everything much faster than me, so you're also doing your developments."

" 'Clean Energy', right? A very grandiose project capable of changing the world." the man spoke a little more seriously, but the smile quickly returned to his face. "Lady Luthor, I don't mean to be rude... but I hear you're sick with something and can't walk."

"Money works wonders and it turns out that everything wasn't so bad for me." my sister lied without a second thought

"I see… it's beautiful, make yourself at home. I see my old friend, I think I need to say hello." he turned to the other guests.

"Bruce Wayne is an interesting man, isn't he? And don't think I forgot about the wine." my sister looked at me with a soft smile.

"Interesting for a night avenger." I said, I used a spell from Hermione's world so that we could not be heard.

"The Avenger?" the girl asked again. "Is he Batman?!" She quickly realized and whispered back with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

"Well, you can't get all sorts of fancy gadgets and armored vehicles without enough money. I am more than sure that he has already installed wiretaps on our car." after my words, the girl was a little worried. "Don't worry, he can't hear us now, I've made sure of that."

"This is... unexpected. Magic, aliens, gods and now the famous billionaire turned out to be Batman... only evil clones and doppelgangers from a parallel universe were missing." the girl grinned.

"Yes ..." I already smiled tightly.

Not that I expected it to be interesting, but... high society is like that. A couple of businessmen approached us and tried to probe the ground with ornate conversations, whether Lena and I would fall for their tricks or not.

In addition, some were looking for an opportunity to make contacts. If it wasn't for the delicious food and the conversation with Cortana and Lena, as well as watching the Chat, I could have died of boredom.

***

"Are-are ufufuf." Rias heard and shuddered in surprise. Turning abruptly, her eyes met the voluminous bust of her friend. "It seems that someone is doing this... live broadcast in front of lover again? Why not naked?"

"Akeno ... " the look of the heiress of Gremory became somehow inflated-accusing.

- "What?" the girl asked even more expressively, arching her chest forward.

"Nothing... no, I'm not broadcasting live, but I'm watching it. " the red-haired woman turned back to the "empty place", at least that's what it looked like for Queen Rias.

"Oh, you're looking." as if not believing whispered the black-haired. "Issei-kun also likes to watch. Interesting fellow…"

"Hmm, pervert." Rias snorted, smiling.

"We have a physical education lesson soon... dozens of lustful eyes will be directed at our innocent bodies." her friend whispered right in her ear, because of which Rias recoiled and with reddened cheeks shushed Akeno.

***

"The headmaster has given us full access to the library..." whispered Hermione, looking at dozens of previously inaccessible books. Although, of course, most of them were related to dragons in one way or another.

"You should be having fun..." her friend, who is still upset about Ron's antics, said a little sullenly.

"Harry, don't worry about Ron, you know him. He will cool down, think about everything and come to apologize." the girl tried to give herself confidence in her voice.

Only recently, her second "friend" in the Gryffindor living room made a fuss about Harry's 'betrayal'. And it was loud, and even some students supported Ron's words. The girl herself wasn't so sure about Ron anymore, although she didn't want to admit it to herself. She saw in 'Real Memory' how he behaved. Exhaling heavily, she turned her gaze to the books and her eyes glittered dangerously.

***

"Boring ..." said Shinoa sitting in the classroom, where her target was sitting for observation.

Looking at how the "target" quarrels with the teacher, she decided to act and wrote a couple of words in a notebook. While he was facing the teacher, she poked him in the back with her finger.

"Uh, what? Who else are you?" he made an uncomprehending expression. The girl pointed to a notebook on which was written: 'Shinoa Hiragi, Army Inspector.'

"Eh?"

"Hm." only the girl pursed her lips. Now I would like to chop down the same Grimm, and not that's all. 'If you refuse to cooperate with me, then I will have to report you and extend your sentence,' she wrote.

"Uh, what the... what's that supposed to mean?" the guy tried to be indignant.

"Hakuya! Are you trying to disrupt the lesson again? the teacher was indignant and threw the chalk on the floor out of anger.

"Damn it!" the guy exclaimed, loudly hitting the desk with his palms, realizing who was sitting in front of him.

"Damn it?!" The teacher shouted back.

"Co-op-erate." Shinoa said, looking at this troublemaker.

"Arh" making a heavy sigh, the guy sat back at his desk, and Shinoa's eyes switched to the Chat window.

"The punishment will last until you make at least one friend." nevertheless, she decided to have mercy and tell him about it.

She could understand him to some extent. He is afraid to get closer because he is afraid of losing someone close again. She is more than familiar with this... only lately she feels freer, perhaps the stopped whispering of her demon is involved in this. After that potion, he fell silent and can't affect her.