Chapter 41: Wayne Manor

Words: 2,185

...

"I'm done!"

Lena ran back and noticed that I had already restored the glass and cleaned up all the cracks and burn marks on the floor.

"I don't really wanna kill him, but since he was dabbling with demons seeking power, then maybe it's for the best."

"It's very interesting, but what did you want? I still have things to do, you know."

I urged her on.

"Um, you're quite the magician, aren't you? Those strange magical seals I remember from our last encounter..."

Zatanna stood herself up to highlight her figure.

"Do you want to learn my magical secrets?"

I smirked.

"Are you sure you want that much? And trying to seduce me won't work... Why are you even dressed like a stripper?"

"Hey! I'm beautiful. "

Zatanna shook her head and ran her hand through her silky hair.

"And I've told you, it's my stage persona. I'm a magician."

Zatanna gestured in the air with her hands, and colorful sparkles rained down from them.

"And I had a performance in Gotham... haven't you heard of me?"

There was a hint of offense in her voice.

"No, I'm not particularly interested in that kind of entertainment. How old are you, anyway?"

I decided to ask. She looked quite good, but it was clear she was still young.

"You don't ask women such questions."

Zatanna snorted while crossing her arms under her chest.

"I'm twenty years old."

Zatanna finally said.

"You're lying."

I observed.

"No, I'm not."

Zatanna said confidently.

"Why would I lie?"

"To hide your age?"

I made an obvious assumption.

"What do you want from me anyway?"

"I'm looking for help with something... I was going to head to the Oblivion Bar to find a partner, but since fate has brought us together twice now..."

"I refuse."

I said this while going further away from her.

"I think you'll find some other help. Moreover, you're clearly too young for this kind of business..."

"Ugh."

Zatanna clenched her fists and clearly became dissatisfied with my words while glaring at me.

"I'm seventeen and turning eighteen soon."

Zatanna finally revealed her age.

"You do know my father, right?"

"You could say that. I know about him, but I haven't met him."

I said it vaguely. At that moment, a metal object bearing the symbol of a bat almost flew into my face.

"Who's littering with scrap metal here?"

I caught the batarang with my hand and looked at the one who threw it.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my city?"

The guy in the bat suit emerged from the shadows.

"Your city?"

Zatanna snorted.

"That's Batman... right?"

"Yeah, that's him."

I nodded.

"We're already leaving, little bat. Don't worry."

I raised my hands to show that I was unarmed. I had already stored away my sword.

"It's quite amusing that you consider the city yours."

Batman clearly noticed what was happening through the cameras, and so did Cortana.

Then Batman arrived at the scene to gather information about such suspicious individuals.

"There was one more person here, where is he?"

Batman ignored my words and menacingly approached me even closer.

"Who?"

I said "confusedly".

At that moment, Batman had already gotten close enough and lunged forward thinking that I underestimated him due to his arrogance.

Batman was surprised when he ran into a hard block. I then "gently" kicked him in the chest to send him into the wall.

He was able to get back on his feet and only make a small dent.

"Super strong..."

Batman realized this and stood up as if he hadn't just crashed into the wall.

"What do you need in the museum?"

"Pots!"

Apparently, Zatanna was tired of all this, and she cast a spell on Batman.

"We need to erase his memory."

Zatanna said confidently.

"Are you sure you can do this without consequences?"

I looked at her and received a sharp glance in return. Zatanna approached the freezing Batman and erased his memory of the last few minutes.

Alfred probably heard everything because he still had a lot of gadgets on him.

After Zatanna wiped Batman's memory, we went outside, and she still managed to persuade me to attend her performance tomorrow at least.

Zatanna's age shows me that she is not yet familiar with the same Nick Necro who seemed to have even trained her along with John Constantine before deciding to go down the wrong path.

Of course, I could have ignored her and just walked away, but Zatanna could well become the strongest magician on Earth in the future, so it would be nice to be on good terms with her.

"Tony, where have you been?"

Lena had already woken up and greeted me in the room.

"I went for a walk to the museum, and by the way, I met a magician."

I said.

"A magician? At the Gotham Museum?"

Zatanna raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, there was some ancient magic book, and another magician wanted to take it. But in fact, it's just a copy of the book, but it could have been useful to someone."

"Okay, let's move on."

Lena waved her hand.

There were still a few hours before the formal dinner, so Lena and I managed to walk around the city.

We visited East End, Burnside, and Grant Park another park in the city.

Surprisingly, this time no one tried to rob us, and we returned satisfied with the tour and started preparing for dinner.

Lena started this preparation herself. She needed to put on makeup and choose an outfit suitable for the occasion from those she had brought with her.

Wayne Manor was renovated a couple of years ago, and the mansion looks very nice now.

There were also a lot of cars around the building showing that a lot of people were invited to dinner.

"This is exciting."

Lena said as we approached the mansion.

This is our first public appearance in a way.

It was our first time being invited to a formal evening by someone like Wayne even though we had met other high-ranking people before.

"Don't worry, you look beautiful."

I gave the well-deserved compliment to Lena.

"You've already said that."

Lena replied still nervously looking at the mansion.

"It's true."

I looked at her again.

At the entrance to the mansion stood a man in his fifties in an expensive butler's suit, and he was the one letting the guests in.

"Mr. and Lady Luthor."

He greeted us warmly.

"I'm pleased to welcome you to a formal dinner in your honor. Master Wayne himself decided to invite you to meet new colleagues."

The man spoke with a British accent.

"Nice to meet you..."

"Alfred Pennyworth."

Alred introduced himself and opened the door wider.

There were already some wealthy people in the main hall even reporters from the Gotham Gazette and the Daily Planet.

In the center of the hall were large tables with all sorts of food and snacks.

"So much different food..."

Lena whispered to me.

"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. It's quite good."

I nodded.

"I see a connoisseur here."

[A/N: Connoisseur - an expert judge in matters of taste.]

A slightly rough male voice sounded. It was a tall and fit brunette with a slight smile on his face.

"I'm glad you accepted my invitation. I'm Bruce Wayne, the owner of this mansion."

"The famous playboy and philanthropist of Gotham?"

Lena smirked but allowed Bruce to make a welcoming gesture by kissing her outstretched hand.

"They call me a lot of things."

Bruce smiled at something and then turned his gaze to me.

"You look very young well, you are. It's good to see that despite the sudden wealth, you're trying to support Lex... Oh, sorry, it's already LuthorCorp."

"It's all my sister. If not for her, I'd drown in paperwork."

"Not true. You clearly have talent."

Lena didn't accept those words.

"You've figured everything out much faster than me, and you're even working on your own projects."

"Clean Energy right? A very grand project capable of changing the world."

Bruce spoke more seriously now, but the smile quickly returned to his face.

"Lady Luthor, forgive me for being blunt... but I heard you were ill and couldn't walk."

"Don't worry because money works wonders, and it turns out things weren't as bad as they seemed for me."

Lena lied without a second thought.

"I see... That's wonderful. Well, make yourselves at home. I see an old acquaintance of mine. I think I should say hello."

Bruce turned away to greet other guests.

"Bruce Wayne is an interesting man, isn't he? And don't think I forgot about the wine."

Lena looked at me with a soft smile.

"Interesting for a night vigilante."

I uttered and cast a Muffliato Charm so that we couldn't be heard.

"Vigilante?"

Lena asked.

"He's Batman?!"

Lena quickly realized this and whispered back with a stunned expression.

"Well, you can't get all those fancy gadgets and armored cars without a sufficient amount of money. I'm pretty sure he's already bugged our car."

After my words, Lena became slightly anxious.

"Don't worry, he can't hear us now. I made sure of it."

"This... is unexpected. Magic, aliens, gods, and now the famous billionaire turns out to be Batman... All that's missing are evil clones and doppelgangers from a parallel universe."

Lena chuckled.

"Yeah..."

I smiled tensely.

I didn't think it would be interesting, but that's just high society.

A few businessmen approached us to see if Lena and I would fall for their tricks.

There were also those who sought opportunities to make contacts.

If it weren't for the delicious food, conversation with Cortana and Lena, and reading the chat, I could have died of boredom.

...

[3rd POV]

"Ara-Ara fufufu."

Rias heard and jumped in surprise. She turned around all of a sudden and saw Akeno's full chest.

"It seems someone is doing this again... live broadcast in front of their lover again? Why not in the nude?"

"Akeno..."

Rias' gaze became somewhat pouty.

"What?"

Akeno asked while arching her chest forward.

"Nothing... No, I'm not doing a live broadcast, but I'm watching it."

Rias turned back to the empty space. At least, that's how it looked to the Rias.

"Ah, watching."

Akeno whispered as if in disbelief.

"Issei-kun also likes to watch. Interesting guy..."

"Hmm, pervert."

Rias snorted with a smile.

"We have physical education soon... dozens of lustful gazes will be directed at our innocent bodies."

Akeno whispered directly into her ear causing Rias to flinch with flushed cheeks and snap at Akeno.

...

"The headmaster gave us full access to the library."

Hermione whispered while looking at dozens of previously unavailable books for her most of them related to dragons.

"You must be having fun..."

Harry said somewhat gloomily still upset about Ron's antics.

"Harry, don't worry about Ron, you know him. He'll cool down, think about everything, and apologize."

Hermione tried to sound confident.

Just recently, Ron made a scene in the common room over Harry's "betrayal."

It was loud, and some students even supported Ron's words.

Hermione herself was no longer so sure about Ron, but she didn't want to admit it to herself.

She had seen how he behaved in the Harry Potter books.

She took a deep breath, turned her gaze to the books, and her eyes dangerously sparkled.

...

"Boring..."

Shinoa muttered as she sat in the classroom while observing her target.

After seeing the "target" arguing with the teacher, she decided to do something. She wrote a few words on her notepad.

She tapped him on the back while he was looking at the teacher.

"Uh, what? Who are you?"

He frowned while looking confused.

Shinoa pointed to the notepad which read: "Shinoa Hiragi, Sergeant Army."

"Huh?"

"Hmm,"

Shinoa just pursed her lips. She'd rather be cutting down Grimm than dealing with all this.

"If you refuse to cooperate with me, I'll have to report you and extend your punishment."

Shinoa wrote.

"Uh, what... What does that mean?" -

The guy tried to protest.

"Hyakuya, you're trying to disrupt the lesson again?"

The teacher exclaimed angrily and threw the chalk on the floor in frustration.

"Shut up!"

Hyakuya exclaimed while loudly slapping the table with his palms and realizing who was sitting in front of him.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that!"

The teacher yelled back.

"Co-op-er-a-tion."

Shinoa said while looking at the troublemaker calmly.

"Hmm."

Yuichiro Hyakuya sighed heavily and sat back at his desk while Shinoa's eyes shifted to the Chat window.

"The punishment will continue until you make a friend."

Shinoa decided to show some mercy and tell him about it.

She could somewhat understand him. He's afraid to get close because he's afraid of losing someone close again.

She's more than familiar with that feeling... Only recently has she felt loose perhaps because of the ended whispering of her demon.

After that potion, he really quieted down and couldn't influence her anymore.

...

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