Chapter 45 Chapter 45 What is Willow's situation like? ...

Ms. Green immediately obeyed. She waited for Elio to arrive, firmly pressing down on the spot he'd mentioned. It wasn't an easy task; those who hadn't done it before probably never understood the feeling. Wet blood continuously flowed from the wound, and the body beneath her palm was so warm and soft, its arteries pulsing, desperately trying to stay alive.

That's the feeling of "life".

Pressing it down was easy. But staying calm and not being frightened by the feeling that she might be watching life slip away from her fingers was not easy at all. Furthermore, Ms. Green was not a hard-hearted person.

She didn't dare move, fear and worry filling her chest, bringing tears to her eyes. Tears blurred her vision, but she didn't dare let go to wipe them away. She could only blink desperately, trying to see if Willow's bleeding had slowed down, if it had stopped, or if it was just an illusion caused by her fear. This was simply the most difficult time in the world to endure—

Finally, she heard heavy footsteps approaching. Without stopping, Elio burst through the door. In Ms. Green's hazy vision, he seemed to be almost gliding across the floor, rushing to Willow's side and falling to his knees.

"It's okay, Willow," he whispered. "You're going to be okay."

Ms. Green glanced behind him, blinking carefully. There was nothing there. He hadn't taken anything with him. Before Ms. Green could register how hopeless this looked, Elio reached out and placed his hand directly over the wound on Willow's abdomen.

Then, a miracle happened.

A golden light rose—it looked like a flame, but it wasn't hot, just warm. It was a gentle glow, and Ms. Green was drawn to it, her fingers slipping away from Willow's body without her noticing. But it had no effect. The magical light stopped the bleeding and even healed Willow's wound.

With a clang, a bullet squeezed out of the healed skin on her abdomen and fell to the ground.

"Wake up, Willow," Elio gently stroked her sweaty forehead, "Wake up, our little warrior."

Ms. Green wiped her tears. She didn't notice that her hands were covered in blood, nor did she notice that she had smeared her face; she just looked at Willow's pale face expectantly, and saw that under Elio's caress, her face gradually became rosy and full of vitality.

Finally, Willow opened her eyes. She glanced blankly at Elio and Ms. Green's faces, as if she hadn't realized what was happening. But then, she understood. Tears quickly filled her blue eyes.

"Elio! I knew you'd get there in time!"

Like an energetic puppy, she pounced into Elio's arms. When her brother was thrown to the ground, Ms. Green finally breathed a sigh of relief, sat down on her calves, and laughed at the brother and sister.

"Okay, Willow, okay." Elio pulled her away awkwardly. "We still have a lot of work to do."

Willow puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction at his disappointing words. But she also knew she'd caused Ms. Green a lot of trouble today, so she lay on the ground without a word, diligently cleaning up the horrible pool of blood she'd left behind (it looked undeniably like a murder scene). After washing her face, Ms. Green smiled and brought some underwear detergent, whispering something to her.

Elio didn't listen to their conversation. He rolled up his sleeves and, with Ms. Green's guidance, found the tool box in the kitchen and was repairing the door that Willow had kicked open.

“I had no idea you had so many skills,” Ms. Green said.

She came over, holding a bottle of iced cola she had just taken out of the refrigerator, and placed it on the counter next to Elio. When Elio looked at her, she raised an eyebrow at him and said, "I'd love to have you stay for dinner, but I guess you have a lot of things to do."

"Yes," Elio said, "and I really don't want to cause you any more trouble."

The door was fixed. Elio stepped back and gestured to Ms. Green. She stepped forward and tried opening and closing it a few times, then laughed.

“It works better now than before it was kicked,” she said. “Thank you, Elio.”

Elio apologized, "Don't say that, Ms. Green..."

"It's Miss Foster." She tilted her head. "I'm divorced." In the surprised look of Willow, she announced it again happily, "Don't say sorry! I have already sent my ex-husband to Blackgate Prison. That's the best place for him. I should be thanking you, Elio. If you hadn't told me that he was working for Quinn, I might not know what happened until I died."

"Who is Quinn?" Willow asked confusedly.

Miss Foster also looked at her, her expression becoming puzzled. When she looked at Elio again, she found that the young man had put his hand to his forehead and smiled.

"I'll tell you on the way, Willow," he said, then turned to Miss Foster. "Don't say that, Miss Foster. Your help to us is invaluable. Without you, I'm afraid we would—"

Elio paused. He didn't say the rest, partly because he couldn't imagine it, and partly because Miss Foster looked at him tenderly and shook her head slightly. Then Elio smiled again.

"I'm very grateful to you, Miss Foster," he said solemnly. "There's really nothing I can say to express my gratitude. I just hope you'll accept this." Elio took off a golden gemstone ring from his finger and handed it to Miss Foster's surprised eyes. "This is a weapon, not a romantic one. I hope you'll never need it, but..."

Miss Foster examined it. "Is this the weapon that just saved Willow?" She cautiously didn't finish her words, but Elio clearly understood her hint and nodded in agreement. This was the weapon that had saved Willow.

"It must have been very expensive, Elio," Miss Foster's expression grew serious. "And you'll have needed it far more often than I ever could. You don't need to thank me like that, son. I just did what anyone should do in that situation."

"But not everyone can do that," Elio said. He held it out, insisting that Miss Foster accept it, with a quick glance at Willow. Willow, receiving the signal, paused for a moment, then immediately understood and joined in the persuasion. Soon, Miss Foster surrendered to the two good students and put on the ring.

"You can't deny it's beautiful, Miss Foster," Willow said with a grin.

Miss Foster smiled too. She touched Willow's face tenderly with her ringless hand.

"Are you sure you're not staying for dinner?" she asked again.

·

Elio and Willow set off under the cover of darkness. The young girl sat in the passenger seat, clutching the dessert Miss Foster had packed for them. When she opened it, Elio's nose perked up slightly, taking in the aroma of whipped cream, eggs, and crispy toast.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Open your mouth." Willow stuffed an egg tart into his mouth. "Can you tell me what happened now?"

Elio grumbled twice and replied vaguely, "...It's a long story."

The traffic light flashed red. They stopped at the intersection. Elio swallowed his food and glanced toward the passenger seat. Willow was looking back.

“We have plenty of time now,” she said.

Elio turned his head, gripping the steering wheel and keeping his eyes level with the road ahead.

"…It all started that day," he said slowly, "the day I didn't pick you up from school in time. Quinn's gang kidnapped you and Miss Foster, and Graham disappeared trying to save you. You know most of what happened next."

Willow didn't say anything. The light turned green, and Elio stepped on the accelerator steadily. The lights and signs of fast food restaurants flashed past the car window.

"As for Miss Foster, I guess this is what you want to ask. Her husband—her ex-husband worked for Quinn. After discovering that she was secretly informing Batman, he decisively betrayed her."

Willow kicked her legs in anger. "Damn man!" Then she realized what Elio had just said. "Wait, you said Miss Foster works for Batman?"

“Maybe, maybe not,” Elio said, his expression unchanged. “I didn’t ask her, so all this is just my speculation. You’d better not ask her, Willow. Just because she brought it up doesn’t mean she wants to be asked.”

“I’m not going to ask her,” Willow muttered, fiddling with her phone. “I’m not that stupid.”

Elio glanced at her with a smile, only to be met with a sharp shrewd roll of his eyes in return. She added casually, "He's definitely not good enough for her. I knew that even back when I was in school."

The tires slid gently over the puddles on the side of the road. Elio listened to Willow confidently list every little detail she had observed, nodding occasionally to show that he was listening carefully.

"I think she's much happier now," Willow concluded.

"That's great," Elio said. "But what are you buying?"

"I saw a beautiful gold and gemstone necklace earlier," Willow said, "It would be perfect for the ring you gave her."

Elio glanced back at her. Willow looked straight at Elio.

"...I'll be clear," Elio turned his head and looked away. "I have no intention of interfering or disciplining you. But where do you get the money?"

"When you say that, dear brother, you're disciplining me," Willow said briskly, her fingers dancing on the keyboard. "Don't worry, Elio, I have my own way."

That's what I was worried about, Elio thought. He turned the steering wheel wordlessly.

"I haven't even asked you where the car came from," Willow pointed out. "You might not have noticed, but we're sitting in a brand new tin box worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The tires on this thing could fetch a pretty penny!"

Elio was speechless.

“…It came from a friend of mine.” He said this at last, not daring to meet Willow’s sharp eyes.

"A friend, huh?"

"A friend, that's all," Elio suggested awkwardly. "You should get some sleep. When you wake up, we'll be in New York."

Willow snorted softly, but still let him go. She finished her egg tart, clapped her hands, adjusted the position of the chair, and lay down. But after a while, she remembered something and suddenly opened her eyes.

"All my efforts to be nice to Miss Foster were in vain," she complained gloomily.

"You don't have to pretend to be good." Elio coaxed her against his will.

"Are you serious?"

But soon, Willow became obedient again. She said nothing, but rolled her eyes, sometimes looking at the increasingly prosperous and wide road outside the window, and sometimes looking at Elio who was concentrating on driving, trying to judge from his expression that never changed whether he was joking or not.

Elio kept a straight face and tried hard not to laugh. Even though it was his first time there, Willow's fidgeting helped him calm down.

The tall building with a capital A on it soon appeared before them.

Under Willow's incredulous gaze, Elio calmly drove all the way and even drove directly into the underground parking lot. Normally, that passage was closed, but when Elio reached the door, the camera nodded to him and the door opened.

"Elio," Willow even stammered as she got out of the car. She grabbed her older brother and whispered to him, "Tell me the truth, where are we?"

Elio laughed. He patted Willow's head. Before he could reply, a light flickered on in an elevator not far from them. The doors opened, and a red-haired woman in a black vest and black leather jacket emerged. When she saw Elio and Willow—whose heads snapped up almost simultaneously, the latter staring at her in shock, her mouth open—she smiled.

"Welcome to the Avengers," Natasha said, "Assassins."

Elio was about to speak when he hissed. Willow, overly excited, pinched him accidentally, though she didn't notice it.

"It's the Black Widow!" Her face flushed red as she screamed softly, "Brother, she's the Black Widow!!! Pinch me! I think I'm dreaming!"

Natasha looked from Willow to Elio, and her smile turned teasing.

"Honestly, I think it's enough for one of us to know we're not dreaming," Elio whispered, taking her hand. He then addressed Natasha, "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Romanoff. I'm Elio Smith, and this is my sister, Willow Walker. She's one of the main reasons I came here for help."

Willow calmed down a bit. She loosened her grip and looked up at Elio. Natasha, who had approached, extended her hand and shook Elio's. She also lowered her hand to shake Willow's. "Just call me Natasha. We've already heard the details from the Brotherhood."

They entered the elevator, Willow following Elio like a little tail. Natasha pressed the floor button. "We expected you to come earlier. Did something happen on the way?"

"Just a little accident," Elio said.

"I'm glad they didn't stop you," Natasha said, "otherwise Tony would have flown over to find you."

Elio felt that if Hydra knew this, they would be the ones who would be happy. But he didn't say anything because Willow suddenly pinched his hand again. He didn't need to look down to know that her face must be flushed with excitement again.

That was a good thing, Elio thought, as he calmly squeezed Willow's fingers, because it meant Willow hadn't taken the previous attack and the hunt seriously. She was a strong girl, but it would have been better if she had been a little gentler when pinching her brother.

Elio smiled at this. Natasha smiled back at the siblings and was the first to leave the elevator.

"Tony, your guests," she said loudly, "will this at least pull you out of the lab for a while?"

"What guests?" An impatient voice came from the speakers above them, with the sound of hammers hitting metal in the background. "If it's those agents again, tell them to get lost, Xiaona, unless they have solid evidence that proves I'm connected to some mysterious assassin organization!"

"Actually, Tony," Natasha said, suppressing a laugh, "they're the assassins."

The sound of the hammer suddenly stopped.

"Don't mind it," Natasha turned around and said to the brother and sister, "He's just annoyed by S.H.I.E.L.D."

A clanking sound echoed over the speakers. As the sound approached, a figure dressed in overalls burst from the lab. He removed his transparent welding goggles and strode toward them. "Finally! I almost thought you'd fallen down the rabbit hole between Blüdhaven and New York. So you're Oreo, right?"

If Elio hadn't caught a glimpse of Natasha shooting a disapproving look from the side, he'd almost thought he'd misheard. But just as he raised an eyebrow in question, Tony changed his tone, decisively betraying the other assassin who wasn't present. "Sorry, it's Elio, right? It's that guy Arlot who keeps calling you that. It's not my fault."

Elio nodded slowly.

Although he had never met the assassin Alvin had spoken of, Elio was impressed. After all, Allot had given Elio, his brother's student, a "welcome gift" he had never met, a chest of gold coins. Each one was worth a million dollars.

"Is he here?" Elio asked casually. "I never got a chance to see him."

"Oh, he's here," Tony said, glancing at the girl beside Elio who was staring at him intently. "But he's still in the machine, so you won't see him for a while. And this young lady—"

"Wait a minute," Elio interrupted. "You said he was in a machine? What machine?"

Tony, who was pulling another pair of glasses from his pocket, gave him an equally surprised look.

"He didn't tell you?" Tony put on the glasses, and blue lines and numbers lit up on his glasses. "Damn it, I'm not surprised at all. You didn't always think he was still in Australia?" He said, but it was obvious that his attention had shifted completely to Willow.

"Hey girl," Tony greeted her, "What's your name?"

He raised his fist and playfully bumped it with Willow. Elio had never seen Willow's face turn red so many times in one day. She almost dropped her phone when she pulled it out and sheepishly asked Iron Man to take a picture with her. Of course, he agreed and even posed for several pictures.

"It's an assassin training program proposed by Arlot," Natasha told Elio appropriately. "He hopes the new generation of assassins can use it. By entering the Animus consciousness, they can learn from the assassin mentors throughout history and, of course, perhaps even experience their stories."

Elio watched Willow and Tony's interaction while trying to listen to Natasha. When she finished speaking, Elio turned and looked at her.

“…You mean,” he concluded uncertainly, “that Arlot is working on an Assassin’s Creed VR pack?”

"That's what he calls it, too." Natasha winked at him. "To be honest, it's quite amusing."

"So Alote is actually playing games?"

"As for this one," Natasha shrugged, "he calls it 'Finding Programming Issues in the Detection Kit.'"

Elio hesitated, then burst out laughing. "That's a really important job."

"Yeah," Natasha replied seriously. "You know, Assassin's Creed always has its fair share of little glitches. But that's part of its character, I guess. After all, you can't fly a ship into the sky anywhere else."

"Or maybe when you jump into a haystack, you find its 'texture' is much harder than you imagined." Elio said solemnly. "Honestly, I've always suspected that this actually means the Templars were smart enough to plant pitchforks in it."

Natasha couldn't help laughing. "So what made you dispel this doubt?"

"It's simple," Elio shrugged. "I just found out they're really not that smart."

"So you don't have a specific Templar 'enemy'?" Tony stood up and gestured for them to follow him. "Like Arlot?"

Elio followed confusedly, "Sorry, what?"

"'Fated enemies,' or 'destined enemies,'" Tony, who was walking in front, waved his hand casually, "or whatever you want to call this kind of relationship that looks like a gay relationship."

Elio was even more confused. Natasha remained silent, her head lowered, her hand covering her mouth. But the assassin easily spotted her smirk, and when he looked at Willow and saw her eyebrow raised, Elio's confusion almost overflowed.

"…Should I have?" he said uncertainly. "I thought the enemy was just an enemy and would just turn into a corpse in the end?"

"Oh, nothing, innocent boy, forget what I said." Tony turned his head and looked at him, "So you don't know Galahad, the Templar from Chicago? Because logically, he should be your 'senior brother'."

Of course Elio knew him. Just as he was confusedly trying to decipher the amount of information revealed in these few words, Tony took two steps back, gave him a subtle look, and then glanced behind them in what seemed to be Natasha's direction. Elio suppressed his instinct to turn his head, but his ears couldn't help but prick up.

Behind them, Natasha asked briskly, "I'm getting hungry, Tony. What's for tea today?"

"I don't know," the actual provider of afternoon tea replied frankly. He snapped his fingers and called out the name of the AI, prompting the British-accented voice above them to chime in. "Good afternoon, Ms. Romanoff. Please allow me to introduce today's tea. Food includes smoked salmon rolls, finger sandwiches, and more. Desserts include macarons, fruit tarts, chocolate truffles, and red velvet cake. Drinks include black tea, iced tea, and fruit and flower tea. Do they suit your taste today?"

"Perfect," Natasha said. "Too bad I can't eat them all. Would you mind helping me with some, Willow? Just a little bit would be great."

Elio turned around at just the right moment. Seeing Willow's excited expression, his heavy mood lifted a little. He smiled nonchalantly and said, "Go ahead, Willow. I'll join you later if there's room."

Willow, relieved, followed Natasha. Their voices faded away, and Elio followed Tony deeper into the hallway. They didn't speak a word along the way. Only when Tony led him into a room and closed the door did he speak.

"I scanned her brain," Tony said straight to the point, "this..."

Before he could finish his words, a distinct mechanical sound rang out from the corner. They turned their heads and saw a mechanical arm emerging from the pile of parts and rummaging around.

Maybe he should have ignored this small detail, but it was so huge. Elio couldn't help but ask, "What is that?"

"Oh, never mind it." Tony scratched his neck and turned to shout at it, "We don't need wine! Go back and lie down, little idiot!"

As Elio watched silently, the mechanical hand dropped, looking almost human-like in its frustration. It stopped, then returned to its original path, burying itself with a rumble.

As the mechanical arm moved, Tony sighed helplessly.

"Sorry," he said, "it only takes the words literally."

"That's alright, let's get to the point, Mr. Stark," Elio said. "What's going on with Willow?"

"To be honest, it's a little complicated."

Tony placed his hands on the table, looking across at Elio, who had fallen silent. The assassin's emotional curves were clearly visible on his transparent glasses. Tony didn't want to see this, so he immediately took them off and switched to the previous page.

"How complicated is it?" Elio simply asked.

"First of all, this is the brain structure of a normal person," Tony grabbed the lens from the air and threw the data and pictures into the air, "and this is the brain structure of your daughter."

Elio stared at the dioramas, speechless, spinning in the air. He needed no prior knowledge to see the stark difference between the two.

"And this," Tony tossed out a third one, "is from the last unfortunate guy who got brainwashed by Hydra. I don't want to mention his name, and you'd better not ask, but it's the closest brain I could find to Willow's situation."

"They do look alike," Elio muttered. "So, the owner of this brain..."

He didn't dare finish his words, fearing a negative answer. Elio looked at Tony eagerly, who clearly couldn't stand this and uttered a "tsk".

"That guy's been brainwashed longer than both of our ages combined," Tony pointed at Elio and himself. "He's still alive and well. He didn't look like a centenarian when he was fighting with the captain for dessert. And from what I know, Elio, your girl has only been brainwashed for a few months and still retains her consciousness - so, listen, there's no reason why she can't return to normal."

Elio didn't speak immediately. He placed his hands on the edge of the table, just as Tony had done earlier, and lowered his head deeply. His drooping black hair obscured his expression, and Tony could only hear him take a slow, deep breath.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark." Elio looked up again. "What you just said means a lot to me."

"I know, but don't think I'm just comforting you," Tony pointed at him arrogantly, "When others say it's 'a little complicated,' you can suspect they're idiots who are incapable of solving the problem and dare not admit it. But me? I'm a genius. When I say it's 'a little complicated,' I mean it's just 'a little complicated.'"

Before Elio could speak, he quickly projected another bunch of brains.

"I've studied the modifications Hydra made to those people," Tony said, "including the assassins. Those damn bastards never gave up on 'improving' their technology, so every time, I would find that their 'system' had been upgraded, but every time, I was able to defeat them."

"You rescued those assassins." Elio looked at him.

"If that's what you mean," Tony said simply. "So, look here, Willow's brain structure suggests someone else was involved in this Hydra modification experiment. I can handle this little thing myself, but if you could find this guy, or even just get their research data, it would make my repair process a little more reliable."

Elio looked hesitant.

"…You didn't kill them all," Tony tilted his head to confirm with him, "right?"

Elio pondered.

"You killed them all," Tony confirmed deadpanly. "I should have known. What about their research?"

Elio laughed. He pulled a USB drive from his pocket and placed it on the table. "It's all here. I hope you don't mind the amount of stuff in there. I don't know what I'll need."

Tony looked at the USB drive, then at Elio, then gave him a thumbs-up. "Good job, Oreo!"

"…It's Elio, Mr. Stark."

"Oh sorry, slip of the tongue."

Tony casually said this, tapping the USB drive in mid-air. The data within immediately appeared in the air, pouring down like a waterfall. Tony was immediately absorbed by it, occasionally grabbing a paragraph and mentioning it to the side. "Alright, young man, I'm here. Go have afternoon tea with your sister."

A heavy weight lifted from Elio's heart. He breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to leave the room to enjoy afternoon tea, just as Iron Man had said. But as soon as he lifted his foot, another question popped up.

"Where's the Ring?" Elio asked, turning back. "Alvin asked me to give it to you."

Tony suddenly stopped grabbing the data. The text data continued to flow in mid-air until Tony came to his senses and rewound the progress as if nothing had happened.

"I must have been distracted. Tell me again, Elio," Tony looked up to confirm, "I thought I heard something about the Lord of the Rings?"

"You heard me right, Mr. Stark. I'm talking about the Lord of the Rings."

Elio pulled the ring from his collar. Tony looked at it, his mouth wide open in shock.

"Is this the 'Lord of the Rings'?" He pointed at it in disbelief, almost jumping up and down in panic like a medieval church member who had just heard the idea of ​​heliocentrism. "The one from The Lord of the Rings? And it's a damned Artifact of Eden?"

"...Yes," Elio replied blankly, "Didn't Alvin mention this to you?"

Tony stared at the little thing, speechless. The dark blue data reflected on his face, and Iron Man's expression changed rapidly, and finally he cursed softly.

"Damn it! He actually trusted me with the Artifact of Eden!" Tony stamped his foot and paced around the room anxiously. "Yes, he did tell me that, but I thought he was joking. The Ring in The Lord of the Rings was an artifact created by the Isu. What kind of genius could come up with such a rubbish? It's only been a short time, and the Brotherhood has the audacity to send me another Artifact of Eden!"

"What?" Elio was completely confused. "What are you talking about?"

Tony stopped in his tracks.

"Did you hear about the disaster in Sokovia, young man?" he whispered.

"I heard," Elio recalled, "that an out-of-control robotic monster lifted it into the sky, but before it could fall, you saved Sokovia from it."

Tony didn't say anything. Looking at his back, Elio suddenly realized something.

"...that so-called 'out-of-control mechanical monster,'" Tony said with his back to him, "I built it myself."

"What?!"

"The Brotherhood sent me an Artifact of Eden. A golden Apple," Tony said stiffly. "I wouldn't say that was the main reason, but it all started that day. At first, I just recorded and experimented with the knowledge it told me, which was ahead of its time… I was so immersed in the lab and my new inventions that no one realized what was happening. Except Bruce. But I was too proud to listen to his advice."

Elio stared at his back in surprise. He had a premonition of what Iron Man was going to say.

"…and then, it was born," Tony said. "I built it to protect the world." He gave a ridiculous laugh. "And apparently, it interpreted protecting the world as destroying the world. So, the Sokovia incident happened."

He finally turned around, glaring at Elio with red eyes.

"Now tell me, Assassin," Tony stared at him. "Do you think you could trust a Piece of Eden to a man like that? Huh? A murderer who nearly destroyed the world? Look, I don't know what Alvin is thinking, but you better take that talking ring back—for all intents and purposes—and have him find someone else to keep it!"

Elio looked at him. After a moment, as if understanding something, he put the ring back into his collar. Tony stopped talking and waved him away, calmly returning his attention to the information in the air. But Elio didn't leave.

"Mr. Stark," he said, "you are not the murderer."

Tony scoffed, "Go away."

"Honestly, you're not a murderer at all," Elio said. "You just wanted to protect the world so badly that you accidentally made a mistake. The murderer who wanted to destroy the world wasn't you, but that out-of-control mechanical monster. You can't just shoulder the responsibility for it because it's your creation—OK, you do have some responsibility, but everyone knows you're a hero! What the hell, you're the one who saved people!"

He gradually raised his voice. Tony looked up, his expression a mixture of surprise and annoyance.

"Listen, Tony Stark," Elio crossed his arms, "I'm the one who did the killing. No one knows what it means to be a murderer better than I do."

"Did you mean to call me by my full name?" Tony asked incredulously.

"Never mind, it's not important," Elio said. "You have to know, there are really a lot of murderers on the loose, Stark—"

"Did you just call me by my last name?"

"—And then there are the mercenaries, the mafia, and those indestructible psychopaths called 'supervillains,'" Elio deadpanned. "As soon as they show even a hint of repentance and a tendency toward goodness, people are eager to forgive them, yet when it comes to judging heroes, they're incredibly picky. Honestly, only people with moral integrity would willingly be held hostage by it, Stark. From that perspective, I sincerely hope you're as much of a jerk as you say you are."

Tony stared at him, speechless. The mechanical arm that had been in the corner creaked and poked its head out again, looking at Elio, who was talking loudly, and then at its master.

"But sadly, you didn't." Elio nodded at it and stepped back a few steps to the door. "You could have said you were my sister's last hope for recovery and silenced me, or at least made me respect you a little. But why didn't you?"

Tony gaped at him, speechless. He wanted to say that even a jerk like him wouldn't say such a thing to a brother worried about his sister's illness, but he didn't have the chance to say it because Elio smiled at him.

"You're a hero, Iron Man," Elio whispered. "Everyone knows it except you."

Then, the assassin who had the audacity to lecture Iron Man in the Avengers Tower opened the door and left leisurely. Iron Man was left standing alone in the room, the data in the air already flowing to an unknown page.

His face slowly turned red.

"Are you alright, sir?" the AI ​​asked. The ever-loyal AI, named after his father's butler, the one that nearly perished during the Sokovia incident. "I'm detecting an elevated heart rate, dilated facial blood vessels, and slight sweating in your palms. Do you need Miss Potts?"

"No, no need." Tony came back to his senses. "It's not that thing that's happening."

"Yes, sir," the AI ​​said gently. "Cancel the call to Miss Potts. I'm always available if you'd like to chat."

Tony let out a long breath and sat down at the table.

"Of course I know you've always been here," he muttered, wiping the sweat from his palms onto his thighs. "I created you."

"Yes, sir."

"Did you hear what that guy just said?" Tony said.

"I heard everything, sir," the AI ​​said. "Would you like to hear my opinion?"

"What's your opinion?" Tony dragged the data forward and pretended to be nonchalant as he resumed his work. "Okay, tell me and surprise me."

The AI ​​chuckled softly. It sounded like it had self-awareness, like it was very gentle and had a human heart.

"I couldn't agree more with what Mr. Smith said, sir," he said. "You are a true hero. I'm glad to be of service to you."

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The author has something to say: I was wondering why I didn’t see any announcements after opening it several times. It turns out that I didn’t open the announcement button, haha… (Falling to the ground

P.S. I'd like to ask if the current green cover looks glaring? If many readers find it glaring, I'll adjust the color...