Chapter 9 Serious Mistake: What does it mean to be at the top of the food chain? (Tactics...)
Although Bruce protested, his protests were clearly ineffective.
Because Alfred is their guardian, only he can decide whether Thomas can start school early.
“There’s one more thing, Mr. Bruce.”
Alfred said, "I know you're in a lot of pain, but I would have preferred to let me know before making any important or risky decisions."
Alfred kept his expectations low, hoping that Bruce wouldn't be as eccentric as Thomas Jr., or at least not do everything himself before informing him.
That would be a real test for an old man's heart. Recently, Alfred's most frequent nightmare is that young Thomas suddenly pops up and tells the poor butler that he has already accomplished all sorts of messy and inappropriate tasks such as bribing senators, threatening newspapers, and manipulating gangs, and has become the master of Gotham.
Bruce seemed to want to refuse, but he eventually agreed.
“I want to investigate who was behind my parents’ deaths.” He clenched his fist. “I don’t believe it, I don’t believe no one was behind it.”
“I will do everything I can to help you,” Alfred said. “Do you have anyone you suspect, Master Bruce?”
“The Court of Owls,” he answered firmly.
"Young Master Bruce, do you have any clues?"
Alfred did not ignore Bruce's words, even though the Court of Owls was an urban legend in Gotham.
He believed that Bruce would not treat the truth lightly; he must have some evidence.
“My ancestors,” Bruce said, “left behind some information about the Court of Owls.”
Alfred nodded, looking at Bruce sitting opposite him: "I will do everything I can to help you, Master Bruce."
“Can we investigate tonight?” Bruce clenched his fist. “Tomorrow is their funeral, and I hope they…”
“No,” Alfred said seriously. “Don’t underestimate any enemy. Besides, if the Court of Owls can really exist in Gotham for so long without a trace, it can’t be a simple little organization. Acting rashly would be dangerous. I need to make a plan in advance.”
“I’m not afraid of danger,” Bruce said firmly.
"...At least think of young Thomas."
This reminded Bruce of Thomas's promise.
"As long as you still need me, I will not leave on my own."
Bruce cannot be allowed to die. If he dies, Isaiah Thomas will be next.
He exhaled and nodded solemnly.
"So the day after tomorrow you may have to have a fight with young Thomas, or at least you need to appear very angry."
"Why?"
Bruce was quite puzzled. Alfred was definitely the one who most wanted harmony in the Wayne family, and he preferred to nip all disputes in the bud.
“We can’t let young master Thomas know about this, and you need a reason to act independently.”
For example, when a child throws a tantrum.
“…But I don’t know how to argue with Tommy.” Bruce was at a loss. “We’ve never argued before.”
"Really?" Alfred asked back.
No, Bruce did lose his temper with Thomas, but he couldn't say it out loud.
He was determined not to let anyone know about Thomas's unusual behavior, including his premonition of doom, his skillful handling of firearms, and his inexplicable chatter in the alley... He couldn't let Alfred know these things, at least not now.
He worried that if Alfred found out about Thomas's unusual behavior, it would drive these two people closest to him further apart.
Bruce didn't dare take the risk, so he didn't say a word, which resulted in Alfred being completely unaware of Thomas's self-destructive tendencies.
“Really.” Bruce put on his best acting. “We’ve never argued.”
At most, Bruce was just unilaterally angry at Isaiah Thomas, while Isaiah Thomas simply ignored him. This doesn't count as an argument, so what Bruce said just now wasn't a lie.
“Then I’ll teach you,” Alfred said. “When you’re using this as an excuse, you can imagine young Thomas disregarding his own safety…”
Bruce's eyes widened, and anger was clearly visible on his face.
"If you can't perform well, just point out Thomas's past mistakes."
“I understand, Alfred.”
Actually, Alfred's intention was for Bruce to put himself in his shoes and try to understand Alfred and Thomas's anger when they saw him disregard his own safety.
At the same time, give young Thomas a gentle nudge, telling him not to lie so blatantly. Let him know that if he continues to hide the truth, the two brothers will definitely have a serious fight.
By the way, I can legitimately fulfill the requests of my two children, making them think that I'm keeping it from them, and giving them space to do their own things.
In short, thanks to Alfred's efforts, this plan, which was full of information asymmetry, was about to continue.
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Four-Year-Old Murderer: Possessed by Demons or Born Evil?
Thomas Jr. flipped through today's newspaper with little interest.
Yesterday was the Wayne couple's funeral. Thomas Jr. didn't know how to react to their deaths, so he could only stand aside with a straight face, but Bruce really cried until midnight.
So Thomas Jr. wasn't very energetic today; his four-year-old body is still too weak.
He groggily examined today's Gotham Daily headline, knowing from the title who it was about. The report, while covering the Wayne couple's funeral, interspersed numerous conspiracy theories, creatively proposing a famous urban legend that would resonate throughout Gotham in the future—
Thomas Wayne Jr.'s theory of demonic possession.
The author (whose professional qualities probably don't qualify him to be called a journalist) in the article "indignantly" "revealed" the "facts" that four-year-old Thomas hired someone to kill and silence the murderer, with the evidence being that Thomas didn't shed a single tear at the Wayne couple's funeral yesterday.
Thomas could tell at a glance that someone must have given him a push behind the scenes.
But he couldn't be bothered to use business or legal means to subdue the other party. It was too inefficient, and wealthy people who could live well in Gotham would never leave any obvious evidence, but this guy wasn't worth Thomas Jr. seriously investigating.
Based on Isaiah Thomas's experience, guys who have the initial advantage in Gotham but only use public opinion to intimidate others are generally not very dangerous.
Dealing with a four-year-old with only newspapers, and not even willing to send an assassin first... It's a waste of time, energy, and everything to bother with such a useless person, while Thomas's time and energy are obviously very precious.
Let's wait. It's not too late to deal with them after the Night Owls are "born" in a few years.
For the next few years, he only planned to focus on his "small setups" in Gotham. There were very few things a four-year-old could do independently; he could only wait for Alfred to help him complete those three tasks. He planned to utilize the laboratory and construction facilities…
A hand snatched the newspaper from Thomas's hand, waking him from his plan.
His azure eyes glanced at the trashy newspaper briefly, then angrily tore it into pieces.
“It’s so annoying,” Bruce said with disgust. “Why can’t these reporters do something useful? I think the Gotham Daily should just change its name to “The Fantasy Gotham” (1). I’ve never seen the truth published in this newspaper.”
...Actually, it's not exactly a lie. If we exclude cosmic errors or something, this is the truth.
That's terrifying, a Gothamite's intuition tells me.
Alfred was standing a step behind Bruce, making a phone call to unsubscribe from all the newspapers.
Thomas Jr. tried to stop him, after all, as a de facto adult, a few words couldn't hurt him at all.
In fact, even in Gotham on Earth III, there are bold individuals who openly curse Nite Owl, but Nite Owl doesn't care about the voices of these incompetents (although he will hang their corpses up to show them off in order to emphasize his absolute authority in Gotham). A few bland guesses cannot have any effect on Thomas's empty core.
However, unsubscribing from the newspapers would have a significant impact, meaning that Thomas would be unable to efficiently and accurately grasp the direction of Gotham (not to control Gotham's intelligence; these Gotham newspapers report facts inaccurately, but they are very convenient for interpreting the situation in Gotham; just see who the lies are leaning towards today).
But his protests were equally ineffective. There can only be one sun in the sky, and Alfred was the only guardian in the household.
For a long time afterward, Thomas didn't see a newspaper at Wayne Manor.
Without newspapers to analyze, Thomas was at a loss for what to do. He had already read almost all the books in his study, so he simply started organizing his plans in his mind, thinking about how to perfectly control this Gotham universe.
Isaiah Thomas was indeed thinking calmly and rationally, but in Bruce's eyes, he was just spacing out.
Bruce always felt he couldn't let Thomas Jr. have such wild thoughts on his own. He subconsciously felt that Thomas Jr.'s thinking would be extreme (and indeed, Thomas Jr.'s thinking was extreme), and that he might even think about suicide again...
Bruce looked to Alfred for help with his eyes.
Alfred understood immediately.
"Young Master Thomas, today we're going to make Turkish delight."
Thomas looked at Alfred.
He knew immediately that this was definitely not Bruce's idea.
Bruce was probably thinking of rushing outside to find the mastermind behind the Wayne couple's deaths, or going to the study to painstakingly search through the documents Thomas had left behind, looking for any clues. But whatever he was thinking, he had absolutely no leisure to make candy.
Is this your plan, Alfred? Your plan to expose my true colors?
He met the gaze of Alfred, who was standing behind Bruce.
Alfred remained calm and mouthed to Thomas, "For the sake of your company, stall Bruce."
……All right.
Alfred took out a piece of paper and handed one to Bruce: "This is the recipe I got from the doctor. I have to go out for a bit. If you want to try doing something with young Thomas, you can weigh out the ingredients and I'll make the syrup when I get back."
He added, "I've already checked, and all the ingredients are in the pantry."
Bruce turned around abruptly.
Wait! Alfred, where are you going?
Alfred winked at him and mouthed to Bruce, "Investigate the Court of Owls and stall young Master Thomas."
Bruce turned around, looked at Thomas somewhat guiltily, and said hesitantly, "Tommy, I really want to eat it."
...You're overdoing it, Mr. Bruce.
Fortunately, Isaiah Thomas almost never refuses Bruce.
He stood up from the sofa, took the recipe from Bruce, and carefully read it through. Then, calmly, he rolled up the paper and stuffed it into his pocket: "I understand. We should prepare the sugar and lemons first."
He made a huge mistake.
The doctor gave me classic Turkish delight, which is rose-flavored.
Alfred wanted him to be honest immediately, or to keep it a secret until the time bomb exploded completely.
...As expected of you, Alfred.
As expected of you.
A note from the author:
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Surprisingly, little Isaiah Thomas made a mistake by not eating enough candy. He subconsciously assumed all pink candies were strawberry flavored. But when I searched for handmade pink Turkish delight, I found rose, dragon fruit, and pomegranate flavors, but no strawberry.
Butler, the Wayne family's most informed person, easily manipulates the Wayne brothers. [Sunglasses]
They won't have a serious argument because, although Bruce does have a temper, he's mostly faking it. And Isaiah Thomas won't get angry with Bruce over something like this.
While browsing American Psycho today, I suddenly had an idea: Bateman would be absolutely devastated if he saw Bateman. I'm going to write about that in my next post!
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1. A reference to "The Strange and Wonderful Tales," a famous bizarre magazine.
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