Chapter 412

It was impossible for Batman to be uncurious about magic; his nature compelled him to investigate everything thoroughly and prepare multiple solutions for every possible scenario.

Since meeting Constantine, he had labeled the man with two tags: an irredeemable scumbag, and a source of information on magic.

To investigate someone, you must first understand their routine and movements—and the best way to do that is to follow them.

Batman had encountered situations before where certain individuals frequented hard-to-describe places, or rather, investigating people in Gotham inevitably led to these locations.

These places inevitably involved industries that were not entirely legal, yet caused no surprise in Gotham.

The only exception was his psychology professor, whose two-point life made Batman even draft a contingency plan that he might be a robot; apart from this professor, everyone had small hobbies, and Bruce's friends were no different.

Harvey Dent liked pool and went to the game room with colleagues after work; Gordon went out drinking with coworkers and hunted in the countryside during free time; Catwoman, though a thief by profession, visited balls or amusement parks when not stealing; since all these places were owned by gangs, they all hosted illicit transactions.

When investigating these people, Batman usually chose to knock out those involved in such transactions; if things got too extreme, he'd confront the business owner—but these places played only a minor role in their lives.

But Constantine was different; these industries comprised his entire life.

Bars, dance halls, game rooms, casinos, pharmacies, red-light districts—Constantine moved through these places every day, without a single day off.

During the time Batman followed him, stopping the evil transactions at these places took far more effort than tracking Constantine himself.

More importantly, these places often carried unpleasant odors: the stench of alcohol in bars, smoke in casinos, and the thick, greasy reek of drug dens—even with odor-removal agents, Batman couldn't escape Alice's nose.

Alice was no ordinary child; her senses were extraordinarily sharp, possessing innate night vision and an olfactory sense far beyond human limits.

One night, Batman followed Constantine to an underground den where drug addicts gathered; because it was underground, he couldn't observe from another building and had to infiltrate himself.

There, he determined Constantine's usual dosage and confirmed he was a thoroughly deranged addict—but Batman himself also picked up some of that odor, and at the time, he had no idea what would happen when he returned home smelling like that.

That night, as usual, he slipped through the courtyard like a breeze, used his grapple to reach the balcony, and was just about to change clothes when he heard movement outside the door.

Batman instantly assumed a defensive stance; just as he moved toward the door, there was a loud "bang"—the entire door flew off its hinges, and Alice appeared outside, sniffing furiously before bursting into loud sobs.

Coincidentally, Catwoman Selina was also staying overnight at Wayne Manor; her bedroom was next to Batman's, and Alice had run out from there; hearing the cries, Selina rushed out.

At first, Selina didn't know why Alice was crying, but as she neared Batman, she scowled deeply, stepped back two paces, and said: "Did you go to those infamous drug dens in the North District? Do you have any idea how stinking you are right now?"

"My God! That smell makes me nauseous!" Selina clutched her neck, carrying Alice down the hallway as if unwilling to take a single step closer to Batman; she said, "I know you can't avoid these smells in Gotham, but don't you consider that you have two children at home?"

Selina's tone was furious, genuinely angry; although she was a thief, she despised drug addicts who got high and caused chaos, and she had a touch of cleanliness obsession, utterly loathing the stench of drugs.

Worse still, just three or four hours earlier, she had spent tremendous effort finally getting Alice to sleep—now she was woken again, crying violently.

It was like a mother exhausted from a full day of childcare, having finally subdued her difficult child into sleep—only for the father, reeking of alcohol, to burst into the bedroom and wake the child with his stench, causing her to scream in protest; clearly, that father was in for a world of trouble.

Moreover, the commotion had woken Dick; he attended a day school far from Wayne Manor and had to rise early the next morning—by this point, he'd clearly miss class.

After waking everyone in Wayne Manor, Batman had no choice but to go to the living room and face their condemnation; if he could explain to Selina that he'd gone there for investigation, he had no defense against Alfred.

To the butler, even if the sky fell, he could never set foot in such places.

As expected, Batman was scolded; though Alfred never berated him in the tone of a stern elder, only offering gentle advice, Batman knew he had better listen quietly and obey.

Since then, no one knew what agreement Alfred and Alice had reached, but Alice became a living detector; whenever she sensed Batman returning home late at night, she'd immediately approach, sniff him, and guess where he'd been.

If she detected any foul odor, she'd immediately scream, wake everyone, and trigger another midnight tribunal against Batman.

After his fear of bats, Batman felt he'd developed a fear of Alice; even seeing a little girl of similar size on the street made him want to detour around her.

Somehow, Batman found it increasingly difficult to utter cold, dismissive refusals to the people in Wayne Manor.

If he insisted on his own way, he could ignore all their noise, turn away, lock himself in his room, change into pajamas, and sleep—then resume his actions the next day; Alice, Dick, Catwoman, even Alfred, couldn't sway him.

But Batman thought perhaps, because he'd refused others too often, whenever he saw the faint light from his own nest, he felt those coldness and stubbornness gradually washed away.

So he acted like an adult pretending to join a children's play, adopting a clumsy, obviously fake childishness.

Or perhaps, he was the only true child in that children's play.

Alice's unusual condition wasn't noticed only by Batman; Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern who had come to Gotham due to the Yellow Lantern Ring, had also noticed it.

He had participated in the dream battle and knew how Alice was born; now he faced two problems.

First: Would Alice, transformed from the Yellow Lantern beast Parallax, pose a threat to cosmic security like other Yellow Lantern entities?

Second: Who had released Sinestro, the leader of the Yellow Lantern Corps?

These were the two investigation tasks assigned to Hal after he reported Gotham's events to the Green Lantern Corps; regarding the first question, Hal was somewhat dismissive.

Perhaps because the girl transformed from Parallax was cute and appeared harmless, and seemed more interested in finding something to chew on than threatening cosmic security, Hal didn't believe she could endanger the universe.

But Hal was still a rookie Green Lantern, still at the stage where he simply followed orders issued by the Green Lantern Corps.

So he had to surreptitiously watch Alice; fortunately, the Green Lantern Ring had many tracking functions—teleportation and invisibility—allowing him to follow a child without getting arrested.

Regarding the second question, Hal's investigation eventually led him to Constantine; among all the strange outsiders who had recently arrived in Gotham, only Constantine stood out, so while tracking Alice, he also began tracking Constantine.

But at the same time, Batman was also tracking Constantine, making it hard to tell whether Hal's actions were aimed at Constantine—or at Batman.

At first, Hal's operations went smoothly; no one in Gotham had ever seen him before, and no one knew the Green Lantern Ring's full capabilities—he moved freely through the city.

Batman, absorbed in investigating magic, had no time to care about him; after all, during the battle against the Fear Demon, he had been a comrade, and compared to Constantine—a mysterious, magic-wielding figure whose allegiance was unclear—Hal Jordan's priority was low.