Alfred Pennyworth, in the standard Batman worldview, is a former British intelligence agent.
Ethan didn't know if The Dark Knight Trilogy adopted this setting, but seeing how easily Alfred could load a fully armed Bruce Wayne into a car and save him back home, it was clear that this white-haired old man was physically robust.
In other words, he could definitely use a gun to take down any intruders.
"Don't be nervous, and I must emphasize, I am not a liar."
Ethan waved his hand, seemingly defending himself, but his behavior of completely ignoring Alfred and continuing to walk towards the door still put Alfred on high alert.
He retreated, drew his gun, and aimed in one fluid motion.
Under normal circumstances, even a strong young man would immediately feel tense when facing the dark muzzle of a gun.
What Alfred didn't expect was that Ethan completely ignored the weapon he was holding, and in the blink of an eye, suddenly appeared before him from several meters away.
Ethan placed his hand on the gun Alfred was holding up. It was a very ordinary small-caliber revolver, typically used for self-defense, with not much stopping power.
With Ethan's current physical strength, even if he stood there and let Alfred empty all the bullets into him, it wouldn't cause him any real harm.
But let's forget about such a bloody and exciting performance. Not only would dealing with the blood be troublesome, but more importantly, his clothes would be ruined.
"We mean no harm."
Ethan gently raised his hand, not taking the pistol away. Alfred had felt Ethan's strength just now; if the other party had forcibly taken his weapon, he would have been completely unable to resist.
In that instant, he had thought of many subsequent actions, including attacking Ethan's vital points while he was off guard, but he hadn't had time to make a move.
"What exactly do you want?"
"We're just looking for Bruce Wayne." Ethan wagged a finger. "I know you're going to say Bruce Wayne isn't home right now, and I also said I know how to find him."
"By using something Master Bruce once used?"
"Yes."
Ethan stepped back slightly, putting some distance between himself and Alfred again.
"You can go inside and get the item, I can wait here."
Although Alfred still didn't believe Ethan's words, he also wanted to figure out what this person was trying to do. He thought for a moment, and finally said he would retrieve something Master Bruce had used, just asking them to wait here for a moment.
Seeing Ethan nod in agreement, Alfred turned and went back into the mansion, leaving Ethan and Tony outside the door.
Neither Ethan nor Tony minded this situation; they even had the leisure to discuss the environment of the estate.
"Although it's not as grand as yours, there's a unique charm to these old estates."
"With your financial resources, buying a similar one shouldn't be difficult."
"It's not difficult, but why would I buy one?"
Although Tony was rich and willful, he wasn't someone who wasted money on pointless things. If his family liked this style of estate and lived in it often, he would certainly buy one.
But just thinking it's nice and buying it to leave it sitting there... he wasn't interested in that at all.
While the two of them were sightseeing here, Alfred had come out again, holding a few miscellaneous items in his hand. He walked into the courtyard towards Ethan and handed the pile of things in his hand to Ethan.
"I'm very curious how you plan to find Master Bruce with these things."
Ethan returned Alfred a smile.
"I'm not going to hide anything strange I do from you; you can watch here."
"I wasn't planning on leaving anyway."
Among the items Ethan held, only one handkerchief had been used by Bruce Wayne before. The rest were just randomly picked up in the mansion.
Seeing that the young man didn't ask him to step away, Alfred stood nearby and watched Ethan sorting through the items.
"You can call me Ethan." Ethan appeared to be simply rummaging through the items, but in reality, he was using magic to sense the original owner of the object.
These items were more or less tainted with the presence of many people, but only two items carried the most presence of a specific person.
One was a handkerchief, and the other was a fountain pen.
Ethan first glanced at the fountain pen, then handed it to Alfred beside him: "This is yours, right?"
Alfred was a little surprised. He hadn't expected this young man to be able to identify this fountain pen as his among these items.
Either this guy had collected detailed information, or he really had some strange abilities?
Compared to the ridiculous possibility of the latter, he thought the former was more likely. And who would pay so much attention to the Wayne family, even collecting such detailed information? Could they be after the shares the Wayne family held?
Just as Alfred was contemplating how to deal with this crisis, a highly unscientific scene unfolded before his eyes.
Ethan threw a pile of miscellaneous items aside, picking up only the handkerchief.
"I need to confirm first, this thing is no longer useful, right?"
"If possible... please try to preserve it..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the handkerchief had turned into a ball of blue flame in Ethan's hand. Immediately afterward, the blue flame turned into a wisp of blue smoke, which drifted and swirled, finally forming an image.
"What is this?"
The image formed by the smoke looked like a house built on a mountain peak.
"Where Bruce Wayne is currently located."
In reality, this searching spell wouldn't display the target's exact location. This image was something Ethan deliberately created for Alfred to see. The moment the handkerchief was destroyed, he had already obtained Bruce Wayne's precise coordinates and, while he was at it, left a magical mark on him.
As long as this mark existed, no matter where Bruce Wayne went, Ethan could pinpoint his location and go to him at any time.
Furthermore, he could monitor Bruce Wayne's situation anytime, anywhere, just like when he and Tony monitored Sam in the Transformers world.
Turning his head slightly, Alfred was now completely in a state of stupor. He had thought of many possibilities, but he had never imagined that such magical abilities actually existed in this world. So this young man wasn't a liar?
Alfred decided to calm down first. Perhaps this was just some kind of illusion? After all, it was just a wisp of smoke. Even if it formed a specific image, it wasn't entirely unexplainable. For example, some chemical reactions could also produce these effects.
"So you now know Master Bruce's location?"
"Yes."
Bruce Wayne was in the Himalayas, which meant he was receiving training from Ra's al Ghul in the League of Shadows. Ethan didn't avoid Alfred and directly discussed with Tony whether they should go and pick up Bruce early.
The film didn't describe in detail how long Bruce Wayne trained with the League of Shadows, but it certainly wouldn't have been as short as a few days.
"Wait, I'm curious about what kind of training he's receiving."
Tony suddenly realized that this was a perfect opportunity to witness the birth of Batman firsthand. Moreover, the League of Shadows was a very intriguing organization. It was originally a purely villainous group that often caused trouble only to be stopped by superheroes.
Yet, such an organization had trained superheroes, and not just one.
This point truly fascinated Tony. Besides the famous Batman, Green Arrow, who also became a superhero as an ordinary person, had also received training from the League of Shadows.
"So... we're still going to peek?"
"Cough cough!"
Alfred watched the two of them discuss so enthusiastically, completely ignoring his presence, and did they forget that they were still standing on the grounds of Wayne Manor?
"Excuse me, I'm a bit curious about the League of Shadows you just mentioned. Could you tell me more about it?"
Since Alfred asked, Ethan casually introduced the general information about the League of Shadows and also explained what he knew about Bruce Wayne's current situation.
"So, you already knew Master Bruce's situation, but you just couldn't determine his location?"
That's why they specifically came to Wayne Manor to ask him for something Bruce had used, in order to find Bruce's whereabouts.
"However, why are you looking for Master Bruce?"
"Actually, we have no ill intentions. My friend here is a bit curious about Bruce Wayne and wants to talk to him."
"That's it?"
Alfred didn't believe it. Who would be so bored?
The truth was, Tony was exactly that bored.
"So are we going to find Master Bruce now?"
He planned to go with them to bring Bruce Wayne back to Gotham. He had been away long enough, and it was time for him to return.
Unexpectedly, the two of them weren't preparing to leave to find Bruce Wayne. Instead, they looked like they wanted to watch a show. Alfred wasn't sure what kind of show they wanted to watch.
When Ethan waved his hand and a blue circle appeared out of thin air, and then the man named Tony seemed to throw something into it, a very clear image suddenly appeared before the few of them, from the holographic projection device on Tony's wrist.
The old butler Alfred finally saw the familiar Bruce Wayne again, and his young master seemed to be undergoing training.
Through the image appearing before them and the conversation between the two people beside him, Alfred knew what kind of show they wanted to watch. These two wanted to watch Bruce Wayne's training process from start to finish.
At the same time, he also heard a piece of information: it seemed that after completing his training, Bruce would return to Gotham.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)