mtl008 Chapter 2887 When Night Falls (5)
Chapter 2887 When Night Falls (5)
Chapter 2887 When Night Falls (V)
After an afternoon tea, everyone left, leaving only Batman and Schiller sitting at the table. Batman looked at the leftovers on the table in silence.
"I don't want to say something like 'I told you so', but if you think you can rest assured that no one has any abnormalities after adding holy water to food, then I won't put any more effort into your safety."
"What did you say to Barbara?" Batman asked. He looked at Schiller and said, "Why did you instigate Tim to cause trouble for Barbara and Dick?"
"I thought you heard me."
"I just didn't understand."
Schiller seemed a little surprised by his frankness, but he tapped the wall of the teacup with his fingers and said, "I'm taking a simpler approach to security."
He dipped his hand in the tea and started writing on the table.
"Assuming that vampires naturally stand on the same side, we will divide everyone here into two factions and make them hostile to each other if we stand on one side."
"Then there is a 50% chance that there are no vampires on our side, and there is also a 50% chance that all the vampires are on our side."
Batman frowned slightly, as if he had guessed something.
"If there are no vampires on our side, then the vampires will have to deal with half of the Bat Family plus us. If the vampires are all on our side, then in order to gain our trust and to deal with the other half of the Bat Family, the vampires will at least stand on our side temporarily."
"It's a question of power," Batman said. "When they turn against each other, they're all going after us, whether they're vampires or not."
"That's right," Schiller said. "Since the vampire doesn't take violent action immediately, it means he needs to hide."
"When there are no enemies and everyone is united, they can stay quietly, only stepping in at critical moments to guide the course of events, and then shirking all responsibility."
"But once there is another faction that has always been against them, they need to win the trust of higher-level leaders to increase their voice. Otherwise, if the higher-level leaders trust the other faction, their voice will decline and they will not be able to guide the team at critical moments. Naturally, lurking will be meaningless."
"That's why you deliberately split up the Bat Family." Batman said, "You don't look like a surgeon, you look more like a sociologist."
"Everything I do is to force the traitors to take action," Schiller said. "Exposing your weaknesses is naturally to give them a target, so that they don't have to lie low for too long and will soon have a chance to take action."
"The purpose of dividing the Robins into two groups is to make the traitor feel that his position is unstable. He might lose your trust and lose the opportunity to take action, so he will find other ways to win you over."
"Once he takes the initiative to contact you, as someone who knows your child best, can't you see who is the dry cookie?"
Schiller suddenly leaned forward, stared into Batman's eyes and said, "Or have you already made up your mind, but you just don't want to admit that your beloved child has betrayed you, and you still want to give him a chance?"
The teacup fell to the ground. Batman turned his head away and called Alfred. Schiller regained his relaxed posture, sighed softly and said, "You know there will be one. If you expect this one to repent, you are destined to lose the second and third..."
"That's enough." Batman's tone was not angry, but rather a warning. He said, "Don't try to interfere in the affairs of the Bat Family. Just be prepared for the operation."
After Batman left, Schiller sat quietly in the chair for a while, pretending not to notice the eavesdropping figure behind the porch. After taking the ironed clothes from Alfred, he went upstairs.
After returning to the room, there was a knock on the door within five minutes.
Schiller smiled slightly. The Robins were very smart, but they were just not mature enough. If someone transformed them into vampires and wanted to deal a fatal blow to Batman, it would probably just be a bet that Batman would be soft-hearted.
In a head-on confrontation, they have no chance of winning.
Schiller sighed softly, but the person standing outside the door was somewhat unexpected - it was Dick.
Schiller lowered his eyes as quickly as possible, suppressed the surprise in his eyes, and invited Dick in.
"I didn't expect you to come." Schiller said somewhat ambiguously, and as he turned around he gently touched the cross in his pocket, but did not actually take it out.
He turned back to pour Dick some tea.
"I'm worried about Batman," Dick began. "He has an operation that needs to be performed right now."
"Are you worried about a vampire invasion, too?"
"I don't think any outside force could breach the Batcave."
"Do you think you might be breached from the inside?"
"The Bat Family has always been a united force."
"Until I showed up?"
Dick stood up, took out a cross about the length of an arm from his arms and handed it to Schiller.
"Do you suspect I'm a vampire?" Schiller asked Dick.
"I'm giving you a chance to prove yourself. After all, you didn't touch anything during the afternoon tea."
"It seems you already know what's in the food."
"Yes, and I ate half a cake and drank a whole cup of tea."
"That doesn't prove you aren't, kid. You want me to prove it to you, but your guarantee for me may not be that reliable."
"I'm not going to vouch for you. I'm just going to ensure Batman's safety. I'm his assistant, and that's what I'm supposed to do."
"His assistant is Robin, and you are Nightwing." Schiller walked across to him, slowly bent down to put down the teacup, then stood up straight and looked at Dick and said, "On the night you decided to leave Blüdhaven, did you ever think about what you should do?"
Dick's hands holding the cross clenched instantly, he frowned deeply, his chest began to heave constantly, and he felt like a knife stabbing into his heart.
This is a topic that the Bat Family tacitly agrees not to mention, about his departure, about Jason's return, and about Tim's existence.
Schiller obviously didn't intend to let him go. He slowly walked to Dick's side, held the wrist of his hand holding the cross, pressed down gently and said, "In your opinion, which is more threatening, a powerful vampire or an ordinary person who knows the history of the Bat Family and is trusted by Batman?"
"Can't you be both?"
Schiller lowered his head and laughed deeply, saying, "If I were all like that, would you still be able to stand here?"
Dick was speechless.
But the strength in his arm loosened a little, and the cross was pressed down. Schiller loosened his hand, walked behind him and said, "The vampire's target must be Batman. If I were, since I have the ability to convince Batman to reveal his true identity to me and take me back to Wayne Manor, I would not wait until tomorrow night to do it. The longer the night, the more trouble there is."
Schiller paused and continued.
"This shows that real vampires may not even be trusted by Batman as much as I am. At least that's what he thinks, otherwise he would have taken action a long time ago."
"The fact that he didn't take action proves that he felt Batman was on guard against him - just imagine, when he finally revealed his ugly face and stretched out his claws to Batman, what he saw was not Batman's face of astonishment and sadness, but his usual calmness, as if he had guessed everything long ago."
Schiller walked around to Dick's side and said, "That indifferent expression seemed to say, 'I already knew you were this kind of person, and I already knew you would betray me, so I was prepared.'"
"This will negate the meaning of his first half of life... As Batman's assistant, as the person Batman should trust the most, he has never been truly accepted by him, never been able to get his honesty, and never seen him defenseless."
"Knowing that getting rid of Batman would be a huge step forward in his grand plan to take over the Earth, this coward hesitated to act because he was afraid to gamble whether Batman was sincere to him."
"Batman's expression made him more haunted and uneasy than the throne that towered over all mankind."
Schiller's tone was tinged with laughter. He reached out and took the cross from Dick's hand, tapped Dick's shoulder gently and said:
"So, boy, tell me, who is this coward?"
"enough."
It wasn't Dick's voice, it was Batman's voice that echoed in the room. He said, "Dr. Schiller, I warned you not to get involved in the Bat Family's affairs."
"How could I forget that there is a bigger coward here." Schiller did not mean to stop talking. He knocked the cross in his hand and said, "Knowing that his dear child was sharpening the knife that would kill him, he still had the naive delusion that he was unwilling to judge his crime until the moment he took action."
The moment Schiller turned around suddenly, Dick knew something was wrong, but the red light in his eyes went out too late.
Schiller suddenly raised the cross, and Dick stretched out his arm to block it - only shadows came.
The sound of the cross breaking through the air disappeared, and it stopped in mid-air, turning gracefully and being handed to Dick.
"What's wrong, Dick?"
Schiller's voice was filled with laughter, and Dick felt that his teeth could hardly hold it together.
"I don't think this thing can protect me from vampires, so you should use it yourself." Schiller said, "Batman prepared something much more sophisticated for me."
Schiller took the cross pendant out of his pocket, shook it in front of Dick, and said, "He seemed to be worried that I would be bitten. He thought that putting this thing on my neck could protect me from the attack of the fangs. This thing is a bit special, isn't it?"
Dick looked at the pendant. He had seen this necklace on Batman before. It seemed that he had obtained it from a priest when the vampire rumors first spread, but it was never hung around the neck of any Robin in the end.
Unique and right before your eyes.
Schiller's gaze remained unchanged, but his tone became sharper.
"Dick, you carefully prepared a perfect disguise that is not afraid of sunlight and holy water. Was it really to deceive Batman, or were you just afraid to see his disappointed expression in you in public?"
"Even when it comes to a life-or-death situation, are you only brave enough to attack from behind where you can't see his expression?"
Schiller raised his hand and the cross pendant was suddenly thrown out. The silver light drew a graceful arc in the air. When it was about to fall to the ground, Nightwing instinctively bent down and reached out to catch it.
He looked at his hands in astonishment. The unspeakable humiliation made him unable to suppress the red light in his eyes.
"Nightwing…is this what you're supposed to do? Be a dog that catches Frisbees?"