Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

The street next to the warehouse at the original site of City Hall? Isn't that where Shiller mentioned the mutant flying python appeared? That place is a street of drug addicts; it's not strange for some magic phenomena to occur there.

Although Shiller knew who the priest was, he had no intention of using the advantage of knowing the plot to go find him directly. This seems to contradict Shiller's pursuit of efficiency, but it's actually because simply finding the person is useless.

Shiller, when he speaks with anyone, has a certain assurance that he can make them talk; otherwise, he wouldn't bother.

Negotiations are only meaningful if you hold some chips in your hand. Showing up without any chips would just expose your information, amounting to aiding the enemy—Shiller would never make such a foolish move.

This priest played a very important role in the original plot. It could be said that all the trouble in the Pale Knight comic universe was stirred up by him; nothing happened without his involvement.

The troublesome part is that this priest is indeed not human. He disguises himself as a human named Jason Brad, but in reality, his true name is Eitregan, and he is a demon.

This demon's role is defined as neutral. He's done his fair share of bad deeds in the past, but he isn't the kind of unforgivable major villain. He's not even one of those who take joy in chaos. It seems he's just lived too long and has been looking for something to pass the time.

It's still going to take some effort to obtain chips to negotiate with him. Therefore, even though Shiller knows the exact address, he still has to investigate step by step to see if he can find more clues.

Shiller drove to Bourbon Street. Pharmacies are everywhere here. On the streets and alleys, one can easily see homeless people passed out from drugs. Groups after groups of lifeless bodies stare blankly at every pedestrian with vacant eyes.

This Brad being able to open a pharmacy in such a place is quite the business genius.

The street isn't long; there are only a few alleys on both sides. Shiller checked each alley but found nothing except a bunch of drug dealers trying to sell their goods.

In the end, Shiller stopped a dealer and asked if there were any ruins nearby. The person was about to demand money at first but, after glancing at Shiller's attire, swallowed his saliva and said, "Ruins in the city? But, years ago, a building ahead was bombed and collapsed. It took a long time before it was repaired, and only recently has it been rebuilt."

Following the direction he pointed, Shiller spotted a five-to-six-story building. It now seemed to be an office building for a construction materials company.

He walked through the alley towards it. Just as he was about to explore around that building, he was blocked by a few homeless people.

Shiller didn't want to waste time with them, but he was also worried that Brad might be nearby and didn't want to use the Gray Mist. He turned and left the alley.

Unexpectedly, the group persisted and followed him. Fortunately, their drug overdoses left them uncoordinated, and Shiller shook them off easily after circling around.

He returned to the alley and saw someone collapsed at its deepest end, trembling in agony, clearly suffering from a bout of drug withdrawal.

Shiller could tell at a glance that the person wouldn't last long. As he approached, the man attempted to grasp at the hem of his trousers. Shiller pulled out two capsules from his pocket.

Without a look, the man threw them directly into his mouth. Soon his expression relaxed, and he fell into a deep sleep.

After wandering around the office building and finding no signs related to magic, Shiller encountered the group of homeless people again on his way back.

"Hey! What did you give him?" The leader eyed Shiller greedily and said, "You bought drugs, right? We have rules here. You have to share."

Shiller pulled out the capsules and said, "This drug of mine is pretty strong. Are you sure you want to try it?"

"Stop talking, just hand it over!" The leader snatched the batch of capsules, distributed two to each person, and shakily tossed them into their mouths. They barely waited for the drug to take effect before showing faces of enjoyment.

A few seconds later, "thud, thud, thud," the homeless people successively collapsed onto the ground, peacefully dozing off.

Shiller shook his head, stepped over them, and planned to drive to the church to have a look around.

But as he left, the sky gradually darkened. The end of the alley suddenly transformed, turning into a bustling street as if from the Middle Ages, and the building morphed into a steeped Victorian structure. Shortly after, a man came out of the large door.

He wore a black suit with a tall build, black hair but with a streak of red and white at the front. He looked genteel and unremarkable.

He walked to the entrance of the alley, knelt down to check the condition of the few homeless people. Magic glow appeared in his palm. But no matter what he did, these people showed no sign of waking up.

He frowned, standing amidst the fallen crowd, puzzled. However, he dragged all the collapsed people back inside the building, seemingly planning to study what exactly had happened.

Inside Wayne Manor. Batman is also frowning at the sight of Jason, who remains in an unresponsive coma. Dr. Tompkins has just visited, but was also at a loss concerning Jason's condition, unable to determine the cause of his coma.

Jason is comatose, Lucius Fox is injured from a car accident, the pale knight was assassinated, Gordon has resigned taking the blame...

Batman feels as though the people close to him are leaving him one by one. He is like a piece of driftwood without support, endlessly floating on the sea. Unable to reach shore, nor able to sink.

At this moment, Batman thinks of Alfred again. But mere reminiscence is not enough; Batman remembers the heirloom Alfred left for him.

Batman takes out a small box. Upon opening it, he finds an ancient diary and a whip that seems to be made of bat skin.

He puts down the whip and opens the diary, finding it to be the journal of his ancestor, Edmond Wayne.

Inside, it records that a plague that swept through London nearly wiped out the Wayne Family, leaving only the heir Edmond Wayne to inherit the noble title of the Wayne Family. Unable to continue living in London, he had no choice but to join a fleet to the New Continent.

Here, he defeated the corrupt warlord General Arkham, brought a new peace to Gotham Valley, and reestablished the Wayne Family.

It seems unremarkable. That's what Batman thinks. Not because the story isn't grand enough, but as Alfred's heirloom, it really carried nothing sentimental to reminisce about.

Alfred must have left this item to him for a reason. Batman continues to flip through the diary.

In it, he finds an important figure named Bakar.

Bakar seems to be a church priest. It was he who suggested to Edmond the idea of trying his luck in the New World. Together, they sailed to Gotham Valley and defeated the evil General Arkham.

However, the later part of the diary became vague about Bakar's whereabouts. From Edmond Wayne's tone, Batman deduces that he must have had a falling out with Bakar.

Such stories were not uncommon in those days. The New World was a big cake, but there were only so many good spots.

Back then, Gotham Valley may have been a paradise for pirates and smugglers, but it was still a port with natural geographic advantages. It was only normal for Edmond Wayne to want to monopolize this place.

After finishing the diary, Batman's stomach full of questions remained unanswered, instead giving rise to even more new questions.

Among them, the most important one was—where did Alfred get this diary, and why did he give it to him?

While Batman was pondering, the door to his study was knocked. Nightwing entered and said, "Batman, you need to see this."

He handed a document to Batman. Batman had just glanced at it when his eyes widened.

"This is the medical record of Alfred before he died, which Batgirl and I investigated. The frequency of his medical equipment checks was clearly abnormal. After retrieving surveillance footage, we found that the medical staff responsible for his physical examination had clear signs of abandoning their duties."

"We originally planned to investigate the hospital, but the hospital was destroyed. Later, however, we found in the procurement records of Wayne Enterprises that all the equipment for Wayne Hospital's examination department came from a medical equipment manufacturing company called Audin."

"Furthermore, we discovered that 9 out of the 16 medical staff hired by the department had received funding from this company. And those nine had the most records of leaving their posts without authorization."

Batman abruptly stood up, clenching the documents in his hand. Before he could open his mouth, Nightwing said, "I know it may be hard for you to believe, I couldn't accept it at first either. But the evidence is right here—there's definitely something wrong with Alfred's death."

Batman's arms began to tremble; he tried to calm himself down, then asked, "What else did you find?"

"Batgirl and I focused on investigating this medical equipment manufacturing company called Audin. It's a British company, headquartered in London. The X-ray equipment they produce is the best on the market and favored by hospitals."

"The procurement aspect seems to have no problems, the processes are all legitimate. But we don't know if there is anything wrong with the equipment itself. With the hospital destroyed, our investigation was forced to a halt."

Nightwing took a step forward and said, "If someone really did deliberately kill Alfred, then there must be a shocking conspiracy behind it. Batman, you must get yourself together, even if it's for Alfred's sake."

Batman had regained his composure completely. He silently looked over the materials collected by Nightwing, and then suddenly thought of that diary again.

His gaze shifted back and forth between the two, speculating on their relationship. But soon, his eyes landed on the logo at the bottom of the first page of the document.

It was the emblem of Audin Medical Equipment Manufacturing Company, a circular badge. Inside the badge, there were four arrows pointing towards the center, with the company's name "ORDAIN" written in the middle.