“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”
– John Keating (Dead Poets Society)
…
Late at night, at Wayne Manor
In the entertainment room, Dick slowly stretched his hand and turned it front and back to reveal the palm and the back of the palm in turn.
There was nothing in his hand.
Then, with a gentle shake of his hand, a black Ace of Spades appeared instantly.
But that’s not all, he continued to lift his hand and suddenly flicked it down, and another red Ace of Hearts appeared.
Dick quickly repeated this step twice, and a club Ace and a Diamond Ace also appeared in his hand.
He gathered the four Aces together in both hands and held them tightly.
After a slight pause for a second or two, he suddenly spread his hands to the sides, and the four playing cards that should have been there disappeared.
It turned into a bright red rose.
“I did it! What do you think?”
After doing all of this magic trick, Dick’s face lit up with excitement, and he looked at Dean not far in front of him.
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
Dean clapped his hands calmly and said, “Not bad, an average professional magician would find it difficult to spot your flaws, let alone a beginner.”
Dick twitched at the corner of his mouth, understanding that Dean meant that his flaws were obvious to someone with a higher level of magic skills.
After dinner, Dean began teaching Dick magic, and the two of them had been practicing in the entertainment room at Wayne Manor until now.
What Dick just performed was the magic trick that Dean had taught him earlier.
“Let’s stop here for today, Dick. I must say your progress has exceeded my expectations. If you can maintain the same level of proficiency you just showed, I believe you’re already skilled enough to impress the girls at the school dance.”
Dean rubbed his chin, his gaze focused as he looked at Dick.
“Just two hours ago, your technique was so rough that anyone with eyes could see the flaws. Now, you are already as good as many amateur magicians. It’s impossible for an ordinary person to have your level of finger agility and body coordination. Be honest with me, did you practice magic before?”
Hearing this, Dick was taken aback.
He wasn’t exactly sure how magicians’ skills were ranked, and he had intentionally slowed down his progress.
He really thought that this kind of magic was too hard, but he didn’t expect himself to improve so quickly.
‘Barbara hasn’t sent any information yet. If Dean is really the Phantom Thief, with his intelligence, he would easily guess that I’m suspicious of his identity. I need to come up with a reasonable explanation…’
Dick’s mind raced, and he instantly came up with a perfect explanation.
“You know, Dean, I used to live in a circus. My parents were both aerial acrobats, and for a circus performer, having a flexible body is important. So, naturally, my hands are more agile than most others.”
When he mentioned his parents, Dick’s eyes darkened for a moment, but he quickly put on a calm smile and said, “I never learned magic before, so I don’t know much about many of its principles.”
“I see,”
Dean replied calmly, nodding his head without any change in expression.
This made Dick’s heart skip a beat, and he looked at Dean with the same expression.
Fortunately, Dean quickly turned away, walked out of the house with his back to Dick, and said goodbye.
“It’s getting late now, so I’ll go home.”
“Wait!”
Seeing Dean about to leave, Dick quickly stopped him.
Barbara still hadn’t sent a signal.
Perhaps she was still searching for Dean’s house. If Dean happened to run into Barbara when he went home, it would be a big problem.
“Do you need anything else?”
Dick’s shout startled Dean, who turned around and asked.
“It’s already very late, Mr. Sutton. As you can see, Wayne Manor is far from the city. If you go back now, it will be very late by the time you get home. It’s too dangerous to walk on the streets of Gotham at night.”
Suddenly, Alfred’s voice came from outside the room.
Dean turned his head and saw Alfred walking towards them from the corridor, holding a tray with two cups of tea.
“I suggest you stay for the night. We have plenty of empty guest rooms here, and you can choose one you like. Tomorrow morning, I will take you and Master Richard to school.”
As Alfred spoke, he handed Dean a cup of tea.
“This is original Italian tea, please enjoy.”
“You know what? I want to say the same as Alfred. Dean, why don’t you stay here tonight?”
Dick rushed over and picked up the other cup of tea, taking a sip before continuing.
‘It seems that Batgirl hasn’t left my house yet, or maybe she has already left but hasn’t given any message to Dick…’
Dean thought to himself.
He pretended to hesitate for a while, then suddenly seemed to have made up his mind and decided to stay the night.
“Alright, I’ll spend the night at Wayne Manor. Then I won’t have to worry about running out of material for my bragging in the future.”
Dean joked with Dick.
“Then let me show you the way. Please follow me, Mr. Sutton.”
Wayne Manor is really huge. If it weren’t for Alfred guiding Dean, he might have gotten lost while walking inside for the first time.
After arriving at the guest room, Dean said goodnight to Alfred, took a quick shower, and went to sleep like nothing had happened, not caring at all about the Batgirl at home.
The next day, Alfred drove Dean and Dick back to school, and they resumed their normal campus lives.
After finishing classes for the day, Dean planned to go home as usual.
The reason was that Dick was learning magic very fast, so there was no need to go to Wayne Manor every day.
They agreed that he would visit every few days.
Since Dick’s intention was never to learn magic, the two naturally reached an agreement.
When he arrived home, Dean didn’t rush into the house.
Instead, he first observed whether there were any additional cameras around the house and made sure no one was following him before taking out the key to open the door.
After entering the house, he did the same thing, checking for any hidden cameras or bug devices.
Dean went to the center of the house and took out a small black device about the size of a solid-state drive from somewhere.
Without hesitation, he pressed the button on top.
It was the Mini Surveillance System Jammer he had bought in the system store.
It could automatically scan for surveillance cameras within a fifteen-meter radius and make them loop or replay the footage from one minute ago.
Additionally, there isn’t any technology on Earth today that can detect this interference.
As soon as Dean activated the jammer, the green indicator light turned on in less than a second.
This meant that the jammer was working properly and had detected any surveillance cameras!
At the same time, a red dot appeared on the radar screen of the jammer.
“At least they have some respect and only put up one camera. They didn’t go so far as to completely violate my privacy.”
Dean said, holding the jammer, and followed the radar direction to find the location of the camera.
However, when he found the hidden spot of the camera, he was shocked to discover that it was…
