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章節 885: 602

In the library of Wayne Manor, Bruce stacked various books on a table, while Dick, with a ladder much taller than him, was still searching amongst the bookshelves.

After the "click" noise of the ladder scraping against a bookshelf, Dick exclaimed, "Oh! Here's another book that I hadn't noticed before!"

Then, from between two bookshelves, he took out a very old book, blew off the dust on the cover, and turned to the first page.

He then ran in front of Bruce with the book and said, "Mr. Wayne, look at this one, it's a bit strange."

Bruce took the book and found that it described the nursery rhymes passed down in Gotham.

Every city has its own folk tunes. While Gotham may not be ancient, its history is complex, giving birth to a unique musical atmosphere. Although, in recent times, the dominant style in Gotham's music market is gangster rap, in the past, hymns and nursery rhymes were widely known.

This book discusses a variety of nursery rhyme tunes, their lyrics, and the origin stories of the lyrics.

Most nursery rhyme lyrics around the world are simple, often involving a repetition of two or three lines. This aids children in remembering the key parts of the lyrics.

However, one nursery rhyme in this book is extraordinary: "Court of Owls, always watching your way…"

Yes, the nursery rhyme is exactly titled "Court of Owls, always watching your way". Even the title is long, not to mention the content.

In this nursery rhyme, each line is different and there isn't any repetition. Singing it from beginning to end feels more challenging than reciting poetry.

Yet, according to the book, this nursery rhyme once was the most widely circulated rhyme in Gotham. At that time, almost every child was singing it.

Looking at the lyrics, Bruce seemed to see children in the rainy alleyways of a Gotham night, singing "Court of Owls… always watching your way…" with numerous pairs of owl eyes lit up behind them.

Although Bruce had a keen sense of the issue here, he passed the book to Dick and asked, "Can you sing this song?"

Dick accepted the book, his brow furrowed as he looked at the long string of lyrics. "I'll give it a try."

Then, focusing on the book for 20 minutes, he plodded through singing the nursery rhyme, stumbling and hesitating multiple times.

Besides the complex lyrics, the tune of the song is also weird. Everyone knows that nursery rhyme melodies are generally higher than standard songs, suiting the fact that both boys and girls have higher pitched voices prior to their voice changing. Though, this song's tune is extremely low, difficult for both Dick, whose voice is in the process of changing, and for adults.

After spending some time together, Bruce felt that he had a good understanding of Dick. Despite being a bright kid who learns quickly, he struggled while focusing for 20 minutes on mastering this nursery rhyme. What about the other kids in Gotham?

Those children had no patience to learn a song. In a situation where survival is an issue, no one would concentrate on art.

But this book stated that for a long period, this nursery rhyme was popular among Gotham's children. This was indeed a very strange phenomenon. Such challenging songs being passed down among children feels unnatural.

Bruce thought more deeply. Perhaps, Gotham's darkness goes beyond the surface. Some forces have been influencing the people living here since their childhood. The City of Darkness, Gotham, is constructed by these people influenced by the dark power.

Noticing the potential issue with the nursery rhyme, Bruce started searching for more books about Gotham's art history, which gradually led him to broaden his view to all cities on the East Coast.

The most important city on the East Coast is Metropolis, which has much more historical documentation than Gotham. Bruce originally only intended to glance at the history of Metropolis, but he suddenly found another nursery rhyme in a book covering the local culture of Metropolis.

This nursery rhyme didn't mention any owls or darkness, but it shared the same characteristics with the other nursery rhyme – a difficult and unpleasant tune, complex lyrics, but widely circulated at some point.

Bruce suddenly realized that he might not be facing only the darkness in Gotham. As far back as when he was ignorant and unawakened, the roots of this enormous thing had already spread throughout the country.

Discovering the possible traces of the Court of Owls in Metropolis, Bruce immediately looked for Shiller.

Since his manor was bombed, Shiller had moved back to Gotham University. The manor needed some time to be repaired. During this period, he was either helping Victor in his lab, adjusting the condition of Victor's wife, or writing papers in the library.

Bruce found Shiller in a corner of the library and explained why he had come. However, unlike what he had expected, Shiller didn't give him any clues about his investigation.

Bruce was somewhat perplexed. Shiller had always shown great interest in the Court of Owls, and Bruce thought Shiller was also investigating this organization and had more clues than him.

Shiller sat across the table in the library and said to Bruce, "If you are going to investigate, I suggest you seek out someone."

"Who?"

"Godfather Falcone."

That night, it rained again in Gotham. It surprised no one. However, the rain fell particularly hard, its pelting against the glass windows masking the steps of an uninvited guest.

Godfather Falcone was dozing in his study chair when a shadow gradually spread across the window pane. Following a crack of thunder, the sudden burst of light highlighted the silhouette of the intruder more clearly. It had two pointed ears at the top.

As if expecting Batman, Falcone remained seated. Batman observed Falcone silently. Despite their prolonged absence from each other, the Godfather did not seem any older. Time appeared to stand still for him. From a corner, Batman asked in a low tone, "What do you know about the Owl?"

"I know a lot..." Falcone folded his hands on his lap, eyes still half-closed as if he were about to fall into slumber.

"I assume you've already discovered the darkness I mentioned before— the one continuously dragging our city into the abyss."

"It is steadily creeping in, through the economy, politics, culture, and art; they're everywhere."

"The fallen members of the Court of Owls are merely a fraction of the whole. As long as the darkness remains hovering above this city, chaos will never cease."

"Is Gotham the only city with the Owl?"

After Batman asked the question, Falcone straightened up in his chair. After a moment's pause, he leaned back again and spoke: "You've hit the nail on the head, Batman."

"I don't know if Alfred has ever told you: when he came to serve the Wayne Family as a butler, it wasn't our first encounter. In our younger days, Alfred, Father Daniel, and I crossed paths."

"We went on a bizarre adventure for a monster's egg. In the end, we decided to leave this unmanageable egg beneath Metropolis. Can you guess why we did this?"

Batman remained silent, prompting Falcone to answer for himself: "While investigating my son's affairs, I encountered a pervasive dark power. I recognized then that Gotham was neither the first city implicated nor would it be the last."

"In those days, law and order in Metropolis weren't as established. I made some friends and learned a few things."

"As I've told you before, I didn't know they were called 'Owls,' only that a murderer lurked within Gotham. I wasn't confident I could wipe them out in one stroke, so I dared not probe further."

"However, with this power in Metropolis, I had fewer reservations. I placed the egg there to lure the Owls of Metropolis into researching it and letting them bring ruin upon themselves... "

"The Owls of Metropolis..." Batman looked out at the rain-soaked night, echoing thoughts that were really meant for himself.

At this time, the thunderstorm outside intensified. Through the veiling rain, a train departing Gotham wound through the dark hills and slithered into another bustling city. In such a night, the lights from countless households in Metropolis became a beacon on the East Coast, burning through the night without end.

In an alley untouched by the city glow, two figures climbed over the wall. One of them crept towards the shadow at the end of the alley, crouched down to examine the traces left there, and said, "We found them... those two who impersonated us were dumped here."

His companion, a woman, stepped forward. She slipped off her glasses and, under the reflected light, revealed the face of the female doctor who had exchanged information with Kira that day. She glanced back down the alley and declared in Russian,

"Valeria informed me that the two men holding the Philby Medals weren't agents of the special security department."

"You should know that ever since Benjamin, the head of the CIA's Metropolis outpost, died, Valeria has taken over his position."

"She has access to a list of the CIA's agents in and around Metropolis; she also has the authority to investigate the special security department's personnel list. However, she has not found these men on either list."

However, the man replied in English, "This implies there's another power lurking here, apart from the KGB, the CIA, and the special security department."

"The Philby list most likely ended up in their hands." The female doctor gasped, hugging her arms around herself, "The medal has returned home. Regardless of whether the list is still useful, legendary agent Philby's lifetime effort must be returned to Moscow."

The man stood up, looking at the mud on his fingers. He pinched it lightly with his thumb and forefinger, and it disappeared with the rainwater.

"This place is crowded enough, we don't need any mysterious organization creating more chaos, so... "

His blunt and straightforward Russian echoed in the dark alley:

"Find them... and wipe them out."


next chapter

章節 886: Chapter 603 Owl Nursery Rhyme (Part 1)_1

The darkness of the night envelops the tranquil environment of Wayne Manor. Dressed in pyjamas and a sleeping hat, Dick carries his blanket as he walks to his bedroom.

He had just finished his teacher's assigned homework, having fallen asleep in the process. Alfred had covered him with a blanket which made him feel somewhat embarrassed.

Bruce places importance on Dick's school performance. While he doesn't necessarily need to come in first, a minimum requirement is a respectable grade; failing grades are absolutely not allowed.

Dick doesn't like to study. He followed Bruce with the intent to learn combat and investigation skills. But Bruce insists that he must attend school due to his age, so Dick quietly devotes himself to schooling.

However, Dick genuinely is intelligent. Without diligent effort, he can still make it into the top three. But he truly hates rote learning and prefers to shine in various school activities.

Previously trained as an acrobat, his body coordination is top-notch, giving him an edge in sports. He even joined the school's high jump team, making him a typical all-around student.

Returning to his room, Dick finds Aisha waiting for him with a storybook. Dick walks over, takes the storybook and flips through it. He asks, "Where did we leave off? Let's see... Oh, we've already finished this book."

Aisha stares at him with wide eyes, Dick sighs and explains, "Can't help it. We can't get another book from the library now."

"We need a key to open the library door and the key is with Alfred. Right now Alfred is probably asleep, we can't disturb him, that would be impolite."

Aisha shows a disappointed expression, springs up, snatches the book from Dick's hand and turns to leave. Dick quickly grabs hold of her, saying, "Don't be mad. We can do something else instead of reading stories. Hmm, let me think..."

"Right, I used to join the school choir. The teacher taught us a few songs, but I didn't really like to sing them."

Dick sat Aisha down. He holds his blanket, thinking, then says, "Mr. Wayne was sorting out some material a few days ago and he taught me a song. I thought it was quite nice. Should I teach you how to sing it?"

Aisha cocks her head, she doesn't seem to know what song Dick is talking about. Or more accurately, she can't actually comprehend what a song is. Dick tries hard to recall the song, then says, "Never mind, it's not possible. That song is too complicated for you. I took a long time to memorize the lyrics myself."

Aisha makes a sound. Dick immediately turns to her, saying, "Are you sure you want to learn? It's really quite difficult…"

Aisha nods her head enthusiastically. Dick yields, saying, "Okay, but if you can't learn it, don't blame me."

"Let's start with the lyrics." Dick gets up, runs to his bedside table drawer, fetches a pen, and starts writing the lyrics on a blank part of the storybook.

Aisha leans in to look, but she can't recognise many words yet. So, Dick reads out the words as he writes:

"Court of Owls… watches over your every move…"

"Sounds like a strange set of lyrics, doesn't it? But the melody is quite nice. Let me teach you how to sing it, Court of Owls… watches over your every move…"

Dick has not experienced the previous battle with the Court of Owls. He has no idea that such a thing exists in Gotham. The book merely mentions this song as a nursery rhyme and Bruce doesn't place any special emphasis on it, so Dick only treats it as a regular song.

Bruce thinks that Dick, who has never had a professional music education, cannot possibly understand the score, let alone sing the entire song correctly.

However, Dick had participated in many school activities and joined the choir. He has a good relationship with the choir's nun and has learned the basics of a musical score. He can hum the song while reading the score.

However, because he did not fully study it and did not sing seriously, the melody he hummed was a greatly simplified version. Paired with the complex lyrics, it seemed a little peculiar. But since the melody was simplified, Aisha learned it very quickly.

Realizing that Aisha could hum the melody, Dick started to focus on teaching her the lyrics. However, Aisha couldn't even speak, let alone recognize many words. She simplified the lyrics as well.

And in this way, the complex, dark and gothic-themed nursery rhyme of the Court of Owls completely transformed into a children's song.

Perhaps Dick is especially gifted in the arts as this children's song is catchy. After the first two lines, "Court of Owls watches over your every move," all the other words were modified to be memorable, following the logical structure of a children's wordplay. The melody is also repetitive, making it pleasant to the ear and easy to remember.

It did not take long for Aisha to learn the entire song. She seems to enjoy singing. Once she learned it, she started singing incessantly, even the pronunciation of the words becoming more fluent.

After singing a few rounds and becoming more familiar with the song, Aisha, looking happy, clapped her hands. Suddenly, she froze and started to turn her head left and right, as if searching for something. Seeing her reaction, a bewildered Dick asks, "What's wrong? Aisha? What are you looking for?"

Aisha displays a very puzzled expression. She opened her mouth as though to bite something, but there was nothing to bite into. She sniffed hard, as if smelling something, but there was nothing there.


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