Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Turning off the recording device, Batman sat at the desk in silence for a long time. If Willie knew nothing, then he was an innocent victim under the tyranny of the Elite.

Yet if Shiller had warned him earlier, and he knew that those people wanted him dead, yet he chose to fight until the very end, then he was a true hero.

Upon receiving the recording from Batman, and having listened to it with Fiona, the pale knight comforted Fiona who was sobbing at the desk, her body shaking with cries. Gordon could only fetch two female officers to help her to the rest room.

"What do you plan to do?" Gordon asked the pale knight.

The pale knight stood in front of the desk in silence for a long time. When he finally looked up, Gordon saw an unprecedented glow in his eyes.

"I'm going to find Batman."

The pale knight turned and left Gordon's office, his mind whirling with various images as he headed towards Wayne Manor.

The car stopped, he stepped out, but to his surprise, the gates of Wayne Manor were open, a figure standing in front.

It was Batman.

An umbrella was handed over, and the pale knight held onto the handle, looking towards Batman who stood in the rain, no longer appearing robust and profound, but revealing a fragile paleness.

Batman said nothing, just turned and walked into the manor.

The pale knight never imagined that he would be greeted by Batman; he thought, perhaps Batman thought the same.

From the start, there was a great divide between them; the pale knight thought Batman wasn't doing enough, so he climbed over him to ascend, even after learning the truth, he still felt Batman was responsible for what Gotham had become.

Batman didn't hate the pale knight, he was just worried about Joker's unpredictability, and also saddened that all his years of effort paled against the improvements brought about by Napier's legislation.

Yet, Willie's death, like the pouring rain on Gotham today, coldly drenched them both.

How many barriers exist between those at the bottom? Not only did they face discriminations of gender, politics, race, and even diets imposed by the Upper Class, but they also faced poverty, hunger, weakness, and anxiety...

Yet, some of them overcame these nearly insurmountable divides and stood together, some charging towards death unflinchingly to keep their comrades warned.

If so, the pale knight thought, what irreconcilable differences did he have with Batman?

Joker? But the Joker inside him was almost gone.

The Class disparity? Even though Batman was a wealthy man and he just a small-town boy, now he was the wealthiest, he was the mayor, they both stood at the top of the Pyramid, the gap no longer as wide.

Political stance? The one thing they truly had in common was their stance, as they both wanted to save the city at all costs.

Then, they should be friends, even closest comrades, and for that, even if it meant overturning all his previous prejudices and bowing in apology to the other, it was not unacceptable.

The pale knight was already prepared for this, but what he didn't expect was that Batman seemed to have come to a realization as well.

He knew, to have Batman forgo his punishment was harder, because he truly did harm Batman – at his most vulnerable, he almost framed him, leading to his public disgrace and imprisonment.

Who doesn't want to be a pure hero? But if one can no longer be a pure hero, how can one cowardly refuse to face his past mistakes, for the sake of mere face, ignoring the bigger picture, insisting on letting blood flow over things that don't deserve it?

"I'm sorry," the pale knight was the first to speak. "I don't want to make excuses, I didn't know your real identity, so I did what I did, and even if I had known, I wouldn't have stopped."

"Is this how you always apologize, with such righteousness?"

"I'm just demonstrating my sincerity," the pale knight said. "I don't want to appear as if I have no other choice, or that it's just a temporary solution. I want to express my true remorse for the harm I've inflicted on you. You shouldn't have to go through all this. No one should."

"If the perpetrator inflicting all this on you was me, it would also pain me, because I still have too many things to do, so I can't accept punishment immediately, but I assure you, after all things are dealt with, you can hold me accountable for everything."

Batman did not speak, making it hard for the pale knight to read his silence, but not wanting to continue a monologue, he spoke again: "Is silence how you usually communicate?"

"I'm just thinking," Batman turned around, placed a tea tray on the table, and then said.

"Thinking about what?"

"Charabang Chemical Factory explosion case."

The pale knight choked a bit, then Batman sat down across from him and said, "I'm not bad at communicating, I just don't have time to waste on words. I believe my posture and actions have sufficiently demonstrated my attitude; it's time to talk about the matter at hand."

The pale knight suddenly felt powerless, as if he were playing the lute to a cow; he felt that the person in front of him didn't seem human, but an alien who fundamentally misunderstood human culture.

Normal humans communicate with their mouths, but not Batman; he seemed to hope that everyone had a bat sonic receiver, so they could understand his mind and immediately keep up with his pace.

The pale knight thought Batman's greeting at the door was the beginning of a long, joyful night of conversation. To Batman, however, that was it.

Everything ended before it even began.

The pale knight always thought Bruce spoke too densely, but now it seemed he should distribute his linguistic ability among all the Batmen, although it wasn't much for each, it might already be a qualitative improvement for them.

The pale knight took a deep breath, consoling himself that, anyway, he at least handed over an umbrella; that should already be considered one of the more considerate among the Batmen, at least not the last, right?

But once he began to imagine who would be the very last, the pale knight shuddered. Since the Joker had disappeared, he had even started having irrational thoughts, which wasn't a good sign.

So he forced himself to focus on the matter at hand, he looked at Batman and said, "First of all, I want to know what this so-called Natural Forest Protection Fund is all about."

"This is a common tactic," Batman said. "For reputation, they cannot do nothing, but for profit, they cannot truly do something substantive, so the fund is a compromise."

The pale knight's brow furrowed slowly, Batman coughed, then said: "Except for the natural disaster fund, I don't need to use such methods to pretend peace."

"I haven't even said anything yet," the pale knight muttered.

"Based on your prejudice against me, I think I need to explain," Batman said. "If not for the management issues of the natural disaster fund, it should have functioned better."

"And the Natural Forest Protection Fund wouldn't, right?"

Batman nodded, saying, "Yes, they will put money into this fund, but the money will not be used to protect the natural forests; instead, it will flow back to them under various items, effectively doing nothing."

"Worse yet, they use this fund to interfere with the operations of other natural conservation funds. Although Gotham hardly has any positively functioning environmental protection fund, they are all means of making money, and they undermine each other."

The pale knight immediately grasped the key point and said, "Which means, the establishment of this Natural Forest Protection Fund doesn't sound bad for us."

"If we don't consider the natural forests, yes."

The pale knight sighed and said, "I never hoped that they would really protect the natural forests; even if they were willing, I wouldn't be assured. Surely they would take this opportunity to do something else, so we might as well do it ourselves."

"Under this premise, the extra things they do, as long as they don't create greater harm, should be seen as a blessing. If it also brings some trouble for them, all the better."

"The problem is here," Batman said. "The Charabang Family has always been primarily in the chemical industry, with a very high share of industrial stocks in Gotham, and a consistently stable output. Their family's connections in the financial sector are weak, and there hasn't been any plans to enter the financial sector, what made them suddenly change their minds?"

"I also think this suddenly appeared Natural Forest Protection Fund is fishy," the pale knight tapped the table with his fingertips and said, "Not because it's a poor move, but, on the contrary, because it's too clever."

"If they knew how to use the banner of environmental protection to cover their pollution issues, the natural forest matter wouldn't have gotten this out of hand. It's precisely because they polluted without management, or even pretended to manage in the past few years, that it rebounded so badly, giving you the opportunity to cause them trouble."

"Could it be that they suddenly had a realization, thinking to hold the standards of environmental protection in their own hands to make their pollution completely legal?"

"The Charabang are not that smart," Batman said. "They are an ancient family, but because they are ancient, they are not quite adapted to modern society's legal rules, thus heavily criticized by environmentalists. A lot of people in Gotham who depend on this issue are biting into their flesh."

"This situation has continued for decades now, and they've never had a good solution, but this time they suddenly played a beautiful countermove, making it hard not to think that there is someone else behind them."

The pale knight immediately thought of Shiller.

Thinking about the most affected victims in the chemical plant explosion case, namely the leaders of the Charabang Group, the pale knight seemed to understand something.

He immediately looked up at Batman and asked, "The founder of the fund is dead, so whose hands is the fund in now?"

"If there is no will, then it's naturally inherited, but if there is a legally notarized will, then the will takes precedence," Batman had already picked up his phone.

But at this moment, the pale knight's phone rang, and he heard a voice from the other side.

"Hello, Mr. Napier, this is Springer Notary Office, I am the notary Kevin. We have a notarized will here concerning you, from Mr. Hopt Charabang. When can you come to confirm the will?"