76 Chapter 76: Homecoming (1)
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"Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around, he leaves an awful hole."
– Clarence, (It's a Wonderful Life)
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
"You never told me that you have a family Bruce. If I knew, I would have worn something better..., maybe even bring a housewarming gift or something." Nyssa said while lightly biting on her nails with a worried look.
"That's why I always tell you to read the file little sister. Background checks are always important even if you are just looking for a boyfriend." Talia snorted at her sister.
"Wait, you read a file on me. That's borderline creepy. *Sigh* I guess, I should have expected this from a closet pervert like you." I teased Talia to which she just gave me a cold look. "Also Nyssa, by family I only currently have my butler/guardian Alfred, and my best friend Selina whom Alfred adopted about a decade ago. Besides them, I also have some friends whom I consider family as well." I said, not mentioning that Selina might be a little more than just a friend.
All three of us were on our way to the Wayne Estate in a black Tesla Roadster, the first electric sports car released by Wayne Auto under the brand name Tesla.
It was declared the car of the year by a majority of magazines and car critics and almost had a cult-like following of loyal fanboys. Of course, the fact that it had a range of 1000 miles which charged from 0 to 100 percent in ten minutes with its out-of-the-world battery technology along with a host of other innovative features also contributed to why it was the highest-selling sports car in the country this year. In fact, it sold so much that I had to spend an additional 3 billion dollars to make new charging stations all over America to compensate for the huge number of Tesla cars on the road.
Anyway, I was originally supposed to return alone while Nyssa and Talia were supposed to stay back at the League's Nanda Parbat base to solidify the League's new power structure but they had both changed that decision at the last moment and taken some time out to drop me home. The reason they gave me of course had nothing to do with dropping me home. If one were to believe their words, they just wanted to visit the infamous city of Gotham.
"You have a girl as a best friend who is also living in your house?" Nyssa's voice sounded hollow for some reason.
Even Talia raised one of her eyebrows in my direction as if to ask me if I had just broken her little sister's heart.
"... It's completely fine for a boy and a girl to be best friends. If you don't agree with it, then you are a sexist." I bullshitted through my teeth with a straight face as I did my best not to meet her eyes. "Oh, look. We are here." I said with genuine joy at being able to divert the topic as I pointed at my mansion.
The estate had changed a lot over the years. From a classic medieval-era style mansion to a breathtakingly beautiful manor filled with cutting-edge technologies for both security and convenience.
The entire mansion had professional defense personnel in black full-body suits with high defense capabilities roaming all around the estate ready to take someone's life or give theirs in case of an invasion. Even their guns had been upgraded into electromagnetic variants that normal bulletproof vests wouldn't be able to stop.
After the car stopped in front of the front door of the main building, I got out of the car followed by both Nyssa and Talia, both of whom were looking everywhere around them in curiosity.
"Master Bruce! You are still alive. Even though Cortana told me you were well, I could not help but at times fear that something bad might have happened to you in one of your adventures." Alfred who was waiting for me at the entrance half-joked in a voice filled with heavy emotions.
Despite having taken a peak body serum, he looked like he had aged about ten years due to worrying too much.
"Alfred, it's so wonderful to see that you are still walking and not in a wheelchair. Guess, my serum did knock off a hundred years from your age, didn't it?" I joked back with a chuckle as I hugged the person I trusted the most in the world.
Hell, I didn't even trust Selina as much as I trusted the old butler. Something about him just yelled loyalty. Even though I didn't know what went on in that disciplined mind of his, I knew it as a fact that he would much rather kill himself than ever betray me or the Wayne family.
"It's good that you are back. Taking care of the companies was getting too much for my old bones even though I had Lucius' help. Now you can even take control of Wayne Enterprises just like your father would have wanted. I think I am going to stick to just taking care of the estate, you, Miss. Selina for now." Alfred remarked with a hearty laugh.
"Whatever you wish Alfred. And don't worry, I'll take back everything that belongs to me or the family. I don't forget my grudges... Anyway, this is Talia Al Ghul and Nyssa Al Ghul. They are... the daughters of the man I trained under. They are here as tourists to see Gotham and therefore our guests." I introduced both the girls who were standing behind me with blank faces looking like a pair of professional assassins scanning a target.
'I almost forgot about their anti-social upbringing. They could perhaps seduce even the most emotionless men but that doesn't change the fact that they have no experience on how to accurately display their real emotions in front of people... or just make themselves appear like normal human beings. I guess I'll have to pr train them in the future.' I thought to myself as I saw the girls awkwardly shake hands with Alfred while the butler just nodded with a small smile while giving me an amazed look.
"Now, please come inside. We can continue all our conversations inside the house. I am sure that all of you are hungry after such a long trip." Alfred led us inside, walking in front of me excitedly, probably just happy that I had finally come back.
"Woof woof WOOF WOOF" A familiar sound echoed as a dog came running at me like a mad tiger and jumped into my arms to lick me in the face.
"Ace. You have grown big you handsome dog. I guess you took after your master, didn't you?... By the way, why aren't you speaking? I thought that you would be a chatterbox by the time I returned." I said while affectionately scratching his head and neck to which he only answered with a low howl.
"Ace stopped speaking in his human voice after a group of angry church mob chased him with torches in their hands trying to burn him on a stake after branding him as the Devil incarnate. I had to spend about a million dollars in church donations to make them forget the matter... I think he is still scarred from that event. He only uses his voice when he needs to inform us of something important, like the time when he told us that he and Mr. Whiskers got dirty after they liberated the animal underworld of a cannibal rat mafia lord and his gang of rats." Alfred said with a straight face as he gave a disappointed look at the dog, obviously not believing him.
Even I found that hard to believe, provided that I had watched the DC Pets movie but I decided not to waste too many of my brain cells and just forget about the entire thing.
"Wait, you are saying that your dog can talk? Like, talk in a human language? But, that is impossible, right? Dogs can't talk." Nyssa voiced out what both the Al Ghul sisters were thinking in their minds.
"Of course, I can talk. I am not just any dog. I am Ace, the Dark Hound. I can do anything and everything that normal dogs can or can't do." Ace suddenly spoke up in his Kevin Hart voice which startled both Nyssa and Talia as they both looked at Ace like he was a monster. The only reason they hadn't screamed yet was because of their ninja training although Talia looked like she was getting ready to kick Ace away with her hills to defend everyone from the talking 'monster'.
"You see this Bruce? This is why I don't talk. Everyone is racist nowadays. People see a dog talking and they pull the guns and torches on it. Well, shame on you. *WOOF*" Ace concluded as he again turned the human speech translation option to 'partial' in his collar. The mode let him understand human speech of all human dialects in his dog language but didn't translate his barks into human words.
"Ace, remind me to give you a better-sounding and deeper voice next time. Maybe you can use them in your future... 'quests' to hide your identity because your current voice sounds more annoying than scary." I said, not being fully sure if the animal underworld thing was true or not.
"Are you sure you should be that close to... it?" Nyssa asked with a gulp still not sure about Ace.
"Don't worry, he is harmless. Ace is just as normal... umm, I mean, unique as any other non-speaking dog. The reason he can speak is because of the special collar I made for him. It is an animal translator of sorts. So, you don't have to worry, you can just treat him like any other dog and pamper the hell out of him. I mean just look at his face, how can you not see how cute he is." I said as both I and Ace looked at the sisters, giving them a cute look while innocently batting our eyes.
[{Image}]
"... Gaaah, they are so cute." Nyssa was the first to break as she shouted in a girlish voice and bent down to scratch Ace behind his ears. She even looked like she wanted to rub my cheeks in adoration too.
"You didn't last even a single second, shame on you sis. Well, I guess I cannot just let you do this alone. So, I'll have to sacrifice my integrity and join you to pet him as well." Talia admitted with a humph and bent down to rub Ace's head with an excited expression on her face.
'I guess this is the first time, they are doing something like this. I doubt Ra's Al Ghul was enough of a caring father to bring them puppies when they were children.' I thought to myself as I smiled internally.
"By the way Alfred, where is Selina?" I asked in a low voice as I discreetly looked around in search of her.
"Oh, she went out with Mr. Whiskers to make preparations for a little party she is arranging to celebrate your return. She should be returning soon. However, I would advise not to do or say anything to anguish her. Her mood was never that great after you left for your training. So, she started to push herself too hard which took a toll on her mental health. So if you do something to make her cry, then it will be me who will be the one suffering the most since I will have to choose between supporting you and supporting her." Alfred whispered back.
"Hahahaha. Don't worry, Alfred. I will never break anyone's heart, least of all the heart of someone who loves me. You don't have to stress about that." I said as I patted his back with a calm smile all the while I was panicking internally.
Originally, I was just going with the flow of things in terms of romance and stuff but I doubt either Nyssa or Selina would ever agree to share me like some typical Harem novel.
DC although has some of the hottest girls ever, isn't really known for harem stuff. In terms of romance and love, this is completely a normal world of soulmates, sex, partners cheating on each other, and casual relationships. But polygamy and harems are rarely shown.
'Is there any harem-inator that I can make and use to force everyone to accept harems? I really don't want to die a virgin... In my last life, I only had a couple of blowjobs, but never the real stuff.' I sadly thought to myself as I was the one biting my nails nervously this time. I really didn't want to pay for a good time even after having two girls who were seriously interested in me.
'*Sigh* It looks like my love life is on its way to hell even before it begins.'
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(A/N: This is Part 1 of the entire homecoming chapter. I tried to release both parts today, but editing such a large chapter became too much for me)
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