DC: I am Bruce Wayne

Chapter 4: Books and Chilled Coffee

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"Forgetting is like a wound. The wound may heal, but it has already left a scar."

– Monkey D. Luffy, [One Piece]

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"Finally, I am done." Bruce sighed as he completed reading all the books in the Wayne library. It took him an entire week but he had at last done it. From books on advanced physics, chemistry, and biology to philosophy, politics, economics, and business, he had read it all.

So much continuous reading was almost becoming unhealthy for him since he didn't even sleep much for the last few days. But that didn't matter to him. What mattered was that he had done the impossible, he had read or maybe, he should say seen and remembered, every book in the huge Wayne estate library. Of course, an average speedster or Kryptonian could do the same thing in a few minutes. But he was sure that his reading speed was much better than the other ordinary human geniuses out there on Earth.

*Knock Knock* A sudden knock on the library door brought Bruce out of his deep thoughts.

"Come in," Bruce said as he closed the last book in his hand and kept it on the shelf.

"Do you plan to spend the rest of your life cooped up in this library Master Bruce? I heavily recommend you stop studying so much and enjoy your life a little. You are young right now, you should enjoy the world and all it has to offer. How about I contact some of the players from Gotham Knights to play a mock baseball match with you?" Alfred offered. He wanted to get Bruce out of the library and into the fresh air as soon as possible. He was really worried that Bruce was succumbing to depression or some other mental condition while always staying in the mansion.

"No thanks Alfred, I am good. Anyways, what about the cave? Is it done being refurbished? Are the equipment and machines here yet?" Bruce enquired as he wanted to start working on some inventions as soon as possible.

"*Sigh* It's almost finished, Master Bruce. We are paying the workers double their wages just to complete the construction by tomorrow. As for the machines, equipment, and other tools, most of them have already arrived and have been placed in the cave." Alfred said with a sigh.

"Good, very good. Oh and please make sure that none of the workers hired for the job ever leak the information about the cave in our backyard." Bruce said as he stretched his body.

"I already made sure of that Master Bruce. After all, it won't be good for the reputation of the Wayne family if people hear that the young master of the family is building secret science laboratories in the basement of his mansion. I even created a fake paper trail showing that the high-grade expensive machines and tools that we got were donated by the Wayne Corporation to a non-profit science research foundation." Alfred said with a severe expression.

Bruce was a little surprised at the fact that Alfred could do illegal stuff like making a fake paper trail since he was always shown to be a really honest and honorable person and basically, a good human being in the comics, movies, and even the animated series. But on second thought, this was quite reasonable especially since Alfred was a retired soldier who had seen and experienced a lot and also he was the chief butler of the Wayne family. He knew his way through the politics and ways of the rich even if the Wayne family didn't employ such dirty tactics much.

"Thank you, Alfred. That'll be all." Bruce said, quite pleased with the butler.

"Also, the main reason I am here young Master Bruce is that the Gotham police are coming to take your statement. I had delayed them till now since you were not in a good mental condition but they are insisting on an official statement from you today. I know that talking about the incident would be hard for you but I too think that you should tell them whatever you can remember from that night. It might potentially help them catch your parents' murd... the criminal." Alfred resisted mentioning the death of the Wayne couple directly in front of Bruce.