Shiller encountered Little Bruce on his way back to the principal's office after dinner.
Since it was nearing lights out, all of Little Bruce's entourage had gone back to their own colleges, no longer trailing behind him. He was alone returning to his dorm, just around the corner when he ran into Shiller, who was heading back to his office.
"Ah!" Little Bruce let out a startled cry, Shiller slightly lifted an eyebrow, giving him an once-over before asking, "Mr. Wayne, why aren't you heading back to sleep this late? What are you scampering about in the corridors for?"
"I'm not scampering around." Little Bruce instinctively retorted, lifting his head to glance at Shiller, speaking in somewhat of a whining tone, "Moreover, it's only eight o'clock, only a three-year-old would go to bed at eight."
"Alright, it seems you're not tired. Since you've got so much time, why don't you tell me how you came here?"
"I just wanted to visit the school, I..."
"I mean, how did you come to this universe?" Shiller looked Little Bruce in the eye as he asked, "You are Bruce Wayne, just Bruce Wayne from another universe, right?"
Little Bruce's eyes widened immediately, his jaw dropped as if he wanted to deny it, but finally blurted out somewhat angrily, "Yes, I am Bruce Wayne, those idiots thought I was an illegitimate child, utterly unreasonable."
"So how did you get here?"
"I…" Little Bruce paused for a moment, and then shot up as if someone had stepped on his tail, glaring at Shiller, his voice sharp as a knife's edge, "Why would I tell you? What does it have to do with you?!"
"I'm just expressing concern as the principal." Shiller spoke at a moderate pace, scanned Little Bruce up and down again before saying, "You lost your school uniform. If you tell me the truth, I can replace it for you. How about that?"
"I'm not going to wear that ugly school uniform." Little Bruce struck an arms-folded pose, head turned away to the side as he spoke, "You're all the same, always lecturing about some grand principle of fitting into society. Why should I dress like those idiots?"
Shiller lifted his head slightly. His gaze upon Little Bruce's eyes began to focus, making Little Bruce's spine chill with this somewhat neurotic look. He instinctively retreated two steps, stuttered, "What, what are you looking at me like that for?"
Suddenly, an understanding expression appeared on Shiller's face. He lightly brushed his chin, then said, "You had a quarrel with your butler because he wants you to return to school as soon as possible. You ran away, found someone whose ideas are similar to yours... Who could that be? The Joker? ... No, you wouldn't have survived till now...John Constantine?"
Little Bruce finally showed a truly scared expression. He retreated in panic, looked at Shiller incredulously, "You can read minds? Can you access my memory?!"
"No, I'm just speculating." Shiller took a magic wand Strange had given him out of his sleeve. He gently traced the side of the wand with his fingertip, then said, "You encountered Constantine, but considering your age, he must have been young too, with equally rebellious ideas."
"However, his rebellion is due to his environment and his unique magic talent. While you, your disgust for ordinary people comes from... their prejudices, or should I say, their pity."
"After your parents passed away, many people must have looked at you with sympathetic eyes, but you don't like that gaze, as if you're a pathetic little thing that can't do anything without your parents."
"Your butler wants you to return to a normal school life, but every time you think about them looking at you with that gaze once you get back to school, it annoys you and you adamantly refuse to return. Thus, choosing to run away from home."
"After running away from home, you ran into Constantine, who had come to Gotham. But, why would he come to Gotham? ... Because of debts? Could he not afford to pay off his debts?"
Shiller narrowed his eyes slightly, combining the various pieces of information in his mind before saying, "There's something wrong with his magic, so he couldn't pay off his debts smoothly. Therefore, he came to Gotham to find a solution, then ran into you, who had run away from home."
"His more extreme rebellious thoughts have reinforced your beliefs, making you even more extreme."
"Can you tell me who brought you here, Mr. Wayne?"
Little Bruce looked at Shiller somewhat blankly. He pursed his lips tightly, trying his best to maintain his expression, not letting himself show any signs of fear, like a trapped young beast.
"If you tell me now, you might gain a bit of advantage from me. But if you don't, I'll figure it out sooner or later. You've seen it, haven't you?"
"You damn evil mage!" Little Bruce ground his teeth, "You're snooping into my memories. Constantine was right, there's not a single good mage!"
"You can choose to believe that." Shiller slowly shook his head, then asked, "So are you going to tell me or not?"
"I…" Little Bruce took a deep breath, and still found the courage to look into Shiller's eyes, but quickly averted his gaze as soon as he caught sight of those gray orbs.
"This John Constantine mage said something like 'the runes of divine power have been altered', he drew a large magic circle on the ground, then spent several hours altering it there."
"And then?"
"Indeed, I did quarrel with Alfred because he insisted that I attend the opening ceremony on time. It ticked me off so much that I ran out of Wayne Manor. But I had nowhere else to go. After I bumped into Constantine, I just watched him draw the magic circle."
Little Bruce opened his mouth as if he felt his following words would sound unbelievable and hesitated whether to go on. But after a pause, he continued.
"I understood it."
"What?"
"I've figured out how these divine power runes work, someone is constantly changing their use. That Constantine, like a fool fish seeing tempting bait, is about to be hooked."
"So you…"
"When he was away, I used the divine power and the runes he once used to freeze the state of the magic array which temporarily immunizes against changes made by the source of divine power."
"Did it work?"
Little Bruce showed a slightly difficult expression again, but finally, he shook his head, "I'm not sure. The magic array emitted a very strong glow, and I faintly saw a pair of eyes. As soon as our gazes met, the magic array collapsed."
"Later, Alfred found me, and I followed him back to Wayne Manor; a few days later, a giant bat flew to the attic of my house, and I received an acceptance letter from this magic academy."
"I don't understand what's going on." Little Bruce licked his nervous and somewhat dry lips, and after swallowing, he said, "I saw words like 'Heaven' in the divine power runes that Constantine drew."
"Do you want to know if your parents have gone to heaven?"
"That's what they say..."
Little Bruce started to become restless and irritable again, constantly rolling his eyes, refusing to make eye contact, and his fingers twitching slightly. He said quickly, "At the funeral, everyone said they would go to heaven. Alfred said that if I was devout enough, I could see them again, but I knew these were just lies to fool children."
"When people die, they just die, there's nothing after that, but I didn't know about magic at that time."
"Do you want to resurrect your parents?"
"Constantine said that resurrection is a trap from the angels and demons." Little Bruce took a deep breath and then bowed his head, "This can't tempt me like it does other children who've lost their parents, as I know there's a price for everything."
"Great, I hope you always stay so firm."
Little Bruce looked up at Shiller, not quite catching what he meant by his words. When Shiller turned to leave, Little Bruce stared at his back. The fear and tension hadn't fully subsided, and the cold wind blew down the corridor. Chills surged from behind, reminding him that the back of his shirt was soaked in cold sweat.
"Rodriguez..." When Little Bruce turned around and said the name, the force in tone felt as if he was about to crush the name into pieces.
Initially, he chose this academy because he wanted to search for information about heaven in numerous magical resources, and this theory-focused academy was the most appropriate. But now he feels that before this mysterious dean, he is like an open book.
Is mind reading also a type of magic?
Upon realizing that someone may read all of his thoughts, the feeling of being spied on puts a great pressure on him. Little Bruce returned to his dormitory with a heavy heart and found Barry saying something among the students in the public activity room.
"...I don't believe I have any privileges above other students, but I guess I'd still have to insist on reminding you to respect the school rules, respect your teachers and classmate, and take responsibility for your own and others' safety."
"I must emphasise again, the second room at the end of the hallway on the fourth floor of the main castle is off-limits. It contains important items, and it's elementary manners and courtesy not to touch what others told you not to touch."
"Don't embellish your inability..."
Little Bruce's voice came from beside the door, and Barry immediately frowned and looked over. Little Bruce walked over with a gloomy face, gave Barry a top-to-bottom glance, and walked straight past him, purposely brushing against his shoulder.
"Here is yours back." Little Bruce went into his dormitory after he said that and slammed the door shut.
Everyone looked at Barry, and he frowned at Bruce's door. After a while, he shook his head and said, "If Mr. Wayne insists on setting a bad example, we shouldn't bother too much about him. Without his minions, he alone can't do anything. Why should we stoop to his level?"
He deliberately raised his voice, making sure it could penetrate the door. As expected, the door opened. Bruce, face red from rage, stormed out.
He rushed straight at Barry, grabbed his collar and balled his hand into a fist. The students around started to panic.
At this time, Harley, rubbing her eyes, walked out of her room quite unhappily, "What are you guys doing in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? Lefa, Lefa, aren't you going to do something?"
Kane and other senior students were called out of their rooms. Kane walked over and said to the two arguing in the room in a serious tone, "It's time to sleep, go back to your dormitories immediately."
Little Bruce looked at the senior students who had gathered around him. He let go of Barry's collar as if to vent his anger and also gave him a slight shove.
Pretty annoyed by the expressions of the senior students around him, Kane sighed and then said, "Disputes between same-year students are strictly prohibited. This violates school rules, and your argument is disturbing others."
"I must inform you both that tomorrow morning you will have to clean the main garden together. And Harley, you didn't finish your homework, so go with them tomorrow."