Chapter 294 You Must Have an Overly Close Friendship
Clayface does have the ability to assimilate.
But it is very limited and can only assimilate things that are similar to its own body structure.
This means that Mud Face assimilated a heart from some kind of mud?
"That's interesting."
Bruce said calmly, "What did you assimilate?"
Mud Face sighed and said, “I can’t really explain it. When I first came to this world, my entire body was still a ball of mud. After landing, I felt like I was crushed by something. Before I could take a closer look, that thing had already been assimilated.
"However, judging by the taste afterwards, I felt that it was a piece of stone covered with mold."
Bruce was speechless. Mudface assimilated objects and actually had a taste.
"Moldy stones, growing new organs?"
Katum rested his chin on his hand and muttered to himself.
Why did he have a feeling that he was a kind father who was tolerant of everything?
One of the four Chaos Gods, the power of Nurgle.
Has Warhammer already launched a full-scale invasion?
But Katum quickly shook his head. This was impossible. If the power of chaos really invaded this world, it would never be so gentle. It would definitely cause great changes in the world.
The owl himself would often fly into the universe to check the distance between the Warhammer world and Harry's world.
The two are still far away, and the impact is very weak. At most, it will open a teleportation array like last time.
But that kind of teleportation array is not enough to allow an evil god to pass through. At most, it can exert a small influence, like the crows that Neville encountered and the stones that Mudface swallowed.
Very minor, but annoying.
Thinking of this, Katum looked at Mudface with eyes full of gratitude.
Thank you, Mudface, for swallowing the stone with your own body and eliminating a huge hidden danger.
The whole Harry world should have a statue of you.
Clayface was still complaining to Bruce: "This area of mine has always been itchy, and it seems like more things are about to grow out. If it weren't for my special physique, I would have turned into a monster!"
You're a monster now, too, Bruce thought.
He gradually understood Mud Face's helplessness. Indeed, even if an ordinary person had a few small pimples on his body, he would be worried and sick for a long time, let alone Mud Face who had grown an extra heart.
This sounds scary, right?
"So you're begging to go back now?" Bruce asked, "You don't even care about Barbatos' mission?"
"Never mind, never mind!"
Mud Face shook his head frantically and said, "Didn't you see that even after I changed my form, I still used my real name? I just wanted you to find me. I didn't expect it to work. I just didn't expect you to start a fight the moment we met. In fact, given our relationship, there's no need to be so rough!"
Bruce really wanted to ask, what is our relationship?
If you hadn't encountered such a horrifying thing, I'm afraid you would still want to continue hunting me?
"Can't you go back by yourself?"
Bruce was puzzled because several previous villains had the ability to return to DC on their own.
"I can't go back." Clayface shook his head. "Since I grew this heart, I have lost contact with my original world. My only hope to go back is you, dear Batman. I know you are a righteous person and you will not stand by and watch someone die, right?"
"Have you ever kidnapped someone before?" Bruce suddenly asked.
"how do you know?"
Clayface was shocked. Isn't Bruce not Batman now? Why does he know his past so clearly?
"Nothing. It seems you are quite skilled at moral blackmail."
Bruce stood up. He certainly couldn't believe everything Clayface said, but seeing how miserable he looked now, he couldn't be any threat anymore.
"We'll talk about taking you back later. With your current condition, who knows what kind of problems your body will have in the future."
Bruce said, "You stay here for a while as Carlo. Once I'm sure you're okay, I'll take you away. Oh, by the way, how did you get into Ilvermorny College?"
“I didn’t get in.”
Mudface wiped his tears and said, "I don't know why, but after I came to this world, I had an identity, also called Baso Carlo, a student of Ilvermorny."
Bruce noticed something was wrong: "Didn't you just say that you used your real name on purpose?"
"That's to arouse your sympathy." Clay Face said bluntly.
Anyway, Bruce has promised to take me away. Batman won't go back on his word, right?
Bruce's mouth twitched, and he suddenly wanted to step on the other person's face, but his leather shoes had just been brushed, and he would be the one who suffered from the mud.
"never mind."
Bruce said, "Let me ask you one last thing, what was the situation with the plane crash at Ilvermorny?"
"Oh, we encountered a thunderstorm. You don't know how thrilling it was at that time. A bolt of lightning split the plane in two..."
"Nonsense."
Bruce said, "Generally, the outer shell of an aircraft is protected from lightning, so even if it is struck by lightning, it won't be a big deal."
"I don't know about that. Anyway, I saw lightning and thunder outside, and then there was a loud bang, and the plane crashed."
Mudface's expression was particularly sincere at this moment. He looked at Bruce eagerly, thinking that there shouldn't be anything wrong with his sincere attitude, right?
Bruce was unmoved.
"Just take part in the competition and wait for my instructions at any time."
After leaving these words, Bruce left Carlo's room.
On his way back to the dormitory, he asked Katum, "How much truth do you think he told?"
"About 70 to 80 percent," Katoum said. "I used Legilimency to read his mind. There was a lot of noise, which seemed to be caused by the heart, but overall there was no big problem."
"He actually hid three or four points from me?" Bruce was furious.
He is still not behaving himself at this critical juncture. He should have been severely beaten up first!
Katum was shocked. Now Bruce was wrongly accusing people and not following the Basic Law?
Seven or eight points of his story were true, so how did you calculate that he lied to you only three or four points?
After studying magic for a long time, has math regressed to this extent?
"Alright, alright, calm down!"
Katoom patted Bruce on the back of his head and said, "He's just a puddle of mud. Why do you have to compete with him?"
Bruce's anger gradually subsided, like a puppy whose fur had been smoothed out.
"Forget it, today's trip is not in vain."
At least he figured out Mudface's identity, and he also knew that the other party had no intention of carrying out Barbatos' mission anymore.
This is enough.
But then again, what kind of vision did Barbatos have to pick a piece of trash like Mudface?
The ability to transform, in Harry's world, is really nothing special, okay?
……
The next day, Bruce walked into the lobby as usual.
He could feel the strange looks from his classmates, but it didn't matter, Bruce never cared about it.
On the other hand, Harry didn't have the same mentality as Bruce. Last night, he had a conflict with his roommates because of the sharp words they said, and there was even a rift between him and Ron.
"Bruce!"
Someone called him from afar. It was Cedric.
Bruce sat over.
"Congratulations, Bruce. I didn't have a chance to tell you last night."
Cedric smiled and said, "You are representing Hufflepuff now, so you have to work hard. If you need any help, just ask."
Bruce observed Cedric's face and saw no dissatisfaction.
He seemed genuinely happy for Bruce.
This is indeed the case. After all, Bruce is famous, always tops the grade, and is favored by Headmaster Dumbledore. Many people are convinced that he was chosen as the hero.
Bruce was indeed better than many senior students. They just had some opinions about Harry, thinking that he was just relying on his fame and Professor Snape's favoritism.
"I won't say anything else, I hope you can do your best!"
Cedric finished the last bite of his breakfast, stood up, patted Bruce on the shoulder, and sighed, "To be honest, I'm a little envious of you."
After saying that, he left.
Bruce and Katum were having breakfast together. After having French food last time, they found the British-style dishes at Hogwarts quite different.
There is a special event today. The warriors of the Seven Strongest Tournament will take a group photo together and check their wands.
Bruce wasn't worried about that.
The person who inspected the wand was Ollivander. Bruce did not buy the wand from him that year, which means that Ollivander had no record of his wand.
In that case, Bruce could get away with it by simply getting a magic wand from another country.
As for where to get it?
It’s very simple, just take the one with a mud face.
As for Mudface himself, what should he do?
Bruce believed he had the wisdom to solve the problem.
……
Although Bruce had thought about the problem very carefully, he still overlooked one problem.
Not a big deal, but annoying.
In the afternoon, when Bruce was called to the photo cabin, he saw many people, including a witch he had never seen before.
The other person was wearing a magenta long dress, her hair was in strange big curls, her chin was very long, and she looked very jewel-covered.
"This is Rita Skeeter," said Bagman, the director of the Sports Department. "She will be responsible for the entire coverage of the championship."
"Thank you for the introduction, Ludo."
Skeeter lowered his head and looked over his glasses to Bruce and Harry.
"I want to have a few words with these two little warriors, is that okay?"
"That's fine, of course, as long as they agree..."
"that would be great!"
Skeeter suddenly jumped up, stretched out her hands with bright red nail polish, and grabbed Bruce and Harry.
With a strong push, Harry was almost thrown to her side, but Bruce did not move.
Skeeter's face changed and he tried again, but Bruce still didn't move.
Bruce said calmly, "Is there anything that can't be said here? Everyone can watch and listen along."
He knew Skeeter's tricks very well. Although he had never met her in person, the reports she wrote in the Daily Prophet were very famous.
The main point is to distort the facts and ask questions with answers.
Bruce hates this kind of people. If there are such reporters in Gotham City, it will definitely aggravate the bad atmosphere in Gotham, and Batman will come to visit sooner or later.
The other people's eyes also looked over at this time.
Skeeter was almost stuck in place. Of course, she couldn't ask the questions she wanted to ask in public.
But in a moment, she regained her composure and started laughing.
"It turned out to be two shy little boys."
Skeeter said, "It's okay, since you don't want to be interviewed, I won't force you!"
After saying that, she raised her head, turned around and walked away with her hips twisted.
"She won't let this go."
Bruce looked at Skeeter's back and said to Harry, "Next, she will definitely write a report about us. I advise you not to read it unless you have low blood pressure."
"But she didn't interview us," said Harry.
"But she will have insiders who wish to remain anonymous," Bruce said. "Just wait, there will be one."
Harry's eyes widened. He knew nothing about journalism and had no idea there was such an operation.
Bruce's few words seemed to open a brand new door for him.
"Can't we stop her!" said Harry. "Talk to her! Tell her not to write these things."
"It's okay, let her write."
Bruce thought for a moment and said, "After all, I also want to know which insiders who wish to remain anonymous will be interviewed by Skeeter."
……
Everything happened just as Bruce said. On the second page, The Daily Prophet published Skeeter's article.
Although it was reporting on the Big Seven Tournament, large sections of the article revolved around Bruce and Harry.
Some of the texts are even outrageous to the point of being excessive.
"When I asked for an interview, they showed shyness and resistance on their faces. According to information provided by insiders, this may be due to their unhappy childhood."
"We are two little warriors from Hogwarts. We have one thing in common: we lost our parents when we were young and did not grow up in a happy family like normal children."
"The author keenly observed that the two young warriors seemed to have an exceptionally close friendship, which may be due to their common misfortune, which attracted them to each other."
"As for why there are two warriors in Hogwarts, an insider also revealed that Dumbledore seemed to play an important role in it."
"..."
When Harry saw the report, he was almost petrified.
He could hear constant laughter coming from all around him, which was particularly harsh.
boom--
Hermione slammed the newspaper onto the table and gritted her teeth.
The slander against Harry and Bruce in the article is not only all subjective speculation, but some of the things should not even appear in the report.
"Why are you exposing Bruce's scars!" she said indignantly, "We never bring up such topics at home!"
Then she saw Harry beside her and immediately added: "She was too harsh on you, and that's not right!"
Harry couldn't say anything, he could only sigh.
What can I do?
At this moment, Bruce came over from a distance, patted Harry on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, it's time to set off."
"What?" Harry hadn't come out of his depressed mood yet.
"doing what?"
Bruce was amused. He felt that Harry's question was not very thoughtful.
"Of course I'd go find the author of this article and someone who knows the inside story!"
Who else can I turn to?
Should I go and cry to my parents?
(End of this chapter)
