DC: Phantom Thief Kid

Chapter 21: The Auction Begins

"You need to accept the fact that you're not the best and have all the will to strive to be better than anyone you face."

- Roronoa Zoro

...

"Ah, if Master Bruce were here, he would definitely make the same choice as you."

Alfred sighed, no longer trying to convince Dick but quickly switching from being Wayne's butler to Bat-family assistant.

"Do you want to tell Commissioner Gordon that Phantom Thief has already entered the auction venue? We can have the police re-examine the people at the venue."

Alfred suggested.

"No, we can't. We don't have any evidence to prove it to the police. Phantom Thief pointed out my identity in the card, which means this game is meant for me alone.

Dick immediately rejected the advice to seek help from Gordon.

If he revealed to the cops that Phantom Thief had sneaked in without proof, they would be suspicious of him.

The only piece of evidence they had was the card from Phantom Kid, but it said "Robin" instead of "Dick."

Unless someone else received similar cards, his secret identity could be exposed.

He couldn't just change into Robin's suit and ask around because he couldn't explain the origin of the card.

Besides, Dick could already predict the scene where the police would request facial identification if they saw him.

"How are you going to find Phantom Kid without the assistance of the police? There are nearly a thousand people at the auction!"

Alfred asked in confusion.

"It's alright. Batman and I have always been supportive of the police, but they've never been supportive of us. I can handle this on my own, and... I have some ideas about Phantom Thief's plan."

Dick replied and shifted his gaze to the crowd and narrowed his eyes to look at each person.

"I really want to see what surprise Phantom Thief is talking about."

"What do we do now then?"

Alfred asked as Dick seemed quite confident.

"Of course, we should do what we originally came here to do - have dinner."

After a while, in the public bathroom at the back of the venue.

Dean took off his last waiter disguise and put on a new one.

That's right, the waiter who took Alfred and Dick's orders earlier was actually Dean in disguise.

As for how he managed to get into the auction venue, it started with Dean knocking out the kitchen intern, Tom.

As a Tom, Dean continued to do all the hard work in the kitchen. He took on tasks others didn't want to do and worked tirelessly and hard.

Seeing a new guy who had just started and wasn't used to the hard work and putting in so much effort was quite obvious.

Dean quickly exhausted himself, collapsing on the ground unable to even move a finger.

The other chefs couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

Especially the one who had been constantly ordering Tom to take out the trash.

He thought it was because he had been too irritated to pass it on to Tom and felt guilty for even asking him to take out the trash when the bin was full.