"What's wrong?"
"Did sothing happen?"
Inside a hotel room in Kansas, Diana looked at ra's suddenly changed expression and asked.
The group, led by Bruce Wayne, had found a temporary stop to discuss their next moves when ra's face unexpectedly changed after receiving a ssage via water current.
Rembering Steppenwolf, who had been driven away earlier, Diana was worried.
"My fiancé is dead."
"...I'm sorry, ra, I—"
"No, there's no need to apologize, Diana. There was no such feeling between us; I didn't love him. It was just an engagent my father forced upon ." ra waved her hand, signaling Diana not to apologize.
"Was it Steppenwolf's accomplice?" Bruce Wayne, extrely sensitive to anomalies, stroked his stubble, quickly connecting this event to the retreating Steppenwolf.
"I don't know."
ra was also puzzled. "My father said the place where Orm's body was found was very secluded, and there were no traces of battle at the scene. It felt as if, as if Orm and his royal guards were instantly killed by a single strike."
"Wait, royal guards?" Bruce Wayne caught a keyword.
"Yes, Orm was the King of Atlantis." ra nodded.
"My father also said that several human bodies were found at the cri scene. Atlantis is now in chaos, with a large number of radicals claiming Orm must have been killed by humans and demanding an attack on the surface to avenge Orm." ra relayed all the information she had just received.
Bruce Wayne's eyes instantly sharpened.
The perceptive Bruce Wayne imdiately envisioned a scenario where Atlantis was playing the victim to justify an invasion.
Using the king's supposed death and a few human corpses to declare war on the long-coveted surface world.
With Superman gone, they no longer feared this world.
"So, what are your plans?" Bruce Wayne reined in his thoughts, asking subtly.
"I don't know. I suppose I'll have to go back first." ra also had a headache.
Orm was the King of Atlantis; his unclear death would undoubtedly cause a huge stir among the seven undersea kingdoms.
As his fiancée, she would certainly have to attend Orm's funeral. Even if she didn't want to go, her father, Nereus, would forcibly drag her back. It was a matter of protocol. The relationship among the seven undersea kingdoms was at stake.
"So, what about you, Lothar?" Diana turned her gaze to the figure still leaning by the bed, looking at the ruins on the beach.
His aloof expression was the best evidence of his disinterest in the discussion. After all, Lothar was entirely preoccupied with getting the Mother Boxes, going ho, and destroying Asgard to bury Hela with it.
"What?"
"ra is returning to the sea. What about you? Will you stay on land? Or go back with her?"
After hearing ra tell Lothar's love story on the observation balcony, Diana was sowhat concerned for this man who had lost the love of his life.
It reminded her of herself.
The death of her boyfriend, Steve, had left her isolated for over half a century.
ra, hearing Diana's question, also looked at Lothar, curious about his answer.
"I have sowhere to go. Rember to leave the money for ." Lothar glanced at ra, repeating the reason Woz had found for him without a blush or a stutter.
He was certain ra knew the location of one Mother Box, and he still needed to find the other two.
"...Co with ." Seeing that Lothar was sticking to his stubborn excuse, ra suppressed a hidden smile, stood up, and motioned for Lothar to follow.
The spacious presidential suite was suddenly left with only Diana, Bruce Wayne, and Barry Allen.
"Diana, do your records on Themyscira ntion a place called the Chitauri Star?" Bruce Wayne asked after watching Lothar leave. He rembered clearly that the book in Woz's hand, besides "Son of Titan," also ntioned "Lord of the Chitauri Star."
"Chitauri? I don't know, but I can check for you when I go back."
"And information on the Titans." Bruce Wayne raised his glass to Diana.
"Titans?"
"I'll tell you the specifics later." Walls have ears, and the cautious Bruce Wayne wouldn't discuss such things in this place.
...
"Here, this is the money I'm giving you."
ra, after leading Lothar back to her room, conjured a palm-sized conch shell from sowhere. She wrapped a hundred-dollar bill around it, walked to the balcony, and handed it to Lothar.
"This is a conch that allows you to call . If you and Woz get lost on your way to England, you can call with this, and perhaps I can help you with your navigation troubles." Before Lothar could speak, ra herself explained the conch's function.
"I don't need it." Lothar didn't bother to reach for it. Why would he need such a thing? With Woz, how could he get lost? Unless Woz's core components burned out.
"Then consider it a gift from , a gift from a friend." ra reached out and placed the conch on Lothar's shoulder.
"I don't need friends."
"Then consider it my thanks to you." The more Lothar refused, the more ra persisted.
"Thank you for saving , twice." From the monsters she encountered on the drive to the library to Steppenwolf, who almost cleaved her with an axe.
ra admitted that Lothar had indeed left a very good impression on her. Especially after he saved her from Steppenwolf's clutches. There's a reason why the hero-saves-damsel story remains tiless.
Moreover, Lothar had an even greater advantage, one ra learned from Woz.
A story about Lothar.
A poignant epic of love.
A man who, for his fiancée, dared to assault Asgard, dared to kill Heimdall, and even nearly killed Odin.
Woz's skillful art of downplaying and embellishing had already given ra a preconceived impression of Lothar.
In ra's mind, after Woz's beautification, Lothar's image was already that of a pitiful, holess wanderer in a foreign land.
A pitiful man, powerful as he was, who couldn't save his fiancée.
As for his being a mass murderer, or slaughtering half a planet's population at a whim, Woz obviously wouldn't ntion that.
At that ti, Lothar was in a healing phase, and Woz, needing to protect Lothar's safety, naturally couldn't speak of such things.
And thus, the poignant love epic with Hela was born.
"Can you tell about Hela?" ra was very curious about Hela. She had a good impression of Lothar, but as for romance, it was too early. She was simply curious, eager to learn about the male and female protagonists of that love epic.
"Get lost." Lothar's reply was equally simple.
ra didn't mind, smiling as she bid Lothar farewell. She still had to attend Orm's funeral.
"Woz." After ra left, Lothar called out to Woz, his expression displeased.
"Cough, cough... just a little, really just a little bit." Woz shrunk its large head, grinning sheepishly and gesturing with a small part of its fingertip. It could swear!
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