Chapter 5818: Chapter 4841: Home Alone (21)
However, Arrogant didn’t say anything, he just helped tidy up. Greed’s stuff took the whole morning to sort, and they’d only gotten halfway. By noon everyone was starving, and there was no time to cook, so they decided to find a nearby restaurant.
Fortunately, Hampton has plenty of high-end restaurants. They couldn’t be bothered with whether they needed a reservation, and headed straight for the closest one. At the door, Stark stepped up to get them in on face recognition. You could tell the restaurant manager really didn’t want to let them in, but having this bunch standing at the entrance would hurt the restaurant more.
The Avengers are absolutely the center of attention. Whether it’s any one of them individually or the team as a whole, they’re absurdly popular. Every extra second they stand out on the street will spawn hundreds of clickbait rumor posts from marketing accounts. Stuff like "Restaurant Refuses to Serve Superheroes," "The Avengers Investigate Shady Restaurant," "Avengers Civil War Location Turns Out to Be a Certain Hampton Restaurant"...
So even though this was a reservation-only high-end restaurant, and the owner really couldn’t stand Stark, under public pressure they still had no choice but to politely invite everyone in and then wait for them to order.
"Don’t stare at the menu spacing out, this one’s on me," Greed said.
Everyone cheered and started ordering big. The main reason they hadn’t ordered right away was that this place was really expensive. Since Western cuisine is served individually, group dinners are basically default split-the-bill. Other than Stark and Greed, no one here could just order whatever they wanted.
But since someone was treating, they didn’t hold back. After ordering, Greed also got some wine. While they were waiting for the food, Steve said hesitantly, "I saw a figure in the mirror at Rodrix Manor..."
He didn’t expect the others to look not all that surprised, especially Greed and Arrogant. Greed explained, "That house is haunted."
That left Steve a bit stunned. "So you bought a murder house?"
"Doesn’t really mean much to me," Greed said. "Honestly, living alone in such a big house is a little boring. Having a ghost around to make some noise sounds pretty good."
But Bucky, Hawkeye, Banner, and Coulson all looked puzzled. Bucky glanced at Steve and said, "Where’s the ghost? How come I didn’t see it?"
"You really didn’t see anything?" Steve was also confused. "Not even any vague figure or something..."
"I didn’t see anything either," Hawkeye said. "I actually thought the house was pretty nice. Now that you’re saying this, I’m getting creeped out."
"I didn’t see anything," Coulson added, and at that everyone believed it, because he’d been to that house once before. If he said there wasn’t anything, then there really shouldn’t be.
Greed froze for a second, but quickly realized that since the ghost in the house was an Illusion, naturally everyone would see their own Illusion, and some people might not get any Illusion at all.
"I saw something," Natasha said. "I felt like someone was following me. There were footsteps and a very faint sound of breathing. When I turned my head, it was gone. Sometimes I could even hear a rhythm."
"What kind of rhythm?" Arrogant asked.
"Ballet rhythm," Natasha said. "The tips of ballet shoes are hard, they make a sound on wooden floors. You can tell which piece is being danced from the rhythm of the sound. I heard ’Sugar Plum Fairy,’ and there seemed to be a short bit of ’Romeo and Juliet’..."
"I saw a mother and daughter," Stark said. "Just standing quietly in front of the window. It was a very blurry silhouette, you couldn’t see their faces clearly..."
"There was a ghost face in the reflection on the water," Strange said. "It looked burned, and the expression was kind of twisted."
"You can see it too?" Bucky was a bit shocked. "What kind of ghost can affect the Supreme Magician?"
Strange said nothing, just quietly took a sip of his aperitif. Arrogant realized that everyone who had an Illusion was someone who had crossed paths with Hampton. Or rather, someone who knew or sensed that something had once happened here.
People like Coulson and Hawkeye, out-of-towners, had basically never come to Hampton. Even if they’d passed by, it was just a quick glance, they had no idea what this place’s deal was.
Bucky had worked here before, but every time was just a quick stint, and he’d never paid any real attention to this kind of thing, so he didn’t know either.
As for the rest, Stark and Greed had lived here, Steve had worked here for quite a while, and both Natasha and Strange had attended banquets here, so they all had Illusions.
But Arrogant didn’t have much connection with this place, had never lived here, and had never witnessed anything himself. The fact that he could see Illusions might simply be because he’s a Gothamite, and his vibe resonated perfectly with that house.
Everyone fell a bit silent. Right then the dishes arrived, and their comments about the food covered over the previous topic. And of course, that was when the restaurant owner came out. Stark looked up and saw yet another familiar face.
"Well, if it isn’t Young Master Maxin?" Stark ran his eyes up and down him. "So you finally got the scab off your head and dared to go out?"
The man called Maxin’s smile froze, and he practically ground his teeth as he said, "All these years and you’re still just as insufferable, Little Stark."
"Doesn’t matter if you hate me, as long as money loves me," Stark laughed. "Never thought you’d fallen so low you’re running a restaurant now. I’ll place a takeout order to Stark Building and ask for personal delivery just to support your business."
Steve nudged him lightly with his elbow. You could tell how much resentment Stark still held toward this place and these old ’friends’—he was basically firing on all cylinders.
"Then your taste is really terrible," Strange dabbed at his mouth lightly and glanced at the food on the table. "Even with the added thrill of making an old nemesis deliver your takeout, this stuff still qualifies as disgusting."
Bucky also turned his head to look at Strange. Seemed like this guy had plenty of resentment too.
Maxin acted as if he’d only just noticed Strange, but he merely gave him a glance and didn’t put any attention on him at all. Clearly, the identity of the Hand of God wasn’t enough to make someone from a big family like Maxin treat him any differently.
Or rather, in the eyes of someone like him, the only person at this table who qualified to speak to him was Stark; everyone else didn’t even count as side dishes.
"What do you want?" Stark asked bluntly. "If it’s a photo, forget it. Publicity is even more impossible. And you’re going to have to give me a discount, or I’ll have every member of The Avengers leave a one-star review for your restaurant on their personal accounts."
Maxin’s expression cracked instantly. He practically spluttered with rage as he said, "Anthony, how can you be this shameless?!"
"Not as bad as you," Stark shot back without the slightest hint of backing down. "You’ve already fallen so far you’re stuck clinging to a run-down restaurant just to get by, and you still think you can come provoke me. Has the tidal wave the Moon’s gravity stirred up in your brain still not receded?"
Maxin was so angry his whole face went red. Bucky was gloating on the side; Stark’s mouth could be very useful when needed.
But clearly, Maxin had some reason he had to stay. Even after being talked to like that, he didn’t storm off. This drew everyone’s attention. Natasha spoke up: "Sir, we’re just here for a simple meal and aren’t looking to socialize. Could you let us have a bit of peace?"
According to the "gentlemanly conduct" upheld by the Upper-class, when the only woman at the table speaks, not leaving really does edge into being impolite, even bordering on harassment. But Maxin still didn’t go.
"I just wanted to ask," Maxin finally said, "do you know where Dracula went?"
"He moved out," Stark answered honestly. "The house has already been sold to Rodriguez; it’s called Rodrix Manor now. Why?"
Maxin reacted as if he’d been struck a heavy blow. "Impossible. How could he leave? If he’s gone, then... then..."
Natasha narrowed her eyes, but at least Maxin wasn’t that stupid. He grabbed some random excuse, then left in a fluster.
"Looks like that house still has a lot of secrets," Steve said. He gave Greed a pointed look, as if reminding him. "Maybe we should ask Dracula more about it. If it’s something he left behind, he should be the one to deal with it."
"I don’t think that’s necessary," Stark said. "For Shiller, this is nothing. We should just hurry up and get the house in order and get ready for the housewarming party."
Greed and Arrogant’s expressions didn’t change at all, which told Steve that they very likely knew the inside story and that this was part of their plan. Since the people involved had no objections, there was no need to stop them.
Everyone hurried to finish their meal—this restaurant really didn’t deserve to be called good; no wonder there was no one here even at dinnertime—and then went back to the estate to keep sorting things out.
After working hard all day, they finally got everything done. But this was really only the first step, because they still had to pick out furniture, restock consumables, and prepare for the housewarming party.
Later that evening, Strange and Natasha went off to attend the wedding. Strange wore that same suit, while Natasha just bought a slip dress from a nearby shop. With her looks and figure, there was no way she could ever look like she’d just thrown something on.
By dusk, they took a break and sat in the living room chatting. They didn’t talk about the neighborhood or the house, but instead about matters on the interstellar council’s side, and then drifted into the topic of Aliens buying property in New York.
"The policies are about to tighten," Coulson said. "Aside from people who genuinely need a place, some folks have their eyes on this as a chance to speculate. Both Earthlings and Aliens. That’s not a good thing for New York’s housing market."
"How come?" Bucky said with some surprise. "Aren’t financiers supposed to love real estate bubbles the most?"
"But I don’t," Stark said coolly. "They won’t just speculate on luxury properties. If they crank the prices up, everyone’s housing burden gets heavier. I’m not going to let them do that."
"The Director does have concerns on that front." Coulson paused, then continued, "But mainly we have to guard against Aliens using financial tools to manipulate Earth’s political landscape. The Federal Government is already annoying enough; if the people behind them get swapped out for that pack of politicians on the interstellar council, that would really be..."
"Throwing cow dung into an outhouse?" Bucky was amused by his own metaphor.
"More like rolling a ball of dung into a cowshed." Steve clinked his glass with his, still smiling.
Coulson was about to say more when, all of a sudden, the door of the estate opened, and Strange and Natasha came in with the cold from outside clinging to them.
"Why are you back already?" Greed glanced at the time in surprise. "You’ve been gone for not even half an hour; did the wedding end that fast?"
Everyone looked over at them. Strange went to the island platform, poured himself a glass of water, and downed it. Arrogant drew in a soft breath through his nose, his gaze settling on the two of them.
The moment Natasha turned around, everyone saw the gun clenched in her hand—and the shocking, bright red blood staining the silver-white silk hem of her dress.
