Standing outside his bedroom door, Dean paused.
He stared quietly at the closed door while holding the miniature surveillance jammer in his hand. The radar display showed a clear signal.
There was a surveillance camera hidden inside his bedroom.
That fact alone made him frown.
Why the bedroom?
Among all the rooms in Thurston Mansion, the bedroom was the place Dean used the least. He slept there, nothing more. Most of his time was spent in the study, the magic practice room, the living room, the kitchen—and especially the basement.
Compared to those places, the bedroom was the least valuable location for surveillance.
Dean crossed his arms, thinking.
With Batgirl's experience, she should know this too.
So why place the camera here?
For a moment, even Dean felt genuinely puzzled.
Then another thought surfaced.
He had been spending a lot of time around Dick lately—someone who lived in true, absurd wealth. Without realizing it, Dean had almost forgotten something important.
In the eyes of ordinary people, he himself was already considered rich.
Thurston Mansion had many rooms. Unlike an average household, he didn't need to combine functions into one space.
So from Batgirl's perspective…
The bedroom might actually be the only place where he was guaranteed to appear regularly.
Dean smiled faintly.
So she still doesn't completely trust me.
That was the conclusion.
Batgirl still had doubts.
That explained everything.
Dean did not open the bedroom door.
Not yet.
He had no idea whether Batgirl was watching the feed at this exact moment. More importantly, he hadn't decided how to deal with the camera yet.
Destroying it outright would only confirm suspicion.
And right now, Kaito Kid's identity absolutely could not be exposed.
One wrong move, and things would spiral out of control.
"First," Dean muttered, "I should check the basement."
"With Batgirl's ability, she definitely found the secret room."
To be safe, even though the jammer showed only one camera within range, Dean kept holding it. He didn't want to gamble on blind spots outside the fifteen-meter radius.
---
Basement – Secret Room
Dean moved smoothly through the basement, pressed the hidden switch, and watched the wall slide open.
The secret room revealed itself.
The moment he stepped inside, his eyes narrowed slightly.
The floor was covered in thick dust.
A perfect layer.
Dean chuckled quietly.
"Impressive."
Batgirl had clearly noticed the dust and deliberately handled it.
No footprints. No disturbances.
The room looked exactly as if no one had entered it for half a year.
To anyone else, this would be flawless.
But Dean knew better.
Because this dust…
Wasn't natural at all.
Dean opened this room almost every day. Under normal circumstances, dust accumulation here was impossible.
So where did it come from?
The answer was simple.
The System Mall.
Just one Astonishment Point was enough to exchange for dust that could cover the entire room.
Not only that—
The dust produced by the system had subtle, unique characteristics. To Dean, it was immediately obvious where someone had stepped, even if they cleaned it afterward.
No ordinary person would ever imagine that something as mundane as dust could hide such a secret.
And it wasn't just the dust.
The so-called "relics" in this room—the wardrobes, the dressing table, the furniture—
All of them were system-exchanged items.
Cheap ones, too.
The total cost didn't even exceed fifty Astonishment Points.
Only one thing here was real.
The photograph.
When Dean earned his first batch of Astonishment Points, he had already started preparing for this day.
Because he understood something very well.
Robin.
Batgirl.
They were good people.
And good people are empathetic.
If they saw a secret room filled with the belongings of the Thurston couple—parents who died tragically—and then connected that to Dean's past…
They would feel sympathy.
And guilt.
And the dust on the floor would reinforce the idea that this room had nothing to do with Kaito Kid.
They might even blame themselves for suspecting him.
As for the possibility that someone without empathy—some supervillain—might investigate him instead?
Dean smiled faintly.
If that happens, I shouldn't be worrying about exposure.
I should be worrying about whether my house is about to explode.
---
Dean walked leisurely to the corner of the secret room.
A wedding portrait of the Thurston couple hung there.
He crouched down and examined the lower-right corner of the frame, about five centimeters above the floor.
There—
A thin black hair was trapped between the frame and the wall.
Dean's lips curved upward.
The hair was still there.
Exactly where he had placed it.
"Just as I thought," he murmured.
"Batgirl didn't see through the illusion."
He had expected her suspicion to disappear completely after seeing this room. Instead, she had still installed surveillance.
She's sharper than I gave her credit for.
Dean reached out, lifted the portrait upward and backward, then tilted it thirty degrees to the left.
Click.
The portrait locked into place.
The secret room itself appeared unchanged.
But behind the wall—
The structure shifted.
Silently.
On the basement wall corresponding to the secret room, a hidden entrance slowly opened inward.
Behind it—
A second secret room was revealed.
This was the true core.
Kaito Kid's base of operations.
Dean's expression finally turned serious.
"There's less than a week left until March 10th," he said quietly.
"These past days were wasted dealing with Dick and Barbara. From now on… I'll have to move fast."
He gathered the equipment he needed, sealed both secret rooms, and left the house without a sound.
---
"It's 8:30 PM," Dean checked the time.
"And there's still a camera in the bedroom."
"If I sleep too early or too late every night, it'll look suspicious."
He exhaled.
No room for mistakes.
Without hesitation, Dean headed toward the Gotham Natural History Museum at full speed.
---
Nearly Three Hours Later
In an old residential building in Gotham's old district, second floor.
Inside a dimly lit bedroom.
Barbara Gordon sat at her desk, eyes fixed on a computer screen.
She wasn't watching a movie.
She wasn't playing a game.
She was watching a bedroom.
A bedroom with no one inside.
A live feed.
Barbara had been staring at it for over an hour and a half.
She finally rubbed her temples, frustration creeping in.
"Barbara… what are you even doing?"
"How long are you going to waste time on this meaningless thing?"
Her thoughts spiraled.
"Why did I even install a camera in Dean's house?"
"There's no motive. No evidence. No clues."
She clenched her jaw.
"Just because he read a book about Roman religion, I started suspecting him?"
"…God. I really have been influenced by Batman."
Barbara reached for the mouse, ready to shut the computer down and go out on patrol to clear her head.
Then—
The bedroom door on the screen opened.
Dean walked in.
Barbara's eyes widened instantly.
"Woah!"
The word escaped her mouth before she could stop it.
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