Hearing Roman's words, Schiller and Bruce both froze. Then they looked at each other and said in unison, "You two are working together?... I barely know him."
But Roman exploded outright. He shouted himself hoarse, "You ignored my work! You only sent those stupid cops to investigate it!! You clearly knew everything long ago, yet you pretended to know nothing and put on this act just to toy with me!! You damned... damned..."
"Wait, let me interrupt." Bruce held up a hand and looked at Roman. "What exactly is wrong with you?"
Before Roman could speak, Bruce said, "All right, Roman, I know your father put a lot of pressure on you, but I can help you deal with it. It isn't charity or anything. It's just friends helping each other. If you feel bad about it, you can help me out later."
"Bruce Wayne! Batman! You idiot!!!" Roman shouted Bruce's name. The word slipped into the middle of his outburst made Bruce frown. Somewhat surprised, he said, "What are you talking about, Roman? Fine, with your family's resources, it wouldn't be hard to know that I fund Batman, but that's part of my charitable work..."
But Roman stared at him darkly and said, "Are you still going to keep pretending? Do you think I don't know Batman is Bruce Wayne? That Batman is you?!"
A hint of helplessness appeared on Bruce's face. Just as he was about to continue explaining, Roman sneered and said, "You two must have figured out who I was the day I committed that crime at the hospital, right?"
"You deliberately pretended not to know just to break me psychologically!" Roman looked into Batman's eyes, nodded, and said, "Gotham's vigilante... the reputation is well deserved."
Bruce opened his mouth, then licked his lips and looked