Over the next two days.
Alex spent most of his time observing Edgar and Madelyn, hoping to find some kind of breakthrough from the two of them.
Madelyn, that old woman, was also pretending that nothing was wrong, doing her best to probe him according to Edgar’s instructions.
Unfortunately, against an Alex who already knew all of it, it was purely a wasted effort.
And over these two days Queen Maeve hadn’t contacted him at all either—that bombshell he’d dropped the other night seemed to have been a bit too much, and it had frightened her.
This left Alex exceptionally at ease: by day he slacked off in the lounge, and by night he went out to play the righteous hero.
“Sir, have you been having a bit of insomnia lately?”
In the lounge, Ashley looked at Alex with his legs propped up on the desk, her face full of worry as she spoke.
“No, not at all.
The quality of my sleep is excellent.”
Alex held his phone, scrolling through videos, answering offhandedly.
“It’s just that lately you seem to go out a lot at night, punishing those criminals…”
Ashley carefully laid several newspapers on the desk in front of Alex.
On the most prominent spot of each front page were photographs taking up an enormous amount of space.
God only knew what kind of mood Ashley had been in when she saw these reports, but it definitely wasn’t a good one.
As the Vought Corporation’s public-facing star figure.
Every single one of Homelander’s operations was inseparable from the PR department.
Some were staged from start to finish—even the robbers and hostages were arranged internally by the company.
Even when they occasionally ran into special circumstances, it had all long since been smoothed over by PR, so that the moment any accident occurred they could clean up the mess at once.
It was precisely because of this greenhouse-flower level of meticulous care that The Seven’s reputation had grown louder and louder over these years.
Now, Alex had suddenly pulled this stunt, and not a single person in the entire company had seen it coming.
Especially for Ashley, as his assistant—when the PR department came at her brandishing newspapers and demanding answers, her head had practically exploded.
“Right, as a superhero, isn’t this exactly what I’m supposed to do?”
Alex spread his hands, speaking with complete self-righteousness.
“But the PR department over there…”
“Ashley, you’re my assistant.
Is it the PR department giving you trouble?”
“If they’re not satisfied, just have them come straight to me.”
Alex looked at Ashley with a smiling squint.
“Whatever I do, I will definitely never let anyone else take the fall for it.”
“Besides, these are all positive reports, aren’t they?
You could even call it a good thing.”
Ashley opened her mouth, then thought of his strange behavior recently, hesitated a moment, and said in a low voice, “Actually, they’re not all positive reports.
These are only after the PR department’s emergency damage control.”
“Some people reported to the media that you, sir, are racist, that you’re making them slaughter each other and so on…”
Hearing this, Alex frowned, displeased.
“What exactly are those people in PR good for, if they could even let someone go file a report?”
“Don’t tell me those two guys still haven’t been cleaned up properly.”
Hearing those familiar words, and that terrifying expression.
Ashley didn’t know why, but her bent-over back suddenly straightened, and the heart that had been on edge this whole time finally settled down.
That’s right—this was the Homelander she knew.
Just what the hell had that gentle, considerate guy from before even been?
“Please rest assured, sir.
If nothing’s gone wrong, those two have by now already been packed into a concrete drum and dumped under the Brooklyn Bridge.”
Alex nodded in satisfaction.
People like that were the most detestable—no wonder they got discriminated against.
“Very good.
As long as the matter’s been dealt with.”
“If there’s nothing else, off you go.
Let me have a little peace and quiet…”
“Sir, tomorrow is Lamplighter’s retirement ceremony, at two in the afternoon.”
“And then on Sunday is the shareholders’ meeting—it’s also when Starlight, the replacement you chose for Lamplighter, makes her first public appearance.”
“You haven’t forgotten these, have you?”
The familiar Homelander hadn’t even held out two minutes before turning unfamiliar again, so Ashley could only carefully remind him.
“So soon?”
Alex distinctly remembered there seemed to be a few more days to go.
Maybe it was because he’d been living too comfortably lately.
No pressure of work, nothing but superpowers, plus lofty power and wealth.
Days like this—never mind a mere few days, even a few years would feel like they flew by in an instant.
“Fine, I understand.”
The next day.
Lamplighter’s retirement ceremony was held under the joint witness of countless media outlets.
And it was during these few days that Alex finally laid eyes on the rest of his teammates.
The Deep, A-Train, Noir, Translucent.
During this period, he had either been in his own lounge or out and about.
He’d basically had no chance to come face to face with these teammates.
And these people would absolutely never seek him out on their own—the two sides had quite harmoniously missed each other entirely.
“Long time no see, my fellows.”
Looking at these guys who’d had so much screen time in the original work, Alex actually found it all rather amusing, and very proactively called out a greeting.
Except.
The moment that greeting landed, aside from Noir whose face couldn’t be seen, the expressions of the others all turned somewhat stiff—even Translucent turned visible.
“I’ve been a bit busy lately.
I nearly forgot to maintain the bond between us.”
Alex spread his arms with a cheerful grin and walked toward the four of them.
For no other reason than simply wanting to see their expressions—frightened, yet forced to go along with it.
Queen Maeve stood off to the side, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly at the sight.
She could be certain that this guy was doing it on purpose—deliberately trying to scare The Deep and the others.
Compared to the pervert he’d been putting on display before, was this current self the truest version of his inner heart?
Over these two days Queen Maeve had been mulling over the words Alex had said to her.
In her heart of hearts, she wanted to believe those words.
But reason told her that all of it had come far too suddenly, leaving one at a loss.
This was also why she hadn’t contacted Alex this whole time—because she was still thinking it over.
Whether he was truly worthy of trust.
Seeing this scene today, however, tipped the scales in her heart just a little.
Alex gave each of them a big hug, but when he got to The Deep, this guy, with the clear, pristine stupidity in his eyes, said, “Sir, this is backstage.
There aren’t any reporters.”
Alex’s movements paused, then he gave the guy a sidelong glance.
Mm.
The genuine article.
Just like in the original work—a low-EQ idiot.
“Thanks for the reminder.
Maybe I should beat you up right here.”
The Deep instinctively took a step back, not knowing what he’d said wrong to have displeased the other man.
Coming before Queen Maeve, Alex’s smile grew considerably more sincere.
____
👻🔥Read More: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Homelander: Founding the Hero Association
Help us hit our community goals: