Pamela's intuition began to scream alarm, her reaction so instinctive that she threw the camellia away.
"What's on it?" Pamela asked, her gaze fixed on the flower on the floor.
"You sensed it?" Shiller stated calmly, "You really are a talented botanist."
"So...." Pamela swallowed, covering her chest. She felt her heartbeat, the pain causing her to furrow her eyebrows, "What is it?"
"Fear gas."
Shiller turned his gaze towards the window, looking at the remnants of camellia blooms mingled with the dirt outside. He shook his head, "Bruce told you about his affair with Talya, didn't he?"
"I know he drugged Talya, probably trying to take that opportunity to alter her memory, but he was interrupted before he succeeded," Pamela recounted what Bruce had told her over the phone.
"Your expression tells me you think it's despicable."
"Because it is despicable."
"Who do you think he learned it from?"
Pamela was taken aback, she slowly opened her mouth, her gaze settling on Shiller's face.
"To be precise, not from me, but from the Shiller you're familiar with, Miss. I suppose you haven't heard your Professor Shiller hypnotized all his professors to get his graduation qualifications back in university?"
Pamela stood rigidly like a stone statue.
Shiller bent down to pick up the camellia, a small smile appearing on his face as he said, "They both seem to complain that they haven't walked down the same path, but that's just their subjective view."
"The Professor Shiller you know, upon learning that Talya might visit him at the mansion, had his butler fetch two fragrant flowers sprayed with fear gas. This extremely time-efficient method can cause the other party to lose their focus. He's used it before."
"It's not because it's the only method he could employ, but because he doesn't enjoy the process of mind manipulation and torture. He uses it only to achieve his objective, and if possible, he would choose to skip the process. But I'm different."
"After I surfaced, the first thing I wanted to do was to dispose of these two flowers. Unfortunately, as soon as I tossed the one on the coffee table out the window, Miss Talia fell and stepped right on the flower bud."
"All I can say about this lady is that she's not very lucky." Shiller twirled the flower bud in his fingers, sniffed at it, and shook his head.
Pamela swallowed again and cautiously regarded this new Shiller. She had long known that Shiller had Dissociative Identity Disorder, although she had never seen it firsthand. This Shiller before her felt completely different from the previous Professor Shiller.
Professor Shiller, as Pamela knew him, conducted himself with a serious demeanor. His expectations for his students were high, but all due to his professional dedication and sense of responsibility as an educator. His anger and indulgence were justifiable, and his behavior was comprehensible.
As Pamela witnessed earlier, Talya's mental state, hovering on the brink of collapse, was clearly caused by this Shiller before her. His actions, however, seemed completely unmotivated, as if he was doing it only for fun.
"Wait, Talya spent so much time in a different room, the effects of the gas should have worn off, right? So how is she still..."
Pamela couldn't help but voice her question. Shiller gestured for her to sit on the single-seat sofa. Just like every other Gothamite, faced with a crossroad between her own safety and curiosity, Pamela chose curiosity without hesitation.
She focused on Shiller, waiting for him to give her an answer. For his part, Shiller also found the process of unveiling the mystery amusing, so he patiently explained to Pamela.
The overall principle goes as follows:
Talya was unlucky in coming too early. Shiller hadn't properly handled the camellias which resulted in the fear gas sprayed on the blooms by Arrogant affecting her, leaving a first impression of fear.
When Shiller noticed Talya's reaction, he didn't correct these impressions, causing Talya to continuously sense danger from him. This triggered her sense of crisis and survival instincts, leading her to often overreact in a state of stress.
Shiller acted as if nothing happened, creating a normal daily environment, which made Talya's stressed reactions seem clumsy and embarrassing. She seemed mad and inappropriate which stimulated her social instincts, forcing her to fit into the group along with silencing her emotions and being stable. This constant dispute between her survival instinct that urged her to aggressively fight regardless of all else and social instinct that called for emotional repression and tranquility created extreme mental exhaustion, a phenomenon known in psychology as the "dog whistle effect".
This response refers to an abuser, in a long-term intimate relationship, finding a victim's weak point, deliberately hitting that pain point, making the victim appear mad in public. The victim's survival and social instincts clash completely, achieving the aim of psychological torture.
A common example is poking fun at a friend's shortcomings in front of others, then dismissing it as a joke when they get angry. Or in front of colleagues, proposing a disgraceful, disrespectful suggestion for you to implement. Then when you get angry, they say, "I was only making a suggestion, I didn't force you to do it."