The lights in the house were turned on, and under the illumination of the lights, the interior decoration appeared even more simple and elegant. There was a warmth not possessed by spacious manors, and when the fireplace was also lit, it added an even more homely atmosphere.
Shiller couldn't be more satisfied with this house, so while Duria and Zatanna were explaining the specifics, he paced back and forth between the living room and the dining room, admiring the details of the furniture and electronic equipment.
In fact, Shiller didn't need Raven to spell it out for him; he had quite a clear impression of the Sanguine Demon and his unfortunate daughter Raven. The main reason was that in the later storylines of the comics, it was revealed that the Sanguine Demon had more children than just Raven, who were the embodiment of the "original sin".
Quite coincidentally, the sin that Raven represented was none other than "Arrogance".
In the subsequent battle of original sins, Raven, embodying arrogance, showed a strength far surpassing both her father and her own supposed limits, leading Shiller to suspect that her power did not stem from the Sanguine Demon or herself, but more likely from the concept of arrogance itself.
Don't forget, in this cosmos, the sole designated spokesperson for the concept of arrogance is Lucifer.
Shiller got on fine with Lucifer, mainly because of their identical arrogance, but what exactly was the relationship between this girl called Raven and arrogance, Shiller couldn't figure out from the comics.
Because in the comic storyline, especially during the first battle against the Sanguine Demon, Raven couldn't be said to be arrogant at all; rather, she was the most humble and rational of all.
Her origin story was quite simple: her mother was seduced by heresy and bore Raven with the Sanguine Demon. From a young age, she was taken to a place called Azarath, protected by Goddess Azar and taught by the Grand Priestess of Goddess Azar.
After the death of Goddess Azar, because the protective power weakened, Raven regained contact with her father and learned of his evil plan to invade and conquer Earth. Consequently, she came to Earth seeking reinforcements.
More accurately, she came to warn the Earthlings to save themselves, but as soon as Zatanna saw the immense evil energy within her, she assumed Raven was surely a pawn of the demons and warned the Justice League not to trust her. The Justice League truly didn't believe her and didn't even prepare.
Later, when the Sanguine Demon really did appear, it proved that what Raven said was true. As a result, the Justice League, because of their complete distrust in Raven, ended up thrashing their allies, toppling sages who were resisting the Sanguine Demon and even after the Sanguine Demon himself appeared, they were still obstinate, refusing to believe that Raven was one of the good guys.
From this perspective, if anyone was arrogance, it couldn't be Raven. Even Lucifer would have to concede the best stubbornness award to the three giants of the Justice League.
This story made a deep impression on Shiller because, while the Justice League has seen its share of setbacks, a purely foolish scenario like the one in the story was relatively rare.
Someone had given an early warning, yet Batman, who was usually adept at planning and preparation, turned a deaf ear. When the crisis actually arrived, apart from thrashing their allies, Batman did nothing – they recognized their mistake, but adamantly refused to admit it, and were ultimately powerless to clean up the mess. It was the teenage Titan team who eventually managed to send the Sanguine Demon back, an epitome of a bungle.
Because the plot was so frustrating, Shiller had a particularly deep memory of it, but the Sanguine Demon is a typical character in DC comics whose power fluctuates wildly, completely dependent on the needs of the storyline. For this reason, Shiller had never thought to engage with him.
Just going by the comics, the first invasion he mounted was quite strong; at the very least, he sent the fully assembled Justice League into disarray. If not for the storyline conclusion later on, the young Titans alone would never have been able to handle him.
However, now that Raven had appeared, the arrival of the Sanguine Demon was inevitable. After some thought, Shiller had some plans in mind, but there was no rush for now; he still had to settle the issue with the house.
"You'll need to find a way to get her another place to live," Shiller looked down at Zatanna and said, "I want to buy this house."
Zatanna appeared somewhat distressed and said, "If we could let her into The inner world, we certainly would have done it, but the problem is the energy she carries is too much. If she went in, it would significantly impact the stability of The inner world."
"Gotham is so big, and populated areas are everywhere. It's not easy to find a sparsely located residential area, and besides, with such a large space behind this house, in the event of an actual explosion, fleeing to the Forest could reduce casualties. What do you think, Professor?"
Zatanna glanced outside and said, "There are plenty of houses in this community. Why don't you buy the one next door? Is there any difference between these two?"
"There's a significant difference in price," Shiller replied. "I only have enough money to buy this one."
Zatanna was a bit stunned by his frankness. She was about to remark that Shiller couldn't possibly be worried about money, but then she thought, who in this world isn't? She and Constantine would be too.
Until recently, she and Constantine had been living above the bookshop, and after finally earning a little money through their business, they planned to rent a house. Then the economic crisis hit, worsening the bookshop's state, and now they were barely scraping by, still crammed into a room upstairs.
Luckily, they were both magicians and could earn money by taking orders, managing to get by. But the talk of buying a house and opening a branch store before the economic crisis was now mere fantasy.
Thinking of this, Zatanna was reminded that she had a big job early tomorrow morning. If she didn't wake up on time or was drowsy and couldn't concentrate, the work would fall through again.
So she simply said, "I know this house must have reduced its price because of the supernatural incidents. If you drive out Raven, and there are no more supernatural events, the real estate agent might renege."
"How about this, you buy the house first, let Raven pay you rent, and let her live here for a while", said Zatanna. "That way, if anything happens to her, you can deal with it in time and prevent her from blowing up the whole city."
Shiller also realized that Zatanna really had no other choice, and after thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, "I have no problem with that, but as for this lady..."
Zatanna elbowed Raven sharply, and seeing that she had no special reaction, she knew for sure that this was a country bumpkin who hadn't participated in the Battleworld, unaware of Shiller's great fame.
So she had to speak up, "This professor is quite famous, and in ordinary society, he is an extremely skilled psychologist. He can teach you how to channel your emotions without having to keep them bottled up all the time. Perhaps if your emotions flow smoothly, you might be able to control your power too. What do you say?"
Raven showed little reaction, she nodded, but then quickly added, "I don't have money, I can't pay the rent."
"Then go out and work!" Zatanna raised her voice, "Work at my bookstore. We've turned the ground floor into a café that sells British breakfast and coffee. The business isn't bad, but we lack a strong stock handler. I think you're up to the task."
Raven was about to say something else when Zatanna said helplessly, "Having a job these days is good enough. Do you know how many people came to apply when I posted the job vacancy? The first one yesterday was even a crocodile!"
Raven seemed at a loss for a rebuttal, so she just nodded. Zatanna said, "The bookstore is in the roundabout area, not too far from here. I'll leave you the address, and I'll give you Constantine's old car. You can drive to work, don't take the subway or bus, or it'll be a disaster if you explode on the way."
"Won't it be the same disaster if she explodes while driving to work?" Shiller remarked. "Are you hoping there are fewer people on the roads than underground?"
Zatanna sighed, "Then we can only open a portal, darn it, I'm already running out of money to buy materials."
Zatanna left in a flurry, leaving only Shiller and Raven behind. Soon Shiller also prepared to leave, and before going, he said to Raven, "Don't touch the supernatural artifacts arranged in the room. I will go sign the contract tomorrow morning, and in the afternoon, I will bring some essentials."
Raven sat up straight and nodded, and Shiller noticed her joints were stiff, as if she were truly a sculpture. This was a severe case of somatization.
But it made sense, a child born knowing nothing was always taught to suppress emotions and not have any emotional fluctuations, meaning her emotional processing organs had never really worked and thus had no idea how to handle emotions.
This means she wouldn't laugh when happy, wouldn't cry when sad, not knowing what these emotions and their instinctive actions represent, leaving her with no outlet for release.
Well, the move and the setting up of a psychological clinic seemed to have settled, except the first patient to be welcomed was really troublesome. From the current perspective, it seemed that reconstructing her entire personality was the only hope for healing.
On his way back, Shiller kept thinking that he thought curing Batman was the endpoint, but there was always a higher mountain.
However, Shiller had to admit that it had been a long time since he practiced as a psychologist. Greed is the business of Greed, and since his arrival in Gotham, he hadn't conducted any normal psychological counseling. Most of his time was spent on theoretical psychology, and he needed to review more material on applied psychology.
The next day, Shiller arrived as promised, and the landlord, who clearly had the house checked, found the supernatural events had not diminished and ultimately resigned to fate, selling the house to Shiller at a rock-bottom price.
But Shiller knew the trouble was not over; the real estate agent had lost a lot of money, the kind that even wealthy people would feel the pinch. If someday the supernatural phenomena disappeared, he feared the agent might look for other ways to recoup losses.
But Shiller couldn't worry about that now. He had gotten to know many neighbors in the mansion area of the West District, most were old-money elites, but they had gradually moved to the South District, and Shiller was pretty much the last to leave.
If he were to open a private psychology clinic, aside from the required paperwork, the client base was also crucial. Thus, Shiller also had to draft a list for the housewarming party and ensure the affair was quite impressive to attract future clients.
However, organizing a party wasn't simple; most of the previous parties were organized by Morbid. On one hand, Arrogant's obsessive-compulsive disorder and germophobia made him fixate on details, wasting time, and on the other, Arrogant preferred solitude, avoiding parties if possible.
But parties and social gatherings were the most common forms of networking in Europe and America; any trivial matter called for a party. Neighborhood gatherings needed no reason; someone might throw a party simply because they got a new lawnmower, just to find something to do together.
However, Shiller couldn't approach his moving-in party the same way. He had quite a few people to invite, the party needed to be elegant and dignified, yet not overly lavish or extravagant; it needed an intimate atmosphere to strengthen connections with the guests.
For the first time, Arrogant felt pushed along by society; in the ordinary life of people, you can't avoid social connections just because you don't want to. Networking is not only their emotional need but also a survival necessity.
In the noisy and complex cauldron of the secular world, nobody can afford to be the arrogantly self-proclaimed rose. Even the most beautiful flower will wither after being boiled, becoming no different than overcooked vegetable leaves.
The best way for a loner to freely roam here is to become the unrecognizable piece of ginger.