"After merging with the Joker and gaining greater power and a more secure position, the first thing you did was create 'mediocrity.'"
"Before this, there had also been considerable differences between your linguistic logic and behavioral logic, but because they weren't so contradictory, I hadn't noticed. Then Sloth appeared, and it felt deeply out of place."
"After you said you were going to merge with the Joker, I imagined many terrifying scenarios—for example, you becoming crazier, more arrogant, and harder to deal with."
"But what I got instead was a personality who was more natural, peaceful, and completely nonaggressive."
"Don't you think actively weakening your own aggression completely contradicts Pride's nature?" Bruce asked, looking into Schiller's eyes. "Shouldn't you take pride in your own arrogance?"
Schiller had just opened his mouth to say something when Bruce continued, "This is completely different from your previous principles of conduct. The sense of conflict created by the contradiction made me feel that something was strange."
"And after Pathological appeared, that strange feeling became even more obvious. You and Pathological described it as an examination, meant to test the results of your teaching... but why now?"
"If, as you said, Pathological informed you long ago that there might be such an examination, did you ever consider why he chose this moment? Has there been any obvious change in our relationship? Has your teaching method changed in any particular way that requires additional assessment?"
"Or perhaps Pathological was actually more clearly aware than you were that Schiller needed treatment—that one day, you would inevitably need to be treated. He had been waiting for an opportunity, waiting for someone who might be capable of treating you to appear, and he disguised all of this as an examination?"
Bruce blinked, paused, and then said, "It actually wasn't