West Coast lyrical rap plays in the tavern, with a brisk rhythm and a touch of sadness, like the city's streetlights lit up at night.

As soon as he sat down, Lucifer noticed the difference in the bar, which was not made of wooden planks, but a single piece of wood, which was also some years old judging by the wood grain.

"This is the timber of the Sail." The bartender wiped his glass and explained, "The Sail Shipyard represents the former glory of Seaside City, and after the big ship was decommissioned, our boss bought one of the woods, which is a nameplate for the city's history." ”

Lucifer's fingers stroked the slightly rough wood grain on it, and said with some sighs: "The history of mankind is not long, but you can always find a lot of memorable things from it, obviously those things have nothing to do with modern people, and they can no longer provide you with any protection, but you are always proud of it." ”

Schiller had one hand on the bar, the other holding the glass, and quietly watched the light shine on the surface of the wine, like the light of a lighthouse falling on the sea, and suddenly he turned to look at Lucifer and said, "It seems that you already have some ideas." ”

Lucifer nodded and said, "I have measured every land on every continent of the earth with my footsteps, and I have seen a lot of history. ”

"When I'm in it, I only sigh at the chaos and disorder of human beings, and when it's all over, I suddenly realize that a moment in my life is a long history for humanity."

Lucifer raised his head, looked at the ceiling and said, "I didn't leave any souvenirs during my travels, I collected some knick-knacks and maybe I could put them in my bar." ”

Lucifer opened his hand and said, "When the time comes, it will be the most historical and cultural bar on the West Coast, and although I don't know what the use of a bar is to have a historical and cultural atmosphere, it should still be pretty cool." ”

Schiller smiled and said, "It's a good way to satisfy your desires, and every day you'll be surrounded by the questions of 'what is this' and 'what is that?' and you will have to take the trouble to explain to everyone that it is not a fake and that you are not crazy." ”

"I don't care about that, like you said, the last thing I can stand is boredom, and I will resolutely leave heaven, mainly because life there is really boring." Lucifer shook his head, he was almost finished with a glass of wine, so he looked a little drunk.

"A lot of people think I hate God and my father, but if you really talk about it, the emotion that hovers in my heart is not hate, it's a complaint." Lucifer said with one hand on his face.

"He made everyone call me the first light, but if he cherished it so much, why did he make so much light later? If there was only light, I could still put up with Michael, for without them heaven would only be more boring. ”

But why did God create human beings? Create this ephemeral chaos, don't know what the so-called mayflies are? After the appearance of human beings, he commanded us to do good to human beings and be the light that shines on them, but of course I don't want to. ”

"Did you ask him why he created humans?" Schiller asked.

Lucifer closed his eyes slightly, and after a few seconds he spoke, "Of course, he replied to me, hoping that I would no longer be alone. ”

Lucifer's eyes narrowed, and his long eyelashes glowed in the light above the bar.

"Are you lonely, then?" Schiller asked again.

"I don't know, I don't even know what loneliness is." Lucifer turned his head to Schiller's eyes and said, "I am the first light of the world, for a long time, I was the only one in the world, I was born like this, how can I be lonely?" ”

"Is God lonely then?"

Lucifer was silent.

After a while, Lucifer asked, "Don't you hate Batman?" ”

Lucifer turned his head back, took another glass of wine handed by the bartender, took a sip and said, "As you said, everyone who has a relationship with him and touches him a little bit will be arranged by a ruthless fate to become his stepping stone, including me, including all the light in this world, and even God. ”

"If he needs to, we will give up our lives and forget about death, no matter how powerful we are, how high our status, we will all be reduced to ashes overnight, and he will cease to exist, he is the real god of destruction, the eternal Satan."

"You were forced to have a relationship with his fate, and you taught him so carefully, and the final result was still bloodshed and wounded, don't you really complain?"

Schiller was silent for a while before he spoke: "You are God's creation, you are born and cannot get rid of his control, and because of his powerful power, you feel that everything can only be arranged by him, and you will never be free. ”

"But Batman can't be chosen." Schiller shook his head and said, "We will have a tragedy because of him, but the tragedy that befalls him will be greater and more protracted than anyone else." ”

"Whether he pollutes or restrains whom, he has no control, no choice, and no idea at all."

"And you're going to take revenge on him for that?" Lucifer smiled wickedly and said, "If the ignorant is innocent, why did you torture him for four whole years?" ”

Schiller glanced at him, and also showed a smile and said, "So you are waiting for me here, is it possible, you still want to defeat me in terms of logical arguments?" ”

"I don't." Lucifer shrugged his shoulders and said, "You want to persuade me to be reconciled with God and my brother, so you have to tell me that those who don't know are not guilty, many people have no right to choose, I want to be considerate of them, but why don't you be considerate of Batman?" ”

Schiller blinked, and when his eyelashes intertwined, the light was like the shadow of an inverted city light on the surface of a lake.

"Do you know how Bruce is?" Schiller asked.

"Awful." Lucifer replied without thinking about it, he didn't even need to use his omniscient ability to look at the timeline, he hadn't been in Gotham for long, and he knew that Bruce Wayne almost didn't finish his course.

"And what do you think of his attitude towards learning?" Schiller asked again.

This time Lucifer thought for a moment and said: "According to his intelligence, if he studies seriously, how can his grades be so poor, he must not care at all, and his learning attitude is very bad." ”

"But you know what? He came to every class I had and never missed school, even though he was sometimes late and left early. ”

Lucifer was a little curious, so he asked, "Why did he arrive on time for every class?" He doesn't want to study hard, so why does he go to every class? Or maybe he went to every class, how could he still learn like that? ”

"Oh, I see, he's probably afraid you'll be angry, right?" Lucifer suddenly realized: "It must be that you put too much pressure on him, so that he doesn't dare not go." ”

"Doesn't it make me angrier that he goes to every class and can still learn like that?" Schiller asked rhetorically: "It's his own problem that a student doesn't come to class, and if he comes to class, he can still learn like that, that's my problem...... He knows that, too. ”

"Then why did he come? Why doesn't he do something else and make you less angry......"

"He comes to class, but he doesn't study, so do you know what he's doing in class?" Schiller asked.

"What?"

"Sleep."

Lucifer was speechless, Schiller straightened up slightly, drank the last sip of wine in the cup, and said, "You may be wondering, when will I be generous enough to allow a student who has neither grades nor attitude to openly sleep in my class?" ”

Lucifer looked at him with a look in his eyes that said, "You're right, that's exactly what I wanted to ask."

Schiller shook his head and said, "No, I am not so generous, each environment in society has its own meaning of existence, since you want to live in society, you must do things that are in line with the environment." ”

"The bedroom is for rest and sleep, and the classroom is for listening and studying, and ordinary people turn the two upside down, and in the end it will only be a mess of rest and study, even to prevent this from happening, I will not allow students to sleep in my class."

"In addition, I don't want to prove that I have more status than students, but at least, I have more knowledge than them, and when I want to share this knowledge with them, they can directly refuse, that is, they will not come to class, but since they have come and want to accept this knowledge, they must maintain the most basic respect for me."

"Respect for the teacher is a prerequisite for receiving knowledge, because if you don't respect a person, you can't take what he says to heart, the teacher can't get respect, you can't get knowledge, so why hurt each other?"

"In that case, why did you allow Bruce to sleep in your class?"

"Because of Bruce's mental illness, he can only fall asleep with a sense of safety, otherwise, even if he lies in the bedroom all night, he will not be able to get real rest."

Lucifer turned to look at Schiller, and he was about to ask, "How do you know?" but then, as if choked, fell silent.

Schiller's profile is lit by the bar counter, with undulating silhouettes, like winding mountains.

"When a teacher is teaching a student a philosophy of life, he is re-opening the scars caused by certain suffering, telling him that he can empathize with him and that he will be understood."

In the past, Lucifer always felt that Schiller's tone was too calm and unwavering, but this time, he heard a rare trace of silence and gentleness in it.

So he turned his head back, put the glass heavily on the table, and said, "Perhaps...... It's the same with my father. ”

The golden halo reflected off the surface of the cup is like the sunset on the blackboard in the evening through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lecture hall.

Through the hazy light, Lucifer saw that the hand holding the chalk in front of the blackboard paused.

When the teacher turned around, his gaze crossed the stairs and desks, as if he had climbed one mountain after another, and landed on a figure in the back row of the classroom.

The young man lying on the table was full of exhaustion, but his furrowed eyebrows gradually relaxed.

The heaving of his chest gradually flattened, like a baby snoring in the cradle, sleeping soundly.

(End of chapter)