Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"I think he might have been sent here by his parents, lying in a sickbed, gazing at the plague doctors wearing beaked masks, treating all sorts of patients."

"Because he was too young, he couldn't understand what the plague actually was. Plus, the treatment methods of the plague doctors in that era were indeed too fantastical, so he imagined it all as magic."

"People who contracted the Black Death were in immense pain. They might scream in agony and flail about wildly. Because they could not understand these behaviors, they would subconsciously add their own fantasies, turning the patients who came for treatment into bizarre monsters, like the Octopus Man, raven man, and the like..."

"But there are parts of this that do not add up." Shiller's fingertips lightly tapped on the armrest of his chair as he said, "These bizarre patients and the treatment methods full of magical hues could all be figments of the child's imagination."

"In modern medicine, almost every disease is interconnected, but here, the content in the handbook is sheer nonsense, clearly not a scientifically developed discipline, but rather something fantastical. This aligns with the concept of the Psychic Battlefield."

"And some tools used for treatment here are also the ones used by medieval plague doctors. For instance, they would use water boiled with sulfur for disinfection, try to excise necrotic skin parts with scalpels, or use herbal remedies to alleviate patients' suffering. This part should be the child's actual memories from reality."

"But there's one aspect that doesn't quite match up, and that is the attire worn by the patients who came here."

"Attire? Do you mean clothes?"

"Yes." Shiller nodded and said, "People cannot imagine something they have never seen before. Even these bizarre diseases and treatment plans must have a prototype. Many of them are like symptoms of the Black Death."

"But when it comes to attire, if this child has never seen the clothing of wealthy people, he would think everyone in the world wears dull clothes. He could not imagine the sheen of silk, wouldn't know that patterns can be embroidered on clothes, and wouldn't know that people would wear varied accessories. Only someone who has seen such attire could imagine it."

"We've mentioned before, this child might have been sent over here at a time when he couldn't remember anything. So the only possibility is that he saw people dressed like this in the sick ward."

"Moreover, the kind of attire this child has seen is not worn by just one or two people. The Octopus Man wore tweed fabric, which looks of very good quality; Mr. Raven wore a silk shirt, with a neatly tied bow tie. These are not something a child from a poor background could have imagined."

"In that era, those who don such attire must be nobles and wealthy people. Even if they indeed needed healing, they would seek Royal doctors and would not resort to a common beak-masked Doctor, much less visit such a filthy and chaotic sick ward. So where has this child seen them?"

Strange also fell into thought. Meanwhile, Shiller proposed another possibility. He said, "Unless, this child was not here for treatment. He was confined here for some other purpose."

"You don't mean..."

Shiller shook his head again and said, "It shouldn't be. Patients who have suffered physical violations would exhibit certain specialized features in their Psychic Battlefield fantasies, usually related to reproductive organs, and there would be more elements of violence and gore, not so tranquil."

"Then what could it be?" Strange mused and said, "What use could a child have for these important figures?"

Strange pondered to himself for a while and then realized that Shiller had been silent for some time. When he looked over, he found that Shiller was distracted and was not deeply engrossed in thought, but rather seemed as if his soul had drifted far away.

"It's still not dawn; perhaps we can sleep a little longer," Strange sighed softly. He adjusted his posture, preparing to doze off again and see if he could resume the dream he just had.

Noticing Shiller's lack of response, he thought Shiller had fallen asleep. But then Shiller suddenly moved a little, as if he had just come back to his senses.

"Where were we?" Shiller's cough sounded somewhat unsubtle. Strange narrowed his eyes.

"What happened just now?" Strange asked.

"I was reminded of some past events," Shiller said, "I think it's somewhat similar to the current situation, so I was flipping through memories to see if there were any parallels."

"Past events? Your childhood?" Strange thought for a moment, realizing he had never heard Shiller talk about his childhood. Moreover, he was not like Stark, who had such interest in Shiller's past. Shiller didn't bring it up, and he never asked proactively himself.

Strange knew he was not a very curious person. His personal creed was more along the lines of "If everyone could mind their own business, the world would have a better tomorrow."

Also, due to his experiences during his education, he was quite averse to someone probing incessantly into his private life. The scope of 'private life' included what he was doing during non-working hours, as well as his background, past, family, and so on.

At first, it might be due to his humble origins, slightly embarrassed to speak up, but later it turned into "Living on the same planet with you fools is already the biggest tragedy, there is no need to delve into the differences of where someone was born."

Overall, Strange was someone with a strong sense of boundaries. He did not invade others' privacy and refused others to invade his. He had no curiosity about others' private affairs, and would not spend time and effort to explore these issues.

Those around Shiller were very curious about what had shaped the man he was today. Even if out of politeness they did not directly ask, they would not miss an opportunity to learn more whenever possible.

But Strange had a hunch that Shiller's past seemed very secretive, simply because it might come from a very distant cosmos. But for himself, it was not a secret, and he refrained from speaking about it not because of any psychological trauma or act of being mysterious but simply considered discussing it a waste of time.

What might be considered a shadowy past for the average person didn't seem like much to him, nor was it those things that forged him. Bringing them up would sound tediously like a financial statement.

However, because Shiller was acting very uniquely now, most people imagined for him a very bizarre background, interspersed with some plots that most people couldn't accept, and then convinced themselves that it might be Shiller's mental trauma, so they tried as much as possible not to ask, but couldn't suppress their curiosity. Thus, while pretending not to ask, they sneakily investigated.

Yes, it's about Tony Stark. Anyone could see that he was dying of curiosity and had the wildest conjectures, but he refused point-blank to ask.

Strange believed that matters were not that complicated. If you asked, Shiller would tell you. It's just that from Shiller's perspective it might not be very interesting, but rather dull and boring.

"Yes," Strange heard Shiller respond. He spoke of his past so naturally.

"When I was very young, about when I just started to remember things, I was kidnapped by a mysterious research organization. They said I had a certain talent, and if they could develop it, I would be very useful to them."

"They might have wanted to use me for some sort of terrorist attack or possibly to achieve some results in the field of human psychic research, or maybe both. Anyway, they just kept experimenting on me every day."

"There are some details I don't remember very well, but basically I was wandering between a few rooms, either doing some equipment checks, or identifying strange patterns in some albums, or sitting across from someone, answering their questions."

Strange found the story more fascinating than he had imagined, so he straightened up slightly and asked, "Did they abuse you? I mean physically or mentally."

"Their purpose was research, not deliberate abuse. But they did have some behaviors that could be considered abusive; I just didn't feel them much at the time."

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"Specifically?"

"There were pain response tests, but they seemed to be worried about damaging their 'experiment', so it wasn't extreme," Shiller recounted, "If I have to say, the most pain was comparable to having a toe smashed by a cabinet."

"That still sounds very painful," Strange commented.

"Maybe, but at that time my spirit and body were quite detached, I didn't feel it much. It wasn't until later, when I was sorting through my memories, that I realized this had happened."

"And?"

"They tried to manipulate me mentally." Shiller waved his hand as if struggling to find the right words. "They tried hypnosis, but it seemed to be ineffective. Then they tried to influence me through emotions."

"Emotions? What kind of emotions?"

"Family ties or something," Shiller said somewhat uncertainly, "They brought in a female researcher to take care of me. But she was ill-timed, as I... wasn't very friendly at that time."

Hearing the tone of Shiller's guilty conscience, Strange skipped the tactful probing and asked directly, "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing much, just disobeyed her, making her unable to complete her work. I vaguely remember nearly driving her insane," Shiller said as he reminisced, "At that time, I was extremely extremely difficult to handle, even more so than now."

Strange was genuinely surprised now and said, "More difficult than now?! Are you serious?"

Shiller laughed and said, "Didn't I tell you? At that time, what controlled my body was morbid, and what's worse, there was no such thing as a normal state for me then."

"Hisss..." Strange inhaled sharply, "That does sound rather troublesome."

"Moreover, the morbid state at that time wasn't very mature. Do you understand what I mean? The system was still in the testing phase and anything could go wrong," Shiller said while reflecting.

"Although the research organization was evil, most of the staff were just ordinary people who couldn't understand the way I functioned back then. So their research on me could be described as pure chaos with no progress."

"I knew it would be like that." Strange said, "You're always the one doing the torturing."

"Not really," Shiller reflexively objected, then started thinking, while Strange saw him trying hard to scrape together instances when he was at a disadvantage.

"At least they had guns," Shiller finally said after struggling for a while, "And I was just a kid, I couldn't overcome them with force."

Strange snorted coldly, "When you mention the 'guns,' I hope you understand that firearms are the last line of defense for modern humans."

"And if you frequently encounter this last line, there's only one possibility—you are the biggest danger in their lives."