Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Wanda stood in front of the workstation, straightening out her clothes. She was dressed in a typical Victorian Era female worker's attire: a black long-sleeved blouse with rough sleeves, a thick tartan fabric pinafore skirt from Scotland, an outer white apron, and a hairband wrapped around her head with a dark green checkered scarf.

Shiller caught sight of some stains on her sleeves from the corner of his eye, which looked like they were from some kind of dark liquid. So he asked: "What kind of work did you do in Westchester?"

"I inherited a Magic Pharmacy from my mother." Wanda, tying her waistband tighter behind her back, answered, "I have a small two-story house on Liz Street. The second floor is my bedroom and potion mixing room, and the first floor is the Magic Pharmacy."

"Every morning, I either pick or buy herbal raw materials, brew them into various Magic Potions for sale in the shop. Occasionally, I would also sell some surplus raw materials."

"Jarvis was an Apprentice in the blacksmith shop on this street, later got admitted to some college of engineering, and became an engineer after graduating. I learned from neighbors that we've been married for two years, just haven't had children yet."

Shiller and Strange asked for another three patients. As expected, the patients had diseases that were highly complex, particularly troublesome to treat—clearly Wood was purposely creating difficulty.

But this was exactly what Shiller and Strange, as professional Doctors, least feared—the tactic of an overwhelming number of problems. Strange's operation was purely muscle memory. While they treated the patient's wounds, they would still manage to chat and think about the game's background settings.

"So you can prepare Magic Potions?"

"Yes, I'm pretty good at making Magic Potions, and sales at the shop are robust. Sometimes it's so busy I can barely keep up. The travel expenses I incurred coming here were earned from a few days of potion-making," Wanda replied.

Wanda finished tidying her clothes and started cutting bandages with scissors. She said: "If it weren't for being chased by those police which drained my Magic Power excessively, I could also have mixed some revitalizing potions for you."

Shiller glanced at her curiously and inquired: "Does potion making require the use of Magic Power?"

"Of course." Wanda nodded, and with a swoosh of her scissors, she cut a whole piece of fabric. Holding one side down with a wooden ruler, she continued, "The key to potion preparation is the timing of Magic Injection. During the brewing process, Magic Injection is required, and some potions need Demonization and Second Magic after completion. The more Magic Power consumed, the more expensive the potion will be."

"What's the highest price you can sell it for?"

"I'm not a very powerful Witch in this world; I can only make potions up to Second Magic. A bottle can probably sell for about 20-30 silver coins. But mostly, only nobles would buy such expensive potions; civilians would usually buy the ones worth a dozen or so copper coins."

Shiller sighed. Wanda's lowest wage was higher than the combined highest wage of both of them.

"Do you know how to do this in real life?" Strange suddenly asked.

"Ah?" Wanda uttered a brief, puzzled sound. She said, "I'm not a traditional Witch... um, I'm not a Witch at all, I'm a Mutant."

"Then how did you get this code name?"

"It's a long story," Wanda said with a sigh. "When I was younger, to hide the fact Pietro and I were Mutants, we moved frequently and tried to live in more remote places."

"Occasionally, I would exhibit abilities beyond that of a normal person, which some people would see. The people of some remote villages do not know what a Mutant is, so they called me a Witch."

"Since the powers I used were predominantly Scarlet in color, they started calling me the Scarlet Witch."

"Actually, I think that many of the Witches who were victims of the witch hunts might have been female Mutants," Wanda said with some discouragement. "Just like me. If I had lived in that era, I might also have been burnt at the stake."

"Can't you take on a few ordinary people now?" Strange continued cutting away the pus-filled growths on the patient's liver while speaking.

"Not a problem now, but what about when I was a child? Back then, I wasn't this strong or stable, I had no idea how to properly use my powers. If they caught me, I might instinctively kill one or two by Instinct, but in the end, it wouldn't end well."

Wanda placed the cut bandages on the tray, with half on each of the two tool racks sandwiching the three beds. She piled up the scrap tray to one side for disposal, then placed the used—and temporarily unnecessary—tools onto the tray to be cleaned.

Because these patients all had extensive trauma, such as skin ulcers, pus-filled internal organs, limb deformities, and the like, there was a mix of everything on the waste tray and tools—blood mixed with the stench of excrement, so much so that it was difficult to even keep the eyes open.

But Shiller noticed that Wanda did not show any sign of disgust. She put on gloves, took up the brush, and went to work scrubbing. This made Shiller couldn't help but admire that Wanda was a natural fit for the role of a Nurse.

"Do you know, Miss? Even in the best hospitals of New York, in the best department, those interns graduated from the top nursing schools are not as composed as you are upon their first entrance into the operating room," said Shiller.

"Is that so?" Wanda smiled and said, "This is nothing to me. I worked on a ranch in Nevada when I was 13, spending 12 hours a day in barns full of cow dung, even castrating goats, and setting bones for newborn calves..."

"Did you meet your biological father at that time?"

"Yes, but I had a falling out with him, so I ran away. I wandered around the world for a while, took various temporary jobs, have done all kinds of work, but I never stuck with any for long."

"Because they discovered your mutant identity?"

"Not exactly." Wanda sighed and said, "Sometimes people have ill intentions towards me, sometimes the boss is too demanding, and sometimes I just don't like the job. There's all kinds of situations."

Wanda swiftly cleaned the tools, washing the waste trays filled with various residues and bone fragments thoroughly, and then placed them back on the tool rack. She took the glass jars filled by Shiller and arranged them in order on the shelf, then tossed the items that needed to be steamed into the distiller and adjusted the temperature.

"Come over and help me hold this down," Strange said. Wanda walked over and found a tentacle wriggling incessantly inside the patient's abdominal cavity. She simply took a rope from the nearby tool rack, tied the base of the tentacle, and fastened it to the handrail beside the operating table.

Strange raised an eyebrow and said, "Good idea."

"That's how I castrated the rams." Wanda shrugged her shoulders and said, "It's the most humane method."

"Nurse, come here," Shiller called out again, "The patient shows no vital signs. Come help me saw it open from the pelvic area and then throw it into the fireplace."

"Oh, my God." Wanda made the sign of the cross over her chest and said, "May his way to Heaven be smooth." She picked up the other end of the saw and began to cooperate with Shiller in dismembering the body.

"I appreciate your relaxed attitude, Miss," Shiller said while moving the separated body parts, "Most interns are so tense when they first arrive, they seem like they could faint at any moment, frightened to even take an extra step."

"That's because you two are top-notch doctors." Wanda wiped the blood off the operating table with a cloth and then said, "It might be that you've always been the role models for their medical careers. Working with one's idols is always nerve-wracking."

"Aren't we the role models on your path to becoming a doctor too?" Shiller turned back and asked with a smile.

"My path to being a doctor hasn't even started yet." Wanda tossed the bloodied cloth onto a nearby tray, picked up a new cloth to continue wiping, and then said, "Perhaps when I embark on that path, I'll realize your greatness and get as nervous as a little girl."

"You won't." Strange said ruthlessly, "By the time you truly embark on that path, you'll realize that any doctor who can't finish writing reports doesn't deserve to live, and we often can't finish. You'll be so annoyed you'll want to kill us."

"That's just you," Shiller quickly dissociated himself, saying, "I've already heard from the neurosurgery nurses that you're the one with the most overdue reports in the entire hospital. Compared to you, I'm just slightly negligent."

"That's only because I'm busy operating, and don't think I don't know that your interns fill out your reports. After the game is over, I'll go have a coffee with the head nurse of your department..."

"Think it through. If you expose me, no one will write those 80+ reports for you, and then you'll have to flee with your suspension ring..."

Strange was unfazed. He snorted coldly, tossed the tumor he had just removed into a nearby dish, and then said, "And I wonder who it was that kept drifting in through the window in a gray mist for a week in a row..."

Shiller, who had just gotten a chance to drink some water after being busy for half a day, choked on his words upon hearing this.

"How did you know? It couldn't have been Tony's big mouth again, could it? No, how could he know I..."

"Come over and hold this," Strange said. Wanda walked over and took the hemostatic forceps from Strange's hand. Meanwhile, Shiller had pulled down a lever and brought over another patient, waiting for someone to help him move the patient onto another operating table.

Wanda looked back, waved her hand, and the patient floated up in the air, landing steadily on the targeted operating table.

The liquid in the distiller had already boiled, continuously pushing against the lid. She waved her hand again, and the liquid flew out of the container into test tubes. With one hand holding the hemostatic forceps, she was even able to find time to wipe the sweat off Strange's forehead with the other hand.

"All done," Strange said as he took back the hemostatic forceps. Wanda quickly moved beside the new patient, gently wiped the bloodstains from his eyes with a handkerchief, and softly whispered, "We're going to administer anesthesia now. Relax, it won't hurt much longer..."

Shiller had to admit that, at the moment, the best medical practitioner in the operating room was Wanda. Her arrival noticeably raised the moral standard of the room.

And, it also greatly increased the overall efficiency. Shiller and Strange could focus solely on the surgeries, while Wanda could take care of everything else.

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They managed to process nine patients that morning. Except for the unfortunate one who was too severe to save, the rest were smoothly discharged. Although they were not fully healed, their lives were preserved.

Of course, Shiller also collected some additional fees from them that matched their medical standards. On the shelf where bottles and jars were placed, a whole new row of filled glass jars suddenly appeared, encapsulating Shiller's achievements that morning. He estimated that he could fetch around one Gold Coin for them from Bear Caregiver.

"Indeed, this kind of money is the quickest to earn."

Of course, Shiller hadn't forgotten about his silencing plan, but the need for his direct intervention was scarce because the hospital had no inpatient department, and all surgeries were walk-in, walk-out, so there was no talk of any prognosis. 80% of the patients might relapse, and 20% might die from infections, sparing Shiller a lot of trouble.

At noon, they decided to take a break. Mainly because they were worried about Wanda getting tired; after all, she had the most intensive workload that morning. If she really broke down, they wouldn't be able to find such a good nurse again.

Seeing Shiller and Strange seated by the fireplace, Wanda thought they might be tired, so after some thought, she said, "I still have some magic power recovery left, I'll concoct for you the simplest refreshing potion."