After Superego finished his sentence, Shiller wasn't particularly surprised. After all, there were very few outsiders in this high tower. The Joker, who was infected with the Joker virus, was one of them, and the system that had suddenly emerged naturally had to be another.
When his eyes left his body lying on the table in front of him, his gaze did not return to Superego. Instead, he turned towards the chair behind the table.
It wasn't a very comfortable chair, not even a typical one. It was a 20th-century interrogation room's metal restraint chair with fixing buckles all around.
Aside from a dimly lit light bulb hanging from the ceiling, the room had no windows. Shiller knew, without looking, that the door behind him was tightly shut. More importantly, Superego's current smile was far from friendly.
"If you're trying to host me, you wouldn't need to go to such great lengths," Shiller shook his head and said, "We're the same person. If this benefits me, I won't run away."
"But this is not to prevent you from escaping," Superego lightly tapped the table with his finger, looking at Shiller. Momentarily pausing, Shiller remained calm, went over, and sat down. When he noticed Superego fumbling with the buckle near his left arm, he spoke, "You don't think I'd have a psychological burden about the type of food, do you?"
"You guessed wrong again," Superego commented. Then he added, "This is to prevent some overly violent personalities from getting excited halfway."
After finishing, Superego glanced at Shiller's body on the sickbed over his shoulder. Following his gaze, Shiller instinctively started observing the body's condition. At first glance, the dress was ordinary, with a neat shirt and suit trousers. The amputated stump was very flat, suggesting it had been carefully cut.
Just as Shiller was thinking this, he suddenly denied his own thought. He had noticed some unique traces that shouldn't be there on the stump, giving him an unbearable feeling.
He frowned, disgust se apparent on his face: "What the hell are you doing? No, stop your movements, take the plate away. I'm not eating that thing. You've made it so terrible. God, I can't breathe..."
Shiller's breathing really had become a bit rushed, even worse than when his merging process wasn't going smoothly. Superego gently pursed his mouth, walked around from behind the chair, and buckled a cuff onto Shiller's right wrist, saying, "See, that's why I need to restrain you. That wound wasn't made by me."
As Superego leaned down to bring the buckle around from the back of the chair, he continued: "Do you remember a while back we ran into some trouble, so I sent the Morbid one out?"
Shiller turned his head away, avoiding looking at the problematic wound. He absently nodded in response. Superego followed up, "Before he left, I was worried that his soul power wasn't strong enough. So, I had him come here and planned a lavish feast to bid him farewell."
"But you know, that guy gets too overexcited in such scenarios. I cut the food for him nicely and left, assuming he would sit quietly and eat. I didn't expect him to not be satisfied with the food on the plate..." Shiller shook his head, looking somewhat helpless: "Do you think, that small missing piece on the right side of the wound, looks like a tooth mark?"
"Damn it!" Shiller cursed, suddenly becoming very angry, and began to struggle. Superego gently patted his shoulder, calming him down, but he was still panting heavily, speaking in a low voice:
"That makes me feel terrible. He made a wildly wrong move and utterly beyond redemption. I think I should leave here, find some medication to take, I'm feeling really bad...."
When facing his other self, Shiller is always more forthright. Superego shook his head, "I suggest you finish eating first and then go. Your fusion just completed, it's the time when replenishment is needed. And as you might have figured, Batman has become harder to handle."
"He doesn't matter at all, if it weren't for that curse, I wouldn't have bothered with him." Shiller's face turned a bit pale once again. He pursed his mouth, tilted his head to the side, and completely ignored how Superego was restraining him to the chair.
Superego reached out, grabbed Shiller's neck and pulled him back, making him lean completely against the back of the chair. Then he strapped a cuff around his neck and said, "When the kid from the insane asylum came, he refused to take off his mask. I almost got bit when I tried to intervene."
"Of course," Shiller kept his head down, but due to the collar around his neck, he couldn't lean forward. He simply dropped his gaze to the floor and said, "I've said it before, guilt, is a good knife."
"We both should remember, during the time of hospital treatment, in the beginning, nobody noticed my medication dosage wasn't enough. That led to my episode, a total loss of control, resulting in a bite wound on the nurse who had been taking care of me all the time. She's just a normal person, almost died."