Dinner ended quickly, and everyone sought out activities to partake in, but not without a certain lack of pressure—it was perfectly acceptable for someone to simply sit still, drink juice, and stare blankly at the sunset.
Shiller was one of those who remained seated; he didn't join in on poker or board games, nor did he show any interest in swimming or surfing, let alone fishing or beach volleyball. So, he sat there, sipping his juice and watching the sunset edge toward the horizon.
Surprisingly, Stark didn't join any activities either. He flipped through the material Natasha had given him—which resembled novels more than documents—like a middle school student addicted to fiction, his facial expressions rich and colorful while occasionally glancing over at Strange and Loki.
Suddenly, he realized that Shiller was sitting beside him. Eager to share his joy with Shiller, Stark turned his head, leaned in, and with a raise of the eyebrows, said, "You knew right from the get-go that he messed up, didn't you?"
Shiller knew Stark was talking about Loki, and indeed, he was aware of it, but it quickly led him to realize some other issues.
The way Thor treated Loki was the product of the brothers' joint creation. Thor's favoritism might have stemmed from their blood relations, but it would be wrong to say Loki's seduction did not exacerbate this emotion to the extreme.
He was employing a tactic very familiar to Shiller, which was to act as a hostage, then cultivate a kidnapper. In the years before Shiller met Loki, he had been doing this quite successfully, capturing the lion's share of Thor's attention.
Rather, it was Greed who was most familiar with this tactic. He'd only heard of it because another of his younger personality traits would always talk about it and put it into practice to great effect.
Loki's journey to the past only added fuel to the fire, treating Strange as a tool to test Thor and taking this theory to the extreme. Clearly, the role of kidnapper naturally comes with a strong sense of exclusivity, and he would never allow his prey to be coveted by others.
Loki's attempt was successful, yet it was also an utter failure.
Because he created a terrifying possibility in that timeline branch—Thor becoming insane.
According to Hela—who brought Loki back from that timeline, as he obviously couldn't escape on his own—something very terrible happened between Loki and Thor, or more precisely, Thor did something terrible to Loki, which was the reason behind his grim expression.
From Loki's demeanor, one could tell he had likely experienced prolonged imprisonment, the kind that wasn't modern and was less humane. This was easily noticed by a psychologist, as Shiller had encountered many victims with similar experiences within law enforcement agencies.
Angering the kidnapper was unwise, even foolish. Shiller felt he should have mentioned this earlier, but as he thought about it, he suddenly realized a problem—why was he so easily angered by superheroes?
It's not that Shiller was always angry, but he habitually retaliated against certain superheroes, leading them into major trouble without expecting any return.
The main point was without expecting any return. In truth, he had no reason to do so since it was widely recognized as a losing proposition. Greed was not one to disregard his interests just to vent his emotions.
Yet he continued such behavior even though there were better and more efficient ways to seize benefits. He insisted on taking a roundabout path, involving everyone in what he called revenge.
Take the recent case with Strange. Greed noticed that Superego and Arrogance had deleted part of his memory, and although he still didn't know exactly what had been deleted, he could surmise from the time travel point that Strange, who attended the same school as him, was the prime suspect.
Of course, he would want to exact revenge on Strange. After observing traces of Strange's time travel at the Time Management Bureau, he went to find Loki and block him, allowing Loki to toy with his emotions.
But in reality, Shiller thought, good heavens, why would he do this? Just to see the unpleasing visage of Strange now?
Sure, his expression wasn't boring at the moment, but was it worth risking the timeline and Loki just for that bit of fun? This didn't seem like his style of doing things.
To put it simply, Greed was different from Arrogance; Greed had expectations for the proportion of invested resources to the derived pleasure, always aiming to win big with little, moving mountains with minimal effort to maximize enjoyment.
But when it came to superheroes, he seldom acted this way. Most of the time, he would exhaust great effort and input a lot for what ultimately amounted to a few unpleasant expressions. While not unamusing, they couldn't be considered genuinely delightful.
On the contrary, Arrogance always seemed to find some real fun among those around him, with the amusement growing ever greater of late.
As Greed pondered all this, he realized, from the situation of Loki and Thor, that he was somewhat akin to an aggravated Thor, willing to disregard all consequences to provide immediate gratification.
This sort of instinct-contradicting reaction could hardly be a sudden change of heart; and if it wasn't, then it must have been deliberately nurtured by someone.
Stark also saw the crucial part—glossed over in a single stroke, Natasha exhausted her imagination but could only describe that Loki might have suffered long-term imprisonment.
Of course, it was not that the female agent lacked imagination. Born in the Red Room, she had a stronger imagination for certain cruelties than anyone, but she merely pointed out that it was unlikely for Thor to treat Loki that way, even though he was almost infuriated to death.
Therefore, the female agent believed there was a high probability that Thor might just no longer favor Loki and dealt with his troublesome brother by the means of a normal heir, after all, if he had truly gone too far, neither Odin nor Frigga would agree, but even the Queen of Gods said nothing, which meant his measures were not considered excessive, but rather in line with the will of the people.
But even Thor's relatively restrained measures were unacceptable to Loki, who could not bear losing the dominant position as the manipulator, and after losing this position, was utterly defeated and powerless to resist, with psychological trauma far exceeding physical pain.
The story reached its climax and abruptly stopped. Stark scratched his head, dying to rush up and ask Loki what had actually happened, but considering he was sitting next to a psychologist concerned with mental health, Stark thought better of it.
Stark sneakily glanced at Shiller, who was lost in memories, currently recalling the moment Strange's hands were severed, with the resolute expression of Godhand Mister flashing before his eyes.
Good, it looked very determined, filled with a self-destructive desire to fight against the world, no matter how one looked at it, it seemed if he couldn't achieve something, he would feel guilty to the point of death.
Shiller also vividly remembered his own expression at that time, unsurprisingly filled with possession, shock, anger, and incomprehension, looking like he was teetering on the edge of losing control.
Usually, such expressions appeared on the faces of others, flowers carefully cultivated by Shiller, which at some point in their lives, meant that he once again heard the symphony of successful revenge.
But no, Stephen Strange was not that kind of person. Shiller realized that he had never been one to express his inward destructive desires and was, on the contrary, someone who, if he couldn't achieve his goal, would destroy the world.
Numerous stories of Doctor Strange proved this point; Strange was extreme, but when his extreme emotions erupted, he would choose to stab the world, not himself, to threaten the world.
Shiller had long realized that if someone around him started behaving differently, it was very likely related to him, as within him dwelled too many elements adept at influencing others. Any misstep could completely change another's fate.
Had he influenced Strange?
When had it happened? Greed also seemed to find no different answer. Superego and Arrogance had prepared the conspiracy like an open-book exam, eliminating all wrong answers for Greed prematurely, leaving only the one—Greed simply couldn't find that particular memory. What else could it be?
After realizing this, everything fell into place. Strange had been influenced by his instigation to become a hostage and try to train himself to be a kidnapper.
Furthermore, not just Strange, many of his acquaintances seemed prone to this behavior. It was unclear whether Strange had preached to them or if they had independently adopted such tendencies. Shiller believed it was the former, as the relationship among his superheroes had never been so twisted and malicious.
Good, it seemed he had brought this upon himself, thought Shiller, somewhat helplessly. He even believed that Superego had been waiting for such an opportunity, waiting for him to travel to the past. For any tiny change implemented could have significant implications for the future, even reshaping the interpersonal dynamics of Greed in the Marvel universe.
Superego had succeeded.
It had made Greed devote most of his energy to the meaningless tasks of saving and avenging superheroes. Yes, even though it seemed to be madness, it was actually Greed's inefficient work mode, infused with too many personal emotions, rather than being entirely profit-driven.
In a sense, this saved the world because if Greed went full throttle, it's doubtful how long the existing cosmos could last. Greed is greed itself, and desire never has an end.
Shiller was a good kidnapper, constantly threatened by hostages, and now nearly accustomed to it, like how he would go through great pains to travel to the past, filling in the blank backstories to give everyone an explanation.
But in fact, Shiller needed no explanation. It's still the same old story; his past does not entitle him to live in his current state, nothing shaped him, so whether or not he has a past that satisfies others' expectations is irrelevant.
The time he wasted on shaping the past was only because he was threatened by these hostages, hoping to satisfy them, to prevent them from panicking and crying out for lack of candy, which is why he painstakingly fabricated a plausible story.
Now everyone was satisfied. Nick found a story that was essentially passable, and as expected, this story soon spread among the superhero groups. Everything was so logical and reliable, and all that Shiller had done was explained.
But, no, Shiller thought, he was never a shadow of some tragic past lingering to the present, nor a mirror reflecting the cruelties witnessed before his eyes. No past deserved to explain his existence.
Shiller looked up at Loki. If he had one timeline branch, then there would be a second.