Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 481 Secret Realm 2
“Dr. Mande, I keep hearing some sounds lately.”

Perhaps not quite used to the clean and tidy environment of the clinic, Old Mark sat very upright with his hands on his knees, just like a student in a classroom.

What was that sound?

Upon hearing this, Mande paused, a long-absent look of interest appearing in his eyes, and asked.

"Hmm... I can't explain it either."

Having never been to school and spending most of his time dealing with dead fish and seawater, Old Mark naturally lacked fluent communication skills, and he stammered in response.

"Yes, that's right, a lot of people are talking."

"Sometimes it's a man, sometimes it's a woman, and the voices vary in volume."

What were they saying?

"I...I can't hear you." Old Mark's voice became hurried, as if he was getting anxious. "But I know, they...they're talking about me!"

Mande sat opposite him, his expression unchanged, but his excitement grew stronger inside.

After spending two years in Fishhook Town, it seems that I finally have a chance to make the most of my main job as a "psychiatrist".

He displayed remarkable patience, speaking in a gentle tone he hadn't used in a long time, by asking:

"Besides that, is there anything else?"

"And...and some other strange things." Old Mark looked hesitant, glancing nervously out the window.

Mande looked over as well, but found nothing.

"It's always on the side, like a shadow. It disappears when you turn your eyes away, but everyone else says they didn't see it."

"Later, I stopped looking around and just stared straight ahead, using the corner of my eye to see if they were still there."

Visual and auditory hallucinations.

Mande held a pen in his hand and wrote on the medical record.

Have you experienced any stress or trauma recently? Insomnia? Changes in appetite?

“I can’t sleep,” Old Mark said. “I always wake up suddenly for a while when it’s darkest at night.”

“I…I dare not open my eyes…” The man’s expression suddenly turned fearful, mixed with deep exhaustion, “because I know it’s standing by the bed watching me.”

That day, Mande and old Mark talked for a long time, and Mande prescribed several mild medicines that were relatively inexpensive and affordable for him. They agreed to come to the clinic for further diagnosis in a few days.

The other person's symptoms were varied, including visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, sleep disorders, and paranoid delusions... For a time, even he found it difficult to determine the specific type of illness.

This also rekindled Mande's long-lost enthusiasm.

After getting off work, he simply grabbed a handful of dog food for "March" and let it play in the backyard. Then he returned to his study early and rummaged through the bottom shelf of the bookshelf to find the mental health books he had brought from the big city, looking for diseases that might be relevant to his research.

Three days later, at 2 a.m.

When he closed the last book, his notebook was filled with symptom analyses and differential diagnoses.

However, the conclusion section remained blank.

Mande stood up and walked to the window.

Looking at the young yet颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it conveys a sense of listlessness, decadence, and apathy) and tired face with a stubble beard on the window, yet with such bright eyes, as if some inexplicable light flickered within them.

He hadn't seen this light in a long time; the last time it appeared was when he graduated with honors from the Royal College of Physicians. A completely new case.

An unrecorded and unnamed mental illness.

If he could fully record the course of the disease, propose a reasonable hypothesis about the cause, or even find a treatment... his name "Mand" would appear in medical journals, on the college's wall of fame, and in the mouth of his mentor.

Mande turned around and looked at the notebooks and books covering his desk. Suddenly, he felt that the small town he was in wasn't so unbearable after all.

"Susu..."

Suddenly, a faint, indescribable sound reached my ears, and I seemed to catch a glimpse of a dark shadow out of the corner of my eye.

He suddenly turned his head and looked out the window.

All that met the eye was a deep, dark void.

Perhaps it's the wind blowing through the branches, or the sound of a mischievous wild cat.

I just assumed I was too tired and hadn't rested enough these past few days, and didn't pay much attention to it.

Mande returned to his bedroom, lay on his bed, and, filled with fantasies of a bright future, drifted into a beautiful dream.

……

Of course, not all the residents of Fishhook Town are so mentally healthy, so much so that even though he has a background in "psychiatry," he has had very few cases in the two years he has been here.

In fact, according to the theories that Mander studied, the medical community today generally believes that even those who appear cheerful and optimistic on the outside have mental problems deep down, only the degree of these problems varies.

Unlike the aristocrats living in big cities who were well-fed, clothed, and educated, and who gradually became aware of the dangers of mental illness through the propaganda of the medical association.

Ordinary residents of Fishhook Town have no idea what "mental illness" actually means.

Even if Mand promotes it as much as possible, those commoners wearing patched hemp clothes and struggling to pay rent will obviously not waste their precious rest time consulting him in his clinic because they can't sleep, are overthinking, or are experiencing a persistent low mood and loss of interest, let alone spend money to buy treatment drugs.

In this context, the various symptoms discovered in old Mark, and the possibility of a completely new mental illness, undoubtedly excited Mand, who longed to leave the town and realize his own lofty ambitions.

Once you become a full member of the Medical Association, everything you desire will come to you.

In the following weeks, Mand felt a hope and light he had never experienced since being assigned to Fishhook Town.

It seems like every moment is filled with energy.

He no longer cared about his appearance; his beard grew all over his chin. During the day, while seeing patients, he would communicate with Old Mark about his condition, recording in his medical record everything the other person felt—the sounds, the shadows, and the feeling of being watched—without missing a single detail.

When I got home in the evening, I locked March in the yard and went to the study alone to organize the day's notes and look up the books I had brought from the big city, working until the early hours of the morning.

As his conversations with Old Mark deepened, he gained a better understanding of the other man's feelings.

"They don't like light, just like you hate a certain smell. It doesn't cause any real harm to your body; it's just an instinctive aversion."

“Those shadows always appear when people are tired. At three in the morning, as I said before, even if you close your eyes, you will see something wriggling in the darkness.”

"At first, I could only sense those strange sounds and shadows when I was alone, but now they are appearing more and more frequently."

“I apologize, no offense intended, but Mr. Mande, there is someone standing right behind you right now.”

　There's more, but it should be in the early morning, so you don't need to wait.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)