Oren felt something tickle his forearm, a signal from Laush that the Otherworlder was asleep. She had been using magic to create small breezes and quiet popping sounds to see if the Otherworlder would wake up at the minor annoyances.

The Otherworlder was asleep. He had been for the past ten minutes or so, but Oren didn’t move until he was absolutely sure of the fact. It wouldn’t do to risk the fate of millions of lives over a simple mistake.

Oren got up silently and made his way to the carriages.

While Laush and Tenna had set up enough tents that each member of the group could take one to themselves, Sera and the girl had chosen to sleep in the carriages, being small enough to comfortably lie across the seats.

Oren made sure to activate the small pocket-sized redstone lantern he had in his hands. He didn’t need the dim light it provided, but it was important for appearances.

He knocked on the door to the carriage that the girl was sleeping in. It took two seconds before the latch clicked open and the girl peered warily out at him.

Oren smiled and waved.

The girl gave him a frown in response, but let the door swing open. Oren stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

He expected the girl might feel uncomfortable, sitting in a dark enclosed space with a man of his size, so when he sat down, Oren made sure to shrink in on himself as much as possible and give her a gentle smile that clashed with his otherwise brutish appearance. The light of his lantern was weak, but he positioned it in a way that she could vaguely see his expression.

“You don’t trust me,” he said.

It wasn’t the standard way to start a conversation, but by acknowledging her distrust in him and validating it, he hoped that it would paradoxically get her to reconsider it.

“It’s fine that you don’t. I haven't given you any reason to trust me, unless you count the fact that I’m a Mediator,” he continued. “Though judging by your conversation with Sera, I assume that’s hardly a positive point to you at this very moment.”

“She told you about that?” the girl asked.

“She did,” Oren said. “It was a hard conversation, from what I’ve heard.”

“And now you’re here to give me more?”

The girl came off as antagonistic, which made sense given that she’d been witness to how he’d manipulated the Otherworlder earlier that night.

“Therapy is rarely easy,” Oren said.

“This hardly feels like a therapy session,” she replied, crossing her arms in defiance.

“Most of therapy is made up of having difficult conversations. Though I will admit this may not be the ideal setting for it. Is there anything I could do to make you feel more comfortable? Perhaps Laush or Tenna could take over if you specifically feel uncomfortable with me.”

Oren knew that even if the idea might appeal to her, she would refuse it. The girl was intelligent enough to recognize that she didn’t actually have an issue with him. Even though he’d been the one to manipulate the Otherworlder directly, it was a consequence of his role as a Mediator, rather than his personal doctrine. She wouldn’t feel any more comfortable with another Mediator.

Judging from the grimace on her face, she had come to the same conclusion.

“No, that’s fine,” she said. “But I would feel more comfortable if we could turn on a few more lamps. I’m not afraid of the dark or anything, but this is a bit too much. I’m starting to feel a little claustrophobic.”

“I’m sure you recognize the need for secrecy here,” Oren said. “Jamie’s a deeply insecure boy, and he would react negatively to the idea that his love interest and his new best friend are meeting in secret, regardless of whatever explanation we give him. I would prefer if we didn’t have to deal with whatever would happen if we were discovered, so we won’t be using any more lanterns than necessary.”

She sighed, no doubt a reaction to the reminder of her status as the Otherworlder's object of affection.

“Great,” she said. Sarcasm.

“I said we wouldn’t be using lanterns, Lena,” Oren said, pretending to misread the cause of her frustration. “Not that we’d need to stay in the dark.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked.

“You know how to use magic, right?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“I do.”

Oren nodded and closed his fist against the lantern in his hand. A dull red glow shone through the skin of his fingers, but the carriage was otherwise plunged into darkness.

“Let out your magic slowly and say, [Status].”

As Oren laid out his instructions, he followed them as well. It was an odd, but not unpleasant feeling as he felt something take hold of his magic for him, drawing out a sliver of his mana and connecting it to something greater than himself. A blue panel popped up in front of him.

General Information: Attributes Name: Oren STR: ??? Species: Human DEX: ??? Class: Follower END: ??? HP: ??? INT: ??? MP: ??? WIS: ??? XP: N/A CHA: ???

Historically, Otherworlders with a panel interface for their interactions with the Guide were able to use it to increase their abilities in one way or another, but while Followers have always had access to the Guide in the same way, they were always barred from using it to the same extent. This case held no exception to the rule, but at the very least, Oren and Sera had discovered a few uses of the blue panels throughout the night.

It seemed that by calling on a personal panel like this one, it was only visible to the user. While it did obscure Oren’s vision, moving around to block his vision no matter where he looked, it did emit a pale blue glow that nobody else could see.

Through the translucent screen, Oren could see the girl frowning, despite sitting in pitch darkness.

“That’s what Jamie says sometimes,” she said.

“It is,” Oren agreed.

“I don’t want to be any more involved in this Otherworlder-Mediator business than I already am.”

“And why is that? Many civilians would be enthused to become a Follower if they had the opportunity.”

She narrowed her eyes, glaring at where she must have thought his eyes were. She ended up staring at his chin instead.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“That sounds like bullshit,” she said.

“It’s the truth,” Oren said, unoffended by what she said. “Being a Follower comes with many benefits. Monetary compensation and access to an Otherworlder’s power can make any ordinary civilian into a powerful person in a few weeks.”

“Most people I know would be too scared to even consider all of that stuff. Myself included.”

“I never said most. I said many. I apologize if there was any confusion.”

“That sounds like bullshit too.”

“What specifically?”

“Are you asking because you’re genuinely confused, or because you’re looking for feedback so you can lie better next time?”

Oren sighed.

“The former,” he said. “I will admit that this is new ground for me. I’ve never had a civilian therapy patient before and I’m used to speaking in terms that Mediators typically appreciate. We’re an odd sort, but I still thought you’d appreciate the persona that I find truest to myself. I apologize.”

The girl said nothing, crossing her arms as a complicated emotion crossed her face, even when she thought he couldn’t see her. She was performing for no one and yet her emotions spilled out of her liberally. It was the type of thing that Oren would never see in another Mediator, and he couldn’t help but think of when the last time an emotion appeared on his face unprompted had been.

“You’re not sorry,” the girl said. “Don’t apologize for something that you don’t actually care about.”

Oren could see where she was coming from but didn’t agree with it. He didn’t care about much, but apologies were too powerful of a tool not to use. He would follow along if it made her more agreeable, but it wasn’t a binding agreement in the slightest.

“Okay, I won’t,” Oren said. “But I sincerely didn’t mean to confuse you. It’s true there are benefits to taking a Follower role as a civilian and I was curious about why you personally didn’t care for them, regardless of the majority opinion.”

“I’m not crazy enough to want to risk my life by even being near an Otherworlder,” the girl said, seemingly content to go along with Oren’s quick change of subject.

“But Jamie isn’t just an Otherworlder. You’ve become a companion to him. Do you truly believe he will harm you?”

The girl frowned.

“No. Not on purpose, at least.”

“Then why do you push away the role of a Follower, if your main concern is addressed by Jamie’s personality?”

The frown deepened.

“What was that about statuses again?” she said.

The deflection was obvious, and Oren had no doubts that she’d tried very hard to conceal that fact, but he didn’t want to push the girl into talking about something if she didn’t want to.

“Let out your magic slowly and say, Status,” he said, not using magic this time as his status panel was already opened.

The girl hesitated for another second.

“Status,” she said.

Though he had no way of knowing if the girl summoned her panel correctly, her wide-eyed expression and the way that her eyes focused on his face, rather than his neck made it clear that she was able to see him with the ambient blue light that her personal status panel emitted.

“Oh,” she said.

“It works for [Skills] as well,” Oren said. The word resonated with him, summoning yet another panel.

Skills:

[Side Character] (Passive)

Characters with the [Side Character] ability cannot acquire XP and will passively grow stronger alongside the [HERO] at a rate that will not outshine the [HERO] in any way. The [Side Character] skill may degrade or increase the strength of the wielder at any time to further the [STORY].

“What am I supposed to do with this?” the girl asked.

Oren shrugged, adopting his visual mannerisms once more, now that she could see him again. “It makes for a good source of personal light.”

The girl said nothing in response, and Oren decided it was time to go to his next topic.

“What’s your opinion on Sera?” Oren asked.

“Huh?” the girl said, starting in surprise. “What brought this on?”

Oren smiled innocently.

“I won’t push you to talk about things that you aren’t ready for, Lena,” he said. “But we do need to talk about something during our therapy sessions. What do you think about Sera?”

Oren hadn’t thought he would bring up this topic so early, but he had accidentally put Lena off balance enough that he was confident with advancing to the main topic he wanted to explore that night. Sera’s odd behaviour.

It was common protocol to distance civilian Followers from their Otherworlders as much as possible and as soon as possible, even if they were Chosen, but Sera was keeping the girl firmly intertwined in their operations. She had given the excuse that the girl was highly intelligent and could be an asset to their operations, but even if it was true, no asset was worth the potential risk they undertook whenever they added more rogue elements.

The entire situation was a large and unnecessary breach of standard operating procedure, one that Sera refused to elaborate on whenever he asked her to provide further reasoning.

“It’s a safe enough topic, don’t you think, Lena? If the more bizarre events that have entered your recent life are too difficult to talk about, we could talk about the more mundane parts of your recent life instead, not that I would call our little leader mundane in any sense of the word.” Oren chuckled at the preplanned joke. “But seriously, don’t tell her. She can be surprisingly petty, and I’d rather not get my pay docked.”

“She controls your pay?” the girl asked.

An odd thing to focus on, but Oren played along. “As the leader of the team, she’s responsible for each member’s performance reviews, which can influence my salary. But enough about me,” he said, not willing to let the deflection last for long. “What about you? What’s your opinion on our venerable leader?”

The girl frowned. “You know my opinion on you Mediators already.”

That opinion was an issue Oren planned to address later, but it was still deflection. “I’m not asking about the Mediators, Lena,” he said, giving her a gentle and patient smile. “I just want to talk about Sera as a person. She’s clearly the person that you’re closest to within our group. Do you truly see her as nothing beyond her title? I was under the impression that the two of you were becoming genuine friends.”

The girl opened her mouth but closed it before anything came out. Scrunching her face in concentration, she thought for a few seconds before giving up, letting out a loud sigh.

“Maybe,” she said. “If it weren’t for all of this Mediator stuff, I guess I could see myself being friends with her, even if she is a bit pushy.”

Oren kept his face neutral. “Pushy?” he asked. “How so?”

“Well, she keeps saying and doing weirdly flirty things with me,” the girl said, sighing into her hand. “I mean, it’s similar enough to what she does with Jamie that I can assume it’s all an act, but that doesn't explain why she doing it with me.”

Oren simply smiled through his confusion. “I can’t say I’ve noticed it myself,” he said, telling the truth. “What do you think is her reason?”

It was difficult to tell in the dim blue lighting provided by his two panels, but he thought he saw the girl’s face darken in colour.

“I don’t know,” the girl said.

“Are you sure?” Oren asked. “You seem to have some sort of idea.”

The girl glared at him, though it wasn’t intimidating in the slightest, Oren did worry slightly that he’d accidentally pushed too hard.

He held up his hands in a pacifying gesture, but said nothing.

The girl didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but Oren was patient enough to wait.

“It’s really stupid,” the girl said, looking to the side to avoid Oren’s eyes. “And this is just a guess. But maybe, I think she likes me?”

Before Oren could react, the girl sighed deeply and held her head in her hands. “I mean, I'm not good at picking up when someone's flirting with me, but sometimes she makes me think of that time when one of my friends thought he liked me, back when we were just kids. He would constantly stick by my side, make excuses to touch me, like patting my shoulder or sitting close to me, and he would always tease me about anything, but he would apologize right after. I eventually got annoyed enough at him to tell him to piss off, which made him cry. I only figured out he liked me when one of my other friends told me a few years later.”

Oren stayed silent for a moment, processing what she was saying. “I see,” he said as an automatic response to her words. “And you think Sera is the same way?”

The girl hesitated. “Maybe?” She shook her head quickly. “No, that was a kid’s idea of flirting. Sera’s an adult. I guess she wouldn’t act so childish if she was seriously trying to flirt with me, right?”

Oren nodded numbly. “I suppose so,” he said aloud, while he struggled to make the same conclusion in his mind.

Oren was an expert on the matters of love and attraction, that was to say, he’d done extensive reading on the subject. He knew that attraction to another person was characterised by many things, including irrational behaviour.

Though he wanted to dismiss the idea that Sera could risk the whole operation for a chance to get closer to her object of attraction, to his horror, he couldn’t deny the possibility.

Sera was famous among the Mediators. She was among the few young Mediators in the organisation’s active ranks, and the youngest team leader by a large margin. She had spent her entire life surrounded by hardened agents decades older than herself. Meeting the girl was likely the first time that she had spent more than a few hours interacting with someone close to her own age.

Oren couldn’t stop his eyes from narrowing and his mouth curving downwards in a slight grimace, betraying his true emotions through the mask he wore, for the first time in years.

“I suppose so,” he repeated.