Oren had assaulted his leader.

Insubordination of a Mediator was punishable by death, or demotion, depending on the severity of the crime. Oren nearly shivered at the thought, but quickly reassured himself that he was only following protocol. He recalled the case of the Harem Lord, where the Leader of the mission became subject to the Harem Lord’s brainwashing, and was executed by her Second, when it was deemed that her continued survival was a risk to the mission. It was quickly determined that the Second had taken the correct judgement in eliminating the risk to the mission, and was awarded with an immediate promotion to Leader.

That incident had set the precedent for what needed to be done in the case of an Otherworlder’s mental manipulations of another Mediator, and what Oren had done was standard protocol. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps he had been too soft. Perhaps he should have killed Stoney. Again, he decided that he had done the right thing by simply knocking him out. Brainwashed as he was, Stoney was notoriously tough, and Oren wasn’t sure if he would have been able to kill the man in a single blow. No. He did the right thing. There wasn’t time to eliminate him, as outnumbered as they were. Knocking Stoney out and running away to regroup was the best course of action.

It was protocol.

As he ran through the rain, following Sera’s footsteps, he almost slipped when she took an unexpected turn.

“Where are you going?” he shouted over the rain.

“Lena’s house,” Sera shouted back.

The civilian Follower? Why? While the Mediator’s mandate did include the safety of civilians, the elimination of Otherworlders was their ultimate mission. Did Sera believe that the civilian would be useful towards that cause?

“Why?” he shouted.

Sera remained silent, which irritated him. He had asked a question. She was supposed to reply. That was how it worked.

Oren let his mana leak out of the soles of his feet, and in a burst of concentrated power, he shot forward and overtook Sera in a split second. He stopped in front of her instantaneously, kicking up a large wave of mud as he skidded to a stop, nearly slipping as he struggled to find purchase on the slick ground, but he managed to keep his footing as he pivoted to block Sera’s path.

Not having expected it, Sera was unable to stop herself, crashing into Oren’s side and falling unceremoniously onto the floor. She glared up at him, though she wasted no time in standing up.

“What the fuck, Oren?!” she shouted.

She was showing emotion, despite there being no need for it. Was she trying to manipulate him? He dismissed the idea, deeming it to be unlikely. She should know that it wouldn’t work on him. He was a Mediator.

“Why are we going to the civilian’s house?” he asked.

Sera frowned, confusing him once more.

“She might’ve gone home. I need to make sure she’s safe,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because everything’s going crazy?” she said, acting as if he was the one being irrational.

He wondered briefly if she was also somehow affected by the Demon’s mental manipulation, but dismissed the idea. She had reacted to the threat of the Demon faster and more deftly than he had. It was only her immediate response that had allowed him to regain his own senses and take action.

Even so, at this very moment, she was being irrational.

“We have a job to do,” he said, reminding her in case she had somehow forgotten as a result of the stress of facing the Demon. “In cases such as this, civilian safety takes a secondary priority to containing the threat that the Otherworlder poses. We should reengage with the Otherworlder, and determine our course of action from there.”

With her hair and clothes streaked with mud, Sera stared daggers at him. Once again, he was confused by the action. What benefit did she have in trying to manipulate him?

“I’m going,” she said, moving to step around him.

He moved to block her.

“No,” he said. “We need to follow protocol. We will go to the Otherworlder first, and decide what action to take from there.”

“I already know what action I’m going to take, Oren,” Sera said, finally lowering her voice to an acceptable level. “You can do whatever the hell you want.”

Why was Sera continuing to act like a civilian?

“We are compromised, and we cannot afford to split up,” he said.

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“Fine,” she said. “Then come with me to make sure Lena’s safe.”

Oren frowned. Actually frowned.

“No,” he said. “We are currently both Grunts, and as the senior Mediator, I have higher authority than you. We will stop wasting time and head directly to the Otherworlder’s last known location.”

Sera glared up at him. “Fine,” she growled.

Oren was about to nod, to indicate his satisfaction, but what Sera did next utterly confused him. She drew the hidden dagger from her belt and pointed it at him.

He did not understand. She wasn’t in a formal fighting stance and the way that her arm was positioned would have made it much easier for Oren to disarm her if he wanted to, but he could identify the unspoken threat behind it.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked.

“Stop me or let me go,” she replied. “The choice is yours.”

While Oren was confident enough in his own abilities to know that he would come out victorious if they came to blows, he knew she was skilled enough that he wouldn’t be able to overwhelm her immediately. It would take some time to incapacitate her, and time was not something they had in abundance.

Taking his silence for an answer, Sera lowered her dagger and put it back in its concealed sheath in her belt. She started to walk around Oren and this time, he didn’t move to stop her.

“Are you still emotionally compromised?” he asked.

She didn’t bother to answer him as she started to sprint off into the distance immediately, in the direction of the civilian’s house.

Oren stared at her retreating figure for a few more seconds before breaking off into his own sprint.

Oren was horrified to realise that he had a deep scowl on his face, despite there being no reason for it. While this was admittedly an irrational scenario, it was no excuse to feel frustration.

But he did.

And he hated it.

This sort of frustration was something he had experienced multiple times in his civilian life, but not something that he ever expected to happen to him again as a Mediator. The world had always confused him, but when he found the Mediators, everything had made sense. The organisation was a safe haven for him, surrounded by rules, protocol, and logical decision-making.

This mission was an anomaly.

He had gone on seventeen missions throughout his career as a Mediator, and none of them had been nearly as complex and problem-ridden as this one proved to be.

He wanted it to be over.

He needed to fix it. Then everything would go back to how it needed to be.

What would he do?

He set his mind to analysing the data that he had.

It was clear to him that the root of the problem was the Otherworlder. He had already shown the ability to summon Demons, and Oren was sceptical of his claims that he didn’t have the power to mentally manipulate others. Jamie was the only Otherworlder in the general area, so there was no reason to suspect an outside force.

Whether intentional or not, the Otherworlder had clearly influenced the Mediators to further his dreams in some way. The Otherworlder was one of the few to learn of the secret of the Mediators that guided them, and clearly it had been a mistake. Oren made a mental note to bring the case up to the Board and propose it be expressly forbidden in the protocols to allow an Otherworlder to learn of them. Sera would need to be executed, to set a precedent for future Mediators.

But was that really the right choice? Even if this case had been an example of a clear failure, there might have been merit in allowing Otherworlders to learn of the Mediators in the future, and he wasn’t sure whether he would want to start a chain of events that would lead to it being expressly forbidden. What could he do? He supposed he could simply observe what happened next. Taking a more passive approach would keep his options flexible.

What if Sera was right? While he didn’t understand why she wasn’t sharing her reasoning with him, the fact was that she had once had a Leader role within the Mediators, and he trusted the Board enough to know that their decision hadn’t been made in error. Perhaps she was seeing an angle of approach that he hadn’t considered?

No.

He couldn’t afford to think like this.

For all of his experience as a Mediator, there was a reason why Oren had never taken a leadership role. He was confident in his skills, but he knew his weaknesses well. As long as he was given clear orders, he could follow them perfectly, but if he were ever to take charge of a situation, he would be paralyzed with indecision as he overanalysed his options, just like he was doing now.

His normal method of dealing with this sort of scenario was simply to avoid it. But that wasn’t an option here. He was currently the only Mediator on the mission that wasn’t mentally and emotionally compromised, and he had the duty to see the success of the mission through.

But there was no protocol for this.

Oren’s mind raced as he continued to sprint towards the tavern, a whirlwind of anxiety forming in his head as the threat of the incoming decision loomed over him.

If he had a choice, he would’ve never placed himself in a situation like this, but he couldn’t change it now. As much as he wanted to run away and let someone else deal with it, he knew there was nobody else that could.

He was a Mediator.

He needed to make a decision.

He nodded to himself, as if trying to manipulate himself into believing that he was somehow fine with the decision. It didn’t work, and Oren couldn’t help but wonder why other people did it. It didn’t help him in the slightest.

Oren stopped himself before he let his thoughts wander any further. He needed to focus. He needed to figure out how to prevent the Otherworlder from damaging his organisation even further.

And then, the answer struck him, so obvious that he was almost angry that he hadn’t thought of it until then.

If the Otherworlder was the source of all of these problems, wouldn’t they simply go away if he was gone?

That was their mission in the first place. To eliminate him. Why not advance the schedule a little bit?

Oren thought about it, taking care not to overthink the consequences. He couldn’t afford to poison his mind like he usually did. He had made a decision. He knew he could convince himself away from it, so he couldn’t afford to think.

Instead, he focused on what he would say.

“Jamie,” he said out loud, in an apologetic voice, practising the tone ahead of time so it would be easier to summon it later. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you this, but it’s impossible for you to be an adventurer.”

While the original plan had been to fulfil the Otherworlder’s dream, in order to minimise the risk of him lashing out upon his death, time was of the essence. Who knew how deep the Otherworlder’s corruption ran? Even if this method resulted in the destruction of Astranta, and the lives of the people in it, it was a small price to pay for the continued survival of the Mediators.

Oren nodded to himself. It was an irrational behaviour that served no purpose, but somehow, it made him feel more confident in his choice.

Yes.

This is what he would do.

For the good of the Mediators.