After my talk with Lena’s dad, a tense silence sat heavy between the three of us, all of us staying frozen in our spots, none of us wanting to risk starting another conversation, too afraid of what could be said.

I looked down into my lap, too tired and too unfocused to actually think about what I wanted to do next. I could imagine Lena’s dad staring at the back of my head, silently urging me to make a decision, but the imaginary pressure just made it harder to think. I wasn’t sure if he was actually staring at me or not, but I didn’t want to check.

I don’t know how long we stayed like that. It could’ve been a few hours or a few minutes, but eventually I couldn’t take it anymore.

I let out a quiet sigh, hoping I wouldn’t startle anyone with the sudden break in the silence.

“I’m gonna go out for a walk,” I said. “I need to clear my head.”

Though I tried my best not to, I couldn’t help myself from looking back at Lena. She gave me a pained look as her eyes darted between me and her bedroom.

“Could it wait just a bit?” she asked. “I don’t want my mom to freak out if she wakes up and I’m not around.”

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to smile or frown at the idea that Lena just assumed that I was asking her to come along with me. On the one hand, I absolutely wanted for her to come along with me. Ever since arriving in Materia, Lena had basically been my main source of stability, and the only real friend I had, since Oren and Sera were secretly trying to kill me this whole time. The thought of having her by my side, especially after a day like this, was a comforting one.

But the fact that I so desperately wanted her to tag along was the exact reason why I wanted to be alone to think in the first place.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I just want some time alone to think.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

From the look on her face, I was certain that she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t call me out on it. I waited a few seconds for her to give her the opportunity, but once I realized I was stalling, I left the house without another word.

As I stepped outside, I flinched at the spray of rain that hit my face. While the rain had quieted down significantly since the morning, it was still bad enough that my hoodie was quickly drenched, hugging my shoulders with its cold grip.

Though I could have easily used my magic to make a magical umbrella and dry myself off, I didn’t bother to do either.

“Quest Log,” I said, as soon as I was more than a few steps away from Lena’s house.

The familiar blue panel popped up in front of me, but it was smaller than I remembered. Granted, I hadn’t actually checked any of my status windows in a while, but it wasn’t a hard change to notice.

All my quests were gone. Aside from one.

I lifted a finger to tap at it.

A new panel opened.

[Main] Quest: Find True Love

Progress: True Love obtained (0/1)

Rewards: N/A

“Apparently N/A stands for Not being Alive. Who knew?”

I chuckled a bit at my own joke, but it was shallow, my good cheer fading in an instant.

“I guess I’m dying a virgin, huh?” I said out loud, hoping that the second joke would do something to lift my spirits.

I tried to laugh at that joke too, but all that came out was a forced and raspy wheeze. I was about to try for a third joke, when I heard someone clearing their throat.

“There are some great brothels in Redstone, you know. If that’s something you really want to fix.”

I fought not to jump at the interruption, and whirled around. Down the street from me, a balding middle aged man stood with his back against a random house, standing underneath the awning to protect himself from the rain with his hands raised in a half-hearted gesture of surrender. He was frowning, but from the way that the lines in his face outlined the expression so perfectly, I quickly assumed that’s how he always looked.

“Sorry you had to hear that,” I said, feeling heat rise to my cheeks despite the cold rain.

“Don’t be,” the man said, waving off my concerns and lowering his hands. “It’s a part of the human condition. No point in being ashamed of what the body wants.”

“I guess,” I said. Though it helped that he was so casual about it, it didn’t mean I wanted to acknowledge the fact that he’d caught me talking to myself about how I was a virgin. “Can we stop talking about this?”

The man raised an eyebrow, like he was confused why I was embarrassed, but shrugged to himself.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“You enjoy standing out in the rain like this?” he asked instead.

“No. Not really,” I said. I didn’t know why this middle aged man was so talkative, but I didn’t want to be rude.

“Then why are you?”

“I don’t have anywhere I want to go.”

“I see,” the man said, frowning. I thought that might be the end of the questioning, but after a short pause, he continued. “Why aren’t you at least protecting yourself with magic? I doubt it’s possible for you to catch a cold, but still. It can’t be too comfortable staying drenched like that. ”

“You know I’m an Otherworlder?” I asked, barely surprised. Though the man wasn’t one of the people that Lena introduced me to, I assumed that by now, the entire village knew who I was.

For some reason the question gave the man pause. He stared at me, the lines in his brow intensifying as he fixed me with a scrutinizing gaze. I simply stood there, not knowing what he was thinking until he reached up to massage his temple.

“Yeah, I do,” he said, with a sigh. “Little tip, kid. If someone ever stops you on the street for no reason, especially on a day like this, it’s because they want something from you. I’m a Mediator.”

I blinked a few times, staring at the man, wondering if he was just joking or not. The man matched my gaze and gave me a casual shrug.

“I’m typically more of a background player. I wouldn’t usually out myself, but our team’s a bit understaffed at the moment, and I wanted to ask you for a favour.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling bitterness creep into my voice almost immediately. “So what do you want, then? Are you going to ask me to die?”

The man winced. “You know?”

“Lena told me,” I said. “Oren and Sera were there to confirm it.”

“I see,” the man said. “What did you do to them?”

“Well, I put Oren to sleep, and Sera wandered off somewhere,” I said. “Don’t ask me where she went. I don’t know.”

“I see,” the man said. “And when you say you put Oren to sleep…”

Though he trailed off, it didn’t take me more than a few seconds to get what he was implying.

“When I say I put Oren to sleep, I mean I put him to sleep,” I said, barely holding myself back from shouting. “I didn’t kill him.”

“Well, isn’t that a shame,” the man said, angrily rubbing his temple.

There was a short pause before the man reached into his shirt and drew out a pipe. Stuffing it with something I couldn’t see, he placed a finger inside the tip of his pipe for a second before withdrawing it, flicking off a few flakes of embers before taking in a deep breath.

I waited for him to say something, but after he breathed out his first puff of smoke, he simply went back for another.

“Well?” I asked, feeling a little impatient. “What do you want?”

The man raised an eyebrow, but didn’t bother taking his lips from his pipe. He drew in another deep breath before breathing out another large cloud of thick smoke that nearly enveloped his entire head.

“Forget about it,” he said, shaking his head and dispersing some of the smoke gathered around it. “You might not be happy with us, but you’re letting us live and you’re not going on a rampage. I’m not going to risk making you change your mind by asking you to do something you don’t want.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

The man shrugged. “It means the Mediators will leave you alone,” he said, taking another draw from his pipe before holding it upside down and tapping it to empty the contents, stowing it away and raising his hand. “Live your life, Jamie Campbell.”

Even as the man turned around and started to walk away, it took me a while for me to realize that he was saying goodbye.

“Wait,” I said, before he could walk too far away.

The man stopped, turning his head just enough to give me a sideways glance.

“What?” he said.

His gruff and aggressive tone made it very difficult for me to convince myself that he wasn’t annoyed that I’d stopped him, and that it was just how he always sounded like, but I ignored the pervasive feeling that I was bothering him.

“What did you want help with?” I asked.

“What?” he said again, in the exact same annoyed tone.

I was still more angry than anything else, but I still had to fight down the guilty feeling that I was annoying an adult. I scratched my head and turned to the side.

“You said that you wanted something from me, right?” I asked quickly, before I could regret my decision. “What is it?”

The man raised an eyebrow, though he still somehow managed to look more angry than surprised. “You’d be willing to help out an organization that has tried to kill you?” he asked. “Are you suicidal or stu-”

He snapped his mouth shut and averted his eyes before he could finish the sentence.

“I’m not suicidal,” I said, with a huff. I tried to pretend like I didn’t know what he was about to call me, but I still felt an indignant flush rise to my cheeks. “But I’d be willing to at least hear you out, and I wouldn’t be doing it for free.”

“What could you possibly want that you wouldn’t be able to get on your own?” the man asked.

I hesitated, not knowing how to phrase what I was about to ask.

“Information,” I said eventually. “I want to know about the other Otherworlders.”

The man winced almost immediately. Apparently that wasn’t the correct way to phrase it.

“Why?” he asked, clearly suspicious.

I took a moment to consider my words again before deciding I wasn’t very good at it and that I should just be honest instead.

“Look. I’ll be honest. I only learned that you guys were working to try and kill me a few hours ago. I haven’t really had the time to fully process it, but for now, I’m not gonna put the blame on you. When every Otherworlder has the potential to be a magical super Hitler, I guess you have to be a bit extreme,” I said, with a chuckle.

I paused to give the man a chance to give some input, but when his only reply was to stare at me like I was stupid, I scratched at my cheek and continued.

“I mean, I still am upset that you were trying to kill me, but for now, I’m willing to put it aside, since I guess you’re just afraid of another Plague King happening. I mean, I’m definitely looking him up later to check that you didn’t just make him up, but basically…”

I took a moment to brace myself. While I’d already told Lena about my plans, I felt like telling a Mediator would make it more real, somehow, like I wouldn’t be able to take it back anymore once I said it out loud.

“I thought that maybe I could travel the world, doing stuff to mend the bad reputation that the other Otherworlders have left behind and make sure the current Otherworlders don’t go down a bad path either. But I don’t know anything about the Otherworlders, and I assume you guys know a lot about Otherworlders that you could teach me,” I said. “Plus, even if you can’t tell me anything, helping you out would give you proof that not all Otherworlders are that bad, right?”

I stared at the man, keeping eye contact with him to try and convince him I was serious. The man stared back at me, his brow furrowed in a permanent glare.

“Are you fucking stupid, kid?” he asked, not bothering to cut the insult short this time.

“Maybe,” I admitted.

He stared at me for a bit longer before he let out a deep groan and reached into his shirt and took out his pipe once more.

“This is above my paygrade,” he growled. “You’ll want to talk with the Boss, which is conveniently what I wanted to ask you for.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We have a communication spell,” the man grumbled, aggressively shoving a bunch of something into his pipe. “You’d only need to provide the mana for it. We’d do the rest.”

“Oh,” I said, trying to put on a smile. “I could probably do that.”

The man grumbled under his breath and drew in a deep puff of smoke.