In the round classroom that stood deserted at the moment, only two people were present looking at each other. One was wary while the other was amused. Mehr was looking deep into Willem’s eyes trying to pry out any secret that the plump and chubby professor might be holding, while Willem was looking at Mehr with a mischievous glint in his eyes as if looking at an amusing new toy.

 

“So, Traveller. How do you like your life in our world?” Willem chuckled.

 

Mehr took a deep breath and calmed any emotion that tried to stir the waves in his heart.

 

“How did you know that I was a Traveller?”

 

Willem smiled even more at the question. He looked into the oddly coloured eyes of Mehr as he said, “Eyes are the reflection of soul, Mehr. They can reveal a lot of secrets to anyone who has the ability to see.”

 

Listening to the riddle-ridden words of the professor, Mehr furrowed his eyebrows. He was going to say something when Willem interjected with a question.

 

“Do you know why you’ve such odd eyes? One black and one blue.” 

 

“....I do not.”

 

Willem showed his pearly white teeth as he said, “You’re supposed to ask me to tell you, are you not? Say ‘please Professor Willem, tell me what you mean’. And maybe I’ll tell you.”

 

Mehr’s expression remained the same but some disgust must have shown on his face as he continued to look at the professor.

 

“Don’t look at me like that, with the eyes of the child you killed.” 

 

Mehr scrunched his face after listening to those words, “What do you mean?”

 

“You weren’t even supposed to be here. Your soul was forcefully brought into this world. The body you inhabit is someone else’s. This life you live was supposed to be his, the child who was the bearer of the black eye you have.”

 

Mehr's expression went solemn but his gaze never left Willem’s smiling face. He thought over the words that were said by Willem for a moment. He remained unfazed by the sentences as he had always been suspicious of the events regarding his birth. From what he had learned in the past years, there are worldly phenomena whenever the Star is born. The entire world rejoices over the birth of the saviour. The Star is always born in response to some great evil that threatens the world. 

 

The First Star was born in response to the Corrupted God.

 

The Second Star, to get rid of the myriad races that threatened humanity.

 

The Third Star was born when the Dragon King was terrorizing the Mainland.

 

The Fourth Star took on the resurgence of the Cult of the Old Gods.

 

The Fifth Star was born to complete the task of eradicating the Cult.

 

The Sixth Star was born to stop the Greatest Evil.

 

But there existed no such evil in the world at the present time and neither were there any worldly phenomena. A Star is always born beside their Diviner, while Mehr didn’t even know who his Diviner was. In every single generation, everyone knows who the Star is. Mehr himself didn’t know that he was the Star until he was informed by Sir Ghost. Even then, he only believed because of many favours that mana showed to him. 

 

‘So, the child whose body I have was supposed to be the Star?’ Mehr thought.

 

He had not stopped looking at Willem all this time. He suddenly cocked his head and asked, “Do you know who pulled my soul into this world?”

 

Willem laughed out loud in response to the question. His eyes seemed to sparkle while looking at Mehr as he said, “Why would you think I know the answer to that question? And even if I did, why do you think I would tell you?”

 

“So, what do you want from me?”

 

“You attach too much importance to yourself, Mehr. You have nothing that I could want from you. I was only curious because you’re the only traveller in hundreds of years.”

 

Mehr remembered that Willem had said this on the very first day they met as well. He was curious back then as he was now.

 

“Is there a reason why there are no travellers anymore?” Mehr asked.

 

“There sure is, but I don’t want to tell you.” Willem chuckled.

 

Mehr sighed, realising how troublesome the man in front of him was. He had been trying to read what Willem wanted all this time but he found himself unsuccessful. He knew he had to provide something in order to make Willem speak.

 

“Is there anything I can do to get these answers from you?”

 

“Haha. Of course, you can. And I’m pretty sure you will be able to do what I ask of you.”

 

“You speak as if you know me closely.” Mehr shook his head.

 

“What if I do? Do you want me to guess what kind of a person you are? If I get it right, you will have to do something for me. Of course, I will also provide you with the answers you want. What do you say?” Willem looked deeply into Mehr’s eyes as if reading him like an open book.

 

Mehr didn’t say anything for a moment, his face not showing a single ripple in his expression. He was also looking into Willem’s eyes trying to understand what kind of man Willem was before taking an approach regarding him.

 

“Sure, go ahead. Even if you get it wrong, I’ll still try to do what you ask. After all, I’m very interested in the answers.”

 

Willem chuckled and his smile became bigger. His hands were clasped behind his back, his eyes sparkling. “Hoh, pretty interesting. You’re the kind of man who would forgive his loved ones even if they stabbed you in your heart. However, you would go and kill the person who dared to provide the dagger to your loved ones. Of course, you think that you don’t have any such feelings towards anyone and you try to devolve yourself into a monster more and more. You try to create a distance to cut off your weakness but that in turn creates your weakness.” 

 

“Did I get it right?” Willem’s wide smile showed how confident he was in his assessment. His eyes were slanted due to the wrinkles of his smiles but that only gave off an image of a sly serpent on his face.

 

Mehr sat straight, without a single change in his expression. His eyes were still droopy and his brows showed his annoyance towards Willem’s incessant giggling and chuckling. However, his mind and heart raced with every single word that Willem uttered.

 

“Wrong,” Mehr said while keeping his face still. “Tell me about the work I have to do.”

 

‘Tricky.’ Mehr’s inner thoughts were completely different from the words that left his mouth. ‘This guy is very tricky to deal with. I should start suspecting that he already knows that I’m the Star and be careful around him. It is important to find out what he wants from me. Only then can I hold a possible leverage.’

 

“Hahaha.” Willem couldn’t contain his laughter and let it escape. He calmed down after a moment and said, “I believe you will be joining Sirius Frye as his team member, isn’t that right? During that task, you’ll have to retrieve something for me. I’ll give you the details later though.”

 

Mehr stood up, not wanting to spend a single moment more with the plump man standing in front of him. He twisted his back while walking through the seats to get to the door when he heard Willem’s voice behind him, “Protecting someone too much just makes them an obvious target. Don’t shelter the weak but make them grow along with you. Only then it is considered genuine protection.”

 

Mehr didn’t turn around and swiftly left the room. He had only just left the room when he noticed someone across the corridor, crouching down and looking at the floor fixedly.

 

“What are you looking at, Sirius?”

 

“Shhh.” Sirius put a finger on his lips as he signalled Mehr to come beside him. Mehr approached him and crouched down to look at the thing that had grabbed Sirius’s attention. He noticed a small red insect trying to climb Sirius’ finger and failing repeatedly. Sirius was looking at the little insect while encouraging it within his heart. 

 

Mehr saw the insect failing yet again when he turned to Sirius and said, “You can just pick it up. Why waste this much time?”

 

“If it climbs due to its own efforts, it will feel accomplished. Only then would it want to stay in my hand. If I just pick it up, it will try to run away.”

 

Mehr’s gaze paused on Sirius’ concentrated face, who was hoping for the insect to climb fervently. 

 

“Then let’s wait,” Mehr said as his furrowed brows and droopy eyes relaxed, bringing a soft smile on his lips that seemed unfamiliar to himself.

 

Not too far away from them, on the door of the classroom that he was just in, Willem was looking at the scene of Mehr and Sirius crouching down. His eyes seemed mysterious and deep yet lively like a child. 

 

“Tch tch. He’s already so difficult to read and mana doesn’t do me any favours either. When he becomes powerful, he would be quite troublesome to deal with.”

 

Willem chuckled inwardly as he looked at Mehr’s back. His gaze moved to Sirius and stayed on him for a while before he retracted it. His mouth moved on its own, forming words that seemed otherworldly. His mumbles echoed in the room while his eyes had left the sight of the two children.

 

‘Mehr’s performance last night sure attracted a lot of eyes. Some of them seem a bit problematic. Should I…..?’

 

As soon as his thoughts reached this point, an extremely thick killing intent surfaced in the room. The temperature rose rapidly, getting hot enough to burn a human down in mere moments.

 

‘It would be annoying if any of those fellows were to find out who I am. But…’

 

Willem slowly retracted his killing intent and the temperature calmed down again. His smile resurfaced as his eyes sparkled with a ferver lost to time.

 

‘It’ll be a lot of fun…..’

 

---

 

 

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