“So, that’s basically what I have so far. Does everything sound good?”

  Ryan laid out his plan on how to integrate the Unwanted into the current political climate of both worlds. It was real simple if you thought about it, and he had been thinking about it for the past three days.

  Shara seemed a little dubious about his plan.

  “It… seems like... too much?”

  Zedart seemed to agree with Shara, though with more words. “There’s too many moving parts. Lots of things that could go wrong.”

  Ryan shrugged. “That’s because you’re seeing the plan as one whole. You don’t need everything to go right. Just one or two of them. The other parts can have mixed results. The most important thing is to stick around and make some noise before and after the realm expansion. The first impression… That's the only crucial part of the plan.”

  It seemed that his justification just alienated both Zedart and Shara. Neither seemed to understand what he was getting at.

  Ryan just threw his hands in the air, exasperated that they couldn’t see his vision for the genius that it was and started ordering Zedart around.

  “Tell Valee to send Sideark over.”

  Zedart hesitated for a second, then brought the phone to his face and pressed a side button to switch to speaker while on radio mode.

  “Valee, can you tell Sideark to come over. Things are safe here.”

  “Mutual friend wants to talk to him.”

  Zedart switched off the radio mode on his phone and turned to Ryan.

  “You sure you want to talk to him? I don’t think he’s trustworthy.”

  Ryan waved down Zedart. “Don’t worry about it. I know how to deal with people like him. Besides, I need to make sure he’s fully on board with the plan.”

  In truth, he was happy with Sideark and his friends, the Eternal Delvers, or whatever the hell those idiots called themselves. They had wasted an entire day telling Tar’el that they would be more than enough and that mistake had cost a group of nearly a hundred Unwanted their lives. The Eternal Delvers had only agreed when Ryan insisted that they at least contact Valee and Zedart.

  The slaughtered Unwanted still burned in the back of his mind.

  If Zedart had been further ahead. If everyone was mobilized including the tournament favorites…

  Ryan took a deep breath to calm himself. Shit had already happened, now it was a matter of doing the right thing for the Unwanted.

  Sideark showed up, stalking the caves like he was an Unwanted, watching every single shadow and crevice like a hand might jump up and snatch him away. At first Ryan was disappointed, then he saw the actual state of the elf. from old wounds while he had no access to potions. His gear was in complete tatters, and it was clear that Sideark had fought hard just recently.

  Nothing like the suave rich streamer he portrayed himself as on Earth.

  Sideark was holding onto what might as well have been scrap metal with insect gore all over his body.

  That made things a little better. Sideark was still an adventurer. Stupid and brash, maybe, but he stood and fought when it mattered.

  When Sideark saw Zedart the streamer-adventurer breathed a sigh of relief, then his eyes met Artigan’s, he instantly recoiled and leapt back.

  “Hold it, if I wanted to kill you I wouldn’t have called you out here.”

  Sideark paused from his retreat, then he reevaluated the situation. Ryan looked like a mess with Zedart standing completely unruffled next to him. Not in hostility. Next to them was Shara who had a little too much mana burning out of her eyes.

  “Are you all working together?”

  “It’s a long story, in this situation, yes.”

  “Hot damn.”

  Ryan could almost what was going on in Sideark’s head. This would be great news for his stream! It would be groundbreaking stuff that would explode his viewership! Ryan even saw his hand move to his pocket.

  “You start recording and I’m going to beat the shit out of you and break that phone. Besides, it’s time for your after-action report, adventurer.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Sideark’s hand froze. Honestly Ryan had first been surprised that their phones still had battery. But it made sense, items that were on your person while they used [Return to Earth] would be kept in stasis. Further, as long as you kept your phone off, the durable adventurer issued phones could last for a very long time.

  Sideark seemed confused at Ryan’s commanding tone, especially the way he called him out for an after-action report like he was a higher realm adventurer. Ryan pointed at the corpse of Rax on the ground.

  “That thing there was a seventh realm apex level threat. An eighth realm apex if you included all of his bullshit with the enchanted flesh golems.”

  Ryan glared at Zedart to shut the hell up. He didn’t need the [Swordsman’s] input on what he thought the monster’s strength rating was right now.

  Sideark at least paled and stepped back from it.

  “Damn, that’s nasty–”

  Ryan lifted his own phone, the one that they had used to send messages back and forth while Rax had kept him under surveillance. On the screen there were the messages by Sideark and the Eternal Delvers, telling Tar’el that they were as good as the tournament favorites and that they didn’t need to call for more help.

  Ryan did his best Seffara impression.

  “You overestimated yourselves. You thought you could snatch all the glory in one go and if Zedart hadn’t been here, you. Would. Have. Been. Slaughtered.”

  Perhaps it was the tone, perhaps it was the aura and the fact that it was Artigan. But Sideark went on the defensive. Not even questioning why Artigan was giving him a dressing down.

  “That’s not right. Most of us are as strong as any of the tournament favorites. We might be undergeared because we’ve been stuck in this shithole but I’ve sparred Shadowstrider before. If a newbie like Zedart could have killed it I bet I could have too.”

  “ You have a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences that Epics give at realm four. I suggest you fix that. If you think you can still beat Zedart and Valee then you should ask either of them for a spar, then see how much of a gap there is.”

  Sideark seemed to want to argue, possibly debate Ryan but then he finally seemed to realize who exactly it was that was giving him a dressing down.

  “Hold it, who are you to criticize me anyway? You’re not even an adventurer. You’re just a blacklisted newbie.”

  Ryan pointed at the phone. “I’m the one that’s got evidence of your fuckup. It would have been fine if none of the Unwanted died, but that didn’t happen.” Ryan kicked a rock at Rax’s corpse. “This bastard got loose and slaughtered nearly a hundred Unwanted. Nearly a hundred Realmers, got it? That’s on you.”

  “You-you can’t blame me for that! That Leafstalker Tar’el never mentioned that the threat would be this bad. Or that you were involved at all.”

  Ryan nodded. “Yeah, you aren’t wrong about that. You didn’t know the specs and the threat but there were civilian Realmer lives at stake. You should have done everything to make sure those peoples’ lives were secure first. Instead those deaths are on your hands” Ryan took a deep breath. “...and mine.”

  Like a classic narcissist, the streamer adventurer grabbed onto the thread to blame someone else for all of his mistakes.

  “Yeah, that’s right, who are you to lecture me about Realmer deaths? I mean, I always said in my chat that you kept Realmer casualty at zero but you can’t be telling me that you weren’t risking hundreds of lives with that stunt at Lazhen.”

  Honestly… Ryan conceded the point, Lazhen had almost been a colossal fuckup of his own.

  “Yeah, I’ll be getting my own after-action report too. Where annoying old vets will be breaking things down and telling me I’m an idiot.”

  Ryan had given Sideark too much of a leash and the streamer went crazy with his theories.

  “I knew it! You can’t just be a solo act. You’re working with Zedart, that mysterious [Mage] that was supposed to be a trio party but nobody could find anything about her since. It’s all making sense.”

  “Yeah, and if you go on your podcast or stream and talk about it all you’re placing yourself on the Witch Tyrant’s board. Play the wrong move and you’re going to get hexed into oblivion before you know it.”

  That made Sideark freeze. Ryan continued.

  “I’m serious. You think the Witch Tyrant and the mysterious [Dragonslayer] actually managed to escape from her? The tournament was planned. I’m–” Ryan refused to call himself the Witch Tyrant’s student or disciple. “Part of her plots.”

  There wasn’t a single part of streamer-adventurer that looked like he wanted to be recording this conversation. His brain had short-circuited at trying to figure out all of the implications and threads. All of it probably screeching to a halt when Sideark understood that he did not want to be on the Witch’s radar. At all.

  Ryan smiled.

  “You can throw yourself in the Witch’s way. Fair warning while she can’t hear us in a leveled zone, you’re going to suffer a lot. Both Zedart and I have. So has Valee.”

  It was clear that Sideark, as tough as he pretended to be, didn’t want anything to do with the Witch Tyrant at all. He put his hands up and stepped back.

  “I didn’t hear anything. Okay? We go our separate ways and I don’t say anything. You got my silence.”

  Ryang chuckled. “Don’t worry, that’s the stick. I’ll give you a carrot too.”

  “I-I think I’m good.”

  “You sure? The Witch Tyrant won’t come after you as long as you don’t touch her board.” Ryan lied. “If you make yourself out to be a champion of the people, she’s also less likely to touch you either. She does have a soft spot for heroes that do right by her Realmers as well.”

  “A-a hero?”

  This was unfortunately, what the Unwanted needed, why Ryan was willing to compromise with Sideark. They needed Sideark more than Ryan wanted to punch the idiot’s face in.

  “You can go up there, show the Unwanted as people. They have families, they can build, enchant, they’re no different than regular people. Just look a little scary and have been rejected for it. You can be the first to show that they’re a people, not monsters. Once that happens, your name will be in the history books.”

  Sideark paused, then he puffed up his chest. “I was always going to do that. I already have some recordings of the parents huddling together as the tunnels shook around them. Real stuff people are going to love.”

  Ryan didn’t say.

  But no, this was exactly what they needed. Perhaps there hadn’t been a need for him to talk to Sideark after all.

  “Fair enough, do the right thing by the Unwanted elves. Be the first to let the world see them as people. Their story is a tragic one with a mad king that wanted to use his people to attack the surface. Shara here is the one that helped overthrow him. She can tell you the rest of the story.”

  The Queen of the Unwanted stepped forward, she reached out. Her mouth in a sad smile, like Ryan had coached her to do.

  “My name is Xxshareshvil, but you can call me Shara.”

  Sideark hesitated for a moment but he did still step up. He took her hand and shook it.

  “Uh, Sideark. I’m an adventurer-commentator that bridges the gap between Earth and The Realm.”

  Well, that was one way to describe a streamer stuck in the fourth realm. Ryan rolled his eyes. Shara however, did not. Her eyes shining with uncontrolled power. Of hope of a better future. She nodded her head, letting out a bit of that creepy smile.

  “Thank you for helping save my people. I understand things did not go perfectly but this was a better result than I could have ever dreamed of. We owe you much, yes?”

  Sideark somehow puffed up his chest even more than before. “No, not at all.”

  Ryan decided then to add a sweetener to the deal. Narcissistic streamers could be fickle folk after all, and he wanted to make sure Sideark would be kept on the right track. He waved his hand to get the ‘adventurer-commentator’s’ attention.

  “Shara’s probably going to be the next leader of the Unwanted elves. She and her people have suffered enough down here with their mad ruler. Do right by them and I’ll do right by you.”

  Sideark side-eyed Ryan. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s nothing big, just an interview.”

  Sideark’s eyes grew wide, then he thought about it for a bit. “I don’t want to get involved in whatever you’re all doing. No offense.”

  Ryan nodded. Honestly, he had mixed feelings about Sideark, but… well this wasn’t a real obligation either. Besides, it would be an interesting card to have in the back pocket.

  “The interview will be after everything is over. If you do right by the Unwanted, secure their place as people of The Realm. When the Witch Tyrant is satisfied and the truth about… everything comes out and I get my blacklisted status removed, you’ll get that first interview. How about that?”

  sobs.

  As always is 24 chapters ahead!