"Who is it?" Van called out with the frustration he felt slightly leaking out in his voice.
"I'm sorry if it's a bad time I'll just go." A soft feminine voice came through.
Hearing her max could already tell it was Erika "No it's fine you can come in I just have a lot of things I need to do." Max said remaining seated on his bed knowing there had to be a reason she had came to his room instead of waiting to meet at the table.
The door slowly creaked open as Erika pushed it with her face turning red from embarrassment. Van seeing her rosy cheeks as she entered the room caused him to have some distracting thoughts making him become slightly embarrassed as well.
*cough cough* "So what's up is everything okay?" Van said as Erika made her way through the threshold.
Erika walked over to the bed and sat next to Van, "I don't know if I can do this I'm… I'm really.. scared.. I don't want to die Van, I don't know why I agreed to escaping I don't know I don't know." While saying this every word of her continued to further break down as he voice became more unstable. By the end of her statement she was bawling into vans shoulder hiding her crying face from his prying eyes.
Van knew this was going to come sooner or later, Erika always came to him when she needed someone to talk to and in this current situation she would have come to him sooner or later.
Van patted her on the top of the head while saying, "It'll be alright, we just have to try our best I know this isn't what we expected but because it's my fault you're in hear then it's my responsibility to make sure you're safe." His voice calm and steady, while this situation was making him feel even more responsible for making sure everyone was safe.
[The host has received a new mission, find out who has been spying on your group. Time Limit: 14 days, Reward +5 stat points +50 shop points, failure will result in death.] Nora's gentle angelic voice sounded in Vans mind.
"God… if I ever offended you let me know now please." Van said in an exasperated tone.
Hearing this Erika was first comforted by vans words, then taken aback after Van started questioning god just as she was about to reply.
"I'm sorry I was only thinking about myself… I know you have a lot on your plate right now. Are you okay is there anyway I can help?" Erika said with feelings of guilt remembering not only her but everyone of conscious age at the orphanage was brought here from the 6-years old, to the ones that had yet to go through their debrief in order to leave the orphanage as adults they were all thrown to the fire.
Thinking this the tears returned to her eyes as she did her best to fight them back but struggled because she could see where this was also her fault. Had she not agreed with their escape maybe they wouldn't have gotten everyone sent here and would have made it out on their own.
Seeing this van was reluctant to open up about the mission of finding the spy but truthfully Erika was likely the most useful for a task like this so how could he reject the help that was sitting directly next to him.
"I think there is someone spying on us... I don't know how or why but if you could help me figure it out that will help me out a lot, also don't talk to the others about this I don't want whoever is the spy to know we're onto them so we have to keep everyone acting natural." Van said to Erika in a serious tone with his head down.
Hearing this further guilted Erika, there was so much going on that she couldn't properly even assess or keep track of her surroundings to miss a spy. this weighed even heavier on her because if she wanted she had 9 pair of eyes she could look through at anytime in this house alone. Within the entire newbie village she easily had over 100 sets of eyes she had access to because of the other orphans she had made contact with and the few people she swiped when they had first arrived.
"I, I actually learned something new the other day where I can search the mind of multiple people I've come in contact with at once the more I do the more energy I need but I've refrained for everyone's privacy but if you need help I don't mind starting with the people in the mansion..." Erika said knowing now was a good time to practice her ability in the real world and feeling like Van would shoulder some of the responsibility for going through people's thoughts and minds.
"Please! That would help a lot if you don't really feel like helping I will figure it out!" Van said letting her know if she didn't want to do this she didnt have to. When Van thought about the idea of having and using Erika's ability his thoughts immediately went to thoughts about seeing and experiencing people's most painful memories which made him realize asking her to search memories was a big ask in reality.