District 42-Chapter 116: Riot

Faced with that affront, the soldier could keep his cool, shutting his mouth and just looking at those three, who he had trusted until now, and stay quiet.

Everyone gathered closely around them, willing to hear what they were saying. They seemed not just interested in what Alfar and the others were discussing, but also agreeing with everything.

The trio wasn’t the only one who was disgruntled with Casper and his decisions. Most of them were from the other groups.

Casper’s heart could be at ease, at least, with the people who were following him in the past events. After the courage and determination he displayed, none of them could stand against him and be proud of it. They watched closely how much Casper tried to do the right thing.

Not all of them had good opinions about his leadership, but they wouldn’t show it openly.

"We are dissatisfied with the way you are leading us, Casper. Since the start of this escaping," began Alfar, "we feel that you just used us until now. You didn’t give us any information, and lead all these people to a battle that could have taken their lives."

Casper nodded with his head slowly, agreeing with him.

He saw that not just Alfar, but even the usually shy and calm Olaf got nervous with his agreement. They were about to punch him in the face.

All the prisoners got agitated, they started to surround Casper, looking at him with murderous eyes.

"That’s nostalgic. It remembers me from my first day here..." He thought.

Alfar gave a step forward, in a threatening manner.

"And you even have the boldness to agree!? What’s happening with you, man? Where is that bullshit you said in your speech!?" He pushed Casper hard, nearly making him fall to the floor. When Alfar was getting uncontrolled, his body started to partially become stronger and agile, traces of the Dark elf inside him.

Casper continued quiet, the prisoners around him also began to push him, as if he was sort of a toy. They cursed the soldier, even hit him. That display of angry and disappointment was hard even to watch from far away.

The people who weren’t up to go against Casper just turned their backs and waited for it to end.

Although he was being stoned so badly, for people who once believed in him, Casper kept quiet.

"All this while, everything you did just made us sink even more! The battle at the canteen from Block F and D made a lot of people die! You caused a mess since your first time here. Your actions today made our people die at each clash. You knew well that the prisoners weren’t strong enough to deal with the Ridires, but you did it even so!"

The voices of the others raised as Alfar’s did. Every word and argument he stated make them angrier, the hits were starting to land more often, and harder.

But the White warrior stayed quiet and apparently calm.

That reaction pissed off the prisoners even more. It was like Casper didn’t care at all. As if they were just pawns and he had no regret in using them like that.

Alfar was the one to get more upset with it than the others.

He grabbed Casper from his lab coat’s collar and pulled him closer, staring at him with the eyes of someone about to kill.

"At least protect yourself, damn! Say something! Say that it is a lie, and your intentions were different from what we thought! Don’t stay quiet like this as if all this sh*t we are saying is the truth, you bastard!" He shook Casper with all his might, back and forth, trying to wake him, get him back to reality.

Olaf approached those two, putting his hand on Alfar’s shoulder with a tired look at his face.

"We are as angry as you are, Alfar, but take it easy, man. He will not answer back. Even he knows that we are right... It’s tough to say but... Casper isn’t able to do it. He failed as a leader." Olaf tried to console him, but his voice was so bitter as Alfar’s.

"Don’t kid with me, Olaf! Are you seeing what this guy is doing!? He is admitting in front of everyone his behavior! He never had good intentions towards us, he doesn’t have any empathy. We are just puppets that he can control!"

After those arguments, Olaf got silent. He mused about what the Dark elf just said. He couldn’t protect Casper at all. Not even from the beaten he would take.

Although he did so much, he also had taken a lot. In the end, it was hard to tell what passed in his mind.

Alfar turned to Casper again, gazing at his eyes.

"Look at me, White warrior!" He shook Casper again. "Look at me!!"

Casper raised his eyes slowly. His face was covered in bruises, and blood ran out his nose and mouth. However, his expression was still serene.

He didn’t talk anything. The soldier just narrowed his eyes towards Alfar, spitting blood to the side, then sighing.

The Dark elf couldn’t bear that anymore. In a moment, he seemed to be fine again, and in the other, he was hitting Casper with his own fists.

The other prisoners around were rooting for him, yelling at Casper, and even beating him sometimes.

"Do you think you can play with others’ lives like this, you bastard!? How can you sleep at night knowing that the lives of all those people are on your shoulders, huh!? You never went through any experiment, don’t have any drug in your body, or modifications, but you are a monster as much as any of us!"

He didn’t cease to try to punch Casper in the face. The White warrior had at least raised his arms, and Alfar was landing his blows repeatedly in his block.

"And I was going to spare you, to comprehend your perspective, to believe in you! And what you do? You get quiet, you don’t argue back to prove we are wrong! You are ruining with everything, you know!?"

The Dark elf stopped to punch him when Anton approached sneakily and grabbed his arm in the middle of the motion.

"Stop it. That’s enough, Dark elf."

The man was breathing heavily, his shoulders were tense and he was still burning inside, but didn’t attack Casper again. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"And what would you do in my place, Alfar?" The Dark elf faltered at that question.

"Let’s say that you have an entire prison on your shoulders. You need to take care of them while helping them to run away. They have no combat experience, their weapons suck as well. You can’t hold more the plan, because if you do, you don’t know if you will lose your only advantage. So you start everything anyway.

"Then, a lot happens, unpredictable situations, problems, casualties... It accumulates in your mind, but you can’t back away, you need to press forward.

"What would you do!?" He shouted.

Alfar got silent, he seemed to be reasoning about that thing. Casper was looking intently towards him.

The man suddenly seemed to go crazy and attack the White warrior again. Because of it, he needed to defend himself, while Olaf grabbed him from behind, preventing Alfar to continue his rush.

"Alfar, stop! That’s not like you, man! What are you doing all of a sudden!? That was not what we agreed!"

"So... That’s how it is..." Casper finally got his conclusion and was downing his guard, looking intently at Anton. "So, Mimir project is capable of this kind of thing, huh? I didn’t think that it could do such a thing." The soldier was giggling while cleaning his messed face and giving a meaningful look towards Anton.

The middle-aged man looked at him as if he was going crazy, narrowing his eyes. Casper knew that that old man had already grasped his plans, but it was meaningless right now.

Alfar got confused and looked to Anton, then Casper again. Olaf did the same, but the look in his eyes showed that he had an idea of what was going on since the start.

Casper finished wiping out the blood on his face, looking at every single person there. The prisoners seemed to be fighting with something inside their heads as if they weren’t reasoning right.

"Do you all want to know what’s happening here? Do you want to know why I didn’t say a thing about my plan, the threatens, and everything else?" He spoke, loudly. The prisoners were holding their heads or massaging their temples, confused.

"I did it because it’s been a while that some things aren’t going the way they should. It’s like some invisible force is making us take the wrong path, and this same force is inducing you all to act like this as well!

"It’s hard to admit it. I also don’t want to believe in it after everything we passed for... But we have a traitor among us... And now I am sure that it’s you, Anton!"