District 42-Chapter 117: The culprit

At the moment that Casper pointed his index finger towards Anton, accusing him, the prisoners around him seemed to stop for one second, like they had some sort of realization. They switched from a mode to another all of a sudden, and it reaffirmed even more what Casper had guessed about the middle-aged man.

"I know what’s up with the Project Mimir now, and what you have made so far, Anton. It took some time for me to discover, and more to accept, but in the end, facts are just facts." He walked slowly towards the man, with an inquisitive look on his face. He passed the astonishing figure of Alfar, who was standing there looking to his own hands, without knowing what he did.

However, Anton remained calm. One could see inside his darting eyes that he knew he was cornered, but the old man did nothing but keep staring at Casper nonchalantly.

"What makes you think that Anton is the culprit for everything that’s going on, Casper? Are you accusing Anton just to lessen the guilt you have on your shoulders for your incompetence? Anton means, it’s such an old and cliche way to put yourself out of guilt for mistakes..."

The White warrior clicked his tongue. The man was really good in his arguments, and since he had already a certain influence on the other prisoners, it would be difficult for Casper to get out of that situation.

Nonetheless, his main goal was to lessen the angry of his comrades towards him, and he did it majestically.

"If I want to gain their entrustment in my words I need to attach myself in the facts, and in a way that he can’t manipulate them to make it appear that I am lying or exaggerating... That’s tough, I feel like he planned every single thing until now just for this time... For how long has Anton plotting this betrayal?"

The people around kept looking at Casper, waiting for an explanation for his part now that Anton had put his cards on the table.

"Lessen my guilt for my incompetence...? I see. I think that the first incompetent act I committed was to not calculate well the deadline for the procedure they wanted to do with me. Because of the risk of being handcuffed with these masks, I needed to start the plan anticipatedly... However, I wonder about something..." Instead of keeping looking at Anton, he turned to the inmates around. He was trying to reach them with his arguments, not Anton, so it was pointless to just interact with him.

"What do you guys think? Why do the scientists would hurry to put a mask on me, risking my life? Because of the ruckus I made on these days? Of course not, they like it after all, don’t they? I will say why: they knew about my plan, and when I was going to put it into practice. They even tried to change my cell, before this. However, who do you think that could tell them in detail about what I was going to do?" Casper moved slowly his head towards Anton, giving him an accusatory look. "Probably the only person who knew about my plan in more details than anyone else!"

Anton’s eyes were darting around more quickly than normal. That was the first time that Casper saw him being so cornered, except when they went to the Dark Zone.

Casper walked towards Ragnar, who was semiconscious. The man was looking into space, still breathing, and sometimes turning his gaze to the crowd making that ruckus in the corridor.

He crouched beside Ragnar, looking him in the eyes and trying to make him understand what he had to say.

"Ragnar, I will need your help, ok? Are you listening to me? I will need your help in something, so keep up with me, man. You are being crucial here, you know?"

The tattoed guy, who Casper never thought that he would depend on so much, moved his eyes towards his, staring at the soldier directly. One could easily tell that he was not in a condition to even say something, but he didn’t need to.

"It seems that a person gets really tired after the effects of Berserker start to soften. The physical and mental effort that someone does in that state is abnormal for the body, so it causes bad consequences afterward..."

Casper was pondering if it would be worth it to risk Ragnar’s body to what he had in mind.

Differently from what the others said, he wouldn’t use a human being as tools and push them as much as he could until he could discard them.

Because they were Frelsi, and criminal Jarls, Casper didn’t have too much empathy, but it did not mean that he would be ok just doing these kinds of things.

"I will ask you a question. Will you push yourself even more for whatever the thing I need you to do?" He asked once but needed to do it a second time since Ragnar seemed to not understand completely.

"Go..." He spoke, with certainty in his voice.

"Can you invade Anton’s mind?" Casper looked with a hopeful expression on his face.

Ragnar stopped completely for a moment as if he turned into a statue. It was kind of creepy, and the White warrior got worried.

Nevertheless, he was back after some time.

"No." He denied shaking slightly his head.

The soldier nodded, then looked back. The others were paying total attention to him, and even hearing what both had talked.

"Anton was in the west group as the leader. That’s the group that we couldn’t communicate the approach of the Ridires before. Do you think he may be the barrier making it impossible for you to make contact?"

The eyes of the telepath shone slightly as if he just had a realization. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"He is the only... one there.... that could..."

Casper, satisfied, stood up again.

"Of course he is. There was no other prisoner in the west group that was successfully, or even partially, experimented in the Project Mimir. That’s why Anton is the only suspect. And, hey, if I messed up with the communication of the prison in general, how could the Ridires know about our movements, and where we were? Just someone who could gather information from among us and pass it to them at a high distance could do it."

After his explanation, the corridor got silent again. The prisoners started to look at each other, confused.

"Besides, your angry wasn’t something natural. Even the peaceful Alfar got this violent with me. Anton can, through telepathy, also control your actions and emotions. That’s the essence of Project Mimir. Anton is projected to be sort of an intelligent human mask."

The White warrior was now with a serious expression and headed towards the middle-aged man again.

"I thought that you were the only person I could fully believe here, Anton... It’s a pity that I need to do it, but you deserve it."

Anton had neutral eyes until that point. He didn’t argue. But, during Casper’s speech, he kept walking backward, each second more distant from everyone.

"You really are an interesting type, Casper... I was hoping to make a fuss for more time, but it seems that it will not be possible... I think I will need to end with everything now, and that’s the real pity here." He looked with eyes filled with hatred towards the soldier.

"I bet that you already know that I am the leader of the fourth Faction of this prison, right?"

Casper nodded.

"Yeah, I supposed so... And do you have any idea as to why I am doing it, Casper?" The White warrior felt a bit of sadness behind his angry voice. Something that made the middle-aged man look less despicable in his eyes.

"Look at these people around you, Casper. They aren’t humans anymore. They are monsters. Nobody here has the chance to escape from this and live in society. The world isn’t prepared for us, and we are not prepared for the world. Halden already let wounds that will never heal.

"That is, we can’t go out of here. It would be meaningless. We would be chased and killed. The masks wouldn’t allow us to escape forever, even partially broken."

Exasperated, Casper snapped with him.

"And you prefer to let them live at such a place? Passing through suffering every day!?"

"That’s not the point!" He shouted. "It’s not about to be left here and stay forever in this cruel daily life. It’s about changing the right thing! We can’t change the whole world, but we can do it with Halden. And that’s what I am working on for so long in all these years here!"

"I can’t understand, Anton... Stop to be subjective, be straight!"

The man gave a final step back.

"I am sorry, Casper. But you will understand soon."

Then, suddenly, the wall on Casper’s left side, between him and Anton exploded.