Every hero needed a villain to showcase his own charisma and importance. Without the existence of a villain, the hero would never get the acknowledgement of the common folk.
Edward Row was a villain on the stage that Flavian's captors had set. Without Edward, Kapten would never have been so successful in gaining the respect and command of rest of the captives. Upon seeing Edward barge within his room, Flavian understood right away the various causes and effects.
As Flavian began to recollect everything about Edward, he realised that the first person to harm other captives was Edward! The disappearance of the second captive was also due to him!
He would bully others for them to give up their food to him, which was a necessary resource if one wanted to survive amidst harsh training conditions.
It was him that stole Flavian's food! And that was when Kapten appeared, to share his own food with Flavian. It was only natural that Flavian would consider Kapten as some angel.
It was all a play set up by the captors. Even the plan to breakout would become a farce eventually.
These thoughts were processed rapidly within Flavian's mind just as Edward approached to beat him up. To confirm his own thoughts, Flavian surprised Edward by telling him that Flavian knew about Edward's defection to the captors.
Of course, Flavian also wanted to surprise Edward to catch him off guard. Fighting in an underhanded manner would always guarantee a sure victory! It was an irony that Edward, who had first introduced the crooked methods amongst the captives, would die the same way.
Edward's reaction had also proved that Flavian's guesswork was correct. As he sat on the bed and pretended to shiver in fear, he began thinking about the reason for the captors to use such a layout.
' First, teach the captive about various knowledge, and make them yearn about the outside world. Then break their hopes to pieces and make them undergo hellish training.'
' After which, introduce the captive to other captives One of the captives takes up the role of a villain, and plants seeds of distrust and evil within the other captives. While another becomes the savior, and a shining beacon. A hope arises for the second time within minds of the rest of the captives. Now, the hope will be destroyed once again as the breakout will fail. The hero will be forced to disappear.'
' As the hope is shattered once again, the captives will be filled with a sense of despair, and never think about going against their captors. A marvelous plan! Only four years have passed until now, and here we have a bunch of loyal hounds!'
' Even in my previous life, an average training camp of terrorists or underground organizations took more than a decade to produce loyal forces. However, it can't be denied that the main reason for this is a lack of memories of the captives. It saved a lot of time that would have been required for brainwashing and indoctrination.'
' There is no way that so many ten year old kids without their former memories can gather in one place. It seems that the captors are capable of memory manipulation. Is this a method of powerful beings of this world?'
' And there's that Kapten Marbell! There is something really weird with that brat. I am sure that he is related to the captors in some way.'
Flavian had already found answers to the most of his questions, and was 80% sure about his guesses. However, he was puzzled by such a low number of captives. The scale was very small, with there being only sixteen captives that were still in the game. Shouldn't the scale be higher?
The concentric castle he resided in was quite large, so there should be a lot of space to increase the size of the 'training camp' as Flavian termed it. However, there was no point in mulling over more things, as he just had to pretend to be obedient and be on a lookout for ways to escape.
" I am Almighty!", said Flavian suddenly, speaking aloud. His tone was full of conviction.
[...]
" I am God!"
[??????]
" I am the most handsome person ever!"
[*Beep* Scanning the user for any abnormalities. Scan complete. User status is normal. No mental illness detected.]
" Hey! What are you doing? I am alright!", Flavian said with an exasperated expression.
[ You started speaking nonsense so I thought that something went wrong with the memory transfer.]
" Shut up, fool! I am practicing the basic method that was taught to me by an experienced field agent.", explained Flavian angrily.
[ A method to make yourself appear narcissistic? Or a method to increase your proficiency in bragging?]
" It is a method to lie without being caught." said Flavian seriously.
[...]
Flavian was not joking around with the A.I., as he had indeed learnt it from an experienced field agent.
The field agent was an expert in going undercover behind enemy lines, and had taught him some basics of operating undercover as a repayment when Flavian, as Freddie, had rescued him once when his cover had been blown.
When lying, there are many involuntary signs that appear on a person's body. However, there are certain ways to remove these signs. According to the field agent's method, he had to lie and consciously feel the various signs, and try to control them. Minute trembling of the eyelids, a small increase in a heart rate, acute flaring of the nostrils, etc. are some of these involuntary actions.
Controlling them required a large amount of practice, especially the heart rate. However, Flavian had only practiced to control facial expressions in his previous life, and hence could only use his experience to control his facial expressions.
He had never tried to control his heart rate as it required extremely long and continuous period of practice. Even a gap of a few days without practice would make a person go out of touch with his heart rate, and make their hardwork go down the drain.
He was not a field agent who had to go undercover and come under various surveillance and lie detecting machines, hence he did not proceed with what be thought of as a fruitless endeavour.
It was not realistic to think that he would be able to do so within a little time, so he didn't bother about it. Anyway, even if his captors could measure his heart rate, erratic heartbeat of a terrified teenager won't arouse suspicion. Flavian was confident that his captors won't look into him in detail, as they would completely underestimate him.
He just continued saying various nonsensical lies and kept on practicing. He didn't know whether his captors could detect the lies, yet he practiced just to be safe.
After about ten minutes passed, Flavian heard the familiar clicking sounds of the metal tipped hard leather boots that were usually worn by the captors. Flavian stopped talking and began his act, and he covered himself with his bedsheet and only showed his face, as he sat shivering on the bed with a pale face.
The paleness was a result of the loss of blood due to him stabbing himself on his chest, yet it could also be mistaken as a result of his fear.
A red robed and red masked figure walked inside the room through the door which Flavian had left open. Flavian recognised his outfit and realized that he had somehow attracted the attention of the 'leader'.
The captors were divided amongst themselves according to various ranks which were differentiated by colour of their robes and masks.
Black robed and black masked figures, one of whom was his 'teacher', were at the bottom. They were mainly responsible for training the captives and looking after them. Above them were black robed and red masked figures, who would usually be tasked with tests and other important tasks related to the captives.
Flavian had only seen the red robed and red masked figure once, when he was introduced to other captives. The figure was present at that time and all the other figures were very respectful of him so Flavian had termed him as their 'leader'. He was the highest ranking figure that Flavian had seen.
The leader walked inside as he watched Edward's dead body sprawled on the floor. He merely glanced at the body as he walked closer towards Flavian. He stood about two feets apart as he glared at him and asked, " What happened? Why did you kill him?"
" I, I d-didn't want to k-kill him! He tried to kill me!", said Flavian in a stammering voice.
" Oh? And why would he try to kill you?", asked the leader, with his voice tinged with interest.
" Because, because I didn't want to want be a part of the plan." said Flavian, as his face had a pitiful expression on his face
" What plan are you talking about?" asked the leader with a grave voice as his eyes that were visible through the mask had become sharp, acting as if he really didn't have any clue about the ongoing situation within the castle walls.
Flavian didn't reply as he had a troubled expression on his face, as if hesitating about something, while he thought within his mind, ' Fudge! This person has such a high class acting skills, lying without any need to rehearse. He deserves to be termed as the leader.'.
" What are you hesitating for? SPEAK!", the leader roared when he saw Flavian 'hesitating', not knowing that his acting skills had been praised.
" I'll say! I'll say! My friends had planned to....", Flavian started explaining all the things that his 'friends' had planned, selectively ignoring to talk about his own participation.
The more Flavian talked, the more solemn the leader's expression became underneath the mask and a wrathful fire had been ignited within his eyes. As the leader became more solemn, Flavian showered him with more praises within his mind.
By the time he finished speaking, Flavian was looking up to the leader with huge amount of respect and adoration within his eyes, as if he was looking at the highest pillar of treachery and deception.
' What is excellence? This is excellence! I wish I had met this leader in different circumstances. It would have been nice to become his friend, and learn something from him. The field agent excelling in undercover activities of my previous life is nothing but a second rate product compared to him.', thought Flavian, as he looked in awe at the leader, clearly impressed by his talents.
Flavian had no doubt that he would have been cleanly fooled by this person if not for his guesswork. In fact, he would have even doubted his own guesswork if not for the confession that Edward unintentionally made.
The leader mistook the expression of awe on Flavian's face as his fear. He was satisfied at that 'awed' expression as he continued on with his act, unaware that someone had given him full marks in terms of deceptive acting.
The leader spoke with a menacing growl, " Good! Very good!! Excellent!!! The little children take me as fool, don't they? Kapten! I never expected a good and obedient boy like you would make the mistake of going against me! If I don't kill you, I am not human!".
The leader stormed off in anger at that declaration. As he was about to leave the room, he turned and threw a small glass tube with one end closed and the other end stoppered with a cork. The glass tube had a reddish brown liquid present inside.
" Apply it on your wounds, and they will heal overnight. Consider this as a reward for your faithful behaviour.", said the leader as he stormed off.
Flavian catched the glass tube, as he continued to act terrified. Time slowly crept by as he continued with his act. Ten minutes went by, as he finally heard shouts and wails drifting in from the window, as he finally stopped with his act and got off his bed as he looked outside.
He saw many black robed and black masked figures surrounding the captives, as they were captured from within the forest and brought back. Kapten was struggling as he was lifted up through the collar of his shirt by the leader.
Flavian's room was very high above the ground level, so he couldn't see that Kapten had an abnormally calm expression on his face even though his arms and legs were moving about randomly. The captors, including the leader, ignored his calm looking face; whereas the captives were filled with despair to even notice anything in their surroundings.