Vick was lost in her thoughts, sitting on the throne of the General Court. She sighed hard, massaging her temples. She was with a continuous headache for a few days. No matter how much medicine she took, or for how long she tried to make it vanish, nothing was working.
It has been at least two days since she started to take several scolds from her father regarding the issues of the General Court and Casper as well.
Now that the news of his prison by the invasion attempt at the Third Lab had spread through the castle, the Council of Jarls tried to reinforce their decision to execute or keep him for an undetermined time, as well as the danger he represented to District 42 overall.
She was having a hard time holding them as much as possible while trying to find a way to persuade the Council's members and bring them to her side once again.
What she was aiming for by that time was to free Casper, but it was not so easy. Catrina wasn't a reasonable person, and she was being strict regarding Casper's staying at Halden. She always said at the Council that she was doing it just because of bureaucratic reasons related to his crimes, but Vick was sure that she had ulterior motivations for it.
Casper was of extreme value when it came to scientific matters. He was a playground for any biologist; an object worthy of fascination for the majority of neurologists; his body was an unknown zone.
In fact, every one of the Council knew about that matter, but they would not be idiots and discard that advantage they gained with Casper's behavior, now having the opportunity to label him as a criminal.
The Council before was split about what to do with the White Warrior, but now more than 60% of the entire council was beside the opposition. The princess had a lot of power and voice inside there, and all meets were currently being held by her, but if her influence fell below 30% of approbation, there was no way to keep up with Casper's protection; and a cruel fate could befall upon the poor soldier.
"How is he doing at that prison now? I bet that it's something crazy… That idiot." Without noticing, she smiled, feeling lonely and a bit sad, but at the same time, she was incredibly angry.
After a whole month of meeting Casper regularly, conversing with him, inspecting, and always worrying about him, she ended up developing feelings for him. That man had something that shook her heart.
She never felt such a thing before. Always being a political figure, a member of the Real family, nobody created such an intimate bond with her. Vick was not used to it. And that made it even more special somehow. It was a unique experience.
However, those feelings were also getting in her way. Without being able to leave the soldier aside and focus on her duties, her productivity was falling every day. And the fact that she argued with him made it harder to bear his absence.
Except for the struggling she was having at the Council, trying to defend Casper at all costs, Vick had to deal as well with a lot of problems inside the General Court. That was why she was sat at that throne, with exhausted eyes and a bad posture.
The Princess was there for a whole day, and the time she had there wasn't exactly the best. She had lost two important cases for not being able to reasoning as she usually would.
Thanks to it, those three stubborn Jarls trying to take the 16th floor won the cause. Despite them, a steel and iron corporation got the rights to produce guns and explosives as well. They were both important issues for the Jarls, since one had the laws of Monopoly in check, and the others were going completely out of their business niche, as well as not having the actual license to produce those kinds of things.
Not even Vick knew how she could lose those cases, but the facts were right on her face, and there was nothing she could do now.
The Princess was caught off guard when someone approached her from the left side of the throne. It was a man, and she recognized him as one of her more reliable spies.
"The information of the graphics is all right. The number of people increased. Our group is spying on them as they can, and it seems that the majority of new members have some inconsistencies in their daily routines. For more information you can check the inbox, there will be more details about the report." He bowed slightly and got out quickly without waiting for Vick's reply.
She muttered a "thank you" and pretended that it was nothing too scandalous. However, on the inside, Vick was thinking deeply about that.
"Casper, General Court, Council of Jarls, and now this…" She rested her face on her palms. "How many troubles will appear, huh?"
…
Anton was inside the canteen of Block B, hidden behind a table while the world seemed to shake around him. One could just describe that sight as crazy. Even he didn't know how he could do such a thing.
Before Casper had been moved to another cell, he had encharged him with the duty to trigger a huge conflict at Block B and make all the Ridires mobilize in there.
The White warrior needed a distraction to do the next steps of his plan, and had specified clearly that "the ideal is that something big happens".
Anton was a very influential person inside the prison, although Casper never came to knew it. Because of that matter, it was not so difficult to mobilize some men and make a generalized mess in Block B. Even more with the tension between the Factions.
In truth, those battles were to happen at some point; he just anticipated it.
Now, he was struggling just to survive until that point and trying to draw the attention of as many Ridires as he could and make the situation of Block B appear to be worst than it actually was.
In the middle of the battles, he needed to use some tricks to avoid being harmed. Thankfully, Anton had a lot of experience and talent with being agile and stealthy. It was the key point for him to disappear from the sight of his enemies and still be unharmed since all of that started.
Casper had the craziest plans in the world, but Anton thought that that was the bolder one he had made. Trigger such thing inside the prison was just crazy, and it could turn to be a bad decision in the end, depending on how chaotic the conflicts became.
Just in that Block, three of the four factions were fighting against each other. Not to mention the Ridires involved, who ended up hurt indirectly.
"Damn… Anton should have pretended to be the louder guy in this prison. Maybe this way that stubborn man would leave Anton alone…" He sighed. "Hopefully, things will not keep up like this. Casper is a clever person, but it's a man who always aims high. At the time he finally falls, it will hurt doubled."
Anton breathed in, getting the courage needed to go to the action again. He knew that in the exact moment he showed his face, everything would become two times more chaotic.
"Ok, Anton is prepared…" He remained crouching for a while, peeking beside the edges of the table.
When he saw an opening in that violent brawl, he boosted his body as if his legs were powerful springs and started to run with all his might. Swiftly, he avoided each prisoner who entered in his way. He was like a shadow quickly passing through everyone.
However, although he was fast, it was impossible to avoid being spotted and soon someone shouted.
"There he is! Catch that man!"
"Don't let them get close to him, scumbags, keep beating all of them!" Another one shouted in response.
The fights intensified, but this time a huge amount of inmates were ignoring another group of enemies and starting to give chase on Anton.
The middle-aged man kept dodging and defending. His life was depending on his legs. He could not stop there.
He ran just some meters, but his gray shirt was as sweated as the clothes of those brawlers.
After striving a lot, he could make it until the exit of the canteen. Someone got in his way, Anton's reflexes were sharp, though. He jumped as soon as the man stood in front of him, using his shoulder as a platform for his foot and passing over him.
The man remained dumbfounded at the exit, turning behind.
The middle-aged man fell on the floor already starting to run again.
The corridors had some inmates fighting as well, but it was nothing like the canteen.
"Ok, the most dangerous part is gone. Now, Anton just has to make it until that place!"
Like this, Anton kept running, cursing Casper numerous times inside his head.