District 42-Chapter 160: Telling the story
"H-Hey, Casper!" The Princess called, getting next to him and making the soldier walk at a slower pace.
The man seemed bothered by that but didn’t complain. If he did, Vick would snap. She wasn’t in her best mood and was just an inch to explode with him. Casper knew very well what was happening with her head, however the Princess was trying to keep her coolness no matter what.
"Look, don’t run away like this, ok? We still have things to sort out..."
"I think you should come back to your usual tone, Princess, there are too many people here." The soldier warned looking to the sides and seeing that everyone that passed by them was still looking to both as if they had come from another world (Although it was true in Casper’s case).
Vick was trying to be persuasive there, but with her frost tone, she wouldn’t be able to do it, not with Casper at least. It was a good thing to do when you have subordinates and when you know how to control them, but the White warrior was different. He wasn’t her servant, actually Casper probably thought that he was on the same level as the Princess.
"Don’t say to me what to do, White warrior." Anyway, she needed to come back to her public self. She had plenty of time to work on Casper, but once she was seen with a slight mistake in her behavior, it would turn to be a hellish situation, and her father was already dealing with a lot of hellish things, so he wouldn’t dare to put a finger on Vick’s issues.
Both walked outside the Healing Center. The trip was as long as before, because the silence between them made it very uncomfortable, at least for her. Casper was used to those kinds of awkward situations, so it was normal at a certain point, and he had planned to make Vick go quiet since the start.
Once they got outside there, directly to the crowded and noisy streets, Vick began to talk to him more or less like her true self. She still needed to be careful, though.
"Look, Casper, you need to do things right, ok? You know very well that I can’t kill you, because you are important for the district, so why are you holding yourself?"
He giggled, putting his hands inside the pockets on his pants.
"Good try, Princess, but I won’t let you fool with my words. I didn’t say anything about kill, or did I?" Vick clicked her tongue, avoiding her gaze to another side.
"You are not dumb regarding argumentation, but you still need to improve. These old techniques won’t work with me. By the way, what I said back then was about the masks, and, c’mon, you are dying inside wanting me to have a mask as well, right? I could bet money on this... If I have money..."
Vick kicked him slightly on his leg, making him trip. He took his balance again very quickly but was still bothered by that.
"Will you tell me what exactly happened in Halden, then? Is there a motivation as to why you are turning out to be so careful with everyone?" The Princess got closer to Casper, looking at him with curious eyes, like a cat.
Casper sighed.
"Well, unfortunately, I spit a lot of information to that Doctor when we were inside the hospital..." He reasoned, thinking to himself. " I needed to do this, but now I can’t lie easily for her, which is a bother. And I am sure that this woman would find a way to discover what happened there without me telling it to her. I have my doubts if she actually already know."’ Casper silent, rambling, looking to the street of that city, then glancing to Vick from time to time.
"I would like to keep playing safe, but nothing is helping it... It’s not like you have much to do with this information, anyway." He spoke, finally, shrugging for her. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
She was satisfied with his response, even though it was quite hesitant. Vick calmly guided them to a space less crowded than the streets. The place she brought them was some sort of park. It had a lot of green, the threes were very big, though Casper knew that they were artificial, and the flowers gave the same feeling as them.
They sat together on a bench that was around there, stretching a bit their legs and catching their breath before they could start to talk about something.
"I didn’t know that they had these kinds of attractions here in the district. I thought that most of the activities here would be turned towards other things..." Casper was the first, and Vick followed.
"You will not run away from me, White warrior. Start to talk about that already, otherwise, I will cut off your tongue."
Casper leaned his back on the bench, sighing. He wasn’t just unwilling to tell the Princess about those things because of distrust, but also because it was hard to relive those memories.
The soldier thought for some time, then started to tell about what happened bit by bit, hiding some important parts, showing others, and managing the overall story to not let something that could be dangerous for him slip from his mouth.
He didn’t want to admit that, but he liked Vick, somehow. At the same time, he feared and tried to be cautious around her, because despite being friends, they somewhat were enemies as well.
At the same time that Casper needed to fight with her, he wanted to talk and stay with her. It was something confusing and even annoying. It was hard to tell when he was trying to be seductive and manipulative, or when he was just trying to have a good time with Vick.
Also, it was way more difficult to tell when Vick was trying to be his friend or, then, just fulfill her duty as a princess.
None of them could take off that thought of being constantly in danger beside each other. Their minds were always warned. They surely could be better friends if they left those worries aside, but they had things they needed to accomplish: Casper needed to survive and discover what was going on in that district, to find what he would do about it. Vick needed to be the political figure that she must be, and Casper affected directly all her responsibilities as a member of the Royal family.
The White warrior didn’t notice the time passing, and the same happened with Vick.
The artificial lights of the Castle were shining less and less bright. It came to the point where it acquired the strong yellow of a sunset, and just then they realized how much time had passed.
"And..." Once Casper looked around and saw that the night was arriving, he needed to stop to talk for a while. Then, he continued, "And then, we could escape from there... That’s how everything happened inside Halden all this while..."
Vick was attentively hearing his story from beginning to end. Her head was leaning on her right arm, and her body was slightly turned to Casper.
Her light eyes, under the lights of that fake sunset, seemed to be even more beautiful, somewhat alluring as well.
For the first time since he got into that world, and faced everyone wearing a mask in that district, Casper wanted someone to wear off their mask just because he needed to see her face. No other reason behind it. Just the will to know more about that person.
He noticed that he was for a good while just looking at her face, and, timidly, she was giving back that stare, appreciating Casper as much as he did with her.
The soldier bit his tongue, getting real, and then avoiding his gaze slowly.
"I think that’s the final of the story, there is nothing more to say. Well, there is, but the rest you already know." Explained, trying to cut the silence that settled between them. It wasn’t a bothering silence though, it was a good one. A type of silence that they both would gladly spend hours enjoying.
"Yes. I got it." She replied, slowly, getting her composure again. Vick questioned one or two things during Casper’s story, but in the end, she had not so many questions to ask as the soldier thought she would. In truth, Vick could get what she wanted through that time, so she didn’t need to ask anything.
"I see... It might have been a hard time..."
The White warrior looked to the ceiling of that floor, rambling.
"Since that day I have been just going through troubles." And again his past issues came across his mind, but this time he said it out loud.
The Princess could guess that, if she asked something about that quote, most likely Casper wouldn’t say a thing about it. She decided to keep it with her and use it at the right time.
"Hey... say it to me now, and don’t lie." She stared at his face. "What were you before you came here? And from where you are?"
