District 42-Chapter 178: Sgail’s Headquarters
Once Casper stepped inside the Headquarters, he got amazed by the change it had in comparison to what he saw out there. As Leonel had said, there was no need to be afraid of the facade.
The soldier could even state that the inside was comfortable, it didn’t even give a vibe of the main base of a military organization, particularly one like the Sgails.
The Headquarters entrance began very similarly with the Third Lab in a certain aspect. Once you entered there you would face a considerably huge corridor, with its walls painted in a light gray, and white tiles on the floor. The corridor connected to a huge square room, with lots of people walking here and there. The painting style was the same as in the corridor, with the walls gray and white floor.
That square room seemed to mark the center of the Headquarters. More corridors were connecting to that place, coming from all directions, and people were transiting hastily around there.
A chill went down his spine when he saw that room and suddenly an image of that spheric room of the Third Lab came into his mind, as well as his brutal first battle with Freygar. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"What happened, White warrior? Never saw a hall before? You seem to be pale." Now, Leonel wasn’t being sarcastic or ironic, he was just confused with Casper’s behavior.
"It’s nothing... It’s just that... well the hall is big, right?" Casper brushed off that feeling and concentrated on the place he was in at the moment. He had not the time to be aloof.
"Well, it is. This entrance hall is what connects the corridors of the Headquarters for different rooms and places inside here. You didn’t saw from out there, but this place is bigger than it looks."
Casper nodded, following Leonel once he started to walk again, entering the hall.
"That’s what I expected from a Headquarters, after all. Well, it also depends on the amount of personnel you have here... How many people are part of the Sgails nowadays?" Casper found that to be the most pertinent question he could do for now.
"Well... we doesn’t have too much. Since we are a secret organization and most of our operations are made in the shadows, then it would be troublesome to have a lot of people wandering around the Castle. The grand majority of Jarls don’t know about our existence, nor the commoners, and the Frelsi are yet to discover as well. Because of some reasons, a few Jarls want our heads to be ripped off, just because we discovered certain schemes of corruption and this sort of thing. So, the fewer people, the more discreet. Got it?"
Casper nodded. Leonel didn’t give to him specific numbers, but he didn’t want to pursue the matter. Based on what he said, Casper guessed that one hundred Sgails would be a reasonable number to assume.
"People seem to be quite busy here, huh?" The soldier commented right after looking around and paying attention to the people passing by there.
That place was a bit crowded, and here and there Casper and Leonel would be bumped at. It was a bother, but the Sgail seemed to be ok with that, as he was used to it.
"The hall is always crowded and busy, White warrior. There is a lot of things to do here and work on a large scale, but with fewer people than needed. Reduced personnel has its disadvantages and advantages as well. Besides the daily training and the missions we need to accomplish, there is always the administrative work, the investigation, and so on. Things that we do right inside here, but that aren’t less laborious as what we do out there."
The soldier kept hearing and looking attentively at what was happening around. That environment was familiar for him, nostalgic. It remembered his days at the Yanke Forces, it was very similar.
"These people interactions, works, what they talk about, what they yell; the ones with a higher rank commanding, scolding; missions, training, nonstop routine... That’s exactly what happened every single day at the Yanke Forces... I barely can’t believe..." He felt excited about what was about to happen. That atmosphere was getting him, and his heart even throbbed inside the chest.
The walk into the hall lasted for some seconds, nearly a minute, but for him, it seemed to last even more. The time was passing in slow motion for him.
"You seem to be pretty excited about everything, White warrior. The Princess said that you were a soldier before, so you probably are well acquainted with this type of environment, right?" Casper nodded for him in response. "I wonder if you liked it so much, to be so energetic while seeing this kind of thing..."
While still paying attention to everything, Casper got a bit pensive. Memories of joy, satisfaction, but also suffering and pain, crossed his mind and made him question himself again about that matter.
"I guess I liked it." His response was kind of insecure, and the Sgail didn’t seem convinced about that. "But, liking or not, that was the only thing I ever wanted to do in my whole life."
They passed through the corridors, and in different rooms of that place. Leonel made sure to show to Casper the most important parts of the Headquarters, but he wasn’t willing to take a tour with him through the place.
Just as much as the soldier was in a rush to do things and get to that mission already, so was the Sgail. Regarding the presentation of the place, Casper could discover by himself when he started to stroll around and ask questions to people, the most important thing now was to make his acquaintance with the Sgails he would need to interact the most and start the training already.
They ended stopping their brief trip at a specific door. All the doors there were generic, they seemed to be about the same, and Casper wondered how that guy could suppose where which place was.
"Maybe he is here for a really long time... or maybe he has a great memory..."
A good capacity to memorize things was an important capability for a soldier to have, particularly when he would be doing missions like the Sgails should do.
Leonel opened the door, letting Casper come in first. The soldier cautiously entered into the room, looking around.
There was a rectangular table in the middle of it, with a bunch of chairs as well. A whiteboard with some keywords and draws was on the wall of the left, together with something that looked like a projector.
There were three people inside there, and they looked at Casper at the exact moment he entered. They had strange eyes, and Casper knew with just a glance that they weren’t normal people.
"C’mon, get out of the way and come in already!" Leonel pushed Casper, forcing him to take several steps forward, and nearly hit the table. That idiot guy was strong, and Casper wasn’t expecting it due to his skinny body.
The soldier hadn’t said anything for a good while, just staring back at all that people at the table.
Casper couldn’t tell their genre, and a lot of physical characteristics were completely covered. He noticed that the clothes they wore were projected just to that finality.
"Sorry for the strange clothes, they just got from a mission." Leonel soothed the White warrior. "Hey, you three, you can just take it off, you know?"
The atmosphere got denser. The stares of those three were still getting Casper cautious. As per usual, the soldier had a knife on his waist, well hid, and slowly raised his hands in its direction. He was being careful with his movements, to not show his intentions, but froze in the exact moment in that one of them changed his focus directly to the soldier’s right hand.
"That person noticed... He noticed already..." While thinking it he slid his feet backward, retreating.
"Hey, guys, you are scaring our newbie here. He is the overly cautious type, and he has some traumas as well, though Vick hadn’t said what they were... So, be gentle with him, ok?"
One of them, who was sitting on one of those chairs, leaning it backward, got up all of a sudden and started to round the table to the right. Another one followed him, letting his sit fall on the ground while he raised; that person rounded the table as well, but to the left.
Leonel clicked his tongue, seeming to be annoyed.
"Bunch of kids... I don’t even know why I am being so idiot to ask for you all to be his teachers." He facepalmed, frustrated.
The third Sgail was sitting on the table, and stood up on top of it, looking for Casper from above.
Casper felt that he was cornered there. He could run through the door, but he didn’t know a good part of that Headquarters, so it was unlikely that he could escape.
Leonel walked away and stood beside the Whiteboard, sighing hard.
"Ok, ok. Then, you can start, go ahead, and do it quickly." He waved his hand, and after this, the trio raised their guards and rushed towards the soldier.
