A wave of nervousness ran down Asan's spine when he saw the Geographer's reaction to the news about the fort. At first, his face remained cold and calm, but Asan, after a month in the camp, had already learned to read some of the emotions of the blue-eyed man through other actions.
His fists clenched even more tightly that the knuckles turned pale, but to Asan's surprise, the geographer's fist quickly relaxed, once again making the man completely unreadable.
"Understood. Thank you for your work, Paul. This sounds rather interesting… I'll need to think about our next plan regarding supplies and the fort in general" — Geographer inadvertently looked up at the sky, noticing how it was slowly darkening and being covered by a dark veil.
"It will be night soon, and I don't want to travel to the fort in the darkness, so we should set out right now."
The camp immediately gathered and set off on their journey. Asan walked behind everyone, now responsible for the rear of the group. His head was filled with many thoughts and guesses about what Geographer could have come up with.
He didn't seem like an especially bad or good person, but this was their first encounter with others that hadn't gone very well either. Still, the image of the Geographer's clenched fist wouldn't leave Asan's mind. The guy was definitely up to something, he was sure of it. Since he was bored, he decided to think about how Nelson would handle such a problem, given his demands.
The first thing that came to mind was a crude strength and taking hostages, but Asan somehow doubted that their small group could destroy a fort made up of more than a hundred people, based on what he had seen. Even if most of them were with inactive systems, they were still people. Killing someone. Asan had thought about this even while living in the dormitory. In theory, it might sound simple…
In your thoughts, you can kill as many enemies as you want every day, but what really happens when you kill someone?
He often saw reports about various past or even present-day maniacs and couldn't help but wonder what actually drove them to kill people. It wasn't like he didn't hate anyone before the system. Every person had someone they disliked—someone they could live with or someone they saw. Did he truly have a desire to kill someone?
No.
Perhaps that's why, before the system Laszlo, he was so deeply concerned about the war that was steadily approaching between the European Commonwealth and America. If not for System, who knows… Maybe the news would still be buzzing about propaganda urging every citizen of the Commonwealth to fight for their homeland and show the invaders that this was their land.
Why did such thoughts even occur to him? Perhaps it was due to the atmosphere of their expedition. It was oppressive and not entirely pleasant; few spoke, and most complained about the inhuman conditions the fort had imposed on them within just a week of their stay.
"Maybe this is what soldiers feel when they go to war?" — The boy couldn't help but say to himself. His companion, Crane, who had looked serene the whole time, noticed this.
"It's more like our captain's war, not ours. At least that's something to be happy about" — Crane said, covering his yawn with his free hand. His other hand held his axe casually on his shoulder.
Asan wasn't scared by the unexpected appearance of his comrade; rather, he was prepared for something like this. After so many times when Crane suddenly appeared behind him, the boy had gotten used to such greetings.
Krain's words didn't make much sense to Asan. What did he mean by "Our captain's war"? Did Geographer plan to deal with the entire fort alone? That was crazy... Although, one couldn't say that he was weak. Once, a couple of Ronnie managed to break through the assault group, and Asan saw with his own eyes how Geographer, with light movements, managed to defeat them, though he sustained a minor injury on his arm. A person who, according to what Asan saw, had the first level. Or maybe he didn't have it...?
"I don't understand what you're talking about... Do you really think that Geographer can defeat the whole fort alone?" Asan asked Krain suspiciously, giving him a doubtful look.
"Huh? No, of course not. Geographer definitely can't take on an entire fort alone... I doubt we could do it even with the whole camp, let alone one Geographer.
"I'm talking about something else, Asan" Crane replied lazily with a smirk, gripping his axe tighter.
"Come on, just tell me what's going on" Asan said somewhat irritably. Crane loved to joke around and speak in riddles, apparently wanting Asan to solve them forever, which the guy honestly didn't like.
"It's simple. Remember what Geographer told us before we went on reconnaissance at the fort?"
"Well, to check it out and return to the camp. If everything was safe there, then we were supposed to move there, right?" Asan answered without much thought.
"That's right! Did we inspect the fort? Yes, we did. According to our mission, we need to spend at least a week there resting, or less if Geographer decides otherwise, and replenish supplies for our further journey to the Alps, correct? Correct."
Let's start by looking at Paul's position and why he agreed to such conditions. Paul, hearing the same thing as you, set himself one single task—to make sure the camp could stay in the fort for a week. When he came out, everyone was naturally bewildered by his decision, even I was initially stunned when I heard about it, to be honest. But once I thought it over, I understood everything perfectly well. Paul is a man of his word and a person who will complete a task exactly as instructed. Do you see where I'm going with this?'
Crane decided to remain silent for a minute, giving Asan time to process all the information. The young man's mind immediately began to analyze the entire situation and try to reach some conclusion. He understood the part about the task they had completed, finishing it almost perfectly, though with a minus. A minus… Oh. Wait a moment…
"Does this mean that such a deal didn't actually hinder us at all? Paul basically just wanted to achieve one specific goal set by Geographer, regardless of what happened next?" — Asan came to this conclusion, hoping to see an approving nod in his direction.
"And yes and no. Paul is the leader of our strike team. Besides considering how to effectively accomplish the task set by the Geographer, he also thinks about how to avoid putting you, me, or the other members under unnecessary risk and come out unscathed. The most important thing for you to understand is why Paul wasn't upset and immediately agreed to the condition based on the words Alice was screaming, accusing him of bad negotiations."
He simply wanted to complete the most important task, and as for what was outside his jurisdiction, he decided to pass it on to whoever could think about it and who that might be?'
"Geographer…" - Asan immediately replied, easily coming to this conclusion. Now almost everything fell into place, except for one thing. Geographer clearly was unhappy with what had happened and how the deal had been concluded. Noticing the brewing question on Asan's face, Crane promptly answered, anticipating the question.
"I know what you want to ask. Why did Geographer look so angrily when he heard the news, right? Well, first of all, no. He wasn't angry. Although only briefly, I've seen his look before in similar situations, partly. Even when he saved me on the street, leading people out of Janschwalde… He stood there just like this, clenching his fists, but didn't utter any insults or curses, n-o-o-o, no. He perceives this as… A challenge?
"Well, at least that's what I think" Crane stated his assumption, trying to speak a little quieter than usual. Perhaps he didn't want Geographer, or anyone else, to hear their conversation.
"C-c... challenge?" Asan asked confusedly. What kind of challenge could there be... in something like this?
Crane merely smiled and oddly glanced at Asan.
"Asan, don't you feel the same when standing face to face with an enemy? How your blood boils when you see a fist flying by from Ronnie or the clawed paw of a panther that wants to cut you down? It can all be described in two words—challenge and excitement. The challenge lies in whether you can overcome your limits and defeat an opponent stronger than you, while excitement arises when you dance with death before your eyes, wanting that moment to last longer. I see your face during battles, I see how you experience this feeling..."
Pretty familiar. So here's the thing. A fist fight, a sword fight, or a battle for life isn't the only thing that can evoke such feelings; there's another one, no less complex for each person—a battle of cunning and intellect"—he gave Asan another minute to think about Crane's words, then, to his surprise, abruptly cut off his monologue: "Ah, well, I've been rambling. To make a long story short, don't clutter your head with unnecessary crap. We're almost there anyway."
Switching his gaze from Crane to the surrounding world, Asan fell into a stupor. They had reached the fort very quickly and were already standing before its gates, having encountered not a single enemy along the way. Asan was surprised by how engrossed he had become in the conversation, so much so that he hadn't even realized they were already in the city, let alone at the fort. The gates immediately opened, and the camp, led by the Geographer, entered inside.
Everything got too chaotic and motorized after that. Asan and the rest of the camp chose a place where they would rest. Without much thought, since it was already evening, everyone quickly settled by their spots and started either preparing for sleep or dinner. Asan was among the first and was already lying on dried grass, using a pile of clothes under his head as a pillow. The entire strike team was sleeping nearby, but...
Even before going to sleep, Asan didn't see either the Geographer or Paul.