Time to act

Casper stood up from his table. Anton looked at him quite surprised. He was not expecting that Casper would try to do something right at that moment.  

When the White warrior started to walk between the tables, everyone glanced at him. All the prisoners of that block always paid attention to Casper's actions, particularly when he was doing something out of the ordinary. 

Everyone there already knew that Casper was a stubborn and bold person. In just a few days, he had caused a lot of troubles with both the Ridire and them.  

Casper sat on the bench on the opposite side of Olaf, looking carefreely at the people around. They also looked to him, cautiously.  

He waited patiently for them to stop to talk about whatever they were talking.  

They exchanged glances with each other and whispered a couple of words. It did not take too long for all the conversation on that table to die and be replaced by whispers.  

Casper smiled casually, staring at Olaf. He stretched his hand slowly towards him.  

The prisoners started to stand up from their tables, tense and prepared for a possible fight. 

However, the soldier just kept with the arm stretched, his hand opened. 

Olaf looked back and forth to his hand and his face, clearly confused. In the end, he shook Casper's hand with hesitation.  

The people around sat on the bench again, without avoiding their looks from Casper. All the canteen was paying attention as to what was happening in there.  

The Ridires have gathered a bit more closer to that table. 

"Nice to meet you. Your name is Olaf, isn't it?" 

"Y-yeah. That's me. You are Casper, as far as I know."  

The soldier nodded in agreement, pulling his hand. His relaxed posture and expression let Olaf a bit more comfortable with that situation, but the man could not stop being suspicious of his sudden approach. 

"So, how did you end up being dragged to here, Olaf?" He asked, putting his hands together on top of the table.  

Olaf was even more flabbergasted by that trivial question. He was hoping that whatever that Casper wanted to say to him, would mean a huge mess, but faced with such a thing, he could just don't believe in his ears.  

The two started to talk a bit about that matter. Olaf, though, was not actually willing to say anything to Casper regarding his personal life.  

In a matter of seconds, all the canteen came back to normal and they stopped being the center of attention. 

As soon as Casper noticed it, he brushed off that subject. 

"Ok, now we can talk about business…" He whispered, in a way that Olaf needed to struggle to discern.  

"A-ah… I see. So you really were planning something else. I thought that you were being quite strange here." 

Casper raised one brow, finding that situation somewhat curious. 

"I am not this much of time here to get this fame of riotous, am I?" He laughed. 

"Ah, you bet that you got. After a fight like that on your first day and threaten a Ridire, we don't expect something from you other than a scandal. And, you know, you don't have a…" 

"Hehe, I see, I see…" Casper gave a meaningful look to Olaf. "And you know what I am capable of, without one of these 'handcuffs', right?"  

Olaf nodded. 

"You see, Olaf. I don't like this much to be stuck in a cell… And I didn't sympathize with the Ridires around here. Maybe I am going to… to move." 

Casper could see that Olaf's eyes got brighter and he approached more.  

"I know that anyone here can walk with their own feet because of their conditions. In short, I am the only one capable to do it. And… with the right tools, I can possibly go breathe some fresh air, and even bring some people along with me." 

"What do you need?" 

The voice of that man was filled with greed and desire, his hands were fidgeting on the table. He did not even blink while hearing what Casper had to say. 

At that moment, the White warrior knew that Olaf was now in the palm of his hand, dancing according to the music that Casper played.  

"I like your determination, Olaf. But I need to know if you have what it takes to enter the party. How can you contribute with us?" He crossed his arms, looking more serious. Seeing those gestures, the man got restless. 

Now he was struggling in his mind, trying to prove his value as fast as he could. 

"I-I…!" He realized how loud he said that and calmed himself down. "I have contacts among the Ridire. Contacts that could be of huge help to you, I am sure…" 

"Hmm… I like to think that you can expand our influence… However, I don't know exactly what we would do with Ridires that are just as much controlled as the prisoners are…" 

"That… Well…" 

Casper was trying to corner him. The more desperate he got, the better.  

The soldier knew plenty of uses that the Ridire could have, but he was not aware of how good tools they could be. He needed to discover if they were worthy of the sacrifice to trust in another Frelsi. 

"Well, they can provide to us… resources…" 

"What kind of resources?" 

"Things that can hurt… Or destroy." He said hesitantly. 

Casper remained quiet for some more time, pretending to ponder regarding that matter.  

"I think that we have a deal, Olaf. I will need some resources to my… Plans. These days I will request some of them bit by bit. Stay alert." 

After this, Casper stood up from the bench and left the table.

…

The time for the outdoor activities finally had come. Casper was looking forward to that time. Now that he was starting to set things to initiate his plan, the time in the courtyard was very important to him.  

Anton was beside Casper, they were sitting at one of the various tables that were spread around the courtyard.  

"Now that I think about it, Anton, in this courtyard we don't have the number of prisoners that should have in total in this prison, right?" Casper noticed that there were about 100 inmates. It was not even half of the people that should be jailed there. 

"Yeah, you got it. There are 512 prisoners in Halden, more or less. However, there isn't just this courtyard here. Actually, we have 4 different courtyards. Also, there are eight canteens, one for each block." 

Casper found that point to be very interesting. It was something that he could use in his plan.  

"Four, huh? They are close to each other?" 

"I don't know." 

"That's our major problem here. We don't know a thing about this complex. I mapped some things already, but it seems bigger than I expected… I have a long way to go, and I don't even know if I will have the opportunity to visit all the places here." 

"In this matter, we have a way to go. Remember that guy Anton talked about with you? The pitch-black long-haired man?" 

Casper looked around for a second and quickly could find the guy among some other people.  

"Yeah, that strange-looking guy right there." He pointed with his head.  

"You got it. That guy is the leader of a huge faction here. His name is Alfar. He can seem to be a pretty troublesome guy, but they actually are the most reliable faction." 

"Hmmm… So, if I can bring him to our side, it means that we can know a bit more about the prison's structure?" 

Casper was getting more and more interested in that man. At first glance, he had already thought that he was a special type, but now the status of that Alfar was very far away from what he expected.  

"A bit? No, Anton would say almost everything. You see, they are the biggest faction here, and they have people working with them from the eight blocks. The elder people from Halden also are under his command. Gathering all the information and knowledge they have, we could save a lot of time of research." 

"I see… So we are aiming to the biggest fish right now, huh?" 

"Yeah, you could say so. The problem is that Alfar is a pretty stubborn and apathetic person. He doesn't get along well with anyone. People say that the man who works with him as his right arm carries him on his back. But that's not the truth at all. He is a typical visionary." 

Casper was not hearing much of what Anton had to say anymore. He was looking intently at that man as if trying to solve a mystery.  

"Hey, Anton… You said that the main goal of his faction was to unite everyone in the prison, right?" 

"Yeah… He wants to turn Halden into a peaceful place. You arrived in good times but, generally, we fight every time we went to the outdoor activities."

"I see… This turns things to our side, then." Casper grinned. 

"Why is that?" 

"The easiest way to convince someone to do something is taunting their desires. If he wants something, we will make it look like our goals will lead him to achieve his goals.

Anton narrowed his eyes to him. The clever middle-aged man understood very well what the soldier meant with that. 

"I will be right back."