Chapter 7: Resolve to Resolve

No amount of preparation would be enough for any unexpected events. Despite that, Proxer believed that he could handle what was to come as long as he hurried. No, it was more like he couldn't accept failing "yet another victim". An ostensibly selfless act that arose from his own selfish desires. He scurried along the dim aisle but it felt like it was taking an eternity to make it through this endless passage of suspense.

After turning a corner and walking a few more meters, something grotesque caught his eye. It was his rescue target, with a sharp, silver blade in his neck. Only the tip and the handle of the blade could be seen, the rest of it was within Jogrin's neck. Proxer's eyes widened at the sight of Jogrin's condition while the latter was making a pained expression.

It appeared that the soldiers were trying to decapitate Jogrin, but to no avail, as unbeknownst to even Jogrin himself, his spine was able to endure the impact, but the pain was present nonetheless, as lucid had Jogrin remained the entire process.

Though the scene wasn't as grotesque due to the lack of blood, but it would very likely traumatize one without relevant experience.

"WHY?! WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE??? WE'VE SLICED YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!" Infuriated bellows came from some of the soldiers, but on the inside, something else had overtaken any kind of anger or grudge they may have. Still, that didn't change what they wished to do.

Needless to say, the soldiers were showing terrified expressions since they couldn't even kill what was causing their fear in the first place.

Their and Proxer's minds went entirely blank at that moment. And the next moment, Proxer noticed Jogrin gazing at him exasperatedly.

Proxer, at a loss of words, darted towards Jogrin who couldn't even moan from the agony with a blade in his throat. Not noticing the blond bloke rushing at him from the side, the soldier who was hurriedly pressing the blade down to crush Jogrin's cervical spine got dragged backwards, his armour made a clear "bang" when hitting the wall, followed by those who were pinning Jogrin down by his limbs sliding on the floor until their heads hit the wall.

Within the execution room that was filled with bright blue rays, as well as faces distorted from fear, all was at a standstill, as if time had stopped. Proxer, standing before the soldiers, still couldn't mutter a word, since he knew, for what he said next, it would either rouse the soldiers' hostility not only towards Jogrin, but towards himself also, or let the soldiers think twice about their actions, hence ceasing such cruelty. He grimaced under such a dilemma, and lamented once again how incapable of a commander he was, but that had to be left at least after Jogrin was absolved from the misunderstanding that ultimately arose from Proxer himself.

'That "mind tampering" thing sure is scary. Even after it's worn off, its aftereffects are still prominent.'

At this point, leaving aside fear being the root of their behavior, it wasn't irrational to believe the "mind tampering" Jogrin emphasized was a real deal, seeing how unscrupulous the soldiers, who had normally been all ears to their commander no matter how dreadful of a danger they were in, had become now. He absolutely couldn't condone such absurdity. While he was reviling whoever was behind this underhanded scheme, he turned towards Jogrin, and attempted to free him from the seemingly maniacal soldiers by knocking them all out. He was taken aback by the state Jogrin was in, with the blade still stuck in his neck. As much as he wanted to pull out that blade, he had to take care of the soldiers who lost their minds.

But as Proxer was about to jump at one of the soldiers and swiftly swing his fist at the stomach, he felt a tug at the long sleeve of his military coat that he put on before confronting the 3 timid soldiers after being hospitalized. It was Jogrin with that same exasperated expression.

"Don't... please... deteriorate," Jogrin murmured with his still-recovering throat which was steadily pushing out the blade, by the throat itself. His voice was of a hoarse and soft one, but still barely managed to be caught by the ears of Proxer. Having witnessed the blade slowly emerging, the surrounding people gasped.

With a weak pull at his sleeve, Proxer gave Jogrin a dubious gaze, as he was bewildered at not the action itself, but the reason behind it -- to stop him from resorting to violence.

To Proxer, the most crucial thing was to flee with Jogrin as soon as possible, and he deduced that the most efficient way of doing so was to knock out all the soldiers.

However, it appeared that Jogrin had seen right through Proxer, and put a brake on him for he was against this idea.

'Why is he stopping me?! It's high time we break through this situation! What's he thinking?' With such gripe, Proxer showed a somewhat peeved expression as his eyes wandered about.

When his eyes were on Jogrin again, he could be seen in an attempt to grab the blade that was still within his neck but slightly inclined to the side with the handle with his other arm.

'Wait, is he intending to fight by himself?'

Upon seeing that, Proxer panicked and started trembling. The soldiers, on the other hand, became more wary, not willing to make any rash moves as, unlike when he was pinned down my his slender limbs, he could move somewhat freely now.

However, the impression of Jogrin craving to fight back dissipated within Proxer's mind, as it seemed that Jogrin eyes were hinting something.

'What's he on about now?' Proxer gave another dubious look toward Jogrin, though his panic was still the dominant emotion.

Those eyes were of trusting ones, and at the same time they seemed to be urging Proxer to do a specific thing. But what on earth would Jogrin want Proxer to do? One thing for sure, was that it had to be involved with the blade.

After realizing that, Proxer immediately had a bad intuition of what would come next...

...

"I knew it did not sound right that there was a drill when it was not at the end of the month, so my premonition is right..." A stern and solemn voice responded to an accusation made by 3 soldiers who discourteously rushed in the room by slamming open the door. "You three, I shall overlook the uncouth behavior you displayed just now, but... tell me exactly what happened. If you were to be found out about having missed any essential details, or even more unforgivable -- being dishonest, the aftermath of it will come your way." An intimidating and assertive aura exuded from the man with a deep voice, who was sitting behind a table full of documents.

"SIR YES SIR!!!" Without any option but to comply, the 3 of them trembled at the word "aftermath".

They gave elaborate descriptions of the horrid event that took place to the best of their abilities. But undoubtedly, as the ones directly involved in the besiege, in other words, having been under the infliction of "mind tampering", they had no recollection of the process that was actually the most crucial to the person who demanded explanation, to which the said person interrogated the 3 soldiers with an even more intimidating aura, but to no avail as they insistently denied being deceitful, or trying to cover up for Proxer.

Judging from their reactions, the person with seemingly high authority deduced that they were indeed telling the truth.

Of course, simultaneously forgetting the details of the occurrence as the ones directly involved in it already sounded ridiculous. That was why, it raised the overawing man's suspicion.

"You three."

"Y-YES!!!"

"Report this matter to the ki... no, forget it. Come with me."

The man set off with the 3 soldiers in tow.

...

Unswerving, Jogrin focused his eyes solely on Proxer. They seem to be insinuating that they were seeking something from Proxer, though contents unknown. The next moment, Jogrin's attention was on the blade which he was painstakingly pulling out of his throat.

At first, Proxer couldn't figure out what Jogrin was hinting at, when the soldiers abruptly jumped at the lanky boy one by one.

After discerning Jogrin's reason of stopping him and the consequences of engaging with the soldiers head-on, Proxer merely used the momentum of the soldiers' dashing to drive them away, so that minimal damage would be done to them. With one if his hand grabbing an arm of the soldiers, Proxer turned his entire body and pushed each of the soldiers on the back with the other hand, altering their line of movement.

During all that, Proxer pondered what Jogrin wanted.

'He stopped me when I wanted to carry him and push through by force, that should means he doesn't want to hurt them? Or maybe he's just that afraid of the pain if I carry him, right?' Proxer recalled Jogrin's shivering when he mentioned "pain". 'And the blade... if he doesn't want them hurt, why the blade? If it's not to be used on my comrades... No, he can't be saying... I'll need to use it on him?! Wouldn't he be in pain? No, can he even heal fully, especially when his throat is already like this?'

Proxer was highly doubtful of the portentous conclusion he came up with. However, while he was in disbelief, the next few words that his ears caught appear to attest to his conclusion.

"COMMANDER! YOU'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED BY THIS INSOLENT SCOUNDREL! SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY!" It was the soldiers frantically yelling.

'What? Aren't they the ones who's been... Wait, Jogrin should've already seen through this with his perception... so his way of telling my comrades I'm not brainwashed is by me stabbing him?! Will this really not kill him? Will my comrades really find solace from this? What's gonna happen after this?'

He felt another tug while lost in thought. The lanky one who did that once again also pointed at his chest where the heart would normally be underneath in a normal person, and expressed his trust through his light gray eyes.

Proxer made a sour face, as if bemoaning, but he couldn't think of a better idea no matter what, so he was left with no choice.

"I'm sorry, Jogrin. Please, bare with this..."

Proxer inadvertently whispered so out of guilt, after having forcibly taken the blade from within Jogrin's throat, which resulted in the latter's entire body convulsing, with his eyes widened. Seeing so, Proxer felt all the more nonplussed while holding the blade. If one were to pay more attention, he was shivering mildly. He reluctantly raised his arms.

"How dare you control my mind, you lowlife?! Your ruse can continue no more, for I, shall enact my authority as the commander, and rid us of your presence!"

Those words sounded chivalrous, but in fact, the one who spoke them found swinging his arms down towards Jogrin an arduous task. He gritted his teeth out of grievance, which may appear to be out of disdain for the witnessing soldiers who were clouded with that exact emotion.

Nonetheless, what needed to be done, must be done. There was no other way. In order to regain his comrades' trust, he must display his opposition against Jogrin. Though he was never brainwashed to begin with, anything he said at such moment would be nonsensical to the surrounding soldiers.

Upon witnessing Proxer's nonplussed expression, Jogrin gave a slight nod of acquiesce with a pained look. He tugged at Proxer's sleeve at a quicker pace and with more force, as if hushing Proxer to stab him right now. If he hesitated any further, it would incur doubts from those who aimed for Jogrin's death.

Albeit still reluctant, "Hah!", Proxer cried aloud with a deep voice not only to forcefully draw out his determination in order to suppress his sorrow of having to put Jogrin through even more pain, but also to put on a blatant, feigning act of despising him.

Before he could bring the blade down, "HALT!!" A voice rang out from his left which was the entrance to the execution room. It reverberated within the room, which ceased everyone's movements, as if time had stopped moving forward.

Not able to react sharply enough, Proxer had already initiated the swinging of the blade, though managed to stop at a hair's breadth before actually stabbing Jogrin.

Proxer's eyes widened again after hearing the familiar voice which was also the case for the soldiers. Silence prevailed for a brief moment, and Proxer was the one to shatter it.

"Grand Commander... Kapel..." Without turning his head to ascertain who got himself embroiled in this supernatural occurrence at such a crucial moment, Proxer gave a somewhat timid yet firm mutter.