Chapter 33: Kapel's Concerns

On the vast grass field stood blokes that were either in casual clothing or military clothing. As for the Knights, the armors that they usually wore were nowhere to be seen, as they had their heads exposed while having put on the very same military clothing as the soldiers. And lastly, one last person also stood on the field. He was the very reason why this welcoming was taking place. He was none other than the boy with an eye-catching tail - Jogrin.

"Grand Commander Kapel, soldiers and Knights! We welcome you all to our neighborhood!" The Association's chairman stepped forward and passionately greeted them as the group led by Kapel descended from the stairs of the flying vehicle that'd just landed.

"Thank you for coming to receive us. I hope it is not troubling all of you." Kapel politely returned his greeting with gratitude.

"Not at all. We should be the ones thanking you for spending your valuable time for our sake."

'What's with all the needless courtesy... This is annoying.' Jogrin thought to himself as he begrudgingly waited for the conversation to actually move forward, even though only three mere sentence had been exchanged. At the same time, he scouted the group of military men in front of him. It was indeed as Kapel said, everyone from Proxer's team was here, including the brown-haired, purple-eyed soldier who was the first to flee from confronting Jogrin right before the besiege, leading to many others doing the same. On the other hand, he saw some new faces among the group.

"Are those the Royal Knights?" Yearning to confirm his hypothesis, Jogrin drew his face closer to Proxer's ear and asked.

"Oh, yeah... You've never seen them without their helmet, right? They're the Second Order of the Royal Knights, the very same ones who escorted us back in the base. The one with the long hair is Captain Ryov."

"Quite the unique hair he has." Jogrin commented on Captain Ryov's hairstyle without mincing his words. Fortunately, no one other than Proxer heard it, so he silenced Jogrin by putting his finger on his own lips as he looked at Jogrin.

Jogrin glanced at the half-panicking Proxer and ignored him. He continued to scout the group, but not for long, since Kapel, along with Captain Ryov came over to him, seemingly having something in mind.

"Jogrin. We meet again." Kapel greeted Jogrin in a rather peculiar way, not that Jogrin cared about that though.

"Greetings... I am Ryov, the captain of the Second Order of the Royal Knights. It's a pleasure to finally meet you without a helmet." Ryov remarked nervously.

"Hi." Jogrin curtly replied, which flabbergasted both Kapel and Ryov, while Proxer let out a deep sigh.

"... Right then... I guess I should go and discuss... some further arrangements with my subordinates..." As if trying to escape from the awkwardness, Ryov announced so and he turned his body, leaving Kapel, Proxer and Jogrin behind. The three of them saw Ryov off before Kapel turned back to glare at Jogrin.

The silence between the three of them remained until Ryov, along with the rest of the Knights and the people from the neighborhood left for their destination. As for the soldiers, since Ryov didn't wish to infringe on Kapel's authority, he had no option but to leave them behind as well. The soldiers could do nothing but quietly wait for further instructions while on tenterhooks.

'What does he want now?' Jogrin thought while holding back from expressing his impatience.

"Um... I think it's about time we set out...?" Finding the awkwardness and tension insufferable, Proxer broke the silence.

"Indeed. We should set up our camps as early as possible, lest it be too dark. Soldiers!" Kapel concurred with Proxer and led the other two as well as the soldiers to their destination. However, after just a few steps, Kapel stopped and turned to glare at Jogrin while looking all solemn. "Jogrin. Come with me and wait until I finish setting up the camp. Then, You will answer some questions I have for you." He didn't even give Jogrin the option to refuse and ordered him. Kapel turned to the closest soldier. "Remind all soldiers and Knights not to come closer while I talk with him."

The soldier nodded and walked off. Meanwhile, Jogrin simply remained taciturn, giving his acquiescence.

...

At another grassland not much inferior to the previous one in terms of greenness and area, numerous tents have been installed, while the smell of sweat emanated around the field. In the midst of the group of men who were wiping their sweat off regularly, Jogrin waited for Kapel to finish up his tent. Or rather, it was one of the utility tents, where it would be used for bladder and showering. Inside the tent were stalls with a portal device installed in each of them, and their purpose was to transfer wastes as well as dirty water to their "designated places". Jogrin was certainly impressed by such "unique" uses of such advanced technology.

Nonetheless, it wasn't the time to dwell on how the portal devices were being utilized, instead there was something that he had to be more concerned about: any inquisitions Kapel had for him. Needless to say, they definitely are related to the incidents that'd taken place thus far, but the exact contents were unclear to Jogrin. From his perspective, Kapel is an intelligent man who was capable of concocting plans a lot better than Proxer, possibly even himself. Of course, having only met him for a short time, it was difficult to draw any solid conclusions just yet. Bur one thing's for sure: unlike others who'd accepted his presence strangely briefly after meeting him, Kapel's being on his guard was conspicuous, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to have this operation executed otherwise.

Just as Jogrin was wandering in his mind's recesses, Kapel came out of the utility tent looking slightly tattered. Despite that, he wasn't the least bit exhausted.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting, Jogrin. Now, come with me." Even though he'd antagonized Jogrin, he was still being courteous towards him, but again, he didn't give Jogrin any options, so Jogrin simply followed behind.

"I am certain that you are aware of the reason why I had led to here, and what I want to ask about. You are smart after all."

Kapel and Jogrin were in an area where the tents were still within sight, albeit one could still consider it secluded. Having made sure no one else was within hearing range, Kapel halted his stride and asked.

"I'm listening." Without showing any change in his usual countenance, Jogrin responded.

"Then... the incident at the military hospital. What had happened exactly?"

"How much do you know already?"

"It does not matter. What I am asking is the story from start to finish."

"As Proxer was querying me, my power was activated without my knowledge, so he warned every person in the hospital to evacuate, and prepared weapons to fight against me. As I got out of the hospital to plead them to stop that destructive behavior, Proxer seemed to have been reminded of something, and switched to my side in no time. He tried to call off the assault but to no avail..."

Jogrin paused. Kapel stared at him dubiously and urged him to speak on.

"Why did you stop? Continue." He didn't relent at all towards the victim of the besiege who could've been traumatized by said incident.

"I'm sure how I should word this, since I believe, to you, this is nothing but a farce I'm making up to be deceitful."

"Just tell me what you know."

"Then, I'll be completely honest with you."

"Honest? While it is how I wish you would be, are you sure about that?"

"It's better to tell the truth instead of making up lies, especially toward someone like you. If I told lies, sooner or later, you'll find out, and it'll come back to bite my tail in the end. Moreover, it's likely that you already knew the details of the bombardment, and you're just testing me. Of course, having said all that, my credibility in your book wouldn't raise at all, even if what I'm going to say has absolute authenticity, but this is something you must know, so this isn't about me trying to win you over. Just know that this is something that's bizarre, even to me."

"I see. And what is it you need to inform me of?" Kapel put all of his focus on what Jogrin was about to tell him.

'Now that I've said all that, he shouldn't too readily reject what I'll be telling him.'

""Mind tampering". It was what served as the catalyst of the bombardment."

"Elaborate."

"An ability capable of intensifying emotions to point of reaching the extremes, or that's how I interpret it."

"This sounds like a convenient excuse for your wrongdoings."

"Even though what I said is indeed true, I can't argue with you there."

"If you insist on being truthful, tell me: how would you know it's an ability's interference?"

"Because I could sense their emotions with my "emotional perception". As the soldiers were panicking and Proxer was attempting to calm them down, I sensed an abrupt surge in their fear, simultaneously, to the point that it'd taken over their actions as they were acting impulsively."

"This sounds hardly believable. It also sounds as if you were blatantly slandering us about our discipline. Our soldiers have been trained to never act on impulse. They would only take extreme measures if their commander determined the situation dire enough."

"I don't mean to insult you, but what I said what indeed the fact. Besides, they weren't on their right mind since, like I said, their minds were being tampered with. Their fear had been amplified which clouded their judgement. That was why they fired despite Proxer's attempts to dissuade them. The side effect of this ability was the victim's memory loss of when they were under its effects."

"I am reserved about the authenticity of this statement. I will have to dwell on this more... However, I know one thing was certain: you protected Proxer during the incident, and that was not any scheme of yours... You simply wanted to do so."

"He just seemed to have a lot on his plate already. I don't want him to rue his decision to evacuate back then, since the soldiers would brood over having hurt him which in turn would incur great pain on Proxer. If I just took all the hits and recovered from them, there would be zero casualties, and I thought it would soothe the soldiers at least a little, but it wasn't effective. Thus, I went the extra mile and prostrated after the firings, but still to no avail. After some deductions, I hypothesized that they were stuck in a conundrum, one where they didn't know what had actually happened, or whether the damage was incurred by themselves or me, that was also when I noticed Proxer was in urgent need of treatment, so instead of calming them down, I used another approach, and gave them some "encouragement", since they cared about their commander so much."

"What did you do?"

"I kicked him in the gut to distance myself from him, and to trigger the soldiers, which worked just as calculated. They rushed in without second thought and restrained me, while most of them used the portal to get Proxer to another hospital. I was taken to somewhere so that they could behead me, which proved futile, since my spine can't be cut through."

"Why would you think a method such as that would work?"

"Past experiences. I was immediately assaulted the moment others thought that I was up to no good back on my home planet."

"... That is..."

"Yes, after spending some time on this planet, I found that you Zutans are much less aggressive than Darkians. It's unknown why my method worked back there, but for now I can assume that it was another side effect of "mind tampering", because looking at them now, I'm certain that the hostility within them is gone."

"You could tell due to your "emotional perception"?"

"I turned it off on Proxer behest, but the differences in them between then and now are easily noticeable."

"That makes sense..." Kapel, flummoxed as he was, managed to keep his cool.

"There was another problem I'd found out as they were incessantly stabbing my neck with a sword: there was distrust towards Proxer emerging from the soldiers. That was when Proxer hobbled over to us. I took this opportunity to resolve it. I insinuated him to stab me himself, to show that he was on the same boat as them and regain their trust..."

"And that was when I arrived."

"Right."

Jogrin remembered how stern and draconian Kapel was when he first met him. Shortly after, he even tested Kapel's knowledge on whether he was aware of something supernatural occurring during the besiege.

"As for what you had done in that tunnel while we were on the way to rendezvous with the Knights, pretending to be in pain, acting cold towards Proxer..."

"While the latter was to alleviate any suspicion of him being in cahoots with me, the former wasn't."

"What do you mean?"

"As I told you just you, I possess "emotional perception". At that time, I haven't figured out how to turn it off, so the tension was really getting to me, and having perceived that the soldiers' mental states were returning to normal, simultaneously, I decided to pretend to be in severe pain, so they can derive joy from "being able to harm the thing they feared", and have the tensions abate, but to my surprise, this appealed to their empathy instead. Well, I know you still don't believe in all that mind and emotion abilities, so I guess that's that."

"Your schemes... and the motives behind them certainly did catch me off guard... Not to mention, you even had the audacity and challenge my authority..."

"As I've said back then..."

"I remember what you spoke of, but let us not dwell on that. I acted harshly towards you due to the fact I had the preconception that you were the one behind the destruction, but of course, after much contemplating, I believe there was more to it than what met the eye... However, the explanation you gave just is not convincing enough."

"Really? You seemed to have already known that what happened wasn't a natural course of events, that was why you vehemently stopped me as I was about to unravel the truth, wasn't it?"

"That was simply because the soldiers' mental states were already at rock bottom, I could not allow and possibility of any triggers that could cause the already-grim circumstance to further deteriorate, especially after what they had experienced."

"Huh, so you do know about the details of the bombardment."

" You little!" Agitated by having been one-upped by Jogrin again, Kapel was on the verge of lashing out, only to hold it in. "I did not mention any specific details, please do not jump to conclusions."

"Your reaction gave it away. Sorry, it wasn't my intention to test you."

"... It is fine... In any case, I can somewhat understand the general picture of what had taken place, though there are also more unknown variables now... Furthermore, You protected Proxer's honor, albeit with unconventional methods..."

"He still ruined it in the end, by saying that he'd be taking me in."

"Despite that, I should thank you."

"Aren't you worried that that was actually part of a ruse of mine?"

"That is the reason I am here."

"Right... Do you have any more you want to ask?"

"Naytia had already informed me of everything that had taken place since you arrived in that park, but I would still like to inquire further... But it appears that you have some questions of your own, so perhaps I shall pass the baton to you. Before that, I wish to ask one last question." Having noticed Jogrin being poised for a while now, Kapel discerned that Jogrin also had something in mind, and claimed that he just had one more query.

"You're right about that... and about the last question?"

"Did Proxer... tell you about about his past?"

"Yes, the incident with "Telestrophe". He also mentioned that I reminded him of an old friend of his, Darotr."

"I see... That incident..."

"Made him who he is today. He told me from start to finish, in detail to boot."

"That is surprising. He had never openly talked about that part of his past before... Did he speak of anything else? Such as further into the past?"

"No. There's more to his past?" Jogrin's curiosity was piqued by what Kapel mentioned.

"If he has not told you, I suppose I should not talk about it without his consent. Now then, please ask away."

"Alright."

...

"Papa, is Grandpa here yet?" Suzannia, with a look of anticipation, gazed up at Proxer who'd just returned home.

"Oh hey, Suzannia. Yeah, he's here, but he has some business with Jogrin, so he won't be coming in just yet." Proxer patted Suzannia's head as he smiled genially.

"Hmm? Has Grandpa become friends with Jogrin already?"

"... Not exactly, but I'm sure they will be friends with each other soon."

"Really? Hurray!" Suzannia threw her hands up in the air as she jumped in excitement.

"Dad's here? I should go meet him. Honestly, I don't think him and Jogrin mix well..." Naytia chimed in when she heard Kapel'd arrived.

"But Papa said they'll become friends soon!" Suzannia pouted.

"Maybe, but Mama's gotta check on them, to make sure they're actually doing fine."

"Then I'll come too!"

"You will? But I've told Grandpa that Suzannia's become a really good girl because she's been studying hard for the past 4 days, but Grandpa said that he doesn't believe me! What should I do?"

"Ahh! I need to show him I'm a good girl! Then I need to let him see I'm really studying hard! But I still wanna see him..."

"I'll bring him back as soon as he's done talking with Jogrin, so be a good girl until then, promise?"

"OK! I promise!" With that, Suzannia rushed upstairs gleefully.

"My word... You sure know how to convince her..." Proxer, with a countenance of resignation, poked fun at Naytia.

"Jogrin's way better at this than I am." Naytia replied with a shrug of resignation. "Anyway, I'll go see how they're doing."

She strode out of the door and gate calmly, while Proxer felt uneasy about the conversation between Kapel and Jogrin.