Raph had a gamble that he wanted to take. From how he looked at Enjar yesterday, he thought that Enjar was like a man that wanted to be a hero, a man that pursued righteousness to help those who needed help. He had preached to them about fighting the evil or whatever it was, from his mannerism, attitudes, talks, to his actions, all of it had the conclusion that Enjar had a heart that wanted to be someone who could help the others.
But it was also a thing that could be taken advantage of easily. Raph thought that Enjar was also a kind of pushover that would listen to his demands, saying that war is a hard thing to do, they would die and their families would then be saddened about it. They were just some peasants in the village that needed protection, a weak group of people that would be better off to be sideliners than to put themselves into danger right?
By that, Enjar would truly feel guilty and fall into the trap that Raph had prepared to do. A guilty trip, might one say. By that, then he would also be free of the responsibility of fighting against the gang and he would be safe then. He knew that the real gang had a power that surpassed the previous gang that occupied this Wheatfield Village. That was why he did not want to put himself into a pit where the outcome was not concluded. He would be easily getting himself killed if he made a stupid mistake, so he tried to do what he thought was right.
Raph had always used his wittiness and fast understanding. Because of that, he was able to become a man that could be trusted by the gang, and lived a better life than the others. It was their own fault right, for not trying to adapt to the situation? They too should have adapted to the situation,
Nah, he thought that it was absolutely better that he was the only one who thought that way. Because if it was like that, then the chance was only for him to take! There would be no one that would compete with him to take the position of the leader.
Lumberis was not a progressive person, he thought. That was why the gang preferred him to be the representative than Lumberis. The gang saw that Raph was easy to control, and he obeyed the gang’s rules and words like a chicken eating the grains. And by that attitude, he could live off better than most of the villagers. He got a better sale than the others, he could wear better clothes, eat better foods, his home was bigger than the others, from all aspects he was like an example of a man that succeeded in life.
There were many scenarios that he had in his mind. For example, the Enjar would be killed by the gang and Raph would then take as a man that helped the gang by things that he would prepare, or Enjar would be able to obliterate the gang all by himself which would later on free the gang from the village without putting him into the danger at all, or they were in an even situations and hence he would then choose the better ones to side, many what ifs situations had been pictured inside of Raph’s mind.
He just wanted to be off from the danger, could he not hope for that? Enjar had power to help them, so he should be helping them right? He was just a weakling that did not have power, so he should just be let off the hook and spared from the life and death situations right?
Little did he know, the man in front of him was a man that had been in politics for far longer than he had thought, a man that was feared, the apprehension that stemmed in every big shots’ hearts and minds. He had participated in a bigger, grander scale of politics and suchs, that this kind of thing was just a walk in the park for him. As if Enjar could read what Raph had thought inside of his mind.
And this was called a gamble, because if he failed and got found out, then Enjar’s wrath would be a natural phenomenon that would happen. Looking at how things were going, it was pretty easy to tell whether Raph succeeded or not.
Lumberis looked at Raph as if he was looking at a fool. Raph was literally playing with fire, he thought! He truly did not know the better words to say to the man in front of him, as if Enjar was some kind of a naive man. Lumberis was speechless when he heard what Raph said before, and he got even more speechless when he saw Enjar summoned the fire all of a sudden.
“Mr. Enjar! Please have mercy on us!” Lumberis exclaimed while putting up two of his arms in the air, giving a yielding gesture to the man in front of them. They did not know what kind of Enjar truly was, what kind of capacity that he had, and to what extent his background had. If they dared to make a stupid mistake, then being killed was just a small thing that they would suffer the consequences from.
The tense situation made the people’s hearts skip a beat. They never thought that Enjar would suddenly become very. But they could somehow understand how Enjar was angry. He had the right and power to be angry from whatever small mistake that the villagers would make right? After all, he could literally defeat the gang that had controlled this village for months.
All of them became restless and some even tried to run away from the place. Some cried in alarm predicting for what would be happening after this. If they got the impact o Enjar’s wrath, hurt by the process when they did not even do anything wrong, surely the injustice would bring them to the death right?
Enjar’s eyes were fierce, he looked like he was like a raging volcano that was about to erupt, only a small trigger could literally make the volcano throw out the lava and hot cloud.
The flame was put out, replaced by a fierce looking spear that appeared from the hand where the flame flared just now.
“Are you trying to lecture me or something?” Enjar said to Raph who had a mix of awkward and ugly expressions.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Not knowing how the poor live?
“Even you yourself know that you are being taken advantage of, and now you want to be a coward and let those people enslave you like that?”
“What is this? Is this the mentality of you people that I want to save?
“Hahahahah! If that’s the case, then so be it.”
“Choose.” Enjar said with a stern voice.
Enjar spun the spear for a little bit, before pointing the spear to a spot. He looked at all of the people in front of him, with narrowed brows still intact on his face.
“You, who don’t want to participate in this fight, get off the left side of mine. And those who wanted to participate with me to fight against the gang, go to the right side of mine. I freaking dare you to take the chance right here, right now.” Enjar said firmly. He especially looked at Raph with a more narrowed eyes. But instead of having an angry mouth, his mouth formed a smile. A weird smile to be exact. The smile that put the onlookers creep out their backs.
Raph gulped some salive when he saw how Enjar looked at him like that. He knew that he truly made a mistake in his talking. It seemed like he was playing with the tail of a lion, not knowing the danger that lay from his own action. His assumption of the man in front of him was totally off the chart, he did not know what to say.
He thought that Enjar was just a man who wanted to be a wanna be hero or something like that. This might also be a conspiracy by the higher ups of the kingdom to rally a group of peasants so that they could have bigger people to support or faction or some sort, his thoughts were running like a train. Either it was from nervousness, or it was just a natural phenomenon when one was put in such a situation.
