"Special, like?"
Sasha obviously didn't understand.
"It's like when someone cares for you and puts you above themselves and their needs." Sasha's mother, finishing up the vegetables, after washing her hands, gave a flick to Sasha's head, leaving a wetness on her hairs. Sasha pouted in protest, but then—
"Hmm..." She tried to understand what her mother meant by that for a few seconds, and then spoke, "Like you two gave the best meat to me!"
That's the best answer the head of a little girl can think of at that moment. Clear excitement and the urge to get praise were visible in her eyes, like finally she grasped the thing that they were trying to explain.
"Yes, like that. But the type of love needed for marriage is different than ours."
"How?" Sasha asked, tilting her head, not understanding what she meant. Like, caring is caring; how can caring for someone also be different?
"You will understand that in the future." Her father, with a heavy and deep breath, picked Sasha up onto his shoulders, cutting off her questions. "Didn't you want to see what I got in the hunt today?" he asked.
Sasha also forgot the questions and, putting them aside, she grabbed his head as he moved forward. At the gate, he squatted down so Sasha's head wouldn't get bumped into the door frame.
At that time, Sasha didn't think much of that, but now she started to understand what her parents meant by saying she will understand all that in the future. Now that she is understanding, she can't help but feel a little embarrassed.
Who in their right mind talks about love and marriage to their daughter? she said in a muffled voice while pressing her face into the pillow, which made the muffled words even more incomprehensible. She knows that what they said was to a little her, and how could they have guessed that she will remember everything until now?
"Sasha, are you awake? Did you just say something?" the other girl on the top bunk bed said, looking at her over the edge.
But Sasha, remembering her plan to sneak out, said nothing, pretending to be asleep. She thought of pretending to snort while sleeping, but acting is something not for her. The other girl, not getting any reply, thought that she was asleep and also got back onto her pillow, thinking she must be sleep-talking or something.
Almost three hours had passed; it's the middle of the night. Today the moon is high, spreading silver on the ground.
Sasha opened her eyes. Due to closing them so long, her pupils had expanded, enhancing her night vision. With quiet steps, she came to Historia's bed and gently shook her. "Krista, wake up. Didn't you agree to go? Come on, wake up already." Her voice was low so no one else could hear it.
Krista, with trembling eyelids, opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep while waiting. Remembering that they had agreed with Eren to see the beautiful scene he had mentioned, she also got out of her bed. With quiet steps, both reached the door. The door wasn't locked. With careful hands, they opened the door and then closed it with the same caution.
But they didn't know that someone else was also awake: Annie and Ymir.
Annie woke up when she felt the movements on the floor; as a Marley-trained soldier, vigilance had become second nature to her. While Ymir, she just didn't fall asleep.
Annie, when she noticed it's Krista and Sasha, just thought they were just sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night to get some food. She had noticed all the habits of the girls here; while among them, Sasha has a large appetite, and Krista is just a naive fool with above-mediocre abilities. She didn't pay much attention to them and, laying down, closed her eyes.
But unlike Annie, Ymir didn't lay back down. She decided to follow, curious about what these girls are going to do in the middle of the night. Annie noticed Ymir also sneaking out but didn't give much attention to her. Ymir doesn't have any particular talent anyway.
At the boys' quarters, Eren also had sneaked out, but unlike Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt don't have the same vigilance.
Both groups met at the side edge of the training camp. The path inside leads directly to the hill crest that he knows from his memories.
"Let's go. Today is also the full moon, too; the view from there will look even more breathtaking today."
Keith Shadis, who was looking at the trio from the window, his hairless eyebrows twitched. This Eren Yeager has some gall. Sneaking out at night on the second day, and on top of that, taking two girls from the female quarters with him, too. Did he take the rules of the camp too lightly? In all his life, Keith had never seen someone daring like him, taking female cadets from the corps on the second day. Grisha, if he weren't your son, I would have just let him know my hair didn't fall off on its own.
On the other hand, the trio had started to walk the path up. After a short walk, they reached the crest of the hill. From there, you can see the small pond and the moon looking like a pillar of light inside the water, and at some distance, the river, which looks like a silver line on the ground. And the sweet and fresh wind moving the leaves of the trees is making the whole scene even more breathtaking.
He wasn't lying when he said that the scene would be breathtaking; it is breathtaking, Krista thought as her eyes reflected the image of the lake.
Sasha, on the other hand, wasn't interested much in the scene's beauty. Her eyes were looking at the green pupils of Eren; his eyes seemed even deeper than the lake in front of them. She had seen many beautiful natural scenes; the reason she agreed to come is because of Eren. If someone asked whom she liked the most after food, she would say Eren without any hesitation.
They all sat there and just looked at the moon.
continue—