Next day when Eren woke up, there was a commotion at the camp; one trainee had gone missing last night.
When he came out, he knew better than anyone who had gone missing, but he still asked, feigning confusion. The boy next to him told him a girl trainee named Ymir had gone missing. In the training camps, it's not uncommon that boys and girls run away after knowing that they are not fit for this.
But the thing was, Ymir, even if she ran off, she didn't even take a single belonging of her own. When the investigation happened, they didn't find anything, and there wasn't anything valuable in her belongings, so the case was closed on the same day, saying she had run away.
In the midst of that, Annie was looking at Historia and Sasha, but not finding any suspicious action and expression on their faces, she stopped looking.
But Mikasa and Armin were looking at Eren; they knew the disappearance of Ymir must have had to do with Eren. But Eren, at all that time, had his usual face; not a ripple of strangeness can be seen on his face. For a moment, Mikasa also doubted; maybe Ymir's disappearance has nothing to do with him.
But Armin didn't think so, if anything he is sure Eren is behind this, and he felt a little worried for Annie. Armin looked at her, standing there alone, At the same time, Annie also looked at him. When their eyes met, she didn't divert her gaze. Armin, also a little dazed, forgot to look away.
Mikasa kicked his butt, then he came to his senses and, with a crimson hue on his cheeks, he lowered his head and started to walk away.
Annie, to the end, didn't even blink much, but she noticed that Armin was looking at her with some worry. Did he notice something about her? But then she shook her head. No, he wasn't worrying from me, but was worrying for me. Thinking that, a strange feeling—just a bit, but it was there—rose in her heart. She also walked away.
Sigh, what Bertholdt would think—that what he hadn't managed to do in years, Armin's subconscious actions had done it in days. They managed to vibrate the strings in her heart, even if so little that you need a microphone to hear it, but it does ring.
Sigh, simps have no good end. Although girls like reserved men more, it doesn't mean they can read minds or something; if you can't say it, they don't get dreams about what you feel for them.
Then training continued as usual. When training ended, Shadis called them to his cabin: Eren, Sasha, and Historia. They all understood that they had been discovered. Sasha and Historia were only worried about that, while Eren was also worried about the Ymir incident. Did someone else also follow them? Did they see the events of last night? In any case, he was ready to grasp Historia and run away; he shouldn't have given in to his greed, now things had become a little difficult.
But he was just overthinking. Shadis didn't know anything at all. The reason he called him is just to give him a warning about last night. In any case, even if Ymir had run away or something happened to her, he mostly believes she had run away, and he himself wants more people to run away; the better, he don't want any pointless deaths.
"You three, you know your mistake."
The standard military way to punish the soldiers—in this way, soldiers in a panic even admit the mistakes that the other person don't know about, and for that exact reason, they ask them their mistakes like that, so in panic they will spit out all the deeds they had done.
Although Eren didn't fall for the trick, Historia and Sasha had. Maybe Shadis also learned about the act of her giving bread to Sasha, Historia thought. Did he learn that I stole another potato today? Well, Sasha didn't think much; for her, tomorrow was tomorrow and today is today.
Historia opened her mouth to say her mistakes, but Eren, standing in the middle, grasped both Sasha's and Historia's hands and shook his head.
"What do you think you are doing, Eren Yeager?" Shadis said, looking at them with a deadpan look. Is he reading the rotten romance books from the capital? And how did those things get into my camp? I need to conduct a thorough search in the camp.
Eren, not being intimidated one bit, took a step forward. "It's all my fault, sir. I am solely responsible for the mistakes we made. I instigated these two. It was all my fault."
He knew Shadis is fishing for them, so he can't let the girls talk. Running from the punishment is inevitable today, and if the girls told him about the other stuff, his punishment would be even more harsh. Although his action of taking the blame on himself would not prevent Shadis from giving punishment to them, it will create a good impression on him that he is standing up for his comrades. In new soldiers in the military, generally, if the higher officer is not an asshole, he would lighten the punishment five or ten percent.
Why is this kid not following the order? Didn't I say, "Do you admit the mistake?" He should have started to tell all his mistakes by now, but he just took all the responsibility on his head and didn't say a thing about his mistakes. Grisha, my old friend, he is really your son, but a little more cunning and tilted towards the opposite sex. But he has the sense of responsibility. Did your and your wife's deaths make him like that? Sigh. Shadis sighed in his mind.
But there was one thing he was incorrect about: Grisha Yeager was also not some simple character. If he were, then there were many suitors for Carla; it wasn't his chance. Even if he saved the town, it wouldn't be his chance if he didn't know how to talk. Carla was famous in the town for her exceptional beauty and gentle character; who knows how many drunkards were born on the news of her wedding.
From the start, he didn't want to give too harsh a punishment to Eren, so he stopped his fishing tactic and said directly, "Your mistake is to sneak out at night and disrupting the rules of the quarters." In a normal case, he always ignores events like that, but he took two of the best girls of the camp with him—on top of that, both are beauties. Didn't he think about how a single dog like him will feel? Although he would never admit that.
"Yes, sir!" he said in a high military voice.
"Hands forward, Yeager," Shadis said and took out his cane from the side.
Looking at the slim cane, Eren didn't panic; on the contrary, he took a breath of relief. This cane is nothing compared to the punishment that his instructor on Earth put him through; it's just child's play. So he extended his hands. Well, it was really for a twelve-year-old child; although Shadis is strict, he just wants to check the children's will and, if possible, make them quit this path of bloodshed.
Seeing Eren put both hands forward, he raised his hand high. He is really serious, Eren thought. Hands have the most nerves to do delicate work, but also because of that, they also feel much pain when hit. So hitting on the hand is a high-pain and less-damage thing. Although the pain will be nothing to him, he needs to act a little to not make Shadis a sadist. So, he closed his eyes tight.
Just when Shadis was about to strike the cane down—but unlike the pain he expected, it wasn't the cane that landed on his palms. Eren felt something soft.
On his hands, full of calluses, there was someone else's hand resting; it had soft skin, but not delicate. Soon, the same sensation came from the other palm.
continue—