Coming for your heart

Chapter 85

He shook his head and they made a disappointed noise.

"It's a shame. I would have loved to talk with him."

Levi frowned and took a few steps through the snow, not liking how the cold was freezing his ass out here.

"Why?"

Their eyes were glowing with excitement and their special way to show interest in the unique objects and topics of the world.

"Next to the king he is the only one who knows what happened." They cleared their throat. "You know...before the Second Prince disappeared."

"He was a brat just like all the other ones his age.", Levi murmured. "Probably had a stick up his ass and as arrogant as his father." He knew those words to be wrong as soon as he tasted them on his tongue. Hanji also shook their head.

"There was always something fishy about that night..." Levi listened up and watched them kneel down again to caress Izzy's ears. Their eyes were staring at nothing, their voice pensive and quiet. "The king declared in a private meeting of his highest ranking generals that he sent his son away for his own safety. But that night he sent almost all guards out to search for him."

Levi narrowed his eyes, the cold around him no longer important.

"Why would he send out so many people for someone who had been sent away by himself?"

"You can't really think that that bastard's cruelty ended there."

Levi already knew that the story the king had spilled didn't hold an ounce of truth about what happened back then. He had seen the walls painted in red, the room screaming at him to see, to understand.

So why had he been sent there to find hints about the prince's whereabouts? Was the king that sure of his loyalty to the crown that he didn't care what Levi saw or knew?

Then he realized what Hanji had just told him and his ears perked up.

"Hanji, why do you know what happened all those years ago? It must have been...what? Ten years?"

"I've lost track of time.", they said. "I was a recruit back then, barely a week in. I didn't know my way around yet and I had seen neither the Crown Prince nor his brother." They shrugged their shoulders. "A week later he told Eldia's people that the Second Prince died of an awful disease that also took Queen Carla's life."

"Why have you never mentioned either of them to me or Erwin?"

"Erwin had been gone from the palace for more than ten years back then. He had been moved to some battlefield to investigate something I wasn't meant to ask about."

Levi couldn't help himself but snort at that.

"When have you ever not asked some of your shitty questions when there was a mystery to unravel?"

Hanji sighed and brushed a hand through the messy bun they had tied their hair into.

"It's not that easy, Levi."

Levi knew that they wouldn't talk any more about the matter so he didn't try and push and nodded them goodbye. It was time for him to go. Hanji had a strange look on her face when he left her behind, Izzy closely behind him.

- - -

He had expected Faris to show at least a hint of insecurity when he arrived at the library, carefully closing the doors behind himself. But there was nothing but calm distrust visible in the young man who was standing next to a window, arms crossed.