"Your shoulder ..." he began again but swallowed the rest of his words when he noticed Erwin's furrowed eyebrows and decided it was probably better to remain silent.

Contrary to his expectations, however, Erwin's features softened as he said something after all. "The wound is healing well. It wasn't severe. I'm fine."

Levi fell silent, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you. I'm just still trying to process what happened today and function simultaneously."

"I understand." Levi avoided his gaze. He suddenly felt so out of place, more like a nuisance than a real help.

Surprised, he looked up as Erwin suddenly stretched his arm out the window and knocked on the carriage's roof to signal the driver to stop.

As soon as the carriage came to a halt, he stood up and stretched his entire upper body out of the window to speak to the man on the carriage seat.

Levi remained silently in his seat. Apparently, Erwin had now thought of another appointment, and he waited patiently until the carriage started moving again while Erwin sat back down in his seat.

"I want to go somewhere else," he said, as Levi had already expected. "I'd like to stop by and see Alice and her father. I had asked them to improve the swords' material and construction, and I want to take another look. Then we're through for the day."

"Alice was the woman you met in Trost, wasn't she?"

Erwin nodded curtly.

"I thought you couldn't stand her father."

"Sometimes, you have to compromise."

Levi said no more and looked out the window, remembering all too well the moment when Erwin had suddenly appeared drunk in his room and had not precisely spoken favorably of the man with whose daughter he had had a date. But apparently, in contrast, she had made such a good impression that he wanted to see her again.

"After that, we could stop somewhere else," he heard Erwin's words in passing.

But he did not grasp their meaning, for his thoughts were elsewhere.

"Levi?"

Levi looked up and nodded, though he didn't even remember what Erwin had said in the first place.

Erwin then rolled up the papers he had been holding all this time and put them in the pockets of his belt. "I'm almost through for the day and have been up since sunrise. I don't want to go back to quarters yet because they'll intercept me right back. Just a short break. I don't want to linger here all day."

Before speaking the words, the carriage stopped in one of the squares among quite a few other carriages.

Again, Levi noticed the crowds that surrounded them. Was it really such a good idea to venture into this tumult after the last events?

However, without waiting for Levi's reaction, Erwin already opened the door and stepped out of the carriage.

Again, the music of the street musicians Levi had seen on the way here reached his ears as he unceremoniously followed Erwin and stepped out of the carriage as well.

Immediately he noticed a group of young ladies who put their heads together and began whispering directly among themselves as Erwin, who stood out with his tall stature, walked past them unperturbed.

Levi rolled his eyes and couldn't help but sigh. This giant really had all the attention on him right away.

And even as Erwin disappeared around the next corner and the ladies' glances followed him, Levi knew that this would be another long day.

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