Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 70 - Year 854

"By the way..." asked Sasha at one point, looking curious, "Why do you have dark skin?"

Lara was indeed very intrigued as well. There was no one inside the Walls with a skin color like Onyankopon's. It was an incredibly beautiful shady, shiny, and darky brown color, looking like it was made straight from the soil of the earth. Onyankopon boldly placed his hand on his chin.

"Because the Creator thought the world would be more interesting if we were different from each other," he replied.

Lara gazed at him with a gleam in her eyes, and felt her heart swell with emotion, just as everyone else also looked perplexed. Armin was beside her, as impressed as she was.

"And that's how you were born too, subjects of Ymir," continued Onyankopon. "We exist because we were wanted by Someone."

"But then..." said Armin, astonished at his words, "Who is our Creator?!"

"The One who gave the power to Ymir, your ancestor," Onyankopon then raised his arms in the air, "It's God!"

Right away, practically everyone turned to Lara. Onyankopon was surprised by the soldiers' reaction. It was no secret that she was one of the most spiritual people in the group and, at least once in their lives, they all had already caught her saying a prayer in her laboratory, or muttering something as she looked up to the sky.

Lara was startled at seeing that all eyes in the room were on her and blushed a little. She looked at the corner of the room and saw that Hange and Levi were gazing at her with a twinkle in their eye and she dared say, with a bold smile as well. But what surprised Lara was that Armin was also looking at her with a kind smile. Of all the people in there, Levi and Hange were the ones who had witnessed their daughter's spiritual behavior the most. However, Lara did not know it, but Armin was the third person who had also witnessed this side of her the most. He just never mentioned it to her, fearing he was disturbing her.

Lara felt a warmth in her heart for finding someone with a faith similar to hers and couldn't help but smile, as she exclaimed:

"I knew it!"

Starting with Hange, little by little, everyone also started chuckling and to Lara's surprise, Onyankopon approached her and ruffled her hair, giving her a very heartwarming smile. From that day on, he became a very close friend of her family, with the right to several lunches at their home on Sundays. Lara thought that if there was any possibility of having another uncle besides Erwin, this person would definitely be Onyankopon.

Hange practically adopted him. Every time he visited her house on the weekends, she and Lara would bombard the poor fella with questions about the technologies of the outside world. With all patience and calm, Onyankopon would answer them everything: about how they had planes, airships, cars, huge ships, and even different kinds of foods. One of the things that Lara wanted to try the most was something called "ice cream", which was a flavored frozen dough.

As Levi served Hange, Lara, and Onyankopon some tea on the porch, he listened to all with attention and was pretty thrilled when he discovered that where Onyankopon had come from, people had running water and many people had access to electricity. He imagined how this could make cleaning and bathing much easier. Levi sympathized with Onyankopon, for they had very similar tastes in teas, which led them to long conversations about different blends, while Hange and Lara watched them with boredom.

Pulling her out of her thoughts, Lara got startled to see Armin squirming in his chair. He must have been having a very restless sleep and she felt her heart sink. Looking at his tense expression, Lara couldn't help but think about her parents and how she wished they were there with her now, especially Hange, for whom, in the last few months, Lara had begun to nurture a great sense of care and protection.