IMMORTALS • Levi Ackerman

chapter eleven

011: good job, then

The ride back to the old headquarters of the Recon Corps was a bit bumpy. The old castle was situated miles away from the walls. It dated back to the old ambitious days, when the Corps was still starting to form. Quite frankly, I didn't make it to that time, but I had a few visits back, specially when Erwin would send me to check the state of the place despite not using it.

Olou was once again, spluttering non-sense towards the kid, Eren. Naturally, my eyes rolled upwards at these, listening to all the bullshit he was spouting about the castle, up until he bit his tongue, his horse tripping over a big stone.

He cursed, making the rest of us, except Levi laugh. I moved forward, chuckling lightly. I reached inside my pocket, holding out the usual white handkerchief I had come a habit to always bring, maybe because of the Captain himself, since the bastard's a clean freak.

"It's a fucking castle, Olou, we get it" I said as he accepted the clean cloth, wiping it over his mouth with a gruff.

As we reached our destination, I noticed how disheveled the castle has been. Levi ordered Eren to take care of the horses as the rest of us took a moment to breath. Eld and Gunther were exploring the corners of the castle as Olou, Petra and I settled down for a bit. I tended to Olou's little injury for a short while before letting him be.

He was bragging a thing or two to Petra, making the girl frown in disgust. I could only scoff at the man's ignorance, lightly shaking my head both in disbelief and humor, how he was still acting cool despite embarrassing himself was beyond me.

Eren, on the other hand was only observing us by the distance. Eyes scanning every single one of us. I understood how he was still a bit shaken up with the current situation. He was but a kid to be honest, and being bombarded with all these responsibilities must be boggling him at the moment, the little bags under his eyes proved it, for not long he'd probably start looking as grouchy as that little aggravating.

Leaving Olou be himself, I moved over to the kid, calling his name out and making him look over to my direction.

"Hey, Eren" I waved, halting in front of his horse and giving the animal a good pet. It looked pleased at the action as it rubbed its forehead against my palm. 

The boy looked surprised, tensing up once again. I gave him a smile to ease him, hoping it was effective. "Do you know me?" I asked. 

He paused for a meanwhile, opening his mouth for an answer but I interrupted him before he could. "I mean, we saw each other at the trial but we didn't really get to talk after so I would understand if you  don't know me yet" 

The boy immediately shook his head, a bit harder than he might even intended to. "Of course, I do!" he almost shouted. I was surprised at it but he continued. 

"You're Senior Cadet Y/n. Although I don't know you're last name" he muttered the last part softly.

"It's okay, I don't use last names anymore" I assured the kid. He looked fazed at the sentence but I was glad he didn't ask why, it would have been a bit more complicated to explain. 

"You have a kill count of 47 titans, assisting with 26 more. You're titan kill is second only to Captain Levi himself despite being the latest member of the Levi unit. You're maneuvering skill varies from the rest since you use a different style, manually shifting yourself which is referred to as 'drifting', this makes you move faster than the usual, which why many regard you as humanity's most agile soldier"  

My eyes blinked rapidly, heart racing at his words. I didn't know what to say, I felt flustered, frankly, hand darting over to my neck to scratch it as a means of distraction.