The bricked roofs clattered under our weight. Hange, Levi, and I all crouched down upon an old workshop, spying down into the crevices of the alleys, our breathing nothing more than a whisper amongst the night wind. All of us were silent, alert- waiting.
Night would be the best moment to make a move. Cliche, but the truth. If these people were to do anything, now was their chance. The darkness would shield them from the world, allowing access to whatever it was they were plotting. But I was worried. Maybe they weren't dumb enough to do the obvious. Still, we had to be on lookout.
Hange motioned her index finger over to a small cleft in an abandoned building where it made way to an empty space. All of us brought our eyes down to it, watching intently as a creeping silhouette detached from the shadow, lurking around in the faint light of the moon. They wore a cloak.
We found our target.
"Don't approach too fast," Hange placed her hand on the rim of the roof, like a cat stalking it's prey. "Let them lead us to their destination," She whispered.
I shifted my weight to my right foot to push myself quietly down the steep side of the roof, sliding down slowly to increase stealth. The other two followed. As the unknown person began striding down the road, we jumped to the other roof, hunting them down.
The houses gave way to emptiness as the person tredded up a hill. Levi found a pile of boxes stacked up against the wall, guiding us down from the roof and safely onto the cobbled paths. We continued the pursuit, quiet on our feet as we hid.
They were going farther into the field now. We nearly lost sight of them.
Hange broke into a light run, careful to not make too much noise as she dove into the tall grass and following behind them. The grass rustled, yet matched the tone of the passing breeze.
Levi went next, leaving me running after them. We kept no more than a few lengths behind them, but they stopped.
What was it? Why had they stopped in the middle of nowhere?
"Come out. I know you're there."
The voice of the mysterious human plunged into my gut. I passed Hange a look of disbelief, unsure how they had seen us. But before we revealed ourselves, another figure came out from behind a tree.
They walked up to them without a word. The cloaked person removed their hood- yet I still couldn't see them due to the darkness.
"You promised money," The other person said; a feminine voice. The person wearing the black covering pulled out a bag of coins, all of them jingling together as he thrust his arm outward.
"And money I have," He handed it to the woman before him. "Now give me what I asked for."
She shook her head. "Not so fast. You also promised one more thing," She opened her satchel and placed the purse of money inside while talking. "How close are you to executing what your boss has been knitting together? Are the Scout's still unbreakable?"
The man barred his teeth as he spoke, ticked off. "We'd be a lot closer if you gave us the weapons," He barked. The woman gave a nauseated look. "Oh please. Are you really so weak you can't take on a few puny soldiers? There's barely any of them anyway- they get themselves killed nearly every week. Just do the damn plan already!"
"I'm not the one who makes the rules, Beatrice! We made a deal. I gave you the money, so hand over your end of the bargain!" The tension between the two made the grass grow limp. I could feel unease replacing the ground beneath us, swaying side to side.
The woman pulled a heavy bundle off her back, tossing it just infront of the man's feet. "There. You and whoever else can come by the shop tomorrow to retrieve the rest. After that, we aren't making any more deals with you people so don't get comfortable."
The man picked up the bundle, throwing the strap over his shoulder to carry it.
Levi stirred in the weeds. He began to go in the direction of the woman who had already started walking away from the meeting with the man, heading for the town. "Where are you going?" I whispered loudly after him.
"To ask her about the deal she made with that guy," He called back to me, still going after her.
"Y/n," Hange said. "We'll keep going after that man. Levi, meet us back here by sunrise."
He nodded, and all of us set off.
-
|Chapter 10|
Sunrise
-
I pulled myself up onto an arm of an apple tree, the green leaves swirling around as I accidentally bumped a loose and skinny branch. Hange climbed up next to me, eyes darting after the man who was just ahead. He had made it to a small house that resided on the outskirts of Wall Rose, far from any contact with civilian life.
The man opened the door, going inside.
"So to sum this up," I turned to Hange. She pulled an apple from it's stem. "They needed money to buy weapons."
"Correct," Hange whiped the waxy apple off on her shirt before taking a bite. "I'm going to say that's what stealing that watch was for; to sell it," she muttered between chewing, mouth full.
"But the watch was taken back into custody of the shop owner," I said. "So where did they get the money that was exchanged just now?"
"Probably just stole something else. The Military Police likely didn't do anything to help. The only reason the thief was arrested back then was because you were there to stop him," She tossed the apple after another bite. "I'm sure they've gotten away with multiple accounts of theft under the blind eye of those pricks."
I looked at one of the windows of the house light up.
"They're going to try and attack us," The window went dim as a person inside pulled the curtains to block the light from bringing in any unwanted attention. Little did they know, I had seen the entire thing.
"A risky thing to attempt," Hange scoffed. "I cannot fathom just how silly this entire thing has turned out to be." Hange leaned back against the tee. "I truly wish to know how the minds of these people work."
"No idea," I shook my head. "But they're definitely not the brightest. We fight titans on a daily basis. What makes them think they can defeat an entire regiment of skilled fighters?"
There was an unspoken agreement.
"Look," I said, the light from the window going out. "Whoever is in there must be leaving that room."
Hange squinted, every second that passed began to fill up the hourglass in my head. We needed to act quickly before these people had an opportunity to strike.
Weak or not, we couldn't just let them waltz into our regiment and ruin what we worked so hard to destroy.
"We stay here until sunrise. If they don't do anything, we return to the field to regroup with Levi," Hange ordered.
Levi's face flashes through my mind, and I wondered what he was doing.
-
[[Levi's POV]]
-
I snuck up behind the strange woman, my body sliding between two buildings, the space narrow. My eyes were focused as I matched her pace, her arm extending to grab hold of a large door.
Before she could wrap her fingers around the handle, I lunged, swiftly pinning her against a wall and keeping her arms tight against her back. Her cheeks were pressed on the cold wooden shop she was about to enter. She tried to pull away but failed.
"You play dirty!" She spat, jerking her arms around. "Unhand me you fiend!"
"Who was that man you were speaking with?" I held my voice firm, demanding she tell me everything she knows. I narrowed my eyes to show her I wasn't here to mess around. If she tried anything- I'd break her arm without hesitation.
"Why, you jealous he got to talk to a pretty lady and you didn't?" Her jokes bounced off of me like a poorly thrown ball that missed the hoop.
"You aren't the pretty one."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She whined. I could feel her loosen her tightened muscles, clearly growing tired of struggling.
"I'll ask you this one more time," I looked deep into her eyes, every ounce of my being daring her to refuse an answer. "Who was that man?"
"Ugh! Is this any way to treat a lady?!" Her voice lowered as she realized her distractions wouldn't work, so she sighed and said,"He's apart of some group of scumbags."
"We used to do business with them from time to time, but they grew more and more difficult to get any payment from. The whole thing with the weapons, if that's what you're wondering about, is the last deal we made with them," She closed her eyes while grumbling. "They want to take down the Scouts."
I was already aware.
"Who's we?"
"Me and a few others. We own a small blacksmithing business. Y'know, forging weapons and stuff like that." The woman sighed. "We never liked those men. They always picked fights with us whenever we made something they didn't find perfect. Now they're picking fights with the Scouts..."
She looked me up and down from over her shoulder. "Hey... You look familiar."
A gasp rose from her lips. "Oh my God! I know you, you're Captain Levi Ackermann, aren't you?!"
I disliked that fact she knew who I was. My name truly was a burden at times.
"Why didn’t you just say so?" I released her as she pulled away, hitting me on the back and sitting down on a bale of hay just on the side.
"I'll tell you everything you want to here if it means getting those bastards off our asses. Like I said before, I only helped them for the money."
I didn't like this woman's enthusiasm, but I dealt with it if it meant retrieving information.
My gaze turned up to the sky, seeing a faint yellow strip forming in the horizon. I remembered how four-eyes had said to meet them back at sunrise, and I secretly wished for this odd woman to hurry and explain everything.
And for some reason, I was wondering what Y/n was doing...
I cleared my throat.