Chapter 14: Story

The two, Klemens and Liesl, were finally making their way back to the Trost district where they will join their friends once again.

Neither of them knew anything about what had happened, the awarding ceremony had been brought forward and the two started their trip back the day after instead of staying there an entire week as was programmed.

They received no further report about the happenings at Trost other than the number of fallen soldiers and injured, but they could realize that something had happened, something that they didn't want the two of them to know.

They could see the superiors acting weird, but they had no means to inquire further as they held no actual authority, so the two decided that they would make no stops on their way.

It took them a single day to reach their comrades as they didn't take detours and rode on their horses at full speed.

It was now dinner time so the two made their way to the place they knew had to have the highest amount of people, the dining hall, which was't as full as it used to be.

Once they entered they could hear the people talking, but the atmosphere around them was heavy, which didn't really leave them confused.

It was just a single day after the titans entered trost en masse and they knew the number of deaths, many had to be recruits.

But Liesl didn't like the air of depression around them so she decided to do something, so she went near the table which held their usual group of friends and said "Hey guys, we're back from the capital and would like a report about what happened in our absence"

They people seated, who weren't speaking, just looking at their food in silence, turned their head towards her and she could see their eyes light up.

"How do you do it?" said Connie suddenly, with a dejected tone to his voice "How do you guys fight like that, with no fear of titans and death? So many died and we couldn't do anything"

The two didn't reply, they couldn't, seeing their friends like this made them realize something, many of them were missing.

Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Marco, Reiner and Bertholdt, all of them weren't here, which led the two's mind to think about the worst case scenario.

Klemens ignored the question as he knew that no answer could satisfy them.

He then muttered quietly "Where are the rest?"

The tone of his voice making it clear who 'us' meant.

"Eren, Mikasa and Armin are alive, but they were taken away by the survey corps, we still have no idea were they took them and we have no idea Reiner and Bertholdt are, but Marco... Marco is..."

It was Jean who replied, Marco's death really shook him, he still couldn't understand why all of this was happening.

At one moment they were safely taking care of the people and moments later a wave of titans pour into the breach and kill everyone.

Klemens sat near him and put a hand on his back, trying to reassure him.

Liesl, on the other hand sat near Sasha and asked her with a very soft voice "Hey Sasha, would you mind telling us everything since the beginning, please? We need to know what happened if we are to do something about it"

She knew that asking this would make her relive those moments of hell, but they had to understand, they needed more details than what Jean told them, they needed to hear this from their friends instead of from a cold piece of paper.

"We were doing rounds saving any person that was still in Trost for one reason or the other, everything was normal, the same way it had been for the previous few days, but all of a sudden tens of titans poured into the walls.

We weren't able to react fast enough, the order to retreat came immediately, but we weren't worried about a few titans, we were stupid" replied the girl, almost shouting her last words.

The hall was now silent, everyone even at the other tables had stopped talking and was quietly listening to what the girl said even if they already knew about it.

"We were arrogant 'it's just a couple of titans, nothing to worry about' this are the last words of a few of my squad mates, except for the cries of pain obviously" said a person from another table self deprecatingly.

Klemens and Liesl were now silent, with a tornado of thoughts going through their heads.

'If only I'd stayed here instead of going for that stupid medal, from that stupid king, nothing of this would have happened'

But it would have happened, sooner or later it would have happened anyway, the seeds of hubris had been planted when they saw the. two of them reaping titans like weeds and it only kept growing when they saw the survey corps dealing with them with almost no casualties.

The had underestimated the titans and now they were paying for it.

They gave a bit of time to them to get themselves back together and eventually Sasha restarted telling them the story.

"An hour after it all ended and we were back inside the wall, we saw a woman from the survey corps carrying an unconscious Eren away, when Mikasa and Armin asked where she was taking him she replied 'classified'

A few hours later someone from the garrison came and took them away too, this was yesterday and we still don't know where they took them"

"And what about Reiner and Bertholdt?" asked Klemens in a low voice.

His question was answered by Connie "They were with us when we came back to safety, but when they saw Eren being carried away I saw them making a weird expression, then they disappeared as well without telling anything to anyone"

"Thank you very much for telling this much, Connie, Sasha" told them Liesl, who was currently patting Sasha on the head and calling her a good girl.

Klemens then stood up, gesturing to his friend to remain seated.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going to use the little authority this stupid medal gave us, you stay here with them" he added nothing more and left.

---------------------------

"I'm Klemens Ackerman, recipient of the Star of Freedom Medal of Honor, I'm here to request a meeting with Commander Erwin" stated the boy to the four soldiers that were standing guard outside of the Survey corps building.

'Too many people, something big has to be going on' he thought.

"Sir, we will report your arrival to our superiors, if the Commander is free to meet you, we will accompany you inside" replied a guard, who then gestured to a second one who then left the gate to go inside.

Normally a member of the cadet corps wouldn't have been able to ask for a meeting with the commander of one of the three regiment of the army, much more now that it was a sensible moment for the regiments, but Klemens's identity was unique.

He wasn't a simple cadet, like every other, but one of the two cadets who saved the lives of tens of thousands of civilians inside of Trost District from the despair of dying in the jaws of a titan, he was an invaluable asset to the army as a whole.

A few minutes later the guard came back, bringing good news.

"The commander has accepted to meet you sir, follow me" said the older guard as he showed the recruit inside with the utmost respect.

When they reached a particular door, the soldier knocked.

Once the voice inside said to come in, the guard left Klemens to return to his post while Klemens opened the door and showed himself in.

Inside the room were three people, first and foremost was the Commander Erwin, the only one that Klemens could recognize.

The others were a man and a woman, the man had straight short hair with intimidating cold grey eyes with dark circles around them, he was short in stature, but Klemens could feel that the small frame contained a great amount of power, almost as much as him.

The woman, on the other hand, had wide, light brown eyes with shoulder length dark brown hair tied up in an untidy ponytail.

Commander Erwin took the initiative in the conversation "Welcome, you must be the prodigy that everyone is talking about, Klemens Ackerman, let start the introductions, I am Erwin Smith, commander of the survey corps"

He then gestured to the woman and the man in the room "These are two captains of the survey corps, Hange Zoe and Levi Ackerman, the strongest man in the corps, it seems that the uncommon ability flows in the family, wouldn't you say?"

"It might be so, commander" replied Klemens with his usual inexpressive face, but something was shining in his eyes as he looked at the captain that shared his same surname, but it immediately went way and he returned to the conversation.

"As you now, I'm Klemens Ackerman, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, commander, captains" he courteously addressed the people in the room.

If there was one thing that he learned from his mother, it was that if you had to ask for something, the most effective way to do so was being courteous, especially if it was a request to someone he had no bond with.

But now that the pleasantries were over, Klemens went straight to the point "Someone told me that the survey cops and the garrison are keeping watch over a few very dear friends of mine, their names are Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlet, I would like to know about their current status and if I could meet them"

He had seen the document on top of the commander's table, it had Eren's photo on it, it seemed that he had come to the right place.

The commander thought for a bit, before eventually answering "What is your relationship with Eren Yeager, cadet"

Klemens gears were spinning furiously thinking about the implications of such a question.

'Maybe Eren did something illegal and is now being investigated, that would make sense with the involvement of the garrison, but I know Eren and he would not put himself in a situation that would implicate Mikasa and Armin, but I can never be too sure so let's go with a neutral answer'

This entire line of thought lasted less than an instant, and none of his thoughts showed on his face, which still remained cold and expressionless.

"We are both in the top ten of the 104th cadet regiment, sir, and we are used to interact with each other, the reason that I'm here is because the lack of info is making a few of the recruits restless" he explained going in no detail about their relationship leaving no possibility of involving him in any problem that Eren put himself in.

The commander pondered on the replied he received and eventually he reached a conclusion.

"Let me tell you a story, cadet Ackerman.

You see, yesterday, an hour after the swarm of titans poured into the Trost District and every other person had left, a peculiar titan appeared out of nowhere, we only saw it thanks to the devastation that it was bringing.

It was an anomalous titan and a very unique one at that, it was fifteen meters tall and didn't attack humans, but it instead started killing the other titans and the other titans were attacking him" this seemed exceptional, but Klemens failed to see the point of what the commander was talking about.

"You see, this anomalous titan eventually fell after having killed a great amount of titans, but captain Hange here, wanted to look at it more closely, so we went down to take a look at the corpse of the anomalous who still hadn't disappeared"

At that moment, commander Erwin looked into Klemens's eyes with great intensity.

"Coming out of said titans neck was cadet Eren Yeager in an unconscious state"