Chapter Three: Under the same siege

"Kesey!"

Houston kept repeating my name in vain as I was in the throes of a nervous breakdown. I turned right, quickening my pace while not wanting to hear any rebuke. The NCO had better not get the upper hand on me, just because I had sucked him off.

"General Kesey Schwarz!"

Ignore him, Kesey, I told myself. Ignore Houston and move on.

I reached the threshold of the room where Commander Chris, Captain Rivaille, scientist and professor Siena Orange, and finally, Cadet Edmund awaited me. I pressed my hand on the doorknob until another, larger hand held back my second escape attempt. Sooner or later I would cut off his hand.

"...What is it, Houston?" I asked on the edge of despair, casting a glance toward the door, hoping none of the guests would hear our conversation from behind the scenes.

"You can't run away every time I try to talk to you." He scolded me, staring at me sternly. I smiled sourly and raised my hands in surrender, then brought them back up, folded under my breasts. Houston heaved a sigh.

"Yes, I can!" He glared at me for the ironic tone used. I huffed in surrender. "Okay... what? Speak up! In case you haven't noticed, I'm working and..."I pointed with a finger to the door "...They are waiting for me. I ask you to hurry up before one of them comes looking for me."

"...One of them," he replied in a mock sarcastic tone, "...Do you mean Rivaille Wyatt would come looking for you?" He nipped my speech in the bud, forcing me to squint. "I noticed the way you were looking at him in the trial room, Kesey... Do you think I'm an idiot?!"

I raised an eyebrow and hesitated, noticing that his expression was getting sharper. I didn't think he was an idiot at all, yet at that moment he was posing as one, along with his stupid jealousy. "Is that what you think of me, after our past?"

"The past, Houston? We only had a relationship based on casual sex..." I made a nervous gesture with my hands "...How can you say we have a past?" I tried to moderate my tone of voice, although it was costing me effort. Houston was managing to send my last receptor into a tailspin.

"I proposed six months ago, Kesey!" He exclaimed, framing me with his dark eyes that I once considered bewitching and decidedly attractive. It was one of the characteristics I liked best about Houston, but all good things always come to an end, and I had learned that at great cost.

"And I had replied that I didn't want to bind myself to anyone anymore, especially when it came to marriage, Ston." I retorted defensively. "Now, please, get out of the way!" I reduced my gaze to two slits and the NCO gave no sign of relenting, returning my gaze.

No one took the floor, and a long silence arose, which was broken by the latter. "I have made a decision, Kesey. I have been thinking about it for a while and wish to resign: the Custodial Corps has made me a proposal that I have no intention of refusing."

"Wh-What?" I blurted out resentfully, "You want to leave the Recognition Army to do what?! Follow those cowards in the Custodial Corps?!"

Casually Ston shrugged his shoulders and took a step back. "You said it yourself, didn't you? Good things come to an end sooner or later, and the decision is ours alone."

Damn you, Houston Jean.

I dug my nails into the inside of my palms. "Tomorrow morning I will get you my resignation papers." He added, backing away slowly, as if expecting me to freeze him at any moment and beg him to stay. But no, I would not have done that. I would never have gone and begged anyone, not even if it was Houston and his stubbornness. And here I was hoping the situation between him and me had changed.

Therefore, there was no point in getting bitter blood for those who had made the decision without reflecting on whether or not the situation had gone right. The Gendarmerie Corps was like holy water: uplifting for those who, like the Reverend, needed protection in God and for those who, like the soldiers of the Search Corps, stumbled into an expedition every time, putting their lives at risk. We all had our time marked, and my fate was no different from that of my comrades.

With disdain I looked at Houston one last time and grabbed the door handle, pulling it down.

I opened the door wide and closed it behind me, catching sight of eight eyes on me.

"Well? What have you got to stare at me like that?" I asked annoyed, figuring they had heard my and Houston's little talk. I took off my beige uniform jacket and threw it on an ordinary chair, sitting on the couch next to Siena and Edmund, who was dressing the injuries Rivaille had inflicted on him.

"While you're at it, tell us." Urged Chris, provoking a resounding snort from me. He never minded his own business. I threw my head back, leaning the back of my head against the back of the settee, with Edmund and Rivaille's eyes focused on my image.

"Houston..." I said in a low voice, squinting. "He quit his job and will join the Custodial Corps starting tomorrow." I squinted one eye to observe the reaction of Chris, who remained indifferent. I turned my half-open eye to Siena, who peered at me understandingly, holding a wad of absorbent cotton between her fingers. "You listened to everything, didn't you?" Siena shrugged her shoulders. I closed my eye permanently.

Even the walls had ears in this place.

Rivaille did nothing but ignore me the whole time, not saying a single word about the talk he had heard. Neither a gratuitous snub nor an angry outburst. He sighed. After all, situations had changed, the two of us had changed, and most importantly, we had grown up.

"...How much tension is in the air." Sienna finished dressing Edmund's wounds, which had also quickly healed from the titanium force that harbored within him. Sienna finished dressing Edmund's wounds, which were also quickly healed by the strength of the titanium that lodged in him. "Am I mistaken or did you and General Schwarz already know each other, Rivaille?" Siena asked allusively, and forced me to straighten my back with a jerk.

Rivaille looked first at Chris and me, then at Siena again. He brought his arms to his chest and narrowed his eyes, hinting at how much his colleague's question had annoyed him. "Mind your own business, you crazy psycho."

Siena, however, was more stubborn than he was and pointed her finger at me. Edmund seemed to fall from the clouds. "Captain Rivaille is really apathetic about certain issues, none of us have ever seen him with a woman," he rested his hands on my shoulders, "Tell me, did you two already know each other? From the way he stood up for you at headquarters, it seemed so." I gasped like a little fish. Siena's face was so close to mine it was awe-inspiring, more than a hundred eyes on me at once.

This woman is a monster, in a good way, of course. Heaven forbid we find her again as an enemy.

"Captain Rivaille and General Kesey are married, or at least they were before they submitted to their obligations." I unintentionally tightened my lips and tilted my head to the side, amazed by Chris's frankness. Siena, on the contrary, a strange, perhaps almost perverse light shone in her eyes, bringing her hands together in the shape of a prayer.

"Were you and Captain Rivaille married?" Edmund looked more bewildered than me, but Rivaille continued to assume a look of condescension.

But how had I gotten mixed up in all this?

I cleared my throat and looked away, thinking about the pain I felt at what I was about to say. "As Commander Chris said, Captain Rivaille and I got married a long time ago. Now we put up with each other, as we should." I tried to be as formal as possible, although Siena's stubborn look continued to disturb me.

"Siena, you fucking psycho, I told you to mind your own business. You, Chris, on the other hand, I asked you not to tell around, especially in front of the cadet." And he pointed to Edmund.

Edmund continued to watch me intently, so much so that I raised an eyebrow at his insistence. "Do you want to tell me something?" I asked. "Has he always been like this?" He whispered, trying not to be overheard by the person directly concerned, who was sure to beat the crap out of him another time.

"What do you mean?" I blinked several times, confused.

He shrugged his shoulders. "...Like this. He knows exactly what I mean." I put a hand over my mouth, curbing a laugh.

"You mean... asshole?" Edmund blushed slightly and turned his head away in embarrassment at the bluntness with which he had said it. I wanted to answer him that yes, he had always been an asshole, but when he took a person to heart, he would place them under his protective wing to the end.

"I think that may be enough..." Chris spoke up and drew the attention even of Siena, who remained in the same position as ten minutes ago, standing still before my eyes, staring at me. I mentally gave a sigh of relief and rose from my seat.

"So, Kesey, as you may have already realized, the Army of Recognition was created through endless sacrifices. There is still too much information that we do not know about the truth behind the colossals. However, should the whole thing be useful in returning the world to humans. Then there will be no one who will regret devoting his or her soul to this cause. No one. Besides, Edmund being a colossus, it is good to be able to retrieve information outside the Districts."

"Chris, are you by any chance asking me and my team to participate in your plan to protect Edmund?" I closed my arms under my breasts, highlighting them more from under the fabric of my shirt, and cast a dirty look at Rivaille, who cleared his throat and shifted his gaze.

"In fact, I am inviting you to take responsibility for this mission and all those to be held. To that end, you and your team will have to move to District 16."

I pondered for a moment. The decision was not going to be easy, especially if it turned against me one day. I would have to see Rivaille every day after five years of not seeing him. On the other hand, I was not allowed to stick my nose into District 16 without Chris's permission, so I could at least take advantage of that.

"In the meantime, who took charge of Edmund's situation?"

"Rivaille." Erwin replied dryly, and Rivaille squared me with the arched frown of one who wanted to know why. My intuition was never wrong, even though my stomach kept playing tricks on me.

My intuition was never wrong, even though my heart kept playing tricks on me.

I looked at Edmund then. He was small, a silly little boy who did not realize the real danger, yet in his looks was the glint of revenge, of someone who wanted at all costs to take revenge on those who had deprived him of everything. I did not know the reality. I did not know who Edmund Yeager really was, but I wanted to take care of him.

Therefore, what I did was beyond my will. I detested the formality and the official salute that had been given to us during our first year of military training. It had the meaning of giving one's heart to civilization and sacrificing one's life in battle; after five long years, however, I could no longer tolerate the context in which I was immersed.

I hoped that Edmund Yeager could make a difference, and what I was about to do might be the right choice.

Forcefully, I stamped a foot and ground, clamping the cut of my hand at forehead level with my left arm behind my back. I looked at the determined Chris and uttered the following words:

"I would like to have custody of Edmund Yeager, Commander Chris."