Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|61| The Secrets of the Royal Palace

“I can’t believe it! You’re finally here!”

Hange jumped off the bench that she was sitting on and approached her friend right away. Nathalie couldn’t believe it, and at the same time, it all looked so damn familiar. The bright lights powered by a generator that fed them with electricity and could turn the night into day. The room was large and white. All kinds of utensils were spread on the counters. And then the microscopes. There were almost five of them. They used electricity as well.

“The crew just left. They’ve been trying all day to see how the lights work. They even broke down one trying to figure it out,” She sighed. “To no avail whatsoever. It’s been a mess,” Hange said. “Hey, Nat, you said those Interior MPs hit you on purpose so that you’d lose your child, right?” She asked.

Nathalie sighed heavily. “Yeah,”

“Have you never wondered how they knew you were pregnant?” Hange asked and at that Nathalie’s eyes widened. Hange was right. How did they know? “I’m willing to bet they ran advanced blood tests down here,” She was right. With all those tools and all that machinery, it was possible.

Moblit came in from another room. He was carrying a bunch of fat, heavy books in his hands. “Brought these from the library. I didn’t get to check all of it, but it’s all in a language I’ve never seen before,” Moblit said as he placed the books on the counter between Hange and Nathalie. He opened one with a leather black wrapping and he pointed at the letters. “You guys don’t recognise that language, do you?” He asked, turning at the two women.

Hange leaned closer, trying to make out a word, but the alphabet was an entirely different one. “I’ve no idea-”

“It speaks about electric engineering,” Nathalie said as she took the book from Moblit’s hands and started reading it.

“What?!” Moblit cried out. “You mean we actually have books that can explain how the lights work?!”

“You mean you actually understand this language?!” Hange cried out again and she approached her friend. “Is that a Burgess Family thing again?!”

Nathalie shrugged. “I suppose. No one ever taught me how to read and write. I just knew. I bet it’s the same with this language as well,” Nathalie guessed.

Hange groaned. “Aw man, this is so unfair,” She turned at Moblit. “Mobby! Grab a pack of as many blank papers as you can find and a typewriter,” She turned at Nathalie. “You translate, I type,”

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It took all night, and the entire next day. Premier Zackly’s orders were clear. Get this knowledge to the Universities. And so, the Universities were going to teach that knowledge to the very first generation of Eldian electrical engineers. Once they were done, Moblit and Hange set off right away to get the book for publishing. The crew of the engineers decided to sit back for now and wait for their own copies, and then try to figure out how electricity works.

It was incredible really. Nathalie translated fast, and Hange typed faster. It was afternoon when Nathalie was left alone in the lab, finally at peace to work on her research. That pile of books that Moblit had brought was still resting on the counter and Nathalie tried her best to keep herself from grabbing another one and start reading. They had agreed they translate the entire library after the mission in Shiganshina. Of course, there was the possibility that Erwin wouldn’t let her come, since she was the only one who knew the language and she was the only one who could translate.

But there was no way Nathalie was going to allow herself to miss that. It was in two months from now, but for now, she just had to figure out how to turn titans back into humans. With all that new machinery all around her, she was sure she could do that. She recognised all those tools and all those devices. She recognised them as if she had seen them and used them before. She was sure her father had seen them before. She was sure he had used them.