Always want to be WITH YOU || Reiner x Historia

Chapter 5

We've finally arrived, inside Rose's walls. But wait, it looks like we're not inside Rose's walls right now. There's a lot of rubble, and the wall also looks like it's cracked, like it's finished withstanding something from outside. People were also busy going in and out of one of the districts to clean up the ruins. Don't tell me that we're inside the outer wall, Maria's wall!

"Oi, get down quickly!"

We who were gawking beside the coachman were immediately startled and got off after one of the soldiers kicked the wheels of our carriage. How rude, we were volunteers and not prisoners. What's with the rough treatment? I mean, pity the kids who just joined the army. We fighters are used to this kind of treatment.

We were told to line up, leaving our belongings on the train. There was a man standing at the front, on higher ground. I think he was the commander here.

"Good morning! You all know why you've been brought here, don't you? Right! To die en masse against the Marleyan demons later! Fighting them is not easy! They are already superior in weaponry, but let's show them that we can be even superior against them! For that, you need to be trained early on to master the weapons and understand the strategies we give you later!"

The bald man stopped his speech after the blond haired man below him looked at him, "Don't be long. We'll continue the speech when we get inside."

"Yes, Commander!" The old man looked back at us, "To that end! Your first task is to help the locals clean up this place now! Just help with the light work, your seniors will escort each group of 10 children and keep you safe. Understood?"

"Yes!" The soldiers placed their fists on their left chests, and their left hands behind their backs. "Understood, Instructor!".

The man now looked at us, the volunteers. "And you! Do you understand?"

We unanimously followed the soldiers' movements in response, "Understood, Instructor!"

"Good! The task begins now!"

Half of the senior group split up, and some chose some of us to be their group. There were so many groups, our group was directed to head south. Senior said that we should stay away from the wall because it could collapse at any time. So we only worked around the seniors who had already chosen a place, it was better to be safe.

I started doing my job by leveling the ground here. The ground looked like it had a lot of holes due to gunshot and grenade marks. Since there were no tools, I did it by moving the higher ground into the holes with my own hands. The other children also did the same, some sweeping up small pebbles from the rubble to bury in the holes.

It is not uncommon for children to scream when they find traces of dried blood on the ground. These are traces of warfare. I know most battles are fought outside the walls. But of course there would still be defenses inside the walls, because they knew that Marleyan could enter the walls using aircraft. The battle scars were few, but the damage caused was no joke.

We finished our work by late afternoon. Now, we took shelter under the tents set up by the soldiers. After that, we were told to line up again to queue for food. The food was plentiful, but not too special to look at. Just a glass of cow's milk, a bowl of soup, and a slice of wheat bread. I'm sure that we'll keep eating this until we grow up.

Suddenly, a horse-drawn carriage entered the area. Some people caught a glimpse of it, the curious stared at the carriage and waited for someone in the carriage to come out. Because that carriage was different from the one we were traveling in. The carriage we were on was a freight train, while the carriage was a horse-drawn carriage used for public transportation. That's why it caught our attention.