❝The world is merciless, and it's also very beautiful.❞
For years she'd suffered, under the bitter rain as it washed away the blood, under the scorching sun as it charred her wounds - for nature had fallen prey to the destructive march of the Allie...
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❝ If you think reality is just living comfortably and following your own whims, can you dare to call yourself a soldier? ❞
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She was five when she was finally saved.
Her arrival in Paradis Islands had been without a stir. Pushed along by her masked captors, bedecked in tattered rags and metal chains around her bare feet and wrists, she walked through the rough gravel roads of the Underground, watching her dingy surroundings with little interest. Her face was devoid of any emotion and her eyes had lost their sparkle the second she was born in this world.
She hadn't been brought here alone, though. There were other children too, similarly dressed in rags and chains, who sat with her in the grimy horse carts, hidden from sight by the wooden carts. They were separated in a place called "Mitras" — the capital of Eldia. From there, she alone had been smuggled into the Underground City.
They stopped by the corner of a large dilapidated house and she watched her captors, dressed in shabby overalls, converse with men wearing brown jackets and white pants, a symbol of a green unicorn stitched on their breast pockets. She heard her kidnappers refer to them as "officers of the First Interior Squad" but because she wasn't a native of Paradis, she couldn't catch the significance of those words.
Throughout the conversation, they kept throwing furtive glances in her direction and she heard the words "in excellent condition" and "perfect for the position of a housemaid" being thrown around.
'Ah,' she finally realized, 'I am being sold.'
'Perhaps now I could've something to eat.'
One of the men, slightly old with graying hair, stepped forward while the other offered a thick wad of cash to her captors. He had a wicked look in his eyes as his hand greedily reached for the girl's face.
'Maybe they'll give me a bed to sleep on as well. I haven't slept on a bed for so long.'
His hand was centimeters away from her face when he stopped, cocking his head to one side and his companions followed suit. She listened hard too. In the distance, a sort of whirring noise could be heard, one that seemed to grow closer with every passing sound.
She had never heard a sound like that but apparently everyone else recognized it. Their faces paled and the old man barked orders at the rest of them to separate but before they could even move an inch, they were surrounded in an instant with men wearing similar uniforms in addition to a dark green cape. The only thing different about them was the insignia present on their uniforms: a pair of blue and white wings.
A caped figure landed in front of her and she heard one of her captors audibly stutter: "Levi H-Heichou?"
He was slightly shorter in height than the rest of his comrades but the mere mention of his name drew frightened gasps from the rest of the thugs. At that moment she thought he was going to hit them and her as well. However, he continued to stand protectively in front of her and ordered his subordinates in a steely voice to round them and throw them in the horse carts.
