However Long The Night

SEVEN: Do it for the freedom of humanity

"So," Rosario prompted, weakly attempting to overcome the anger she provoked in him. "What are these dreams?"

Scouts sat around, enjoying the little time of freedom they were given, some eating, others softly speaking. Some of the newer ones were still shaken up by the brutality of just some hours ago. It was a wonder they survived the training camp. Rosario had heard it was brutal to the point some of them didn't make it through. The veteran scouts attempted to ease their anxiety. Among them were Braus and Springer. Jaeger, too, surprisingly. Ackerman watched him from afar, not getting anywhere near the pathetic little chumps.

Arlert kept his eyes on them. "Do you even care?"

Rosario, despite his looking away, gave him an incredulous look. "Do I look like the type to bother?"

"You haven't struck me as any type."

She smiled. "Now that's a lie, Armin Arlert. You've got me all figured out in that brilliant head of yours, I bet."

He was too perceptive to not make the most of the snippets of personality she had showed. He'd probably been piecing her together since the moment they broke into her cottage in Tamashi. Though he didn't deny her claim, he didn't confirm it either. Armin Arlert was not the innocent boy they all seemed to believe he was. Even as he watched ahead to the comrades that were left, Rosario could see the wheels turning in his mind. The space wasn't nearly big enough to fit the little Garrison soldiers in the building along with the Scouts. There was barely any space to stretch legs.

For the other scouts, that is. They all kept enough room between them and Rosario, enough that she could have lied down on the floor and she wouldn't touch a single person.

She wondered if they thought her contagious. The thought made her want to laugh.

"Have you heard of the Sea?" The words were softer than usual, as if a secret he couldn't risk getting out. It brought Rosario's focus back to him and their conversation.

A frown marred her lips. "The Sea?"

"Yeah." Some of the previous tension dissolved. Not by anything done thanks to Rosario. Rather, because the current topic seemed to inflate Arlert with joy. "A salt lake so large and deep, expanding across the entire world, that merchants could spend their whole lives trying and never collect all the salt."

"Oh."

No one else listened to their conversation, though the curious glances were all around them. Rosario bet they wondered why their precious little comrade would be talking to someone like her. She wondered the same, but couldn't find an answer. It aggravated her, but intrigued her beyond reason. 

"It's supposed to be sometimes blue and sometimes green, depending where you see it from." He kept going, fueled by the excitement of whatever he was talking about. "It's big enough that you can see it from anywhere. And it's meant to be in the world beyond the walls."

Rosario gaped at him. "Beyond the walls?"

"Yes."

"So you want to see the sea beyond the walls?"

Hesitation flitted through his eyes. "And some."

The words he failed to say hung over them like a net, waiting on who of the two to trap. She waited until he looked at her. When he did, there was doubt in his eyes. "Tell me more, Armin."

The same hesitation tripled and she was sure he'd end their conversation there. Rosario knew how to con people and siphon information out of them through lies and other forms of deceit. She'd done it with the criminals of Tamashi for years. Arlert felt like a case she could crack, but would be faced with greater consequences in doing so.