The Humanity's Strongest & The Graceful

Choices Are Made

Levi's POV:

After cleaning the knife, I look at the winged hilt. Somehow, the newer shine of the blade didn't satisfy me like it usually does. It just looked like a plain knife. Defeated by this, I put it away before letting out a frustrated sigh while running a hand through my raven hair. Not even my habits were helping calm my stressed-out thoughts. I don't want Isabel or Furlan to catch onto my stress, yet they do but remain silent. We need to get those documents and rid ourselves of the endless task that hangs over us. If we succeed and get that out of the way, we can move on to the next step. The only thing is, if Erwin does have the papers on him, then we could kill two birds with one stone, figurately speaking. The thing is, how can we achieve that tomorrow without getting caught?

Suddenly Flagon's voice catches our attention, "Hey! You three, come here!" He orders while waving us over to where he and Sairam are waiting. We leave our spot and walk over to where Flagon is to find him standing by a map, but it's not just any map; it's the Long-Distance Scouting Formation that Erwin created. We learned the bases of it a few weeks ago, but Flagon decided to give us a refresher on it, "Now that all of you are here, I can explain our placing is in the formation. Plus, we need to discuss the signal flares again." He explains. The signal flare guns are the first thing we discuss. The first color we discuss is red, which means a titan is spotted. The second is green, which Commander Shadis will fire to indicate the change in direction should there be more than one red flare. The final is black, which means an Abnormal titan is nearby. Flagon sighs while tapping his fingers on the table, "I hope we don't have to use the black one before we get back," He expresses before looking at the map, "Now, our location is right here. We are in the second row, the fourth position, which will be communications." He explains, and I realize with our spot able to keep pace with the spare horses, our primary focus is to relay messages to the center group, which is Erwin's group.

While Flagon reminds us of the dangers of the walls, I remain silent in my cross-armed stance, and Furlan mirrors my position while Isabel swings her legs back and forth on the crate she's sitting on. Everyone's calm and unfazed demeanor don't reassure Flagon's faith in us. Yet he compliments our talent from today. Isabel smiles while Furlan and I remain silent until Flagon reveals that the Survey Corps is under pressure from the citizens and the other military branches, mainly the Military Police. He explains that thanks to Erwin's creation of the Long-Distance Scouting Formation, we should be able to restore hope to the Scouts again, "We've got to make it succeed so we can give the people hope in us, the Scouts," He boats, "If we accomplish that, then we can move onto the next milestone, whatever that may be. Understand?" He questions. Isabel salutes and grins, "Yes, sir!" She agrees, making Furlan, Flagon, Sairam, and I all speechless as we stare like she is a statue. Furlan and I share a look before we raise our brows while Flagon leans closer to Isabel and smirks, "Well, would you look at that? Magnolia, you can properly salute after all," He grins, "Now, please don't embarrass me more than you already have." He requests before walking away with Sairam trailing behind him.

Isabel looked down to see that she did a salute before blinking her emerald-colored eyes and then meeting mine and Furlan's raised brows. We say nothing as our arms remain crossed, eyes narrowed, and faces remain confused by what we saw, "Uhm." She chokes out before dropping her hand to her side, but I don't say anything while walking back to our spot. Just when I thought my mind would catch a break from stress. It got worse. I overthink everything from the past several months to what happened a few minutes ago. There are comforting or insulting words that linger while I replay them in my mind. They're from Isabel, Furlan, Sairam, Hange, and Flagon. I watch everyone slowly stare at me, and I see their faces, but I find another one, but there are no words shared from this one. All I see are a pair of ice-blue eyes staring into my soul. I can already tell tonight will be a sleepless night, which doesn't excite my stress-filled mind.