angelic | jean kirstein

chapter twenty five

ANGELIC – CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

"And there you have it, the coup was successful. Premier Zachary now has full control of the capital and government. For the time being at least, the nobles seem to be staying in line."

"Okay, but what about the incident with Mr Reeves?" Armin questioned as he looked up from the paper Hange had handed to Levi, the small group of scouts still reading it intently.

Hange grinned. "We got a public confession out of one of the interior police. Reeve's son Flagel really pulled through for us."

"What kind of name is Flagel?" Isabell whispered to Connie, her right eyebrow raised.

Hange gave her a look before shaking her head and continuing. "It's all written right there. The abuse of power, the bogus charges against the scouts, and that King Fritz was both a puppet and a fraud. It's clear we only acted in self-defence. In short, we are no longer criminals."

The group paused for a moment, staring at each other incredulously before jumping in the air with joy. Sasha had uncomfortably grabbed Mikasa's head before jumping like an idiot, Jean was doing what appeared to be some fighting moves, Armin was just grinning, and Connie had somehow managed to jump onto Isabel's back and continuously smacked the top of her head like a drum.

Everyone stopped celebrating after a moment, excluding Connie who was far too caught up in the moment. "Uh, Connie?" Sasha asked as she walked in front of Isabel to face him. "What're you doing?"

"Get off her man." Jean huffed and placed a hand on his hip. "You can't just smack her." He flicked Connie's forehead.

He jumped down off of Isabel and stared for a moment before attempting to fix her hair, his tongue poking out the corner of his lips. "Sorry about that," He said. "Didn't mean to upset you, Jean-boy."

-

It was silent amongst the small group, nothing but the sounds of hooves hitting against the dirt floor and the quiet crackling of their fire torches. Jean watched Isabel silently. He watched the way some of her hair was falling out of her horrible bun, how some of it framed her round cheeks. How her green eyes flicked under the fire, the way her eyebrows were scrunched tightly as she listened to Hange. He knew it wasn't the time to be admiring her, but how could he not?

They had just admitted their feelings to each other, how could he not admire her? She was his saviour. He didn't know how much time he had, he knew it was all borrowed, the gun in his face the other day proved it. He wanted to spend his remaining time with her - he needed to, but there wasn't a right time to speak his thoughts out loud. He sighed and tore his eyes away. "Hey, are you okay?" Connie spoke quietly as he maneuvered his horse closer to Jean. "You're being oddly quiet."

"It's nothing." He sighed as he gave her another look. "I'm okay." It was almost as if she knew he was looking at her, thinking about her. Isabel turned her head in his direction and gave him a small smile before turning her attention back to Hange in the carriage.

"Oh." Connie muttered as he followed Jean's eyeline. "I get it."

Jean groaned and turned to look at Connie, his eyes narrowed. "Get what? When have you ever 'got it'?"

He rolled his eyes, "I'll just forget you said that," Connie huffed. "But seriously, man, you guys clearly like each other, just tell her."

"I already did." Jean grumbled, his cheeks tinting pink. "We already did." Connie gasped loudly, his mouth growing into a huge grin, bigger than Jean had ever seen before. It made him recoil slightly from how creepy it really made him look. "Jheez, Connie, will you stop smiling like that? You're going to freak Jesabel out." Jean complained as he stroked Jesabel's mane.

"Does this mean you two are -"

"Not another word out of your mouth, alright? There's no time nor place to have that conversation, so enough, alright?" Connie simply nodded and moved his horse back to its original position.

He knew that he couldn't ask her to be his, she had to look out for herself, never mind him. What if she was in the middle of battle and she got distracted because of him and it cost her her life? He could never forgive himself. He loved her and he knew she liked him, and that was enough for him, he didn't need a label, he didn't need anything else, as long as she knew how he felt, he didn't care.

"Hange, you said you might know where they are?" Mikasa asked, dragging Isabel's attention back to the conversation, peering her head around Levi to listen.

Hange paused for a moment before nodding. "Oh yeah, Guess I should explain now. Erwin gave me this Scout report from an investigation on Lord Reiss's land. It details a certain incident that happened five years ago on the Reiss estate."

"Five years?" Armin asked, turning his head around.

Hange nodded. "That's right. It was the day Wall Maria was breached. I'll summarize the most important parts from the beginning. So, as far as regional lords went, Lord Reiss was fair and well-respected by the people. He had five children. The most well known was his eldest daughter, Freida. She was a down to earth girl who even the peasants adored."

"But, five years ago, on that night, disaster struck. With the fall of Wall Maria having plunged the world into chaos, bandits raided and set fire to the only chapel around. Unfortunately for them, the entire Reiss family had gathered there to pray. And so, the entire family was massacred by bandits that night, save one. Only Rod Reiss managed to escape with his life. To top it all off, this incident occurred just a few days before Historia's mother was killed by interior police. So we know that in the immediate wake of losing his family, Ros Reiss sought out Historia. And something tells me that it wasn't out of a newfound paternal affection."

"Well she is royal blood." Levi interjected, his arms still crossed, seemingly unimpressed. "Or do you think that blood line has some other secret?"

Hange shrugged. "It's possible, but I'm not sure yet. What really stood out to me, at least, was the fact that large parts of the chapel were destroyed. The chapel was built from stone. It would take a lot of time and effort to destroy it. If it was bandits they would've taken what they could and make a quick escape. Also, Lord Reiss was the only witness. No one confirmed his story. Then Lord Reiss rebuilt the chapel with his personal fortune almost immediately. What was his rush?"

"When you think about it, the story could only make sense if it involved a titan attack. It may turn out that I'm jumping to conclusions but it's suspicious enough to merit investigation, and it's the only lead we have."

-

"You should understand, this is Kenny the Ripper. If he's there he's our biggest obstacle. In terms of his threat level, it's like you'd be fighting me. Or wait, with his weapons, he'll be stronger."

Sash's face grew pale. "So he's unbeatable. At least for us."

Connie nodded his head in agreement, his voice a lot quieter. "Maybe we should wait and meet up with other soldiers."

"No chance in hell." Mikasa snapped.

"Right. Of course not." Connie answered quickly.

Isabel sighed and pulled her hair from her bun, scraping it back up and tying it tighter. "I hate to say it but I think it would be in our best interests to wait for other soldiers." Mikasa's head snapped up and glared daggers at Isabel, the latter raised her hand and leaned back slightly. "Listen, I said our best interests. We need to do this for Eren, so if we have to go in without backup, as much as I don't want to see Kenny again, so be it."

Levi turned his head to look at Isabel, his right hand moving to grab her shoulder gently. The image of Nifa's dead body came to mind - the hole in her head, the blood that covered the wall behind her, the image alone made Isabel want to vomit. Then the images of the four interior police that tried to kill her came to mind - each a violent replay of how she slaughtered them mercilessly came flooding back as if to taunt her again.

Isabel looked down at her hands, she knew they were clean, but she couldn't help but see the blood that soaked her flesh. "I never want to hurt someone else ever again - it feels wrong, I never want to have to murder anyone again, but, we can't just let them get away with what they're doing. If Hange's right, Eren will be devoured, we can't let that happen. He's humanity's last hope, he's our friend. If that means I have to get my neck deep in blood, I'll do it."