PROTOTYPE『ᴇᴘɪᴘʜᴀɴʏ 』 - 𝒜𝓉𝓉𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝑜𝓃 𝒯𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓃 𝑅𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝐼𝓃𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓉 -

Chapter Four - Bonding

[ A month later ]

"Erwin, here are the documents on (Y/n)'s background checks. There are various intriguing facts about her!" Hange banged into the commander's room and roughly puts some documents on the table, right in front of the tall blonde man.

Levi who happened to be in the room clicked his tongue in annoyance but by now, he's already used to the four eyes' weird antics. Erwin took the papers carefully read them one by one then followed by Levi.

"...Well, this is certainly interesting," Erwin murmured.

"So, once again you won." Levi puts the paper back to the table and leaned on his chair.

"Should we ask her if she knows anything about this?" Hange is on her serious mode now and Erwin lightly shook his head.

"She hasn't fully trusted us yet."

"Huh? What do you mean, Erwin? She seemed to trust Levi enough. She even called him Aniki and Levi even taught her to make tea." Hange tilted her head in confusion.

"If you plan to make me question the brat, don't even think of it." Levi kept his stoic face and monotone voice. But deep down, he really despises the idea of using (Y/n)'s trust for something like this.

"Then, Erwin, why don't you try to communicate with her now? If I'm not remembering this wrong, her history of titan class is going to be done soon." Hange clasped her hands together and instantly, she turned back to her cheery mode.

"Maybe I should."

[ At (Y/n)'s Study ]

(Y/n) is about to leave her study room when suddenly Erwin came and told her to remain seated. (Y/n) had no idea why the commander would come to meet her at this time but she kept quiet and wait until the man to speak first. But 2 minutes have passed and none of them initiates a conversation.

"...I have a question." (Y/n) who couldn't stand the awkwardness in the air finally broke it.

"Yes?"

"It's a foolish one though." (Y/n) warned the commander.

"Everyone defines foolish differently," Erwin replied.

"I was staring at the titans painting and the more I stare at them, the more I wonder. They're very similar to humans. What if, all this time, titans are people and you and the other soldiers are just killing people trapped in a nightmare. No.. What if all this time, you are just killing other humans?"

Erwin didn't anticipate this kind of question to be asked by a kid. How could a kid possibly have any thoughts like this? Especially when she never encountered a real titan and how she never received any formal education before.

But wait. Maybe it's because of how (Y/n) IS a child. People often say that a person is in the purest state when they were just a baby or a child. They don't know harsh realities yet so their imagination is beyond adults.

Besides, Erwin has always been the person who thinks outside the box too, or perhaps even the type who creates a new box instead.

"....There has been no evidence of it yet. But, if you say they're trapped in a nightmare when they're a titan, wouldn't that mean we are freeing them from their nightmare?" Erwin answered.

"By killing them?" (Y/n) emphasized the killing word and Erwin looked lost for a moment.

"As mentioned before, there has been no evidence of it. Therefore they are not human like us until proven to be otherwise. Even so, if they are humans, up until now our research has shown that the only way to stop them by slicing their nape which means, death for them."