PROTOTYPE『ᴇᴘɪᴘʜᴀɴʏ 』 - 𝒜𝓉𝓉𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝑜𝓃 𝒯𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓃 𝑅𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝐼𝓃𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓉 -

Chapter Seven - 3 Months Later

[ 3 months later ]

A lot of things have been going on inside the walls, especially for the Scouts. They've been going on an expedition on and on for some time. It's like almost once in a month, they'll go beyond the walls. The Royal Government of the Walls enacts a culling in the form of a Wall Maria reclamation expedition. They sent out people, who don't even have a military background. It was an abrupt move. Most people died there and only more will.

(Y/n) kept writing on her journal as she sat on a stair in the HQ until she heard loud noises looming over. She quickly stopped and closed her book before putting it in her pocket. She then tried to peek from the stair railings.

"They're back!" (Y/n) gasped and smiling from ear to ear now. She saw horses and people, it's not as many as when they departed, just as expected someone's life would fall there, but she spotted the soldiers she's close with and that's all that matters to her.

But of course, being the (Y/n) she is, she erased the smile from her face as soon as she could. She then climbed down the stairs and stormed to where the soldiers are once they are off from their horses. She didn't exactly get that close though. She kept a distance and waited patiently until one of them noticed her. She just doesn't want to interrupt anything.

Surprisingly, the one who noticed her presence first was Miche. Probably thanks to his... Exceptional sniffing skill.

Although it is true that (Y/n) and Miche didn't interact with each other as often as with Levi or Erwin, (Y/n) thinks that Miche is quite nice and she's amazed by his strange yet cool sniffing behavior. She doesn't dislike Miche at all.

"Welcome back." (Y/n) welcomed the man and he replied with a soft smile.

"(Y/N)!!!!! I miss you a lot! I wish I could have brought a titan for you." Hange ran to hug (Y/n), almost suffocating her.

"No way, Hange." (Y/n) lets out a simple laugh at Hange's remarks. She absolutely is obsessed with titans.

"Ah, Erwin, Levi-aniki!" (Y/n) saw the two men already stepping closer but she was becoming impatient so she ran to them first to give them a hug.

It was something that (Y/n) rarely does, in fact, it is only their second time getting a hug from her and even then, her previous hugs were done not when other soldiers are watching.

Erwin was too tall so he knelt down and gave (Y/n) a pat. Levi, by any means, is shorter than most soldiers here but he's still taller than (Y/n) so he bent down a little as well.

"How's your homework?" Levi asked suddenly, causing (Y/n) to give him her proud expression.

"Heh, easy. I've done all of it."

(Y/n) is being honest. She has nothing better to do after all so all she did when everyone was away is to train. From day to night, all she does was just training and studying with few soldiers who don't get to join the current expedition due to injury or something else.

"Good," Erwin responded.

"Ah, right, Hange. Look at my hair. I cut it myself this time." (Y/n) showed Hange her neatly cut (h/c) hair.

"Aww, I was hoping I could cut it for you." Hange pouted.

"Well then, we will see you again later (Y/n). We have to do something else first." Erwin reminded the others that they still got something else to do.

"Ah, right. Later then, (Y/n)!"

[ After Dinner - Levi's room ]

Levi asked (Y/n) to come by to his room after she had her dinner, he told (Y/n) that he is expecting her to make a good tea for him. He said it's to test whether her skill on tea-making has improved or not but that was just his reason. He only wanted to spend some time with the little girl he had become attached to, he sees her as her younger sister, a daughter to push it even further. 

"Here you go!" (Y/n) poured the tea into Levi's cup. She didn't say it but Levi could see from her expression alone that she's hoping the tea would be good.

Levi snickered at it but he hides it well. He picked the teacup up and took a sip.

"Not bad."

"So, it's good?"

"You could say that."

Hearing that, (Y/n) sighed in relief and finally had the guts to sit down on the chair and drinks her own tea.

"Levi-aniki, next year I'll join the training corps, right? I heard they will rank us by the end of it."

"It doesn't matter. It's only based on training. Those ranks aren't that important in real battles." Levi answered after taking another sip of his tea.

"Then it's okay if I don't want to be in the top 10?"

"What? Do you want to slack off?"

"No. Not like that. I just don't fancy the idea of becoming in the top 10." (Y/n) quickly explained, not wanting to cause a misunderstanding.

Levi remained silent, not replying to (Y/n). He just keeps drinking his tea and stares at the little girl. He thinks that (Y/n) would easily reach the top 10 even when she decides to slack off a bit. But even if she didn't get into the top 10 or if she doesn't want to, it just doesn't matter much to Levi. He himself wasn't a part of the training corps and he doesn't get ranked.

"...Can I tell you a story?" (Y/n) asked and Levi only slightly raised one of his brows.

"What kind?"

"I have the feeling that Erwin and you have done something like a background check on me. But, you just haven't asked me anything or maybe you did but I wasn't aware of it." (Y/n) puts her cup down and stared at her reflection on the tea.

"Just to not get your hopes high, I have no idea about things that happened before I could remember things. But, my mother-" Before (Y/n) could finish what she wanted to tell Levi, someone knocked on the door.

"State your name and business."

Levi clearly felt annoyed at how he is being interrupted but when he knew that it was a member of his special squad that had an important thing to report, he had to let the soldier in.

(Y/n) realized that she shouldn't be there so she excused herself by muttering, "Maybe another time." To Levi. She also mentioned how she is counting on him to wash the cup for this one time.