Daisy | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 21 - More Than Duty

A/N: you guys still alive? aight. this one is important too.

[Naomi]

"They're sentencing me to death, Naomi." My uncle told me, as I stood there in front of him, Hanji in the distance closer to him and Moblit by the door. I remember being frozen where I stood, unable to perceive the truth being related onto me.

"They can't do that!" Was the first thing I uttered. "I'm not letting them do it, Uncle!"

"Your individual stand at court won't make much of a difference against the majority." He told me, cold-hard into my face. Tears started welling my eyes and my nerves began to feel as if they'd been paralyzed, sentenced to death themselves. "If anything, it would jeopardize your succession. You should do everything now to help your new commander, Hanji."

Erwin looked towards his section commander, who was solemnly standing by the wall. He spoke in an unwavering, deep voice, despite the bounty on his head- enough to reign over a million lifetimes. "Hanji, I am appointing you now as my successor, witnessed by Vice Corporal Moblit Berner and Officer Naomi Smith of the Fourth Squad."

"You shall take over my position," He added further. "If our plans do not go as devised."

"It would be my honor, sir." Hanji replied firmly, bowing her head in utter respect. My hands began to tremble as chills ran down my spine.

"I can't take this." I sobbed quietly, turning away from them, as I faced the wall closest to me. I buried my fingers into my hair as I looked down, terrified, my chest feeling like it was concaving and my mind in disastrous wildfire. "Why is it so easy for you to say that word- Death?"

I heard light footsteps approach me, and he put a consoling hand over my trembling shoulder. "Sweetheart," He whispered lowly, his voice a deep growl. "When have my plans ever failed me so miserably as for me to lose my life? All these decades I've returned home from battle unscathed- until that one unfortunate time I lost my arm. That was the closest Death has ever drawn to me."

I looked up at him, his face expressionless; but his eyes shining in all the shades of certainty and consolation. I wiped my tears off and listened to him intently. "You have to trust what I can do, what the Scouts can do, Naomi. Even if it meant my life would be on the line. We have given our lives when we first took that oath and we would always intend to live by it."

I didn't answer for a moment, but I knew I was wasting time trying to calm myself down- only stoking the fires of my emotional catastrophe. "Y-Yes, sir. I... I understand. What is it that you need me to do?"

"I need you to take the locked box from my office," He ordered slowly, cautiously; "And bury it away from our property. From now on you will not participate in the secret operations, and you will take advantage of your role as a noble at court. Will that be fine with you?"

I nodded, sniffling. I was too caught-up with the dreadful thought of seeing my only family left hanged for a crime that didn't even exist to even object about the fact that I could never access my two mothers' most sacred belongings ever again. "Understood, sir."

"We have to go." Hanji announced, straightening up from her position by the corner of the room. I caught her still wiping a tear off of her face before she looked at our Commander with her seriousness and firmness. "Any other reminders left, Erwin?"

He stood there unresponsive for a moment, as if the weight of it all was just now pressing down on him in a dark wave. But then he nodded stiffly and let go of my shoulder. "That would be all. I'll send you another message if there's an alteration to the scheme, but please make sure everything falls exactly into place."