Kapitel 33: Chapter 33: Diary

The book had yellowed pages, most of it was difficult to read because of the humidity the pages had absorbed during the years, but difficult didn't mean impossible.

Most of the things written in the book were pointless, some were descriptions of how Liesl's mother had lived that particular day.

For example there were many times were similar things happened, like 'Today was a great day, the Sun was shining so Mum and Dad took me for a walk near the river, after that we ate my favorite food, potatoes and we even had a bit of meat Dad bought in Shiganshina'

This was the first time Liesl had heard about her grandparents, it seems that her grandmother was a kind and very active lady while her grandfather was a studious man who worked as a doctor for the village.

Apparently she had used that same diary for the entirety of her life, writing on it sporadically, spending months without writing anything.

At the very beginning there were only doodles and childish writing, after a bit it evolved into a series of ranting about how her father had told her to keep a diary to exercise writing outside of school.

The ranting ended soon enough, the handwriting steadily got better and more comprehensible, but the happenings of what is described were still weeks, if not months apart from one another.

But it suddenly changed all of a sudden when a certain person came into her life, Vergil Stark, Liesl's father, from that point on there were many more pages written than before.

The funny part, at least to Klemens, was that at first the two didn't like each other's guts at all, they seemed to always fight.

'Argh, that stupid Vergil, he's always lazying around and never takes anything seriously, today I caught him sleeping near the forest, so I threw a ball of dirt at him, his face after that was hilarious and he started running after me across the entire village'

That and similar things followed, even Klemens mother, Anne-Marie Ackerman, or as she was called at the time Anne-Marie Wolf made an appearance many different times, apparently she and Liesl's mother were best friends, which went on even after their respective marriages.

The years passed, they read a lot but there were still no mentions of Klemens' father, Hardwin Ackerman, but life was happy for the people mentioned.

Liesl's parents fell in love, but not without a fair bit of drama, apparently her mother thought that her father was together with Klemens' mother because at times she had seen them hiding and talking in secret.

It was only a long time later that it came out that Vergil was asking Klemens' mother advice on how to make Liesl's mother fall for him, the advices worked wonders as they worked, but their meetings created a whole different problem.

Eventually they resolved their misunderstanding, it was actually Anne-Marie, Klemens' mother, who snapped one day and got too tired of their stupid misunderstanding and revealed everything to Liesl's mother who had been hiding her feelings for Vergil.

At that point they started going out and soon enough they got engaged, Vergil proposed near the river that Liesl's mother loved ever since she was little when her parents brought her there to play.

'He proposed! He proposed! The blockhead finally has the guts to propose! And with such a cheesy line too, he said "Saga Amdahl, I promise to love you until my last moment in this world, will you do me the honor of being my wife?" such a moron, isn't he? Why does he even have to ask such an obvious question?'

The happiness in her writing was obvious, she even put small hearts above the 'i's, something she had never done before in any other page.

What seemed like a few day after the announcement of the engagement, finally the first appearance of Klemens' father came.

'That Anne-Marie... what does she find in that guy I will never understand, he's quiet and has a scowl on his face most of the time, she told me that they started a relationship too, but she never told me. Me! Her best friend!

That guy came from nowhere, he's obviously suspicious, very few people know about this village outside after all, I'll have to ask her about his past next time I see her'

The answer to those question didn't remain unanswered for long, as right on the next page the answer came.

'She told me that he was a soldier who was dismissed after an injury at his arm, now that I think about it, I never saw him hold anything heavy, did I? Apparently he doesn't like to talk about it'

"My father was injured?" Klemens couldn't help but question out loud, he had never seen his father show discomfort, but it was probably because too much time had passed and details like that were left forgotten.

Soon the marriage between Saga Amdahl and Vergil Stark came, and after that, the one between Annie-Marie Wolf and Hardwin Ackerman followed soon after.

'Oh my God, Anne's son is so cute, I hope that mine is a girl so that we can pair them together! We'll have many super cute grandchildren then! I can't wait, I already have the name ready, it'll be Liesl if it's a girl and Rafael if it's a male, I'll be incredibly happy either way!'

'And it's a girl, and I'm completely objective when I say that Liesl is the cutest little girl in the whole world, pinching her small cheeks is heavenly, tomorrow I'll send Vergil to call Anne and Hardwin over to let the children meet, they'll be the cutest little couple ever!'

The two readers blushed after reading such, it was speaking about them after all, but both were incredibly happy, everything that was written were things about a past that they wouldn't have been able to know about otherwise, a side of their respective parents that they didn't know about.

Liesl remembered her mother as a calm and collected woman, but from the way the diary was written it seemed almost as if it was written by an overexcited teenage girl, as for her father, it seemed like he liked slouching and lazying around before getting together with her mother.

Not much was written about Klemens' parents' personalities, but from the actions that were described it seemed that his mother was a hotheaded woman ready to pick up a fight at any time, completely different from what he remembered as a kind and caring mother.

His father on the other hand was only described as a cold person normally, but it seems that whenever he was with his mother he smiled and warmed up, enough to share his past burdens and how he was injured in a mission outside the wall against a normal titan.

But then a part came that made Klemens and Liesl cringe and laugh at the same time, their own description by her mother youthful writing style.

'I was indeed right, those two will become heart breakers in the future, they are too cute!' was how it began.

'They are not only cute, but incredibly intelligent and strong too! Today I saw Klemens stand up on his own legs just to get away from Liesl who was bothering him, just for her to do the same and follow him, they aren't even seven months old!'

'Okay, even I have to admit that those two seem a bit weird, they are now eight months old and I swear I heard Klemens say in a serious tone "Away" to Liesl and that she replied "No" I might be going crazy'

"Oh, look Lie, you were a pain in the ass as soon as you were born!" said the black haired young man with a joking tone, to which the girl replied in a proud voice "If you aren't like me from birth, you'll never be!" as she puffed her chest up.

After many pages of nothing of importance, something new came up.

'Ok, I give up, those two asked Hardwin to train them like soldiers and Lie wants to break the walls, it's obviously her baby brain talking, but if those idiots that worship the wall she'd be branded as a devil or something, who knows what goes through the mind of those fanatics'

"She is right Lie, you're a trap ready to blow up with your speeches about freedom"

"Fuck them, like they can do anything" replied the girl.

"They can do a lot, like poison you-" "I can't be poisoned, I'd notice" she interrupted, but he kept going "-or ambush you-" "Same, I'd notice"

"Oh my God, let's see... Oh they could threaten someone you love to get you, are you immune to that too?"

She hesitated, but eventually replied with certainty in her eyes and voice "If they capture someone I love, we just need to free them and put down the captors, don't we?"

He looked at her oddly, straight to her eyes, when he saw not even the slightest hint of doubt that they'd be able to accomplish such a feat was great, but it could also be hubris, they had already suffered too much from pride, but eventually he gave in.

Klemens took a deep sigh and raised his hands in surrender after seeing such certainty in her, he could do nothing other than giving up "You win"

"As always" she replied with a victorious smirk on her face "Now shut up, and let's finish the book, not much is left anyway"

She made a poker face, but Klemens could see the sadness hidden behind it, it seems like readying it did help in giving her some closure, but it will still take some time to heal completely.

He didn't know, but the same could be said for him, he himself didn't know about the loss he had in his heart, he thought that it was normal, but sooner or later it would crush him if he didn't let it go, and reading this book was a good first step.

'Hardwin says that they are geniuses so I went to take a look, I saw them duel with the fake swords that he gave them and I can proudly say that my Lie won, even if only by a breath.

I'm not an expert, but even I can see that they were moving way too perfectly and with so much power behind their hits that it looked like I was looking at two experts with many years of experience instead of children, it's only been half a year!'

"Eheh, I won"

"Shut up"

'Next month it'll be little Kle tenth birthday, it an important date so we are preparing a party, it'll be awesome!'

That was the last entry in the diary, it was far from the last page, but the author didn't have the time to complete it.

Liesl closed the book and put it down on the table and closed her eyes.

"Hey Lie..." Klemens didn't know what to say, it was probably the first time that he had seen his friend acting this way other than six years before, right after they were taken inside Wall Rose and they gave themselves the time to mourn their loss.

Instead of opening her eyes, from which warm tears were now streaming out of, she let her body fall to the side, right on her companions thighs face down.

This time he didn't say anything and starting patting her head, after which he looked outside the window, it was dawn.

"Do you want to sleep here tonight? We'll go tomorrow morning to Shiganshina, fuck those titans" he said in a soft tone, she nodded while still face down on his thighs and he sighed.

He kept patting her head, she eventually fell asleep so he brought her to her old bed.

He then jumped in too, he couldn't leave her alone and he didn't want to sleep alone at a time like this either.

"Goodnight Lie"

No answer came other than her soft breaths.