章 11: Chapter 11: Mountains
"Outstanding job cadet, in the name of humanity I thank you for what the two of you have achieved today"
A few hours after Commander Pixis saw the mountain of titans being slowly killed off, he reached the top of the wall and congratulated sincerely Klemens and Liesl, they were both currently at the top of the wall as no titan was currently breaching the wall.
The number they killed was in the hundreds, they couldn't know for sure as neither of the two had bothered keeping count of the kills.
Both replied "Thanks, sir!"
But right after Liesl leaned closer to her friend and whispered "Who's this?"
"How should I know?"
"You usually know things, dumbass"
"Armin knows things not me, moron, now shut up, this dude is looking at us weird" he replied the boy, who was feeling slightly discomfortable from the look the short blond haired woman by the side of the bald man was giving them.
'These two idiots are going at it even in front of the commander?!' were the thoughts of the woman, who couldn't understand how such vulgar people could possess such strength.
But the commander just chuckled at the twos antics, not really offended by the fact that the two were ignoring him, and how could he?
The two had just saved the thousands people of the Trost District from an assured and bloody death amid despair in the jaws of a titan, they were heroes and heroes had every right of being a bit eccentric, within acceptable limits.
"My name is Dot Pixis and I happen to be the commander of the Garrison, if I'm not wrong the two of you are Klemens Ackerman and Liesl Stark, first and second rankers respectively in this years cadet ranking"
"Yeah" replied the girl, who didn't seem to care at all about the rank of commander, he wasn't going to be her commander after all.
"Yes" replied the boy, being just barely more respectful than his companion.
"The two of you will certainly be some of the greatest assets for humanity, especially in this difficult times, I hope that going forward the two of you will keep up with the expectations you have just set"
"Yes sir" the two replied, the girl had a question in mind, but decided that she would ask it to the boy in private, away from these prying ears.
"Now, the two of you don't need to keep guard here anymore, the evacuation of the district has already been completed, I would ask you to join me in retreating were there is no chance of encountering a titan, if the two of you don't mind , there don't seem to be too many titans remaining anyway" stated the commander.
"Yes sir" said the two before walking behind the commander as the entire group started leaving the danger zone of the Trost District, to the safe inside of Wall Rose.
But the commander could still hear the voices of the two bickering fifteen year olds from behind him.
"I'm gonna take a bath and sorry Kle, but you can't peep on my beautiful form"
"Peep on what? That nonexistent chest you have?"
"It's obvious that a pervert like you would feel the burning desire of looking at the most beautiful woman in the word while she bathes"
"When you find this most beautiful woman let me know, by the way I think that you decided to make that titan mountain to compensate your lack of mountains"
The two kept going for a bit longer, until the blond woman looked weirdly at them and they decided to continue their insult duel at a later time.
---------------------------
The two were given two rooms to rest, but Liesl just skipped it and entered her friends room together with him, they still had things to talk about and plans to plan.
"So... What do you think about the expectation thing that the commander talked about?" asked the girl as she plopped on the bed.
"He wants to use us, I don't know how exactly, but we just saved a district, maybe he wants us to do it again" replied the boy lying down and putting his head on the pillow facing upwards.
"Seems like it, but look at how nice this place is, we haven't had a singular room in a long time"
"Yeah, living with the boys is cool and all, but the smell really sucks"
The girl lied down next to him facing him and sniffed slightly, she then exaggeratedly blocked her nose with her hand and said with a disgusted expression "Yeah, you're right, a decomposing titan smells better than you"
The two kept bickering for a bit, but they gradually quieted down.
They stayed in silence for a bit, until the boy asked "Are we going to do this forever? Fighting, I mean"
She thought about the answer for a bit "I will, but you don't have to, I don't want you to, I'd love if the two of us could just laid back and made, I don't know, a farm or something, together, but the idea of not doing anything while being just a bunch of animals ready for slaughter makes me feel sick.
I don't and won't put up with it, if fate wants me to die while trying to get my freedom then so be it" the last words came out as a whisper.
By now, the Sun was about to set, the two had been talking for a while and the girl seemed to have absolutely no intention of leaving, not that he wanted her to.
After all that happened that day they both needed some human contact.
"As if I could just let you die somewhere without me, who will avenge you when a random titan eats you because you were acting dumb?"
This comment slightly pissed her off, so she pouted and replied "I never act dumb, you are dumb"
"You built a literal mountain of monstrosities today and risked dying multiple times because you were doing that" he replied with a deadpan face.
"But I didn't die!"
"Yet, you didn't die yet and it was only thanks to luck" he replied while pinching her side making her laugh.
"Stop that!" the two then started laughing together, almost as if the experience that day didn't happen.
They looked like a normal teenager couple, but the experience enormously weighed on their mind, they both almost died, multiple times.
Had they been slightly less talented or slightly less intelligent they would have both died so many times.
They managed to do what they did mostly thanks to luck, even if Klemens didn't want to admit that.
The two eventually fell asleep in the comfort of their shared bed, one in the arms of the other, for the first time in years.
---------------------------
This time the armored titan didn't make an appearance, to the relief of everyone, both civilian and soldiers.
Many high ranking people coming from the militari police came to meet the two, it seemed that they took for certain that the saviors of Trost would join their regiment.
Both of them decided that they wouldn't correct their assumption, they didn't care about those pot bellied leaches that knew nothing, but eat and sleep consuming the people's money only to indulge in their filthy desires.
At least that's what the two thought, they could see the evident greed in their eyes, maybe there were good people among the military police, but the two hadn't met them.
They also had become undisputed idols among the population of Trost and the other cadets of the 104th training corps, the ease that they displayed slaughtering one titan after the other while every other person was despairing at the possibility of a repeat of what happened five years before.
The military was doing everything possible to publicize the two, to take away the attention from the fact that they had now lost even more territory at the hands of the titans, they had become symbols of freedom and hope overnight.
'The two stars that make even the darkest night bright' was one of the exaggerated headlines on the bulletin distributed in every city within the walls.
Trost was now clear of people, it was now filled with a couple of titans, not many as the most of those close to the wall had already been killed, those that entered now were only the ones that were a bit further away, but it was sure that more would eventually arrive.
A knock came from the door, the two fifteen year olds had been awake for a while, but were still in bed as neither had any intention of getting up, they were far too tired, but the hunger was beginning to let itself known.
"Whoo?" answered the boy to the knocking, he really hoped it was food so that he could eat while in bed.
But a voice from the other side brought a message that greatly disappointed him "Commander Pixis is calling you to have breakfast in the official's dining room"
"Naa..." the girl grunted in a low tone, she really didn't want to get up right now, but they had to, not going would be rude.
"Give us a moment" replied the boy, indirectly telling the messenger outside of the location of the girl by his side, they had been knocking on her door too, but no answer came.
A couple of minutes later the two left the room and asked the person waiting for them, an average looking girl with brown hair, where the two could find some water so that they could freshen up.
The girl told them were the bathroom was and they left quickly following the instructions.
Fifteen minutes later the two finally reached the official's dining hall, where the commander Pixis and a few elite soldier of the garrison were waiting for them.
"Oh" lightly exclaimed the commander "You're finally here, I'm sorry for waking you up, but we have received a communication from the central government, but we can talk about that later, for now, please, enjoy the breakfast especially prepared for the two of you"
The breakfast was great, it was made of scrambled eggs, ham and white bread, a true luxury in a place were only the rich could afford meat due to the loss of the territory that used to rear the most cows.
"This is great" said the girl, as she tried to steal a bit of her friends meal fruitlessly.
"Don't you dare, I'll throw you in a titan mountain" warned the boy, with a look in his eyes that promised danger.
"Oh? Is that a threat I hear, Kle?"
"No, Lie, it's not a threat" replied the boy as he put a bit of the ham she tried to steal in his mouth, before swallowing "It's a promise"
"Oh really? Is that truly so? Then maybe I'll have to build more titan mountains for you to throw me in, shouldn't I?" she replied with a small grin on her face, she had already finished her breakfast so she was now eyeing his.
"Yeah, sure, maybe you'll get eaten and spare me the trouble of actually throwing you"
As the two joked, a chill went down the spine of a few of the soldiers of the garrison present, the would never forget the horror of the titan mountain, yet here there were people talking about making more of them.
Soon Klemens finished his meal, successfully defending it from any attack from his companion.
As the girl pouted about not receiving food, the boy ignored her and asked "So, about that message from the central government?"
"Yes" replied the commander "They want you to go to the palace to receive a Medal of Honor of a new kind especially for the two of you, it's called the Star of Freedom, that from now on shall only be for those that made incredibly big contributions to the good of humanity"
"So, the want to use us to distract the population from what happened in Trost, right" asked the girl in a disinterested tone while resting her head on both of her palms.
Seeing that the boy wasn't even phased by her words, the commander concluded that he reached the same conclusion, which made a smile appear on his face.
'These two are really good, instantly identifying the true intentions of the government'
"Exactly. So? What is your answer?"
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット