Chương 22: Chapter 22

Near the end of the year 846, beside a large plot of land filled with various crops, there was a golden-haired boy lying peacefully while leaning his body on one of the many trees around. It was not yet the time when he was normally released from duty, but the boy had just finished lunch and was taking his rare momentary nap.

Because of the event where they sent tens of thousands of refugees on a suicide mission to retake the Maria Wall, now all the remnants got three meals a day at their disposal, so the problem because of hunger was practically solved.

Suddenly, three other young men appear in front of them. A stout boy, a tall boy and a girl with blonde hair, better known as Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie.

"Hey, rest time is over." - Annie as she used her foot to move the boy lying down.

Suddenly, to her surprise, the golden haired boy moved abruptly and grabbed Annie's right leg quite tightly, as if hugging a pillow.

"Let me sleep for 5 more minutes wanti-"

*Strong kick*

*oooouch* - Zirken/Ezir.

"What was that?!" - Zirken, wakes up immediately after feeling a pain in his stomach.

"Sorry, my leg moved by itself." - Annie.

"You... It's not enough to knock me out of my beauty sleep and on top of that you kick me!" - Zirken as he kept his hands on his belly.

Normally, the young Zirken wouldn't even feel this kick, but for some reason completely unknown to him until then, whenever Annie hits him, it's as if his physical stamina wouldn't do much good.

'Why of all the people in this multiverse, she soon manages to make my stamina useless?! And worst of all, I have no idea why that is!' - Zirken.

"'You were unlucky, Ezir. You tried to hold the wrong leg hehehe." - Reiner.

"Annie is pretty aggressive when it comes to hitting you, Ezir-san." - Bertolt.

"Are you a sadist by any chance?!" - Zirken.

"Hummm... I don't know, but for some reason it's nice to hit you..." - Annie.

"If it weren't for my policy of not hitting women, you would have tasted my fists by now!!!" - Zirken, quite irritated.

'Always irritated when you wake up...' - Everyone.

During the last year of living together, the three of them discovered two things that made Zirken/Ezir angry, one of them is being woken up, no matter at what time of day, he always wakes up angry and with no patience whatsoever. This was multiplied when Annie forcefully woke him up through kicking him.

"If you continue with this useless thinking, you will always catch up to me." - Annie.

"Oooh? Don't forget that you can only hit me when I'm not awake, Ane." - Zirken.

'This is getting interesting...' - Reiner.

"Do you want to test it? You wouldn't be able to get off the floor, Ezir." - Annie.

"Wait, wait!" - Reiner.

The two immediately stopped arguing as soon as they heard their companion's raised voice.

"Why don't you two settle this at once?" - Reiner, with a slightly wicked smile.

"What are you thinking, Reiner?" - Bertolt.

"Have a mock battle, a mano a mano without interference!" - Reiner.

"I like the idea." - Annie.

"Don't play dumb Reiner, even you felt in your skin what it was like to catch for me." - Zikren.

"What's the matter, Ezir? Are you afraid of losing to a girl?" - Reiner felt a slight shiver run down his spine.

"Don't tease him Reiner, do you want to catch him again?!"' - Bertolt speaking low to his companion.

"Don't be fearful Bertolt, don't you want a chance to see Ezir get beaten for the first time?!" - Reiner whispering to the tall boy.

"But-" - Bertolt was about to retort, but was abruptly interrupted by the irritated Ezir.

"All right! I'll make an exception, but let's make this a real contest. I want to make a bet!" - Zirken.

"A bet? Why?" - Annie.

"You can ask me for anything if you win, or are you not confident that you can do that~ ?" - Zirken.

"Tsk, right, but in case I win, I will beat you when I want to, without resistance, and you will have to answer my questions." - Annie.

"Oooh? Since that's the case, I'll demand something personal in return." - Zirken, with an ear-to-ear grin.

"Fucking pervert." - Annie, as her face flushed a little and felt a shiver run through her body.

"I didn't know you were such a lowlife scum, Ezir." - Reiner.

"I expected more from you..." - Bertolt.

"EI EI, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING I AM!!!! I'm not going to ask anything your polluted minds are thinking!" - Zirken.

Soon after, the four returned to their normal day-to-day business. However, they both agreed to fight the next day at dawn to prevent fatigue from interfering with the fight, even though they rarely feel severely tired after working.

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Presently, the sun had just risen in the heavens and the four of them were standing in front of the hut. Annie and Zirken were facing each other, but some distance away, while Reiner stood between them and Bertold stood in the corner just watching.

"The first one to hit his hand on the ground three times will lose the fight, understood?" - Reiner.

The two fighters nodded in agreement and began to face each other. Soon after, the two set up their fighting stance and were ready to start the fight at any moment.

(Annie is in her fighting stance the same as in the anime and Zirken uses a similar one, but pulled into the Muay Thai style.)

"START" - Reiner.

The combatants stood still as they analyzed each other's slightest movements. In a few seconds, Annie decided to take the initiative and slowly moved towards the boy.

The boy still remained staring at the girl, like a predator waiting for the best moment to devour its prey.

'No openings...' - Annie.

It was then that she suddenly picked up momentum and ran as fast as she could at the still motionless boy. As if expecting this, Zirken immediately raised his guard even more, just waiting for a single gap.

But to his surprise, Annie suddenly threw herself down and slid her body on the ground, intending to hit her feet. The boy failed to anticipate this bold move and was hit directly.

Zirken fell on his butt on the dirt floor and without giving him any chance to react, Annie immediately pulled his arm and put it between his legs, trying to apply an arm wrench.

'I expected him to take a bigger beating.' - Reiner and Bertolt, believing that Ezir had already lost even before Annie applied the blow.

Or did they...