PreTraining

'I wonder where Grisha is right now' I thought to myself laying in bed with Mikasa next to me sleeping. Then Hearing a loud creaking noise from the door area 'What the hell is that?' I got up pulling out a flintlock from my inventory.

I carefully got up so as to not wake Mikasa. Walking down a long hallway, walls bare of any paintings or decorations and rugless wooden floors while barefoot. 

'I hope that someone has broken into my house so I can go second amendment on them.' I secretly hoped.

Walking to the end of the hallway where there was the main stairwell that was just in front of where the noise came from. Taking extra care to stay hidden I tried my best to stay in the shadows.

I saw Grisha and Eren at the doorway. 'Speak of the devil and he shall come.' I couldn't help but think of the saying.

Unfortunately I couldn't hear what they were saying so all I could see was Grisha and Eren leaving. But there was an unsettling moment where he made direct eye contact with me, his face filled with defeat and resentment but it felt as if neither were directed towards me. 

Although we made eye contact I didn't feel as if he was looking at me.

I sat down on a chair that was by the railing.

'The hell was that stare about.' I thought to myself unable to feel tapping on my shoulder.

"Arno, Arno" Mikasa was repeatedly tapping on my shoulder while I was lost in thought."ARNO!" yelling this time broke my concentration.

"Hmm?" I looked up at Mikasa 'How the hell are you awake already?'

"Keep your voice down Mikasa." I said calmly. "You'll wake up everyone."

"Why did you leave me?" Mikasa was on the verge of crying

Seeing this I got up from the chair to comfort her "I was just checking on something, I will never leave you." I embraced her into a hug and for a second I saw her smile. Mikasa felt soft and the touch was electric.

I gave Mikasa a head pat and picked her up into a bridal carry and walked straight to bed.

However when Arno saw someone out of the corner he turned around to see Eren standing in a corner wearing the long green survey corps coat. However Eren looked older but not as old as you'd have expected. He looked like he was from s2 or s3 not s4 if that makes sense. Eren did nothing except nod. Nodding to Arno but nothing else before he just vanished.

"Arno, what's wrong?" Mikasa asked while still in my arms

"Nothing." I said walking to the bed before gently dropping Mikasa onto it

'Shit is everything right now being manipulated by Eren." I was worried for the future now

The next day everyone was in the house's courtyard doing something different. The house I bought with copied money is so stupidly large that there are separate rooms for breakfast and dinner and as for lunch we ate outside unless it was raining then we use our lunch room. All of this for just 5,000 pure sterlings ok maybe not just. This was probably a mind shattering amount of money for most people. For references a house gets expensive when it reaches 50 pure sterlings this was pretty much a villa.

The house was in a small village I named Oxford. The reason being the village had a ford in the middle of its river and the farmers were using oxen to plow fields when I got here.

I was dubbed lord of this territory by the locals because of my ownership of the villa. And since this part was unclaimed by any noble I was able to just take it, hell the royal government even recognized me in this regard and gave me a decree to rule as I pleased over Oxford and a small surrounding area mostly due to my falsification of family documents. And as it turns out, selling some meat at a steep discount in exchange for favors gave me access to some MP's who were willing to do a few things for me in return. That to me was worth more than the money I could just copy.

"Everyone, lunch is ready!" Carla called out bringing out a tray of many sandwiches 

I helped Eren and Armin stand up after I beat the crap out of them in an attempt to train them in hand to hand combat. Eren was making good progress and Armin was barely making any gains.

We all rushed to the lunch table to eat but it was only then did I notice that Eren had his basement key attached around his neck.

'Why didn't I notice that earlier?' I thought about looking at the key around his neck.

"What's wrong Arno?" Eren asked as I was staring at the key around his neck

"Nothing." I said averting my gaze to look at the many sandwiches. Because I had too much meat in my inventory, I give some to Carla regularly so she can make some sandwiches partly because I can't cook for shit.

"Do you still want to join the survey corps?" Armin asked Eren when Carla was thought to be out of earshot

"WHAT?!?!" Carla shouted out "Eren I thought we agreed that you won't join the survey corps."

"Armin, why would you bring that up?" Eren said to Armin

"Leave Armin out of this young man." Carla said. And this is the part where I stop paying attention to the argument because it is not worth listening to the same thing repeatedly.

I just ate the venison sandwich and Mikasa and Armin did the same while Eren was getting scolded. 

Arno, looking at Armin, thought of the perfect training regime for him. First of all it would be heavy in meat then it would focus on Armin's cardio before heading to strength training and finally it would go to martial arts. The reason for training Armin like this is for the simple reason that he could easily die if something small were to change from the original after all he survived because Eren was nearby and that might not be the case. And even if Armin is weak willed he is still worth keeping around for his intelligence and also the fact that his will could be improved later on.

As for Eren he was going to be strong enough without the training so Arno skipped the cardio and glossed over the strength before it went straight to martial arts which was taught at first by giving Eren beatings until he was able to defend himself properly.

By the end of the two years Armin looked much better and was a bit taller and Eren is probably able to actually fight someone and win. 

One day when Arno was overseeing Armin training strength by helping plow the fields with the farmers. Armin was shirtless under the summer sun and he looked like he was gaining a good amount of muscle.

Mikasa walked carrying a basket towards Arno. She was wearing a blue dress and a straw hat on top of her head.

"Arno." Mikasa said to get his Attention.

Arno turned around to look at Mikasa.

Mikasa extended her arms, moving the basket closer to Arno.

"I made some sandwiches for you." Mikasa said nervously "Do you want them?"

"Sure." Arno responded motioning for Mikasa to sit next to him

Armin, seeing Arno stop paying to him, stopped to catch his breath before the farmer who owned the oxen yelled at Armin for slacking off.

Arno bit into one of the sandwiches and Mikasa was anxiously awaiting his reaction.

"It's good." Arno said with a smile on his face and words could not describe how Mikasa felt inside. "Have some." He said to Mikasa

Mikasa sat down next to Arno eating a sandwich, smiling from ear to ear.

"Do you really want to join the scouts?" Mikasa's face seemed to lose its brightness as she asked the question.

"Yes"