Chapter 23

-[Liam]-

With the exposure of Reiner and Bertholdt as well as the reveal of the true origin of titans, the days leading up to the start of the expedition were filled with tension.

Annie's reveal to the soldiers was amusing if only for Eren's overreactions and name callings. The brat was still making a fuss over the fact that he was kept out of the loop.

The blonde girl had been quietly transferred into the survey corps. Though there were some that were still wary about her, she couldn't care less.

Ymir and Christa's ever ending tension had grown to more considerable heights with the latter now actively ignoring the former.

Thinking about all that had happened so far, Liam couldn't help but be amused.

"Aackkk…w-why are…y-you…doin-! aackkk!" He looked down at the short overweight man under his foot.

The fun fact about [Apparition] was that if the user wasn't able to fully picture where they wanted to go, they'd be teleported to somewhere similar. The Reiss family's underground chapel was one of a kind with it being the only place like it in the entire world.

All it took was a thought and he appeared inside it with a pop. To his fortune, he found Rod Reiss inside.

Looking around, he sighed at burnt, charred and skewered corpses all around him. After Kenny's and his right hand officer's disappearance, Rod Reiss had holes himself up in the underground chapel along with the rest of Kenny's squad as protection.

There were pieces of ice and scorch marks all around him and the whimpering man. 'I think this is the first time I let loose without worrying about getting caught.'

The chapel was underground and secure which allowed him to freely decimate Kenny's squad with [Fire Magic Mastery] and [Ice Magic Mastery]. The unadulterated terror in Rod's eyes as he stared at him spoke of what the man witnessed.

"Unfortunately, your continued existence would only hinder my plans and I can't have that." Liam said almost boredly as a blast of fire shot from his palm.

The man's scream was ignored as the flames engulfed him, silencing him permanently. He spawned some ice clones to clean up the mess, lamenting the fact that he didn't even level up once.

'It looks like I've found a base of operations for my own use.' He thought as he moved towards the entrance of the chapel, freezing the door shut with a very thick layer of ice.

With the exception of the figureheads in the royal government, the remaining people who knew of the underground chamber were dead so it was perfect. All he had to do was leave a clone behind to watch over the place whenever he left.

With a base now acquired, he could proceed with one of his more long term plans. Using [Apparition], he disappeared with a pop, appearing in Shiganshina inside one of the very few houses that was still mostly intact.

In the middle of the room was a block of ice as big as he was. Frozen inside the ice was a petite blonde haired woman in a long ankle-length skirt with a white button-up blouse and a white armband on her left arm.

'Dina Fritz. I wonder how Zeke would react to knowing that his mother is still alive.' He thought as he stared into the ice.

From the moment he first started hunting the titans, he'd been careful to find and avoid killing Dina's abnormal titan. After creating the cure, it wasn't that hard to restrain it and dump it down her throat.

He'd kept her on ice since then. Only after acquiring [Apparition] could he attempt to move her through large distances. He could only stash her in the empty buildings seeing as how he had nowhere else to put her at the time.

With the acquisition of the underground chapel, he could mitigate the risk of a titan somehow finding her and eating her. He didn't plan on turning Christa into a titan nor did he plan on trusting Zeke with the power of the founding titan.

Placing his palms on both sides of the ice, he disappeared from the house, appearing back in the underground chapel.

Upon returning, there was already another clone waiting for him, taking the block of ice deeper into the chapel.

'Now, I have an expedition to prepare for.' He thought as he teleported out of the chapel.

-[Erwin]-

With the expedition in a matter of hours, Erwin along with the squad leaders were reviewing the plans and tactics to be used.

Though they didn't have to worry about an intelligent titan attacking, they still had the regular titans to look out for.

"Hange, what do you think of Liam?" Erwin suddenly asked, confusing the woman.

The other squad leaders had left and she was about to do the same before he asked the question.

"I don't understand." She said, confusedly.

"What I mean is, what is your opinion on him?" Erwin asked, rephrasing the question.

Hange put on a thoughtful expression. "Well he's smart. Who knows how long it would've taken us to learn what we know now. Oh and he likes experimenting. Why do you ask?"

"When I first met him, he seemed like a good addition to the corps but there was one mistake I made." He said, confusing Hange. "There is a large difference between bravery and lack of fear."

"Bravery implies that you were actually afraid of something. What I thought to be bravery was an utter lack of fear." Erwin continued, confusing Hange even more.

"Where are you going with this?" She asked.

"It was difficult to pick up at first but when I did, I understood something. He lacks the ability to feel fear. From all the time I've spent in his presence, the only negative emotion he has displayed so far has been annoyance." He explained, making Hange pause as she thought about it.

"He is entirely motivated by his curiosity. He was curious about what titans were and found out that they were human. He was curious about whether he could turn them back to humans and developed something to do that. He wanted something to fight the armored titan and hence created the launchers. He wanted something to render the Reiner and Bertholdt unable to transform and did so. He was curious about whether he could transform humans into titans and developed a way." The more Erwin spoke, the clearer it became in Hange's head.

"Like you said, we've learnt a lot because of him and that was because our interests were in line with his seemingly never ending curiosity."

"When you put it like that it does seem scary. Thank goodness he's on our side." Hange said in a relieved tone.

"But for how long? How long until his curiosity is no longer in our interest? What happens when his quest for knowledge directly opposes our survival?" Erwin asked, a grave expression on his face as Hange's eyes widened.

"That's…we may not be able to do anything at that point. At least not without a huge loss." Hange admitted.

There was also the fact that he was the only one capable of producing the titan cure and titan serum. His ingenuity also far surpassed that of the engineers and support soldiers.

"Exactly. That is why we must make sure he doesn't have a reason to turn his curiosity against Paradis…no matter the cost." Erwin said firmly.