Chapter 40: Intoxication and doubt

The next morning, both morons woke up with the a great headache with barely any memory to speak of.

But those few memories that they did have, made them want to bury themselves from embarrassment.

After leaving Ymir to do her own things the two started arguing and teasing each other, it all began when she told him that he could handle alcohol as much as she could, so they went to the inn that they had been in on their first stay at Karanes district.

"Hey boss, a room and as much alcohol as is needed to knock this guy out" shouted Liesl as she made her way toward Mina's poor father.

Not poor that he was monetarily poor, but poor in the sense that a quarreling super strong duo just came to him fully intentioned to keep drinking until the other was on the ground in a coma.

It was nearing the time for dinner and the two were paying customers, most of all, they were his daughter's friends as he found out, so he promised to offer the first round.

Big mistake as her soon discovered.

As first round the two chose to order the most expansive bottle of alcohol in the entire inn, which costed a good amount of money even for him.

He argued that it didn't count as a round as it was too big to be considered as such, but Liesl shut him up by swinging half the bottle in a few seconds and seeing Klemens do the same and immediately ordering more right after made him doubt himself.

'And here I thought that I was a good drinker' he thought dejectedly.

And so the night when on and on, they didn't even eat as their stomachs were filled with alcoholic beverages and couldn't handle having food thrown inside too.

After two whole liters each of the strongest drink the inn had, they were completely wasted and about to actually collapse.

"Anooother!" shouted Liesl.

"No!" shouted her companion back, before whispering audibly enough that she heard him, "You'll die"

He seemed fine externally, but his normally suave voice was now slurred and he was stretching the vowels in his words.

"Shut it you stupid sexy moron, let me bring" she replied as she plunged her head on the table after talking with a very similar voice tone to the person sitting with her.

"What do you mean sexy? Hey, Lie, what did you mean sexyyy?" even while drunk, Klemens' attacks at every chance to tease his companion.

"I said, shut your damned mouth and let me sleep" she replied with even more annoyance in her voice and closed her eyes on the table.

"Heeey, I thought you wanted to drink more?"

"Oh, right, I forgot, another round!" she shouted at Mina's father who was chuckling at the two young ones antics, they didn't even drink a lot.

After that first round he just gave them juice and they seemed even more drunk than at the beginning, meaning that they were just convincing themselves of being drunk.

But still, it was enjoyable to watch so he brought them another round of juice.

"Be careful here, this one is especially strong"

"Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" she said with a peal of laugher.

After a few more fake rounds Liesl collapsed on the table, at that all signs of intoxication disappeared from the corvine haired boy as he approached the counter.

"Thank you for keeping up with her antics, here, as thanks" as he passed a small bag filled with enough coins to pay for the drinks and a bit more.

"You were faking it?" replied dumbly the inn owner.

"Obviously, how could I get drunk off of juice?" was his very matter of fact response coupled with a shrug.

"Come on Lie, we have things to do tomorrow" was what he said as he picked up the girl in a princess carry.

"Kyaa, Kle were are you bringing a vulnerable and intoxicated young maiden?" she instantly opened her eyes and teased in response with a higher pitched tone than usual, showing that she wasn't really sleeping.

"To our room, moron, it's time to sleep"

In response, the signs of intoxication disappeared from her face too "how boring, and here I was having fun"

She put her arms around his neck and whispered to him "Why don't we get drunk for real, that'd be fun, wouldn't it?"

Klemens stopped and thought for a second, after which he turned to face the still confused inn owner and said "Can you give us a few bottles of wine? This time actual one"

"Sure" replied the man returning to his senses, he had now understood that the two in front of him were weird people.

And there he thought that he was doing them a favor by not giving them real alcohol...

"Oh, by the way, did you meet your daughter? If she joined the scouts she should be here in Stohess right now" asked Liesl offhandedly, before a squeak of laugher after taking two bottles from the man.

Unfortunately, those won't be the last bottles for the night.

"Yeah, she'll be coming here tomorrow at lunch, if you're still here by then you might meet her" replied the man with a small smile.

At first he hadn't liked his daughters decision of joining the scouts, but after talking to her and seeing her conviction and determination how could he tell her to leave?

He definitely didn't like it, in fact, he had nightmares nearly everyday that when he wakes up the news that his daughter had died inside some titan's mouth, he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a while.

But hearing about the successes of the two people in front of him sometime gave him hope that the war against the titans could end, someday.

"We'll see, see you tomorrow" replied the red haired girl, still carried like a princess by her companion.

They didn't see the man the day later, they saw him an hour later to buy two more bottles.

Fortunately, outside it was still just after dinner time so he was still awake.

"I'm not going to drink for the rest of my life" were the first words uttered by the girl the morning after, who somehow had two shirts on.

One where it would normally be and one where her pants would normally be.

"How did I even get like this?" she asked herself, unfortunately, her companion in drunkenness's answer disconcerted her even more.

"I think that's my shirt"

She turned to look at him to see him in boxers and nothing else, so what could she do other than whistle and take a long appreciative look?

she emitted a whistling sound from her mouth and said "Looking good, Kle"

"Thanks, you look awful" he replied while massaging his temples and sitting on the bed, after a second he looked at the girl and asked "Why are you sitting on the floor?"

She looked down, just to realize that what he said was actually true "I have no clue"

The two stood there in silence for a moment before the male took the initiative to speak up, "I'm dying of thirst, and I mean I need water"

"Same"

But they stayed seated, just like before, in silence.

"We really should go"

"Yeah"

But they remained seated.

Eventually, an hour later they finally stood up and dressed decently, leaving their room.

When they reached the part of the inn where food was made, they noticed that there were already people eating inside, but the meal they were eating wasn't a typical breakfast.

Liesl turned to face the boss and asked if they changed the morning menù since the last time they had been here, but his answer took her off guard.

"It's noon"

"Oh" both teenagers replied.

Fortunately, a person came and stopped the awkwardness of the situation.

"You guys finally woke up, good morning" asked a girl while coming from a the kitchen.

She was short, shorter than even Krista, had black hair that extended past her shoulders and divided in twin loose pigtails.

"Hey Mina, what are you doing here?" asked Liesl, the most sociable person in the 104th corps even if she still passed most of her time with her partner.

"I asked a few hours of leave to meet my family, thankfully my superiors accepted"

"They know" continued her father "I told them yesterday" on his face a grin.

"Did he?" mumbled Liesl while looking at her companion.

"Maybe"

"Wait," stopped the blue eyed young woman, "did we ask for a leave?"

"Have we ever?" replied the green eyed man.

A brief silence ensured, swiftly interrupted by Liesl herself "Whatever, I thirsty, boss we need water, a lot of water"

"Coming right up, you two can go sit at that table over there, I'll send Mina with the water" he said while indicating an empty table.

As the two left to sit, the pair of father and daughter gossiped about the two.

"Are your really sure that those two are the stars of freedom, or whatever they're called?" asked the older man.

"I have seen them slaughter more titans than I thought possible, if it's not them, no one is"

"I trust you, it's just that they seem a bit..."

"Touched in the head?" she completed his sentence.

"Yeah, that" chuckled the man, finding the words quite fitting.

"They have every right of acting weirdly in my opinion, I heard that they just came back from a mission outside Wall Rose, in titan territory, just the two of them"

"Really?" asked the man, clearly impressed that two young ones managed to do such a thing.

Everybody knows that every time the scout corps lunch an expedition outside the walls, at least a third dies, it was the main reason he didn't want his daughter there.

"And apparently they completed the mission and went even beyond, don't tell this to anyone or I'd be courtmartialed" she said while dragging him to the kitchen where nobody could hear them.

"It seems that whatever they found outside the walls made our commander change his mind on the next expedition, it's postponed until further notice"

"Oh dear, what did they find?" asked the man with concern on his face.

"I don't know, the higher ups won't tell us, just that whatever it is, it's probably really big and dangerous" informed the girl, picking up a jar filled with water and a small basket of bread before bringing it to the duo in question.

When she came back to resume the conversation her father asked, "Could it be an army of titans?" not really expecting the answer he was going to receive.

"I don't think so, if it was like that, those two would have probably killed them all"

"Really?" he was skeptical, could those two really do such a thing.

Not that he doubted his daughter's words, but it seemed impossible to him that the two, who were currently playing with the bread sticks his daughter brought them, could do such a thing.

"Those two?" he pointed at the duo playing swords with bread, at the grown adults playing with food like two children.

"As weird as it sounds yes" replied with a monotone his daughter, looking at the two with a complicated smile "They might seem weird normally, but when it counts, I'd rather have them nearby than anybody else, they're basically both titan exterminating one person armies"

"If you say so" replied the father, returning to his job, he had already chatted too much and his wife was giving him a mean look.