Chapter 23: Letter

After a few minutes of waiting two steaming bowls of soup were brought by the manager of the inn, and they had to admit that the man hadn't oversold his wife's skill in cooking.

It wasn't made with luxurious ingredients like they had tried in the capital or when they ate with Commander Pixis, but it was pretty good nonetheless.

The night passed quietly.

Quietly for Liesl, as Klemens was awakened by the girl tumbling in the bed, she only stopped when he forcefully stopped her from moving by putting her firmly between his arms, after he did that he managed to finally catch some sleep.

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Morning came, the two came down to the dining hall to have breakfast in the inn, they hoped to eat something good before hitting the road once again.

As they at their table they heard the manager of the inn, the short and big bellied man talking with another man "Ahah! Look at this, a letter from my daughter came, she is in the army now, you know?"

"How could I not know?" replied his friend, pissed at the fact that his friend's daughter managed to join the army while his own son failed to do so "You talk about her every time I see you, anyway, what has your daughter sent you?"

"Let's see" mumbled the inn owner as he opened the letter which he then started to read before telling what was written to his friend "She just passed the final exam and was sent inside Trost District to rescue the people still trapped by the titans, fortunately everything went well.

Oh wow, she was there when the two new stars of the army wiped out all those titans, she says that they were so strong that it was unfair to humanity, the stars, not the titans.

And... Oh no" at this point his face blanked out, completely devoid of blood, he looked whiter than a sheet of paper.

"She joined the Survey Corps" he said almost as if it was the most terrifying thing possible, as from a certain point of view it was.

"So what?" asked his middle aged friend.

"So what? So what you ask? Do you have any idea how high the mortality rate is for the survey corps? My little Mina will be in danger all the time until she retires" he replied as he slumped on the chair.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Marcus" said his friend as he patted his depressed friend's shoulder, he hadn't thought about this possibility, he suddenly felt blessed that his son failed to pass the training, at least he didn't have to leave the safety of the walls to fight the titans.

The young ones may be fooled by the tales of humanity fighting the titans in recent times, especially the two stars who killed hundreds of them, but the older ones still knew the reality, that normal humans could never fight back against those monsters.

Before the fall of Wall Maria most of the expeditions of the survey corps concluded with a third of the soldiers dead of incapacitated otherwise.

"Have you heard, Kle?" asked the girl.

"No" replied the boy, apparently his friend decided that listening to others private conversations was a good idea.

"That dude's daughter is called Mina, I wonder if it's our Mina"

"Who?" asked the teen who remembered fifteen names at most.

"Short, black hair in ponytails at the sides" explained the girl.

"Oh yeah"

"Anyway, I'm going to ask him"

"What?"

"Dumbass, are you even listening" replied the girl with an annoyed tone "I'm going to ask if he's Mina's father"

"I just woke up, I barely remember how to breath properly, forget about listening" replied the one who was not a morning person.

He was on a vacation after all, so waking up for military training was not a priority, plus the lack of sleep the previous night made him less responsive than usual.

"Excuse me" Liesl said to the old man.

"Yes lass? Do you need something? I hope the room was okay for you guys, I know how being young and passionate is, I once was like that too" said the man as he started digressing into his own memories of a time when his daughter was not yet born, but he wouldn't go back for all the gold in the world.

Liesl's face was now red at the misunderstanding, but didn't bother to explain, they were probably never going to meet the man again after they left anyway "I couldn't help but listen to your conversation, are you perhaps Mina Carolina's father?"

"Yes, how do you know? Do you know my daughter?" asked the now curious man, it would be a great coincidence casually meeting her daughter's friends during their journey.

"Yes, we are part of the same cadet corp in the army, we are here look at the situation inside the districts" she explained with a fake excuse, they couldn't just say that they took up and left without really asking permission.

They had just stated that they were leaving, they never actually asked for permission so they were technically deserters, but it was just semantics, as Klemens said.

Not that the Army could permit themselves to let two monsters like the two of them desert just like that, if the two wanted a vacation, especially after saving a district, they were more than entitled to one, at least that's what they thought.

"Wow, and how is my baby in the army? Are they treating her right? Did she make lots of friends? Are they bullying her because she's small? Does she have a... boyfriend?" asked the man, whose expression grew more horrified as the last two questions came.

Liesl passed a bit of time answering the man's questions, she felt good as she could practically feel the love for his daughter radiating off of the man.

"Oh, were are my manner, let me call the old lady, wait a second" said the men as he left, returning soon after with a good looking woman in her mid thirties.

Liesl passed the next half hour talking with the couple, initially she wanted to drag in Klemens, just to piss him off, but the idea disappeared once she saw the peaceful expression as the boy slept on the table.

He had even pushed the items on the table away to rest more comfortably.

Eventually she decided to cut them short as they had to leave, if they departed now they could reach the next town before sunset and find an inn in time.

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Eventually, a couple of days of travel later, they reached Stohess, if was around midday when they reached the city.

They entered without being bothered too much by the guards thanks to their identity as soldiers.

"Do we find an inn first or do we go to the public market first?" asked the boy who didn't mind either way.

"Let's go to the market, we have all the time to find an inn later, but many stalls close in a few hours so let's go there first"

"Sure" was all the boy replied.

Once they reached the market, they were stunned, there were flowers pretty much everywhere around them mixed with happy faces and people bartering for things from the stalls.

"This is even better than I imagined!" explained the girl happily, she had never seen a similar place, so filled with vibrant colors and colorful flower patterns.

"Yeah" mumbled her friend in answer, he wasn't as excited as she was as he didn't really have an interest in big groups of people, but he was really impressed nonetheless.

The didn't buy anything, they just looked at the stalls to see if there was anything that would be useful.

After a few hours they left the market and went to find an inn where they could spend the night.

"Look at this, Lady in Distress inn, it's written that the only ones working in this place are girls, even the owner is a woman, let's see how it is on the inside" said the girl as she remembered the names of a few of the attractions in the various district they were going to visit.

They entered through the door and what greeted them was a neat wooden flood with was good to retain heat and a cute girl, not more than eight years of age greeting them and took them to the reception.

"Greetings and welcome to the Lady in Distress, how may I help you guys today?" asked an outspoken and smiling woman in her late twenties.

"Hello" said Liesl "we would like for a room for two if it's available"

"Yes, we have a few rooms free, you're lucky that the market will finish the day after tomorrow, if you came a day earlier you wouldn't have found anywhere free"

"Understandable" replied the girl as she took the keys from the girl at the reception.

They were tired from the long trip so they decided to rest for a few hours before dinner, after which they would leave to take a night stroll in the city, many things could be learnt about a city from how it looks at night.

For example they could learn about the order in the city and the correct working of the garrison of the city based on how much illegal activities went on in the alleyways at night.

When they left Liesl told her friend an interesting piece of information "I heard that under the city there are a bunch of tunnels from when the government wanted to build an underground city like the one in the capital, but they failed like they do most of the time" said the girl with a sigh at the end.

She didn't despise the government, she just thought that it could be so much better if only the normal citizens we more represented in the government instead of just the nobility, merchants, the cult of the walls and the army having any actual say in deciding matters.

She didn't know how she could better things, but she knew that eventually she could find the most optimal way to help the people while at the same time not submerging herself from duties she didn't want.

Meaning any duty.

But fortunately, or unfortunately as Liesl wanted to have a fight with some third rate criminal to stretch her muscles, the city at night was really ordered.

No gangs, no criminal groups and no serial murders meant that the city was well protected, as expected from a city inside Wall Sheena, it was pretty different form the districts on Wall Rose and probably on Wall Maria too before it fell.

The roads were clean without garbage as far as the eye could see.

The boy saw his companion and furrowed his brows after seeing how her expression was one of slight regret and asked "Are you seriously sad that there are no criminals to fight?"

"Come on, there are always criminals around, they think that they can hide, but I know were they are hiding!" said the girl as she grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him in a random place.

This random place had a trap door which lead to one of the tunnels under the city.