Chapter 1
Rachel stirred in her sleep, awoken by the swishing of curtains within the room. Sunlight spilled through the glass and pierced her groggy eyes blindingly, reminding the woman that another day had started.
With a sigh, she yawned and tears filled her eyes. She rubbed them absentmindedly and looked around the office she now called her bedroom.
Apparently, she had fallen asleep on her desk in the midst of all the paperwork piled up on her table. Rachel grimaced at the dried up trace of drool in one of the important files she was supposed to be working on and noted to herself she shouldn't do it again.
"Good morning!" An enthusiastic voice chirped.
She lazily dragged her gaze towards the intruder and caught sight of her normally energetic cousin. "Morning." She replied, feeling tired. She stayed up late last night, that's why.
She glanced beside her and saw a tray of breakfast waiting by her side. There was a glass of fresh milk, a plate of sugar-coated pancakes and bacon, and a whole orange with a carved smile.
A small smile itself pulled the corners of her lips as she rested her chin on her propped elbow. Allen truly had a way of cheering her up with the smallest things. She had that talent of lighting up the whole room and giving hope when there was none. Even if most of the time she thinks of herself as a liability to the group, she was actually a very useful asset in achieving victory.
"It's a good thing you're here." She said, putting away the important documents on her desk to make space for the breakfast she was given. "Take a seat."
Allen cheerfully sat on one of the seats facing her desk and looked at Rachel. "What is it? Anything you need done?"
"I think you remember Commander Erwin's visit the last two days." Rachel cut a piece of the pancake before piercing it with her fork and shoving it into her mouth.
She nodded. "Yeah. From the Recon Corps."
"Well, Yvette's currently off doing business with the Military Police and Chaves is still locked up within the technical room doing who-knows-what." She sighed. "I hate to do this, but I'm assigning you to come with the Recon Corps and help them in their next expedition."
"M-me? For the next expedition?"
"Commander Erwin is asking me to lend some of my men since he's short in help." Rachel sighed again. "I told him I'll see what I can do, but I can't really refuse since it's our duty in the first place. If you don't want to, I can turn down his request—"
"N-no!" Allen exclaimed. "I can do it, I promise!"
Same words back then. She thought with a faint smile. You never really disappoint me.
"Listen, these expeditions are dangerous and most of them almost never returns alive. I'm entrusting you with this because I saw what you can do and that you've been trying really hard." She said. "But I won't hide the fact that I'm against you going."
"But . . . um . . . you're coming, right?" She innocently asked.
"No. So I won't be there to protect you." She told her, staring into her fearful eyes. "Are you still willing to do it?" Rachel laced her hands together worriedly on her lap as she leaned back.
She saw her hesitate for a moment. "Look, Allen—"
She cut her off. "I'll prove to you that I can do it!" She bounced from her seat and saluted.
Rachel gave her a nod with slight reluctance, taken aback by her outburst. "You can ask Vincent for the information."
Instead of leaving, she asked, "What'll you be doing during that time?"
"You forgot that tonight will be the graduation ceremony." She told her. "To prevent the Garrison from getting most of the recruits, I need to work to get the people we handpicked on our side. I can't simultaneously plan with the Recon Corps and handle a bunch of trainees at the same time, you know."
"Right." She sighed. "I guess I forgot. Thank you, Commander." She saluted again and Rachel returned it with a brief nod.
As she turned to leave, Rachel momentarily stopped her with her words. "Make sure not to die. Keep the promise."
Her eyes widened before she turned to look at her cousin with a sad smile. "I will. Nee-san."
"And, Allen," She added. "I want, as much as possible, for all of you to come back safe, unharmed, and in one piece."
As the woman watched her take her leave, she continued eating her breakfast and sank deeper into get thoughts.
Over the past years, only three of the military branches were made known to the public—mainly the Military Police, the Garrison, and the Scouting Legion. There is one more, though. A branch she just came to know about five years ago when the titans invaded Wall Maria.
The Secret Operations Regiment, or the Shadow Organization Regiment—shortly known as SOR. Having been saved by its eccentric commander a few years back, Allen and Rachel were taken in by the military because they were deemed as potential weapons in humanity's fight for freedom.
The SOR was mainly kept as a secret because it did most of the dirty work for the government, but aside from that, their main tasks were to discover the long lost technologies from the past civilization before the titans appeared, and to assist the other military branches to whatever help they need with.
The job wasn't easy at all.
As cruel as it might be, working in the shadows earned them little credit and that did a lot in the moral of the working men. They often get pushed around by the other branches because of their job, especially the Military Police.
Yet, despite all of that, she knew that everyone enjoyed what they do. Not only did they get to share the responsibilities of each and every branches, they get to experience what it felt like to be one of the Garrison, the Military Police, or the Scouting Legion.
The most exciting part of all was that the SOR got to cooperate with developing new technologies that could be used by the military and that means rediscovering the old methods used by their ancestors.
They normally didn't do anything much but they lend their help when needed.
The redhead exited the commander's room with a faint smile and breathed heavily.
She's so busy I can't even spend my time with her as a family. She thought.
She did her usual thing putting on a cheerful and overly optimistic smile before she proceeded to find her senior as instructed. She walked around the quiet halls of their HQ, each step echoing through the walls. She found herself walking out of a certain door that led to another hall and saw the fact that her senior was apparently talking to himself—or that was what it looked like.
He probably drank too much sake. She thought and giggled.
"Vincent-San!" She skipped happily towards him until she noticed someone with him giving her a questioning stare.
She stopped in shock and stared back at the stranger who was nestled on one of the couches in the lounge area. He wore a different uniform, signifying the fact that he didn't belong in the same group as her—the evergreen cloak . . . probably from the scouting legion.
The thought of humiliating herself in front of someone else not from her branch caused her to feel inwardly embarrassed and guilty. She repositioned herself, pretending to dust her uniform and cleared her throat.
"Vincent-heichou," She started formally with a serious face, hoping to cover for her earlier mistake.
"Allen, what brings you here?" The elder asked with a bright smile.
"Rachel-nee . . . I mean, the commander told me to come straight to you about the Recon Corps's Expedition." She said, looking back and forth her co-captain and the man he was talking to.
"Ah, yes. About that . . . but first, I would like you to meet Levi." Vincent presented him to the girl who was intently staring right at the latter.
"Nice to meet—"
"I have no time for introductions. Where's your commander?" He asked rather rudely.
She tried to stop her face from twitching angrily. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Where is she?" He repeated.
"I'm sorry, but commander's busy with a lot of important things." She said, her brows furrowing at the man before her.
Who does he think he is? She growled inwardly.
"Tch." He grunted in disappointment, leaning back on his seat with a permanent frown. "I came here to meet your shitty brat for a commander. Not some brat." He said, hastily eyeing her up and down.
She was taken aback by the man's harsh words but she tried not to make a fit in her sudden feeling of rage. She bit back her tongue. "Rachel-nee—I mean, Commander Rachel is not a brat. And I'm not just some brat either!"
Vincent cleared his throat. "This is the Recon Corps's Second-In-Command. He's here to talk about the matter in Commander Smith's stead. And this is Allen Strivelyn, our Captain." Vincent tried to break the tension between the two by introducing them to each other which hardly helped. The younger girl took in a deep breath getting rid of all the negative energy and returned the cold captain a wide smile.
"It's an honor to work with you." She simply said with gritted teeth while giving him a salute as per the customs of being a soldier.
"Tch. A captain, you say?" The Second-In-Command stared at her coldly. He then stood up.
Allen cocked a brow at this. He had a surprisingly short height.
He turned his back against her, his feet leading to somewhere he didn't know. "Captain brat." He murmured.
She gasped. "How dare—"
Vincent spoke before she could finish. "Anyways, Allen, we'll talk about the other things later. Just catch up on us in my office. Get back to the commander and tell her she needs to talk with Levi. Now go." Vincent instructed the younger captain and she headed off back to her commander's office with slight hesitance after a salute.
"Nee-san? Can I come in?" She knocked.
"Come in." Allen opened the door to see her cousin reading some documents, furrowing her eyebrows at every word.
"What happened? Did you finish that fast?" The girl headed straight to her older sister's desk and started to clear up her breakfast tray, positioning them somewhere else.
"Well not really. I met the Recon's Second-In-Command. Live high something." The younger girl said while keeping a distance from her cousin's desk. In return, Rachel looked up from her paper and stared at Allen.
"Then what happened?" She looked back at the papers, seeming more interested in her paperwork than Allen's story.
"He's really . . . harsh." Allen responded putting a stress on the last word.
"Oh really?" Rachel continued.
"I returned the favor. He's just plain rude. Who does he think he is?" Allen said through gritted teeth.
"Mhm . . ." Rachel responded while reading the documents.
"Are you even listening?" She exclaimed at Rachel, stomping over to where she was and pulling the papers out of her hands.
"Yes I am . . ." She replied. "Now, can you give me back my work please?" Her cousin said with a deep sigh.
Realizing she went overboard, she placed the documents back on the table and looked apologetically at Rachel. "Yes . . . I understand. Sorry for interrupting you. I'll just go back to Vincent-san." The redhead murmured.
Rachel sighed again, looking at her troubled cousin with a guilty glance. "You are excused. Just take this type of conversation somewhere else where we're relaxing and doing nothing. I know you're getting frustrated about us not being able to talk that much anymore, but I swear to you that I'll listen to whatever you have to say when we're free alright?" With that, she flashed Allen a smile.
"I forgot to say . . . Vincent-san said that you need to talk to that rude guy from earlier." She said.
"Captain Levi, huh? From the Scouting Legion." She muttered. "I'll be there shorty—I mean, shortly. Where is he?"
"He's probably around somewhere. He left without saying anything a while ago. Do you know him, Rachel-nee?"
"I've seen him around. I don't think he knows me, though." She whispered. "You can go now. I'll look for him. He must be just around the corner."
The younger girl nodded stiffly and headed for the door. Just as she was going to open it though, it slammed open and the intimidating . . . midget came marching into the room with that poker-face of his.
"So this was where you were holed up in, Commander. I've been looking all over the place." He emphasized the last word before glancing towards Allen, who stood dumbfounded before him. "So you're here too, Captain Brat?"
Allen's brow made an animated twitch, glaring down at Levi. She was a good few inches taller than he was, or maybe a head taller. "Captain Midget." She seethed.
Levi's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"
Rachel cleared her throat. "Don't you have somewhere you have to go to, Allen?"
Allen silently exited, her eyes not leaving Levi's as she left.
"Brat."
"Midget."