Chapter 8
Suspicion
Dinner, on my part, was unbearably noisy, as every single person tried to congratulate me for holding myself against the Second Commander.
"You brat! Don't get cocky just because you were praised!"
And I had been itching to hit a certain 'fly' that had not stopped buzzing around. And my fingers had been twitching because of it.
"Shut it, Oluo!" Jeena Brown growled at the 'fly', and then she faced me and soothed, "That's right, Hange, keep on ignoring him. He is just a bug, an insect!"
"Yeah, true, he is a mere fly," I agreed as I ignored an indignant "hey!" coming from said 'fly', followed by a string of unending curse.
"You know, I really did not expect the Second Commander to actually come and observe us," said Jeena, trying to divert my attention from the foul mouth.
"Yeah," I agreed, remembering how I tripped myself because of the shock of meeting Erwin Smith. Isn't he the future Commander of the Scouting Legion?
"You even tripped!" she teased.
"Oh, shut it," I growled, "good thing I managed to roll and made it cool, or else I'd be embarrassed half to death."
"Too true," Jeena agreed, "so who is this person you want to beat so much?"
"Huh?"
"Is it a boy? Is he hot? Does he have muscular six pack and strong arms?" she prodded.
I imagined my dear Levi, short as he is, having huge bulging six packs and strong arm, very much like Superman's body. Just the thought of a 'Muscular Levi' sent me laughing out loud as I banged the table.
"Have you snapped?" Jeena asked wearily as I stopped my laughing tirade.
"No duh! I would never snap!"
"So?"
"So what?"
"What does he look like?"
I contemplated on telling her, but then chose to just smile mysteriously with fingers on my lips.
Oh how I took joy in playing with people's mind.
"Oh? That's how you want to play?" then Jeena raised her voice to get everyone's attention, "Does anyone here wants to know what Hange's boyfriend looks like?"
"Hey!" I shouted indignantly. But it's too late, swarms of people started crowding my table.
"What! Hange Zoe had a boyfriend?"
"How does he look like?"
"Is he the one you want to win against?"
"Huh! A boyfriend of a brat would always be another brat!"
"Shut it, fly!" Jeena snapped at Oluo, "You're just jealous because she has a boyfriend!"
And the 'fly' went back to his own corner to curse.
"Really, Hange! What does he look like?"
And more and more questions were bombarded on me.
"Fine!" the whole Mess Hall became silent as I shout, "I'll tell you how my rival looks like, but he is not my boyfriend!"
"So?"
"He is probably the smallest human man on this world alive his age!"
"Huh?" the crowds were confused. I took this chance to sneak out the Mess Hall into my room.
The next morning, when it was still dark, I woke up earlier than the others and sneaked out, bringing together my sketch book and pencil. I stretched out my body and then broke out into a small jog. It has become a habit for me to have a light jog in the morning and then rest under a tree while drawing possible blueprints.
After the jog, I rested in my favorite tree as I sketched out the blueprint to make another weapon. What I had in mind was a buzz-saw like sword with a button, and when the button was pressed, the blades will run the way a buzz-saw would. It needs to be the size of the standard sword we use to kill the Titans, yet stronger, as they are not disposable like the blades we normally use. But every sketch I made was either too big or too heavy, so the pages of the failed sketches were spread around me.
I was so focused on my work and ideas as I draw that…
"These can actually be useful against Titans."
…that I did not notice anyone sneaking up on me.
"Eeeep!" I screamed, shocked out of heart beat as I turned to face the one who sneaked up on me. "Second Commander Erwin!"
Erwin Smith was crouched down in front of me as he analyses the drawings scattered around me while I took my time in calming down my racing heartbeat.
"What comes to your mind when you made this… weapon?"
"It was –uh- I…" I trailed off, organizing my thoughts and wordings, "Titans ate humans, but I heard not all of them chewed, is that right?"
Erwin just nodded.
"So some of the humans entered the Titan's stomach in complete and living condition, but then, how come no human managed to cut off the Titan's stomach from the inside? Titans have no digestive system, so the likelihood that inside the Titan's stomach is an acid is small. Most probably, the only difficulties we have inside the Titans are the constant movement, extreme heat, and the lack of air."
I paused as I organized my wordings for the conclusion. "This means that those eaten by Titans have tried to cut the stomach from the inside, but with the Titan's regenerative abilities, they took much longer time, so they died of the lack of oxygen. So I figured if we can quicken the cutting process, then the human inside can come out."
Erwin nodded in understanding. "You have an interesting way of thinking. Everything was drawn out from what you heard, and you created the weapon to counter it. It was like you have seen the Titans directly."
"Ahaha…" I laughed nervously. I have seen Titans, but not face to face. Can't let Erwin know about this, can I? "But all the drawings there are failures. It was either too big or too heavy or too slow."
"That 3DMG you have, did you modify it yourself? I recon it was faster and more gas preserving than the others."
Why was he asking me so many questions?
"Yes, sir." I puffed my chest, proud that my modifications were recognized by someone, "I would like to make it faster, but I can't handle the speed… yet."
"With your skills, you would be successful as a technician, so why choose a life of danger?" He asked as he collected the scattered paper.
Could he be suspecting something of me? Damn…
"I am… selfish. I would have been living as a technician now, if I had not known of Titans and the mysteries they bring. But I'm curious about the truth of Titans, so here am I, training as a soldier, not to protect the people, but just to satisfy my curiosity." I said, lying here and there, but mostly telling the truth.
"Have we met before?" Erwin asked as he handed the papers to me.
My heart was pounding loudly, and inside I was screaming "Damn! Damn! Damn!" repeatedly, but on the outside, I made a face of confusion as I answered.
"Uh… Yesterday was the first time we met sir."
"Is that so? Then run along, I'm sure it's time for breakfast."
"Eh?" Sure enough, the sun has started shining down on the world, so I sprinted back to the Mess Hall as I inwardly sighed in relieve.
