I'm sorry for the delay in this next chapter! Band and school have been keeping me super busy! I'm kinda behind on some homework so I need to focus on that for a while. Enjoy this chapter until next time!

For once, I awoke myself. The sunlight was just barely peeking through the curtains, telling me it was very early morning. The flame of the lantern had burned out. It took me a moment to remember that I had not slept alone. Commander Erwin was still asleep beside me. We had not changed position all night. My head still rested on his shoulder. His arm was still around me. My hand was still on his chest. It was very comfortable, but my shoulder underneath me was cramping up. I needed to move, however, I did not want to just yet.

I looked up at Erwin, his face relaxed as he slept. His breathing was slow and even. His blond hair was only slightly out of place. He had tilted his head to the side, his sleeping expression was faced towards me, as if he fell asleep watching over me.

By this point, my shoulder was screaming at me in pain, practically begging me to change my position. As gently as I could, I moved Erwin's arm so I could lie on my other side. I heard him take in a deep breath and shift along with me. I turned to look at him and found him staring back.

"(Any nightmares?)" he asked sleepily.

I shook my head. "None."

"(Good,)" he replied then closed his eyes again.

I positioned myself beside him again and also closed my eyes to go back to sleep. Whether it was several minutes or another hour or two later, I awoke to the sound of the door opening. Erwin was awake as well.

Espyon had walked in, but stopped as soon as she saw us in the bed together. Even though her skin was dark, I could see her cheeks turning a bright red. She incoherently said an excuse under her breath and quickly turned and left the room.

Erwin immediately sat up on the mattress. "(Shit,)" he mumbled as he swiftly put his boots on his feet. He left the room just as fast as Espyon had.

I felt ashamed. For what reason I was not entirely sure. We had not done anything remotely wrong, at least none that I knew. I just did not want to have nightmares. I did not even think of anyone finding us together like that.

As I continued to think, I realized what had happened. Espyon had just seen her commanding officer in my bed. There had to be some sort of consequence. At least some punishment on someone. Who knew whether it was me, Espyon, or Erwin who were to be the one getting in trouble. That is, if anyone but the three of us knew about it. I could not help but worry.

In agony, I waited for someone, anyone, to come back to my room. I needed to know what was going to happen now. I mentally cursed at myself for not being able to walk on my own just yet. Finally, Espyon came back into my room. She did not say anything to me, despite my questions. She cleaned up the tray I left untouched on the nightstand and left the room again. Several minutes later she returned once again, carrying a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of water.

Espyon, whatever trouble I may have gotten you in, I am so sorry. She did not respond to my apology. I continued. I promise you we did not do anything. He helped keep my nightmares away.

She looked at me with sad eyes. "(I'm not angry with you,)" she said softly. "(None of us are in trouble.)"

I still felt uneasy. It could not have been resolved that quickly. Maybe Erwin would tell me more later. To change subjects, could you find me a crutch? I want to walk outside today.

"(After you eat,)" she replied, leaving the food and water on the nightstand and leaving once more.

I ate the oatmeal slowly. My stomach was in so many knots it was hard to keep down. With nearly every bite I felt my gut clench. I would have force myself to keep it in my stomach. If I was going to get strong, I would have to gain some weight back.

Espyon returned with a crutch for me to lean on. I slowly pulled myself off of the bed, leaning heavily on the support. She stayed beside me, making sure I did not fall as we slowly made our way downstairs and outside and into the open air.

I was nearly blown over by the wind when we made it to the courtyard. The wind itself was cold, but it was still warmer than I thought it was. Soldiers walked freely around the courtyard. Some of them looked my way and then turned to their companions and whispered quietly to each other. I was not sure if they already knew about the incident from this morning. I would say that I did not care, but I did. So instead I focused on how good it felt to be out in the sun. I turned to Espyon after several minutes of just standing there. Now what? Should we work on German?

We had not focused much on it since deciding Espyon would teach me, but I figured it would be a good distraction for the rest of the day. She told me to wait outside for a moment so she could go and get a book. While she was gone, I did not really move from my spot in the courtyard. I only moved to a bench on a far wall.

I kept to myself, but observed what the rest of the soldiers were doing. It seemed as if their routine did not differ much from what I saw yesterday. I saw a few soldiers who were wanting to come up to me, but their comrades kept them to their duties. I then realized how bored I was. I did not dare waste my battery on my phone playing a game or something. It would suck the battery life and I would have to go back inside to get the charger. Just standing was exhausting, let alone the trip downstairs.

Espyon returned about fifteen minutes later carrying a few books. "(What do you want to start on first?)" she asked, letting me flip through the pages. I pointed to one on Titan anatomy. It looked interesting to me. I figured this knowledge would help me in the long run.

The first few pages showed diagrams of certain types of Titans and what they were capable of doing. The next couple of pages pointed out their only weakness: behind their neck. After only a few minutes of learning new vocabulary, a few other soldiers approached us.

"(What are you up to, Darky?)" A red haired soldier questioned. "(Shouldn't you be doing hard labor like the rest of us instead of babysitting a Titan Shifter? Oh, wait, you're too busy pulling double duty and making the rest of us look bad.)" His friends surrounding us nodded in agreement.

Espyon looked down at the book in her lap. "(I was only following the Commander's orders,)" she said quietly. Double duty? I did not know she was not just taking care of me. I felt terrible, once again feeling burdensome, but I was more upset that Espyon was being picked on.

"(Only following the Commander's orders,)" he repeated mockingly. The soldier laughed. "(You're like a lap dog. Always doing what you can to assist him.)" He got down on his knees to be at eye level with Espyon. "(Aren't you, bitch? Tell me, am I right?)" Espyon stayed quiet and avoided his gaze. He grabbed her face and made her look at him. "(Listen, Darky, he doesn't need your help. He doesn't need you and he doesn't want you. He just gives you things to do to keep you occupied. He wouldn't care if you died in a Titan attack. You're a work horse, not one to ride. Lower than dirt.)" He roughly pushed her face out of his hand and spit at her feet. The group around him cheered him on. The soldier's sneer reminded me of a schoolyard bully. I saw Espyon was holding back tears. "(Don't bother trying to get into his bed either, slut. Just because you're the last of your "kind" doesn't mean he'll want to procreate with you.)"

"Hey!" I yelled. They had ignored me for the most part, but now they all looked at me. I struck the soldier in the face with my crutch. He fell to the ground with a thud. "(She is a soldier like the rest of you doing her part for humanity! If you can't see past her skin color and her work ethic, then you are the ones lower than dirt! Go back to your duties and leave Espyon alone!)" I glared at them. The ones surrounding us were shocked to say the least. It took me a moment to realize I had spoken to them in German. More than I thought I knew. What was happening to me?

I turned to Espyon to mention this when I heard Levi's voice yell out over all the whispers and the crowd that had gathered. "(What the hell is going on out here?)" The crowd parted to let him through. The soldier I had knocked down was still on the ground, rubbing his swelling cheek. "(And what the hell are you doing in the dirt, cadet?)" he asked harshly.

He pointed at me. "(She hit me with her crutch!)"

Levi looked towards Espyon and me. "(Obviously you gave her a pretty damn good reason to do hit you that hard.)" He crossed his arms and sighed. "(You three, come with me.)" He turned on his heels and began to walk back inside. "(The rest of you, back to work!)"

The soldier on the ground swiftly stood and followed after Levi. Espyon followed after him, but came back to help me stand, but I was already standing and leaning heavily on the crutch. Together we walked back into the castle.

I felt like I was a kid being led to the principal's office, which was probably not a bad comparison. The soldier I knocked down kept glancing back and glaring at Espyon and me. It got annoying after a while so I scowled at him. Espyon kept a quiet demeanor the entire time. We stopped in front of Erwin's office and then were allowed to enter.

"(What's this about?)" Erwin asked from behind his desk. He looked from between the four of us. "(Levi?)"

"(Bit of rough housing. Figured you would like to know about it,)" Levi replied. "(Espyon, please explain what happened.)"

Espyon looked down at her feet, her face turning red again. She avoided looking at Erwin in the face as she explained the situation. My knees began to ache for standing for so long. I sat down heavily in a chair beside me. As I listened, I realized she left out the part of the soldier calling her a slut, among the other things he said to her. I wondered why she had kept quiet about it. When she finished speaking, Erwin crossed his fingers in front of him on the desk. He really did remind me of a principal of a school.

"(What do you suppose we should do about this, Espyon?)" Erwin prompted.

She shrugged, still keeping her eyes on the floor. "(Nothing.)"

"(Nothing?)" He shook his head. "(No, that won't do.)" He turned to look at the red-haired soldier. "(Think she's making you look bad? I doubt that. Highly. Since you think she's working too hard, I think you should take on all of her extra duties. I think that sounds fair.)" He turned to Levi. "(Make sure you show him his new responsibilities. Espyon will have more time to focus on taking care of Ariadne for as long as she needs.)"

Levi smirked slightly. "(Will do. Come on. There's a few stables that need cleaning.)" With a bit of protest, the soldier reluctantly followed Levi out of the room.

Erwin turned his attention towards Espyon. He stood and went to face her in front of the desk. "(Espyon, you are one of my most trusted soldiers. I would care if you died in a Titan attack and don't let anyone make you think different.)" He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "(Please, do not feel like you are any less important to humanity.)"

Finally, Espyon looked up at him, her eyes shining brightly as she stared at him. "(Thank you, Commander Erwin,)" she said softly and gave him a confident salute, her right fist over her heart.

He nodded and saluted back. "(You both can go back to whatever you were doing,)" he said, turning to sit back behind his desk.

"(Wait, Commander Erwin,)" Espyon interjected. "(Something has happened.)"

"(What else could have possibly happened in the last few seconds?)" he questioned.

"(Ariadne doesn't need my help with learning German anymore. Well, perhaps maybe only to read and write in German but she can speak it fairly well,)" she informed him.

"(Oh?)" Erwin sat back in his chair. He faced me. "(How did this happen?)"

I shrugged. "(I don't know,)" I replied honestly. "(I'm losing pretty much all of my English and it's being replaced with German.)" I felt like I was losing a part of me. Something that I wanted to hang on to. Something that could keep me connected to my own world. Language was not the only thing from my world I was losing though.

"(We won't be needing that device of yours then,)" he stated.

I shook my head. "(No.)"

"(That's a relief,)" he said under his breath. He looked back up from the papers on his desk, his face turning serious. "(Ariadne, there is something I wanted to talk to you about. Espyon, you may listen also.)"

Well, well, well. Ariande has broken through the language barrier. I'll elaborate more on what else she's losing from her world other than her language in either the next chapter or the coming chapters. I'll try to update as soon as I can!

I was kinda in a hurry to write the last part in Erwin's office so if it feels rushed, it's probably because it is.

What do you think Erwin has to tell Ariandne and Espyon?

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! You know what to do!

Thank for reading!