When I grow up I want to be smart.
Year 847- May.
"Good to see you again Elizabeth."
Frank's voice was the most reassuring thing she could find underground. She had already settled down, finding the man who had seen her grow up on her arrival, who had kindly offered to host her.
Just being there had already allowed her to discover something about the business Erwin had told her about.
"Don't be offended but I want to leave as soon as possible."
"Don't be offended but I want you to get out of the underground as soon as possible."
Elizabeth burst out laughing in amusement, she didn't need to be careful with him, she could tell him everything that went through her head.
Well, not that she usually changed anything with others but since she started her training she had also learned to shut up and respect. Also considering that she was forced to do it...
"What are the titans like?" he then asked, sipping a little too-hot tea for his poor gums, but he liked it that way, once cold it changed flavor for him and he couldn't drink it anymore.
"Very... big?" she replied, feeling a particular warmth in her chest. She did not know whether or not to tell him about Levi but at the moment she decided not to.
She would be staying at Frank's house for some time, until her mission came to an end, and she had time to talk to him.
"What can you tell me about a certain brothel?"
"It depends which one you mean."
"You know perfectly well."
Frank put down his now empty cup and looked into her eyes. How much he had missed that little girl; a daughter not his but whom he considered such.
"Do they really have to send you?"
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, apparently Erwin was right, there was so much more than there was going to be and Frank knew more than he wanted to tell her.
"My whole team is involved."
Frank snorted in resignation, when Elizabeth got something in her head it was impossible to dissuade her and by now he was over the age to keep up with her.
"I don't know exactly what you're looking for but I know that an extremely dangerous criminal goes there. That man doesn't scruple about killing even children."
Nor to experiment on them, apparently...
"I'm trained to fight. And to kill if needed. I can defend myself, don't worry. The question now is: how do I get in there without arousing suspicion?"
Frank looked at her for a few moments. That question had only one answer but she wouldn't have liked it. He avoided telling him openly and waited for her to understand it for herself from his gaze.
"Without pretending to be a prostitute." Elizabeth hastened to add, getting the meaning behind that very eloquent look.
"The boss is a very listless person, he doesn't take care of women at all. I've seen a lot of them die, but he never cared."
"There must be another way to get in there without... that."
The two were silent for a few minutes, carefully pondering how she could move without arousing the slightest suspicion. He knew what she would find in there, everyone underground knew it but did not dare to speak to the military police.
"You could pretend to be a singer."
"Huh?"
"You can sing very well. In the evening he lets a singer entertain the waiting men."
"It might work." the blonde observed, placing a cheek on her hand. Erwin trusted her so much that he gave her carte blanche on how to act, she couldn't betray that trust.
A thud came behind them as a jug full of water crashed to the ground, breaking into many pieces.
The responsible one did not care of the shards on the ground, dangerous if trampled. Her hands began to tremble and her eyes filled with tears as she saw Elizabeth sitting at the table in her house, who just over two years ago had escaped from that hell on earth. And now he was in front of her, in perfect health, more nourished and trained but with the same smile that characterized her.
Marie, Frank's wife, put a hand to her mouth to hide her sobs as she stood up to meet her and hug her.
They hadn't heard from her since she had managed to pay for the exit, they didn't know how she was or what she had done with her life.
"You are alive. My little Elizabeth."
Marie hugged her tightly to his chest, hiding her face against her chest and allowing herself a few tears of joy in knowing she was alive.
Then curiosity took over.
"Why are you here? What happened to you? Are you going to stay?"
Frank chuckles, helping himself with his cane to get back on his feet. His leg had begun to give him trouble but he wasn't going to sit still and watch life go by.
"Hey slow down, let her breathe."
"I won't stay long, at least I hope. Now I'm part of the Survey Corps."
Marie put both hands in front of her mouth, feeling a surge of pride for her.
Then awareness took over everything else.
"So I guess you're here for some reason."
Elizabeth just gave her enough information not to worry her too much but to appease her curiosity. She couldn't say too much, not even to Frank, but she could ask questions if asked properly.
After all, she had to investigate right?
"I want you to be very careful about that place Elizabeth." Marie began, sitting in the chair now that her old legs could hardly hold her. "There are a lot of rumors about that brothel and none of them are good. I don't want them to hurt you."
"When are you going to start?" Frank asked taking a broom to pick up the pieces of the jug now destroyed from the floor. He needed to stretch his legs a little.
"This evening."
Marie closed her eyes a few moments before looking at her husband, feeling almost estranged. She understood that Elizabeth hadn't told her everything and perhaps she was better off, the less she knew about that place the better she was, but the feeling extended to her husband too. She silently begged to be wrong.
Levi closed the door behind him, slamming it loudly and warning anyone who wanted to disturb him at that moment that it was a bad decision.
However, Hange never cared about his attitude. She knocked on the door but didn't wait for him to give her permission because she knew he would deny it.
She entered and closed the door behind her, more slowly than the ferocity with which he had done it before.
"Levi." she greeted him, watching him turn in his direction with a grim, dark look on his face. It was frightening.
He looked like a wolf ready to bite his prey mercilessly.
She had never seen him so livid in the face, that anger was linked to a single name: Elizabeth Blossom.
And she was smart enough to connect the dots together.
"You accompanied her."
"Yes." he replied, turning his back to her again and just looking out the window. He wanted to be alone, he didn't want to talk to anyone, much less to her.
The next morning they would have to notify the rest of the team, too fond of Elizabeth not to ask questions they couldn't ask. And he couldn't help but get on with his life until Erwin gave him news.
"Elizabeth is strong. We all trust her. Zackly has become aware of the mission."
"Does he cares now?" he asked rhetorically, with a hint of sarcasm. The General had left the whole situation in Erwin's hands, so that he could handle things as preferred. He didn't care that they sent a soldier under there to die for his cause.
In a sense that was what the Survey Corps did.
They were sent to die to protect people from the titans, it wasn't much different, but when they came out of the walls she was there with him, he could help her and save her just in case.
With her down there, he could do absolutely nothing.
"The next expedition is ready, we leave in a week. I want to capture a titan alive."
"You are completely crazy." Levi kept his back to her but he understood the purpose of Hange's visit.
The team leader had never hidden the affection felt towards Elizabeth, the blonde herself had admitted that it was thanks to her that she had joined them so soon.
The other cadets were still finishing their training while she was already a full-fledged soldier, that must have been very annoying for the others. But Elizabeth wasn't like the others, she wasn't like him either.
She had reached number one on the charts without even trying and when she began to work hard for her purpose she outclassed everyone without giving them a way to reach her. She was a force of nature.
She was strangely charismatic but she hid too much for one person alone.
"Elizabeth told me she would help me."
"And now you want me to do it in her place?"
"No." she answered confidently, hiding her gaze behind the reflection on her glasses. "I want to share it with you. I know how much you care about her, even if you insist on hiding it."
If she only knew...
"You want something from me." Levi noted, turning to look at her. He wanted to end that conversation and be alone.
"Whatever information you have about Elizabeth, I want you to give it to me too."
"At the moment I don't know anything."
"Levi I'm serious. There's something Erwin didn't tell us, I feel it."
Levi's gaze grew even darker and his fists clenched until his knuckles whitened. He had the same feeling.
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose; the brothel was filled with the smell of sex and dirt.
A couple of men whistled at her, eyeing her from head to toe as if she were a lamb to be torn to pieces. It was not difficult to guess the nature of their thoughts.
Men, especially in that place, when they saw a woman they thought of only one thing.
There were broken beer mugs on the ground and the amber liquid was starting to attract ants. Crumbs of food and the remains of tattered clothes were thrown into the corners of the room to prevent them from annoying someone in their passage.
The owner was a big man, about fifty years old, almost completely bald and smelling of sweat.
He kept babbling about her pay and how many hours she had to sing to entertain those pigs. She didn't care about the money: she would give Frank and Marie all the pay for the hospitality, they needed it more than she did.
She began to look around, nodding absently at his request about knowledge of a musical scale.
How stupid was he? If she was a singer it was obvious that she knew it, right?
She had been taught to her by her own brother when she was eight, she hadn't sung for several years but she was sure she could do it again.
The rooms were all next to each other, easier to reach, and the furniture was rather straight and simple.
A couple of wooden tables here and there, ceramic pots, curtains in front of the doors and no particular decoration except for a single gray carpet, caked with dirt that seemed to be beer.
She could not explain why but she felt he had to keep that particular corner of the structure under control.
The first evening went on quietly, if one could say so.
She had sung, rejected the advances of some particularly daring man to take her with them, and had helped a woman who was about to be strangled by a client.
All normal for that disastrous reality.
She felt sorry for that woman; she wondered if she had children, if she had a particular reason for doing the job, if she had to or just needed the money to survive.
She wondered how many times a man had been violent with her. And she wondered the same about the others.
Her thoughts returned to Levi as she moistened her dry throat with water. She had been lucky in that aspect; sure, their relationship was quite complicated, he remained a superior, but somehow, for them, it seemed to work. He was always kind to her, he never forced her to do anything she didn't want and he always followed her will as much as he liked to dominate.
And, more importantly, he had never touched her with the aim of inflicting pain on her just for fun.
As she pretended to work in there she seemed to get closer and closer to her goal.
When she returned to Frank and Marie's house, every late night, the woman was already asleep while he waited awake, perhaps just to make sure he saw her return, leaving her a cup of hot tea on the table before kissing her on the forehead and joining his wife.
Those moments were the only moments of the day that made her feel more human.
She wanted to talk to them about what was happening, she felt she owed it to them, but at the same time she knew she couldn't do it or she would endanger them. Frank had been helpful enough to get her that job in there, without her being forced into prostitution just for the mission. She had orders to follow but her principles had to remain inviolate.
But she couldn't be overwhelmed by emotions, there were lives in between, based on what her commander had told her, and she couldn't let it all degenerate.
Or that those fools would achieve their purpose. However, not knowing at all their faces put her in trouble.
After three whole weeks Elizabeth was finally able to get close to that strange carpet.
"What are you doing?" asked softly one of the prostitutes who worked there, the one she had helped the first night.
Elizabeth kept all her self-control, cold and emotionless like a machine, not panicking, then she turned cautiously with a smile.
"I was intrigued. This is the only carpet in here, it's pretty dirty though."
The woman seemed to turn white, swallowing and holding back a slight tremor of fear.
But afraid of what?
"Please stay away from there. The master doesn't want us to come near or touch it."
"Why?" Elizabeth asked, knowing she was right when she began to suspect this particular piece of furniture.
She remembered asking another woman who worked there, a more mature one, one with a face marked by time and experience but with a body still young and attractive. She told her that the owner had never given them a reason to stay away from that carpet, the men didn't care at all and the women were too scared or careless to wonder why.
They thought it was just something he cared about but for Elizabeth there was more.
The woman started to answer her but the master's voice, evidently a little tipsy from all the alcohol ingested, came screaming in their ears from the end of the corridor.
"Stay away from there!"
"Sure, we'll leave right away. We apologize." the prostitute hastened to say before taking the blonde by the hand and dragging her away.
Elizabeth began to mentally work out a plan, using what she now knew about the place, the times and everything about it, to be able to get close enough again to that carpet to know what it was hiding.
It was her first success since starting her mission and now she seemed to know how to accomplish it.