7 | The Upper Bounds of Expectation
upper bound (n.): a value that is greater than or equal to every element of a set of data.
"Hey, Rico, do you want to run laps with me?"
It was the beginning of their third and final year of training; the workload had only doubled, and even as they'd been shuffled into different squads as time progressed, Camille always found herself gravitating towards Rico and Ian.
Rico looked up from her bunk with her silver brows knit in frustration. She clutched the thick Elemental of Analytical Mathematics book they'd been given at the start of spring; the new year also came with new classes, and everyone was only beginning to acclimate. "Sorry, I can't. I have to study. Are you finished already?"
Camille sat down on the bunk, brow raised. The academic portion of their grades was a sizeable chunk – not as big as their ODM training or even their rifle and artillery training, but still not something that could just be ignored.
"Do you," Camille began carefully, "need help?"
"You are finished, aren't you?"
She shrugged, noting the touchy subject. As she looked around the women's barracks, she noted how everyone else still there also had their noses stuffed in their math books. "I studied a little, yes. I'll review again later."
"I don't get it," Rico groaned, lying back on her bed, book splayed on her chest. "How can you already be finished? We have two tests next week!"
Suddenly, the girl bolted forward, her eyes narrowed in accusation. "What happened in the year 789?"
Camille tilted her head. She imagined the view of the window beside her bunk on the other end of the barracks, just as it was last night when she'd read Kobolt's Notes on the History Within the Walls: the perfect arrangement of the trees framing the scene, the mountains in the distance, the dimly lit training field and the faces of two training instructors sharing an intimate cigarette underneath a lantern.
Almost as soon as she completed the image, she was supplied with the details: "A famine broke out in Shiganshina, due to a land dispute between Lords Lenberg and Rohr. Lenberg claimed to own the fields beside the Bryling river, a claim which was based on a thirty year old marriage contract between – "
"This is ridiculous."
"Not very," Camille offered in consolation. She smiled, tapping her head, knowing she was echoing the words to a lecture she'd already given countless times before. "You just have to learn how to properly store the information you take in. I could teach you some of it, if you want."
Rico grunted in assent.
"This is going to sound stupid but, every time you read something and you want to remember it, imagine printing and storing the details into a picture. A really memorable picture, one you're not likely to forget – " Camille leaned back, her arms spread out behind her as she playfully looked Rico in the eye, " – like… like Ian actually smiling with his teeth showing, happily eating a bowl of steamed potatoes."
It was the unlikeliest image; Ian rarely smiled, let alone smiled that big and he absolutely hated potatoes. Camille continued, "So every time you imagine yourself walking through that image – say, you're sitting across Ian at the mess hall, watching him eat those potatoes with a big goofy smile, you'll remember those details."
"With enough practice, you could remember pages of information – " She snapped her fingers, " – just like that, every time you walked through those images you've chosen."
Rico's forehead creased in thought. "That's too good to be true. That can't be possible."
Camille chuckled, reaching forward to tap her friend on the side of her temple. "You need a good imagination and lots of practice. It's something you can just keep in mind for now. Want a math lesson instead?"
She was laughing as the silver-haired girl scowled and brushed her hand away. Rico looked to the side, probably embarrassed that she needed Camille's help of all people.
"…Only if you're not busy." Rico muttered.
"Of course not," She said with a smile, finally glad she could offer this small thing in exchange for practically holding her hand when she was nothing but a weakling in the Training Corps. "Do I look busy to you? Let's move somewhere else. It's too noisy to think in here!"
Naturally they picked up Ian – also carrying Kobolt's Notes on the History Within the Walls and Elemental of Analytical Mathematics in the crook of his arm – on the way, and they conferred about where to spend the day studying.
"We could go to the library," Ian suggested. "I'm having difficulty with the practice problems – "
Camille was surprised. They weren't in the same classes, but she'd always imagined he was good at mathematics, as the son of merchants. "You too?"
Rico crossed her arms. "Camille said she'd teach me. We should go somewhere we can talk."
There weren't many places within the grounds of the Training Corps, so they eventually settled on sitting underneath a tree near the forest where they did their ODM training.
"Why am I not surprised you're going to be tutoring us?"
She tossed him a grin over her shoulder as they walked. "Mechanic, remember? It's pretty involved with math."
"Hm," Ian said aloud. "I didn't know that. Did you get special training or something for that?"
Training had a way of knocking down past selves and rebuilding them into the facsimiles of soldiers. She suspected that was the reason why the training instructors were always so harsh, and why they put a premium on discipline and following the chain of command; the military was meant to be a well-oiled machine, and cadets like her were simply those common gears that made up the majority of its mechanism.
But these were her friends. How much of those five years in Mitras did they want to know?
She didn't even know where to start. She tried anyway, knowing she trusted Ian and Rico with her life, playing it off as casually as she could.
"When I was fifteen, I was sent to – "
"Cadet Leto!"
All three of them stopped in their tracks and saluted. One of the training instructors, in his civilian clothes no less, caught up to them. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Head instructor wants a word, come with me."
"Yes sir," Camille uttered.
As she followed the instructor, she tossed a look of confusion over her shoulder.
Ian and Rico looked equally puzzled.
What do they want, Ian mouthed.
No clue, she mouthed back.
As they made their way back to the main training grounds, the instructor luckily seemed to be in a talkative mood. "You cadets know that we have a new superintendent, right?"
She'd heard the rumors. And the cadets heard the sounds of the rowdy goodbye party the officers had thrown Colonel Duvalier all the way from the barracks. Knowing they always expected a verbal reply, she went with a standard, "Yes sir."
"Bit early to be in trouble with the commandant then, don't you think?"
She forced a laugh. "Hopefully not, sir."
They made their way up the main administrative building – soon enough the instructor was knocking on the door that said:
Col. Keith Shadis
COMMANDANT OF CADETS, SOUTHERN DIVISION
Camille fought off her shock.
"Enter."
"Good luck, Leto," The instructor said with a faint smirk.
Inside was wide and spacious – filled with carved and cushioned wooden furniture that someone had deemed too fanciful for lowly cadets like her in the barracks and mess hall. There were bookshelves filled with binders of information, a pitiful-looking plant shunted into one corner of the room, and not a single other sign of ornamentation in sight.
And there was Shadis, seated behind a vast table and in uniform, the deep brown longcoat of the Training Corps sitting around his shoulders like they'd always been there.
Her salute was ingrained at this point.
"Sir!"
"Sit, cadet."
Her feet took her to the chairs in front of the table. His nameplate looked brand new. There was something startling about him – she'd seen a few portraits of him years ago, when she'd still bothered checking the newspapers for word about the Survey Corps, and she'd heard his name here and there throughout the years.
Was it the deep rings of purple underneath his eyes, his bloodshot stare, or the fact that he'd lost almost all of his hair?
Camille knew what puzzled her the most, though: if he was here, who was commanding the Scouts?
"Leto," He rumbled, his hands clasped over an opened folder. She'd known in the few seconds it took to sit herself down that he'd probably been reading her file. "Correct?"
She fought the urge to tilt her head and dissect him from head to toe. His command of the Scouts had always been plagued with losses and few victories to speak of – that much she remembered without a doubt. Those losses had been one of the biggest reasons why she'd began putting the papers down when she scanned for details about Erwin. "Yes sir."
"I don't plan on making a habit of looking through every single useless piece of personal correspondence a recruit, or in your case, a cadet receives," He uttered. His voice was low and even – which made it all the more difficult to examine for any emotion, "You are here to train, and in that vein, expected to learn to abandon such frivolities in the name of service."
She nodded. She'd always known that.
"This," Shadis held up an envelope – and much to her alarm, Camille instantly recognized the university's stationery and broken seal, "has come to my attention, however. I take it from your reaction that you are familiar with the sender?"
"…Yes, sir."
He shook out its contents. Two heavy pieces of paper fell into his waiting palm.
"I believe I've already made it clear that I could care less about the past lives you led before you pledged yourself to the military," His tone was unmistakably harsh now, but his eyes – an unsettling shade of dull brown, the color of withered wood – dug into her with something approaching… curiosity? "But the contents of this letter have proven difficult to ignore. You are aware that lying on your recruitment form is a crime, Leto?"
She clenched her jaw. Her mind whirred into action.
"I was told it would be so when I signed up, sir." But she herself was curious about the exact way this letter incriminated her. "Forgive me, sir but I'm not sure which part of my form we're referring to."
Something about her reply made his mouth twitch. Irritation? Amusement because he'd caught her lie that quick? He laid out the two sheets in front of him, as if for her to read.
Camille piled her hands on her lap calmly. Either way, it was too late to take the words back now.
"This is a letter from a Simon Laplace," Camille could see it now as he tapped the paper: Laplace's curling handwriting on the page. My Dear Camille, he'd written. "It confirms that you were a university graduate, and were bestowed the professional title of engineer from the royal government around the time writing."
Of course. It hadn't been Pastor Kircher at all, and some annoyance filled her in place of her shock. She'd never told Laplace of her decision to join the military – she'd only written to him to decline Pascal College's (gracious, esteemed) offer of employment.
He'd probably been alarmed when she didn't write him more after that.
"I don't think I understand, sir."
Shadis pointed at the other sheet. She knew what it was from a passing glance. It was a copy of a special bulletin the royal government published every time it made proclamations.
In the name of His Royal Majesty King Fritz, the Professional Council of Higher Labor, with the power vested by the House of Lords through the Regulation of Meritorious Services Act of 823, hereby recognizes the following individuals as engineers…
"You are required to disclose your personal and educational background on your form, cadet," Shadis said, as if it weren't obvious enough. His eyes were still calm and curious, and he clasped his hands in front of him again. "Tell me. Did you believe you would receive special treatment if you disclosed the full extent of your… achievements? Is that why you omitted these details?"
The way he said achievements made it clear he could care less about them.
But it was this question at least that she could answer with full honesty. "No, sir. I believed they were irrelevant. I described my education in terms I thought would be useful to the military. As for my – " Her throat almost choked on the word, " – title, I received it after I enlisted."
Never mind that she'd only taken the engineering exam on a promise to Lotta, as her mind had already been made up on joining the military by then. Don't let all your studying go to waste, Lotta had scolded, and Camille had found it impossible to refuse her.
Shadis paused, evidently surprised by her candid answer.
"That is not for you to determine, cadet."
His gaze wandered, as if in contemplation.
"And yet I can see why you would think so. Did your recruiting officer tell you that, entirely depending on their performance during training, university graduates are eligible for officer candidacy after graduation?"
His eyes were on her when she straightened in her seat. That was information she'd never received. "No, sir. I wasn't told anything at all."
"I thought not. The likes of you," Camille wondered what it was that he saw as he dissected her with his withered brown eyes, in exactly the way she'd been unable to do to him, "rarely join our ranks. There is only one way to join the military, but some individuals – few as they are – have always been valued more than others."
His mouth tightened, and Camille could suddenly see the commander in him, instead of the shriveled up and disgraced Scout he'd been in her eyes until that point.
"You will live up to that standard, Leto. I will look past your earlier indiscretion, but know that you will be judged differently from here on. It will be my opinion alone if you're worthy of being an officer candidate. Provided that you even graduate."
She felt a corner of her mouth lift. Fair terms, even if they'd been handed to her late due to circumstances of her own making. She wondered what kind of commandant he would make. Duvalier had been exemplary, in her mind.
"Of course, sir."
His head wrinkled with displeasure, and the fire that blazed in his eyes at that moment all but burned away whatever dullness she'd first seen.
"Why are you here, Leto?"
Camille didn't hesitate. She stood and placed her fist over her heart once again. "To pledge myself in service to the people, sir!"
She met his gaze fearlessly.
It was in the fact that his face showed no signs at all of being affected that Camille understood she would continue to move forward, with or without his approval. Even if he made a horrible replacement for Duvalier or not – Camille knew only the path she'd set for herself.
"Dismissed."
When she finally made her way back to Ian and Rico seated underneath the tree, she found them bickering over a solution on a page.
"I'm telling you Rico, that's not how it's done – "
"You can't tell me how it's done. You don't know the right way either."
"I don't know the right way but that doesn't mean I can't know when it's wrong!"
"Here," Camille plucked the paper out of their hands, pointing at an error in their derivation. It was trigonometric function related, which she couldn't blame anyone for being confused over.
Ian gave her the pencil, and the two huddled over her shoulders as she continued their work for them. She showed them how easy the problem became when she rewrote the equation, eventually coming to a deceptively simple answer.
"This is stupid," Rico muttered uncharacteristically as she pulled back and fell onto the grass fully. "I don't know why we have to know this. They're triangles."
Camille went over the solution with Ian again, answering all the questions he had. When they finished, she took a seat nestled in the tree's roots. "I'll remember that when we take the test next week and Ian scores higher than you."
The girl scowled. Camille smiled, knowing she'd struck her competitive nerve. "I've got nothing else to do today. Ask me anything you need."
It was Ian that answered. "What did the new superintendent want?"
She lied back on the tree as she fought off a sigh.
Just before she'd been called, she had every intention on telling them what she'd been somewhat hiding from them. Like she'd said to Shadis, she'd found the information irrelevant. They were training to be soldiers for god's sake, not scholars. She'd hoped that technical training in machines was only supposed to have indicated her for placement in a Combat Engineers squad, nothing else. Even if that meant she'd have to work herself up the totem pole of the military, she'd been prepared to give it her all in pursuit of her dream.
And yet the conversation she had proved it was the opposite. Her Wodan degree automatically pitted her against a standard that was higher than everyone else's.
Going to the military had never been intended as an escape from her background. If anything, she'd regarded it as an embrace of her technical knowledge, the one place she knew her skills would definitely come into use. The way she'd gained that knowledge should have been divorced from her.
Wodan didn't define her.
That meant it didn't define her friendships either.
She briefly considered lying, considered continuing to hide from them.
Camille dismissed the thought instantly. That was her own self-importance talking, wasn't it – to think that they would treat her any differently just because she'd gone to some fancy school in Mitras. Ridiculous. No; she trusted them, and trusted in their own ability to make their desires become reality in the same way she trusted in hers.
She looked at Ian. "Remember when I told you I wanted the top spot in this class?"
He lifted a brow. "What about it?"
"I still want it. You too, right? Both of you."
He nodded. She glanced at Rico.
"Of course."
"Right," Camille continued, mouth curling in a grin. "What do both of you know about universities?"
845 brought him a promotion to Corporal and his own squad.
Levi hadn't thought of it – he never thought about the trajectory of his military career, after years of Shadis's bumbling. Ass-kissing and bootlicking didn't exist to him when their commander didn't own a single ounce of Levi's respect. What mattered to him was doing what he was asked to do and doing it well, and that amounted to killing titans and protecting the men in the legion.
This promotion complicated things. Corporals were given squads to command; Erwin had only complicated it further by making it a special operations squad.
If he was being truthful, Erwin at the helm changed everything; years of stubbornness and outdated military thinking on Shadis's part had made the Scouts a laughing stock and a popular scapegoat for civilians lamenting the royal government's general ineptitude.
Part of him should feel grateful, he guessed. And he was in a way – it was only a year since the titan-sized blonde had the command of the Scouts dumped on him, but Levi knew he and the other officers would have nobody else leading them.
He was of course referring to what remained of the officers after Erwin had purged the ranks for incompetence.
The wrinkle remained: a special operations squad meant squad members. Squad members meant people. People that the Scouts, in their current state, didn't have. Personnel shortages were practically a permanent state for the Scouts, but that didn't stop Erwin from trying to think his way into a solution for it.
But that wasn't the reason why he was in Garrison HQ at Trost today, even if that was where cadets in their third and final year were sorted into attachments for different Garrison platoons.
No. As far as reasons went, he was here for a stupid one.
Levi exited the meeting room. Behind him, he could hear Hange talking the ear off the Garrison's second-in-command. They'd shown up that morning for a meeting with Pixis about another joint exercise, but they'd been greeted by his XO instead, murmuring something about the Commander being busy.
Busy gallivanting around Wall Rose while drinking hooch from that famous silver flask of his, more like.
"Ah! I don't believe I told you about this new theory I had about what attracts Titans to humans – "
"Is this really nece – "
Levi shut the door behind him.
Down the hall – in the direction of the Commander's office, he noted – someone did the same, and started walking in the opposite direction of him. They had a pack twice their size strapped on their shoulders, but when they turned halfway to say goodbye to someone, he saw the blonde hair braided and pinned to her head, and the smile on her face.
His body jolted forward of its own accord, recognizing her instantly.
She might've been wearing her hair differently, and she might've been clothed in something else other than the drab white shirt and skirt combo she'd always worn, but by that point he'd spent too much time over the last three years being reminded of her every time he went to Belcastle and was met with Iris's too-similar face.
Camille.
When she noticed him coming up to her he could see her eyes – had they always been that green – widen and she saluted, even with the hulking pack still strapped on her back.
It broke him out of whatever trance he'd been.
Instead, Levi looked her up and down, unsurprised to find her uniform in order. He crossed his arms, cocking a brow. "Snappy."
Her mouth twitched, but she smoothed the motion over, saying nothing more than, "Thank you, sir."
"Don't get too excited," Levi scolded without a second thought. "I haven't said anything about… the rest of you, cadet."
Camille bowed her head. "Of course, sir."
Somehow that irritated him, but he decided to walk over to the window, beckoning her with a crooked finger. A quick glance around the hall proved they were alone.
"At ease," He uttered, watching the way she smiled fully now. The sunlight streaming from the window only highlighted how vividly bright green her eyes were. "You look well."
She laughed as she unshouldered her pack, leaning it carefully against the wall. "For a minute there I thought you were going to make me do some push-ups."
He tilted his head. She'd never struck him as the disobedient type – she seemed too level-headed for it, but he knew from his own experience that he'd ordered worse punishments for less. "It's not too late for me to change my mind."
To his surprise, all she did was grin. Softly, she said, "It's nice to see you again, Levi."
His gaze darted to outside the window, caught off guard by the apparent sentiment in her tone. "I didn't expect to see you here."
He chanced a glance back at her, who was still smiling. "What were you doing coming out of Pixis's office?"
She gestured at the pack. "Reporting. My detachment just got in the district."
"So he is here after all," Levi breathed. And spending the time talking to a cadet like Camille, instead of attending a meeting to plan joint-exercises with the Scouts that was only happening a few doors down the hall.
She lifted her own brow, eyes glinting with amusement. She knew something. "Been here all morning, actually. The Commander wanted an extensive report."
It sounded too attentive an activity for someone who liked reaching for a wine bottle as much as Pixis did. Had he been drunk the entire time? But he would've dozed off sooner or later, which was something Levi had watched him do during military assemblies in Mitras.
"And you? If you don't mind me asking."
"Babysitting," He uttered dully. "Nothing you should concern yourself with, cadet."
"Mm."
Words danced around her upturned mouth, but she said nothing more.
After a moment, she spoke again, voice low. "You know, if I knew I was repairing Humanity's Strongest's gear, I think I would've taken more time and been a bit more careful."
Levi let out a sigh of aggravation at the stupid title he'd never asked for. Of course she'd know it. "No, you wouldn't have," He uttered. "You did a good job. I haven't had a problem since that first time."
"Really now?" She blinked, though her face soon transformed into another wide grin. "I'm guessing mother installed the springs for you?"
Levi looked away. "Yeah, after you ran out on everyone."
He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. It was easy – too easy – to fall into this sort of familiar banter, as if they'd ever been friends before, when they never actually had been. Perhaps it was the effect of having hung around her family for the three years she'd been gone. Three years of Iris's chattering while she looked at his gear and three years of avoiding another time when Soren had all but forced him to sleep in her room.
It was too familiar. Too close for his comfort. The last time he'd had anything like family –
– even if sometimes he liked to stay a little longer than he should have in that two-story house in Belcastle, idly listening to Lotta sing while she worked in the kitchen and Levi sipped another cup of tea –
Too close.
"Figures," Camille chuckled. When he looked at her out of the corner of his eye again, she was also looking out the window, gazing at the swarm of Garrison soldiers working on the ground below them. "I leave to go and make a name for myself and they replace me."
She met his eye with a small smile. "Thank you, though. I know they're annoying but they like having someone around to nag at."
If she was saying that, then she probably knew how much they missed her. Levi closed his eyes with a sigh. "Me too," He turned to face her fully. "Thanks. I never thanked you for… three years ago."
She tilted her head at him, lips still quirked. "You don't really need to thank me. I was more than happy to do that for you."
Levi gave a nod.
"Right," Camille uttered, as if she'd sensed that they should have had nothing more to say to each other. She reached for her pack and strapped it on without a complaint, even as it towered over her head and something inside it rustled lowly with the movement. She saluted again. "Sir."
It was as he watched her walk down the hallway away from him that he realized she didn't ask him about Erwin, like he'd half-expected her to. She was Erwin's friend, after all. Not his.
He kept this thought in mind as two weeks passed and the graduation of the 99th Training Corps brought him to a carriage ride with Erwin.
Levi could flip a coin on which Erwin he'd be getting every time they shared a carriage: if it was the silent, thoughtful Erwin, or if it was the talkative Erwin who spoke about nothing but goals and preparations.
Lately he'd been getting the former.
Erwin's eyes were fixed on the view outside their window as the carriage rolled forward. The graduation ceremony was always held in Trost, on Garrison grounds. It was a short ride from Survey Corps HQ to Garrison HQ on most days – but today the pace felt slower, more drawn out.
Levi knew he wasn't imagining the tapping of Erwin's leg. Nervous, he might've said if he cared enough to describe it.
It was something of a spectacle to watch as it unfolded. Even Hange noticed, as they got off their carriages and they were led to the field where they would greet whatever sorry souls that decided they had enough resolve to join the Scouts.
"I think he might actually be excited," The redhead stage-whispered into his ear.
"We're getting more men," Levi shot back. "Of course he'd be."
"I wonder what kind of speech he's giving," Hange uttered, voice suddenly serious. "It'll be Erwin's first recruitment speech."
They both stared at the blonde commander's back as he walked a few paces in front of them. They watched even as he moved forward to take the stage, and they stayed rooted in the shadows. Whatever anticipation they might have imagined in his body melted away, leaving only the Commander of the Survey Corps.
"There he goes," Hange sighed.
Erwin's voice was unwavering as he stood in front of the thin crowd of recruits.
"Can you give up your lives if you're ordered to?"
There were gasps.
Levi leaned against the wall, mouth pulling in a smirk. Beside him, Hange only grinned.
Not bad, Erwin.
The speech wasn't long. It certainly wasn't sentimental. And of course, as soon as word would get out about the new Commander's recruitment speech, it'd only confirm everyone's worst suspicions that the Scouts were a suicidal pack of soldiers.
But nobody could ever mistake their dedication to humanity's survival.
There was little else to it as the recruits were escorted into their barracks at the Garrison again, ostensibly to piss their pants after realizing what joining the Scouts truly entailed. Hange broke off with Mike as they went to gather their new rookies' paperwork, paperwork that Levi would also be combing through as he continued his search for new squad members.
Erwin observed every single recruit file away into the darkness, one eye on the stream of rookies even as he walked offstage.
Levi cocked his head, not denying the faint amusement he felt while watching his fruitless attempts. "Looking for someone?"
His words stopped Erwin short, as if he'd actually forgotten that Levi was also there, waiting.
To his surprise, Erwin answered candidly. "Yes, I was."
So neither of them had seen Camille in the crowd.
Iris's griping always hinted that she'd joined the military on Erwin's whim. With him as commander, however, Erwin's whims were nearly synonymous with the Scouts's whims now.
Even now Levi made no opinion on what he believed about the specifics of their relationship beyond the fact that they were friends.
And yet he never doubted Erwin's ability to get what he wanted.
"I bumped into her," Levi offered nonchalantly as they began walking back to their carriages. Pixis's staff had extended an invitation to dinner, but Erwin had refused on the account of work, and Levi would sooner be eaten by a titan than subject himself to a night of the drunken commander's riddles. "I saw her coming out of Pixis's office after she finished giving him a report on her detachment, same time as we were planning the joint-exercises."
Erwin's eyes were on him now. "She told you this?"
"You sound shocked," Levi scoffed, his own gaze set ahead of him. "You're the one who sent me to babysit four-eyes."
It took a moment for Erwin to digest the information. He then voiced what was on both their minds: "I find it hard to believe the Commander of the Garrison would take the time to listen to what a cadet had to say."
They walked on in silence for a moment.
"You misjudged me, though. I was unaware you were familiar with each other." Erwin spoke aloud. Then, he added, "I suppose it was a bit presumptuous, to think she would have come on her own volition and nothing else."
"Are you really disappointed?" Levi questioned bluntly. "You just asked every fresh recruit if they were willing to die on your command. This is the Scouts we're talking about."
Not you.
Iris had always went on about Camille's sensibleness, but she implied she lost her good judgement whenever it came to Erwin. And yet Camille's absence tonight proved that that wasn't the case.
Outwardly, anyway.
Levi didn't miss the way Erwin did nothing but smile at his words. "Hm."
Erwin looked up at the sky above them, past the spires of Garrison HQ, blue eyes shining under the light of the full moon.
"I wonder what she's thinking," He uttered in that same knowing tone that said he understood exactly what was on her mind.
Notes:
short chapter, short encounters.
(1) military curriculums cc the 19th century included calculus and a bunch of other fancy things like latin, artillery training, and grammar & rhetoric. even if i take my cues from snk itself though, military conventions in this fic are... all over the place. i also read in an snk guidebook that the training corps are technically part of the garrison, which is why you see the 104th kids being stationed with the garrison during the trost arc in s1.
(2) officer candidates: historically, professionals were given officerships, though they were often limited to units related to their profession. which is why sometimes in war movies you'd see a doctor attached to a medical unit in the army, and they'd be given the rank of captain or something.
(3) the memory house: also more commonly known as the memory palace/method of loci, in case anyone found what camille was describing familiar. there are multiple ways to go about using the memory palace, some of which have already been described in this fic.
anyway, thanks for reading! reviews are love. :)