Castle life proved to be considerably different from her Scouting time. Unlike she had originally planned she was not the first person to wake up. It was a knock on her door that roused Elsie's heavy lidded eyes out of the blue duvet, her body diagonal in the bed, and it was a truly glorious feeling to wake up in.
"Miss Elsie?" The knock came again with a sweet voice, gentle and timid.
Elsie floundered for her robe that'd she'd flung on the dress last night, tying it as she faced her alarm clock. It was a young girl with bright red hair and wide, innocent eyes and a maid's outfit. The girl curtsied, way too proper for Elsie, who was pretty sure that her hair was standing up on one side of her head.
"My name is Himari and I'm here to help you get ready for the meeting."
"What meeting?"
"Between the Scout Regiment and the Assembly. If you don't mind, Miss, I'll start a bath for you while you pick a gown for the day." Himari was always curtsying, her eyes not once lifted as she headed towards the bathroom. Elsie heard the water slosh and smelled the rich oils being used, the exact ones Elsie had scoffed at the night previous.
Elsie had no choice but to walk over her to wardrobe and fling the heavy black doors open. The wardrobe was made for dresses, the hangers out of Elsie's reach and more likely to be accessed by Himari, but she had enough height to her to move the hangers side ways, taking in the extravagant dresses. They all had a part attached that appeared to make the butt bigger and Elsie was not about that, so she found the thinnest one she could - a slim red maiden dress much like the one she'd worn leaving Trost.
"Good choice, Miss Elsie. If I may?" Himari startled Elsie, her voice a low simper behind her shoulder.
"Oh sure." She handed the garment over and the maid neatly hung it on the door of the closet, her hands lingering a bit too long as she felt the dress up.
"The bath is ready, Miss Elsie."
"You can just call me Elsie, I'm not your teacher or anything." She tried to joke, remembering her daycare days when children had ran up screaming Miss Ellie since Elsie was obviously too hard for them to say.
Himari didn't seem to understand the simplicity of her request, cocking her head to the side. She shrugged it off and gestured for Elsie to go into the tub, and seeing how she didn't think she was going to be winning this argument, she trudged to the bathroom. It was unusual to hear someone shuffling around the room while she soaked in the bath, the oils making her skin feel like an eels under the water, but she eventually learned to ignore Himari.
That is until her hands were on Elsie's scalp. She spun in the water and gasped, "What are you doing?"
"I have to wash your hair." There was a dime of conditioner in her hand, Himari worried.
"I can do it myself. Do you have someone else to help?"
"Miss Hange but we know not to wake her up this early. I'll wait in the bedroom, then." She bowed once more before disappearing around the arch that led to the bed.
Elsie submerged herself in water.
Himari quickly became Elsie's least favorite person in castle. She quite literally fluttered around Elsie, predicting every move she would make. She couldn't fix her dress around her waist. She went to put her shoes on but that was already taken care of by eager hands. She drew the line at her hair, having a staring contest with the younger girl as she braided it and put it over her shoulder, shocked when the end was well bellow her breasts.
By the time Elsie came around the corner to see the tall, intimidating doors leading to the throne room, she was batting Himari's needling hands away, flustered and annoyed.
"About time, did you have to take a shit?" Levi's deep voice called from ahead.
Elsie allowed Himari to fix her bangs as her caught sight of him. He had walked up with Erwin, Miche who Elsie had barely seen, and a yawning Hange in his wake. Unlike Elsie, who had been woken and primed and dressed like a lady, Hange was in her uniform with her usual raggedy pony tail and smudged glasses. Elsie's eyes cut to Himari who, catching sight of the squad leader, gasped and fluttered away.
"Damn girl, I never want to see her again," Elsie complained, marching up to their side. "Made me wear a dress and everything."
Levi had a repulsed look as he eyed her, "Did you really bring that hideous thing all this way?"
"It's not the same one, stupid, and it's not hideous. It's practical. Hey, where is everyone?" In the frazzle that was Himari she'd just realized that no one had joined their group and it didn't look like anyone else was.
"You're not going in, there must have been a miscommunication. I asked the girl to bring you to me," Damn, Himari, that stupid bird. "What needs to be done today?"
Erwin had changed his tactics, it appeared. Usually he demanded knowledge from Elsie, a hint for the trained professionals to fix it, but he looked at her with a new found look, a kindness in his brown eyes that hadn't been there before when talking to Elsie. It was respect.
Of course Levi must have told him about Reiner. But when did he find the time? Elsie glanced and sure enough Levi's arm was in the same bandages from last night. He tucked it further in his jacket, glaring when she met his gaze.
"Oh..." The attack on Trost was bound to happen with Elsie's interference or not. It was the only way for them to get Annie, which surely this upcoming meeting was about. And while Erwin plotted Annie's imprisonment what would Elsie do? What could she change? A resolution set in her and she looked back at Erwin. "I'd like to be with the cadets, sir."
"Very well. I'm sure you can find them." With that Erwin walked into the throne room, Hange finally waking up and rushing after him. Elsie caught Levi's bad arm when he tried to follow, having no sympathy when his arm spasmed in her grasp. "And we are going to the doctor after that meeting."
"Fuck off."
Elsie had no choice but to fuck off because Levi walked into the room. She only caught a glimpse of the long red carpet and six figures sitting in chairs before the door slammed shut. Huffing, Elsie headed to the right where she figured the hallway would lead to the center of the castle. To her luck it did and she walked out of the long hallway and into a room that looked nothing like it had in the dark hours.
The foyer was awake as servants briskly walked in and out of hallways, knowing the castle like the back of their hands and on a mission. They couldn't see past what they were doing, one of them nearly bumping into Elsie as he muttered a grocery list to remember. A lady was fixing new flowers into vases on the tables in the foyer, nodding as a younger girl talked hurriedly about what else had to be done.
Elsie stood in the archway, lost and confused. Where did she go? What should she do? By this time next week Annie will be destroying the Capital with Eren. What happened after that? She thought hard, concentrating, thinking of Historia and the Beast Titan. There was only so much she knew from the anime and cursed herself for never having read the manga. But, she did have an idea of a person that she felt that she needed to talk to.
"Excuse me," The lady fixing the flowers immediately stopping at Elsie's presence, both bowing with respect. It was strange to live in a world where bowing was still a thing for the upper class and momentarily felt like she was living a lie. "Do you know where I could find the Scouts?"
She was astonished, "Oh Miss, I wouldn't recommend hanging around those boys, they have crazy minds, they do."
"I'm actually looking for a woman."
This did not sound any better to the old matron. Her lips puckered disdainfully and she gave Elsie a look that could rival Levi's before turning her back and gesturing hurriedly for Elsie to follow. It was clear that she would rather be doing anything than leading a clueless blonde through the castle but Elsie thought it had something to do with how she was dressed. If she had been in uniform surely this woman would have scoffed and ignored her.
It confused Elsie how crude the Walls were towards the Scouts. In her world the soldiers were revered, applauded for their bravery putting their lives on the front lines, yet here they were being treated like dogs getting the nasty seconds. As if they should be thanking the Walls for letting them try to expand their lives.
The walk was short and brisk through another hallway that led to an already open set of oak doors allowing Elsie to see the tan and white uniformed soldiers standing in a wide circle. It seemed that without squad leaders they had taken to lolling around the grassy land that they had freedom to, some finding solitude and others trying to lighten the mood with weak jokes, but not as loud as they had been at the castle before the mission.
The woman didn't say another word, turning on her heel and marching back to the foyer. Eren had been sitting on the ground with Armin, sullen and depressed, before he caught sight of Elsie stepping out of the doors. He grappled to his feet, kicking dirt up in his hurry to get to her side, leaving behind an annoyed Mikasa, who pulled her red scarf further up her face to hide the fact. Armin wasn't shocked, looking down to pick at the grass.
"Where have you been? I've been looking for you all morning! Where's Captain Levi?" Eren looked behind her and it her sent a pang through her chest.
Just like Oulou, Eren knew that Levi and Elsie were never more than ten feet apart. Her body suddenly felt heavy, her bones and emotions wanting her to fall to the ground and soak in the misery and despair that she felt suddenly, an avalanche of realization that it was just her and Eren now.
"There's a meeting with all the squad leaders."
Elsie finally looked at Eren, seeing the dark circles under his eyes, the pallor to his face. He hadn't slept any better than she had but she had an annoying bird primping her to look alive. Eren had rolled out of bed with the rest of the cadets, hearing the stories from yesterday no doubt. She realized that she had been lucky, only her own memories to replay in her head and not the horrors from others.
"About what we're going to do to get the Female Titan? We need to get her, Elsie, we can't just let her go! She killed the whole squad, we did to do something!" He was begging, his eyes wide and so childlike.
"Eren," Elsie grabbed his arm, hoping that he understood that she wanted Annie to suffer for her friend's deaths just like he wanted. "They're having a meeting on how to get the Female Titan, they know who she is."
Eren didn't look relieved at the news like she'd thought. Instead it seemed to propel him further into his dark anger, his eyebrows furrowing and twisting his arm so that her fingers fell from him.
"If they know who she is then why did we go through all of that? Why?" His voice was measured. The calm before the storm.
"They had no idea yesterday. Eren, if you really want to know," At this he was nodding, looking at her as if she was stupid for thinking he wouldn't want to. "You need to be calm and open minded."
"I'm calm and open minded."
Elsie's look stated that was a lie but she didn't mention it, "Talk to Armin. Be open."
Eren pivoted in the spot to glare at his short friend. Elsie took this as her chance to look to the left of Armin's clueless figure to see Ymir and Krista talking on a rock. Elsie picked her skirt up and with her chin out, she headed towards the two girls who no one bothered to speak to. Ymir, the giant, caught sight of Elsie first, crossing her arms and her face quickly relaxing into her natural bitchy one, her eyes narrowing the closer Elsie got. When her fearful stare didn't deter Elsie she decided words would be best.
"What do you want, freak?"
"Wow, so creative, I'm really hurting on the inside," Elsie's voice sounded as unaffected as she hoped it would be. Ymir's eyebrow rose, Krista finally looking up from the book she was reading to smile welcomingly from her comfortable position on the rock. "I have an errand to run, I was hoping you two would come to the village with me. Since everyone hates Scouts and all that."
Ymir sighed woefully, "Do we have a choice?"
"It won't be so bad, Ymir!" Krista bounced cheerfully to her friend's side, the back of their hands brushing as Krista gave her best smile, one that Elsie was positive Ymir couldn't say no to. "I've never been in the Village before. Let's go look around and get our minds off of everything."
Elsie smiled at their agreement, "Great! I'll get us a carriage."
It was easy enough to ask someone for a carriage, a boy running through the foyer to get to the stables. Elsie was well over the dress and snuck back to her room, anxiously checking over her shoulder to make sure Himari wouldn't return and admonish her. She successfully boarded the carriage with Ymir and Krista, all three women dressed in their Scouts uniform.
It wasn't until the carriage was pulling to a rocky stop in front of a shop that Krista asked, "What are we doing?"
"Going to church." Elsie said chirpily, the first one to step out of the carriage.
Krista and Ymir exchanged equal looks of horror.