Notes:
THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THIS STORY! Special shoutout for cherrylate THANK YOU for your lovely comment!
So, here's the new chapter! Happy reading :D
UPDATE: I changed the rating from to T
(((because Levi cursed so much)))
DISCLAIMER:
Shingeki no Kyojin / Attack on Titan belongs to Hajime Isayama.
CHAPTER 3: RING TOSS
See the end of the chapter for more notes
One saturday afternoon in the same old manor.
A fancy black carriage arrived in front of said manor. The driver announced their arrival, and the passenger immediately opened the carriage door.
A shiny pair of black shoes stepped into the wet concrete road alongside a black walking cane with golden ornate handles. From inside the carriage, emerged a man wearing a black outer coat with matching black top hat resting on his head. Protecting him from anything he deemed undesired.
Like dust and sun.
After paying the driver, he walked toward the grand door. Without knocking, he opened the door and stepped into the foyer. He took off his hat, his coat, and his cane to put it away on the side hanger.
Under the black coat, he wore a black suit and dark grey pants. Brown vest could be seen peeking from the inside of his suit, while a green silk ascot tie surrounds his neck elegantly.
He glanced at the mirror.
Not a speck of dirt nor any sign of wrinkles could be seen on every inch of his outfits.
He was truly an epitome of a classy gentleman.
But then, he sensed something. Even though he hasn't yet come into the main hall, he could feel something was different with the manor.
He couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was, but he knew that something was happening here.
Something that was never here before.
The man stepped into the main hall and looked at the surrounding furniture, paintings, and sculptures. He slides his finger on the surface of a mahogany table before nodding. The smell of the room is also clean, there's no dust flying around.
The manor was still clean, so it wasn't the culprit of this uneasy feeling he felt.
So, what is it?
He heard a commotion coming from the backyard. He looked over to the glass door that was located behind the grand staircase, and saw nothing but the usual green grass, garden, and lake.
Wait.
The manor was usually quiet —and he liked that very much.
Yet today, it felt so crowded.
He was sure that he had only added one additional member into the household.
The one and only, that is the new governess.
The new governess that he knew nothing about, except the fact that she is Erwin's friend.
He got a bad feeling about this.
He didn't get much update about this new governess. He did know about an incident in the kitchen involving the new governess and his cousin.
And about the unusual way the governess taught his young cousin.
Also about the time the governess almost knocked a vase down from the table.
Oh shit.
He should've asked Erwin more about her.
Damn Erwin and his smooth criminal talk.
He had a strong feeling about who was responsible for this commotion.
So he walked to the door with the intention to greet this said person.
As he got closer, the voices grew louder in his ears. He could hear laughter, screams, and other sounds that he couldn't recognize. There were probably more than one person behind this door.
When he opened the door, he immediately sensed something, but he was a little too late to react.
Suddenly, he heard a loud thud near his left ear.
Then, everything went quiet.
He could make out a few gasps and murmurs.
Slowly, she started to feel a pain on his left temple.
He touched his temple.
It wasn't that painful, but still—
Before he could even register what just happened to him, a voice was heard.
"OH MY GOODNESS, I'M SO SORRY. ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
Truth to be told, a voice was an understatement. It was a loud as heck voice, almost like a scream.
As he glanced toward the scream, he immediately saw someone running toward him. The said person stopped in front of him, face colored with guilt and worry.
The thing is, he didn't know who this person was.
He didn't remember that a bespectacled person with bright light brown eyes, horrendous brown hair, and purple dress lives in this manor.
He wanted to say a lot of things toward her, like how angry he was—
But, he just stared up into her face with furrowed brows. She was awfully close to his face, and it made Levi take a step backward.
He could see the shift of her expression. She tilted her head and furrowed her brows before gasping.
"Oh no, where's my manner!" She gave him a weak smile, "Uhm, my name is Hange Zoe, I'm the new governess— and you see, we were just playing ring toss, and it seemed that you got here at the worst time as possible..."
Levi's expression remained unchanged.
"... I might have been a little way too excited when playing. I threw my ring too far and too fast, and that's where you came in… in which resulted with your potentially bruised temple because it got hit with this wood ring I threw." She explained as she picked up the forgotten wood ring from the grass.
"Ha...ha…ha…" She awkwardly laughed, before slowly hiding the ring behind her.
He didn't say anything.
Well, he wanted to. He wanted to say how angry he was and how shitty she must be at body coordination.
But, he couldn't mutter anything.
She fidgeted on her position before bowing her head "Please forgive me, sir!"
Before he could say anything, she continued. "Does it hurt? I'm really sorry! It's probably hurt a lot, right? Do you need something? Water? Chair? Massage? — Oh I could make a cold compress for it, to prevent it from swelling. I could also— "
"Enough," He finally said with a low voice.
He glanced at the shitty glasses she wore.
"Just— keep it down," He said before going back inside, leaving the confused crowds behind.
Today was supposed to be a fun and rebellious little afternoon outing.
The toy chest that Hange was talking about yesterday was filled with a lot of old interesting toys that she probably couldn't find today. One in particular is a set of Ring Toss made from wood.
She figured that it would be a lot of fun to play it with everyone. So she invited a few servants to play with her and Mikasa. They played with Moblit and Abel who are the footman, Keiji who is the coachman, and of course Nifa.
It was supposed to be like this: they would play around and have fun. If they got caught by the master, they would definitely get scolded and all, but then they would apologize, and at the end day, they would brush it off and forget about it.
The end.
Like, what's the worst thing that could happen?
Then, Hange lost control of her ring and hit some random passerby.
It must be painful, and Hange wouldn't be surprised if he got angry at her.
That's why she was surprised to see that he wasn't bothered by it. Although he did look annoyed.
She didn't know who that man was, but Hange was sure that she saw his face somewhere.
But where?
"Oh God, I thought he would get mad at Miss Hange." She heard a voice coming from behind her, it was Nifa. Hange looked behind her and saw the crowds she was just playing with, there's a chorus of sighs coming from them.
"Who was that?" Hange innocently asked.
Everyone stared at her in disbelief.
Well everyone, except Mikasa.
"That was my cousin." Mikasa said with a once in a blue moon smile, showing that she was truly amused by the recent events.
Oh!
She just hit her employer in the temple with a wood ring.
Huh…
"T-that was Mr. Levi Ackerman himself?" Hange asked.
"Yeah, right in the flesh." Mikasa answered.
Huh…
"I think you are on your luck, Miss Hange," Moblit said, "Usually, he would snapped at people."
Abel and Keiji nodded in union.
"Yeah, I was honestly surprised he didn't say anything toward you, Miss Hange," Nifa commented, nodding along with Abel and Keiji.
Huh…
"B-but what are the odds that he was so angry that he couldn't say anything?" Hange asked them, this time she could feel the trembling on her legs.
Everyone fell into silence.
Hange could feel the flow of emotions rushing over her, from confusion, realization, terror, and horror.
Hange fell dramatically on her knees, feeling helpless with her soul just barely hanging on her body.
He was certainly different from what she had been imagining these past few days. Hange remembered the day she went around to explore the manor by herself. She couldn't find any pictures that would resemble the current owner of the estate.
Moblit told her that the master put down any of his pictures from the manor.
So, Hange had to be creative with her imagination there.
From all the information she gathered around, she imagined a short middle aged guy with deep frown and half bald grey hair.
The kind of guy Erwin would definitely be friends with.
She wasn't completely wrong though, he was indeed short and had a deep frown.
But he was still young!
And she hit him with a wood ring.
In his head!
On their first meeting!
Hange wanted to crawl and disappeared into the earth.
With that frown and furrowed brows, especially with the way he talked to her.
She was 100% sure that he was furious at her.
What if she lost this job?
Levi massaged his temple as he entered his study.
It kind of hurt, but the pain wasn't coming from the spot he just got hit with.
His whole head was in pain!
He looked at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. He still got a lot of time to spare before evening. Then, he looked at the stack of neatly ordered folders on his table. There's still some estate paperworks that he had to do.
He usually hated doing paperworks, but for today, the idea of busying himself with paperworks seemed nice.
He needed distraction.
Levi took off his suit and rolled his sleeves before sitting on his leather chair. He grabbed one of the folders on the table and began to work his way through the papers.
Knock knock knock.
Levi looked up from his paper and stared at the door.
Knock knock knock knock knock.
Freaking God, he definitely knew who was behind the closed door.
Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock kno—
"Come in!" Came his stern reply.
The door opened and he was right, it was the glasses governess.
His head began throbbing again.
Levi didn't say anything and just stared at her as she closed the door slowly.
She walked toward his table and stood in front of it, a smile could be seen on her face.
"Hello again, sir— I mean, Mr. Ackerman. I'm Hange Zoe, the new governess."
He grunted, "I know."
"Yeah, of course you already know!" She said with a weak laugh.
Levi was finally able to take a good look at the person that was standing in front of him. The sole person who was responsible for… anything he felt today.
She had horrendous brunette hair that looked like a bird nest. Didn't she know that there's a gadget called a brush.
Let's not talk about her dress. It was definitely made from great material that shows her high status, but god help with the wrinkles and the questionable stain he could see on the fabric.
Remembering the road he took this afternoon, he knew that it was raining this morning.
He looked down and saw her dirty hem, there's dried mud clinging on the fabric. He couldn't imagine what her boots would look like beneath those skirts.
"Did you clean your shoes?" He asked.
"Pardon?"
"Did you clean your fucking shoes before coming in?" He asked again, this time he raised his voice.
She was still smiling but he could hear from her tone that she was offended by him, "Of course, what do you think I am? I wouldn't want to dirty the floor that the maids had worked hard to clean."
Levi scoffed, "At least you read the book."
"Ah that book," Hange chuckled, "I didn't read any of it."
Levi was taken aback by her reply.
"I think it's a waste of time." She said with the same polite smile she had since the beginning, "I think I have enough human decency to know the consequences of my action. So, I don't need that book."
Levi widened his eyes and opened his mouth before closing it again.
"I think what you did was good, great even, because I could see how well-organized this manor was. I know this because I've lived in several manors, and some were not great with their management" The smile she has slowly faded away, "But, I think it could also be too much. You made everyone afraid to do something, because everything has to go through you— Even your younger cousin. She unconsciously thought that she couldn't do anything, even play, without your approval."
Did she come here just to lecture him?
In his ancestral home?
About his rules?
She let an exasperated sigh, "Nevermind that. What I'm trying to say is, if you care about everyone— which I think you do, you should do something about it. Don't let it be something that weighs people down into one circle, instead it should be something that still gives room for everyone to move around on their own accord. Because, there's more than this manor, it's the people that live here."
Levi blinked once.
The smile that was gone from her face gradually came back, "- But I digress. I nearly forgot what I came here to."
Levi blinked twice.
She stared at him with a soft look in her eyes, "I'm truly sorry for what I've done this afternoon, sir. I should've been more careful with myself while playing with potentially dangerous objects, like a wood ring. I— I promised to you that it wouldn't happen again! I swear!" She raised her right hand, as if she was taking an oath.
Levi blinked thrice.
"So please, don't fire me from this job! I really need this job!" She exclaimed.
Levi freezed, speechless, perplexed, and flabbergasted.
Is this woman being serious?
She was indeed being serious, staring at him with that look on her face. Like she was waiting for him to reply.
"I— You," Levi tried to form coherent words but it was so hard. There's like a lump stuck in his throat.
He closed his eyes and pursed his lips tight. He took a deep breath before letting a long sigh.
This woman will be the death of him.
He crossed his arm, "I will not fire you... yet. So now, be gone from my sight before I change my mind." He gave her a piercing glare.
A big smile grew on her face, "Thank you so much, sir!" She said before excusing herself and bolting out of the room in a blink of an eye.
And just like that, she was gone.
Levi scowled, rubbing his eyes before letting another long sigh.
She was a freaking nightmare! Everything about her screamed danger.
She was the embodiment of everything he hated in this world.
Did karma decide to finally bite him back in the ass?
Levi made a mental note to avoid any unnecessary interaction with her. Luckily, he would only meet her during the weekend.
He looked at his paperworks that he already lost interest with.
He needed to blow some steam, and an image of a punching bag in his gym came into mind.
That could do.
As he left his study and walked toward the direction of the staircase, he suddenly stopped in his tracks when he heard laughter coming from the drawing room.
He took a peek inside and saw the governess and his niece were having afternoon tea. The sight was obviously unladylike because he was sure everyone in the manor could hear their conversation.
He wanted to scold them, but— they looked like they were having fun, especially Mikasa.
He had never seen her like that since the first time she came to live with him.
It seemed like he really had to endure the four eyes governess for Mikasa's sake.
Well, fuck.
- Chapter 3 End -
Notes:
(enter LEVI)
SO YEAH! I hope you enjoy this chapter :D
Comments are very much welcome :3