Chapter 48

Sasha was not on the best of moods. On any other day, she would've welcomed this change in routine that discussing the Reeves' company's chances of entering the market outside of the island brought, but today she had been determined to talk to Jonas and clear the air, possibly even have him and Samuel make up. But no, here she was, helping out a bunch of merchants. Damn Flegel and his trust in her expertise when it came to their eatable goods… which was great of course, but not now. She had tried to get out of this, earning a weirded-out look from Hanji for doing so, but it hadn't worked. And now she was stuck here, examining what products would likely be unique to the island enough to have some success outside of it. It would've been more practical to do this inland, but since Reeves company delivered most of the supplies for those working in the harbor anyway, Flegel had, according to Hanji, decided to not waste the chance he had. And no wonder; while pretty much every successful company buttered up some MPs, as far as she knew, only the Reeves company had deeper ties to the Scouts. It had been useless for business for years, but now it was no longer the case, and Sasha had gotten caught up in that.

"Someone remind me again why are we listening to a soldier instead of an expert?"

And having to deal with these cocky, spoiled merchants wasn't helping her mood. It was plain as day to see which people here had come from an upper-class life from within Wall Sina and which had had a humbler upbringing. Well, the fact that they seemed to have some extra kilos the others didn't on them helped with telling them apart, too. And their expensive looking clothes. But still, the snobby attitudes would've been enough to rat them out to Sasha even if she were blind. Turning to Mr. Chubby Snob, whose name she did know but chose not to use in her mind, Sasha told him: "Because I'm the closest thing to an expert on Marleyan cuisine your boss could find. Tell me, do you know what lobsters are? Clams? How about octopus? Have you eaten any of those? If you haven't, I wonder how you'd know anything about what goes with them, and that would be a problem since they're popular foods in Marley!"

Chubby Snob looks stunned, and for a moment, Sasha regrets yelling. All she said was true, of course, but still.

"Excuse me?" he asks after gathering himself "Are you implying that peasant such as yourself from who knows where is better informed on fine cuisine than a noble like myself?"

Ah, so he was also a noble. No wonder the attitude, then. Sasha knew she shouldn't sink down to his level, but she really wasn't in the mood for this. Hands on her hips, she decides to go all out.

"This peasant here was one of the first people on this island to eat Marleyan cuisine. This peasant here visited a restaurant ran by Marleyans frequently and this peasant has actually been to Marley to eat their food. So yes, this peasant here knows a hell of a lot more of Marleyan cuisine than you do!"

Now the man looked even more shocked, and everyone else had stopped whatever they had been doing and were now staring at the two of them. Great.

Sasha took a deep breath, suddenly grateful to Flegel for meddling with her schedule. While it was no good to annoy the merchants too much, the scouts mustn't lose their closest ally within the island's business world, this was still a million times better than snapping like this at a bunch of Marleyans. Of course, she might not have gotten as annoyed if she didn't have to deal with all this, but it was better not to risk it.

"Sorry" she apologizes "I've had rough few days."

Chubby Snob doesn't look like he's satisfied with her apology, but thankfully, just as he opens his mouth, one of the other two wealthier men cuts in: "It's alright, ma'am, really. We know you soldiers work hard to ensure the safety of all of us."

"Huh" Sasha mused "Guess they all aren't all that bad after all."

"After all, you can't miss a thing when dealing with those suspicious Marleyans"

Alright, she might have to take back her previous thought. While it was natural for both sides to be wary of each other, they should try to act as civil as possible.

"They're simply wary around us, just like we are with them. It's only natural considering our history, but hopefully, a time when we can all sit around the same table will come. That'd help with the business too, wouldn't it?" Sasha added the last part to butter them up. She had learned a few things from Armin and captain Levi over the years about making deals, after all.

"Naturally!" one of the less snobby merchants called out from where he was unloading the goods "Though honestly, as long as the business runs and they don't try to kill us, that's good enough for me!"

…Well, guess that was good enough for now. At least these guys were willing to work with Marleyans, some weren't, but she heard that Flegel had insisted that they'd have to be one of the companies that got a head start in case business with the outside world in case it suddenly bloomed. For all she knew, Flegel might've forced these guys to be here, so guess she could've gotten a worse bunch to work with.

That didn't stop Sasha from being grateful when lunchtime finally came. The snobs from Sina were getting on her nerves, and she felt like she couldn't properly focus before she talked to Jonas or, if that wasn't possible, to Samuel and make him promise to apologize to the Marleyan when he next saw him. And of course, food would certainly help her calm down a little. Not that she'd admit that out loud; she gets enough remarks about her "food obsession" as it was.

Seeing Samuel in the distance, she decided to drag him to lunch with her in order to pester him in to apologizing from Jonas. And if she was lucky, maybe they'd spot him at lunch and she could make sure Samuel did what she wanted him to. That in mind, she jogged over to the man, but stopped before he could notice her when she noticed who was with him.

Jonas

They weren't at each other's throats, at least not literally, so Sasha felt no need to interfere. However, she feared they'd stop whatever they were talking about if they noticed her, so she ducked in to a supply tent, peeking out from the entrance. The duo was laughing right now, which warmed Sasha's heart. She smiled. Looks like she wasn't needed after all; they had made up on their own! She'd love to know what was so funny, but she stayed rooted to the spot. She couldn't go there, not yet. She wanted those two to focus on each other, she wanted them to remember that they were friends and could continue to be so despite the hardships they were sure to face. And they were remembering, she was sure. Samuel hadn't looked that relaxed since Jonas had come back, and while she didn't know the other man equally well, she'd dare say that the same went for Jonas.

Sasha heard a sudden, faked cough. Otherwise, she wouldn't have paid it any mind but, realizing it came from behind her, she froze. It was times like these that she had no choice but to admit to herself that she really was the airhead that many said she was; she hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings at all aside from confirming that Samuel and Jonas couldn't see her. Looking over her shoulder, she swallowed when she noticed the person was wearing a Marleyan uniform. Turning around fully, for a split second she dared to hope it'd just be Eric, but luck wasn't on her side today.

It was Horst.

He looked a little angry, or maybe skeptic, his hand hovering near the gun on his hip, but not quite touching it. Just what did he think she was doing?

"Uh, hi?" she had to explain herself before Horst decided that she was up to whatever bad thing he thought she was up to "I don't know what you're thinking, but you probably got the wrong idea! I just hid from a few people 'cause I didn't want to be seen!"

The man just raised an eyebrow as she put her hands up, and at that moment Sasha couldn't help but think that he looked very much like Grior-

"That's it!" she thought, wondering why she hadn't been able to place the resemblance earlier. It was so obvious, and it matched with what she knew of Horst. He had to be Grior's brother! As much as Sasha wanted to ask for a confirmation, she couldn't. Not right now when she saw that Horst's hand was now resting on his gun. He hadn't pulled it out, but it looked like he was ready to do it at any second.

"Sounds exactly like what someone with something to hide would do" he says dryly. Sasha has to admit, her choice of words was far from the best possible.

"Yeah, I suppose it does, but I'm not up to anything bad, I swear!" she says. Seeing the fingers on the gun twist, she makes a decision "Look, I just hid from Jonas and my partner Samuel, okay? Those two had an argument yesterday, but they seemed to be making up, so I hid in order to not interrupt them. I kinda have a gift for that, you know?"

She knew that the truth would probably cause Jonas some extra trouble, but that was better than Horst pointing his gun at her and, in the worst case, creating a chain reaction that could eventually lead to yet another war.

"That, I don't doubt" Horst says. That dry, unimpressed look on his face is like a mirror image of Grior, Sasha can now tell. And fortunately, while he clearly shared his brother's distaste for her, he seemed to also share Grior's instinct for self-preservation if moving his hand away from the gun was anything to go by "Maybe you should tell your partner to not pick fights, unless he wants another war to start."

"No one here wants another war" Sasha says quickly, though she's pretty sure that whoever's causing trouble is aiming for it "I assure you of that."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that" Horst says "But I suppose you wouldn't be smart enough to hide it if you did plan something."

That's a clear insult directly to her face; Horst is picking a fight with her despite just telling her to make sure Samuel didn't do such things. Sasha is a little offended, but she knows that the man might even be right, so that helps her to keep her poker face, or at least so she thinks, but she can definitely control what she says. She doesn't rise up to the bait. Seeing that, Horst approached, and Sasha stepped aside to let him leave the tent. The man didn't take his eyes off of her before he was good two meters out, like he was afraid that she'd suddenly pull out a knife and stab him or something.

"Well, at least there wasn't any trouble" she thinks, watching Horst approach her two friends. He says something, she can't quite hear what, but judging from Samuel's face, it was nothing too nice. She's just about to rush out, but when she sees Horst walk away with Jonas, she decides not to risk complicating things. Only once they're out of sight, she approaches Samuel.

"Is everything okay between you and Jonas now?" she asks bluntly, for she has a feeling that if she tries to beat around the bush, Samuel will pretend he doesn't know what she's talking about. Samuel shrugs.

"Guess you could say that" he says "I still think he should try harder, but I suppose that makes me a hypocrite since I joined the Garrison back in the day and not Scouts, and am still there. He's a coward that's covering for himself first, that's for sure, but I realized I'm not really all that different, so I'll just have to deal with it. At least he's trying, in his own way."

Sasha hadn't thought of it that way. Was it accurate? She wasn't sure. She didn't know exactly how dangerous it would be for Jonas to be nice to Eldians or to defend them, but she did know how dangerous being a scout could be; she couldn't accuse someone of being a coward just for not wanting to join them. Honestly, it was more like common sense not to do it back in the day, as people used to say. Not wanting to think such dark thoughts, Sasha asks instead: "I saw you guys laughing about something. What was that about?"

Samuel quirked a brow "You were spying on us?"

"I just happened to get here at the right time" Sasha denies it "Well?"

"Nothing really" Sasha doesn't like that particular smile on Samuel's face "He just handed me some souvenirs, the thing I asked for last time."

"Souvenirs?" Sasha repeated, confused. Samuel had asked for something? And Jonas had actually brought itto him? It was good news; Jonas had actually thought of them, well, of Samuel apparently, while in Marley. The delight from that almost took away Sasha's annoyance about the fact that she didn't get anything. Almost. She pouts "Why didn't I get anything?"

Samuel laughs.

"Did you ask for anything?" she didn't "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if Jonas had an extra pair lying around, so he might give you one if you ask."

"Extra pair of what?"

Samuel takes out a tiny box, opening it to show Sasha the contents. He grins.

"Earplugs"

And that's when Sasha remembers the conversation they'd had just before Jonas and Eric went back to Marley. Her face heating up, she snaps: "You guys were serious!?"

"Not really, but apparently, Jonas had other ideas. Gotta hand it to him though, these will definitely be useful" Samuel says, laughing as Sasha shoves him.

"You're jerks, both of you" she hisses, but can't keep herself from smiling. Her grin stays on during lunch, too, worrying Jean and making him demand to know what she's up to. Of course, she insists there's nothing, but he doesn't buy it, only calming down when Samuel comes to her rescue and assures Jean that Sasha really isn't up to anything this time. She's a bit offended at the "this time", but lets it slide. After what she'd seen today, it'd take quite a lot to ruin her good mood.

XXXXX

Nikolo has an idea. For the first time after getting himself to this level of trouble, he has a solid plan that could actually help him. Well, not exactly all that solid; a lot of things could go wrong, even from the very beginning, but he had a plan that, if everything went according to it, would get him out of this place.

First, after dinner when it'd be getting dark and there'd be less staff, he'd pretend to get sick. He knew how to make himself vomit and, to add a sense of urgency, he'd make a cut to the inside of his mouth with the knife that came with the dinner so that there'd be some blood among the vomit. Then, he would have to get someone's attention. He'd bang on the door and call for help; while Nikolo believed that Dr. Becker would probably see through him, the chances that he'd be the one to answer his call should be rather low. As long as it wasn't the doctor, anyone would do and hopefully, whoever came would rush out in a hurry to get more help without locking the door behind them. And if they wouldn't, they would still think that Nikolo was too weak to do anything, so he could take them by surprise and knock them out while they were locking the door. Then, he'd leave his room and rush for a supply closet he recalled being at the end of the hallway, putting on a doctor's coat or some other less suspicious clothes than his hospital uniform. After that, he'd avoid people inside the hospital before eventually just walking out. He had probably overly simplified it, but if everything went smoothly, this was how things would go.

After that would come the easiest part: getting home. Even if the search for him started immediately, the hospital staff would check from inside the building first, and by the time they moved to its immediate surroundings, he should be quite far already. As long as he didn't run in to someone he knew, he'd get home unnoticed and in time before his family was notified about his disappearance.

And then it would be time for phase three, which was likely to be even harder than phase one. He'd have to sneak inside his home unnoticed, and get a chance to talk to his grandfather. Alone. While the old man was the likeliest in his family to help him, or so he hoped, this was the most uncertain part of his plan; while he was fairly convinced the man would let him tell what he has to say before ratting him out to anyone, there was no guarantee what he'd do after. Would he take Nikolo's word about being set up and the military wanting to use him for propaganda purposes, or would he think his grandson was out of his mind? And if he did believe Nikolo, what would he do about it? He was a smart man; it was possible he'd cut his losses and report Nikolo in order to protect himself and the rest of the family. Or he might tell him to run and not involve the rest of their family, which would be unfortunate, but still preferable to being sold out. But if his grandfather believed him and agreed to help, then that would be the end of that. Then, the man would help him hide somewhere, Nikolo was convinced he had the means to do so, and he could plan his next move from hiding. Of course, he knew that there was no way to return to his old life after running from a mental hospital, but that was alright, that was something he'd accepted. So, instead of trying to restore his reputation, he'd focus on how to get to Paradis.

Of course, the decision of just taking off and leaving without any goodbyes to his family, aside from his grandfather, wasn't an easy one, but it was a sacrifice Nikolo had decided to make after hard consideration. And it's not like he could risk showing himself to the others; he'd chosen his grandfather for a reason. While Natalie might believe him, she didn't have the resources to help him hide. Plus, even if she believed him, her husband might not and if the man saw him, that'd be trouble. So, Natalie was out of the question. Bianka and her family, he didn't even consider. She wouldn't believe him, and neither would his mother. Both wanted the best for him, he knew, but they had the wrong idea of what that would be. Viktor, his youngest brother, most likely wouldn't trust his word. He might go to someone else in the family for advice instead of the authorities if Nikolo contacted him, but it was still too big of a risk. His father, likewise, was not an option. It became clear that he wouldn't believe Nikolo no matter what he said back when he first ended up here. He hadn't seen him after that, either, so small part of him wondered if the man even cared. Ulrich was the only one he had also seriously considered, but the man's ability to listen patiently was too limited. If he went to his older brother for help, there was a chance that he wouldn't even be given the chance to explain before he was ratted out. And even if this didn't happen, the odds of actually being believed weren't in Nikolo's favor. His grandfather was his best bet.

"But that all depends on if I can get out or not"

XXXXX

"Ugh, another morning of advising the Reeves company gone by" Sasha complained at lunch to Samuel and Jean on her second day of advising them "Can't someone else do this?"

"Sure, but you're the expert here with all your restaurant visits" Jean easily points out "Plus, you're already here, so we don't have to call for someone new to join us."

"Why are you so moody anyway? I would've thought you'd be happy with a bit of a change in routine, not to mention a chance to snack on whatever goods they have" Samuel cut in, and Sasha glared.

"Like I would steal from them like that!" she denied, but when both men just raised an eyebrow at her, she looked away, muttering: "Well, not much…"

"Did you get caught and scolded or something?" Samuel asks.

"I'm not that clumsy anymore" Sasha said. Seeing that Jean was about to say something, most likely protest, she adds: "You can catch me only because you know me!"

He shrugs.

"That's fair. But what's the problem then?"

"The merchants are annoying, the ones from within the inner walls I mean. They're so full of themselves and complain all the time, yet I have trouble seeing them ever doing anything useful!" Sasha groaned.

"This isn't exactly news for any of us, is it?" Jean asks. Samuel nods, and Sasha glares "You try actually working with them, then. It's different to hear complaints from them from time to time and actually have to work with them hours on end!"

Jean was studying Sasha, and she just knew what he'd say next.

"That's not all there is to it, is it?" she knew it; he always saw through her these days "There's something else bothering you, too."

Sasha sighed. It's not like she didn't want to talk about her worries to anyone, but with how busy he was, she was hesitant to share anything with Jean. She didn't want to add any more burdens on him. But if she denied it or wouldn't answer, he'd either insist until she did or let it be but would wonder about it to the point of worrying. It was easier for them both to just say it.

"Have you noticed that Jonas came back?"

Jean made a face.

"Yeah, saw his name on the list, though I wasn't sure if it was really him or someone with a similar name" he said "Is he causing you trouble? Is he as much of an ass again as before?"

Jean didn't like him, it seemed.

"We had a bit of an awkward start, which was mostly Samuel's fault" Sasha ignored Samuel calling out in protest "But we're good now. And that's the thing; I would've liked to arrange my schedule in a way that I could work together with him, and Eric, he's back too, as much as I could. We're friends, and if other Marleyans saw that, they would probably cease being so hostile, too."

Of course, there was the problem with Horst, but Jean didn't need to know about that since nothing had even happened. And she'd definitely keep her theory to herself until she got a confirmation for it, but if she managed to get a chance to work with Jonas, she should eventually get a chance to ask Horst about his brother, too.

"I see. I'll see what I can do about your schedule" Jean said, much to Sasha's delight "But I personally still don't like the guy."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the feeling was mutual" Sasha laughs. For the rest of the day, she's in a much better mood, waiting to see what Jean can do about her problem. Even Horst's glares can't bring her down now, and she just smiles confidently to him as a reply, which seemed to annoy the man even more, or so Jonas said when he passed by, but she didn't mind.

"It's like you're asking for trouble" Jonas said at one point when Horst was out of earshot "Seriously, quit smiling so much!"

Sasha just laughed.

XXXXX

Nikolo had been rather restless all day, no wonder, but now it was finally time to act; the nurses were making their last night round before lights out right about now. He was prepared, blood and all, and he'd made himself throw up beforehand just a little while ago. Now it was only a matter of waiting, these last few seconds turned to minutes going agonizingly slow. Finally, he decided that it would be a good time to start, and he banged his fist on his door, careful to not use too much strength, to not make the hits sound too strong. He heard someone running faster than he expected, and moved away from the door just enough that he wouldn't get hurt in case the person slammed it open carelessly. He pushed his fingers deep in to his throat, pulling them out and successfully throwing up again just as the door opened. From the position Nikolo was in, he could only see the person's legs, but that was enough to assure him that it wasn't Dr. Becker, for this person was clearly a woman.

"H-help" for once in his life, the former soldier actually hoped to sound pathetic. Thankfully, he seemed to succeed, and he tried to not think it was because he had so much experience on the matter.

"I'll go get the doctor, just hang in there!" the nurse said, running down the hall without waiting for a reply. And of course, she left the door open. That honestly went better than he expected, probably because the nurse was young, judging from her voice. Maybe she panicked.

Nikolo got up, wiping his chin clean from the vomit.

It was time for him to get the hell out of here.