Levi walked up to the man who was tied up and looked nervous, Levi pulled down the cloth that was over the man's mouth.
"Wait! I'm just an old man for moving wagons around the–" The man was saying.
"I've met this man once before," Mikasa said. "In the city, people were calling him the boss"
"This was the guy blocking the gates right?" Lando asked.
Mikasa nodded her head.
"Yeah, I know," Levi said. "Dimo Reeves, right?"
"Tsk!" The man grunted. "We were following the orders the Military Police forced on us. And we failed big time….They'll plunder the Reeves Company for all it's worth. They won't stop with me and my dumb son. They'll make sure all my employees die in so-called accidents."
"So you'll die without a fight," Levi asked. "Trost should have collapsed by now, but it's preserved. That's because the Reeves Company brings people and works together. But if the company was gone for good, just how few would survive the winter?"
"Are you suggesting I team up with you?" Dimo asked.
"We just need to know where Eren and Historia are. If you're supplying the Military Police, we can figure something out." Levi said.
"But can you stop my city and employees from dying of starvation?" Dimo asked.
"I can't guarantee it," Levi said. "However you can trust that we'll move towards that end."
Reeves sighed. "Fine,"
Levi nodded and looked at his squad.
"We are going to wait for Hange to report back," Levi said.
Later Hange returned.
Hange and Reeves made a plan where they would get a couple of high-ranking MP's and take them in a wagon outside of the walls, where the Scouts would ambush them and get information out of them.
The Scouts snuck out of the walls again and headed out to a house that was actually a containment cell.
Lando had his hood on and waited for Reeves to show up with the MPs, the wagon pulled up to the house.
An MP opened the flap outside the back of the wagon. "Are we there?" he asked as Jean held a gun to the guy's head. The man turned his head but Jean hit him with the rifle knocking him out, Lando rushed through the flap and hit the other MP with his rifle knocking him out as well.
"Sorry about that, pals." Reeves said.
The Scouts carried the MPs into the house and put them in the prison, Levi went down there and the rest of the squad stayed upstairs.
Hange swung the door open to the cabin.
"Where is Levi?!" She asked in a hurry.
Lando pointed downstairs and she rushed down there.
Time passed and eventually, they heard the screams of one of the MPs.
"It starts again…." Jean said.
"I feel like the screams are louder than when the captain did it," Armin said.
"Even though I know it's to save those two, it makes me sick…." Conny said.
"Let's face it…" Armin said. "We're criminals now. The enemies that we're fighting….We're not killing them because they're trying to eat us. It's because their views are different…No just the group that they belong to. And for that, their lives…"
Lando wasn't affected as they were, he had killed a lot of people already, and this wasn't his first torture session or his tenth but he could relate to them he felt the same when he did it the first time.
"Armin…." Mikasa said.
"All of us… we're not good people anymore." Armin said.
Lando sighed, got up and started to walk downstairs.
"Where are you going?" Jean asked.
"To get information," Lando said.
Lando walked down and banged on the door to the interrogation room.
Hange opened it.
"What is it?" Hange asked. "We're busy."
"Give me one of the MPs and I'll get the information you want," Lando said.
"How will you do that?" Hange asked.
"That doesn't matter, give me one," Lando said.
Hange turned around and looked at Levi who was staring at Lando.
"We're not getting anywhere I guess…" Hange said.
"How about while I try you guys try to form a plan that will get them to talk," Lando said.
"Ok, kid…" Hange said and walked out.
Levi followed.
"I don't know what you're doing," Levi said. "Don't kill them thought."
"I won't," Lando said.
They all left, leaving Lando and the prisoner who was already battered and bruised.
"This won't do." Lando sighed.
Lando grabbed the man who was rambling about how he wouldn't talk and took him to the holding cell, Lando threw the man in and grabbed the other who tried to fight Lando off but he got him.
Lando took him into the room, set him up in the chair and tied him up so he couldn't move.
"So will you tell me about Eren and Historia's whereabouts?" Lando asked.
"I won't say anything." The man said. "Especially to a kid, within these cramped walls do you know why a war never bro–"
Lando grabbed the only blunt object in the room; it was a piece of wood, Lando didn't know why they had that in there but was thankful nonetheless.
Lando hit the man with the object shutting him up.
"Can you do me a favor and count down from 100?" Lando asked.
The man didn't say anything.
Lando walked over to where they had a bucket of water in the room and splashed him with some of it.
"Did you hear me?" Lando asked.
"Yes but if you think that I'm doing anything for you…" The man said
"I don't think you understand the situation you're in right now," Lando said. "It's best you start counting."
The man didn't count so Lando grabbed a pair of pliers and pulled his pinky fingernail off, the man screamed in pain.
"Now will you please start counting?" Lando asked as he walked over to the door and slid the piece of wood between the door handle so you couldn't open it.
"99, 98,97…" The man said.
"Now the others didn't do this right…" Lando said. "There are three joints in each of your fingers, they all have very long names so I'll abbreviate it for you. There is the MCP, PIP, and the DIP. I dislocate each joint and then I smash the dislocated joint with a hammer until I shatter the bones in that joint then I move on to the next one, and the grand finale is cutting off that finger and restarting. If you don't talk you will get some more permanent damage."
The man stopped counting and looked at Lando with fear.
Lando walked up and dislocated his DIP joint, and the man screamed in pain.
"Did I say you can stop counting?" Lando asked.
"76…75…74…" The man said.
"Will you tell me where Eren and Historia are now?" Lando asked.
The man shook his head and continued counting.
Lando grabbed a hammer in the room and smashed it against the man's finger until he heard the bones shatter. Lando proceeds to dislocate the PIP and the MCP joint and smash those parts as well.
The man wasn't even counting anymore, just screaming.
"Last chance," Lando said.
"No!" The man screamed. "My loyalty…!"
Lando grabbed a knife in the room and cut off his finger.
The man stopped yelling and looked in shock at his finger and blood sprayed out all over Lando who was getting ready to do the same to the ring finger.
"I'm not going to be as kind with this one," Lando said.
He did the same thing to the ring finger and cut it off, the man screaming the entire time.
Upstairs Hange shuttered when the screams picked up again.
"What is he doing?" Hange asked. "Can barely think of a plan."
"I don't know," Levi said. "Where could he have learned how to torture?"
"I don't think he would tell us if we asked," Hange said.
"No, he wouldn't," Levi said.
Lando was getting ready for the pointer finger.
"Start counting," Lando said. "The only time you stop counting is to tell me information about where Eren and Historia are."
The man started to count again and Lando went back to work and eventually, the MP didn't have any fingers left on his right hand.
"You are impressive," Lando said. "A whole hand."
The man's counting was a whisper at this point.
"I have never had to tell someone to count back up to 100," Lando said.
Knocks were heard at the door.
"Looks like they are here to get me," Lando said. "I'm going to have to move a little faster."
"Come out!" Hange yelled.
Levi went to open the door and it wouldn't budge.
"Get out here you've had your fun." Levi scolded.
They heard the man's screams.
"Stop!" Hange yelled and tried to force the door open but it wouldn't budge.
Hange and Levi kept trying to force the door open.
Lando kept going until the man had enough.
"Enough…" The man said in tears. "Enough…."
"Reiss is the true royal family." The man mumbled.
Lando took out his journal and wrote down what the man said.
Dimo Reeves had just got back into the city when his son had to go to the bathroom, as he waited he felt someone put their arm over his mouth.
"Merchants shouldn't be sellouts when it comes to trust," Kenny said behind him and slit his throat.
"Was it wise not to ask where Levi is?" The female following Kenny asked.
"He'll show up even if we do nothing." Kenny said.
"How do you know?" The female asked.
"Because I raised him," Kenny said. "Levi Ackermann is just that kind of guy."
"And the other one?" The female asked.
"He'll follow Levi, he has to follow his captain." Kenny said and they both walked away.
Lando had just finished writing down what the man said.
"The true royal successor is Historia." The MP said. "Her father Rod Reiss has her…."
"What does he look like?" Lando asked.
The MP started to explain what he looked like and Lando wrote it down.
Lando walked over to the door and dislodged the wood as the door busted open and Hange fell into the room.
"What the hell?!" Hange yelled. "Why did you barge the door shut?!"
"The king is a puppet," Lando said. "They are not the true royal family."
"What…" Levi said.
"The true royal successor is Historia, and her father Rod Reiss had her somewhere." Lando said, tearing the sketch he made of Rod Reiss out of his journal.
"Is this true?" Hange asked.
"That's what he said," Lando said.
Lando walked out of the room, and Levi and Hange looked at what happened. Blood all over the floor, fingers all over the floor, the MP crying in pain.
"Jeez…" Levi said.
"Let's bandage him up…."Hange said.
Lando waited by the stairs for Levi and Hange as Levi walked towards him while Hange stayed back.
"What did you do?" Levi asked.
"I got the information," Lando said.
"The guy is missing 7 fingers!" Levi said.
"You said not to kill him," Lando said. "I followed orders."
"I just…" Levi said. "I didn't think you were capable of that. Where did you learn that?"
"Let's find Historia and Eren," Lando said and walked up the stairs.
Hange walked out of the room and she and Levi walked up the stairs.
Lando got to the top and everyone was looking at him covered in blood, they were all looking at him differently he noticed.
Levi and Hange followed.
"Tell them what you found out.." Hange said.
"We have a puppet king," Lando said.
"What?" Armin asked.
"Don't speak until I'm done," Lando said.
"The Reiss's are the true royal family," Lando said. "And Histoira's father Rod Reiss is still alive somewhere."
"In other words, we find Rod Reiss, we find Eren and Historia," Lando said.
Lando put the sketch he drew of Rod Reiss on the wall.
End of Chapter 36.