Chapter V - The Holy Carrot
It has been around three months since the farm started working, and things seem to be going quite well. It didn't take long to build permanent lodging for the men on the land, as part of the lands owned held a sizable chunk of forestry, so the first stage here on the farm was of course to build lodging for the workers. The buildings themselves weren't luxurious, but it housed the workers and their families well enough.
When planting season came knocking we got things done rather quickly with the use of the seed drill and the self polishing plow. Work that would take several weeks to do was done in one, and it left more time to run around than expected.
Really the plan was simple: wheat and barley were being planted in several fields while in another field we planted carrots, potatoes and onions neatly in rows. In another field we had tomatoes, squash and egg plants while the final field we left to fallow.
Of course kept well away from the other fields was my own personal garden, where I was exclusively growing peppers I had pilfered off of a merchant.
Peppers were a rarity here in Eldia, and by god I want something nice and hot, even if these things weren't all that. Thus far I had two strains of peppers, the Königsberg Pepper, something I had to get through a merchant that really seemed shady if anything, and the Rolland pepper.
The Königsberg pepper wasn't all that hot, but it did grow easily in colder environments. If I had to compare it to any pepper I would say it's close to a banana pepper if anything.
The Rolland Chile Pepper however was a different thing. It was about as hot as a Super Chili pepper. The problem with it however was that it's hard to grow, and is picky about the soil it's in. If it isn't in clay dirt it'll die. On GOD I want something spicy in this god forsaken life!
I'm sure plenty of people would love to have some, even now the thought of eating me some Chili Colorado makes my stomach growl and my asshole pucker. That first night that I finally get some of that in me will have me shitting me for days, but by God will it be worth it.
"Wilhelm!" I heard from my right. Looking over I saw Eren and Mikasa running over towards me, Mikasa obviously holding back. In all honesty they were doing better since I had taken them in, a bit more healthy weight does wonders to help in hiding a boy's ribs. No longer did they look a step above a skeleton.
"Eren? What is it now?"
"Armin! Somebody kidnapped him!"
"Everyone had to be drunk on somethin' to keep pushing on"-Kenny Ackerman, man too
"Your Grace." By all that is well and good what now?
He turned to see the bastard that had interrupted his dinner. Really he needed to downsize, there are just too many people who know about tiny bits of the Great Lie his family had been running for the past hundred or so years.
Getting interrupted so often was so very annoying!
What of the times in which he could lounge? Enjoy fine dining? Parties and Galas and even the pleasures of flesh… all he was left with now was paper work, and death. Kill this man, order another's 'disappearance'. Things were by far different when his daughter ruled Eldia, now he's damned to this work, and nothing he can do can change that.
The Odds of them finding the Founder were slim to none, and he most certainly had no plans of remarrying. He didn't need to deal with another pesky wife, nor the troubles of raising another brat. Really at the end of things it mattered not for an old coot like him, he'll probably have to figure something out soon, but it's likely to be years before he's finally free of all this mess, if not dead.
Sighing he turned towards the interruption. Jonah Clarence von Bristolstein was the most common interruption in his day to day life. He had never truly liked the Minister of the Interior, the man was a self serving fop after all. But one could care less in the end.
"What is it that has happened now, Lord Minister?" He asked, sighing once more. Looking down at his quickly cooling steak he began to eat as the fool began to dance. "One of the peasants have begun tampering with technology. Already they've flooded the market with steel and some of the steel barons have already begun to take a dip in profit!" he said as if he expected him to give a damn.
"Why… would it matter?" He asked, looking down at his steak. "Ultimately, we're all going to die, very, very soon. Some might scurry around like rats, but most will certainly perish once the walls are broken down once more." He said, poking at his steak, the final two slices lay, cold and laying in the juices of the flesh.
"Tell me, do you think we will be able to survive if Wall Rose were to fall? How long do you think we will last once this chapter is brought to a close?" he asked Lord von Bristolstein. The man shirked back, obviously disturbed by such thought. "I see. You still think that survival is possible? Even if we are successful in throwing out a third of the people living in the walls, ultimately we will all still perish."
Rod looked down, bringing his hands up and stared blankly at them. "Tell me, Lord Minister, do you think that some random peasant churning steel shall change anything in the face of the Colossal and Armored Titans? That Ultimately, that the steel produced by those peasants can kill them? Kill the hordes of titans they will undoubtedly release into our lands? Ultimately nothing can be done, Lord Minister." he said, as he sighed, before sticking one of the slices into his mouth and chewing and swallowing it.
"If it were my daughter, Freida, she wouldn't hesitate to order their deaths, nor would my brother Uri have. However I am not them. Let the steel barons complain over their lost wealth, it won't matter in the end. We're all set to perish in the mouth of a titan. One way or another, we're all going to die." he said, before he devoured the final slice of his steak.
"I… I shall inform the steel barons that King 'Fritz', has heard their demands and ignored them." the Lord Minister said, before bowing and turning out the door.
Perhaps once upon a time, Rod Reiss wanted to be King, but now… now he hated Freida for dying. More than anything else.
"We've gotta try anyways! 'Cuz unless we fight, we can't win" - Sasha Braus
It had been a long three months, yet finally Armin Arlert was starting to feel at peace.
At first Armin had a rather deep distaste for the physical intensive labor he had to do, but it was to help his grandfather, so he endured. And with that he started to notice it got easier as time went on, and as it got easier, he began to enjoy life on the farm.
Perhaps it was the fact his grandfather made it fun, or perhaps by the fact that he had Eren, Mikasa, and Wilhelm here to keep him company. Ultimately it was perhaps the best of times for him and his friends, with plenty of time for busy work and fun.
The house they had built was small, but it did all the works they needed, somewhere nice to life and thrive. He and his grandfather had no issues sharing the house they had, infact sometimes it felt empty. Really the only thing he could complain about was that things were going too well.
Whether their luck continues only time would tell.
As of right now he had taken on a few hobbies. Books were harder to get out in the boonies so he needed other things to distract him. In that he had taken to whittling. It kept him distracted long enough for either bedtime to come or for his friends to get freed up. It also let him make a little bit of cash on the side, selling toys off to passing traders and getting himself some tidy profit. It wasn't much, but it earned him a little to spend when the next trader came to town.
He also had begun making arrows, giving them some defense when wolves or bandits came, so in his own way he was helping through his hobby as well.
"Armin?" he heard his grandfather call for him. Turning away from the small wooden boar he had been whittling away at turning towards him. "Yes grandpa?" he asked, looking up at the large beard that had grown from his grandfather's face. If Armin can say one thing he has no plans in following his grandfather on, it would be not managing facial hair!
"I need you to go out and check and see if those damned rabbits are still out eating our carrots. I haven't seen them yet, but I know they're out there!" his grandfather said as Armin nodded. "I would do it myself, but I've got to fix that damned Seed Drill. As helpful as it is, the dang thing is clogged." His grandfather said as Armin nodded, grabbing a bow and some arrows.
"Okay Grandpa! If I see any I'll bring some of them home!" he said as his grandpa Albert laughed.
"You do that Armin, you do that." With that Armin went out into the fields. He searched through the Potato field first, finding that there wasn't much, other than a few mice and small silverhead snake having it's fill of them.
Giving up on searching the potato field Armin started off towards the Carrot field, and then perhaps onto the Corn field off by the tree line. It wasn't quite so far, so he surely wouldn't have to take too long, and perhaps when he's done he can look at the lemur's in the forest, they are always the most interesting things in the woods, at least to Armin.
Reaching the carrot field he looked out over it. It was about time for them to harvest the Carrots, and they certainly were going to have a large haul. The densely packed rows were a large canopy over the field, with only a small narrow path in between the rows.
It was then he saw what most certainly wasn't what he was expecting.
"What are you doing?" He asked, poking the girl who was currently sitting in the field, eating his grandfather's carrots. Surprised she looked up at him, staring dumbly at Armin, as if he had asked the dumbest of questions.
"O-Oh! I'm eating a carrot, they're definitely ripe and just perfectly sweet!" the girl smiled, before biting down on a rather dirty carrot. The crunch almost reverberated in the air, nice and crisp. They most certainly were ripe, a whole week ahead of schedule.
"I can see that, but… why here? Why in a field that doesn't belong to you?" he asked, almost deadpanned. It was almost as if she didn't realize she was stealing.
"I was hungry. Besides, it's not as if I'm hurting anyone. Why? You want a carrot?" She asked, waving one of the carrot's she had pulled up from the field.
"No, I would rather you not steal from my grandfather's field." He said, as the girl's face quickly lit up. Perhaps it wasn't obvious to her, and more than likely she was just really stupid. Who wouldn't automatically think they were talking to the person they were stealing from… on that person's property?
"I'm not stealing! I'm just… acquiring these carrot's tactically! Besides, all of this land belongs to my clan! We've been hunting it for generations!" She said as he sighed. 'Definitely an idiot.'
"Listen, if you give me that carrot and leave I won't say anything, just stop stealing from us." he said calmly as the girl once again puffed up at the mention of her theft.
"No! I'm not stealing! Not at all!" she said as Armin started to get mad.
"Just give me that carrot, and leave!" he said, reaching over her attempting to grab the carrot out of her hands.
"No!" she said, as she began to try and fight him over the carrot. Why she was so obsessed over the carrot he couldn't fathom, but most certainly she was winning the fight. However an opportunity presented itself to him when she overextended herself, and quickly Armin took her feet out from under her, and grabbed the carrot from her as she fell.
"Ha! See! Show's you not to steal!" He said, victory finally in his grasp. Looking down to gloat at the thief, he saw a sight that horrified him. In the fall she had hit her head on one of the smaller rocks in the field. Her blood was pooling in the dirt.
"S-Sasha?" He heard from his left as he turned, seeing an older man with a large leather hat on his head. Behind him at least three other's, armed with arrows sat on their horses, looking angrily at him.
It took only a moment for the man to rush over and kick him square in the chest, sending him flying to the ground, coughing up air. The pain was unbearable, and as he looked up he saw the man picking the girl, Sasha, as another came before him, bringing his boot down square on his face.
The last thing Armin saw, was the imprint upon the bottom of the boot, as he knew no more.
A rather short chapter, but I don't want the chapter to be too long. The meeting of Dauper and Wilhelm's group's will take at least 3k words, and that isn't something I wanna drop in one chapter. I also got a 16 hour shift tomorrow, soooo. Anyways. I'll see ya'll next Tuesday, hopefully.