Burdens(Erehisu)

Chapter 2

Within the distance of the rocky plains, a man on horseback dashed across the landscape of the greens. Zooming in, the familiar green cape wrapped around his upper shoulders flapped aggressively on his back. Looking into the distance with the apathetic green eyes, he rode his fast-moving horse in silence. Only occasionally slowing his down, observing the vast green land, hills, and blue streams before closing his eyes and taking in the surrounding air. After a few long seconds, he shifted back to his other persona, then continued onwards. His mind wasn't in the present. It was elsewhere. As if he's contemplating on something.

Something Important.

"Eren, there's your portion." Armin gestured with his head at the bowl of soup and bread on the long table as he came through the open doorway. To which, Eren nodded without looking at him and quickly down the soup with the bread.

"You need to go somewhere?" Connie curiously asked as he sat in the chair at the end of the long table with both of his feet rested on the arm of the other chair diagonally across from him, hands occupied with two bitten bread. What's this? Eren thought while glanced at him. "Don't choke yourself with that mouthful of dry bread, baldhead." Said Eren with a hint of annoyance. To which Connie stared back at Eren with a puzzled face.

"That's the first time you ever called him with that nickname," Armin chuckled to himself. "Yeah, well, get used to it," Eren said with no remorse. "What did I do-" Connie caught himself choking before finishing his sentence. Panicking, he quickly put his left hand's bread on the plate, took his foot off of the other chair, stabilizing his own chair, and pounded his now freed hand into his chest.

"Whoa there, Connie," Called out Sasha as she quickly emerged from her room, moving swiftly to Connie, and tried to help him by hugging Connie's stomach from the back and continuously pressing his body into hers with her folded fists as she pulled inwards.

"Is it out yet!" Sasha shouted pathetically.

"Stop, stop, I'm okay now!" Connie shouted and gestured with his left hand as he tried to swallow the remaining dry bread in his throat. "That's not how you perform it, Sasha!" To which Sasha responded, "You could've given me the bread!" before proceeding to take the bread from Connie's right hand and chucked it into her mouth, walking away looking satisfied.

"Weirdos," Armin muttered to himself while shaking his head before looking in the direction where Eren was. Huh, Eren? Armin looked around the room. He wasn't there.

Eren had quietly left the single-story house while everyone's attention was on Connie.

He has to get to Historia.

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Among the first pile of possible law proposals, a decent amount was a strong push by the nobles to impose heavy taxes among the commons within the walls. It irritated Historia every time she saw these suggestions--whether be formal letters or long pages of documents with details already laid out. There was even a well-written persuasive letter that captivated Historia's interest. It began with fancy wording of praising Historia and her rise to power. The person behind the letter sounded sincere with respect and gratitude towards Historia's rule. Then the exploitation of her past was a clever way to persuade the new queen, Historia admitted. But, never in the back of her mind has she given in to the obvious bait.

Not going to happen.

"Impressive, this particular noble has done his research. But, he doesn't know me." Muttered Historia proudly.

As she set aside the letter in her hand, her reflective blue eyes caught a circular dark green flat marble sticking out among the flat piles of letters. Upon seeing it, she immediately pinched gently on the part of the letter next to the dark green flat marble and pulled it close to her face in an attempt to scrutinize the unique marble. As she had hoped, it was from Eren. The use of marble printed on letters was unique to him. Not only that, he only uses dark green marble, which had always puzzled Historia ever since he revealed it to her out of the ordinary back on the farm with the orphaned kids.

Before Historia let go of her urge to open the letter, she extended her arms in an attempt to memorize its whole. Stared at the letter contemplating the possible information that could be contained within. Besides the obvious dark green marble, the rest of the envelope was in usual white but with a couple of slanted golden stripes wrapped around its four corners. After staring at it for a while, Historia had mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety surging within her. Finally, making her mind to open the letter, she gently tore open the top of the letter with her fingers in an attempt to preserve the marble; she then pulled out the folded paper and read.

Alright, that's the last chapter for today. I've one more lined up. But I like to have at least one chapter ahead of the schedule. So, in order to keep things running smoothly, the next chapter will be on Sunday, Feb 21st. Not sure when on Sunday, though. But it's going to be on Sunday.

Just for fun, I inserted an adorable clip of Attack on Titan season 4 opening: Attack on Titan Sundays. I absolutely adore this clip!

Anyways, as always, thank you for reading. Please leave advice and comments.

Thank You!!