This is My Last War (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) - Part 3

Sons and Daughters

Six months ago

"Another one has come," Jean pointed a thumb over his shoulder at a person waiting in the half-light outside the door. "Seems word is still spreading about this place."

"What's the problem, Kirshtein?" Levi asked, flexing his fists inside the big, ungainly boxing gloves he had just secured around his wrists with the help of his teeth. "If he can pay, he can get lessons."

He had wanted his three protégés to keep in shape and what better way to ensure that than opening up a boxing school so they could train openly and even match their skills against this town's inhabitants? Not that he had planned for the school to become this popular - but apparently, the Marleyans staying behind in Liberio while the Eldian men fought wars for them were bored senseless. Might as well take as much of their money as they could.

"Well, it's... a girl," Jean pulled a face like he had just bitten into something exceedingly sour.

Slinging an arm around his favorite boxing bag, Levi let his eyes sweep over the slim figure in the baggy, rough-spun trousers of a Liberio delivery boy, her face hidden in the shadow of her brown cap. Now that he was looking for it, he noticed the slight roundness of her hips and the extra wide white shirt that probably hid a developing bosom. And the nervousness. She was trying to stop her hands from shaking by balling them into tight fists.

"And what if it's a girl?" He asked, giving the bag a shove. Jean had had his ass handed to him by women enough times during training to know that some of them were as good if not better at fighting than most men.

Jean, catching the swinging leather bag with both hands before it hit him in the stomach, dropped his voice to an aggravated whisper. "She's from an upper class family though she tried to put on an accent to fool me. And we might not yet be here for long but I already know for certain that upper class families don't let their daughters take boxing lessons. They have to stay at home and if they walk around, they need to have a maid in tow."

Levi swung himself up onto the raised platform with the help of one of the tight ropes that ensured untalented people didn't fall out of the ring and broke their necks. "I don't see how that's our problem," he grumbled. What did he care about people who wanted to lock away their women? "Send her over, I'll talk to her."

"But, sir...!"

Levi glared down at Jean, quite enjoying the unusual vantage point. "And you will be her trainer, Jean," he smirked. "If you can complain this much, you don't have enough to do."

Radiating displeasure, Jean went over to fetch the young woman, pettily letting her trail behind him when he returned to the center of the hall where the ring stood.

"That's Mr. Smith," he refused to look directly at her, "discuss your wishes with him."

"Thank you for letting me see him," she said politely, modulating her voice to a somewhat manly pitch.

Though she had only uttered so many words, Levi could hear what Jean had described: the accent of an uptown inhabitant, barely hidden behind the somewhat clumsy attempt to talk in the drawl of the lowtowners. They themselves just used their Eldian way of speaking - since nobody here had ever been to Paradis, they didn't have to fear discovery because of their accents. In case anybody got curious about their origins, they had a plausible story ready about a small island off the coast of Hizuru.

"So you want lessons?" Levi asked, his curiosity piqued, and she, who had looked at Jean's retreating back with a slight frown, lifted her eyes to look up at him. Catching the light from above, they flashed in a golden brown with a tinge of emerald green shimmering around the pupils.