The day Wall Maria fell to the Titans, soldier Arden Keiser selfishly chose to save herself. She disobeyed direct orders and abandoned her role within the Garrison Regiment, taking the life of another as she did so. She made an attempt to escape fro...
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"You didn't tell Smith everything."
Levi turned his attention from his horse to the woman at his side. "I didn't," he confirmed, deciding against giving her an answer as to why he said as little as he did.
But if Levi was being honest with himself, even he didn't know why he only told Erwin that Arden's documents were faked. He mentioned nothing else about her past.
He first told himself that he hid so much from the commander simply because of their own rough relationship. It was because Levi had been holding a grudge and the man. In truth, there was more behind Levi's actions than his selfish ongoing frustrations with Erwin.
Perhaps Levi did what he did to respect Arden's privacy. After all, Mr. Keiser and his career was neither Levi nor Erwin's business. Maybe Levi did it because he wanted to keep a small bit of Farlan's memory to himself, out of the hands of the man who inadvertently killed him, or maybe he just didn't want for the commander to discover the true extent of Levi's crimes... Whether it was all of those reasons or just one, Levi wasn't sure, and whatever the true reason was, he couldn't (and wouldn't) say.
Arden grunted at Levi's response and didn't bother with continuing the conversation, and with that, she led her belligerent (and still unnamed) horse out of the stables to get started with their horseback riding session.
Levi assumed that Erwin's meeting didn't go well, or at the very least, it left a bad taste in her mouth.
He wasn't surprised that Arden was acting the way she currently was. Childish, saying little to Levi, barely even looking in his direction... She used to glare at him whenever she found the chance, but ever since Erwin returned her to Levi and they went to the stables, she had barely even looked his way.
But despite her childish way of dealing with anger (which seemed to be ignoring Levi), she seemed to be somewhat willing to train for once. Unlike their first horseback riding session, Arden had been the first to prepare her horse and lead it out of the stables. It seemed like Erwin's blackmail plan had left some effect on her, though she was clearly unhappy about the whole situation. Then again, how could she be anything but displeased?
Their session went fine. Unlike their first riding lesson, Arden left without any forming bruises or scars, so Levi supposed that training went better than it tended to go. The air between them was just as tense as it was during any other session, though it was quieter than usual thanks to Arden's immature insistent to stay silent and ignore Levi's occasional comments on how to better control her steed.
Yes, it was tense, though on that occasion the air was tense as a result of what Arden and Levi hadn't properly discussed.
Erwin and his deal.
His blackmail, as each soldier preferred to call it.
Levi knew all that Erwin and Arden's meeting entailed, for he had met with the commander earlier that morning, and Arden had assumed that Levi knew of it, because she had also assumed that Erwin told Levi everything, so of course the short man would know of it all. In her eyes, the short soldier was practically the taller's dog.
