Her Majesty's Knight

Chapter 58 - Levi

AN:  Song inspired for this chapter: Run by Snow Patrol. It really suits these too, especially this chapter.

I eject the wire of my ODM gear, sighing in satisfaction when the anchor digs into a stalactite.

Just like old times...

Luckily for me, the rock stays intact, and that's where I hang for a while, staring down at the distant lights of the underground city.

To think that this was the entire world that I knew of at one point in my miserable life. Even at the mature age of twenty-six, I could only dream of seeing the stars outside.

These stalactites served as my sky. There was no wishing upon a star in my youth. There was just darkness and shadows.

Thank God we all got out in the end. Farlan and Isabel may have died in the 23rd Expedition, but I can make peace with the fact that they got to see the real sky. One with stars, and not these ugly rock formations that look like the gnarly teeth of a titan.

I had to go back to our old place. If I could face my mum's old bed, then I sure as hell could break down the door of my old address.

At least this way we can stay off the streets. Historia's far too pretty; she'll attract the wrong kind of attention.

Just as long as no rotten MPs find us, we're good...

I close my eyes when I remember that I'm on the same side with those bastards now (I'm not that old thug anymore). Even if they do find us, we'd just tell them that Nile sent us.

They wouldn't have to know that our gear was stolen.

I would have brought down some authorized gear from HQ, but I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself or Historia.

I hear the sound of another ejecting wire, and now I turn as another anchor sinks into the stalactite above me.

I grit my teeth as she whizzes up towards me, and I have to hand it to her... she's not half bad at flying. She even did some impressive somersaults, but I still told her to knock it off and save some gas.

How times have changed. There was a point when Erwin told me off once for wasting precious gas reserves, and then I vowed to kill him.

I really was a show-off back then—a homicidal show-off.

Her feet land gracefully, and now she beams down at me proud. Yet I try not to show her that I'm more than a little impressed.

"It looks like I haven't lost my touch after all. I really can still fly... That time in the forest must have just been a blunder..."

I scowl up at her smug, smiling face. She shouldn't be smiling. This is war we're embarking on after all.

"Yeah, that's great, Historia, but next time, find your own stalagmite. I already called dibs on this one."

She raises a fair eyebrow. "You called dibs? And it's stalactite, dummy!"

I growl when she corrects me, and now I focus on the city below. "Shut up now, I'm trying to concentrate. We should be able to see Wolfgang's address from up here."

I squint, peering down at the houses. You can see the difference in class immediately. On the surface, the inner walls are where the upper classes reside, yet no one is really "upper class" in the underground (we're all working folk down here), but there are a lot of self-made citizens—self-made from selling drugs and whatnot on the black market.