Her Majesty's Knight

Chapter 62 - Levi

AN: Song inspired for this chapter: Rule the World by Take That because Levi and Historia are going to rule the world now. They're unstoppable. I love this song too. It's from Stardust 😍

I lean against the trunk of a tree at the back of the orphanage, teaching little Tilly how to read.

The small girl clutches the book in her tiny hands as I glance at the pages over her shoulder, offering her help when she gets stuck.

We're reading the story of Krista Lenz — the little girl who befriended a titan.

The queen's personal favourite.

It turns out that Tilly is a lot more intelligent than she lets on. Of course, Historia and I always knew she was perceptive from the start and maybe a little psychic too. She knew who Isabel and Farlan were after all and even drew a picture of them for me once.

Well, she drew them as doves.

A white feather drifts down beside me on the grass, and I peer up, spying those two cotton white doves. They're perched on a branch, tilting their heads sideways as they coo in recognition, and I know I'm not seeing things anymore...

The doves really are there.

Unfortunately, Erwin crawls along the branch towards them as the birds take off, and now I narrow my eyes at the blue-eyed cat with the little bolo tie. The Wings of Freedom are displayed proudly inside the green pendant.

Erwin II pulls up a prominent brow, looking at me as if to say, "What?"

I shake my head, then peer back down at Tilly's book.

The child's stuck on a sentence as she tries so hard to get it right. Historia and I have guessed that Tilly must be nearing five. Of course, we don't know when her birthday is and we probably never will, but we can take it for granted that she was born in 848.

Three years after Wall Maria fell.

"The... the..."

I can't believe how much patience I have for this small child. I never would have dreamed that I would be teaching a brat how to read one day.

Ever since little Krista got adopted two weeks ago, I've been down in the dumps, and have actually started to see the children less as brats these days.

Maybe even angels.

I won't admit to Historia that I cried watching that adorable little girl walking away with her new mummy and daddy. It all got too much that I had to leave, but I know the queen was onto me.

She's not an idiot after all.

Little Krista actually used to smile at me like I wasn't the world's shittiest person, and I will miss that big, goofy grin of hers.

But now she's gone, and the orphanage has become duller without the sound of her small, sweet voice calling me "Wevi..."

God, that was the cutest little sound that I ever heard. From now on, I'm Captain Wevi.

Anything to honour little Krista's memory.

"Go on, don't stop," I tell Tilly. "You can do it."

Tilly glances up at me next, and I lose myself in her big, onyx eyes. Her lower lip wobbles and my heart breaks when I see her sadness.