The 5th Ackermann

12- An Offer for Freedom

Published 11/20/20

     The quartet was relaxing scattered around the hut. Levi was sitting on the couch along with (Y/N). Isabel was sitting on a chair at a table. Farlan was leaning against the wall. They heard a knock on the door. Levi and (Y/N) had pulled out their knives as soon as the noise. Isabel crouched behind her chair. Farlan, as usual, took his spot by the door. The Ackermanns nodded at him and he swung the door open. A man stood in their doorway. He walked in without any invite much to he four's disliking. Church moved away from him and stood in the space between the Ackermann's and Magnolia. The male stranger wore a long cloak that went slightly below his knees. From under the cowl, a small part of his face was visible. He seemed old.

"What do you want old man?" Isabel said. Her head resting on her hands that were resting on her chair.

     "I am a messenger sent by a certain man. Let me get straight to the point." He paused to look at the faces of each thug. "It seems a man named Erwin Smith of the scouts or Survey Corps, intends to capture you and make you join the Survey Corps."

(Y/N) laughs. "We're flattered, bu-" Levi raised a hand to stop her. "Alright, please go on." She said. She did not really care what this man had to say.

"Once you're admitted, I want you to steal a few documents from him. And if possible, I'd prefer if you could "take care" of him." Everyone tensed up.

     Levi sighed. "So, a full-fledged member of society has come all the way down here to the scum of the Underground to spout nonsense?" He said without hesitation. "Has the sun caused something aside from your biological clock to screw up? Who would believe your ridiculous story?"

     "The reward is money and a place to live in the capital." The man said. Wait... so that means... (Y/N) looked at Farlan. He seemed to have caught it too. Levi squinted his eyes at what the stranger had just said.

     "This is getting more and more shady. I'll pretend I didn't hear anything, so hurry up and go back to the surface." The man seemed to think about what he could say to convince Levi. "Anything else you say is just a waste of time."

     "Wait, Levi." Farlan said. He put out a hand to halt Levi from saying something that could potentially drive the man and his offer away. Levi and Farlan looked at each other as if telepathically telling each other something. "I get the gist of what's going on, but this is all so sudden," Farlan said.

     Ha! Liar, you probably already know who this is. (Y/N) thought. However, she still decided to go on with his little charade. "There's no way we would be able to give you an answer so soon. You understand right?" (Y/N) said. She smiled as she finished the last sentence. Farlan told her it helped convince people a little. She figured this would be a good time since her and Farlan's outburst was a little shady.

"We'll give it some thought, okay?" Farlan said.

     The man stood there, obviously thinking. "Very well. I'll give you until tomorrow to give me an answer." He said as he opened the door. "No one else is to hear a word of this conversation, understood?" He stated more than asked as he closed the door. "If you try anything funny, your friends will be the ones to suffer." Slam.

"Hey-" Levi started.

"Alright!" Farlan said. Isabel and Levi looked confused at what he meant.

"We're going to spy on him guys!" She said quietly in case the man was still there.

"Let's find out who that "certain man" is." Farlan said.

Isabel looked at the two, "You're not actually thinking of accepting, are you?"

     (Y/N) looked at her. "Aside from the gold, being able to live in the capital..." She trailed off. There was not really a need to finished that sentence. Might as well skip to the important things. "Only someone like a noble or a big name merchant would be able to offer us lives that we could never do on our own."