"This concept... even hearing it again, it still sounds like a pipe dream."
Armin's expression was full of emotion.
Levi looked at Eren: "In other words, whether this dream can be realized depends entirely on this guy's performance, right?"
Eren gritted his teeth and said firmly: "Yeah! I understand!"
"Did you hear that, Hange?"
Levi said to Hange, who was sitting on the sofa: "Next, it's up to you to find a suitable experimental site."
Hange, who was deep in thought, was startled, realizing Levi was calling her.
She said casually: "Yeah! Naturally, as long as I'm still alive, that's my mission."
Levi then realized she hadn't been listening to him at all.
Hange continued talking to herself, analyzing the current situation inside the walls and the necessity of retaking Maria.
"So, we can't dawdle anymore."
There was some anxiety in Hange's voice: "We must... act immediately, but... I want Eren to stay hidden for a while longer!"
The living room fell silent; for a moment, the others didn't quite react.
Only Linde was still engrossed in flipping through the book that had just arrived.
Levi put down his teacup: "What's this? Before I came, I thought you were all so desperate you'd be pissing yourselves, but I didn't expect you to hold out this long."
"Hange, give me a reason."
Hange said in a low voice: "Pastor Nick is dead."
The others didn't know who Hange was talking about yet, but the expressions of Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and Levi changed.
Linde was still reading.
Hange looked up at everyone and said, "This morning, Pastor Nick died in the barracks of the Trost District."
"Although the cause of death is unknown, it wasn't an accident."
"It was murder!"
"When we received the news and rushed there, the scene was already controlled by Soldiers from the Central First Military Police Regiment."
"They prevented us from entering the room and lied, saying it was a murder by bandits."
Hange's voice was full of indignation and guilt: "But I know Nick was tortured and then killed by the Central First Military Police Regiment."
"I knew the Wall Cult wouldn't let Nick go, which is why I hid him in the barracks."
"I didn't expect... they would actually use Military Police Officers to kill him!"
"I was too naive. Nick's being killed is my responsibility."
The scene fell silent again. Levi gripped the rim of his cup with five fingers and took another sip of tea.
He looked at Linde, who had been looking at the book in his hand, indifferent: "Don't we have a former Central First Military Police RegimentSoldier here?"
Everyone's expression shifted, and they all looked toward Linde.
Linde put down the book in his hand, looking confused: "What is it?"
Levi asked: "Noble boy, what did you usually do in the Central Military Police Corps besides sleeping?"
Linde replied calmly: "Arresting or executing criminals in the Royal Capital."
Levi caught the key point: "What kind of criminals?"
Linde pondered for a moment and then smiled: "Whoever the superior says is one. I only follow orders."
After Hange's story, Linde's smile sent shivers down everyone's spines.
Levi wouldn't be intimidated: "Then how many people did you kill during the time you were there?"
Linde thought of Lucia hanging in mid-air and Annie tied up in his family's basement.
He answered honestly: "Two."
Levi mocked: "Looking at your expression, you don't even have a sense of guilt the size of a booger."
Linde said with a smile, "I said, I was just following orders."
...The meeting finally settled on a plan of action: secretly conducting Eren's Titan Hardening experiments while dealing with the pursuit of the Wall Cult, the Central Military Police Corps, and other forces.
Besides that, Linde Leon would continue to be kept under house arrest... At dusk, Jean and Sasha were still on guard duty outside.
In the kitchen, Mikasa, Eren, Connie, and Historia were preparing dinner for everyone.
"That guy Linde really doesn't have to do anything. It's too easy for him."
Connie said in an envious tone while peeling potatoes.
"I don't know how long The Corps plans to keep him locked up. I heard the Leon Family has already sent someone to the Trost District to ask Pixis."
Eren was also peeling potatoes: "There's no other way, right? Although Linde said he's definitely on the Survey Corps' side, he also said he doesn't know his father's stance."
"The Corps is probably trying to get in touch with his father privately."
Connie said, puzzled: "But that's no reason to keep Linde under house arrest, is it? Isn't this a disguised threat to Linde's father?"
Eren didn't say anything.
Connie looked back at Historia, who was boiling soup, and after a moment of hesitation, said: "Chris... Historia, you heard it too, then, right? Before Ymir left, she specifically asked Linde to take care of you for her?"
Historia stared at the pot in front of her and said gloomily, "That was just Ymir worrying about me. I don't need anyone else to take care of me."
All three had complex expressions. Since coming here, Historia had hardly spoken.
The members of the 104th Cadet Corps didn't know what she was thinking either... That night, Hange determined the experimental site, in a valley deep in the mountains.
Early the next morning, everyone took Eren to the experimental site.
Linde went too.
However, the Corps didn't give him any Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
"We don't have any extra hands to watch you right now, so you stay right next to me."
"Your peers all believe you, but I'm not as easily fooled as they are. Ever since you first came to the Survey Corps, I've felt like not a single word out of your mouth is the truth."
"If you make any strange moves, I wouldn't mind making Ash bury his own son."
Linde looked at Levi's poker face and still had a face full of smiles: "Whatever you say, Captain."
..."Boom!"
In the valley, Eren's transformed Titan fell heavily to the ground. Behind the Titan's neck, Eren's main body was almost completely exposed, except for his head and upper limbs.
Hange, standing at the top of the valley, shouted at the top of her lungs: "What's wrong, Eren? Is this all you've got?!"
"Stand up! The future and hope of humanity are all resting on you!"
"Stand up for me!"
At the bottom of the valley, Mikasa ignored Armin's attempts to stop her and approached the fallen Titan.
Levi watched this scene and couldn't help but say, "That gloomy girl is acting on her own again. Should we give her some disciplinary action, Four-eyes?"
"No need. Eren isn't responding. The experiment ends here." After saying that, Hange leaped down into the valley.
"Tch, failed again as expected." Levi curled his lip in dissatisfaction.
Linde and Historia, standing beside him, were both wearing deliverymen's hooded raincoats.
Historia glanced at Linde and found that he was also looking at her.
She saw Linde secretly mouth a sentence to her—
[Do you want to see Ymir?]
Historia's pupils shrank slightly as she stared blankly at Linde.
[I can take you to see her.]
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