Chapter Text
As the king neared him, flanked by two guards on either side, their steps heavy and sending sand and small rocks flying in the breeze, Erwin stood up hastily from where he had been sitting on the ground in the shade of the tree, tucking away the book he’d been reading.
”My lord,” he said, straightening his posture.
The king stopped some distance away from him, his body much more withered than the last time Erwin had seen him, his heavy cloaks weighing him down even more. How he managed to still wear them in the sweltering summer heat, Erwin did not know.
”Smith, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” he said, voice deep and a little raspy, as if the king had a cough he couldn’t quite seem to shake.
Erwin smiled pleasantly, bowing his head out of respect. ”The pleasure is all mine, my lord,” he said, then ”I was told you wished to see me?”
The king did not reply straight away, his eyes instead staring away into the distance, hands clasped behind his back. The king was already an old man, rumors had even begun to spread that he had come down with some illness, that his death would cost them the war.
Erwin himself didn’t believe a change in leadership would be such a bad idea, but the king had no heirs himself and had yet to name a successor. It had many young men and women gathering into the capital city of Mitras, flaunting their achievements and enlisting themselves in the ranks of the military in hopes to catch the eye of the king.
At length the king turned back to face him, his eyes stern yet evasive, almost frightful. ”Yes, I have a task for you, Smith.”
Erwin said nothing, letting the king speak.
The king began to walk away, Erwin immediately following and falling into step beside him, the king’s guards walking three steps behind them, the metallic clank of their weapons and shields only mildly distracting.
Erwin himself was tall, much taller than the king, his eyes bright and blue, framed by thick brown eyebrows and his hair was golden, almost white in the sunlight and neatly cut and parted. Despite him being a scholar, Erwin still had considerable bulk on him thanks to his travels that afforded him a relatively active lifestyle, climbing mountains and stairs alike and always helping the locals with whatever tasks he could from farming to carrying barrels and loading ships.
Erwin had been sitting just outside of the bustling city, never having quite gotten used to the atmosphere in Mitras and instead avoiding the capital as much as he could, and he had assumed the king would lead him back towards the city, but to his surprise they instead kept walking further away.
As the king had yet to elaborate on what task he was assigning for Erwin, he decided to ask him instead. ”Why are we going towards the battle arena? Unless my lord has decided to recruit me for the army,” Erwin chuckled.
”That is where your task is,” the king said, cryptic, and Erwin decided not to ask further.
After a moment more of silence, the king turned to him. ”As you surely know by now, the war with Marley is expected to be a prolonged one,” he began, Erwin silently nodding along to his words, ”our troops have been at a standstill in both Trost and Shiganshina, with resources running low as it is.”
”Yes, I heard there had been trouble getting food and gear in and out of the cities,” Erwin affirmed, eyes fixed on the ground and his feet as they moved. Erwin was a historian by trade, wars of all kinds having interested him since childhood, his father always having taught him about the world they lived in in such a way that young Erwin had developed quite a love for it, having begun traveling as soon as he was old enough to do so.
The king only continued on, unheeding of Erwin’s remark. ”We need to win this war and fast, Smith, and we all know there’s only one way to end a battle as quickly as we need it to end.”
Slowly Erwin looked up from the ground, as the words registered in his mind, leading towards only one conclusion.
His eyes snapped towards the battle arena now already looming in the near distance, stone walls and observation towers reaching for the very sky itself.
”My lord, you mean…”
”Yes,” the king confirmed, looking directly at Erwin.
”I’m not sure how my lord has reached the conclusion that I may be of any help in this regard?”
”He hates all kings and their men, as that lot always does,” the king said with a sneer that twisted his face into an ugly grimace, pulling at his wrinkled skin and revealing yellowing teeth, ”and I’ve heard nothing of you but how charming you can be, Smith.”
”Well, I wouldn’t say—”
”Have you ever met an Ackerman, Smith?”
Erwin paused, mulling over what he knew of the Ackermans. They were an old clan, known far and wide across Eldia and even the other kingdoms, though often not for good reasons. Of course their skill in battle was the stuff of legends, but such a thing was often overlooked in the history books since the Ackermans were instead quite disliked.
It was not entirely without reason, either. The Ackermans were known to be fiercely loyal though awfully picky about where they placed that loyalty. Erwin himself had always deemed it smart, knowing the world they lived in, it didn’t do well to pledge one’s loyalty to just anyone. In recent history, the Ackerman clan had pledged its loyalty to a king only once.
As such, they were often blamed for any losses in battles and war, bearing the brunt of the criticism people had since it was often seen as their fault for not having stepped in to help as they ought to.
To the king, Erwin only said ”no, I have not, my lord.”
The king scoffed. ”Count yourself lucky,” he said, spitting the words out like poison, ”I’ve never met a more heinous group of people than those Ackerman dogs, but there’s no helping it.”
The king stopped Erwin with a hand on his shoulder, gripping him tight. ”You know the saying, ’all the king’s horses and all the king’s men—”
”—are no match for an Ackerman’, yes I’ve heard it.”
The king was looking ahead once more, scowling. ”Just one of those and we’d be set; the war would be all but over if we had just one Ackerman on the battlefield.”
Erwin hummed, thinking about it. It seemed impossible, such a thing. How could any one person be so talented or skilled they alone could turn the tides of war? It certainly didn’t seem likely. An entire clan of talented warriors surely could mean a huge difference in outcome, but just one? With a small almost inaudible scoff Erwin chalked the king’s words up to fanciful thinking or exaggeration.
The king turned to him once again, not minding his silence one bit. ”A prickly bastard, that one”, the king spat out, grimacing as if he couldn’t stand the mere thought of the Ackerman crossing his mind.
”You’ll really need to charm him, Erwin,” he continued, ”we’ll never survive this war without them.”
Erwin said nothing more as they soon reached the battle arena, a place owned by the Ackerman clan. It was seldom used, though the warriors of the clan sometimes held competition there amongst themselves, a victory in battle deciding who was fit to lead the clan.
Most other clans in Eldia were ruled by bloodlines, titles passed down from parent to child, but not the Ackermans. There was of course an old Ackerman bloodline woven into the clan, but as Erwin pondered about it he could recall that the hatred for Ackermans had reached an all time high some 100 years past, the ruler at the time having culled nearly all of the clan members, having forced the clan to run and hide for many years, only recently having made a return under the leadership of their previous clan head, whose name Erwin could not recall in the moment.
The distaste for the members had never left, the culling of their bloodline having forced the clan to adopt a more creed-like system, accepting people into their ranks who had no blood relation to the original Ackermans at all.
The king clearly shared the sentiment of his predecessors. ”If it were up to me I would’ve continued what was started and hunt them all down like dogs,” he sneered, ”but alas, these wars are endless and if nothing else, those dogs sure know how to kill.”
Erwin said nothing and silently the group of them made their way into the arena and up the old stone stairs into the audience, the sun beaming down on them, Erwin having to squint just to see what was happening on the stage below.
As they sat there, Erwin could faintly recall having heard some talk in the capital about how some new member of the clan had apparently challenged the current leader, thus causing the highest ranking members of the clan to have gathered at the arena, to see the duel.
Erwin had not paid much mind to the gossip at the time, but now he was leaning forward in interest, his forever curious mind not able to resist the opportunity to see such a renowned warrior fight.
In the middle of the arena there was a sandy battleground, the ground dead and barren from endless stomping of countless feet, the heated summer wind stirring up sand, sending it this way and that in tiny tornadoes.
There were two people standing there, one tall and another much shorter one, both men from what Erwin could see and soon they were taking their battlestances, fighting apparently done without weapons, which Erwin supposed made sense if the goal was only to assert dominance, not to kill or maim.
He could not tell which of the two men was the current clan head, but as the battle began, all such thoughts flew right out of Erwin’s mind, his eyes glued onto the shorter of the two, attention captured and held by every move of his lithe form.
He was a sight to behold, his wispy black hair flowing with the graceful movements of his body, the thump of his feet as he fought, dodged and attacked had Erwin enraptured, unable to avert his eyes from him at all.
Erwin could not move as he watched him fight, could scarcely breathe. The man’s face was all hard lines and cleanly cut angles, harsh and unyielding, but Erwin could already begin to envision the softness he could undoubtedly find hiding underneath his tough skin if he dedicated himself to the task. And Erwin had perhaps never wanted to dedicate himself to anything more.
What was perhaps more astonishing was that despite him moving almost faster than the eye could follow, his face was utterly calm, features not at all tensed with effort or grimaced with fatigue. He moved as if flowing through water, as if it all came easily for him. He fought like it was what he was born to do, like it was an art, nothing more than a brush gliding across a canvas, smooth and easy. He made fighting look beautiful.
It was the king who spoke next, pulling Erwin out of his reverie. ”That’s the one,” he said, nodding towards the dark-haired man Erwin had just been admiring, ”Levi Ackerman is his name.”
Saying his name seemed to be akin to pulling teeth for the king, the syllables leaving his mouth as if wholly against his will. ”That’s the one I want you to talk to, Smith.”
Still Erwin did not turn his eyes away from the man, from Levi. ”And may I ask what my lord is hoping for me to achieve by talking to him? Surely you’re not expecting him to bend the knee that easily.”
”Of course not, he wouldn’t kneel before a king even if you broke both of his legs,” the king scoffed, ”but I need you to try anyway, Erwin, whatever you can pry out of him; strategies, supplies, soldiers, anything at all— we need it all, and we need it fast.
”Even if he refuses to pledge his loyalty and enter the covenant, he can still be persuaded to lend some of his best fighters to our cause.”
Erwin hummed to show he understood, though from what the king had told him about the Ackermans and Levi himself, he had his doubts already. But Erwin found he wanted to meet Levi anyway, the man having utterly captured his attention, as if he was bewitched somehow and he knew he must speak with him at once.
”You may tell him whatever lies you want, Erwin, I know enough about you to know you’re a good con man,” the king started but Erwin hastily interrupted him.
”I much prefer to be called a strategist than a con man, if my lord doesn’t mind.”
The king chuckled. ”Of course.”
As the battle neared its end, Erwin still could not look away from Levi, watching as the smaller man tilted his head up towards the sky, eyes wide open and uncaring of the harsh sunlight that spilled onto his face and down the length of his neck.
He had won the battle of course, Erwin even figured it had only gone as long as it had because Levi had spent a considerable amount of time teaching and correcting the form of his opponent, which had brought a smile to Erwin’s lips each time he had done so.
As he and the king stood up, walking down the stairs and towards the battleground, they were almost immediately accosted by what Erwin assumed were other members of the Ackerman creed.
The pair of them stopped before Erwin and the king, baffling the former since he had yet to see such an open resistance to a leader, though Erwin reminded himself that the king had no power here, since the Ackermans had yet to yield. They were not wearing the king’s colors over their shoulders, fiercely holding onto their independence.
Over their heads Erwin peered at Levi, who was still talking to his opponent. His attention was only pulled away as the two Ackermans addressed them.
”We were not told the king himself would be in attendance today,” one of them said, a short woman with messy reddish brown hair, looking from Erwin to the king, ”and you are?” She asked, now only looking at Erwin, her hands crossed across her chest.
”Erwin Smith, a historian,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand for the woman to shake, which she did not.
”What do you want?” The man beside her asked, tall though not nearly as tall as Erwin, with an ashy shade of blonde hair.
The king gave them a noncommittal wave, dismissing them and turning around to leave. ”I only came to accompany Erwin here for the show,” he said, leaving.
At that, the two Ackermans turned their attention wholly to Erwin, who found himself slightly unmoored, caught off guard after being all but abandoned by the king like this. He was used to seeing the man as an authority figure, well liked and generally respected, and to see him treated so coldly and like he was nothing more than a common man had delivered a slight shock to Erwin’s system.
He opened his mouth to speak, thinking of ways to politely ask to speak to their clan head, but was saved the trouble when the man in question approached the three of them.
”What’s all this?” The man, Levi Ackerman, asked, face seemingly set into a perpetual frown, his eyes a stormy shade of sterling silver, thin lips downturned and head cocked to the side.
Immediately Erwin’s attention was on him again, taking in the way he looked from up close, his windswept hair and sweaty skin glistening in the sunlight. He was even shorter than Erwin had previously thought, barely reaching his chest if they were to stand right beside each other, though his body was still clearly defined by muscle, strong and lithe, just as Erwin had observed from afar.
The Ackerman girl turned to face Levi, her demeanor immediately less hostile. ”He didn’t really say, but he came here with the king.”
Erwin grimaced internally. If the king truly had wanted him to charm Levi, he should’ve had the sense not to accompany him to the arena. Though Erwin already found he didn’t quite manage to bring himself to care about what the king wanted, his mind only focusing on what he himself wanted.
He turned to face Levi, smiling pleasantly and offering his hand. ”I’m Erwin Smith, an old acquaintance of the king, he was merely accompanying me.”
”Smith? I’ve never heard of that clan,” Levi scoffed. He glanced at Erwin’s outstretched hand as if it might bite him, though in the end he grasped it, though did not introduce himself, likely having already deduced that if the king had accompanied Erwin, then there was no way Levi’s name hadn’t come up in conversation between them.
Erwin chuckled, ”hardly a clan, it’s just me left, I’m afraid.”
At that, Levi turned to look at him, arms now crossed across his chest and lips still scowling. Erwin was sure the man hated him already.
The other two Ackermans took their leave, clearly confident that Levi could handle any problems himself, and so it was only him and Levi there, the other looking at Erwin as if he was appraising him, or judging him. Quite harshly too, if Erwin had to venture a guess.
”So, what do you do Smith?”
Erwin barely had to think about his response, settling on a half-truth. ”I’m a scholar, or a historian rather. Currently I’m commissioned by the king to write about the histories of the different major clans of Eldia.”
Levi’s scowl deepened. ”That’s why you’re talking to me? You want me to blabber about Ackerman history to you?”
Erwin smiled, amused at the other man. ”I already know quite a lot actually, I came here to see you out of a more personal interest.”
”Personal interest? The fuck does that mean?”
”I’ve studied the Ackerman clan’s warriors, but I had yet to see one fight,” Erwin said, unsure of why Levi was entertaining him this much since he was clearly annoyed at his presence. That was, of course, unless Erwin was utterly misreading his demeanor.
Erwin smiled pleasantly at him nonetheless. ”I must thank you; it was quite the show.”
Levi was still scowling, his gaze not even meeting Erwin’s as he was instead looking off to the side, idly blowing his hair away from his face whenever it fell over his eyes. He was shifting his weight from one foot to another as if he was restless, his arms crossed over his chest.
”Hardly a show, just some fucker who needed to be shown his place,” Levi muttered, briefly glancing at Erwin before looking away again.
”Yes, I noticed you taking the time to teach him as well, I’m sure he appreciated that,” Erwin laughed. Levi’s cheeks were reddening as he did, Erwin glancing up at the sun, thinking maybe Levi was getting sunburnt from being outside so much.
Just as Erwin was about to suggest they retreat to some other place, for shade if nothing else, to his surprise it was Levi who spoke first.
”Well, there’s nothing more to see here, now,” he said, idly kicking at the sand, ”if you’re so interested, then would you like to tour the estate?”
Levi’s offer took Erwin by surprise, his brow raised and mouth slightly parted. Quickly though he shook his head and smiled. ”Of course, I would love to see more and to learn of your clan as well, Levi.”
At the mention of his name Levi glanced at him, though the look in his eyes was something Erwin had a hard time deciphering. In the end Levi looked away too quickly for Erwin to think much about it anyway.
They walked side by side, Erwin’s earlier estimation of their height difference proving to be correct, though it hardly seemed Levi minded his shorter stature and the way the other members of the clan clearly both feared and respected him, Erwin figured it was unlikely anyone was foolish enough to try and use his height against him in battle or argument.
Levi was a quiet person, walking silently by Erwin’s side as he talked about his recent travels, though in his silver eyes was a focused look, letting Erwin know he was listening intently.
After some time of Erwin talking, it was Levi who spoke. ”I don’t know what’s out there, I’ve never been outside of Eldia,” he admitted.
”You haven’t? Then you ought to join me on my travels, I see countless new sights everyday and visit new places constantly.”
Levi hummed. ”Must be nice, that.”
”Why not come with me sometime?”
As they walked, Levi absentmindedly kicked a rock that lay beside his feet, watching as it flew away in a clean arc before falling down, hitting the sandy earth with a distant thud. ”I cannot leave my clan,” he said, briefly glancing up at Erwin, ”and I already have my hands full with this fucking war.”
At that, Erwin furrowed his brow. ”I thought the Ackerman clan had yet to yield to the current king?”
Levi rolled his eyes with a scoff, crossing his arms across his chest once again. Erwin tried his best to keep his eyes from wandering to the way his arm muscles flexed with the movement.
”Yield? To that old fucker? Tch, he’ll never see the day.”
”Then… what do you mean by having your hands full?”
Levi glanced up at him again, though the sun hit his eyes, leaving him squinting up at Erwin until he turned away just as quickly with another scowl. ”I won’t help that fucking bastard, but the civilians have done nothing to deserve this war. We’re arranging shelter and care for people fleeing to our lands.”
Erwin’s eyebrows raised in mild surprise. Levi seemed so cold and uncaring from a distance, it was touching to see that he actually did care. The king painted Levi in such an awful light, but Erwin was quickly learning Levi was nothing like the king described.
”Wouldn’t it be more helpful to yield and end the war once and for all?”
Levi looked into the distance, his expression cool and he seemed every bit the seasoned warrior depicted in books and tavern songs.
”There will always be other wars,” he sighed, ”and I will not promise to die beside a king I do not believe in.”
”I suppose that makes sense.”
They both knew, after all, that for a clan head to enter a covenant with a king was no ordinary affair and most of all it was certainly not something to be taken lightly.
In times of peace most clan heads never thought twice about it, but during war time the tension was always that much higher. As a commoner, it was not something Erwin himself had ever had to think about, most commoners did not, but it was something his father had talked about once, the covenant of kings and their men.
”So you know what it means? To pledge my loyalty, to bend the knee, to yield,” Levi demanded, voice harsh.
Levi scoffed before continuing, eyes locked onto Erwin’s face. ”I’ll have to give my life to the king if I yield, and not just in battle,” he said, ”I can do battles, but that’s not what the covenant means.”
Erwin found himself nodding along to his words. ”I know what it means, Levi.”
”Yeah, exactly. If I pledge my life to that fucker and he fucking, what? Falls down the stairs and hits his head and dies like a moron, I’ll have to run a fucking sword through my chest in some idiotic act of loyalty.”
Erwin looked down at him, Levi’s expression fierce and unyielding and Erwin could see why the king disliked him. Levi was clearly aware of his skill, though not proud or boastful like other men might’ve been in possession of such talent, instead to Levi his skills seemed more like an afterthought, something he could do just as he could read or write or breathe. It annoyed lesser men, the way he took his skill for granted. It almost seemed as though Levi was irritated that his skill was all people wanted from him, the only thing anyone ever saw. As if it was the only thing he was good for.
And even further, looking around at the Ackerman lands it was clear they were a smaller clan, most of their people and land taken by the previous kings, culled and cut like animals, and it made sense to Erwin why their loyalty was so hard to win now, if it was possible to win it at all. They had been treated terribly, yet still the kings came to their lands, over and over, asking them to kneel.
Though, Erwin supposed, it had happened before, the Ackerman leader before Levi had yielded to the king after all, had served by his side and though Erwin could not recall what became of him since Ackermans were often left out of most history books, he could guess that it was most likely the Ackerman leader had also given his life alongside his king, as commanded by the covenant.
”I can’t say I’m surprised to hear you say that, Levi,” he admitted as the two of them came to a stop, having reached what seemed to be the old Ackerman residence, the place where the entire clan used to live. It was a moderately sized building and clearly old, though well maintained nonetheless. Erwin wondered if this was where Levi lived, if anyone else lived there at all. He had not seen any recent family records of the clan, the brief research he had done of the Ackermans in the past only recording the lineage before the culling and nothing after. Even Levi himself was scarcely included in any records at all, despite him clearly being somewhat infamous.
Levi stepped to stand in front of him, face tilted up to look Erwin directly into his eyes. ”I am an Ackerman, I will kneel to no king or God.”
Erwin chuckled at the dramatic phrase, sounding more akin to something someone had told Levi than something he would actually say himself.
By the way Levi’s lips briefly ticked upwards into a small smile, it seemed Erwin was correct in his assumption and he had only been jokingly repeating something that had been taught to him.
”My uncle always used to say that,” Levi explained, ”fucking ironic since he ended up bending the knee anyway.”
”Oh? That was your uncle?”
Levi nodded.
”How did that happen?”
A shrug. ”’Dunno, I was pretty young then, so I barely remember.”
Erwin hummed. They said nothing more for some time, Erwin looking around at the different buildings, this being his first time in the lands ruled by the Ackermans. Erwin spent little time in Eldia these days, less so in Mitras, and so he’d never seen this part of the country before, the Ackerman clan’s lands existing just outside of the capital city, spanning what seemed to be mostly farmlands and some forests. There were also mountains in the distance, towards the North.
It was Levi who broke the silence after a while.
”Since you’re a historian, do you want to come see the house?”
Erwin turned to face him. ”The house?”
Levi nudged his head towards the building they were standing in front of. ”The main house. No one lives there now, it’s like a museum.”
Erwin found himself eagerly nodding and so Levi led him inside, the two of them once more walking side by side as Erwin looked around, excitedly talking about what he knew of the old style of architecture and asking Levi about this and that.
Levi’s answers were always short, if he knew the answer at all or cared to give an answer, Erwin could not always tell which. The only time Levi seemed to have more to say was when they reached a long hallway, the walls decorated with paintings and statues of previous members and clan leaders. It seemed either Levi knew much more about the people of the clan than its general history, either that or he simply cared more.
”And this is?” Erwin asked as they stopped in front of another painting, depicting a man in his late 40s by Erwin’s estimate, scowling like all the Ackermans were wont to do, his eyes the same piercing blueish steel as Levi’s.
”My uncle, Kenny Ackerman,” Levi explained, ”he was the head of the clan before me.”
A pause, then Levi continued, turning his back to the painting and continuing on, ”he’s dead now, as commanded by the covenant.”
”… I see.”
Levi was already moving ahead. ”He pledged his life to the king Uri Reiss, I’m sure you know more of him than I do, though.”
Erwin nodded, eyes still glued to the painting. ”I do yes, he ruled during a very peaceful time in Eldia’s history, dying of an illness if my memory serves me correctly. He was a very beloved king.”
Levi had stopped some ways ahead of him, looking at him intently. He said nothing, but the air between them was once again fraught with tension.
At length Erwin turned away from the portrait, following Levi towards the next one.
”And who’s this?”
Levi side eyed him harshly. ”You’re a pretty shitty historian if you need me to tell you all of this, y’know.”
Erwin chuckled, ”maybe I am, though won’t you humour me anyway?”
With a scoff Levi did. ”This is my mother, Kuchel Ackerman.”
”She looks like a fine woman.”
”She’s dead.”
”Ah, my apologies.”
A moment of quiet, then Levi spoke again, as if he could sense the question lingering in Erwin’s mind.
”She was taken by illness, not the covenant. She would’ve been the head of the clan before me if she’d lived. You’d be talking to her now instead of me in that case.”
Erwin let his gaze wander away from the painting and back to Levi, finding him already looking at him. Caught in Levi’s gaze like that, Erwin found himself frozen, rendered speechless.
For a few seconds they stayed like that, potent silence between them, eyes seeing nothing but each other.
—
They had not known each other for much more than the span of a single afternoon, and yet after that encounter Erwin found himself more and more drawn in by Levi, thinking of him time and time again, thoughts drifting back to him helplessly. He could not tell what it was about the other man that had drawn him in with such strength, perhaps it was the intrigue of the tragic Ackerman history or the myth of Levi himself, Erwin could not tell.
He felt like a spy, almost, going back to the king’s castle the day after he had left the Ackerman estate, to report to him and tell him his thoughts on Levi.
Erwin kept his truest thoughts to himself though, as well as the fact that he was sure the king had severely misjudged Levi’s character.
”We need him on our side, Erwin,” the king said, head leaned against his hand as he sat on the throne. Erwin found himself looking around the room, wondering how someone could spend their day sitting in a chair like this, seemingly doing nothing.
Our side? he thought, wondering who’s side the king thought Levi was on right now. Erwin let his mind wander back to the things Levi had told him, the things he had seen. He knew Levi already did more for the people of Eldia than the king ever had.
He said nothing of it to the king, though, only nodding along absentmindedly.
”How long are you staying?” The king asked then, sitting up straighter.
Erwin glanced at the king before letting his eyes stray to the windows, staring into the distance where he was sure he could see the same mountains that sat at the edge of the Ackerman lands.
”I was planning on leaving within the fortnight,” Erwin replied, thinking of Levi as he did, of his offer to take Levi with him, which had been promptly turned down.
”You should have tea with me and Marie tomorrow afternoon.”
”Of course, my lord.”
And as if by coincidence he managed to run into Marie, the king’s niece, as he was leaving the palace.
”Erwin? Erwin Smith?” She asked, voice soft and melodic, causing Erwin to turn around.
He looked at her for a brief moment before he managed to connect her face with a name, since it had been some time since they had last seen each other. She had grown much, her soft brown hair longer than it had been, curled and nicely styled with not a strand out of place. Her clothes were very clean and proper, as befitting a ward of the king.
”Oh, hello Marie, how have you been?”
She smiled politely, her hands clasped before her. ”I’ve been well, though I must say it’s a surprise to see you here after all this time, Erwin.”
”Yes, my work tends to keep me busy, pulling me from place to place. I don’t really stay in one city for too long.”
”I can imagine,” she said, stepping closer, ”you were seeing my uncle just now, yes? Did he have work for you?”
At that Erwin paused, mind once again returning to Levi, the flash of his silver eyes and the crook of his brow seemed to be where Erwin’s mind wandered to more and more.
Forcibly Erwin pulled himself out of his reverie and returned Marie’s polite smile. ”Yes, he did,” he replied, choosing not to elaborate more. Even Erwin himself was not yet sure what the king expected of him, having come to the conclusion that Levi could be quite stubborn after all and was unlikely to heed their requests just because someone other than the current king asked for it.
Marie seemed to be able to read between the lines however, likely also having heard his uncle ranting about Levi recently. ”Is it about the Ackermans?” she asked, her smile falling and eyes turning more serious, ”awful group of people, those ones, I quite wish we didn’t have to deal with them at all. The other clans are much more manageable.”
Erwin looked at her for some seconds, wondering if Marie had ever even interacted with the Ackermans to begin with. Though, having met Levi, Erwin knew he wasn’t one to make a great first impression in any case.
”Well—” he began, not sure if he was about to speak in defense of him, but before he could get any further he was interrupted by commotion, his and Marie’s head snapping towards the entrance to see Levi himself walking in, escorted by murmurs and grumbling from the guards stationed all along the walls, his head held high as if he couldn’t even hear how they spoke of him.
”Levi,” Erwin breathed out, barely noticing he had done so until Levi glanced at him from the corner of his eye as he passed them by. He did not stop however, instead marched directly to the king’s hall, his arrival announced by the king’s advisor just as Erwin’s had been.
The doors to the hall opened and shut with echoing clangs, Erwin frozen and left staring at where Levi had disappeared off to.
”Just look at him, so haughty and arrogant, he didn’t even pause to greet us,” Marie complained with a click of her tongue, wrapping her scarf tighter around her shoulders as if Levi’s mere presence in the castle had brought with it some inexplicable winter chill.
Erwin himself only hummed at her words, unable to do much else as all of his thoughts were taken by Levi, disappearing along with him.
—
In the king’s hall Levi stood before the king like a God.
”What will you give?” He asked, arms defiantly crossed against his chest.
The king looked down at him, scoffing at his perceived rudeness. ”What haven’t I promised to give already?”
”All of your chests of gold and every single whore you can gather from across these lands will never be enough,” Levi stated, cold and resolute.
He looked up at the king defiantly, though his body was relaxed, arms behind his back. ”I will not yield to you, I will not bend the knee and you will not have my clan.”
The king was scowling on his throne, furious, his fists tightly clenched and brow furrowed. He was moments away from simply baring his teeth like a dog and growling at Levi, but managed to hold himself back.
”Shall I remind you that the Ackerman clan has yielded to the king before?”
Levi raised his chin at the king. ”That was my uncle’s decision and he has already given his life alongside the king who ruled before you as per the covenant made between kings and their men. That was then, this is now and I will not yield to you.”
The king clenched his eyes shut, not wanting to see Levi for a second longer, his chest filled with anger and rage at the audacity of such an uppity brat, one not yet 30 years of age. Briefly he wondered why he had bothered to invite Levi into the castle at all. The indignity of having to invite him as well, as opposed to being able to summon and order him like he could anyone else was driving the king to his limits.
The king sighed, his body weary and mind exhausted, the war at a standstill for months already and he knew it would never be over, not without the strength of the Ackerman clan.
”If I give up my throne, will you fight?”
Levi was mildly impressed by the guts it would take to make such an offer, knowing that if the king gave up his throne in abdication or death, then every single clan head that had sworn him loyalty would have to offer their own lives in a symbolic gesture of loyalty.
The clan heads always died beside their kings, burned with them, buried with them. It was how his uncle had passed as well, running a sword through his own chest after the king he had sworn himself to had passed away from an illness.
If the king did this, it would not be him whom Levi would swear loyalty to, instead it would be the next king that came after. Who that person would be, Levi did not know. The king had no heirs, no named successors.
”I cannot promise you anything,” was what Levi settled on.
”Leave then,” the king said with a wave of his hand, resigning himself to a prolonged war once more. It was clear to him that Levi Ackerman held no love nor loyalty to Eldia, he would rather see the entire country ravaged than bend his knee and give his life to the king.
—
Erwin walked down the steps leading to the palace in a daze, gait unsure, absentmindedly running his hands through his hair.
All around him he could hear people talking, gossiping and murmuring with cold looks in their eyes, heads shaking as Erwin walked through the crowds, pushed and pulled by the masses of elbows and shoulders.
”—see him? So haughty, I don’t know why he bothers to come here just to humiliate the king…”
”He should stay away if he doesn’t intend to help, no one wants to see him here anyway…”
”Such arrogance—”
”Awful manners too, I’ve heard from my cousin who’s wife works in the castle that he never greets anyone and is always rolling his eyes and scoffing—”
Erwin paused in the middle of the street, looking around at the people milling about. He wondered if they knew at all what they were talking about. Erwin himself was a scholar, well taught and well read, but books were only books, the real world was beyond the walls of Eldia, where most people here had never ventured into.
They had seen not a day of the war that plagued the nation, had never seen the people actually affected by it. And most of all, they had not one of them ever done a single thing to help. Yet here they stood, talking about Levi as if they knew him, as if they knew what he had or hadn’t done. As if they understood what they and the king were asking of him.
They must know, Erwin thought, they must know that yielding would mean death to Levi, death to the warriors in his clan.
He shook his head.
They don’t care, he knew, they don’t care if he lives or dies, what happens after he does.
As if to confirm his thoughts, he heard a man pipe up just near him, smoking and shaking his head as if he had all the wisdom of the world at his fingertips.
”So what if that insolent brat dies? There’ll always be other Ackerman dogs to take his place.”
Erwin thought back to the battle between Levi and a member of his clan. There’s no one like him, he thought, there will never be another.
—