Chapter Text
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It wasn't necessary to treat her with such rudeness, she knew when it was the correct time to cross a line and when it was not, everything depended on the situation in which we found ourselves.
It could be talking to people from the Military Police, or with a man of the government with a higher range than ours. We have always been simple pawns, that is what we are within the great scheme of things.
Finally, the point is that she should not have treated her that way. She knows when it's enough, maybe this time she did not know it or did not want to stop to think about the cruelty of her words, she had really lost the stirrups.
Everything happened when she kindly asked me (when I say kindly I mean she literally obligated me) to go with her to give the bad news about the death of a soldier from the Legion to his respective family. Reluctantly I followed her knowing that this trip would be a distraction and that I would stop thinking for a few hours about the paperwork that will be waiting for me within my room back in the headquarters.
For some strange reason Erwin had allowed her to go personally to give the bad news to the family, and noticing she did not want to travel alone I was dragged along with her.
Having left the city for almost an hour, I started noticing small humble houses from far away, thirty minutes more and we will be there, that was my thoughts. Thirty something minutes later we entered in the small town, we spent about 15 minutes looking for the house of said family.
When she simply stopped, she got off his horse, analyzing the horizon before us. I saw she took a deep breathe, exhale and then turn to face the dark gray color of the house. I descended from my horse and waited behind her to receive an answer from the people inside the house.
Before someone could open the door, she turned and giving me a really strange look, at which I was already accustomed then she told me.
“I do not need you to say anything, just stay behind me or if you prefer, you can give your condolences... but just that”. -she said in a low voice.
I nodded, It was not necessary to answer her, I just waited behind my friend, because I didn't even known the name of the family or the soldier to which I was going to present my respects.
I would be honest and let her do whatever she had on mind. We wait for a few more seconds, until the door began to slowly open, making a horrible sound while the old wood creaked.
Inside the house there was a long-haired blonde woman, I had the feeling of having seen his face somewhere but the truth is that I did not remember where. I tried to remember it while Hange began to talk to the woman.
“Good afternoon,Madam”, she said.
“Zöe, good afternoon, I'm really happy that you're here, but please tell me, how have you been?”, the woman answered in such enthusiastic way to the girl in front of her.
As the woman spoke the expression on Hange's face hardened, I just had seen that face in a few occasions in which I had seen her wear an expression like that, as if she was suffering.
“I've been well, just that this time I do not come to do that kind of visit, Madam”, Hange answered harshly.
“No, no, it can not be”
The lady clearly intuited the reason of our visit. And Hange began to release a series of complaints to the woman.
“I told you, I told you to not to let her go back, I told you to force her to stay here, that in here she would have a happy life and you did not seem to mind”, Hange started talking harshly to that woman.
“I warned you!”, Hange screamed at her.
“I told you to speak to her!”, she shouted again.
“I told her, but she did not listened to me”, the woman answered with his face bathed in tears and screaming when she was saying the last words.
“You should had been stricter with her, you should had forced her, you're his mother, aren't you?, she would had heard it if you had forced her to stay”, my partner replied.
“She ... she would have done everything at hand to make you happy”, Hange mentioned again, with a broken voice.
“She would have done anything for you”
And the woman replied with a really painful cry, while his knees lost the strength with which she was being held, sending her abruptly to the ground.
She did not have to be so cruel, she had no right to tell that woman something like that, it was not my intention to go into a serious matter like this but Hange had already crossed the line and she had to control herself.
“Hey, what's wrong with you ?”, I said out loudly meanwhile I looked at her.
She turned violently, letting me see a pained expression, as tears began to run through her face.
She looked at me as if it was the first time she acknowledged my presence since she called that door. Surprised she told me.
“I, I did not want to do this, she could had avoided it”
She told me, while she pointed to that woman and then her hands went directly to his glasses, lifting them in the process and cleaning the tears that sprout from her eyes.
“She decided to go, knowing what could happen to her, if you want to blame someone, then blame her for her own decisions”, I told her, still not knowing who was the person we were talking about.
Hange began to cry uncontrollably, while that woman straightened up a little and looked at my friend.
“He's right, she wanted to follow you everywhere, still knowing what could happen to her, she always wanted to be there for you”, the woman mentioned.
“Does you not understand it? That's the problem, I did not want to have her by my side, I did not want her to be in a situation like that, I knew that everything could go wrong at any time and I thought stupidly that she would listen to you, that she would follow your advice but ....”
Hange stopped, then more sobs left her mouth.
“She did not listened to me, she did what she wanted to do ... being next to her best friend's side”, the woman said.
After finishing that Hange began to cry in such desolating way, it was like listen to a wounded animal waiting for death to come to give it a final blow and this way end with that suffering.
The woman got up, she took out a handkerchief of her apron, cleaned her tears and then she looked at me.
“Thank you for being so understanding, I know that those two were best friends but this was what I feared for a long time, but now I should not worry anymore because knowing that her soul is finally in peace, my very own soul can rest as well”, the woman mentioned while looking at me directly into the eye and dedicating me a smile that I did not return.
Then she put the handkerchief inside of one of the pockets of her apron and took out another one clean. She approached Hange and took her shoulder.
Hange replied to that gesture, raising his face to see the eyes of that woman.
“Thank you, for having loved her as much as to push her away from you”.
She said as she handed out the clean handkerchief. Hange received the object and dried her tears, she stood up and shook his dark pants to get rid of the dirt where her knees had landed a moment before.
“Thank you to let her be my friend, until the end”, she answered.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment, having done that strange act, finally they hugged.
Without tears, both were smiling. I decided to move away and give them a little more privacy.
I was emotionally exhausted and I had not even been part of all that drama, I had only intervened when I thought it was needed.
Hange and the woman talked animatedly for a few minutes, then they hugged again and said goodbye.
Hange walked to his horse and when I was about to turn my back to that house, the woman called me by my name.
“Levi!”, she mentioned.
I turned a little to be again in front of the woman.
“My daughter believed that you were the best soldier, not only of the Legion but of all times, she admired you so much”, the woman commented.
“She admired you so much that she even wore a haircut similar to yours, to be able to earn more confidence in herself and in her skills”, the woman end up talking.
Only then I understood that that woman was Nanaba's mother.
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