"Marlo, patrolling has no benefits at all. Why are you being so proactive? You made me crawl out of bed so early—I'm exhausted."
A pretty girl with fluffy gray hair yawned as she complained to her companion beside her.
"Hitch, this is our duty. Didn't the officer personally give the order this morning?"
Marlo, with his bowl-cut hair, said seriously.
The gray-haired girl Hitch laughed rudely.
"Oh? Since when does Marlo listen to officers? Wasn't it just a few days ago that someone got beaten up by an officer?"
Her mockery made Marlo's face flush red. A few days ago, he really had talked back to an officer and taken several punches. Luckily, Hitch had rushed over in time, apologizing and smoothing things over, which finally made that officer stop.
Thinking of it, Marlo felt indignant. It was clearly that officer who was extorting the merchants. Why? Weren't the Military Police supposed to protect the people?
The officer's fists, his comrades' slackness, and the various kinds of corruption within the Military Police had completely extinguished the passion Marlo had felt when he first joined.
Now Marlo was deeply dissatisfied with the entire Military Police. He had even whispered privately that if he ever became an officer, he would definitely change the atmosphere of the Military Police.
Hitch had once overheard Marlo's "dream" and nearly burst out laughing. Marlo was really dreaming the impossible. They were just two privates in the Stohess district branch of the Military Police.
This lifetime would probably be like this. At best, by grinding out seniority, maybe one could become a Squad Leader or something—and even then he hoped to clean up the Military Police's conduct?
Still, Hitch didn't openly crush Marlo's hopes. After all, Marlo was her teammate and her friend. With Hitch's sharp tongue, having a friend wasn't easy.
"Why are there so many people up ahead? Come on, let's go take a look."
Hitch stood on tiptoe and noticed a crowd of civilians gathered ahead, eagerly wanting to see what was going on.
Marlo hesitated. They were only halfway through their patrol route—there was still half a block left.
But Hitch didn't give him a chance to argue and dragged him along.
"Wait, Hitch, our assignment isn't finished yet—"
"Who cares about the assignment? That guy Krel doesn't care about this stuff at all. He only cares about the few copper coins in his pocket."
Hitch said indifferently.
Krel was their superior, a guy who did nothing all day but extort small merchants, always finding all kinds of excuses to squeeze coins out of them.
Those merchants he constantly extorted cursed him behind his back, calling him a vampire.
In the end, Marlo was still somewhat unwillingly dragged over.
"This is—? So many soldiers, all Military Police soldiers!"
Marlo exclaimed, but what he saw next made his breathing stop.
He trembled as he pointed at the wagons behind the large group of soldiers. On the wagons were iron-bar cages. Inside the cages were soldiers wearing the Survey Corps uniform, each tightly bound, even their mouths stuffed shut.
"It's the Survey Corps. Didn't the newspapers write about it? The Survey Corps betrayed humanity, so they were all arrested."
Hitch said casually.
Marlo fell silent.
"The Survey Corps… betrayed humanity?"
He didn't really believe it. Since childhood, he had known that the Survey Corps had sacrificed countless soldiers outside the walls, all to deal with the Titans for humanity's sake.
While Marlo was thinking, Hitch suddenly shouted,
"Hey, Marlo, look! That's Captain Nile! Wow—and next to him is Commander Randy we saw last time. That bald guy—no way? Could it be Commander Pixis?"
Startled by Hitch's shout, Marlo also looked toward the leading figures. He was shocked as well—so many high-ranking officials?
Hitch pulled Marlo and tried to squeeze into the crowd, talking as they went.
"Come on, come on, get closer. This kind of scene is rare—gotta take a good look. We might never see something like this again."
After much effort, they finally squeezed to the very front, but Captain Nile and the two commanders had already passed by. Hitch let out a regretful sigh.
"There's nothing left to see. Let's go—continue the patrol."
Marlo reminded her.
Hitch replied lazily, "Ah, sure."
Marlo turned and walked away.
Bang—he turned right into a collision and was knocked straight to the ground.
"Marlo?!"
Hitch behind him was startled and immediately looked at the person who had knocked him over.
Under the hood was a fairly handsome face. His body didn't look particularly strong, but when he collided with Marlo, Marlo went flying while this guy was completely fine.
"Are you alright? I'm really sorry, Military Police sir. I didn't mean it."
The man was polite. After helping Marlo up, he apologized sincerely.
Marlo rubbed his forehead and stood up. With such a sincere apology, it wasn't appropriate to make an issue of it.
"It's fine. Just be careful next time."
If that vampire Krel had been here, no matter how sincere the apology, he would definitely have extorted something—or, if there was no money, beaten the guy badly.
"Let's go, Yago."
Hitch's gaze was drawn to another petite figure in a cloak. Looking over, beneath the hood was a delicate, beautiful face, with a few strands of blonde hair falling loose.
Hitch frowned slightly, feeling something inexplicable. What kind of feeling? In Hitch's words, it was the feeling that this person could become a friend.
It sounded mysterious, but Hitch felt her intuition was very accurate. It had been the same with Marlo—she had felt they could become friends, and so they did. As for others, there was naturally no interaction.
But before Hitch could think more, the guy called Yago had already pulled the blonde girl away.
Hitch just watched the two of them leave, feeling strangely empty inside. Friends were rare for her, after all.
...
"Hey, you two—are you Military Police from the Stohess district?"
A Military Police officer wearing a unicorn-emblem uniform asked.
In front of him, Marlo and Hitch stood at attention.
"Yes, sir! Reporting, sir—Stohess district branch private second class Marlo Freudenberg (Hitch Dreyse)!"
"Good. Go inform your superiors. By order of Captain Nile, lead half of the Military Police to follow the main force. This is a military order—execute immediately!"
"Yes!"
Marlo and Hitch didn't dare say anything else and immediately hurried off to carry out the order.
...
"Yago, you were distracted just now. What were you thinking about?"
Annie followed beside Yago.
Yago hesitated for a moment, then chose not to tell Annie what he had seen earlier, instead changing the subject.
"Annie, do you remember those two Military Police soldiers?"
"What?"
Yago said, "I can feel it—we'll meet them again."
Annie tilted her head.
"Why are you saying something so strange?"
Yago smiled and tapped his head.
"Fate's arrangement."