Three Viewpoints Selected Cases

The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 09 Levi’s Side (3/3)

“According to Oluo’s explanation, some high-grade tea was accidentally sent to the Survey Corps, and so the mighty Military Police Brigade are coming all the way here just to retrieve it…”

“Is it really worth getting that worked up over? It’s hard enough to get adequate food to eat, so I doubt there are many soldiers out there who have discerning tastes in tea.”

The notice regarding a collection of provisioned tea had arrived as soon as they woke up. All of the soldiers under Levi had their heads tilted as they tried to understand this inexplicable situation.

It is true that these tea leaves are a lot more tolerable than the ones we normally get. But…I think the truth of the matter is…

While the theory about the Survey Corps being unsuitable for the luxury goods that accidentally reached them did make sense, it wasn’t a good enough reason for the Military Police to be acting so frantic.

“…Oluo, bring the tea leaves here. There’s something I want to check.”

Just then, Levi recalled the way the Military Police Brigade “did business” and that’s when he decided to check for himself.

******

“Eren, give me that spoon over there.”

The tea that had been brought to the room was barely any different from what was normally supplied to the corpsmen. As Levi hated to get his hands dirty, he took a thin, long teaspoon from the recruit and calmly stirred through the leaves.

“What is that beautiful stone?!”

…A moment later, a large, glimmering rock was there in Levi’s hand. A rock that in their walled society could only be seen in Royal and aristocratic estates… It was a decorative gem that lowly soldiers such as the Survey Corpsmen had only ever seen in illustrations.

“I-Is that what you call a jewel?!”

“I’ve only ever seen gems that shine like that being treated like the holy treasures of the Wall Religion…!”

“What is that, Captain?!”

He brushed the tea leaves off the gem and rolled it on the table.

“This is what the Military Police have been looking for…from the very start.”

Then, based on his experiences along with stories from old acquaintances, Levi began to give his own thoughts on the incident.

“They were trying to cover up their bribes by hiding valuables inside tea that they claimed was a donation…? Really?”

“No matter how rotten they may be in the inside, even the Military Police have to take a neutral appearance. It doesn’t look good for them to be taking money directly…”

“But food is a different matter. Like Oluo said, luxury goods or not, no one’s going to complain about them donating tea that any regular citizen could get and say that it should have been used as alms.”

Levi’s talented soldiers quickly digested what he said and arrived at the truth themselves.

“And some stupid MP must have mixed things up. So now they’re saying the tea isn’t fit for consumption and are trying to retrieve it,” one of them said, playing with the shinning rock… Outside of the Walls, it was nothing more than a worthless pebble. Eren agreed with the corpsman, looked at the gem with curious eyes, and asked.

“What are you going to go with this gem, Captain?”

“…That’s up to Erwin.” “We’re going back immediately,” he announced, and began heading back to the Commander, the head of the Survey Corps.

******

“I see… It’s a good thing you were you quick to figure out what was really going on. Let’s let the MP in charge of this know.”

Erwin’s reaction to hearing what had happened was flatter than they expected. As there could have been more than one stone, he briskly ordered his aide to ask the Military Police how many items were “unfit for consumption” and to arrange for an investigation of all of the tea to make sure that no foul play had taken place.

“…So you’re going to hand them back without a word?”

“I think it’d be more convenient for us to have the Military Police owe us one rather than turn the entire Brigade against us because we pilfered a couple of pebbles. Not happy, Levi?”

Levi had no objections to Erwin’s decision. He thought it was best to let Erwin handle the way he dealt with the military brass and other branches himself.

“I’ll leave all of the political maneuvering up to you.”

“If you have any requests, I’ll be happy to pass them along as ones by the first individual to discover the goods.”

“Hmm…”

Levi recalled the tea he’d had a single sip of that morning. It was undeniably excellent.

“I don’t care about these pebbles, but the tea was good. It’d be nice if they supplied us with more of the same.”

Erwin grinned before repeating Levi’s simple request in his own trademark way.

“Okay, I’ll let them know. I’ll ask for them to supply you with tea next time with whatever made it ‘unfit for consumption’ taken out.”

He then turned his back to Levi in order to go meet the MP leading the case himself as Levi returned to his own job.

[PART 1|PART 2 ]

SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2

Three Viewpoints Selected Cases

The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 08 Annie’s Side (2/3)

“…And so some of the tea shipment distributed the other day included some that was absolutely unfit for consumption. Today I need you to collect all of the tea sent to the military and give out new tea in its place. That is all.”

The Military Police Brigade officer’s words sounded even more stern than usual. That still didn’t mean that he would rethink his tendency of handling off all his work to the recruits, though. He simply ordered them to get results fast before returning to his room.

“That’s weird. The food supplies we give to the Survey Corps and Garrison are always second-rate. Why would we go this far over some bad tea?”

“While Tea might be a luxury, it’s still something you put in your body. Someone would need to take the blame if anyone’s health was affected.”

Among her fellow recruits, Annie stood alone, wondering how she would get out of this annoying Mission.

…This is stupid.

******

The recruits began to disperse, and Annie casually turned around as she stood behind them all. In what must have been their haste, the door to the officers’ quarters was cracked open.

…None of them are drinking today?

Annie noticed that the scene she glimpsed inside was different from the usual one. She split off from the others and listened in from the shadows.

“…So do you think we’ll be able to find it?”

“There are only so many places it could have been distributed, so it’s just a matter of time. What’s annoying, though, is that some of it has already been sent off to the Survey Corps.”

They were talking about the “unfit for consumption” tea. The officers seemed to be uncharacteristically frantic in their search for it, and MPs belonging to ranks so high that Annie had never seen them working before streamed in and out of the room.

The Survey Corps…

“This is Erwin we’re dealing with here. If he finds it, he might even try to use it against us some day…”

Some of Annie’s friends would be in the Survey Corps. Not only that, this tea seemed to be such a big deal that it had the potential to turn into a major scandal that could be used against the Military Police Brigade.

It’s just some tea. Why would they be this obsessed with it? I think…it might a good idea to look into this.

Her past experiences told her that if she had a little more information, she might be able to use it as insurance if worst came worst. Annie pretended to go back to work before heading toward the records room.

******

…The day the tea we’re supposed to recover was sent out, the brass was scheduled to meet with important Wallists. But…the plans were canceled right after the shipment.

Fortunately, the Military Police had plenty of time to create documents. They kept reasonably detailed records of plans and shipments going in and out.

These are yesterday’s records of donations from the aristocracy… They gave money, as well as…precious metals?

“Hey, Annie. What do you think you can get done looking at records like that? Are you sleeping with your eyes open or something?”

“…Yeah, maybe.”

“God, you’re boring!”

Annie parried another MP’s snide remarks before looking at more records.

And the records of where these metals were kept…don’t exist? They were taken somewhere before they even had a chance to go into storage…

Annie understood where that “somewhere” was.

“…I get it now,” she muttered so that no one else could hear, slowly shutting the records. She was done with the case now…and decided to skip as much work as she could.

******

“Make any progress, Annie? It seemed like you were looking into some sort of records the whole time,” a serious recruit asked Annie, his hopes high. She had no intention of telling him the truth, though.

…I can’t have any attention on me. I’ll just ignore this.

“…Not really.”

“Like I said, she was slacking and just pretending to work. You’re the only one who took this seriously, Marlowe.”

The attention was taken off of Annie thanks to another recruit who was napping alongside Annie in the records room. She couldn’t help but let one thing slip out when she saw his ever-fierce attitude.

“What the officers are looking for…has probably been taken far, far away already. It’s up to the MPs there now…”

“That doesn’t make it alright for us to slack off, though! Sheesh…”

Still, the words didn’t seem to be enough to make him take notice of anything. He was either a true idiot, or maybe what you’d call an honorable man. Annie knew people like that existed.

If the shipment was sent to the Survey Corps…I don’t need to be the one acting like some kind of righteous hero.

Annie also thought the right kind of person to expose this corruption would be just that kind of person.

[PART 1 | PART 3 ]

SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2

Rude Girl!