#the case of the corps tea party
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.
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
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 07 Oluo’s Side (1/3)
“All that’s left is the tea. Can you take care of it, Oluo?”
“Yeah… I got this.”
It was, as always, a busy morning.
The Survey Corps Special Operations Squad, also known as Squad Levi, was working to make yet another simple breakfast from their provisions in the old Survey Corps headquarters they temporarily called home.
“…Hm?”
As his fellow soldiers carried trays to the table, Oluo began to make some tea, his superior officer’s favorite…but Oluo felt like something was off as he performed this simple task.
These tea leaves… While the average person would think they’re regular leaves…
He looked at the tea he had just opened with his own hands and was sure.
There’s no mistaking it. This…is going to be an issue.
******
As Oluo brought the teapot into the dining hall, the “issue” was already beginning to manifest. Everyone was looking with suspicious at a sheet of paper that seemed to be from Levi, their leader.
“What’s going on here, Petra?” Oluo asked as calmly as he could.
“We got a report from the Military Police first thing in this morning. It said the tea we were supplied with the other day was ‘unfit for consumption,’ and that we should return it all without opening it up.”
“Unfit…for consumption?”
That was strange.
The Military Police had given them the notice, but they were known to hoard all the best meat and luxurious alcohol for their own use. They considered the Survey Corps utter idiots.
“They’re the kind of bunch that would go out of their way to give us the bad-quality stuff…”
It seemed like they would have loved the chance to get rid of anything unfit for consumption by handing it off to the soldiers at the bottom of the totem pole. As everyone wondered why they would bother to take it back, Levi asked a question.
“Oluo, did you use the tea yet? Did you notice anything?”
The Captain’s voice was calm, almost as if he knew exactly what was going on.
I knew it… That Tea…!
Oluo nodded and gradually began to give his opinion as he poured each of the others their tea.
******
“Now listen… Tea comes in different grades. But that doesn’t have anything to do with its quality… It’s all a matter of the size of the leaves…
Of all the corpsmen present, Oluo was the only one to see the tea they had been given. He also knew that something was different about it.
"Does that have something to do with this commotion about a recall?”
“Stay cool, Petra… The truth isn’t going to sneak away from us. It’s right in front of your eyes, after all.”
“Stop talking like such a creep. I’m telling you to give us your conclusion.”
Oluo handed his offended corpsmate her tea as he explained.
“The tea that makes it all the way down to us is a blend of late-picked, poor-quality teas. No matter how high the grade, there’s not going to be any noticeable change in taste. However… This was something different. The tea had a young colour and a deep aroma… While the size and shape of the leaves is no different from our usual blend, the actual product is something entirely different. This is made from the leftovers of the kind of first-flush tea leaves that those damned aristocrats drink in the interior!”
“The colour of the tea being lighter than usual is proof of that,” he proudly concluded.
******
His squadmate Eld took a small sip. He did feel like something was different about the taste, but he cocked his head to the side.
“…So you’re saying they accidentally sent some high-quality tea our way, and that they’re trying to take it back because we’re not worthy of it?”
“It’s not like cover-ups are anything new for that bunch… Someone was probably too drunk and sent us the wrong supplies by accident, and now they’re trying to hide the fact and get it back by claiming the tea isn’t fit for consumption.”
Oluo looked to the captain he so respected for backup. Levi took a sip of the tea in his hand and seemed to enjoy it more than usual before he sighed.
“You’re right… This does seem a little better than the cheap tea we always get. Oluo’s reasoning must be right. But…”
“Captain?”
Everyone in the squad, including its recruit, had their eyes on Levi, who seemed to be deep in thought.
So he’s saying…that’s not all…?!
Oluo was on pins and needles as he waited to hear what words would come from the mouth of the man he unconsciously aspired to become.
[PART 2 | PART 3 ]
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
