The blood-red aura of hunting stained his vision, yet his enhanced senses could no longer detect any trace of the Colossal Giant.
—Though it was strange, the fifty- or sixty-meter-tall Colossal Giant seemed to have vanished into thin air.
At least three updates a day, though the next one might not come until dawn. Well, in Holy Light's shallow understanding, dawn still counted as part of the same day.
Chapter 14: Easterner?
Shaking his head to compose himself, Lianye deactivated Hunting Rhythm.
Though he did not know why such a massive creature had suddenly disappeared, he did not fly into a rage over losing his quarry.
A hunt might place greater emphasis on swift, precise, ruthless ambushes—decisive and fierce—but before that came the pursuit, which required considerable patience.
A true hunter was not only skilled at killing prey, but also capable of remaining calm throughout the chase.
When he came back to himself, Mikasa had already tended to Carla Yeager's wounds. Though she had merely wrapped the torn injuries with crude bandages to prevent infection, it at least allowed Eren's mother to stand and move around a little.
Briefly escaping danger did not mean they were safe. With the Titans already fully inside Shiganshina District, and the district's fall merely a matter of time, losing their mobility meant they would sooner or later be discovered by the Titans.
Supported by Eren, Carla straightened up. The way she hopped along looked a little comical, but it was far more practical than Eren's earlier suggestion of carrying her on his back.
"Thank you." Mikasa nodded lightly in thanks. Though her face remained stern beyond her years, being able to say those three words aloud already represented the greatest goodwill she could offer.
"It was nothing. I just happened to help."
Lianye shrugged indifferently. He had not acted because he felt any fondness for Eren, Mikasa, or the others, but simply because of that inexplicable thought in his heart.
Come to think of it, women who wore their long hair in a side ponytail gave people an impression of being especially gentle and virtuous. Yet for some reason, women with that trait had a terrifyingly high death rate in anime—basically on par with, "Once this fight is over, I'm going back home to get married."
Who knew what the hell that was? Maybe it was the twisted sense of humor of some great cosmic will, insisting that exceptionally gentle women had to die in order to make things more heartbreaking.
Mikasa was not discouraged by his curt manner. In the end, she was the true quiet and aloof type, while Lianye simply disliked boasting about having saved someone and insisted that he had only done it in passing, not deliberately. In other words, he was a tsundere.
Pride Stalker seemed to have been mocked as Tsundere Stalker too.
"I've seen you before. When the Survey Corps returned, you were among the crowd nearby."
"Your memory is pretty good." Lianye chuckled. Just as expected of Mikasa.
But that last line was merely a joke in his heart. Saying it aloud would only make Mikasa feel strange.
"People with your hair color are rare. Even in the whole town, I've never seen a second one."
"Aren't you the second one?" Lianye retorted weakly, unsure whether Mikasa had genuinely spaced out for a moment or was playing dumb.
"Mm... that's true."
It was not really Mikasa's fault for being slow to notice. After her biological parents died, she had never seen another person with black hair and black eyes like her from childhood until now. Eren and Eren's mother's hair looked black at first glance, but it was vastly different from pure jet-black; it was actually a deep brownish-yellow.
"By the way, what should we call you?"
Having regained his composure, Hannes joined the conversation. He was, after all, the oldest soldier among them and the most representative one. He even used honorific language when speaking to Lianye, which showed just how much Hannes admired Lianye's brave deed.
Lianye pointed at himself and tilted his head. "My name is Lianye. Lian is my surname, and Ye is my given name—not one whole name."
He had to take introductions seriously. According to this world's naming customs, the given name generally came first and the family name after, like Eren Yeager. Lianye did not want to be mistaken for a wanderer without a family.
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