Chen Si looked around. He didn't recognize most of them, but there were still plenty of familiar faces. Thomas and Mina stood in the same row as Armin. Right, they were among the first recruits to die. He remembered them vaguely.
He also spotted Connie, Jean, and Sasha, with Marco beside him. Historia really stood out, diagonally ahead to Chen Si's right. As expected of someone with royal blood, she was truly beautiful. She was petite, too, looking no taller than a meter and a half.
Her features really looked as though they had been sculpted in a character creator. Blonde hair, blue eyes, delicate yet gentle features-only the early, long-haired version of Mikasa could rival her. Compared with Historia's softer features, Mikasa had a more valiant look.
"She's really cute," Chen Si said despite himself.
"Right? I never thought there'd be such a pretty girl in the recruit camp," Marco said beside him.
Chen Si glanced at Marco. So you're that kind of guy, Marco. Still, he couldn't blame Marco for staring at Historia. She really was stunning; it was hard not to notice her.
"That instructor looks like a real hard case. We'd better be careful. Oh, and I'm Marco Bott." Marco gave him a friendly smile.
As the saying went, you didn't hit someone offering you a smile, and Marco really was a good-natured guy. "I can tell. Chen Si." Chen Si nodded in reply.
"You over there! What are you whispering about? Shut your mouths!" Keith Shadis glared viciously in Chen Si's direction.
Marco flinched and hurriedly stood at attention, as though nothing had happened.
Chen Si had been through military training before, so he didn't think Shadis was doing anything wrong. He stopped talking for the moment, too.
"Hey, you! Who are you?" Keith Shadis stepped up to the front row and shouted at Armin.
Armin stepped out and answered loudly, "Armin Arnold, from Shiganshina District!"
"Is that so? What an idiotic name. Did your parents give it to you?" Keith Shadis continued to intimidate him.
"My grandfather did!" Armin answered.
"Arnold, what did you come here for?" Shadis brought his face close enough to easily spit straight into Armin's mouth as he questioned him further.
"To contribute to humanity's victory!" Armin squeezed his eyes shut, afraid to look at the instructor's pitch-black eye sockets, eyes almost entirely white with only tiny pupils.
"That's wonderful! We'll make you Titan bait, then! Third row, about-face!" Shadis grabbed Armin's head and turned it around. By now, Armin was drenched in cold sweat.
Thomas beside him was sweating as well, bracing himself for the abuse to come.
"Who are you?" Shadis continued his intimidation.
"Sir! I'm from Trost District! My name is Thomas Wagner!" Thomas startled.
"Too quiet!"
"I'm from Trost District! My name is Thomas!"
"I can't hear you! Go to the cowshed and learn to moo! Come back when you've learned how!" Keith Shadis threatened viciously.
"Next!"
"I'm from Karanes! My name is Mina Carolina!" Sweat poured off Mina.
The two assistant instructors nearby walked around the grounds, watching the recruits get berated. They couldn't help reminiscing. "This takes me back to our days as recruits."
"Wrong! You came from a pigsty! You're worse than livestock!" Keith Shadis leaned in again, bringing his face to his favorite spitting distance.
"Sir! I'm worse than livestock!" Mina replied in terror.
"Next!"
"What's the point of this intimidation?" the younger instructor asked the older one.
"It's a rite of passage. It rejects who you've been until now, allowing you to begin training afresh and become someone fit to be a soldier. That makes it a necessary process," the gray-haired old instructor answered with cultured composure.
"Who are you?" Shadis snarled at Jean.
"I'm from Trost District! My name is Jean Kirstein!" Jean answered.
"Why did you come here?" The same old question.
"To join the Military Police Brigade and live in the interior." Jean voiced his thoughts with utter honesty. It was hard to say whether he was simply too honest or had blurted it out in a panic.
"Is that so? You want to go to the interior, do you?" Shadis sneered.
"Yes, sir!" Thud! The instant Jean answered, Shadis knocked him to the ground with a headbutt.
Jean clutched his head, kneeling on the ground and crying out in pain.
"Who told you to sit down? Is that all you've got? You can't even handle this, and you want to join the Military Police Brigade?!" Keith Shadis piled on the intimidation.
"A torrent plunges three thousand feet, as though the Milky Way fell from the heavens!" Watching the recruits' sweat mingle with Keith Shadis's spit, Chen Si couldn't help thinking of that poem.
"That sounds beautiful. What's it describing?" Struck by the verse, Marco asked Chen Si curiously.
"Oh, the spit Shadis is spraying," Chen Si said, apparently determined to shock everyone with his words.
Marco was petrified on the spot. He saw Shadis approaching with a dark expression. Not only had Chen Si called the instructor by name, he had openly mocked him for spraying spit while he spoke. The other recruits didn't dare voice their resentment.
Marco hurriedly signaled Chen Si with his eyes, but Chen Si kept looking toward Historia and hadn't noticed Shadis approaching from his left.
"What were you chattering about? Repeat everything you just said! Let everyone hear what could possibly be more important than fighting Titans!" Keith Shadis stormed up to Chen Si.
Chen Si turned his head and found Shadis almost nose-to-nose with him. Shadis paused. The kid from Carla's house? He remembered Carla saying that Chen Si was very well-behaved. So his true colors come out the moment he's away from his parents? Carla, let me straighten him out for you.
"Sir! Instructor, the spit you sprayed during your lecture was crystal clear and exquisitely beautiful. Inspiration overwhelmed me, and I composed a poem on the spot called 'Water from a Bald Head.' It goes: 'A torrent plunges three thousand feet, as though the Milky Way fell from the heavens!'" Chen Si raised his voice and shouted with a perfectly straight face.
Shadis's face turned coal-black on the spot. The other recruits stared at Chen Si with wide eyes, unable to believe what they had heard. Eren looked at him with admiration, while Mikasa and Armin looked worried. Historia watched him curiously with her sparkling sapphire-blue eyes. Even Annie couldn't resist taking a couple of glances.
"The poem sounds really profound, but the title's so crude even I can understand it." Connie's thought process really was beyond that of ordinary people.
Jean glanced at Chen Si, then at Connie, and muttered, "Did that guy study so much he fried his brain? And that buzz-cut guy who looks practically bald doesn't seem very bright either. Am I really going to spend three years working with these people?" He sighed.
"Hahahahaha! Very good! Go run a hundred laps around the training grounds! You don't get water until you're done!" Shadis ordered viciously.
Chen Si shrugged and answered resignedly, "Yes, sir!"
"Who are you?"
"My name is Marco Bott! I'm from Kinae Town in the southern region of Wall Rose!" Marco enunciated clearly.
"What did you come here for?" Shadis asked, as always.
"To join the Military Police Brigade and dedicate myself to His Majesty the King!" Marco continued.
"Is that so? Sounds good. Keep working toward that goal." As he spoke, Shadis pressed his face close yet again. "But the King doesn't want your body!" he added pointedly.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Connie Springer! I'm from Ragako Village in the southern region of Wall Rose!" Connie answered with a bizarre salute, pressing his fist against the right side of his chest.
"Wrong side! Connie Springer! You should have been taught this at the very beginning! This salute represents your resolve to offer your heart to your country! Is your heart on the right side?!" Shadis grabbed Connie and hauled him off the ground, roughly manhandling him as he dangled in the air.
Just then, a crisp crunch rang across the training grounds. Thomas and Historia looked in shock at a red-haired girl holding a sweet potato and munching away-Sasha!
Everyone beside Sasha looked at her with either shock or pity, yet she kept eating her sweet potato as though no one else existed.
Watching this classic scene, Chen Si couldn't help finding it funny. The corners of his mouth began to twitch.
Eren also stared blankly at Sasha, probably never having imagined that she could be even more reckless than he was. Armin looked at her in utter terror.
"Hey, you. What are you doing?" Shadis asked in an unexpectedly calm voice. Sasha actually looked left and right before taking another huge bite.
"I'm talking to you! Who are you?!" Shadis finally lost his composure and roared.
"I'm from Tropa Village in the southern region of Wall Rose! My name is Sasha Braus!" Sasha saluted with the sweet potato in her hand.
"Pfft." After holding it in for so long, Chen Si finally couldn't contain his laughter. This is killing me. Sasha giving a solemn salute with a sweet potato held over her heart is just too funny.
"Hey, Chen Si, keep quiet," Marco warned nervously.
Seeing Shadis's dark face and murderous aura, Chen Si decided to oblige him. He wasn't afraid of running two or three hundred laps, but he didn't want to waste his time. It wouldn't do him any good, after all.
"Sasha Braus, what's that in your right hand?" Shadis's face was dark, and his voice trembled with anger. This had probably been an eye-opening experience even for him.
"A steamed sweet potato! There were some freshly steamed ones in the kitchen, and before I knew it..." Sasha answered with complete seriousness.
"So you stole it, too? Why? Why are you eating a sweet potato right now?" Shadis really seemed on the verge of losing it again. He looked as though he was beginning to wonder whether something was wrong with Sasha.
"It wouldn't taste good once it cooled down, so I decided I should eat it right away," Sasha answered.
"No, I'm asking why you're eating a sweet potato." Shadis radiated menace.