It took most of the night for Carmen to establish a clear answer to her previous questions. Was she going to kill Levi? How would Petra and Oruo feel if she betrayed them? Was she prepared to go back to her old life?

No. Terrible. And no.

If she killed Levi, she'd betray her friends' trust, and never ever see them again. Although she knew her mission was supposed to be her priority, she'd evolved from the naive doll she once was. Now, Carmen was a soldier, a friend, a squad mate, and someone people could rely on. But most of all, she was human. Besides, she was out of the governments reach now, the scouts was secure.

"Carmen?" Petra tilted her head, the assassin had zoned off during breakfast.

"Hm?"

"What were you thinking about?" She questioned.

"Nothing too important." Carmen replied, lying once again.

"You sure? You came in late last night, where were you?" The scout asked further.

"Is it your intent to watch over her like a youngling?" Oruo butter in, speaking stranger than usual. "If so, she is the eldest amongst us."

"Why are you talking like that?" Petra changed the topic. "What's going on?"

"He's trying to talk like captain Levi." Carmen accused. "Add a few jokes about shit, then you've cracked it."

"Again with the grudge Carmen." Petra scolded, Oruo was far more offended than he would have been a few months prior.

"Don't use such foul degradation in the same sentence as humanities strongest." He whisper yelled, but it didn't stop a few eyes moving towards the group, including some from the higher ups table.

"Oruo, you realise we're both going to be in trouble now?" She questioned, the man seemed confused. "I suggest we lie about it and say the two parts of the sentence held no common ground." She attempted, Oruo was concerned why she was so worried.

"Huh, Captain Levi is far above petty insults, make no mistake, he isn't a child, he's the manliest of men."

"Please stop." Carmen looked at him skeptically. "Three months ago you hated him, now you treat him like a god. Why?" She wondered. After all this time, she couldn't put her finger on why everyone actually liked Levi, because in truth, he was an ass to everyone. Sometimes even the commander. So why was everyone obsessed?

"He-"

"Don't waste time chitchatting." Levi joined them, interrupting what Oruo was about to say, which was probably for the better because he was obsessed. Other than sitting beside them, Levi didn't say a thing, instead, he ate his breakfast, having no regard for the conversation he'd interrupted. Thus proving that Carmen was right, he was an ass.

"So, um..." Gunther decided to try and speak again, but he had no idea what to say. Usually, he would just talk about whatever popped into his head, but with Levi here, he was far too cautious.

"The weather is nice today." Eld tried to resurface conversation.

"It's overcast." Carmen shut down. "But, we are set to train today, so I suppose it could be worse." She added, sensing that Eld was annoyed.

"So, what training are we focusing on?" Petra asked, looking to Levi, who managed to stay quiet.

Luckily, Carmen stepped in. "I imagine we'll focus on group formations and how to assist one another. In other words, teamwork." She answered. "Though, I have a feeling hand-to-hand combat will come up." It was true, she knew Levi wanted to win that fight as much as she did, but since then, they'd never gotten the chance for a rematch. This would be the perfect opportunity.

"Not to sound ungrateful, Captain Levi, I'm honoured you chose to sit with us. But why exactly did you? Usually you're on the higher ups table." Oruo interjected, asking what had been on everyone's mind.

"It's frowned upon to not sit with your squad. You're my squad so I sit with you from now on." He revealed, which created a wave of mixed feelings within the squad. Personally, Carmen didn't care, it was strange to be sat beside her target, but then again, she'd decided to not kill him. So overall, the seating arrangements didn't impact her.

"So this will be happening all the time?"

"Three times a day, seven days a week." Carmen corrected.

"Get used to it, not as though any of us have the choice." Levi somewhat complained, which Carmen found odd because he did have a choice. Her target didn't care about being frowned upon, and it was odd that he deliberately sat next to his new squad out of sheer will. There had to be a better reason than that, right?

"Don't look at me like that." Levi interrupted her thoughts, more annoyed than usual, but maybe that was just because he was near Carmen. Both the scouts knew they hated one another.

"It's not her fault sir, she has a thinking face. She's kind of oblivious to her surroundings when she's deep in thought. Sorry." Petra repeated her line, something that sounded rehearsed for occasions like this.

"Then why are you apologising?"

"Oh, I..." It was strange to find Petra at a loss for words, but Carmen knew when it was her cue, so she took over.

"He's right, you know." She intervened. "You shouldn't be apologising for my mistakes. It's kind, and you may have kept me out of a lot of trouble, but it's not your job or responsibility. From now on, if I feel the need to, I'll do it myself."

"Your kidding?" Oruo questioned. "I've only heard you apologise once, after you jumped on the first expedition. You didn't even say sorry when you accidentally broke my nose." Mainly because it wasn't an accident at the time. Unfortunately for Carmen, it was their first hand-to-hand combat lesson, and she took it way too seriously. Though now, she regretted it.

"Because it was an accident." She lied.

"What about the time you told me to feed your horse." Gunther added. "You didn't mention it hated people. And it freaked out!"

"I forgot."

"Or when you ripped up my drawing of cap-, never mind." Eld complained, but his sentence came to a stop when he realised the person in the drawing was on the same table as them.

"I didn't want to see that thing in my room. It creeped me out." Carmen defended, but the stampede continued to crush her.

"It wasn't even on your side of the room. He drew it for me." Petra stated. "But just because you hold the most petty grudge in the world, you had to tear it apart."

"It isn't a petty grudge, considering they feel the same way."

"And how would you know?"

"I just do."

"Are you sure it's not just one sided? Because I clearly remember you losing." Oruo joined in with Petra, they all had it out for Carmen.

"Then your memory must be foggy, it was a draw."

The arguing continued, all while Levi sipped his tea, waiting for the right moment to begin the training session. But from what he'd learned so far, no one in this group held any teamwork. Well, some were in a team against Carmen, but that didn't count.

"That's enough." Levi stood up, the food hall mostly empty other than a few stray squads. "We were going to work on group kills and formations. But after that, I think it's best to focus more on working as a team. So, you'll be cleaning the stables. I want it spotless, if it's cleaned to my standards, then we might get to work on the important details. Any questions?"

"Carmen, do you have anything to say?" Oruo quirked a brow, hoping for an apology.

"I would say sorry, but then I'd be lying." She rolled her eyes. "Other than that, you said this is a squad activity for team building. So will you be joining us, Captain Levi?"

It was a bold move, and in all honesty, no one expected the answer Levi had in mind. "Of course, I'll be showing you how it's done. Let's get going, there's no time to waste."

As he finished his order, the whole squad got to their feet and followed Levi, where he took them to the cleaning supply closet and handed them the equipment they needed. "Wear these, it'll make it smell less like horse shit. Plus, I won't have to see your faces."

"Yes Captain Levi." Eld replied for the squad, who didn't like their duty one bit.

"Carmen, do you have any horses to warn us about." Gunther pried, his intention was to annoy the blonde further.

"Actually, there are two friendly horses in stall 13, I recommend you stroke them." Carmen replied, unaware of the owner of the other horse, Furlan.

"Touch my horse, and you'll both be on cleanup duty for the next week." Levi threatened.

"You're horse is Furlan?" The assassin questioned.

"I take it you own Bowie." Levi returned, to which Carmen nodded. "Perfect, you can clean stall 13."

Carmen sighed, but had she expected anything less? Probably not, Captain Levi was an ass, she'd known that from the beginning, which made it much more difficult to refrain from killing him. Trailing their feet across the ground and heaving cleaning supplies, the squad made it to the stables.

"Sort out who does what amongst yourselves, you need to work on your teamwork." Levi ordered and watched the group argue over the tasks once again. Everyone seemed to agree on one aspect, Carmen was on shit duty, which she probably deserved, but she was far more skilled than that.

"Eld is second in command, so let him take charge of the situation." She cut in.

"Well." Eld cleared his throat. "Carmen, you can clear to shit, make sure to pile it up somewhere so the farmers can use it." He ordered. "Petra, you can polish the saddles. Oruo, restock to food and clean the water buckets. Gunther, you can dust, and I'll sweep the excess hay. Okay?"

"You gave Petra the easiest job!" Oruo complained, along with Gunther adding a few extra comments. But the one with the worst duty stayed silent, instead, she strolled to stall 13, stroking her horse.

After gathering her willpower, she tied her headscarf around her hair and her face mask, preparing for the task ahead. Then she walked back to stall 1 and guided the horses out of the stall, tying them to a nearby fence post. While the others were arguing, she got to work and completed her job. It was disgusting, but at least she wasn't complaining like the others, that would have been embarrassing.

Eventually, everyone gave in and followed the orders Eld had given, but by the time they were beginning, Carmen was close to the end. So when she finished her job, she strolled back to Bowie and Furlan, giving their noses a light stroke, as usual, she enjoyed the animals.

"Get back to work." Levi cut in, his stoic expression slightly faltering when he saw the assassin casually petting both the jumpy horses.

"I've completed my task." She answered him.

"Then help the others."

"Sure." She sighed and chose to help Petra with the simplest job.

It took the squad over half the day to fully clean the stables, and all of them finally agreed on one thing. Don't annoy Captain Levi. Even if he concerned himself in their business, their day was still ruined, some of the squad had even forgiven Carmen for her larger fraction of blame. Which she didn't apologise for.

"I'm so tired, who would have thought that cleaning takes up so much stamina?" Petra laid on her bed, clutching a rolled up piece of paper.

"I did the majority of your work too." Carmen scoffed. "What's that?" She referred to the paper.

"Oh, it's nothing..." The younger scout trailed off and hid the paper inside her jacket.

"I'm fully capable of obtaining that." Carmen pointed, causing Petra to fold and tell her the truth.

"Fine, Eld drew me another picture. It's Captain Levi. But don't worry, it's not on your side of the room, so you have no jurisdiction to take it down." Petra defended.

"I have jurisdiction wherever I find myself to be." Carmen countered. "But, I'll allow it. It's the only one, and if he sees that drawing, I'm not accepting any of the blame. Got it?"

"Yep!" The girl pinned the drawing above her bed. Eld was a good drawer, but that only led Carmen to be more irked than ever when she saw the paper. Now, every day, she had to wake up and see the man she was sent to kill. In other words, she had to see the face of her enemy.