Chapter 18

-[Liam]-

It had been a week since Erwin, Hange and Levi learnt of the existence of life outside the walls. The rest of the survey corps were not made aware of the discovery and they wouldn't until they had a plan to deal with the fallout.

They were currently focused on preparing for the expedition and the possible interference of an intelligent titan. Liam on the other hand was busy with a lot of things.

Other than leveling his skills, he'd been working with Hange and the engineering team to put together weapons that could give them an edge and reduce casualties.

He also had two clones active in the headquarters and stacked with invisibility potions. One of them was assigned to Christa while the other was assigned to Bertholdt.

Their mission was simple, using [Emotion Manipulation] to make the former develop hatred towards Ymir and increase the latter's obsessive feelings for Annie.

It has been going very well so far.

He made his way to the stables to get his horse and get to Trost to finish up the weapon he was working on.

Feeling his clone nearby, he almost smirked as he found a familiar blonde girl petting his horse. "How is it that I always find you here?" He asked teasingly.

The girl was startled for a moment before turning around with a pout. "Don't scare me like that!"

He didn't need to reach too much to feel the clone's effect in heightening her joy upon hearing his voice and seeing him.

If he could, he would congratulate the clone for its diligent work.

"Sorry. I just couldn't help myself." He said with a small laugh as he moved to let his horse out. "So, what happened? Did you and Ymir get into another fight?"

He asked, despite knowing the answer already. He felt the tinge of sadness and irritation when he felt her emotions earlier.

The girl sighed sadly. "It's nothing for you to worry about. I don't want to burden you." Her voice went meek, almost becoming a whisper.

His eye quickly glanced at the clone for a moment. 'I don't suppose there's such a thing as doing too good a job.' He thought before moving forward to gently grab the girl's shoulder.

"You're overthinking it. You're not a burden. Not to me at least." He said, reaching in and pulling at her irritation at Ymir before continuing.

"You know what? I have time." He said, leading the horse back into its corner and returning to the girl. "Hange might be grouchy for a while but it'll be worth it if it means you're okay."

[Acting Mastery has leveled up]

The hue of red was almost visible on her face as the girl got flustered, waving her hands frantically. "A-are you sure? I'm not being a burden?"

He pulled her closer into a gentle hug, getting a light gasp of surprise from her. "I'm sure. Now why don't you tell me all about it." He said as he felt her joy and happiness spoke as well as a new emotion erupting in the process.

After being constantly exposed to the skill, her body and mind was already beginning to build up on it by itself. Soon enough, he wouldn't even need to do anything as she would manifest and follow those feelings on her own.

-[Later]-

"Where did you even get the idea for something like this?" Hange asked in amazement as Liam polished the long weapon in his arms with a damp cloth.

"It's been in my head ever since the attack on Trost. I just never figured out how to put it together yet." He said as he raised it to his shoulder.

It had a long barrel that resembled a pipe with two handles below it. The back end of it rested on his shoulder while the open part faced the target in front of him.

"Oooh I want to try it! I want to try it! Can I be the one to try it?!" Hange pestered, getting a sigh from Liam as he handed it to her.

"Sure, knock yourself out." He said as she took it from him, raising it to her shoulder just like he did. It wasn't too heavy but it wasn't light either.

"There's going to be some recoil so you have to be careful and keep your balance. Aim a bit hi-" Before Liam could finish explaining, Hange had already pulled the trigger, shooting a rocket propelled grenade forward.

*BOOM!*

Liam winced from the suddenness of the explosion as it struck a tree at the other side of the forest, blowing it up completely.

Hange was on her back, laying flat on the floor with a shocked look on her face. "This is….AWESOME!!"

As the woman began blabbering about the damage done, Liam glanced at the rocket launcher he had put together.

The thunderspears that they would later come up with came with the weakness of the user having to get close to effectively use it. Though this one came with the slight risk of its weight.

They had moved into a forested site to test it out and the result was a tree being no blown to bits. "I told you to be careful." He chastised as he pulled the excited woman up to her feet.

She ignored his words, going back to her babbling. "Although it's powerful, isn't it a bit heavy for a person to carry on their ODM gear?" She muttered.

"That's correct. The weight of the launcher would hinder the movements on whoever was carrying it. That's why it's going to be with the squad in charge of moving the supplies during the expedition." Liam explained.

"We'll have at least two people on a cart with a few of these to shoot down the titans from afar. It's also our insurance against the armored titan's hardened body."

Hange frowned a bit as she took in what he said. "According to you, you believe that the armored and colossal titan are in the survey corps? Wouldn't teaching basically be revealing our secret weapon?" She asked with a thoughtful look.

"That's one way to look at it. They started their attack 5 years ago. The soldiers who have been here for more than 5 years…they should be the ones with the responsibility of handling it." Liam advised, giving Hange something to think about.

-[Later]-

He had spent a few more hours fine tuning and trying to improve the launcher as much as he could.

It was only after it finally got dark outside that he stepped out of the base in Trost. He left his horse behind, opting to take a little stroll.

As he walked, he noticed how empty the streets were, not a single soul walking around like he was doing.

"Eren, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Ymir, Zeke, Pieck and the Tybur family.' He thought, taking note of the titans and who their holders are supposed to be.

He remembered his last visit to Marley with Annie. Other than taking out the Braun family, he had another goal.

Having done research and experiments with the blood of a few unaware soldiers, he had long since found the genetic marker that was used to identify Eldians or as the world like to call them, subjects of Ymir.

With the marker found, it didn't take too long to whip up a potion. It was more of a poison than a potion. A potion to severely aggravate any existing illness or disease was dumped into the Marley water supply.

It amplified some to the point of madness or death. And those who possessed the genetic marker were immune even if they drank out of the water.

Marley was content with ruining their lives so it was only right that he returned the favor, past history be damned.

As he walked, he stopped as his hand suddenly shot behind him, catching a hand that was stretched towards him.

'Finally.' He thought as he spun around to see his target, a man in a brown hat and a trench coat, a knife in his other hand.

The man grunted in surprise as Liam put his 90 points of Dex to work. Ackermann or not, it was higher than what they were capable of achieving.

Liam formed an ice sword in hand. Kenny attempted to pull his arm back but found it frozen in ice. Faster than he could react, his throat was slit, staining the ice sword with his blood.

Liam's eyes moved to another figure in a trench coat that had raised a gun at him, swinging his arm in her direction as a spike of ice shot forward, tearing into her chest.

*Cough* *Cough*

The woman's eyes were wide open in shock as blood seeped from her wound, dying almost immediately.

Even with his throat slit, Kenny was fighting to stay alive. His other hand aimed his knife to stab Liam with the last of strength only to miss as the boy easily shifted out of the way.

Liam placed his palm on the man's chest, an ice spike shooting out of his palm and tearing its way out through Kenny's back.

[You have leveled up]

'Nice.' He thought as he picked up the body, tossing it into his inventory. He did the same with the body of Kenny's partner.

Normally, he wouldn't have sensed them coming but while they suppressed their presence and sound, they didn't do so with their emotions, allowing him to sense them.

'That's one pest taken care of.' He thought as he made his way back to where he had left his horse. As usual, he left a few clones behind to take care of the cleanup.

He was genuinely thankful that his clones couldn't rebel, else they might have done so already with all the odd tasks he had them doing.

-[Later]-

As he rode his horse into the stables of the headquarters within Wall Rose, he was slightly surprised to find Christa seated on the floor, her head leaning on the wall.

'She's asleep.' He noted as he put his horse in its section of the stable before moving to the sleeping girl.

She wasn't heavy so it wasn't hard to pick her up and move into the building, making his way to the female wing. 'How do you even sleep in that place?' He couldn't help but wonder as he got to one of the rooms, managing to knock without letting her fall.

He almost smirked as Ymir quickly opened the door, her lips twisting into a deep frown as she saw him holding Christa.

"What did you do to her?" The girl questioned rudely.

"Nothing. I'm simply returning her to her room. I found her at the stables." He said in a manner that seemed to annoy Ymir.

He reached forward with [Emotion Manipulation], raising her anger and jealousy. She looked like she was about to say something before closing her mouth and taking Christa from his arms.

Without a word, she kicked the door shut but not before shooting him a sneer. He was genuinely amused. It seemed like she noticed his interactions with the blonde girl and clearly wasn't happy with it.

The jealousy and anger was already within her, he only made it more prominent. 'Making her even more angry will lead her to irrational decisions which will work perfectly for me.' He thought as he made his way back to his own room.