"Anything?"
"Y-yes?"
"I'm asking if you are prepared to eliminate anything if it poses a risk, or even just the potential for instability?"
"Yes..."
"Even the Survey Corps?"
The Military Police soldier hesitated a moment, then nodded.
"Good, I know enough."
Asahi suppressed the anger in his heart and calmly asked the man one last question.
"What is Reiss?"
"I... I don't know who Reiss is..."
"I'm not just asking about people, but everything related to that word."
To enhance the threat, he gripped the barrel of the musket, twisting it from the end of the tube into a round shape, as if crumpling a piece of paper. The Military Police soldier's eyes widened, sweat poured down like rain, and he continuously swallowed.
"I doubt your bones are as tough as steel, are they? Bones are fragile; they'll shatter if twisted, you know."
Asahi spoke casually, but that demeanor further amplified the horror of the scene before them. An entire musket, about a meter long, was twisted into a ball and tossed onto the ground in front of the Military Police soldier.
Unable to withstand the distortion, a part of the gun burst open. The soldier nearly soiled himself.
He had witnessed and personally carried out many forms of torture. Pulling out fingers and toes, cutting off fingers, flaying skin, gouging eyes, burning skin... but he had never seen a type of "torture" that involved twisting a body into fragments.
The person before him... was truly a demon.
"Huh? Don't look at me like that. Don't you all enjoy torturing people?"
"No... no! I don't... I'll talk!"
"Reiss... Reiss is just a small noble family in the... the north."
"Is that so? Specific location."
"North of Wall Maria, near the Orvud District of Wall Rose."
"Specific location. Don't make me repeat myself."
"I... I don't know... please..."
Asahi struck the soldier once on the back of the neck, causing him to lose consciousness.
He stood silent for a second, then went to wake up a few other Military Police soldiers to begin interrogation. They all answered relatively the same way. It seemed they weren't lying, or perhaps they fundamentally didn't know the truth. And the exact location of the Reiss noble lineage was also unknown.
However, he did elicit one crucial piece of information. Although the Reiss family appeared to be a minor noble house on the surface, they had close ties to other major nobles, and even to the reigning King Fritz inside Wall Sina.
Finished with the interrogation, Asahi knocked them all out again. He then tied them up, intentionally leaving the bindings loose enough for them to escape in a few days, ensuring they wouldn't die of starvation or thirst.
If they couldn't escape, they'd have to pray for luck.
He leaped down from the Wall without a sound. Grisha, the Reiss family—he didn't know them. But he now knew who he should pry information from.
The nobles.
As for the Survey Corps... Asahi had originally intended to ask them for help with the investigation. But after learning how extremist and cruel the government was, he abandoned that idea. Doing so would be no different than getting the entire Survey Corps killed.
Asahi sped off like a highway beast in the night. Fortunately, there was a lot of open land, so he barely needed to slow down, blazing across all terrains.
He showed no regard for the 50-meter Wall, directly scaling the sheer surface. He didn't bother with the Garrison soldiers dozing off on night watch. He successfully entered Wall Rose.
Only by entering Wall Rose would he find the "major nobles" who possessed the information he needed.
Once inside, Asahi slowed down, walking and searching. It wasn't long before he spotted his target.
It was a vast and wealthy estate. At this hour, the noble owner of the manor had not yet gone to sleep and was playing "push and pull" with a maid. Truly the pleasure of the rich.
The manor also had guards stationed around it, but the security was extremely lax. To him, it was like a ghost town.
Asahi went straight into the noble's bedroom. With one hand, he chopped the maid who was bent over unconscious, and with the other, he lifted the noble's naked body as if carrying a chicken.
The man tried to scream, but immediately realized his windpipe was tightly squeezed, allowing only a few choked noises. Feeling the grip like a vise tightening further and further, he finally became terrified.
"Wha... what do you want?"
"Isn't that better?"
Asahi let the noble down. The man frantically gasped for air, simultaneously raising his head to look at him.
Seeing his ghostly figure, completely blacked out by shadows, the noble couldn't help but tremble.
"If you scream once, you die."
He raised his hand and easily embedded his five fingers into the brick wall. The implication was clear: his fingers could punch through the wall, and they could also pierce the man's skull or any part of his body.
A profound mixture of indignation and humiliation surged within the noble. He had never been threatened so blatantly, but under the crushing reality, he could not help but bow his head.
"What do you want? Money? Alcohol? Women? Or..."
"Where is the Reiss family?"
The noble looked stunned by his question. Then he violently shook his head, saying he fundamentally didn't know of any family named Reiss.
Asahi had already anticipated this. Making them talk was very simple.
The nobles inside the Wall lived in luxury and comfort, having experienced no upheaval, and thus had no training. Interrogating this type was even easier than the Military Police.
Asahi gouged out a section of the wall, crushing it into dust right in front of the noble, causing the man to tremble. Feeling it wasn't enough, he grabbed the noble's hair, making the man feel as though his scalp was being separated.
"Pain! Pain! Stop... stop! I'll tell you."
"Wouldn't it have been better to do that from the start?"
…
Time passed, the night was nearly over, and dawn was about to break.
Grisha Yeager sat tiredly leaning against a tree trunk. He pulled out his water bottle, drinking the last drops. He gained a little strength.
Yesterday, Grisha had heard the news that Shiganshina District had been sealed again, and the Titans inside had been wiped out. This shocking piece of news, like a bomb, shook his resolve. But Grisha quickly reinforced his determination.
Without retrieving "that thing," the Wall being breached again was only a matter of time. And the thing that would destroy it was likely no longer the Titans, but something infinitely more terrifying.
Comforting himself once more, Grisha stood up and slowly walked along the forest path.
Just as Asahi had predicted, Grisha couldn't find many carriages willing to carry people during this time, so he had to walk for most of the journey.
And finally, he arrived here. A small church-like structure was situated in a clearing in the woods.
This was the Reiss family chapel.
"Just... a little more."
Grisha muttered, opening the door and stepping inside. It was empty inside, with only one door tucked away in the left corner.