Inside the house, young Grisha and his little sister were preparing to go outside.
"Hurry up, Fay! Or we'll miss seeing it!"
"Wait for me!"
Just then, a middle-aged woman stepped out of the house. In contrast to Grisha and Fay's excitement about going out, her face was filled with anxiety and sternness.
"Wait, you two. Didn't Mother tell you not to go out without wearing your armbands?"
Specifically, looking at Grisha, she added a reminder.
"You too, don't leave the Wall, understood?"
"Yes, we're going now."
Although Grisha didn't like listening to his mother nag every time he went outside, the boy didn't dare to argue. He could only nod obediently and leave with Fay. He had no idea that he would forever regret not listening to his mother that day.
In the clean streets, a boy wearing a cloth cap and a little girl walked side by side. In this Internment Zone, everyone wore an armband with a nine-pointed star on it.
They looked up at the huge object moving across the sky, watching with wide eyes. Both siblings had always loved watching the hot air balloon.
"Wow... how does that thing fly?"
"It's filled with hydrogen gas, which is why it flies up. I heard the propellers are run by batteries."
Here, knowledge that would sound profound to people inside the Walls was merely commonplace information known to most children and teenagers. This immediately demonstrated the huge civilizational gap between the two sides.
"Who is inside there, big brother?"
"Someone rich, of course."
The two siblings continued running after the hot air balloon until they reached the end of the Internment Zone. Separating the two areas was a five-meter-high wall, with a gate in the middle of the road.
Watching the hot air balloon disappear behind the wall, Fay naively spoke.
"That must be amazing. I wonder if we'll get to ride a balloon like that when we're rich..."
"What are you saying? We are Eldians. We can never get rich."
"Yeah... but I still want to know what the view from up there looks like."
Hearing his sister sigh, Grisha froze. Then, a determined look appeared in his eyes.
"Let's go, Fay!"
"Huh?"
Before Fay could react, he grabbed her hand and pulled the little girl toward the gate.
"To see it, what else? My teacher said the balloon's landing field is nearby."
"But... but Mother said we shouldn't leave the wall..."
"It's okay, we'll only be gone for a few minutes."
Running past the gate despite the guard's deterrence, the two Eldian children stepped outside the Internment Zone for the first time, entering the outside neighborhood. Here, there were also many people dressed politely walking on the streets, but none of them wore the armband with the nine-pointed star like Grisha and Fay.
The atmosphere here was completely different from the Internment Zone, at least for the two children.
Because they were Eldians.
"Get out of the way, you vermin!"
A man who bumped into Grisha cursed, even though he clearly wasn't paying attention to where he was going. This showed the attitude of these outsiders toward the Eldians.
The people walking around, though not reacting as directly as that man, still looked at the Yeager siblings with eyes as if looking at something filthy, calling them "mud-blood" who shouldn't be wandering here.
"Grisha, I'm scared."
"It's okay. We're used to it, aren't we?"
The discrimination had existed ever since they were born.
Although Grisha's parents constantly lectured him about the sins their ancestors committed thousands of years ago, a part deep inside him could never understand why the Eldians had to endure this injustice.
Like Fay, his sister. She was so innocent, so lovely, and gentle. Did she deserve to be called "vermin" just because of her Eldian blood?
Thinking this, Grisha only dared to keep it to himself. If he spoke out, his parents would scold him again.
Running to the end of the road, they both crossed an embankment. On the other side of the embankment was the hangar for the hot air balloon. As they climbed up, the balloon was already halfway inside the hangar.
"It's huge!"
Fay's eyes lit up. It was the first time she had seen a hot air balloon up close.
Seeing his sister like this, Grisha unconsciously smiled.
A truly beautiful scene, but as mentioned before, this was not paradise; this was hell.
This story is destined to end in tragedy. What was I hoping for? A source of light comforting oppressed fates only serves to illustrate the suffering even more clearly.
"Coming to see the hot air balloon?"
Distracted by the view, Grisha and Fay didn't notice two people in military uniforms sprawled on the grass near the embankment. Both children looked panicked. Fay immediately hid behind her brother.
"Y-yes, sir!"
"You two are from the Liberio Internment Zone, aren't you? Show me your travel passes."
Of the two men, the tall, thin man with dark hair and a slightly gaunt face spoke first. The other uniformed man looked a bit overweight and was puffing on a cigarette.
Grisha fumbled through his pockets, but Fay stood motionless to the side. In the end, he couldn't pull anything out.
"I... I don't have one, sir..."
"So, you two entered illegally?"
"... Yes, sir."
"You know what that means, right?"
"Yes, sir..."
"What do you want now? Punishment or community service?"
"Punishment, sir."
Hearing the word "punishment," Fay panicked and pulled Grisha's sleeve. But he was too preoccupied to pay attention to his sister.
"Hmph... you don't want to cause trouble for your parents, do you?"
"Yes, sir... I... I brought my sister here, so please punish me for her share as well, sir."
"Fine."
As soon as he finished speaking, the tall, thin man grabbed Grisha's collar with both hands, followed by a powerful thrust with his knee directly into the boy's stomach.
"Grisha!"
Fay screamed in panic. Grisha was disoriented, his whole body was in agony, his ears ringing, and he couldn't breathe because his lungs were compressed. The tall, thin man ignored the groaning Grisha, speaking only with cold indifference.
"One more blow."
It seemed that a child couldn't make the tall, thin man show even a moment of leniency. Seeing this, the other uniformed man sighed, tossing away his cigarette.
"I can't believe it... you're too cruel, Kruger."
"Come on, little girl. Let me take you home."
With that, the man led the still-sobbing Fay away. Meanwhile, the one called Kruger kept his word, giving Grisha another blow exactly like the first.
Phok!
He fell onto the grass on the embankment, curled up like a shrimp in pain. It felt as if his internal organs were about to escape through his mouth. Kruger sat back down and lit a cigarette.
It took a while before Grisha could sit up.
"You're smart for still wearing that armband. Any Eldian who dares to remove it while in Marleyan territory will be sent straight to Paradise Island. Even if it's just a child."
"I... I'm going home, sir."
"Wait."
Kruger unexpectedly called Grisha back, surprising him.
"You came here to see the hot air balloon, didn't you? Since you went to all this trouble and took a beating, just sit here and look at it for a while."
And so, the boy sat there all afternoon. Only when he returned home that evening, Fay had not yet returned.
The next day, her body was found by the riverbank.
Grisha stood frozen in place. In front of him was Fay's tattered, blood-soaked, and incomplete corpse. She had various bite marks on her body, which caused excessive bleeding that led to her death.
"As I explained before, I only escorted her to the border of Liberio. That's it. I had a lot of business to attend to."
"From the start, it was her fault, too. An Eldian brat shouldn't be wandering in a Marleyan neighborhood without a travel pass."
"It seems your son hasn't understood the place of your race. You are still teaching him about the sins your ancestors committed, correct? If that's not enough, then chain him up."
Grisha hadn't said a word since Fay's body was found. He looked at the uniformed man who had escorted his sister home that day. He watched the man ramble on about everything. He watched his mother sinking in agony, tears streaming down her cheeks, but not daring to cry out even a little. He watched his father still smiling gently, sucking up to the uniformed man.
"Thank you very much for your guidance, sir. Please rest assured, as I will certainly discipline my stupid son properly."
Grisha's eyes stared deeply, hollow and soulless. This scene had killed his innocence. In the depths of his heart, an extreme hatred surged, making him feel dizzy.
For the first time, Grisha knew what hatred was.