"Why... did you do all of this?"
The fat officer paused for a moment as if contemplating. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, blew out the smoke, and said.
"Because it's fun? Watching humans being eaten by Titans is a kind of pleasure. Of course, I understand that some people would rather never watch that sight."
"But everyone wants to witness a spectacle of brutality. It's been a long time since we escaped from the domination of you Eldians. Things have been going great, but I still feel like something is missing. You could call it... the feeling of being alive? I haven't felt that since the war ended."
"I don't know how many people feel today might be their last day—a feeling that should always exist within the instinct of every living creature. That sounds strange in a peaceful society, right? But I think it's true."
"I always accept death, because it's inevitable. Just like your sister. Who would have thought she would die that day? And you know, my sons learned a lot when I had the dogs tear at your sister. Thanks to that, they became excellent young men..."
"Doesn't your heart hurt?! Or do you not even have a heart?!!"
Grisha roared. He fundamentally couldn't listen to any more of this vile old man's sophistry.
"I know what you're trying to say. Of course, I have a heart. My heart clenches whenever I think about someone having dogs tear at my own children..."
"Fay... all she wanted was to see the hot air balloon and ride it once. Was that wrong?"
"No, your sister was not wrong. If only she weren't an Eldian."
Saying that, the fat officer plunged the syringe into the prisoner in front of him and kicked him down. To Grisha's bewildered expression, the man transformed into a four-meter-tall Titan.
"Look closely, this is what you are."
"You Eldians turn into giant man-eating monsters with just a little bit of Titan spinal fluid. And you think you can be human, equal to us?"
"The Subjects of Ymir from the ancient Eldian Empire are the only ones capable of this. It's nothing short of a nightmare to let you breed, but we still spared you out of humanity. Yet, rats like your Restoration Society still scheme to restore Eldia of old. To return to the time when Eldia massacred other races. Doesn't your heart hurt?"
"Do you understand? The common wish of all humanity is for all descendants of Eldia to be wiped off the face of this world."
Grisha shook his head, struggling continuously. Lies. Everything this officer said was a lie. His Eldian ancestors were the pioneers who developed and brought prosperity to the continent. Marley was just distorting history.
The fat officer ignored Grisha's agitation. Now, he only wanted to push Grisha down to watch him get eaten. The two wrestled relentlessly. Suddenly, the tall, thin officer, Kruger, who had been silent all this time, abruptly acted. He shoved the pot-bellied officer down onto the sand dune, right near the feet of the four-meter-tall Titan.
The fat man's horrifying screams echoed as his face was torn apart by the Titan's toothy mouth. Grisha witnessed this scene, speechless. Before he could regain his composure, Kruger took off his military cap and threw it away.
"What do you think? Was that fun to watch?"
"You... you are..."
"I am The Owl."
"Focus, Grisha. This is how to use the Titan power."
Kruger pulled out a knife and cut his palm. Like a chain reaction exploding, a giant spine appeared, supporting Kruger. From the spine, bone structure grew, followed by flesh covering it. A giant Titan body stepped onto the concrete platform, moving toward the port.
Grisha witnessed it with his own eyes: Kruger's Titan massacred the Marleyan soldiers by stomping, crushing, and thrashing them with immense ease. The soldiers fought back in vain before being reduced to pulp. After the massacre at the port, Kruger's Titan even broke the ship that carried them here, sinking the two pieces of wreckage into the sea.
Bodies, wreckage, and all traces of the Marleyan military on the island were completely swallowed by the sea. Perhaps the only things remaining were this old port, along with the bloodstains that soaked into the concrete, which could not be washed away.
Done with everything, Kruger returned to Grisha, who was still bewildered by everything that had just happened before his eyes. This day had been overwhelming enough for him: his son's betrayal, brutal torture, his wife and comrades turned into monsters. And then suddenly, a Marleyan officer revealed himself to be "The Owl" and killed everyone but him.
The feeling inside Grisha's head now wasn't luck at having survived, only chaotic confusion reigned.
Kruger cut the ropes binding him. After transforming into a Titan, he seemed greatly weakened. Long dark circles stretched from around his eyes down to his cheeks and sideburns, blood was leaking from his nose and mouth, and his face was pale and lifeless.
He was already accustomed to these signs, simply wiping the blood from his face with a cloth.
"So... do you have anything you want to ask me?"
"I don't even know... where to begin..."
"I apologize, but I don't have much time left."
Kruger was just his surname. His real name was Eren Kruger. "The Owl," possessing the power of one of the nine Titans, was an Eldian Subject of Ymir, just like Grisha.
He managed to infiltrate the Marleyan government system by faking a blood test, a forgery done by an Eldian doctor who had faked his own blood test to become a Marleyan.
"I have to admit, you did very well."
"Leading the Restoration Movement from a very young age, having a child with Dina Fritz, even the plan for Zeke to become a Marleyan soldier was highly feasible with my support from the inside."
"But in the end..."
Grisha mumbled. He was a bad father, a bad husband, and a bad man. So why was he the only one left standing here?
"Dina, she has royal blood, and was skilled in using the Titan power. If you hadn't concealed that information, perhaps she wouldn't have turned into a monster!!!"
"And for what? To be turned into a breeding machine for the Marleyan government until her life ended?"
"Then why didn't you save us sooner?! Now everything is... over. What's the point of saving me?"
Cough! Cough!
Kruger covered his mouth, coughing up blood. His whole body trembled, and he slumped down. Grisha was startled and moved to help him, but Kruger held up a hand to stop him.
"You've been pale for a while now. What's wrong?"
"It's not... just you. I have cut off... the fingers of thousands of compatriots, sometimes even flayed their skin. Brought them here, turned them into Titans, including women and children."
"I believed... that all of this was to serve Eldia."
"Enough. You don't need to say anything more. Let me examine your wound."
"No need. I know my condition. There's not much time left. Grisha, I entrust you with the final mission, only you, no one else."
That mission was to infiltrate the Walls and acquire the power of the Founding Titan. To do that, Grisha would inherit Kruger's Titan power by transforming into a mindless Titan and eating him.
Grisha didn't answer right away; more accurately, he didn't know how to answer. Kruger knew this and gave him time to think.
In this place, only two men remained, burdened with heavy thoughts.
"That day, when we first met. If I hadn't called you back, you might have saved your sister."
"I'd rather think I would have died with her."
Grisha mocked himself. Kruger paused for a moment, then continued his narration.
"But if that day hadn't happened, you wouldn't hate Marley this much."
"Is that why you chose me?"
"Partially, yes."
He recounted that he, too, had experienced the pain of losing loved ones to the Marleyan government. A few decades ago, there was an uprising, and his father participated. The uprising failed, and the entire Kruger family was burned alive. He was just a child then, desperately hiding behind a wardrobe and witnessing the entire tragedy through the slight gap in the door.
The look in his eyes then contained a fire of hatred that could burn down the whole world.
"My father's friend rescued me from the burning house. From that day on, I swore to destroy Marley and restore Eldia."
"But in the process, I had to kill or turn the compatriots I swore to protect into Titans. Thanks to that dedication, my identity has not been revealed until today."
"Then... why don't you do it yourself? The mission to retrieve the Founding Titan?"
Kruger shook his head, saying his time was almost up.
Possessing the Titan power came with a price. All inheritors would die thirteen years after acquiring the ability from their predecessor, and thirteen years ago, Kruger had inherited it.
The reason he only revealed this now was that if this information were disclosed, Grisha would surely hesitate to carry out the plan to have Zeke and the Marleyan army inherit a Titan, or to have Dina inherit the Founding Titan.
"We call this the Curse of Ymir. Legend says that ancestor Ymir died thirteen years after receiving the Titan power. No one can be greater than Ymir, so as that time approaches, the body weakens."
"And if you die without passing on the power to anyone, the Titan power you hold will appear in a child who is a Subject of Ymir, regardless of distance or blood relation."
According to Kruger, all the Subjects of Ymir were connected at a "coordinate," and the center of that coordinate was the Founding Titan. But that raised another issue for Grisha: all descendants being connected... this was fundamentally unscientific.
The Marleyan government had always taught that Ymir borrowed power from a demon and was the embodiment of calamity. Grisha initially thought this was just distortion, but after listening to Kruger, his belief began to waver.
Regarding this, even Kruger himself didn't know.
"Nothing is completely true in this world. Even if it is, it has been distorted by the past."
"Huh? But this..."
"1,700 years of genocide? If that were true, there wouldn't be a single Marleyan hair left in the world. Eldians brought wealth to the continent with Titan power? I don't even know which humans did that."
"Restoring Eldia... frankly, I no longer care about restoring the glorious Eldian Empire. I only want... no Eldian child to suffer the same fate as us."
"But because I wasn't strong enough, I couldn't save everyone; I only saved you. Grisha, now it's your turn to take on the mission."
Hearing this, Grisha hesitated again. Despite opening up to Kruger, for a man who had just experienced so much loss and collapse, this task seemed too heavy.
"Look, the old man who enjoyed feeding my sister to the dogs is now being devoured by a Titan. And you ask if I'm happy? Not at all. I'm only horrified. I... I can't even stand the old man's screams!"
"I lost everything—my sister, my wife, my comrades. And the pain of these severed fingers. If this is the price of freedom... I would rather not do it..."
"I'm sorry, Kruger."
Grisha stared blankly at the ground, his body limp. He had endured enough; so much that he didn't want to take another step.
"Your father... was a smart man. Yes, the one who smiled and spoke cordially with the government even though they wouldn't lift a finger to investigate his daughter's death."
"That was because he didn't want anyone else to die. Even if he had to live humiliated like a dog, he still tried to steer you away from a dead end. But his son not only ignored him but sent his wife and son straight to hell."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Stand up and fight. Swear that you will fight until Eldia recovers its freedom."
"I... I can't..."
"Look, I brought this from your house."
Kruger took out a photograph and held it out next to Grisha. Grisha didn't even dare to look, just trembling and looking down. Because it was his family photo: Dina and Zeke.
A beautiful past confronting an absolutely brutal present is the most painful thing.
"You dare not look, dare not stand up, dare not fight. Have you lost all courage, or have you been corrupted by Marley?"
"It's useless to provoke me. All that's left in me is guilt."
"That's enough."
Kruger raised his voice slightly.
"The main reason I chose you wasn't because you hated Marley more than anyone else. It was because you stepped outside the Wall that day, Grisha."
"If you hadn't left the Wall with your sister that day, you would have inherited the clinic from your father, never met Dina, and Zeke would never have been born. Your sister would have grown into a young woman, perhaps marrying and having children."
"But you stepped outside the Wall."
Grisha and Kruger, both were free people. Freedom sounded so distant in this brutal world that constantly oppressed them. And the price of seeking freedom was the lives of those they loved, paying the price for it.
"From the first day I kicked my compatriots off this platform."
"From the day you and your sister stepped outside the Wall separating the Internment Zone."
"These things will follow us until the day they are compensated for. Even if we die, even after we die."
"Weren't you the one who started this story?"
An image of himself pulling Fay past that gate flashed through his mind. Grisha turned his head, hugging the family photo to his chest.
He had decided. He would pay the price for freedom one more time, for the dead, for the living, and for himself.
Kruger's face relaxed, or perhaps surrendered. He was satisfied with this result.
"All nine Titans have their own names, including the one you are about to inherit from me."
"No matter the era, this Titan has always moved forward, seeking freedom. It has always fought for freedom."
"Its name is... the Attack Titan."