"Now, tell me everything you know. Don't try to lie, I can tell."
He sat comfortably, chin resting on his hand, watching the Reiss family arguing amongst themselves. The Reiss family, or the true Fritz Royal Family here, consisted of only seven people: the eldest man Rod Reiss, the eldest son Ulklin, Dirk (14), Abel (12), Florian (10), Frieda, and Rod's wife.
Rod's wife and the children did not argue, simply going with the flow. The eldest son only dared to interject a few words before falling silent again. The main argument was between Frieda and Rod.
Frieda, having escaped the will of the 145th King, how could she want to continue maintaining the status quo? She was a girl, a human being; no human would want to be a puppet and then be eaten by their successor after their "term" ended, right?
Rod Reiss, on the other hand, stubbornly insisted on calling the security forces, then coordinating to kill Asahi. He even thought cooperating with Grisha was not impossible. His thoughts were so ridiculous that Asahi felt bored.
Rod Reiss seemed to have been the puppet master for too long and forgot where he was. Here, the black curtain did not exist, the puppets did not exist, and the dramas did not exist. There was only him, confronting them directly.
"Time's up."
His voice made the entire Reiss family jump. His cold gaze swept over them. Asahi stood up, his tall figure descending like a mountain, putting pressure on everyone around him, making it hard to breathe.
Rod saw his gaze sweep past him and instinctively clamped his mouth shut, no longer arguing with Frieda. She let out a sigh of relief, realizing that the person in front of her was not that scary after all. She cleared her throat.
"Please ask me, sir. I will answer everything I can."
Frieda placed her hand on her chest, looking sincerely at Asahi. Although they carried the title of royalty, apart from Rod Reiss, who was the center of political power control, they and she lived lives no different from ordinary people.
"Good. First, explain the Reiss family itself."
"We are the true Royal Family. After building the Walls, the 145th King erased all prior memories—of the Eldian Empire, of our ancestors' sins. So that all the people here could live ignorantly and happily."
"Erase memories? The Founding Titan can do that?"
Asahi was surprised. Being able to affect the memories of others meant being able to affect the subconscious, the deepest part of the mind. His current will could barely interfere that deeply.
In Grisha's notebook, he had recorded the hypothesis and research from Kruger's mouth: all Eldian people were connected at a certain place, a "Coordinate," and that thing was the Founding Titan.
It seemed that assessment was not far off.
And just as Frieda revealed that the Founding Titan could interfere with memories, Rod's face behind her turned ashen. He temporarily shed the fear stemming from Asahi's threatening gaze, pointed at Frieda, and scolded her.
"You... you inherited the Founding Titan and you're telling this outsider! Where is your mission to the Royal Family?! Frieda, we have maintained—"
"We didn't maintain it! It was the 145th King who maintained it! Didn't you notice all the strange things before, Father? Why did Grandpa, Uncle, and I all act strangely, like becoming different people after inheriting the Founding Titan? Because it fundamentally wasn't us!"
Rod Reiss froze, a look of agony passing over his eyes. How could he not know?
Starting from when his father, or Frieda's grandfather, inherited the Founding Titan. Despite how much he and his brother Uri begged him to free the Eldian people within the Walls from their fear of the Titans, his father ignored them, not even listening to their explanations.
From that moment, Rod suspected that upon inheriting the Founding Titan, he would no longer be himself. So, he hesitated, pushing the inheritance duty onto his younger brother, Uri Reiss.
Uri, unaware, was overjoyed when he accepted the mission. He firmly assured Rod that he would destroy all Titans, so that everyone would no longer live in fear.
But the very moment Rod pulled Uri out of the Titan's body, he looked into his brother's eyes. And he saw a strange look, something from the father who had just been eaten, and a small part of Uri. He knew then that his earlier assessment was correct.
Those who inherited the Founding Titan were not only bound by the "Vow to Renounce War" but their ideology and thoughts were also replaced by the 145th King.
They still had their own will, but it was like being imprisoned in a cage. They could only watch everything unfold but could not interfere with the subsequent decisions.
Rod Reiss also gave up the intention to resist, because the will of the 145th King was inviolable. He continued to run the government from the shadows, then had his eldest daughter inherit the Founding Titan from her uncle.
Until, that outsider appeared...
"Seeing Frieda's expression, she must have escaped the influence of the 145th King, but how is that possible?"
He couldn't believe that a human's will could directly resist the Founding Titan. Otherwise, there would have been changes in previous generations of inheritors.
In reality, Asahi was not Eldian, so he was not suppressed by the bloodline. However, his actions still terrified Rod. The Founding Titan, in his mind, was God, yet God was defeated by a mortal.
Frieda saw that her father was no longer speaking. She continued to explain to Asahi about the Founding Titan and the Vow to Renounce War.
The Vow to Renounce War was the thing King Fritz imposed to forbid his descendants from using Titan power for war. This only affected the Fritz Royal Family, or more accurately, the current Reiss family.
"What if someone outside the Royal Family but still an Eldian inherits the Founding Titan?"
"Except for the Royal Family, other Eldians cannot utilize the Founder's power."
With that, Frieda looked at Grisha. It was as if she was mocking his past actions as futile. Even if Grisha obtained the Founding Titan, it would be useless.
He merely adjusted his glasses, showing little expression despite Frieda's mocking gaze.
With Asahi separating them, she didn't dare to show much. But her dislike for Grisha in her heart had not diminished. He had his own suffering, but didn't she have hers too?
Above all, it was hard for anyone to sympathize with the person who intended to eat them and kill their entire family, regardless of the reason.
Regarding the conflict between the two sides, Asahi temporarily had no solution, as long as it didn't cross the line.
The essential thing now was to understand the situation as much as possible to see if a reasonable countermeasure could be developed.
"Well, well, look what we have here."
Suddenly, a low, gravelly voice echoed from the entrance of the illuminated cave. Standing there was a man wearing a fedora hat, his mouth smirking but his eyes sharp as knives. Behind him were more than ten others. They were all wearing military uniforms, specifically the Military Police.