Annie had never hated a place as much as this, but Paradis Island truly was the place she despised most in her life.
There were far too many bad memories here.
Like Reiner. Like Bertholdt.
Most of all—like Roger Eikam.
They'd been sent to this island believing everyone here was a blood-drinking devil, people who not only treated life as worthless but even exchanged children to eat.
They had imagined such evils more than once. But after living inside the Walls for a while, she discovered that whatever "devilish acts" existed among wall-dwellers weren't ordinary habits at all; they happened after the breach, when they brought Titans into the Walls and catastrophe followed.
Back then, she'd heard things from people waiting in refugee sheds for ladled soup and bread.
After Wall Maria was breached by the Armored Titan, the four outlying districts attached to it—aside from Shiganshina District, the other three—though their walls remained intact, lost connection to the interior and couldn't sustain themselves. Massive famine followed, and in the end they were forced to open their gates; the Titans then devoured those who were already freezing and starving.
Some people slipped past the Titans and fled into the interior when the gates opened.
He became a legend.
While everyone in the camps clutched a tiny piece of bread and stared hopelessly at the sky, his legendary escape became endless "material" for him to trade on.
He rode what he knew and turned himself into a "special" figure among refugees; those with a little literacy turned the tale into "storytelling."
People—refugees and certain officials alike, especially those from the interior—were insatiably curious about his experience and paid good money to listen closely and with relish as he recounted it.
Tell it well, and he'd be rewarded.
Tell it poorly, and it hardly mattered.
At his tragic accounts, people would sigh, overlook the likely false details, and focus on the story itself.
Humans being eaten by Titans—this was a wound they'd all known firsthand; so long as he could speak of it, it was the living blood-and-tears of humanity.
It was then that Annie first heard about "exchanging children to eat" inside the Walls.
But that hardly counted as cruelty.
When a person is starving, they want to eat— even their own child.
But with that last scrap of ethics, they couldn't bring themselves to take a bite of their own.
So they "exchanged."
Even then, can you really call them cruel?
Annie didn't think so, whatever others might say.
In Marley, she had seen cruelty too—but it was cruelty done by certain undisciplined officers.
They were wanton; if they saw a pretty Eldian woman in the street, they couldn't suppress their arousal. If an Eldian's face displeased them, they didn't hold back—setting dogs on them was the mildest of it; most often, they beat the Eldian to death.
In Marley, being an Eldian woman could be a "fortunate" thing, in a twisted way.
Unlike other nations where rapists preyed on weaker women, Marley's hatred for Eldians was absolute.
If a Marleyan reacted to an Eldian woman's "allure," his peers would mock him mercilessly, and he'd never lift his head again.
To rape an Eldian woman was like raping a pig; every stratum of Marley would hold you in contempt.
But in Marley, Marleyans were still the privileged.
Once a Marleyan child was born and raised— even if the blood was mixed with Eldian—who could tell?
And so a dismal spectacle took root in Marley.
To escape the internment zone and live in comfort, some Eldian women took desperate risks.
They found Marleyans connected to the sex trade to forge temporary Marleyan papers, entered the sex industry, seduced Marleyans—especially the wealthy and powerful—and got pregnant with their children.
Because they looked pure—and were virgins—Marleyans sometimes let their animal natures run wild, never looking too closely at a woman's identity.
After a single night of wind and rain, they left their genes behind.
And once a child was truly conceived, it couldn't simply be thrown away; even under ridicule, the man had to see it through and raise the child.
Some Marleyans did fall in love with Eldian women, but most, on learning their partner was Eldian, recoiled like from a viper, cutting ties at once.
Annie remembered that Reiner's mother had done something like this.
Young still, she didn't want a future of darkness; for her child's future as well, she abandoned the Eldian man she loved within the zone and went outside instead, found a lust-ridden, foolish Marleyan butcher—a literal pig-slaughterer—surrendered her virginity and her womb, and succeeded in conceiving his child.
She never imagined the bastard would deny it.
She'd been too naïve, made everything too simple.
In the end she was shipped back to the internment zone and confined there for life, never to step beyond it.
Fortunately, the Eldian man she'd cast aside didn't abandon her. He took care of her and helped raise her child—but in the end, he couldn't change her heart.
"Marley"—the status she'd dreamed of—was a poison, luring her on. She kept yearning to get out, ready to offer up everything, even her chastity.
So she returned to the sex trade.
On the fat, liquor-reeking bodies of Marleyan grandees, she displayed her grace to the full,
letting them do as they pleased.
But in the end, there was no faithful Marleyan to fancy her, choose her, and care for her all her life despite her Eldian blood.
She was still Eldian.
And because she was Eldian, her child was Eldian.
As her looks faded, the brothels rejected her.
She watched the new Eldian girls—fair-skinned, beautiful, even more dazzling than she had been—and could only sigh, then labor through a lifetime to bring Reiner up, pinning her hopes on him inheriting a Titan power and becoming an Honorary Marleyan.
Then they could have revenge.
Then they could hold their heads high.
But…
"Dead, huh."
The ring's little hook scraped her finger open. Annie followed right behind Pieck, leaping straight out of the airship.
As if—
she were hurling herself into the sea to die.
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