Pieck had seen this coming for a long time.
She knew Roger far too well.
It was just like back when the warrior candidates used to spar with each other.
Whenever Roger's grades, for whatever reason, dropped down to the passing line, and he just so happened to draw an opponent who, judging by grades, should have completely crushed him…
He would always do the same thing.
He would throw away the weapon in his hand—the wooden training rifle they used back then.
He'd toss it to the ground.
At that point, the referee and all the onlookers who didn't know better would assume he had already surrendered.
But right at that moment, he would take his opponent down in a single move, shocking everyone present.
Pieck remembered it perfectly. There wasn't a single person who didn't say Roger was faking it, that he obviously had the strength but still kept pretending to be dead weight.
Roger, however, didn't care about any of that.
Pieck knew very well what lay behind it.
It was simply because Roger knew that after every combat drill, the top warrior candidates would be taken away by the military as a "reward" and sent to fight in real wars against other nations.
With battlefield experience under their belt ahead of time, they would naturally earn extra points when it came time to select the next Warrior inheritors.
In Pieck's memory, every single warrior candidate ended up taking part in the war. Even if they were only supposed to be close-range "observers" of the battlefield, the Marleyan military still made them kill.
They called it a trial by blood: everyone had to kill at least one person.
They agonized over it for a long time, but in the end they all gave in and killed the person assigned to them by the military.
Porco, whose resolve was strong, had been ordered to kill an enemy prisoner, and he did it—cleanly and without hesitation.
Reiner was supposed to do the same, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to strike.
But the military's orders were absolute: if you could do it, you stayed. If you couldn't, you were thrown out.
So in the end, Reiner killed the enemy he had been assigned.
Pieck remembered that day clearly. The enemy's final scream, just before death, had been a woman's voice.
"The nation of Sicot is too small, so everyone has to serve. That woman was forced onto the battlefield too."
That was how Marcel had explained it to Pieck.
Pieck could still remember the despair of that female soldier.
But at least, they weren't completely crushed by guilt.
Because the woman had been a sniper, and on the battlefield she had killed more than a few of their own with her rifle.
Because of that hatred, when they took revenge, they didn't blame themselves quite as much.
Even so, each of them had killed. Each of them was drenched in blood.
Roger alone looked down on all of it.
Because to him, it was nothing but trouble.
So he never wanted to go and "observe" the war.
That was why he always kept his grades hovering right at the pass line.
Some thought he was a coward, some thought he was afraid of death. He never said a word in his own defense.
Only Pieck knew the real reason.
Because he believed that everyone in the warrior candidate training camp, everyone in Marley, everyone in the whole world, was insane.
They were all demons who could kill without blinking.
Broadly speaking, humanity itself had both good people and bad people.
The bad were rotten to the core; the good were pure to a fault.
People often stood right in front of Roger, commenting on whether someone was good or bad.
Roger always acted as if none of it concerned him, simply watching with indifference.
In Pieck's eyes, Roger was an absolute egoist.
He would never allow anyone to bully him, and he would never easily trust anyone enough to give them his help.
Sometimes he seemed like an angel, and sometimes like a demon.
But in truth, all those labels were just things other people stuck on him.
Roger didn't care in the slightest.
Just like the Roger standing before her now.
Pieck, in the form of the Cart Titan, stared at the Armored Jaw Titan before her, watching as he destroyed the bunker mounted on her back.
At the same time, she sank the Cart Titan's not-so-sharp teeth hard into the Armored Jaw Titan's thigh!
"Hurry up and go!!"
She was shouting, trying to save the comrades inside the bunker; her voice left her mouth as words and emerged as the Cart Titan's low, mournful howl.
Inside the shattered bunker, a bespectacled soldier took off the steel helmet on his head and held his girlfriend's photo in both hands.
The lenses of his glasses were already shattered; he could barely see the picture at all, yet he kept rubbing the dust from its surface.
"Miss Pieck is buying us time, Beick! We have to go!"
"I can't," the bespectacled man, Beick, said with a faint smile, his teeth slick with blood from his ruptured organs. "I'm counting on you. After I die, please help Mara start over with someone new. Tell her I really, really am sorry."
"What stupid crap are you talking about?! Move! You're coming with me!!"
His comrade rushed over, dragging Beick, whose torn-open insides had already sentenced him to death.
They hurried down from the bunker.
But Pieck could no longer hold out.
"Rooaar!!"
The Armored Jaw Titan let out an enraged roar.
To Beick and the others, he looked like a demon that had descended into the world.
But to the nearby refugees from Paradis Island, he was a savior—their one and only god.
Facing his old friend, Roger didn't show the slightest mercy.
He twisted the Cart Titan's neck until it snapped, tore it clean through and flung it aside, then reached into the nape and pulled Pieck out.
A frail body lay in his palm. Pieck panted for breath, eyes wide open as she stared up at Roger's Titan.
"Are you going to eat me, Roger?"
She tried her best to steady her racing heart.
Lying in Roger's palm, she forced herself not to show even a hint of pleading in her eyes.
"Go on, Roger. Eat me and set me free—just like you said you would when we were little."
Pieck spoke,
and in that instant, both she and Roger were thrown back into their memories.
Back when they were still running around naked, kneading sand in the little sandbox at the park.
They were neighbors then, so they often played together.
Pieck really liked Roger and desperately wanted to be his bride, so she went to find him, took his hand, and stuffed a piece of candy into it.
"Hey, Roger, do you like me?"
"What does 'like' mean?"
"It means two people hold hands, kiss, get married, and have kids."
"I don't get it. Grandma says it's best not to mess with things you don't understand."
"How is it trouble?!" Little Pieck laughed. "Hey, Roger, don't you think I'm really cute?"
"Very cute. Little Pieck always puts the tiny animals in the sand back home, while everyone else steps on them."
"Well, yeah. Because they're really pitiful."
"Mm."
"Don't just 'mm' me. Let's pinky-swear."
"Swear to what?"
"Hmm… that you'll marry me when you grow up and make me your bride."
"Then I won't."
"Why not?" Little Pieck panicked, staring anxiously at Roger.
Roger was silent for a long time.
"I'm scared I'll end up eating you."
"What?"
"Grandma says that because the Middle Eastern regions are exhausted from fighting Marley, a lot of people there are displaced and can't get enough to eat.
Some husbands even eat their own wives to resist Marley.
I…
I…"
"I don't want to eat you, Pieck."
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.