It's said that, in the moments before death, people will instinctively look back on their entire life.
Like a revolving lantern, replaying all the scenes they've ever seen, all the things they've ever been through.
Scene after scene, Annie watched them with tears in her eyes.
She had once been utterly indifferent to anything happening in the outside world. To her, everything was unbearably dull.
Humans, so-called humans, were just lumps of flesh full of blood when you cut them open.
So she remained apathetic.
Even when faced with others' warmth, she would never be deeply moved.
Or rather—she had never been moved at all.
Maybe it was because of her father's influence. When she was little and first came into contact with the new, outside world—
her mother had always been gentle, patiently introducing her to this world full of laughter and song.
Just like Eren's mother.
Bedtime stories were Annie's favorite time of day.
She loved curling up in her mother's arms, listening to those warm, cozy tales.
Back then, Annie's heart had been full of longing. She believed the world was just like the stories.
Beautiful and brimming with happiness.
But…
At some point, her mother suddenly vanished from her world.
She was nowhere to be found.
— Dad, where did Mom go?
— Your mother… went somewhere very far away… She won't be coming back.
— Th-Then… are there egg yolks over there? Mom loves them the most. Every time I didn't want my yolk, she'd eat it for me in one bite.
— Yes… There's lots of food there. Lots and lots. It's very, very happy there. Annie… from now on… you absolutely… mustn't be willful anymore… Do you hear me?
— Okay.
Little Annie nodded obediently.
Then, in the blink of an eye…
Rain began to fall from the sky.
A torrential downpour.
Thunder roared and lightning flashed.
Annie watched this scene.
She didn't remember ever living through such a day.
But the images in front of her kept rolling.
There was her mother.
Cornered in a dead-end alley by several men.
— Run. Come on, run, bitch!
— Fucking Eldian whore!
— And just had to be pretty too. That body… tsk, tsk. Shit, you've got me drooling over here!
— Do it. Let's go, boys.
Shrieks and the sounds of desperate struggle echoed off the walls.
The woman's miserable cries sounded like someone had sliced her lips open with a knife, like an executioner had driven a red-hot iron spike through her fingers.
When her husband realized his wife had been gone too long and still hadn't come home, he took two umbrellas, told Annie to stay put, and went out alone to look for her.
He finally found her body in that dead-end alley.
But it was already too late.
Her pale calves lay in the grimy water, her pretty face smeared with filth, her nose sliced off with a blade.
— AAAAAHHH!!!
From her father's scrawny body came a howl like his heart had been shredded to pieces.
He dug his fingers into the ground, clawing until they bled.
He swore he would find the killers.
In the end…
— Sue Marleyans?
— Are you insane?!
— You'll lose for sure! Forget it!
— "I don't care. I have to try. I'm begging you!! Please!!"
— Sigh… If you're that insistent…
In the courtroom.
— R*pe?
— You lot were so desperate you actually r*ped an Eldian?
— Pff—Hahahahaha!! I'm dying over here!
The courtroom erupted in laughter. Plenty in the gallery, realizing what the case was about, lost interest and began to file out one after another.
— "I'm sorry, Your Honor, but I don't see what's funny about this."
Her father's face was the color of dead ash; he was shaking with rage.
— Ah, sorry, sorry—pff—hahahahahaha…
— Hahahaha!
— HAHAHAHA!!
Court adjourned.
The r*pists had been laughed at through the entire trial.
But they weren't convicted.
Because under "Marleyan Law," the crime of r*pe depended on the victim being a person.
Eldians—
were not people.
They were the descendants of devils.
They were Marley's livestock.
And when livestock get r*ped and slaughtered—
naturally, no one is guilty of anything.
"So… that's why Mother…"
Annie clenched her fists, shaking with fury.
But she had no right to be angry.
She was the one who broke the Wall, who killed thousands of families inside it with her own hands.
She had no right to be angry.
"Why do humans torment each other?"
Annie was deeply confused.
— Fight!!
— Fight!!!
A voice boomed out.
It echoed through Annie's mind.
She saw it.
Eren Yeager.
His mother being devoured by a Titan.
The way she died was no different at all from the way Annie's mother had.
But Annie never knew any of this.
He, on the other hand, was furious.
Fight!!
Fight!!
That steadfast will surged up inside Annie's head.
But just then…
"Fight?"
"Do you really have the resolve for that?"
A familiar voice made Annie freeze.
She turned.
A man stepped into her memories.
His aura was icy cold, the killing intent around him even more intense than hers had ever been.
But she had never possessed his unwavering gaze, never had a goal as firm as his.
She didn't even know why she was alive.
Yet this man, who saw through everything, understood far more than she did.
"Roger."
Seeing him, Annie suddenly felt strangely at ease.
Compared to the cruelty of the world itself, this man's brutality could almost be criticized as "saintly."
Slowly, Roger walked over.
He glanced at Annie's revolving memories, then at Annie herself beside them.
"I want to talk to you too, Eren."
As he spoke, a child in brown clothes stepped out of a dark corner.
A young Eren Yeager? Annie wondered.
"Why not show up to me in your grown-up form?" Roger looked at the boy and asked.
"The me who grows up… is no longer me," Eren replied, though his tone was startlingly mature. "With the Attack Titan's power, I know I'll eventually become a slave to freedom."
He lifted his head, signaling the other two to look behind them.
On the lantern-screen of memories, a series of strange images appeared.
"Using the Attack Titan's power, I tried tens of trillions of different ways, and not one of them truly ended the hatred between us and the world," he said. "So I understood—humans can't let go of their hatred. Day and night, by continuing and deepening the Fritzes' long contemplation, I finally found two ways to break the status quo."
"What two ways?" Annie asked.
Roger looked at him, as if he already knew.
"The first: trigger the Rumbling and trample eighty percent of the people outside the Walls, putting the world and Paradis back on the same starting line. At the same time, have my comrades kill that grotesque Founding parasite and erase the source of the Titan power."
"Eighty percent?!" Annie was stunned. "You want to repeat my sins? That'll only make the hatred worse!"
"At least it creates a balance," Eren said, dejected. "If that happens, the world and Paradis will have room to negotiate. And because their strength is equal, neither side will start a war lightly. A lot of casualties could be avoided."
"Heh. Are you serious?"
At that, Roger let out a scornful laugh.
"So the eighty percent of people you crush to death don't count as casualties, huh. Eren, the joke you're telling is pathetic."
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