Time seemed to slow down.

The Titan that had unexpectedly emerged from the ground was glaring down at Reiner. Without hesitation, Marcel rushed forward and pushed Reiner out of the way.

In doing so, however, he'd placed himself directly in danger, and the Titan promptly scooped him up and raised him to its mouth.

His eyes widened in terror as he entered the dark cavity, but just before the teeth closed on him he bit down on his tongue in a desperate attempt to save himself.

At once light engulfed his body, and the head and neck of the Titan were obliterated in the explosion that accompanied the Jaw Titan's transformation, killing it instantly.

The explosion also flung Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie back, sending them sprawling to the ground.

The Jaw Titan crawled toward him, and Marcel partially emerged from the nape.

"Are you guys okay?"

The three of them nodded, still shaken from what had happened.

After recovering from the close call, the three young warriors gathered up what supplies they could salvage, and climbed onto the Jaw Titan's back. After making sure his fellow Warriors were secured, Marcel darted forward and began the long journey toward the walls.


Reiner and Bertolt were busy working in the fields, clearing out weeds and uprooting dead trees. It was tedious, boring, and sometimes frustrating work, but it allowed them to earn their keep and remain under the radar while they gathered information.

After their close call, the mission had initially gone according to plan. Marcel had taken them about halfway to the walls, and then Annie had taken over and used her ability to call Titans to summon a horde that chased after them. Bertolt then destroyed the outer gate, while Reiner destroyed the inner gate, and the four of them had then blended in with the flood of refugees pouring into Wall Rose.

From there, however, there had been several surprises. The biggest one was that the people of the walls believed that they were the last of humanity, and seemingly had no knowledge of the outside world at all. The Warriors had concluded that the Founder must have erased their memories a century ago, which only added to the feelings of guilt and remorse they felt once they saw the effects that breaking down Wall Maria had had on these people.

But in the end it didn't matter. They had a mission to complete, and they would see it through to the end.

Toward the end of the day, Reiner and Bertolt spotted Marcel and Annie returning, and were relieved to see that their two friends were okay.

Using the Jaw Titan it was relatively easy for them to cross over into Wall Sina undetected and back again, and Marcel and Annie had done so multiple times in order to explore and investigate.

Reiner looked at them seriously. "Did you guys find out anything new?"

Marcel frowned. "Well, the King Fritz on the throne is definitely a figurehead. The true royal bloodline must be one of the noble families operating from the shadows, though we have no idea which one."

Bertolt rubbed his forehead. "If we could get close to the king's family, we might be able to find out who the real royals are."

Annie looked at the ground dully. "And how are we supposed to do that? Get hired as servants or something? Or maybe I could get married to one of their sons."

Bertolt shifted uncomfortably. "Erm, that's not…"

Annie shook her head. "Of course, I doubt that would actually work. They would probably have rigorous background checks for any new servants that we would undoubtedly fail, and I don't have the charm to seduce a man anyway."

"That's not true!" Bertolt protested.

Annie blinked. "Um...thanks?"

Reiner grimaced. "With those options out, there's only one way for us to get close to the royal family. We join the military so that we can investigate the interior military police."

Annie sighed. "You do realize it's taken us almost two years just to find this out, right? Are we just supposed to spend several more years playing soldier?"

Marcel looked off to the side thoughtfully. "That might not be necessary. The 145th king left behind a warning a century ago that if the peace of the walls was ever disturbed he would unleash all the wall Titans and use them to trample the world. Yet it's been almost two years since Wall Maria fell, and as far as we can tell the Founding Titan has done nothing. This corroborates with the intel we got from the Tybur family indicating that the true royal family is bound by some kind of vow of pacifism."

Annie raised her hands impatiently. "Then why don't we just destroy Wall Rose and Wall Sina and be done with it?"

Reiner frowned. "But if we do that we could force the Founding Titan to reveal itself. All it would take would be one scream, and the world would be doomed."

Marcel nodded. "Reiner's right. We can't be hasty. At the same time, if the Founding Titan is truly in an impotent state, there's no need for us to be overly cautious either. When you consider the fact that the Founder did nothing after the fall of Wall Maria, and the fact that the government sent over 250,000 of the refugees out to die instead of forcing the upper classes to share more of their resources, and I think that it's safe to assume that the vow of pacifism is indeed real."

Bertolt glanced at him uncertainly. "Then what should we do?"

Marcel's expression became grim. "We destroy Trost, the southernmost district of Wall Rose."

The others looked at him in shock.

"If the Founding Titan has any real power left it won't be able to ignore this. After we destroy Trost, we'll travel to the capital Mitras, and then wait a week or two. During that time the military will be concentrating their forces just outside of Trost, expecting us to break down that inner gate too. If the Founder doesn't respond to the attack, then I think it will be safe to conclude that it poses no real threat. And after we've determined that it's no threat, while the bulk of their military forces are in the south, we'll attack Mitras and corner the fake King Fritz and his court. I imagine the threat of being eaten by a Titan will be very effective at getting answers, and we can force them to tell us who the true royal family is, and where they are. And once we know that, between the four of us we'll be able to find and capture the Founding Titan, and finally go home."

Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie were surprised, but they had to admit that they were impressed by this bold plan, and were once more grateful to have Marcel as their leader.