"Are these… my memories?" Yago covered his forehead and murmured.
Marley, Eldia, armbands, Doctor Ebson—everything suddenly became clear. Titans were actually transformed Eldians; Marleyans enslaved Eldians at will. A part of the truth of the world was laid bare before Yago.
"Paradis Island… so we were living on an island all along. Doctor Ebson—was that white-coated figure from my memories really him? Was my Titan power created by him?"
Yago raised his head and realized he was standing in a vast, pure white space.
Yago looked confused.
"What is this place?"
As he stood up, a voice suddenly reached his ears.
"Do you know where Yago is?"
"This is… Annie's voice!" With his memories filled in, Yago instantly realized it was Annie's voice from childhood and hurriedly turned around.
The white space shattered, forming fragments tinged with color that rapidly assembled into a picture before Yago.
Annie, wearing a yellow armband, blocked Doctor Ebson, who looked gloomy. Hearing Annie's questioning, Ebson frowned and noticed the armband on her arm.
"A Warrior candidate?" Ebson was somewhat surprised. This frail-looking little girl was actually a Marleyan Warrior candidate. Come to think of it, the current generation of Warriors was indeed nearing the end of their term.
Ebson straightened his collar, his expression tinged with disdain, and said indifferently,
"Yago? You mean Norman? That experimental child died long ago—just an Eldian orphan." With that, he left without looking back.
Upon learning this, Annie stood there in a daze, lowered her head, and the ring on her hand still glimmered in the sunlight.
All of a sudden, Annie's small figure lunged at Ebson like a leopard.
Just as Annie's fist came within less than a meter of Ebson, a burly figure stepped in and stopped her in time.
Leonhart pressed down on his daughter's trembling body and looked toward the smoking Marleyan beside Doctor Ebson. That man's icy gaze withdrew only after Leonhart restrained Annie.
Bill flicked away his cigarette butt and exhaled smoke, casting one last glance at the Leonhart father and daughter. He had never liked meddling. Since the little girl had been stopped, Bill decided to let them off. From then on, Young Master Ebson probably wouldn't step foot in the Eldian residential zone again.
Restrained by her father, Annie trembled uncontrollably. Large tears streamed from her eyes. Seeing his daughter like this for the first time, Leonhart felt a deep ache in his heart.
After that, Annie became even more silent.
Crack! "Ah!" The sound of bones breaking was accompanied by a cry of pain. Leonhart clutched his lower leg in agony. Beside him stood Annie, panting—she had just kicked and broken her father's leg. Yet there was no light left in her eyes.
"Annie, you… did it! From now on, we're Honorary Marleyans!" Leonhart, wearing a red armband, was somewhat excited. But Annie, sitting across the table, kept her head lowered and said nothing.
Becoming a Marleyan Warrior, Annie inherited the power of the Female Titan. She didn't know how the inheritance happened—only that she was injected with a vial of liquid, and a woman in white was chained in front of her.
After gaining the Female Titan's power, Annie made significant contributions to Marley's wars. The agile, endurance-heavy Female Titan struck terror into enemy soldiers.
Alongside Annie, there were several other Warriors. One day, Marley's upper echelon summoned Annie and three other Warriors and entrusted them with an important mission: infiltrate the Island of Devils and reclaim the power of the Coordinate.
The now completely indifferent Annie didn't care much. But when she returned home, Leonhart—who had always treated her as a tool—suddenly broke down crying and hugged her, his voice filled with remorse.
"I'm sorry, Annie. It's my fault! I shouldn't have made you become some damn Warrior. Annie, promise me—come back alive! Even if the whole world stands against you, your father will stand by your side!"
Her father's confession and plea seemed to spark a faint glimmer in Annie's cold eyes. At least, she hadn't lost everything.
She made a promise with her father to return alive. He gave her a ring—a ring with concealed spikes.
...
The four children set foot on the place known as the Island of Devils. Annie kept a cold expression the entire time.
Until a Titan that had been buried underground suddenly emerged and devoured one of their companions, Marcel. Faced with a Titan right before their eyes, the three remaining children who possessed Titan powers reacted with panic and fled, completely ignoring the screams behind them.
While fleeing, the one who had always ranked last in every category somehow ran ahead of Annie. After the three finally calmed down, Annie realized the mission wouldn't be easy to complete. Remembering her promise to her father, she proposed abandoning the mission—but the blond boy who had run ahead of her vehemently opposed it.
In the end, they stayed. Annie transformed into the Female Titan and carried the two companions with her. Along the way, Annie let out roars, drawing in large numbers of Titans. They arrived at the dwelling place of the island's "devils"—a 50-meter-high wall that inspired awe.
But in the end, another companion transformed into a 60-meter-tall Colossal Titan, kicking open the wall and shattering a century of peace within.
The Titans Annie had lured flooded into the wall. What followed made even Annie's cold heart tremble—countless so-called devils were brutally devoured by Titans, no different from ordinary civilians outside the island.
After breaching the wall, the three blended in with the refugees. When gathering information yielded nothing, they decided to join the military inside the walls to obtain intelligence from within.
After bidding farewell to a hunter who had taken good care of them in the refugee camp, they arrived at the recruitment site for what was known as the Training Corps. There, amidst the crowd, Annie suddenly saw an impossible figure.
In those blue eyes was reflected a black-haired boy holding registration forms, pushing through the crowd. In the end, the boy walked over to three other children with several forms in hand, chatting and laughing.
"Yago…" Annie looked at the familiar face of the black-haired boy and spoke unconsciously.
...
The image shattered, turning into a beam of light that merged into Yago's body. Yet Yago's expression was complicated.
"These are Annie's memories? So it was you who destroyed the walls—Reiner, Bertholdt." From Annie's memories, Yago saw the faces of her two companions and recognized them at once as Reiner and Bertholdt.
Yago sighed. He didn't want to believe that the companions he had lived with for three years were the culprits behind the destruction of the walls. But sometimes, reality was just that cruel.
When all the light had merged into Yago's body, his expression changed slightly. A strange force seemed to strengthen his Titan power. Sensing the source of this power, Yago exclaimed in shock,
"The power of the Female Titan?"