A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter! Enjoy!

edited on june 27th, 2022 @ 11:13am

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𝓒𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝚃𝚈-𝙵𝙾𝚄𝚁,
𝓑𝚁𝙰𝚅𝙴 𝚅𝙾𝙻𝚄𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙴𝚁𝚂.

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《 𝖳𝖧𝖱𝖤𝖤 𝖸𝖤𝖠𝖱𝖲 𝖠𝖦𝖮 》

EREN THROWS A MARLEY SHIP onto the ground. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen of Marley! Welcome to Paradis Island! I'm Hange. I'm here to welcome our distinguished guests who've come from far away! Please, come here and enjoy some tea and relax." They offered. "By the way, here's your friend who have arrived here before you. We're already getting along very well!"

Both Levi and Simon were holding onto Niccolo. "Isn't that right, Niccolo?!" Hange asked.

Levi digs his blade deeper into Niccolo's back. "Captain! Don't mind me! Just shoot these devils already!" He shouted.

"Just what are you saying all of a sudden, Niccolo?" Hange asked.

"Captain!"

"He's clearly not interested in playing along with your stupid skit." Levi informed, causing Simon to snort.

"Niccolo!" The captain of the ship grumbled. "Listen up, you damn devils! Marley lean no ears to the words of those with defiled blood! We have no interest in drinking pig piss with you tarnished bastards!"

"Huh? Huh?! Are you sure you want to insult us like that?!" Hange spat back. "Can't you see the Titan behind you?"

The soldiers turned around to be met with the gaze of Eren's Titan. "We will not bend to the power of devils!" The captain declared. "This is our greeting to you!"

A gunshot suddenly went off as everyone noticed that the captain had been shot.

"What're you doing, Yelena?!"

"Throw your weapon away." Yelena ordered.

"You guys..."

"Do as she said." Onyankopon demanded.

Yelena took off her hat. "Hange-san, we're honored to receive your invitation. Let's have that tea." She said.

"That tall woman just shot her own ally to death. Just what's her goal?" Connie questioned out loud.

"Beats me. Be she's on our side nor not, it's clear we can't trust her either way." Jean replied.

"Sasha, don't sleep." Mikasa told her, grabbing onto her pony tail.

"But we're fortunate enough to be able to talk and gain intelligence from them." Armin informed.

"Yeah, we're really lucky." Eren agreed, causing Armin to turn around. "It was by pure chance that we were able to stop them from landing. If Marley gets serious, it won't end up this smoothly. We must think of something about it."

Inside the tent, Hange was inspecting the gun as Levi was on their left side and Simon was on their right. "Oh, I see. So you can shoot multiple times with this." They stated.

"Those are Marleyan soldiers' standard equipment." Yelena paused as she sipped her tea. "Each Marleyan's army divisions consists of about 20,000 soldiers. There are 50 divisions in total, making around a million of them. In addition to that, they possess three fleets consisting of 21 battle ships. They've also seen incredible progress with new weapons including aerial military capabilities."

"Aerial?" Hange repeated in confusion.

"Tch." Levi kicked Hange's leg. "Don't look so surprised, they will look down on us."

"I know that!" Hange whisper-shouted.

"In other words, mobile weapons that can go beyond seas and walls, and drop the enemy from the sky." Onyankopon explained.

Hange stood up. "They'll come from the sky?!" They exclaimed in shock.

"Hey!" Levi warned.

"Marley has all that wonderful power, yet they haven't launched a proper attack on us for almost a year, why is that?" Hange asked.

"There are two main reasons. The first reason is the Pure Titans that they unleashed on this island. Their existences make it hard for them to get here, even with the latest weapons. It was originally a policy meant to confine the Eldians inside the walls. However, it ended up protecting Eldian from attack." Yelena began to explain as Hange sat back down.

"Seems like it. Quite ironic, I must say." Levi commented.

"Who knew the Titans were actually protecting us from bigger threats." Simon added on.

"However, the day is about to break. The Titans should be active soon. Yet, we're still leisurely drinking tea here outside the wall. That means you have killed all the Pure Titans on the island. Would that be correct?" Yelena asked.

Hange widened their eyes as Levi kept his stotic expression. "So what? Are you going to somehow inform Marley about it?" He retorted.

"No, it's wonderful. Way beyond what I expected." Yelena replied.

"What's the second reason?" Hange then questioned, going back onto topic.

"Marley is currently in a state of war with multiple countries. In other words, they got bigger thing to deal with. You guys have defeated Marley's trusted Warrior unit. You guys also took the Colossal Titan and the Female Titan, their key weapons. You also have the Crystalized Titan. Marley is a country with many enemies. So other countries came together in a blink of an eye and then the war began." Yelena answered, taking another sip from her cup.

"So that means you guys are the people of the losing countries with grudges against Marley. And you infiltrated the army as some sort of intelligence agent?" Hange guessed as Yelena and Onyankopon stayed silent. "Oh, was that a bullseye? As I thought, you guys must have convincing enough motive and backers to betray Marley like that."

Yelena sets her tea cup down. "We lost our homeland to Marley and join their army as conscripts. We're weak. We also start to lose hope in opposing such a big nation. It is until we're guided by him. Marley and the world feared the Titans as devils. However, it looked like something else to me. A god. He gave us hope when we're at our weakest." She ranted on.

"We shot our superior under the orders of Zeke Yeager. We're the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers. Our goal is to free the Eldian people."

Later, everyone was in the courtroom. "That would be Zeke Yeager's request. All of this would be done to rescue the Eldian people who are in—" Hange was soon cut off.

"Nonsense! Who would accept such a ridiculous offer!"

"We're talking about the Beast Titan here! He turned the people of Ragako into Titans and spread terror inside the walls! He's the very person who nearly killed the entire Survey Corps, yet he's sending out a request?!"

"Their objective has always been to retake the Founding Titan. If force doesn't work, they will use any other means at their disposal." Zachary spoke.

"Our enemies must realize that as well. How about we first listen to the Commander's story first?" Pyxis suggested.

Hange turned to look back at the paper in their hands. "According to Zeke, they have a plan. What he needs to carry out that plan are the Founding Titan and a Titan with royal blood. The world can be saved if he has those two things. However... He can only reveal this secret plan after those conditions are met." They announced.

"I can't listen anymore."

"They sure think of us as fools."

Eren suddenly stood up. "Eren?" Mikasa questioned.

"That's true. I remember. There was one time I was able to activate the powers of the Founding Titan. It was in the moment I touched a Titan with royal blood. That Titan is unmistakeably that of my father's former wife, Dina Fritz. Zeke is Dina's son, so he must've figured it out somehow. That means the way to overcome the vow renouncing the war. The only hope left for us Eldians. The way to trample the world using thousands of Titans inside the walls... The condition to activate the Rumbling." Eren ranted.

"You..." Levi turned around to face Eren. "Why didn't you tell us that until now?"

"Because I was concerned about Historia. I can't allow her to become a Titan based on my uncertain information. I admit it was a thoughtless decision." Eren replied.

"We will talk more about that later." Levi told him.

"But, if that's really true... Zeke's secret plan would make sense." Hange stated.

"Are you sane?! Believing in them?!"

"That's right! Who knows what will happen if we let all of those enemy soldiers onto the island!"

"We should hang them all to death!"

"No, we can't really do that. We need those volunteers if we want to protect this island from Marley's survey boats." Hange informed.

Night had fallen once more as the Survey Corps waited for the survey boat. When they got closer, a yellow beam of light appeared followed by an explosion as Armin transformed.

"The Colossal Titan! Why?!"

Armin's transformation made the waters shaky as the Marleyan soldiers began jumping off the boats. Levi pointed his gun at one of them.

"Welcome to our filthy island, home to defiled devils. Thanks for coming. As long as you like pig piss. We won't mind if you refuse, but we also won't let you come ashore. I'm sorry, but you'll need to swim back home." Levi announced.

Everyone was in a room, looking at a blueprint. "By the way, why is your skin so dark, Onyankopon?" Sasha asked.

"He who made us once thought. Wouldn't it be interesting if there were more kinds of people out there? The same goes for the Subjects of Ymir like you guys. All of us exist because someone wanted us to exist." Onyankopon replied.

"Then who made us?" Armin questioned.

"The being that gave the founder Ymir her power. A god. There are those who think like that. It's anyone's freedom to think about it, right?" Onyankopon responded.

The next day, everyone was by the ocean as exotic food was placed in front of them.

"What is this food?" Connie asked.

"Is this stuff edible?" Jean questioned.

"Looks raw." Mikasa added on.

"First time having seafood? Niccolo is a master of Marleyan cooking." Yelena announced.

"Dammit. If you don't like it, don't eat, you Eldians. There's no food for—" Niccolo's rambling was cut off as Sasha took a large bite of the lobster in front of her.

She then began eating the lobster rapidly.

"Hey!"

"That's unfair, Sasha!"

"Mr. Niccolo, you're a genius!" Sasha cried out.

"E-Eat with more manners!" Niccolo scolded.

"I never had something like this." Sasha claimed.

Niccolo then turned around. "There's still more of them, so eat slowly." He informed.

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Simon was currently sitting in a carriage next to Levi. "So your reports say you were victorious? Ignorance sure is frightening." Zeke commented.

"I can kill you right here and send your corpse to Marley, revealing your scheme. I bet it'll spell an end to your grandparents. But I can wait a bit longer before slicing you into pieces." Levi claimed. "I don't mind either way."

"I'm grateful for your generous words. But shouldn't you let me meet Eren first?" Zeke asked.

"No need to be in such a hurry. I already prepared a high class hotel for you to stay for the night. You can take a nice rest there, first." Levi replied.

"Say... can you stop glaring at me like that?" Zeke said.  

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They eventually arrived at a forest. "This is the hotel I'm staying?" Zeke questioned.

"What, is it not luxury enough for you?" Simon spat out in a sarcastic tone.

"Do you have any complaints?" Levi asked. "It's the forest of great trees. There's no better lodging for you than this."

"Looks like I can have a lot of fun with vertical maneuver equipment here." Zeke turned to look at them. "What do you say, Captain Levi, Section Commander Simon? I'd like to show Gabi and Falco this vast wilderness as well."

"Tch. Whether or not those brats get to see this vast wilderness is up to you." Levi claimed.

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A/N: Another chapter is finished! Thanks for reading!

Word Count: 1962 words.