131: Chapter 131 The Heavens Saga: Attack on Titan Part 3

Eren listened to those words, his fists clenching until they cracked.

He gritted his teeth and couldn't help but speak up: "Even if we can't leave the walls from birth, just eating and sleeping, we can still survive. But wouldn't that be no different from livestock?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two Garrison soldiers drinking nearby laughed out loud.

"Haha, such a tough kid."

"Clearly incapable of doing anything, yet he talks big."

Eren ignored them and kept walking with his head down.

Hannes called out from behind: "Eren, don't take it to heart. They just like to joke around; they mean no harm."

Seeing Eren not even turning his head, Hannes scratched his head and muttered to himself: "This kid... I get the feeling something isn't right. Could he be wanting to join the Survey Corps?"

Just then, clang, clang, clang. A long, resonant bell toll came from the direction of the walls, echoing throughout the entire Shiganshina District.

Eren paused, then his eyes lit up: "It's the Survey Corps! They're back! The main gate is opening!"

He turned to look at Mikasa, then subconsciously glanced toward where the Dragon Lord was, saying excitedly: "Mikasa, Old Grandpa, let's go see the heroes return!"

After saying that, he ran toward the city gate.

Mikasa followed in silence.

The Dragon Lord stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the towering wall, his purple slit pupils narrowing slightly.

The Survey Corps.

That group of people who, knowing full well that outside the wall was Hell, still stepped out time and time again.

Foolish? Perhaps.

But sometimes, it is precisely this foolishness that distinguishes humans from livestock.

He stepped forward to follow.

...

At the city gate.

Horses walked in one after another, but what they carried on their backs were wounded soldiers missing arms or legs, along with several corpses covered in white sheets.

The noise from the onlookers gradually died down.

The returning soldiers kept their heads down, covered in blood and filth, their eyes hollow.

Someone in the crowd muttered:

"Is this... all who returned?"

"Where are the others? They must have been eaten, right?"

"Sigh, it's because they insisted on going outside the wall that they ended up like that."

"Wouldn't it be better to just stay inside the walls? Why do they have to go die?"

The Dragon Lord stood behind the crowd, taking in all these words.

He saw the excitement on Eren's face fade away bit by bit, turning into confusion, then into suppression.

Before long, a gray-haired woman rushed out from the crowd.

She wore simple coarse cloth clothes, her hands trembling as she shouted: "Moses! Has Moses returned?!"

"My child, has Moses returned?!"

In the procession, a weary-looking soldier saw her, and his expression darkened.

He whispered something to his companion, then dismounted and took a long, white-cloth-wrapped object from the side of the horse.

He walked up to the woman, opened his mouth, his voice hoarse: "...Are you Moses' mother?"

The woman nodded desperately, a last glimmer of hope remaining in her eyes.

The soldier lowered his eyes and handed over the white-cloth bundle.

"We... only recovered this."

The woman took it and tremblingly lifted the white cloth.

Inside was an arm.

The woman froze.

She just held the arm, motionless.

After a long while, she looked up, her eyes filled with tears, and said: "He... his death must have been worth it, right?"

She looked at the soldier, forcing a smile: "Even if he didn't achieve any merit... my son still contributed to humanity's counterattack... right?"

The soldier opened his mouth.

He wanted to say of course.

But the words stuck in his throat as if something were caught there.

"No..."

"We didn't have any results this time either."

His eyes were bloodshot, his face filled with extreme, suppressed pain.

"It's all my incompetence, blindly letting soldiers lose their lives in vain."

"And yet... unable to uncover the true nature of those monsters."

The woman didn't speak.

She just stood there, holding that arm.

The procession continued moving forward.

The surrounding crowd gradually dispersed.

Some shook their heads and sighed: "How miserable."

Others muttered: "Sigh, it's as if our taxes are just being used as feed for them, fattening up those monsters outside the wall."

"Isn't that right? Giving so much money to the Survey Corps every year, and for what? A group goes out and dies, and they come back with a few cripples."

"We pay taxes to support them, and this is what we get?"

Eren turned his head sharply, looking at the person speaking.

It was a middle-aged man, dressed plainly, with a cold, matter-of-fact indifference on his face.

"What did you say?" Eren clenched his fists, something burning in his chest.

Without thinking, he grabbed the firewood stick in his hand and swung it at the man.

Bang!

The man stumbled, clutching his head and shouting: "What are you doing!"

Eren, eyes red, wanted to rush forward again, but was grabbed tightly by a hand.

It was Mikasa.

The girl's strength was astonishing, and she dragged him out of the crowd.

Eren struggled: "Let go of me! Did you hear what they said?! They!"

Mikasa didn't say a word, dragging him all the way into an alley, then pushed him hard.

Eren's back hit the wall, and the firewood scattered everywhere.

Mikasa looked at him, no anger in her eyes, only an indescribable complexity.

"Eren." She asked softly, "Having seen them like this, do you still want to join the Survey Corps?"

Hearing this, that scene flashed through Eren's mind.

The severed arm, the pain and self-reproach in the soldier's eyes.

He fell silent.

After a long time, he lowered his head, silently crouched down, and picked up the scattered firewood one by one.

The Dragon Lord stood at the mouth of the alley, taking in this scene.

He did not laugh at Eren.

The scene at the city gate just now—the mother holding her son's arm, the cold whispers, the soldier who knew it was futile yet still chose to apologize.

All of this filled the Dragon Lord with deep emotion.

He knew that those monster Titans were originally human.

They were the kin of these people inside the walls.

The origin of all this was just because a girl named Ymir had made a deal with some strange creature two thousand years ago and obtained the power of the Titans.

Thereafter, that power was passed down through generations, evolving into the Nine Titans.

After Ymir died, her Soul was trapped in a different dimension called Paths, eternally controlled by the royal family, using yellow sand to pile up countless Titan bodies.

As for those Pure Titans, those monsters without reason that only know how to eat people, they were injected with Titan spinal fluid and turned into this state.

If one wants to regain reason and turn back into a human, there is only one way: eat one of the nine holders of the Titan power.

But even so, from then on, one's Lifespan would only be thirteen years.

This world is, at its root, an entire tragedy of Reincarnation.

The people inside the walls fear Titans, hate Titans, and view them as monsters that must be eradicated.

Yet they do not know that those Titans are their own abandoned kin.

Those Pure Titans eat people not to satisfy hunger.

They have no digestive System; they are just following some instinctual drive.

Longing to find the person who possesses the Titan power, longing to turn back into a human.

And the people inside the walls will never know this.

They live generation after generation inside the walls, living in a cage woven from lies.

They think outside the wall is Hell, yet they do not know that the source of Hell lies within the Bloodline of the royal family inside the walls.

This is the truth of this world.

In the alley.

Mikasa helped Eren pick up the scattered firewood and tied it into a bundle.

As she bent down, she caught a glimpse of that tall figure at the mouth of the alley, and her heart tightened.

That strange old man was still following.

From the beginning to the end, he just stood there far away, watching, without saying a word.

Mikasa pursed her lips and whispered: "Eren, are you really going to take him home?"

Eren paused.

Only then did he remember that there was still such an old man waiting.