The sky seemed forever overcast, never once clearing.
On the streets, no faces bore smiles, no voices carried joy.
The Eldian internment zone, once crowded and noisy, now felt hollow and desolate.
Reiner walked down the street, eyes lifting toward shattered windows, broken utility poles, and smashed flowerpots scattered across the ground.
He wore a black suit, a white flower pinned to his chest.
Moments ago, he had attended a funeral.
The deceased was his former comrade—Marcel Galliard.
Just hours earlier, Marcel had still been clinging to life in the hospital, squeezing Reiner's hand and groaning through gritted teeth. Yet in a blink, he was gone.
The thought filled Reiner with grief and rage.
He clenched his fists, his whole body trembling.
"…Traitor. Traitor!"
His mind turned to Roger.
He could not bear that such a man still lived.
For his selfish desires, Roger had killed Marcel, wounded Commander Magath, and left hundreds of families in ruin.
"Roger, scum like you don't deserve to exist in this world!" Reiner snarled. "You murderer, you devil! Why did I trust you?! Why… If only I hadn't believed in you, if only I—"
Tears welled in his eyes again. Still young, he couldn't control his emotions, sobbing on the street—for Marcel, and for himself.
He had believed Roger, helped him reach the ceremony. Because of that, his chance to inherit the Armored Titan was gone.
The honor within reach—lost.
How could he ever tell his mother? The words would never leave his throat.
"Why must I suffer like this…"
Reiner leaned weakly against a wall, drained.
"If you can't bear it, let me take it from you, dead weight."
A voice rose beside him. Reiner turned in alarm, already knowing who it was. His gaze met that of a man with slicked-back hair, eyes like a bitter drunk.
"Porco."
Reiner's voice was heavy with despair.
Of all people, Porco was the one he least wished to see.
Like Roger, Porco had once been rejected as a warrior candidate. Reiner had mocked him then, flaunting his own success, calling him the true loser.
But now, fortune had reversed.
"Congratulations. The Armored Titan is yours," Reiner said, collapsing under the weight of his words.
"Don't worry. From now on, I'll give everything I have. Even if I must chase him to the ends of the earth, Roger will die in agony…"
Hearing this, Reiner's feelings tangled painfully.
"Don't you hate me, Porco?"
Porco glanced at him.
"I have no right to hate you," he said. "But I won't sit still and do nothing."
Leaving that cryptic answer behind, he walked away, leaving Reiner alone, swallowed by shadow.
But things did not unfold as Reiner expected.
After several military councils, he saw the army's marshals of land, sea, and air screaming like fishwives, hurling insults across tables—calling each other Eldian swine. Without Magath, their quarrels had only sharpened.
Power struggles were laid bare, their incompetence and ignorance flaunted openly.
The commander-in-chief remained aloof, staring idly at a map of Marley, red pen in hand, scribbling in his notebook.
Reiner once thought the man was deep and inscrutable, even telling comrades he had discovered something profound. But when he glimpsed the notebook and saw nothing but a cartoon pig drawn in red, he fell silent forevermore.
Still, the commander-in-chief remained the commander.
"Enough. Decided. Meeting adjourned."
With those curt words, he ended chaos.
Thus, meetings dissolved.
Thus, documents passed into Magath's hands.
Thus, the long-delayed plan to seize the Founding Titan was decided almost carelessly.
Compared to Reiner's mistakes, Marley seemed far more fixated on the Founding Titan's Coordinate.
But the truth was—Magath had shielded Reiner.
He had known Reiner would be at the battlefield outskirts and failed to stop him. That failure was Magath's, not Reiner's.
And with the appearance of the black flame titan, Marley realized powers beyond the Nine existed.
So, the Founding had to be secured immediately.
No time to replace candidates. And Porco alone was not deemed fit for the Armored Titan.
Porco learned the next day.
He had believed the inheritance his—to avenge his brother—but the news struck like lightning. Then, thinking deeper, he saw the logic in it.
But he could not accept it.
Watching another ceremony, rage and helplessness filled his chest to bursting.
"Without titan power… how can I kill Roger…"
It was a choking weight in his throat.
Like the newly chosen "Marley warriors" in the transport cart, what he felt now was not hope, but despair.
The terror of the black titan.
If Roger ever returned as that monster, what then?
Could Marley survive?
In the cart, Reiner and the others sat in heavy silence.
Among the crowd below, Porco slipped into an alley.
He wanted nothing more than to vomit his guts out.
In a blink, he'd lost the Armored Titan.
In a blink, he'd lost his brother.
"Damn it! Why didn't I crush you to death that day?!"
Porco pounded the wall in fury. If ever given a chance, he would kill Roger with everything he had.
At that moment—
A figure emerged from the alley's shadows. Huge, dressed in strange clothing, looming like a hill.
"Uh? Who are you?"
Porco noticed he wore no Eldian armband, and his stare was unbroken, chilling him to the bone.
"A creep?"
He shivered under that gaze.
"I'll kill your enemy for you. But in exchange, you must become my servant, forever in my service."
"???" Porco sneered. "What kind of joke is that? Get lost!"
"Oh? Is that so…"
The words fell—and in a blink, the man appeared right before him.
"Forgot to tell you. You have no choice."
A sharp object pierced Porco's chest, driving through his heart.
//Check out my Patreon for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[[email protected]/Razeil0810](http://[email protected]/Razeil0810)