The world.
Marley.
Willy Tybur washed his face one last time, put on a light layer of makeup, and then stared at his own reflection in the mirror, silently offering himself a few words of encouragement.
Beside him stood a maid. Hands folded in front of her lower abdomen, she waited on him quietly, standing by until the head of the Tybur family finished all his preparations.
She knew she shouldn't think this way, but she could still tell that the family head was nervous—and she could more or less guess the reason.
He was afraid of messing up the speech. Of messing up this speech delivered to the entire world.
That's right—this time, his address was a call for the whole world to unite and fight Paradis Island together.
Unlike the Marleyan President, the official leader of Marley.
While the Tybur family secretly controlled Marley as the power behind the throne, to the outside world, their reputation remained spotless.
People from nations all over the world held a favorable view of them.
For a hundred years, the Tybur family had never taken part in any war.
Whether it was a war of aggression or a defensive war, they stayed out of it.
They had flawlessly maintained "neutrality."
So even though the world hated Marley, bore it a deep grudge, and was full of prejudice against it, when it came to the Tybur family, they still respected them from the bottom of their hearts.
Respected them in their very bones.
It couldn't be separated from the fact that the Tybur family had been the world's "heroes" from the beginning.
Although the Tyburs had once been Eldian nobles, during the time that Marleyan hero Holos assassinated the Eldian king, they played a crucial role—winning over and dividing the alliance between the Eight Titans and the Founding Titan.
Only because of that had Holos gotten the chance to assassinate the Eldian king and drive him completely off the continent.
People admired the Tybur family, and over the last hundred years, that admiration had hardened into reverence.
They had fallen into a mental habit: whenever they saw the Tybur family, the world instinctively associated them with words like "absolutely neutral" and "objective."
So this time, when the Tybur representative—Willy Tybur—called for unity, there wasn't a soul who would refuse to listen.
Even so, Willy was still nervous.
This was, after all, an unprecedented speech before the entire world.
Outside, the stage play had reached its finale.
The cheers were beginning to die down.
The noisy chatter slowly faded.
Finally—
At that moment—
Willy straightened his collar and walked out the door.
Rustle, rustle, rustle—thunderous applause.
The moment Willy stepped into view, everyone below—the representatives of every nation—burst into cheers and excitement.
Everyone except Marley.
The Marleyan military representatives stared up at Willy with blank faces.
He was the one who had urged them to attack Paradis Island. Now that they'd failed, he was the one being applauded by the world, while Marley had become the fool.
Heh.
The Marleyans all sat with stiff, expressionless faces.
Some couldn't bear the whispers and side-eye from those around them and were the first to leave their seats.
Now, in the eyes of the world, Marley was the lowest of the low.
They no longer had the "Titan army" that once shook the world, and they didn't even have a single usable Warrior left.
If the Tybur family hadn't stepped in to shield them, Marley would already have been carved up entirely by other nations.
In just three days—
All the territories Marley had seized from other countries were taken back.
In practically a single night, Marley's borders had shrunk to a tenth of their former size.
Once, no one would have dared even to imagine such a thing.
Many Marleyans nearly fainted when they saw the maps—saw Marley forced to spit back out almost all of the land it had devoured.
They had become the most "unfortunate" people.
But no one pitied them.
To the world, Marley had it coming.
And Marley without Titans wasn't worth fearing.
Right now, though, Marley wasn't what mattered.
The real concern was still the Titans.
Still that one Titan that had the power to destroy the entire world.
When the Titans had been in Marley's hands, they were a problem, but the world merely saw it as Marley's greed.
Now the Titans had returned to Eldian hands—like the devil reclaiming his sword.
The world stood once again on the brink of being overturned.
So everyone had to stand together, united against a common enemy.
Standing on the stage, Willy bowed toward the world.
"Before I begin," he said, "I would like, on behalf of the Tybur family, to offer the sincerest apologies to the world."
The representatives all looked at one another, unsure why a Tybur would do such a thing.
Sitting upright, they watched, waiting to hear what this "gentleman" on the stage intended to say.
After bowing, Willy straightened and lifted his head. His face was full of sorrow.
"I believe you all understand what has happened to our world. So I, Willy Tybur, will not waste words retelling it here.
"As you know, the world now stands on the edge of annihilation.
"The cause of this disaster is the Titans.
"As the custodians of the War Hammer Titan—one of the Nine Titans—we failed to prevent all of this. Instead, we can only grieve the fact that we have now lost the War Hammer Titan forever.
"A few weeks ago, Marley detected disturbing movements from Paradis Island and moved to carry out a punitive strike upon it.
"But we lacked the strength, and suffered a crushing counterattack.
"We are sorry. We all underestimated the devil's power. We all misjudged the devil's ambition.
"Of the Nine Titans, aside from the dead Cart Titan and Colossal Titan, the remaining seven are now completely in the hands of a single rogue usurper.
"His name is Roger Eikam.
"According to our calculations, he does not possess royal blood, and therefore cannot initiate the Rumbling.
"That is our one and only chance.
"Everyone—
"Ladies and gentlemen—
"Let us stand together!
"Before Roger can find someone of royal blood!
"With warships!
"With airships!
"With great cannons!
"Let us bomb this sinful island of the world flat—
"And end the source of two thousand years of calamity!
"Everyone—
"Please—
"The fate of the world now rests in your hands!!
"The fate of humankind now rests in your hands!!"
When he finished, he bowed deeply once more.
Below the stage, the crowd was in an uproar.
They shouted at the top of their lungs.
They roared his words back.
Clap clap clap clap…
The applause rolled in waves.
Many people were moved to tears.
They marveled at all the Tybur family had done for the world, and at the same time mourned their own fate.
"Bomb Paradis Island flat!!"
All of a sudden, someone shouted the words out loud.
And the crowd took up the cry.
"Bomb Paradis Island flat!!"
"Bomb Paradis Island flat!!"
"Bomb Paradis Island flat!!!"
…
"Laibusi, ahead four!"
"Divine Judgment, ahead four!"
"Annihilation, ahead four!"
"Nabei Four Continents, ahead four!"
"Marley, ahead four!"
"…"
With each thundered order from another captain, majestic warships knifed through the roaring waves like spearpoints, steaming toward Paradis Island and leaving long, white wakes behind them…
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