"Brother, do you know what the saddest thing about the Eldians is?"
"We still consider ourselves human… but no one else in the world treats us as such."
Eren's voice trembled. "Look at Armin and the others… they're still fighting for humanity, ha… haha…"
Watching his friends desperately struggle to halt the Rumbling, Eren shed tears.
The greatest sorrow of the Eldians was this: to still believe themselves human, while the rest of the world never would. Armin and the others fought with all their strength for "humanity," convinced they were still part of it. Yet the truth was undeniable—Eldians could transform into Titans at any time. Who would ever accept such people as kin?
As the Colossal Titans' feet crushed eighty percent of the world's population, Zeke finally understood.
They were not human.
Even if they had clung to that belief since childhood, what sort of "human" could become a monster that destroyed entire cities in seconds?
The Eldians were pitiful. And he himself was pitiful. Because even until now, he had insisted on seeing himself as human. He still sympathized with those being ground into paste beneath the Colossals' march, still imagined them as "fellow humans." But in truth—no one else ever had.
Eren's plan to turn his friends into saviors was meaningless. No matter what role they played, no matter how valiantly they fought, humanity would never again see Eldians as human.
Every generation bore Titans, every generation carried the curse.
How absurd, how tragic, for Eldians to struggle endlessly to be "human," as if sheer willpower could erase their blood.
Zeke realized now: Eren's despair had birthed the Rumbling. He had seen no future where Eldians were ever freed from hatred. So he would destroy. If they could not be loved, they would at least crush the hostile gaze of the world beneath their feet.
At the very least, with eighty percent of humanity gone, no army would remain to threaten Paradis Island.
This was Eren's despair.
And this, too, was the "best" solution he could find for those he loved in the final moments of his short, doomed life.
Zeke clenched his fists. Only now did he understand, and regret burned through him. Why had it taken him so long to see the truth? The signs had always been there. He thought of Mr. Ksaver's wife—how she had killed herself and their child upon learning his true bloodline.
So many bloody examples. Again and again, the world had proven that Eldians were never seen as human.
In the eyes of others, to sleep with an Eldian was no different than coupling with pigs, dogs, or beasts.
Zeke, forced into marriage, did not even pity himself. He pitied Princess Anna more. He still insisted on calling himself human; she had already ceased to see him as such.
So that night, though she bit at him with desperate madness, he kissed her gently, touched her carefully, again and again until dawn. Eventually, the recorder slipped silently out, shutting the door—mission complete.
The princess lay limp at his side, exhausted. Zeke made no attempt to hold her. They were not lovers; why force intimacy beyond what had already been forced upon them?
But then, something unexpected happened.
After a time, Anna stirred. She rose, weak but resolute, and leaned close. Her eyes lingered on him for a long, silent moment.
Zeke did not know her thoughts, but he knew she no longer hated him as she had at the start. By the end, amid her frenzy of biting and weeping, she had leaned against his chest, trembling but no longer resisting.
Now, was she reconsidering him?
"Zeke Yeager…" she murmured at last.
"Yes," he answered softly, attentively to the woman who had just shared his bed.
"Are you a Titan?" she asked. Her tone was cold, direct—no longer a question of names or loyalty, but of his very being.
Once, he would have denied it instinctively: I am human.
But not now.
Now, he answered with steady certainty. "Yes."
He was a Titan.
The Beast Titan.
A monster in the eyes of the world, carrying the cursed blood of the devil.
He braced himself for her revulsion, her anger, her scorn.
But none came.
Instead, Anna met his eyes calmly. Then she leaned close, her voice firm and steady.
"Then promise me this—use that Titan body of yours to crush Marley for me."
Her lips pressed against his in a kiss, quiet but full of resolve.
And Zeke, for the first time, felt her hatred align with his own.