COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 34: Liberio

IF ANYONE HAD BEEN WATCHING the two a.m. train hiss into the station and ground to a steaming halt, they wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary about it: not about the conductors and porters who wrestled open its latches and threw back its doors; not about the mass of men and women, some in military dress, who streamed out and disappeared into the swarming crowd.

Not even the lone girl with the red armband who filed from one of its cars and stood blinking in the hazy light of the platform, dazed by the cathedral of noise and smoke in which she found herself standing.

Once she pocketed her hands and began to walk, carrying nothing but the clothes on her back, she bustled past the people of both Marley and Eldia, steps flattering as they neared the exit that would bring her to the internment zone. There was something oddly melancholic to this moment, a wayward salute to her destiny, and misery made itself comfortable in her bones, tasting the marrow in her spine that deemed her a wicked creature spawned from Hell.

There were people everywhere, she noticed. How long did these people have left? Six weeks? Five? Either way, the chances that they were going to be sound in body and limb a year from now were slim to none. All because of the phantom girl whose face they gave no merit. She could not bear to study them, refraining from letting her gaze sweep the steam-poured platform like a sentry.

People's eyes skipped over her, though they narrowed in dislike when they made notice of the red armband that was wrapped around her left forearm. Yet, she harbored not much attention, which was just as well, because who would believe that this young Honorary Marleyan woman could mean any harm? She was so normal, so ordinary-looking despite the dark circles underneath her eyes—even as she studied the world around her while keeping her head low.

Little did these people know that they were standing within the vicinity of a young murderess, and the number of crimes she would soon commit had only just begun.

-

IT WAS A LONELY WALK TO LIBERIO.

A light drizzle began to fall as you continued to trudge through the empty streets of Marley, through the intersections and roads that would lead you to the iron gates that sealed the rest of your fellowmen in. As you got farther away from the station, the noise faded more into quiet tranquility. Not much illuminated the boulevard other than streetlamps that hummed with static. When you paused and took a moment to take in what you had just done under a street lamp, it began to flicker eerily.

Even the street lights don't trust me.

The stars above you were low and muted, reduced by the smokes of Marley to a murky glow, an unseeable lantern winking through the fog. You expected that the skies would be the same, only a dull gray that would remind you of a miserable afternoon with no sunlight.

Dizzy from it, you half-closed your eyes and reached into your pocket to feel the cold surface of your pearl. It was an essentially useless relic of past memories but an object that retained some value nevertheless—that of a long, thin thread that connecting this alternate world to the equally insane but familiar one that you'd once belonged to; a thing that said to you, You are here, and this is real, and you are not dreaming.

It was just a lie you were telling yourself, you knew. This pearl was really just a worthless trophy from a murdered innocent creature. Beautiful, but its worth was undetermined. Unless you counted a temporary happy memory as worth something. And even that happy memory had been tainted.

The street light flickered again and the drizzle was still pouring. A cold wind rushed past as water droplets began to splatter on your face, and you shivered, reminded of those days by the violent sea. You wrapped your coat around you for a little more warmth and hurried off to the iron gates.