The Bloom Titan (1/2)

CH.65: The Curse of Ymir

I smile as the two officers walk up the stairs, both with strange, red marks on their faces.

My eyes fall onto the body's floating in the water. The Marleyan soldiers had their lives squeezed out of them as if the Titan was juicing fruit. Then their lifeless bodies thrown away into the deep, dark, sea, never to be found again.

The sea is a body of salt water that covers 70% of this world's surface. It stretches far and wide of unfathomable scale. It's beautiful. The dreamy sea has a rhythmic pulse to it unmatched by any other part of nature. It forges its own sound and kindles its own symphony.

"That was amazing." I help the lady up as she was struggling. Blood starts trickling down from her nose. I furrow my eyebrows. "Are you alright?"

She goes into a pocket in her trousers and pulls out a handkerchief. "Yes, I am." She dabs under her nose with the cloth, staining it red with blood.

"Owl... Flowerpecker... Who are you?" Grisha asks, standing by my side. Kruger looks up and looks from me to Grisha.

"I am Eren Kruger and she is Lillie Cranston. As you just saw, we possess one of the Ten Titans each. In other words, we are Subjects of Ymir, just like you two." He informs us.

Grisha gasps. "You pretended to be a Marleyan and infiltrated the Public Safety Office? What about the blood tests?!" I look from Lillie to Eren to Lillie again, awaiting an answer.

"That was easy enough with the help of a doctor." Lillie puts the bloodied handkerchief back in her pocket. "Doctors make good spies. In all honesty, you both did very well. But in terms of results, Grice had every right to grieve like he did."

I beg to differ but, I decide it's best to stay quiet. I don't know how Grice felt then but he expressed his feelings strongly, making it clear how angry and devastated he was.

"You're absolutely right... I was a useless father, a useless husband, and a useless man. And yet, why am I one of the only ones who remain as a human?" Grisha asks . "Dina was someone special, being a Subject of Ymir with royal blood. She can tap into a Titan's true power. If you hadn't jumped to keep me quiet, Dina would..." He grabs Eren by the collar. "Why am I still alive?!"

"Enough. Don't your fingers hurt?" He avoids the question.

Grisha smiles sadly. "Thanks so much for your concern! You didn't seem to care so much when they were being chopped off! Well?! If you two had gone on a rampage as your Titans sooner, wouldn't the others not be Titans right now?! What was the whole point of letting them become Titans?!" Eren's nose starts bleeding and he falls to his knees. Grisha follows his actions. "What's wrong? You look pale..."

Eren's breathing becomes shallow and heavy. "It wasn't just fellow patriots... I've severed thousands of fingers from Subjects of Ymir... and made them into Titans. Woman and Children, too... All while believing it was for the sake of Eldia. We don't have much time, Grisha, Arielle. We're entrusting you two with the final task. Not anyone else, just you two."

--

I swing my legs back and forth as I sit on the edge of the wall, Grisha, Eren, and Lillie not far behind me. I was ready to listen to whatever they had to tell us.

Eren clears his throat. "That day... The day I first met you two, if none of that had happened, you both wouldn't have festered enough hatred of Marley to come this far." I glance over my shoulder to look at him.

"Is that the reason you chose us?" I ask, still kicking my legs back and forth. Eren looks at me.

"That's part of it." He starts. "Grisha, the enemy nation, your father, yourself. The abhor in your eyes was enough to burn the world to ashes. And, Arielle, just a few minutes ago when you were shouting at the Sergeant Major and when you hurt him. The fearlessness and confidence to do that struck something in me. People would call you a bedlamite for doing something so gutsy to someone so high up. We were once like that, too..."