𝔇𝔢𝔣𝔦𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢 (𝔏𝔢𝔳𝔦 𝔵 ℜ𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯)

CXIII - And The Edge Of Theirs

"Thank you."

***
~Two weeks later~

"Zeke Jaeger's requests are as follows;" Hange declares to the courthouse, her voice ringing out into the room. "Accept him onto the island of Paradis for the remainder of the time he has left. Introduce him to the soldier who possesses the power of the founding titan, his half brother Eren Jaeger. In return he will guarantee Paradis' safety. He will provide us with the latest technology, including weapons. He will act as a mediator between us and friendly nations, which he states exists.

And finally, he will provide support to intelligence activities targeting Marly. This is all done in order to rescue Eldian people, whose existence is now threatened, and-"

"Absolutely not!" A man across the room screeches, hysterical. "Who would ever agree to such a ridiculous offer! We're dealing with the beast titan here! He turned the people of Ragako village into titans! He spread terror throughout the walls! He's the man most responsible for slaughtering the Survery Corps to near extinction! And now he's trying to say all of that?! How shameless can he be?!"

"Their one and only goal is to retake the founding titan. They haven't been able to do it by force, so now they're trying to coax it out of us with their words and actions. It seems all but obvious," Darius says bluntly.

"Our enemies must realise that as well. Why don't we hear what their leader has to say?" Pyxis replies.

"To continue, according to Zeke, there is still a secret plan that can be carried out. That will solve all of the Eldian people's problems at once. But in order to carry out this secret plan, he needs the founding titan and a titan with royal blood," Hange's eye follow the words on the paper as she speaks. "The world can be saved if we have those two things. However, he can only reveal his secret plan after these conditions are met."

"I've heard enough," a bystander mutters under his breath.

"It seems like he truly thinks of us as fools," another adds.

"It's true," Eren immediately replies, his chair sliding back as he stands up slowly. Everyone turns their attention to him, eyes pinned on him from all directions. I furrow my eyebrows as he opens his mouth to speak again. "I remember now. The one time I was able to activate the powers of teh founding titan was in the moment I touched a titan with royal blood. That titan had the same face as someone in a photo my father had left me. I'm certain that was Dina Fritz. By pure coincidence, I came in contact with Dina Fritz that day as she wandered the land as a pure titan, letting me escape from a dangerous situation.

As Dina's son, Zeke must have figured it out. How to get around the vow renouncing all war. How to activate the one hope left to the Eldians. The way to rumble the world using the thousands of titans sleeping inside the walls, to crush everything underfoot," he deadpans.

Well that turned morbid quick.

"You, why did you keep quiet about that this whole time?" Levi asks blankly, clearly unimpressed by Eren's discretion.

"Because I was concerned about Historia," Eren answers without hesitation. "I couldn't let her become a titan based on my own uncertain information. That's what I thought. I will admit that it was a thoughtless decision." Levi clicks his tongue, turning to face the front of the room again.

"We'll talk about this more later," he mutters, eyes pinned to the table. I run my tongue across my teeth in thought.

"But if that's really true, then Zeke's secret plan makes sense too," Hange says, and I'm unable to tell if she was taking to the room or herself.