Burdens(Erehisu)

Chapter 19

They both sat on the opposite end of the tiny square table by the shop's wooden wall. Jean's right leg was agitatedly bouncing up and down as he kept scanning around the street. Seeing him running out of patience, Eren said, "Relax." Jean looked at him. "Relax? It has been like 20 minutes!" Soon after they were left alone and were told that the Prince would arrive shortly, none of Kiyomi's men informed them of the current situation. When Jean's impatience and the worrying state finally sipped into his, Eren got up from his seat. "Let's go." Jean looked up at Eren and saw his face had changed into a sudden realization. "Something is wrong, isn't it?" Without looking at Jean, Eren moved out of the shop's dimly lit light and into the darkness. The dark silhouette that hid in the night stood sideways and warned. "Keep your eyes out for the signal flare."

===

Everyone sitting around the Historia section of the long table seems to have caught on to the sultry room's situation and dread atmosphere. Their eyes would always peek at the scattered soldiers inside the wooden building as they ate their supper. Historia then moved close to Sasha, whose entire body trembled as she tried to eat her supper. Snuck the signal flare into the large pocket of Sasha's uniform, Historia hissed under her breath. "By any means, get out of here, and fire the flare. Even if you have to act like a maniac."

Sitting in the middle of her seat, Sasha took several minutes to gather her courage. Contemplating on the possible ways to act stupid, Sasha took a deep breath and burst out screaming. Everyone got a jump scare and stared in her direction in confusion. Looking up at the ceiling, she continued to cry in a high sharp pitch. As the screeching of her voice permeated the room, people started to panic. Knowing the success, she began to rock back and forth violently in her seat while holding out the high piercing cry. Then, Sasha slumped her body onto the concrete floor and screamed even louder. Everyone waited for her to stop, but when that never came, Hange called out to Sozin, who was staring at Sasha in disgust. "My lord! My subordinate has this condition where she suddenly has an outburst now and then. Please let her leave and have a calm down session!"

Fighting with Sasha's high pitch scream, Sozin yelled. "Yes, Yes! She seems to have something wrong with her. Take her out!" Ignoring Sozin's obvious smear, Hange directed her right-hand man to lead Sasha out the door.

After Sasha left, the room calmed down. "If I may restate, your majesty," said the man with a vast sturdy triangular black beard. "You have come here to seek our true intentions, correct?" Without saying a word, Historia glared at Sozin, who was sitting in his stone seat. Taken aback, Sozin leaned back into his chair, brought the red wine glass to his lips. "There's this saying of Hizuru by other nations around the world," taking a sip of the red wine, he said in an ice-cold tone. "That more often than not, the guests who seek help from Hizuru don't come out alive." Historia continued her cold stare at Sozin while everyone else tensed up in place.

Then, seeing the soldiers along the walls standing up and trudging towards the center of the room, Mikasa burst into a fighting stance, lifted the wood bench under her, and flung it at the oncoming line of men. Clashing the heavy wooden bench with their bodies, they were knocked down instantly. Mikasa then dashed to the front of the room, jumped and kneed her patella deep into one of the guards' chest, took the spear, and attempted to kill the lord right then and there before she being swarmed.

After that initial throw and blow from Mikasa, the dining room was thrown into chaos. The screams and stabbing filled the bloody room. Watching from above, Sozin sees the Queen of Paradis was surrounded by her comrades as they desperately tried to fight their way out. Eventually, however, the iron encirclement around Historia was broken, and Historia had to take things into her own hands. Snapping her mind into survival instinct, Historia fought defensively.

When a clueless soldier charged at Historia blindly, she stepped to the side, propelled the spear away from her body with her right arm. She then invaded his zone and flicked a quick but powerful punch onto his face with her left hand. Grabbing under his chin, Historia used her entire body weight to push his head backward to off-balance him and smashed his head onto the concrete floor.

Historia then took the spear beside her, eyeing at one of the two guards overwhelming Hange, and darted at him. Noticing the charging Queen, the guard pointed his spear at Historia in an attempt to jab at her. But Historia slid onto her knees, leaned her body back almost parallel to the floor, extending her spear, and used the momentum from the slide to stab the end of the spear deep into the Guard's lower lung. After which, he immediately faceplanted.

Seeing what the Queen and the rest of the scouts are capable of, Sozin cursed to himself. Irritated that none of the scouts had fallen, he then reached for the bow under his stone seat, eyeing the Queen, who was beside Hange, carefully lifted his tightened bow, aimed at the young Queen, and released the arrow. The arrow flew across the room and pierced through her neck.

===

Hearing the sudden whoosh of an arrow, Hange snapped her head to see the oncoming arrow towards Historia. Instinctively, Hange pushed Historia out of the arrow's trajectory with her full body weight. Knowing her fate, Hange yelled out in one last desperation. "Get the Queen out of h-" The arrow, however, cut off her last command.

Sorry for the long wait. I had other projects. But here it is!

And....AoT is ending in a few weeks?! And the anime ended today?! (3/28/21) I need to watch the final episode. I can't believe this!

Enjoy the manga while you can and hopefully Historia will get a satisfying conclusion to her arc. Please Isayama, I'm begging you! I've not seen her in full chapters for too long! And have Eren's too!