You are my Soul

☾hapter LII

Earlier in the day

" Is this a portrait ?". Mikasa asked curiously.

" No... It's far too perfect for any human to have drawn it". Hange replied.

On the other side of the image was a message written in Eren's father's handwriting. 

He wrote," This is not an illustration. It's an imprint on reflected light, left on a special kind of paper. It is called a photograph.

I came from beyond the walls where humanity enjoys a refined existence. Humanity has not perished. I pray that whoever first finds this book is a fellow patriot. As I considered where I ought to begin...

That day came unbidden into my mind. The day in my youth when I was forced to face the truth of this world. My sister... She was found in the river the next day; she was killed. And I knew that this man from the Marley public security authorities was lying.

He'd been skipping out on his job and sleeping by the riverside. He couldn't have been that busy. My mother was overwhelmed with sorrow while my father... Demeaned himself in front of these men.

I looked at my father and this man, and I began to hate them, so much that it made me dizzy. But even more than that... I cursed my own foolishness. Our history began 1,820 years ago; our ancestor, Ymir Fritz, made a contract with the Earth Devil in exchange for power. The power of the Titans.

After her death, Ymir's soul was split into nine Titans, who built the empire of Eldia. Eldia was a great and ancient nation that destroyed Marley and came to rule our continent. That is when the dark ages began. The subjects of Ymir, who had gained the power to turn into Titans, designated all other peoples and races as inferior and began to oppress them.

They stole away their land and possessions, wiping out many bloodlines entirely. Eldians forced peoples to have their children, so that Ymir could have more subjects. This ethnic cleansing lasted for around 1,700 years.

Eldia's arrogance grew to know no limits, but the people of the once-great nation of Marley began to plot against them from within. They were able to incite a civil war, weakening Eldia. Not only that, they brought seven of the nine Titans under their control and were victorious in the great Titan war eighty years ago.

King Fritz was left only with the Island of Paradis, where he built three concentric walls in which he and his people took refuge. But not all of them. Us non-Marleyan Eldians that remained... The King abandoned us and left us behind on this continent. It would have been fitting for Marley to eradicate us all.

But the fact that we expected that only shows that we are descended from devils. Instead, the tolerant people of Marley showed us mercy. They gave us land we could live on. That was the story all parents told their children... And my father was talkative for someone who had just lost his daughter.

As he stood there, defending his masters and happily belittling his ancestors... He looked just like a dog. And I didn't know anymore... Who was in the wrong ? Me ? Or this world ? It was probably both. I was foolish and ignorant... And the world was unfair and insane.

I discovered my own path when I was eighteen. I was making plans to take over running my father's clinic, indifferent to it all. I worked in the field of medicine. And I bore a deep hatred of the Marley Government.

The underground anti-establishment group known as the Eldia Restorationists took note of these two points and came to recruit me. When I learned the truth of what happened to my little sister... I made a vow to myself. I'd teach them who the true devils were.