Hitch woke up in the morning and stared at Annie's neatly made bed for a while, resting her chin in her hand.
"So that girl really didn't come back all night…"
Muttering to herself, she got out of bed and walked over to the desk.
A hair accessory lay on top of it.
"Seriously… I even prepared this for her for nothing," she said. Then she suddenly thought of something, opened the wardrobe, and her mouth twitched. "That idiot… she really went on a date wearing her uniform?"
Knock knock.
There was a knock at the door. Hitch went to open it. Standing outside was Garcia, a short-haired girl from the same training class.
"Hitch, get ready. We're doing district patrol."
"Oh, coming."
Hitch quickly washed up, changed clothes, and followed Garcia outside. Everyone had already gathered. Hitch looked around curiously.
"Where's captain?"
"No idea," Marlo shook his head. "He didn't come back last night either. No clue where he went."
"..."
Hitch fell silent for a moment, then suddenly broke into a mischievous grin.
"What are you smiling about?" someone asked.
"No, nothing, nothing. We don't need to wait for the captain anyway. The patrol areas are already assigned—let's just go."
"Yeah," Robert agreed. "Otherwise those bastard seniors will start bossing us around again."
Everyone nodded in agreement and headed out for patrol. As they walked, Hitch muttered to herself,
"Annie actually dared to lie to me. And the captain too—said it was nothing… heh. When they get back, I'm definitely blackmailing them properly."
Not far away, Marlo was thinking something else entirely.
Lillian said he was going to investigate the Stratmann family's missing daughter case… He didn't run into trouble, did he? Probably not. He's strong.
But if he still doesn't show up by afternoon, I'll have to report it and get people searching.
---
Tap, tap, tap…
Lillian entered the basement carrying breakfast. Annie was still restrained, looking utterly drained and exhausted.
That was only natural. "Lightning," that hallucinogen, took a severe toll on the body. Most drugs did—forcing the body to release its energy in a short burst, only to leave it completely depleted once the effect wore off.
On top of that, she had been bound to a wooden frame all night, unable to move. Even for someone like Annie, who had undergone rigorous physical training, this was enough to leave her utterly spent. Even if her restraints were removed now, transforming into a Titan would be extremely difficult with her current stamina.
Of course, exhausting her wasn't Lillian's goal.
In fact, he had spoken almost nonstop throughout the night, analyzing every angle and consequence. Annie had only listened. Lillian had no way of knowing how much she truly absorbed, but in his view, among the three Warriors, Annie was the one most capable of distinguishing right from wrong.
This "right and wrong" wasn't about factions or battlefield justice—it was about human nature.
Unlike Reiner and Bertholdt, Annie was fundamentally kind. In modern times, many people treated "kindness" as a weakness, idolizing ruthless decisiveness and survival-of-the-fittest logic. But to Lillian, kindness was something incredibly rare.
Kindness wasn't self-righteous pity at others' expense. It was goodwill, respect for life—having seen the vastness of the world, yet still cherishing a blade of grass.
Reiner and Bertholdt were the opposite. They were qualified warriors, even heroes in battle—but they couldn't be called kind. By the later stages, they believed without hesitation that exterminating the people inside the Walls was the correct thing to do. Their thoughts and actions aligned perfectly.
Annie was different.
She cried after killing. She hesitated because of guilt and pain. That was the essential difference. Perhaps she wasn't as deeply brainwashed. Perhaps girls matured earlier. Or perhaps her isolated upbringing and total focus on training left little room for political indoctrination to truly take root.
That was precisely why Lillian chose her.
Though she appeared the coldest, she was actually the one most capable of listening—and the smartest of the three.
As for Reiner, that walking psychological fracture… He looked like a dependable big brother, but in truth, nothing you said ever truly reached him. Even if it did, it reached only the "soldier" persona, never the "warrior."
"The sun's been up for a while," Lillian said, placing the breakfast on the table as he walked toward Annie. "The Survey Corps' expedition should be close to ending. I'm sorry, Annie. I should have released you after I finished speaking last night. But even with a one-in-ten-thousand chance, I couldn't risk it."
"And now," he continued, "even if you rushed there, it'd be too late. Your body wouldn't hold up for that distance anyway."
Annie looked at him silently, her eyes dull with exhaustion.
Lillian reached behind her head and undid the bindings securing her head to the wooden board. Then he moved to the front and removed the fiber material stuffed in her mouth.
The instant her head and mouth were free, Annie suddenly lunged forward and bit down hard on Lillian's right hand.
She said nothing—only bit down with all her strength, as if trying to vent her rage, pain, and tangled emotions all at once.
Lillian didn't resist.
A salty taste spread through her mouth. Scalding blood dripped from his hand onto the floor. Watching him endure in silence, Annie finally broke. Tears streamed from her eyes, mixing with his blood as they fell.
She released his hand.
Lillian withdrew his mangled palm without a word and continued removing the rest of her restraints.
Only after everything was undone did he realize just how badly depleted she was. She couldn't even stand—her body collapsed backward. He quickly caught her, one hand supporting her back, the other steadying her shoulder.
It made sense.
A full day investigating Carly's disappearance. The effects of "Lightning." An entire night bound like that. Anyone would have broken under it.
And she was only sixteen.
That restraint—by any standard—bordered on torture.
Lillian helped her sit on a chair. Annie's eyes were red and swollen. She stared at his shredded hand, then at the ring lying on the table beside her.
Somehow, she found the strength to grab it, flick out the hidden hook—
—and raised it toward her finger.
"..."
Her skin stopped a centimeter away.
She looked at Lillian and asked weakly,
"You're not going to stop me?"
"If you truly want to do it, then do it," Lillian replied calmly. "I've said everything I needed to say. If, after hearing all of it, you still decide that the right answer is 'turn into a Titan and kill Lillian'… then go ahead."
"..."
"Annie, the truth is, none of us are truly free to choose. But I still want the right to choose how I face it. If death is inevitable, I would rather die resisting—and failing—than die through obedience."
Annie lowered her hand. Weak, she leaned against the table, forcing herself to stay upright.
"My family…"
"They'll be rescued," Lillian said. "I promise you."
"Can I really trust you, Lillian?" Annie said softly, not looking at him—as if she were asking herself rather than him.
"No," Lillian replied calmly. "I'm a despicable person. The fact that I drugged you without you noticing should make that obvious. So don't trust me. Trust your own judgment. If your judgment tells you to trust me, then do it—hand everything over to me, and we'll fight together."
"..."
Annie finally looked up at him. They locked eyes for several seconds. Then she reached out, grabbed the breakfast Lillian had bought, and began eating ravenously.
Watching her, Lillian finally—slowly—let out the breath he'd been holding.