CHAPTER 9: WHISPERS IN THE DARK
The third day began with fog.
Thick, white, and cold. It covered everything like a shroud. The soldiers could barely see ten meters ahead.
"Stay close," Shadis ordered. "No one wanders off."
Sukuna walked through the mist. Mikasa was on his left. Armin on his right. Their faces were pale, tired.
No one had slept well.
The dead soldiers' bodies had been left behind. There was no time to bury them. No way to carry them back.
"This is the Survey Corps," Sukuna thought. "Death is just another part of the mission."
He didn't mind.
He had seen worse. Much worse.
The fog lifted around noon.
The sun appeared. The world was green and beautiful. Flowers bloomed. Birds sang.
It was hard to believe that Titans lurked in these fields.
"It's beautiful," Armin whispered.
"It's a trap," Sukuna replied.
Armin looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"Beautiful things are always traps. The prettier the flower, the deadlier the poison."
Armin didn't know how to respond.
Mikasa said nothing. She just kept scanning the horizon.
Then they saw it.
A village.
Not a destroyed village. Not an empty village.
A living village.
Houses stood intact. Smoke rose from chimneys. People moved in the streets.
"Impossible," Jean whispered. "We're outside Wall Rose. There shouldn't be anyone here."
"And yet," Sukuna said, "there they are."
Shadis raised his hand. The formation stopped.
"Scouts, report," he ordered.
Two soldiers moved ahead. They returned minutes later, their faces confused.
"The villagers say they've lived here for years," one scout reported. "They don't know about the walls. They don't know about Titans."
Silence.
"That's impossible," Shadis said.
"And yet," Sukuna repeated.
The Survey Corps entered the village.
The villagers were simple people. Farmers. Blacksmiths. Weavers. They looked at the soldiers with curiosity, not fear.
"Where did you come from?" an old man asked.
"From inside the walls," Shadis replied.
"What walls?"
Shadis didn't answer.
Sukuna walked through the village. His green eyes studied everything.
"This is wrong," he thought. "These people shouldn't exist. Not here. Not outside the walls."
He stopped.
A woman was hanging laundry on a line. She was humming a song.
A song he recognized.
"That melody..."
It was an old song. From Marley. From the world beyond the sea.
"So," Sukuna whispered, "the lies go deeper than I thought."
That night, the Survey Corps camped near the village.
Sukuna sat alone by a tree. The stars were bright.
Annie appeared from the shadows.
"You noticed too," she said. It wasn't a question.
"The song," Sukuna said. "It's not from inside the walls."
Annie sat down next to him. Not close. But not far.
"There are things in this world you don't understand, Eren."
"Then explain them to me."
Annie was quiet for a long time.
Then she said, "Not everyone inside the walls is from the walls. Some of us came from somewhere else."
"Where?"
"A place across the sea. A place with cities of steel and ships that fly in the sky."
Sukuna looked at her. "Why did you come here?"
Annie's blue eyes were cold.
"To destroy humanity."
Silence.
Then Sukuna laughed. A quiet, dark laugh.
"Finally," he said. "The truth."
"You're not scared?"
"No. I've destroyed more worlds than you can imagine."
Annie stared at him.
"Who are you really, Eren?"
Sukuna looked at the stars.
"Someone who should not exist. Just like you."
The next morning, the Survey Corps prepared to leave.
The villagers waved goodbye. They didn't understand where the soldiers were going. They didn't understand the danger.
"They'll be dead within a week," Sukuna said quietly.
Mikasa looked at him. "How do you know?"
"Because Titans don't care about villages. They only care about humans."
He walked ahead.
Mikasa followed.
Always following.
They marched for two more days.
They encountered three Titans. They killed two. One soldier died.
On the fifth night, they reached their destination.
An old castle.
The castle stood on a hill. Its walls were cracked. Its towers were broken. But it was still standing.
"This is where we stop," Shadis announced. "We'll rest here before returning."
The soldiers entered the castle.
Sukuna looked up at the stone walls.
"A castle," he thought. "In a world without kings."
He smiled.
"How fitting."
That night, Sukuna climbed to the highest tower.
The moon was full. The land stretched below him like a silver carpet.
Footsteps behind him.
"You like high places," a voice said.
Reiner.
"I like seeing everything," Sukuna replied. "From above, the world looks small. Manageable."
Reiner stood next to him.
"What do you see, Eren?"
"I see walls. Inside the walls, more walls. And beyond the walls... freedom."
Reiner was quiet.
"Do you think freedom exists, Reiner?" Sukuna asked.
Reiner looked at the moon.
"I used to," he said. "Now... I don't know."
"Why?"
"Because the closer I get to freedom, the more I realize... I might not deserve it."
Sukuna looked at him.
The Armored Titan. The warrior. The child soldier.
"No one deserves freedom," Sukuna said. "You take it. Or you don't."
Reiner turned to him.
"You're different, Eren. You've always been different."
"I know."
"Sometimes... I wish I was different too."
Sukuna said nothing.
They stood in silence, two monsters looking at the moon.
END OF CHAPTER 9