Meanwhile, amidst the surging crowd of refugees…
In the shadow of a makeshift, ragged tent, two dust-colored children were whispering and arguing.
“Reiner, we have to go back and wait a bit longer.”
Annie lowered her voice.
“Bertholdt still hasn’t caught up.
If anything unexpected happens, we won’t be able to carry out the mission!”
“No!
Annie, we absolutely cannot go back!”
Reiner grabbed Annie’s arm and looking closely, you could see his forehead was covered in cold sweat!
“Have you forgotten?
The inner gate was smashed open by me, and now there are Titans and retreating garrison soldiers everywhere.”
“If we walk against the flow of the crowd, not only won’t we be able to save Bertholdt, but we won’t even be able to save our own lives!”
“But…
Reiner…”
“Don’t worry, Annie!
Bertholdt possesses the power of the Colossal Titan, nothing could possibly happen to him!”
“He must be hiding somewhere, or he went ahead to Wall Rose first.
It has to be that way!”
Reiner’s voice trembled slightly, and without even realizing it himself, his words lacked conviction, Annie only looked at him coldly and sighed.
“Fine, then what should we do?
Are we supposed to stay in this refugee camp for a few months?”
That’s right, they lacked food, water, and legal identification documents within the walls.
Blending in with the refugees for a short time might not be a problem, but after all, they were two unaccompanied children of unknown origin and as long as they kept acting alone, sooner or later they would be stopped and interrogated by patrolling military police!
By then, if they couldn’t clearly explain even one thing about their place of residence, parents, village, or escape route, it could invite a deeper investigation.
What was even more troublesome was that they knew almost nothing about the situation inside the walls.
If this continued, let alone searching for the Founding Titan, whether they could successfully sneak into Wall Rose was already a question!
Just at that moment, Annie’s gaze narrowed slightly amidst the crowd.
Her line of sight cut through the chaotic refugees and landed on a blonde girl not far away who was leading a brown horse.
The girl was wearing a somewhat oversized coarse cloth dress, and although her face was smeared with ash, her posture was resilient, on the outside of the horse’s saddle, there hung a watersack that looked heavy and full of water.
In this refugee camp where people had to break their heads just to fight for a sip of clean water, this girl actually possessed an intact horse and plenty of supplies!
It was simply…
like a fat sheep that had fallen into a pack of wolves!
“Reiner, look over there.”
Annie nudged Reiner with her elbow, signaling him to look at the blonde girl.
“Look, this girl doesn’t seem simple, if we can travel with her, it will definitely be easier to slip past the checkpoint.”
Reiner followed her line of sight, and his eyes instantly lit up.
“Indeed, but she looks very vigilant…
I’ll try to interact with her!”
“Don’t mess around, I’ll go.”
With that, Annie straightened her ragged robe, put on a weak and exhausted look, and walked toward the blonde girl who was drinking water by the trough.
“…
Excuse me.”
Annie said hoarsely, “…
Can you share a little water with us?
My companion is about to get heatstroke.”
Hearing the voice, the blonde girl turned her head.
She seemed surprised for a split second, then quickly suppressed the expression on her face, nodded gently, untied the watersack from beside the saddle, and handed it over.
“Take it, but drink it sparingly, I don’t have much left either.”
“Thank you.”
Annie took the watersack, took a symbolic sip, and then handed it to Reiner, who had stepped forward.
The blonde girl looked at them and asked seemingly nonchalantly,
Did you come from somewhere further away?”
Annie’s drinking motion paused imperceptibly.
The Marley accent indeed had slight differences from the core region of Paradis Island.
She just hadn’t expected that this frail-looking girl would be so sharp!
“We…
come from a very remote border mountain village.”
Annie lowered her eyelids and explained softly
“Because the location is too remote, our accent might not be quite the same as in the city.”
“Right, right, right!”
Reiner hurriedly chimed in to smooth things over.
“Our village is in a mountain ravine, and this time when the Titans suddenly attacked, the people in the village scattered!
The two of us were very lucky, we weren’t attacked along the way, and we managed to escape with great difficulty.”
“I see, that’s really unfortunate.”
The blonde girl sighed sympathetically.
“My name is Ellie Lanz, what about you two?”
“Annie Leonhart.”
“Reiner Braun.”
The blonde girl nodded expressionlessly.
“Alright, I know now.”
At this moment, looking at these two Oscar-level little Marley spies in front of her, Ellie felt as if ten thousand grass-mud horses were stampeding through her heart.
When she saw Annie from afar earlier, Ellie had a vague feeling that something was wrong, this little loli had light golden short hair and an iceberg-like expression, appearing much more mature than her peers.
Hiss, the image was somewhat familiar, and she somehow felt she looked a bit like a young Annie!
But there were plenty of blonde girls inside the walls—let alone Annie, Historia…
even she herself was a blonde!
It couldn’t be that she just randomly met a blonde loli on the street, and it happened to be Annie herself, right?
But when the other person said the name Annie Leonhart out of her own mouth, Ellie instantly petrified.
“Good grief, I only stayed in the refugee camp for a little while, how did I get targeted by Annie?!”
Looking further back, a tense-looking little boy was standing not far away.
That iconic short blonde hair and square face shape—who else could it be if not the Armored Titan, Reiner?
To be honest, Ellie didn’t recognize Reiner at all at first glance just now.
In her memory, Reiner had broad shoulders and a wide back, a burly yet delicate-featured face, and when he stood there, he looked like a double-door refrigerator but the boy in front of her hadn’t fully grown yet, and he was only slightly taller than Annie.
Although his sturdy frame was already visible, his face still carried a bit of lingering childishness.
No matter how she looked at it, he was just a country boy who was slightly better nourished, right?
However, Ellie clearly forgot that Reiner was only 12 years old at this time, and Marley couldn’t possibly have livestock pumped with XX hormones, vegetables sprayed with XX drugs, or milk laced with XX chemical additives.
Therefore, according to the developmental level of a 12-year-old boy in this world, Reiner should be exactly this tall right now.
“I yield, is it a case of onlookers seeing clearly while those involved are confused?”
Sensing that Annie was sizing her up, Ellie immediately reined in her thoughts, since the other party hadn’t grown suspicious yet, she had to fabricate a reasonable identity for herself first.
“Ahem, I am actually a believer from the Church of the Walls.”
Ellie pulled out the exquisite Church of the Walls badge from her chest and waved it.
“Ever since I lost my parents, I have always been taken care of by the church, After this disaster happened, I plan to ride a horse into the interior of Wall Rose to seek refuge with the church.”
“What about you two?
What are your plans afterwards?”
As soon as Annie saw that badge, she instantly understood the girl’s value.
This was a believer of the Church of the Walls!
Although she didn’t know what the Church of the Walls was, inside the walls it was definitely a useful identity!
Reiner seemed to have noticed this point as well, he scratched his head and said
“Actually, our village also has some connections with the church!
Our village is right to the north of Wall Maria, my dad used to be a blacksmith who often helped the church repair candlesticks and things like that, we…”
“Say no more, Reiner.”
Annie unceremoniously pinched Reiner hard on the lower back under her cloak, making Reiner gasp in pain as his voice cut off abruptly. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
What an idiot!
If Ellie were to ask further, where on earth would they go to invent a blacksmith father?
“Our village doesn’t have a blacksmith at all, only a carpenter.
We are just two ordinary children.”
Annie took over the words expressionlessly and said coldly, “He was frightened by the Titans, and he often talks nonsense.
Please don’t mind it.”
“Ah…
right, right, it’s a carpenter, I misspoke just now.”
Reiner sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, smiling awkwardly yet politely.
Ellie was speechless.
When telling a lie, don’t turn your head to the side, Reiner, you fool!
Also, is that smoking and card-playing garrison soldier next to you really that attractive to your gaze?!
However, Ellie didn’t plan to expose them so early.
“Since everyone is homeless, why don’t…
we act together first?”
Annie raised her eyebrows slightly.
“Cooperation?”
“Yes.”
Ellie pointed at her brown horse and supplies.
“As you can see, I am all by myself.”
“Although I have a horse, food, and the church’s token, I am, after all, a frail girl.
In this camp full of refugees, leading a horse alone is too easy to be targeted by bad people with ill intentions.”
“In fact, just now I felt someone staring at me in secret…”
“Hmm…
I guess it must be some greasy pervert with bad intentions!”
Speaking of this, Ellie noticed that Annie guiltily shifted her gaze elsewhere and she instantly understood.
Hey hey!
Turns out you were the one peeping at me just a moment ago, Annie!
Don’t go dodging the question like Reiner!
Ellie speechlessly covered her forehead and continued, “The two of you look very capable, you should be able to protect me.”
“Of course!”
Reiner laughed heartily.
“I didn’t expect you to figure that out, hahaha!”
Annie’s mouth twitched, and she turned her head to look at Reiner speechlessly, as if looking at a mentally disabled person.
“Don’t rush to be happy yet, we still don’t know how we’re going to bluff our way through the gates of Wall Rose and with our status as refugees, even if we barely manage to sneak in, it will be hard to establish a foothold inside the walls, right?”
For a moment, the three people’s gazes fell back onto Ellie, she let out a sly smile and threw out her proposal.
“We can claim to the outside world that we are survivors who know each other and reunited on the run.
That way, the three of us together will have a much greater chance of passing the Wall Rose checkpoint!”
“As for the arrangements afterward, I have my own plans!”
“What do you think?”
Annie and Reiner looked at each other, both seeing approval in each other’s eyes.
“Alright.”
Annie nodded and agreed to the cooperation.
“I’ll be responsible for protecting you and the safety of the supplies.”
“Great!” Ellie clapped her hands.
“٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و”
She generously opened the saddlebag, took out a large piece of dried meat and two pieces of bread from inside, and handed them over.
“Here, you must be starving after tossing about all day, eat something to fill your stomachs first.”
“Once we’re full, we can discuss what to do next!”
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The start of a beautiful friendship 🙂
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