Half an hour later, dusk was already falling.
The back alleys of the Trost District’s Church of the Walls appeared exceptionally desolate.
Most of the daytime refugees had already returned to their camps, leaving only a few dim gas streetlamps swaying in the evening wind.
Ellie detoured to the side door behind the church, and just as she was about to raise her hand to knock, a faint, lowered voice drifted from within.
“My lord, an urgent letter was just delivered from the north.”
A strange man said in a low voice:
“A sudden fire broke out in the Reiss Estate last night.
Half of the estate was burned down, and even the nearby chapel was affected.”
Ellie’s pupils shrank violently.
What, something happened to the Reiss Estate?!
She subconsciously held her breath and quietly crept closer to the crack in the door.
The man inside paused for a moment and continued speaking
“Remnants left behind by a titan and traces of steam were also found at the scene, but I heard that that lord has already intervened personally and taken care of the titan that broke in.”
Hearing this, the old priest visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Fortunate, truly fortunate, although I don’t know why a titan suddenly appeared in the Reiss Estate, as long as that lord is safe and sound, it’ll be fine…”
However, the man sitting opposite him did not relax; instead, he grew even more solemn.
“Father, I’m afraid it’s not that simple.
The bishop believes that the simultaneous incidents at the estate and the chapel have shaken the foundations of that family.”
“Next, that lord will surely use every connection possible to secretly search for descendants with the same bloodline—whether they are collateral branches or children unrecorded in the genealogy, not a single one will be spared.”
The man lowered his voice and said word by word:
“After all, that supreme power must be inherited by someone.”
“To them, bloodline is more important than anything else…”
Outside the door, Ellie leaned quietly against the cold brick wall and let out a sigh.
The tragedy of the chapel…
had happened after all.
What that man just said about “that lord defeating the titan” was most likely just false news deliberately released to the church by Rod to cover up the truth.
Ellie knew the true situation all too well.
Grisha Yeager had already broken into the underground chapel, eaten Frieda, and stolen the Founding Titan!
Sister Frieda, as well as those half-siblings of hers from the Reiss Family, were probably no longer in this world!
I wonder how her mother Marta is doing; she should be fine, right?
After this incident, the Reiss Family had no other legitimate heirs left…
No, that’s not right.
The moment Sister Frieda died, that selfish and cowardly old bastard Rod Reiss would definitely go mad searching for a vessel to bear his fate for him and the very first person he would look for was Historia, who was living under an alias in the southern reclamation area!
And then there was…
Ellie, the illegitimate daughter who disappeared from the Reiss Estate and whose whereabouts were unknown!
“I’m done for!”
Ellie rubbed her head, feeling a wave of a headache.
“Next, Rod will definitely have the Central Military Police search everywhere for me!”
“This is really going to be a huge hassle…”
She took a deep breath and quickly composed the expression on her face.
No matter what she had to face next, right now she couldn’t let the people inside notice anything unusual.
So Ellie straightened her body, raised her hand, and gently knocked on the wooden door in front of her.
“Thump, thump, thump.”
“Father?
I’m Ellie, I’ve come to collect some old bedsheets and lamp oil…”
A moment later, the door was pulled open a crack, and the old priest’s kind face appeared behind the candlelight.
Seeing that it was Ellie, he revealed a gentle smile.
“Oh, it’s little Ellie, come on in, your things have already been packed up for you.”
…
Ten minutes later, Ellie hugged a bundle of thick old blankets and two cans of lamp oil, stepping lightly as she walked out of the gates of the Trost District.
Besides these supplies in her hands, she now had three items on her person.
The first item was an ordinary pendant token of the Church of the Walls hanging around her chest, this thing looked inconspicuous, but it was quite practical.
When encountering inspections, she could use it to prove her relationship with the Church of the Walls, and wearing it openly usually wouldn’t attract any suspicion.
However, compared to the other two items, the role this pendant could play was still the smallest.
The second item was a sterling silver family crest symbolizing the bloodline of the Reiss Family.
This gadget was different!
Don’t look at how it was only the size of a palm; its true utility was frighteningly huge!
The patterns and secret marks on the family crest were exclusively for internal use by the Reiss Family, and ordinary people couldn’t forge them at all!
As long as she handed it over to high-ranking church officials who truly understood the royal family’s secrets, the other party could immediately confirm her relationship with the Reiss Family When pushed to a dead end, she could even rely on this family crest to mobilize part of the Church of the Walls’ power and gain noble protection!
Without the slightest exaggeration, this was a trump card Ellie kept hidden in her hand that could save her life at a critical moment!
However, the problem lay precisely here!
The utility of this thing was simply too great, and it was far too easy to expose her identity!
In the past, it might still have been an important token capable of convincing nobles but put in the present—it was a hot potato!
Once Rod or the Anti-Personnel Control Squad of the Central Military Police saw it, they would immediately be able to trace her identity through the family crest!
By then, Ellie would be tied into the underground chapel, becoming a vessel for inheriting the Power of the Titans on Rod’s behalf!
Such a dangerous thing of course couldn’t be carried around everywhere!
It had to be wrapped in cloth, stuffed into the deepest part of her luggage, and then hidden in a place where absolutely no one would casually rummage!
As for the third item, it was a ring Frieda had given her privately.
This ring was not only a private memento, but it also had tiny royal secret patterns engraved on the inside, used to verify her royal blood identity at critical moments!
Ellie decided to keep the inside pressed against her finger at all times and hide it well!
“As for the name…”
Ellie rubbed her brow.
She had no intention of learning from Historia and changing her own name!
After all, there were easily eight hundred or a thousand little girls named Ellie within the walls, and as long as she continued to use her mother’s commoner surname “Lantz” outwardly, based solely on a name, no one could find out that she was Rod’s illegitimate daughter!
Therefore, the identity issue wasn’t the most urgent for the time being.
The primary crisis right now, instead, was those two restless little Marley warriors at home!
Bertholdt was already dead, and the Colossal Titan was inside her own body.
However, Annie and Reiner didn’t know about this matter!
In their eyes, Bertholdt was merely missing and might need their rescue at any moment!
What was worse, was that after Marcel’s death, Annie and Reiner had lost their backbone.
Annie was still relatively calm, but once this guy Reiner got angry, his IQ instantly dropped to the same level as a rat’s.
Who knows, if his head got hot one day, he might plan to crash a huge hole into Wall Rose again!
“No, I absolutely cannot let them continue breaking the wall.”
Ellie ground her little canine teeth.
“I have to think of a way to completely dispel their thoughts of continuing to destroy the wall!”
But how could she make the two little warriors burdened with a mission obediently listen?
She would have to hit them with something big!
…
When she returned to the abandoned farm, a faint campfire had already been lit inside the house.
Reiner had repaired the front door and window frames, and was wiping away sweat bare-chested in the courtyard.
Meanwhile, Annie was sitting by the spotless dining table, lowering her head to study books from within the walls.
“I’m back!”
Ellie cheered, putting the things down on the table.
“I even brought food!
We have bread to eat tonight!”
Reiner walked in wiping his sweat and smiled.
“The road wasn’t easy to walk after dark, right?”
“It’s alright, the church priest is super nice.”
Ellie brushed it off with a chuckle, then turned her head to look at Annie.
“Annie, tonight we each get a blanket, and I definitely won’t cross your line!”
Annie’s fingers holding the book paused slightly, and she coldly raised her eyelids to glance at her.
“…
You’d better mean what you say.”
“Rest assured!” Ellie patted her chest in assurance.
After a simple dinner, the night grew deeper and Reiner and Annie, who had tossed and turned all day, quickly returned to their rooms to rest.
After hearing Reiner’s heavy snoring come from the neighboring room and Annie still in her room reading books, Ellie seized the opportunity to sneak into the kitchen, close the wooden door, and lite a weak oil lamp.
She took out a yellowed old piece of parchment and a charcoal stick retrieved from the drawer, and closed her eyes.
“Bertholdt…
let me see your memories.”
This was the first time Ellie actively dived into the depths of consciousness of the Power of the Titans.
Boom——
Countless shattered memory fragments appeared in her mind.
She saw the towering barbed wire fences of the Marley internment zone, the harsh physical training in the warrior training camp, Commander Magath’s cold lectures, and the top-secret orders issued by the upper echelons of the Marley military before departure…
Not only that, but she also saw Marley’s official language, orthodox spelling habits, and secret codes known only within the warrior squad!
Ellie suddenly opened both eyes, a strange brilliance lighting up within her pupils.
“Got it!”
To achieve the most shocking effect, Ellie intentionally adopted Old Eldian as the main body and mixed in Marleyan text with military abbreviations on key nouns!
[To the Visitors Across the Sea]
…
After signing her name, Ellie picked up the letter paper and checked it repeatedly under the dim oil lamp.
“Perfect!
Heh heh heh…”
Ellie couldn’t help letting out a low, villainous chuckle.
As long as she found a suitable opportunity, such as “accidentally” picking up this letter in the mailbox or at the door tomorrow morning…
When Reiner and Annie saw this warning letter from the King Within the Walls, the expressions on their faces would definitely be very wonderful, right?!
================================================================ turn your brain off and just enjoy it…
they’re also 11 if it helps you try and rationalize and make sense of how this plan works still i do wonder what the letter says?
>.<
(S20-21 of South Park are trash, forgot how bad they were)
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