The liveliness of the harvest festival seemed to still linger from yesterday, but the weather in the Trost District had already quietly changed.
After a few rounds of pattering autumn rain, the wind on the streets suddenly became much colder.
Pedestrians began putting on thick coats one after another, and even the stone walls of the church seemed to exude a damp, chilly coldness.
“Achoo!”
Ellie was sitting in the archives room of the Church of the Walls when she suddenly let out a sneeze.
She rubbed the tip of her itchy nose and put down her quill.
“Phew…
Finally done.”
Right at that moment, the frantic sigh of the old priest suddenly came from outside.
“Sigh…
What should we do now…”
Ellie poked her head out to take a look, only to see the old priest clutching a thick stack of documents and pacing anxiously around the room.
“The carriage to the royal capital is leaving tomorrow, but he just had to fall ill at this critical moment!”
The old priest stopped in his tracks, so worried that he looked like he was about to pull out his beard.
In his hand, he tightly grasped a thick stack of documents sealed with red sealing wax.
Ellie immediately pricked up her ears, her eyes rolling around cleverly.
Documents being sent to the royal capital?
In this world, the royal capital was where the power, wealth, and secrets within the Walls were most concentrated.
The high-ranking officials of the Church of the Walls, the Military Police Brigade, and even the king were all there.
This was a legitimate opportunity to take a publicly funded trip to a big city…
Oh no, to collect intelligence!
If she missed such a good opportunity, Ellie felt that she would have to sit up in her sleep at night and slap herself twice!
She hurriedly put down the ration sheet in her hand and ran over to the old priest.
“Lord Priest, I just heard what you said.
Are you short on manpower to deliver the documents?”
“If you don’t mind, how about letting me go?”
Ellie patted her own chest.
“Although I’m young, I’m very reliable when it comes to getting things done!”
The old priest was slightly stunned.
Looking at the genuinely capable girl in front of him, he hesitated.
“But Ellie, the journey to the royal capital is very far, and you’re a girl…”
“It doesn’t matter!
I can go with my friend!
Her combat skills are super awesome!”
Ellie clasped her hands together and said cutely.
“Then…
alright.
You must be careful on the road!”
In the end, faced with the combination of a genuine lack of manpower and Ellie’s overwhelming cuteness, the old priest compromised.
…
That evening, inside the small farmhouse in the suburbs.
“What?!
You’re leaving for half a month?
And you’re going to the royal capital?!”
When Ellie announced this decision at the dinner table, the wooden spoon in Reiner’s hand slipped and dropped straight into the stew pot with a splash.
“No way, Ellie!
Going from here to the royal capital requires passing through several checkpoints.
It’s too dangerous for you to travel alone!”
“Don’t worry, Reiner.
The priest allowed me to take Annie with me.”
While chewing on a piece of black bread, Ellie shifted her gaze toward Annie, who had remained silent the entire time. This story is hosted at g.com.
Hearing Ellie’s words, Annie’s azure eyes flickered slightly before she put down her knife and fork.
As clever as she was, she immediately understood the pros and cons.
Escorting Church documents…
That also meant she could use Ellie’s identity to approach the power center of the royal capital and observe high-ranking military officials.
For a little warrior searching for clues about the Founding Titan, this was practically a pie falling from the sky—a fantastic opportunity!
Ellie, this idiot, could always come in handy in the strangest places.
Annie didn’t express her stance immediately, but she had already made up her mind.
After dinner, while Ellie went to the backyard to wash the dishes, Annie and Reiner quietly met in the woodshed.
“I hope to accompany Ellie to the royal capital.”
Annie leaned against the doorframe and spoke indifferently.
“I can use the identity of guarding Ellie to observe the deployment of the Interior Military Police and the intensity of the checkpoint inspections along the way.”
“If everything goes smoothly, this will be very useful for our future actions.”
“But…”
Reiner was still somewhat hesitant.
“Is it really a good idea to drag Ellie into our mission?”
“It doesn’t matter.
I’ll keep her out of it and make sure she doesn’t find out what I’m doing.”
Annie glanced at Reiner.
“The identity here needs someone to maintain.
You stay behind, keep moving bricks at the construction site, and look after the horses and supplies while you’re at it.”
“…Alright, I’ve got it.”
Reiner sighed.
Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, the light mist along the roadside had not yet dispersed.
but Ellie and Annie had already strapped on their packs and were standing at the intersection leading toward the interior.
“Ellie, be very careful along the way.”
The old priest walked forward tremblingly and solemnly handed the waterproof leather cylinder containing the important documents to Ellie and immediately afterward, he pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from inside his robes and handed it to her as well.
“This is the map drawn for you by the sick messenger last night.
The roads, villages, and post stations along the way are all marked on it.
Follow it, and you certainly won’t get lost.
May the Three Walls and the gods bless you all the way!”
“Thank you, Lord Priest!
We’ll definitely deliver the documents safely!”
Ellie gratefully accepted the parchment and unfolded it on the carriage with great anticipation.
The next second, her face was covered in black lines.
“…What kind of nonsense is this drawing?
(눈_눈)”
On the parchment, the mountains and rivers that should have been clearly marked had become a bunch of distorted, wavy lines.
The villages were represented by circles of various sizes, and some of them even had their borders drawn around them.
As for the roads…
They looked like a collection of messy ghost talismans scribbled onto the paper with the feet of a drunkard!
“Annie, I think…
we’re going to have to find the way ourselves.”
Ellie handed the map over with a tearful expression, Annie only glanced at it before the corner of her eye twitched twice.
“Don’t look at it.
If we rely on that, we’ll probably end up walking into the sea.”
“Sigh…”
Although they desperately wanted to complain about the map, the two still set off according to the original plan.
The next few days were simply hell for Ellie, because they didn’t know the way, they successfully missed the post station on the evening of the second day and were forced to camp in the forest.
In the middle of the night, they even encountered a huge wild boar trying to sneak in and attack their supplies. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“Waaah!
Annie, help!
A wild boar broke into the tent!”
“So noisy.
Shut up!”
Annie delivered a textbook flying kick straight into the wild boar’s face.
Bang!
The wild boar, weighing more than two hundred catties, spun a full 360 degrees in midair before crashing heavily to the ground!
In no time at all, Ellie pulled out her skinning knife.
“…How about roasted pork chops for an extra meal tonight?”
“Mhm…”
And so, guided by the map inexplicably drawn by the messenger during what must have been a fit of madness, the two continued their journey.
After taking the wrong path, being attacked by a wild boar, crossing the Forest of Giant Trees, and passing by the Shiganshina District, the two cute girls finally saw the tall and bustling walls of the royal capital three days later.
Wait a minute.
How on earth did you two manage to run from the interior of Wall Rose all the way to the Shiganshina District?!
Since you’re already there, why not drop by and visit Eren Yeager’s basement while you’re at it?
Ahem, ahem.
Those things above are, of course, impossible to happen.
Compared to the peripheral Shiganshina District, the streets of the royal capital were impossibly clean.
Carriage after carriage traveled smoothly along the flat, paved roads, while the shop windows on both sides were filled with expensive silks and spices and compared with the Trost District, which was crowded with refugees, this place was practically another world.
“Annie, look over there!
That shop actually has so many kinds of cakes!”
Ellie grabbed Annie’s hand and looked left and right the entire way, just like someone visiting a big city for the very first time.
Unfortunately, Annie had absolutely no interest in window shopping.
She lowered the brim of her hat, letting Ellie pull her along while her gaze continuously swept over the Military Police patrolling the street corners, the guard posts set up at intersections, and the distant passages leading up toward the city walls.
Just like that, the two successfully arrived at a magnificent Church of the Walls on the outskirts of the royal capital.
“We’ve arrived!
This is the church located in the royal capital!”
The handover process was unexpectedly smooth.
After the person in charge checked the old priest’s seal, they not only readily paid the delivery fee but also gladly agreed to Ellie’s request to assist with organizing the archives.
“You two have come a long way.
It must have been hard on you.
Please come with me.
I’ve already arranged a place for you to stay.”
A young nun led them with a smile through the church corridors and brought them to a guest room on the second floor.
When she pushed open the door, Ellie found that although the room wasn’t very large, it was furnished warmly, and sunlight spilled across the floor through the stained-glass windows.
Only…
There were just two single beds in the center of the room.
“I am very sorry.
There have been many pilgrims visiting recently, so guest rooms are a little tight.”
The nun clasped her hands together in front of her chest and spoke apologetically.
“Currently, this twin room is the only one available.
However, seeing that the two of you have such a good relationship, sharing the same room…
shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“Yay!
This bed is much softer than the wooden plank bed at the farm!”
Ellie didn’t notice anything unusual about the atmosphere at all and with a cheer, she threw herself directly onto the bed and happily rolled around.
Standing in the doorway, Annie looked at the nun’s strange smile.
It was the kind of smile that made her feel as though the nun had just decided to play matchmaker for some inexplicable pairing.
An inexplicable chill suddenly ran down Annie’s back.
…Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?