Zeke watched the Marleyan ship retreat across the waves until it shrank into the horizon. The ocean swallowed its outline, leaving only the endless expanse of blue.
Behind him, a shrill, cracking scream tore through the air. Seema's voice. She had been shrieking ever since he lifted her, but now her voice grew hoarse, and eventually, it withered into silence.
She was simply too exhausted to continue.
Zeke placed her gently on his massive shoulder. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, finally, his voice rumbled like thunder.
"What does it feel like," he asked, "to stand on the shoulders of Titans?"
Seema froze. The words stunned her more than the sight of the Titan himself. "You… you can speak?"
Zeke rolled his great eyes, a strangely human gesture in that monstrous face. "Of course I can. Now answer me—what does it feel like?"
His voice shook her bones, but gradually her panic ebbed. For now, at least, the Beast Titan seemed to mean her no harm. He was calm, curious even. Slowly, Seema managed to steady her breathing.
But could anyone truly be calm while standing so close to a Titan?
The sound of his breathing alone was overwhelming. The vastness of his body made her feel smaller than an insect.
Yet, she obeyed his command—she had no choice. She was a death row prisoner, a disposable tool. Disobedience would only end with her being crushed.
Seema forced herself upright on his shoulder and looked outward.
The world stretched before her in ways she had never imagined. The sea glittered under the sun, stretching to eternity. The ship that had carried the Marleyans was now no more than a speck dissolving into the mist of the horizon. Above it all, the sky was vast, impossibly blue, without end.
Her fear dulled into something else—awe.
Still, she struggled to put it into words.
"Well?" Zeke asked again, his tone softer this time. "How does it feel?"
"I… I don't know," Seema stammered. "It's… good. Strange, but good."
It wasn't the truth. In truth, she had been terrified, confused, unsure of what to look at, unsure of what she was even meant to feel. But she couldn't deny that the sight of sky and sea together like this was something she would remember for the rest of her short life.
Zeke studied her reaction, then sighed.
"I promised someone," he murmured, almost to himself, "that when I returned, I'd let her see the world from the shoulders of Titans."
Seema blinked. "You mean… the princess?"
Zeke did not reply. He didn't need to. Everyone on the ship had seen it—the closeness between him and the Marleyan princess. The way she had laughed with him, the way she had looked at him.
Seema's heart tightened. That love had ended so suddenly, the princess choosing the sea over him, leaving him behind with nothing but memories.
"Sure enough," Seema whispered, almost bitterly, "no Marleyan would ever truly love an Eldian…"
She lowered her gaze, unable to meet his. If she had been the little warrior chosen by the princess instead of Zeke, she thought, she might have cried for her too.
Zeke didn't answer her words. At this moment, what did it matter—love or not? The princess was gone. The promise he had made her was left unfulfilled.
He looked at Seema but saw only echoes. Everyone seemed to carry traces of the woman he had lost—her dark hair, her smile, her voice. But none of them were her.
Everyone was her, and yet none of them were.
The realization settled like lead in his chest.
He lifted Seema from his shoulder, cradling her carefully in his palm. With deliberate gentleness, he lowered her back down to the earth.
His Titan form steamed away, the beast dissolving until only Zeke, flesh and bone, stood there once more.
Reiner rushed over, eyes wide with shock. "Warrior Captain! Weren't you going to roar? Why did you cancel the transformation without commanding them?"
"I won't roar," Zeke said flatly.
"Why?!" Reiner's voice cracked, his restored eyes widening in disbelief.
"Because it's boring. They're useless." Zeke didn't bother to explain further. He turned his attention instead to the trembling prisoners gathered before him.
"You have two choices," he declared.
"First, you can follow us into Paradis. Beyond these walls are three more walls, and inside them live the Eldians—the people you call devils. You can live among them, as citizens of Eldia."
The prisoners exchanged bewildered, fearful glances.
"Or," Zeke continued, a trace of bitterness curling his lips, "you can stay here, outside the wall. You might wait for a passing ship and beg for help… though no sailor dares approach 'Devil's Island.'"
His voice dripped with irony as he went on. "Or perhaps you can cut down trees, fashion a small boat, and row into the open sea. But even if you reach another shore, what then? Where could you go? Marley exiled you here as demons. Anywhere you appear, you will be spat on, hunted, killed."
His words fell heavy, leaving the prisoners pale and silent, trapped between one hell and another.