But he took apart the entire desk, pulled down the books on the shelves to check if anything was hidden behind them, and searched the miscellaneous storage cabinets too.
The result was nothing.
In retrospect, it made sense. Grisha fundamentally didn't need to leave any data about his next action, because as mentioned before, everything should have been resolved. Those three notebooks were just left behind for Eren or others to know the truth.
In fact, Grisha's goal might have already succeeded. After all, three days had passed since his disappearance, almost four counting tonight. The longer the time, the more variables there are.
"No, there's still a chance! In these past few days... most carriages or means of transportation have been focused on moving people and goods closer to the Wall Rose area. That means if Grisha went somewhere else, he must have been on foot."
And he thought that, besides himself, there was no one in this world who could run a near-supersonic marathon.
So he continued searching, although he didn't hold out much hope of finding anything useful here.
However, when he picked up a wooden box at the end of the room, he discovered a piece of paper wedged between two wooden boxes.
Looking at the eroded exterior and the long-term dust accumulation, this paper seemed to have been placed here for a very long time.
Asahi felt slightly strange; the appearance of this paper completely didn't fit the style of this room.
It wasn't Grisha's; it belonged to someone else.
"Reiss?"
He looked at the scribbled handwriting, which was like a child learning to write, and couldn't help but feel suspicious.
He would believe it if someone said this was a scrap paper for a child to doodle on.
But what was even stranger was that this paper was clearly trying to express one word: Reiss. Was it someone's proper name, or something else?
Most importantly, could "Reiss" be the very thing Grisha was heading towards?
There were too many assumptions and uncertainties here.
He slipped the paper into his clothes. Then he searched the room one more time to make sure he hadn't missed anything.
Finished, he went back above ground, intending to return to where the Survey Corps was staying to ask them for help in finding clues related to "Reiss." Relying on acquaintances was better than blindly searching.
The only thing was, as he was about to climb onto the top of the Wall, he suddenly heard a conversation.
"Someone?"
How could there be people at this hour?
This caused Asahi to freeze his movement. With one hand still gripping the Wall, he silently listened to someone's conversation above.
But then, he realized there weren't just a few people; there were dozens spread out across the top of Wall Maria. None of them could detect his position.
"Damn it... I don't know if those idiots' brains are waterlogged or what, making us look for some guy at this hour. We've been looking forever and haven't found him. I'm so tired."
"Who isn't, but tomorrow the rebuilding of Shiganshina starts for the commoners to live again. Hurry up, we don't have time."
"Useless. It's clear the guy we're looking for ran away a long time ago. Goddammit, and they let the Survey Corps take the credit."
Most of the conversation consisted of complaints and curses. There was no lack of sarcasm directed at the Survey Corps. The identity of this group was also made clear: they were Military Police soldiers, and furthermore, they came all the way from within Wall Sina.
It seemed they had been tasked with finding him. And surely with no good intentions.
Asahi had imagined that the government inside the Walls—a military monarchy with centralized feudal power—would not be too friendly towards him. But he hadn't expected it to be this bad.
It was as if the government wanted to eliminate everything that could pose a threat, regardless of whether it was good or bad. Did they never think that this would cause public dissatisfaction?
Regardless of whether he was an outsider or not, he had saved all of Shiganshina, perhaps even Wall Maria. Yet the government inside Sina made such a decision.
"It seems that what Grisha wrote in the notebooks is the truth."
Knowing this, Asahi stopped hiding. He sprang up from the Wall's surface, appearing in front of two Military Police soldiers.
They recoiled in alarm, fearfully pulling out their muskets and pulling the triggers. He merely tilted his body slightly to dodge the two bullets, then flashed behind them and delivered a chop to the back of the neck. Both soldiers' eyes rolled back from the force, and they slumped down without being able to react.
However, this action alerted the surrounding Military Police. They immediately aimed dozens of gun barrels at him.
"Stop what you're doing!"
Someone shouted, but Asahi remained indifferent.
Using a musket, such an obsolete gun, against someone who had been training to dodge submachine gun bullets since he started—was that really going to work?
In ten seconds, he could drop every Military Police soldier to the ground. In ten seconds, how many shots could they fire?
Whoosh!
Asahi vanished from the spot, appearing behind one Military Police soldier before the man could fire, a chop to the back of the neck, then moving to another spot in a flash. His speed was so fast that they could only shoot wildly, and often too close to their own comrades.
Very quickly, nine seconds later, about forty Military Police soldiers lay sprawled on top of the Wall, with only one man sitting down, his gun dropped to the ground. He looked in terror at the figure slowly advancing toward him, as if looking at a demon.
In his perception, someone who could move faster than a bullet could not be human; only a demon. In truth, Asahi only used a relatively moderate speed from start to finish. He wasn't faster than a bullet; he was just dodging.
"Don't... please don't harm me."
"Oh... you don't need to worry. You just need to answer a few questions..."
He intentionally made his demeanor terrifying, causing the only remaining Military Police soldier to whimper in fear.
Like the others, the man had laughed when reading the report from the Survey Corps and the Garrison in Shiganshina. Although the breach in Shiganshina and Wall Maria was sealed, they couldn't believe one person could kill hundreds of Titans alone without using the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
Only by standing here did they know that what was written in the report was true. Perhaps it even understated his power.
How could any ordinary person confront someone like this?
"Regiment?"
"The... the Military Police Brigade, sir!"
"Purpose?"
"To... to capture..."
"I know that already. What happens after capture?"
"Interrogate about how the Wall was sealed, and then..."
"And then?"
"And then... then kill, sir..."
The soldier shrunk back, fundamentally not daring to face Asahi after answering.
Knowing he would have to struggle to search for someone in the middle of the night, only to encounter a demon, he would never have accepted this mission, even if he died for it.
Asahi contemplated, still feeling that something was strange. He pressed for the reason why the government wanted him dead instead of wanting his obedience. The soldier answered like this:
"No... no unstable factor is allowed to exist within the Walls..."
Asahi was not the first factor on the purge list.
A teacher who was too curious, researching "history" that didn't match what the government announced.
A blacksmith who invented a "pistol" and "gunpowder," something that could threaten the King.
A foolish couple who dreamed of flying in a "hot air balloon."
And many, many more. Without exception, they were all tortured and brutally killed. The government inside the Walls wanted to crush all seeds of development and maintain the current status quo.
Only a very few inventions were allowed to be kept and publicized, such as the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear and the method for forging the Titan-slicing blades.
That was also why Asahi felt such a terrifying cultural disparity. These things were fundamentally engineered by people intentionally.