A cellar door that looked ordinary, not much different from the one at his house in Shiganshina, but Grisha knew what this one represented.
However, he didn't know what lay beneath.
Was it hope, or despair?
Without a word, Grisha opened the door and descended. Passing through the polished stone spiral staircase, he arrived at the basement... no, it should be called a cavern.
A vast and magnificent cavern, with a ceiling at least 20 meters high. The entire cave was made of a type of glowing rock that required no fossil energy. It was supported by numerous large pillars.
However, Grisha was not in the mood to enjoy the cavern's beauty. He walked to the central area where the pillars left a gap. There, seven people of various ages were holding hands, forming a circle as if praying.
Grisha didn't conceal his presence, appearing directly in front of the seven people. This caused them to break the circle and line up, looking at him with caution.
Grisha Yeager stretched out his hand and began to speak with an urgent voice.
"I am an Eldian from outside the Walls, and also a Subject of Ymir just like you, the King of the Walls."
"Please, you must kill all the Titans that attacked the Walls immediately. Before my wife and children... before all the people inside the Walls are devoured alive!"
"I know the breach has been sealed. But it's only a matter of time before they come again. The entire Eldian population will be engulfed in fire..."
"So what?"
The young girl with black hair standing at the front—the one Grisha called "the King of the Walls"—retorted to his urgent plea with a question in a calm tone, as if it were a matter of course. This left Grisha slack-jawed, filled with disbelief.
In complete contrast to him, the King of the Walls continued calmly.
"We cannot run from our sins. The time for the Subjects of Ymir to face judgment has arrived."
"Humanity is too weak, too easily corrupted when faced with such enormous power. The actions of our ancestors in the past have made me realize that the power of the Titans must be kept away from human hands."
"Keep it? Keep it away? You... what the hell are you talking about? Out there, hundreds of thousands, millions of Eldian brethren are living in servitude because of this power. We are regarded as trash, as tools. Yet you still call that 'keeping it'? Answer me!"
Grisha screamed in utter indignation. What was a King who could not protect his people, and did not even care about their deaths?
"If the Founding Power falls into the hands of a weakling, the world will fall into hell once more. To prevent that from happening, we must accept our sins."
"Our only choice is extinction."
The King of the Walls wanted them to die.
"My home was destroyed along with the Wall! That's where I lived, with my wife, my son, and my daughter! What do the people inside the Walls know about the atrocities their ancestors committed? Because you stole their memories!"
"You force us to be eaten by Titans without even knowing why! Do you call this atonement?"
Grisha erupted.
"No, no matter how we repent, we Eldians will never be able to return the lives we took."
"But... I can prevent taking the lives of the people beyond the Walls. As long as we know nothing and accept the world's fury... then only the Eldian people have to die."
"It's useless to try and persuade me."
The doctor, the pillar of the Yeager family, dropped to his knees. His mind was slowly collapsing. He no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. This torment, this anguish—what was it all for?
For the words the King had just spoken?
"Finished talking?"
Suddenly, another voice appeared. Along with it came heavy footsteps.
This voice might be unfamiliar to the King and the Reiss family. But Grisha knew it, and because of that, he was astonished.
"Asahi? You're not dead?"
"Of course not. I told you before I wouldn't die, at least not there."
Asahi stepped out. He walked up past Grisha, his eyes looking straight at the King of the Walls.
"It's you, the outsider."
"Yes, I am the outsider. And you, a coward. Do you think leading your entire race to death is compassionate?"
Asahi didn't fully understand the ins and outs of this entire mess, nor did he know what the ancestors of the "Eldian people" had done. But he knew this was wrong, truly wrong.
Facing his sarcasm, the King was unconcerned.
"This is the sin we must bear..."
"There's no need to preach those words to me. If this entire race accepts death voluntarily to atone for sins, even if they aren't their fault, I respect that. But, as long as there is one cry for help out there, I will appear."
"And guess how many cries for help I've heard? They don't want to die like this, because it's not their fault."
Asahi sharply stated his view. He could not accept a person imprisoning both the bodies and thoughts of their own people, making them a sacrifice to atone for some monkey business in the past.
This was no different from the argument he had seen before: "the child of a murderer should bear the parents' guilt." A baseless notion, one that deserved to be crushed.
True atonement exists when the "child of the murderer" tries their best to help the victims, or the victims' families, to make up for their parents' wrongdoing. That is atonement; that is forgiveness.
It is not offering one's life to be killed to atone for sins. How is that different from creating an endless cycle full of suffering?
Another murderer will be created, and their child will again bear the burden of being "the child of the murderer."
Asahi was similar. He had killed too many people. Even though everyone he killed deserved to die, he never took death lightly. He was atoning by saving as many people as possible who didn't deserve to die. Like the Yeager family, the Survey Corps soldiers, and the citizens of Shiganshina District.
Some people have grand dreams; others just want to live an ordinary life. They do not deserve to die, as the King suggests.
"Outsider, your view is nothing but selfish assertion. The Eldian people must endure everything because of the horrific mistakes of the past. We must become extinct."
"Selfish? Compared to my selfishness, your compassion-disguised selfishness is vast. Forgive me for not daring to compare."
"If not, then stop hiding inside that girl. Even if I don't know what you are, I know you're in there. Why don't you come out and find someone your own size?"