White Walker walked along the street, today's freshly printed newspaper held in his hand. He inhaled the scent of ink lingering on its pages, an eager smile stretched across his face as he impatiently prepared to see what new scandalous gossip had erupted among high society. Just as he was about to turn the page, a rapid series of footsteps suddenly rang out behind him!
Instinctively, he turned his head to see what was happening—
—and in the next instant, a slap struck him squarely across the face.
Smack!
The force of the blow was so great that half his face immediately burned and swelled, stars bursting before his eyes. But what followed immediately after was raging fury. He glared at the person who had struck him.
Standing before him was a boy with black hair and black eyes, roughly the same age as himself—about thirteen or fourteen years old.
"I am Lillian Kafka. You'd better remember it! Lil. lian. Kaf. ka!!"
White stared at the boy's twisted, ferocious expression. For reasons he could not explain, a chill rose in his heart. Lowering his voice, he stammered, "I… I understand. Lillian Kafka…"
"Damn it! You little bastard—stop right there!"
A coarse shout erupted from behind them. The boy called Lillian shoved White aside and continued running forward. The pursuer quickly closed in—a soldier, rifle in hand.
"Damn Eldian devil!"
The soldier halted, raised his gun, aimed for several seconds—
—and suddenly pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The one who collapsed was the boy named Lillian, not far away. He fell heavily to the ground, eyes wide open, a bloody hole now piercing his forehead.
The soldier who fired the shot walked over and looked down. He lifted his foot and kicked the corpse a few times.
"Damn it—run again if you can!"
He pulled a communicator from his waist.
"Hello, collect a body outside Surveillance Zone No. 2. Yeah—some little punk tried to escape. I shot him."
After finishing the call, he put the device away, cast a look of disgust at the body on the ground, and then turned toward White, who had collapsed to the pavement.
"What's your name?"
"I… I'm White Walker."
"Show me your ID."
"Oh—okay."
White, having just witnessed the bloody scene, fumbled with trembling hands as he retrieved an identification card from his pocket and handed it over. The soldier glanced at it, let out a short grunt through his nose, and returned it.
"Marleyans have nothing better to do than wander near the surveillance zone? Don't you know what's locked up in there are Eldian devils?"
"Yes—yes, I understand…"
At that moment, a jeep approached from the distance. Two soldiers sat inside, one of them holding the leash of a large dog.
"They're here."
"What about the kid?"
The shooter pointed at Lillian's corpse. The soldier holding the dog immediately broke into a grin.
"Perfect. My Ditton hasn't had meat in a long time. Guess it can't wait anymore, right, Ditton?"
He rubbed the dog's head. The beast let out a low growl, savage light flickering in its eyes.
"Go!"
The leash was released. The dog shot forward and within seconds reached Lillian's body, tearing into it with its bloody jaws.
"Ah…"
White, who had not yet left, was instantly terrified out of his wits by the sight. The soldiers noticed him and frowned slightly.
"Get the hell out of here! And don't tell anyone—got it?!"
"U-understood!"
White turned and ran. Though he had been slapped by Lillian, seeing the boy's miserable fate brought him no satisfaction whatsoever—only fear. Under his breath, he muttered:
"Lillian Kafka… Lillian Kafka…"
The three soldiers stood together, watching White stumble away, laughing as they chatted.
"You think that kid will talk?"
"Doesn't matter if he does. No evidence."
"Haha, exactly. Those so-called 'human rights' organizations really have nothing better to do—pointing fingers at us every day."
As he spoke, one soldier twisted his body, pinched his throat, and mocked in an exaggerated voice:
"'You must not deliberately harm Eldians! They are humans too! They deserve proper human rights!'"
"HAHAHAHA!"
"What a load of bullshit. If you ask me, all those Eldian devils should be wiped out. What's the point of keeping them alive?"
"Well… can't say that entirely," another replied.
"After all, we still need the power of the devils."
"True. But the next batch is being sent to 'Paradise,' right?"
"Yeah. The day after tomorrow."
"Haha. We're the ones escorting this batch. Finally get to see with our own eyes how humans turn into devils."
"Yeah. Let's go—time to head back."
The three soldiers climbed into the vehicle with Ditton, now fully fed, and drove away. On the vast, empty land, only Lillian's remains were left behind.
Yet—no one knew how much time passed before, suddenly, those remains vanished.
As if they had never existed at all.
Not a single drop of blood was left behind…
---
Lillian opened his eyes.
"I'm going to kill them."
Those were the first words out of his mouth.
"Kill who?"
A middle-aged man beside him, half asleep, was jolted awake by those words and instantly panicked. He asked in alarm, his face pale with fear, "You can't say things like that! If the soldiers hear you, they'll kill you for sure!"
"…Mm."
Lillian nodded.
He looked around. This was a gloomy, weed-choked room of about thirty square meters. More than twenty people were crammed inside, all of them hanging their heads, dozing fitfully.
Every single one of them was dressed in rags, gaunt and hollow-cheeked.
Every single one of them was an "Eldian."
That's right—this was the world of Attack on Titan.
This was an Eldian internment zone in the nation of Marley.
"Damn it…"
Lillian couldn't help muttering under his breath again. Other people who transmigrated into this world always ended up on the island. But him? He'd been dumped into Marley by that so-called "goddess," and not only that—he'd arrived as an Eldian, straight into an internment camp.
What an absolute treasure of a "goddess." The goddess circle had really picked up a demon this time.
After all, if you transmigrated to the island, then even though there were Titans, you could still avoid disaster in advance.
For example, if you knew Wall Maria was going to fall, why not just move ahead of time to Wall Sina? Even begging for food would be better than being eaten by Titans, right?
Or if you wanted a decent life, you could join the Training Corps, train for a few years, work hard to earn a high ranking, then after graduation directly choose the Military Police and live well, eat well, drink well.
But here, in an internment camp?
Forget eating well or drinking well—you could be casually killed by Marleyan soldiers at any moment.
Just like earlier.
Lillian had tried to escape. He failed.
A single bullet blew his head apart. They couldn't even be bothered to arrest him—just straight execution.
However… maybe that was fine.
At least it proved that the "goddess" hadn't been lying.
Yes. The reason he had transmigrated here at all was because a woman had suddenly appeared, knocked him unconscious without explanation, and when he woke up again, he was already here.
Only his soul had come—attached to the body of a kid named Lillian Kafka.
Coincidentally enough, his name back on Earth had also been Lillian.
A twenty-year-old unemployed youth. An orphan. No family, no attachments. His only hobbies were reading novels and watching anime—a classic homebound otaku.
So when he learned he was about to transmigrate, he'd been happy. He'd even looked forward to landing in some romantic slice-of-life world and becoming a winner in life.
And then…
"…Sigh."
He let out a long breath and closed his eyes.
He still remembered the goddess's words perfectly clearly.
[I'm bored. Watching people struggle in infinite worlds is quite entertaining, isn't it?
I'll grant you the power to survive. What you owe me in return is simply amusement.
Don't disappoint me.]
As expected of a goddess—so powerful that she could drag someone into another world for something as trivial as "boredom."
Lillian had been furious, of course. But anger was useless. Once he calmed down, he realized the most important part was this: the power to survive.
That power was called—Eternal Life Within Memory.
In other words, as long as someone in this world remembered him, he would not truly die. Even if he was killed, after thirty minutes he would "revive," randomly appearing anywhere within a one-kilometer radius of his place of death.
A powerful ability, wasn't it?