After Lillian became the acting deputy commander, the public order of Stohess District seemed to undergo a complete transformation almost overnight. In just one day, civilians could already feel their sense of security steadily improving, and they began praising Lillian openly.
In truth, he hadn't done anything particularly special—he had simply sent all the veteran loafers out on patrol. Their resentment toward Lillian naturally got vented on pickpockets and petty criminals in the streets, indirectly lowering the crime rate.
At the same time, Lillian made a trip to the Stratmann family. Before he could even open his mouth, Elliot volunteered to contribute part of his funds to set up soup kitchens, providing food for the poor and supporting Lillian by adding to his "political achievements."
However, that wasn't what Lillian really wanted. What he wanted to know was whether Elliot had been involved in that incident. After a lengthy conversation, he still couldn't reach a definitive answer. He leaned toward believing Elliot hadn't been involved—but until the truth came out, he wouldn't jump to conclusions.
By the afternoon, with a bit of free time at last, Lillian took out a sheet of paper and began sketching.
After several days of training, he'd come up with many new ideas.
First, he needed to fully develop his physique. Right now, he was like a bomb—something that could only be thrown at people, or detonated to blow them apart. Swinging from one extreme to another like that simply wouldn't do.
What he wanted was to turn himself into a laser weapon with adjustable output—able to precisely control every increment and reduction of power. Achieving that required constant training and refinement. To be honest, he'd completely neglected this before, always thinking that overwhelming strength alone was enough. After all, in AOT, aside from the Ackermans, humans were ordinary people who couldn't break past normal limits.
But now, he no longer thought that way. Strength was something you could never have too much of. You never knew when some unexpected crisis might strike—only when you need knowledge do you regret not having learned enough.
And now, Lillian also wanted to change his weapon.
Blades were too light and too short for him. His violent strength had nowhere to go when using them. He needed a large weapon. Blades were meant to slice the nape—but he was preparing to behead Titans outright, or split them in half.
As for explanations, at this point, plenty of people already knew how strong he was. Lillian himself knew his physique could no longer be concealed, so he might as well stop hiding it. As long as he resolved the Survey Corps issue, everything afterward could be aimed outward together.
"Hm…" Lillian muttered, sketching the weapon he envisioned. "Against Titans, attack range matters. A long weapon would be best. Something that combines 'slashing' and 'cleaving'… this?"
When he finished the draft and picked it up, it turned out to be a long-handled war scythe.
"Not bad."
Looking at the drawing, he saw how it could strike downward from above, cut from behind, or—when frontal slashes weren't possible—hook the blade around, catch the Titan's nape with the tip, and tear its head clean off.
"The craftsmen are probably going to be dumbfounded," Lillian thought.
Making such a scythe would consume a massive amount of ultra-hard steel, not to mention requiring highly skilled craftsmen. No one had likely ever built such a weapon before—it certainly wouldn't be made in a day or two.
Of course, he wasn't in a hurry.
Standing up and stretching, he walked to the window and gazed outside, wondering just how much he could really change this world.
The world of AOT was incredibly complex—especially its political struggles. This small society inside the Walls had barely over a million people, yet factional infighting was everywhere. In the original story, even after the Survey Corps-led revolution succeeded, what happened? Much of the revolutionary was seized by the aristocracy; tension simmered between the Survey Corps and the Garrison; overwhelming pressure loomed from the outside world; Eren lost control… and Krista was sacrificed.
These were all very real crises. If Lillian wanted to prevent tragedy from repeating itself, he had no choice but to seize more power, as quickly as possible, to withstand those threats. But his personal strength was limited—he had to unite everyone he could, build his own faction and power base. And that was far easier said than done.
"No point overthinking it. I still need to deal with tomorrow first."
With that thought, Lillian left the office and found Annie. The two went to a secluded spot. At this point, there were truths he had to share with her.
"Tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken, the Survey Corps will try to arrest me."
Annie frowned slightly.
"Commander Erwin suspects that I'm a Titan. Of course, he has his reasons. In fact, if I were him, I'd suspect that guy called 'Lillian' too—after all, his physical abilities are completely beyond what a human should have."
"What does physical ability have to do with Titans?"
"Nothing, really. You and I know that—but Erwin doesn't. Based on the limited information he has, this is the most correct judgment he can make as a commander. Of course, it's also possible that he's obtained other evidence I don't know about."
Lillian thought to himself that he hadn't exposed anything else. So what, exactly, had made Erwin so certain?
"What are you planning to do?" Annie asked.
"Come clean."
Lillian said it plainly—this was the most straightforward option he could think of right now.
The reason he hadn't done so earlier was that he worried that if he revealed certain special information, someone like Erwin would very likely restrict his freedom.
And Lillian didn't want to be restrained. But he also didn't want to fight the Scout Regiment.
That was why he had kept dragging it out—until he became the acting deputy commander, until he established a connection with Zachary, until Annie was temporarily standing on his side.
Now he finally had a certain amount of power. If he revealed the truth at this point, Erwin would have no choice but to talk to him as an equal, rather than throwing him into a dungeon first and interrogating him afterward.
So tomorrow—the Scouts' move—would also be the moment Lillian chose to lay everything on the table.
"Are you going to make my identity public?" Annie asked.
"How could I?" Lillian shook his head. "Don't worry. I won't let anyone threaten your safety."
As for your companions, though—that's another matter.
"..."
"If I'm not mistaken, Commander Nile will probably sneak back tomorrow," Lillian continued.
Annie looked at him in confusion, so he explained, "To arrest a deputy commander, they'd first have to pull away the Military Police around him. And the only one with that authority would be the commander himself, wouldn't it?"
If Erwin managed to convince Nile, this wouldn't be surprising at all. After all, the commander of the Military Police hadn't completely rotted into someone who only cared about his own interests. He still had some sense of old camaraderie… or perhaps Erwin had scared him with a barrage of doomsday arguments.
"I see," Annie nodded. "Then do you want me to obey the order—or not?"
Lillian hesitated for a moment. "…Obey it. I'll handle this myself. I—"
"I refuse."
"Huh?" He looked at her in surprise. "There won't be any danger. The Scouts aren't like… those lunatics in the Central Military Police."
"You really don't understand the situation right now, do you?"
"What do you mean?"
Annie placed one hand over her chest. There was confusion in her eyes as she looked at him strangely.
"I'm confused too. About everything. That future you talked about—can we really achieve it? And if we can't, what then? If you die, will you still be able to take responsibility for the girl you've 'bewitched'?"
"..."
Lillian looked at her serious expression and scratched his head.
"Um… just to clarify—when you say 'the bewitched girl,' you mean you, right?"
"What do you think?"
"..."
He really wanted to complain about her calling herself a girl, but decided to let it go.
Instead, he thought it through carefully.
Sooner or later, everyone would learn that Annie possessed Titan power anyway. Planting a seed now… might not be a bad thing.
Because of his interference, there had been no Marco incident, no battle over Eren. Under these circumstances, there was absolutely no way the Scout Regiment would suspect Annie.
Back then, Erwin had only seen a vague silhouette from far away. No matter how sharp his mind was, there was no way he could deduce anything concrete from that.
So Annie showing up could actually work—or rather, her leading Lillian's squad could serve as a buffer between both sides, while also demonstrating that this was a meeting between equals.
After carefully weighing everything, Lillian nodded.
"Alright. I'll leave clues then. If Nile really does show up, you can pretend to be reassigned first, then come back to find me."
"Okay."
Lillian looked at her and added, "And one more thing—I didn't bewitch you. I can promise you that everything I said came straight from my heart. And I also promise you this: I won't die."
As he said that, he couldn't help thinking that he had been too careless with Annie.
What she'd just said was clearly her honest feelings after opening up. And honestly, it would be strange if she weren't confused.
She had come here on a mission. Yet after listening to the words of an 'enemy,' she had begun to waver. She didn't know whether betraying her comrades was the right choice, which was why she hadn't refused when Lillian made her his administrative assistant.
Lillian wanted to keep a dangerous person close where he could watch her. And Annie, in turn, wanted to stay close to Lillian to make sure he wasn't lying—and to personally witness whether he could truly push the future he spoke of into existence.
If right and wrong couldn't be judged by words alone, then they had to be judged through actions.
"By the way, Annie," Lillian suddenly said, "could you do me a favor?"
"What is it?"
"I want you to be my teacher."
"..."
He wasn't joking. He continued seriously, "The reason I beat you before was purely brute force. But now I want to become stronger—stronger in a way that actually makes sense, using that strength efficiently. So… could you teach me?"
Annie looked at him for a moment. Then she suddenly removed the handgun from her back and casually tossed it onto the ground. She clenched her fists, raised her hands, and assumed a combat stance.
Lillian froze. "We're starting right now?"
Annie replied calmly, "It's quiet here. Do you have a problem with that?"
"...No. Then let's do it."