"Hey… aren't you cold?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Lillian regretted them. Not only did it completely ruin the mood, it was also just… awkward.
"…"
Annie looked at him silently. After confirming that he was real and not an illusion, she still didn't know what to say.
"I guess it's pretty hard to explain right now." Lillian glanced down at his shorts. "So… I'll just skip that part, I guess."
Annie finally spoke.
"Is the battle over?"
"Probably. I'm not completely sure. I kinda… disconnected near the end, so I didn't see how it finished."
"…"
"Anyway, I've got something I need to take care of first. Come with me. After that, we can go back to the Military Police together. How does that sound?"
Lillian knew that Annie was in pain as well.
Otherwise, who would wander aimlessly across an empty plain in a torrential downpour?
She nodded lightly and said nothing.
Lillian didn't bother with pointless chatter either. The two of them walked in silence across the plains. Walking was far too slow—ideally, Annie could transform and carry him at full speed—but that was something Lillian simply couldn't bring himself to suggest right now.
"…Hey, how about a running race?" he suddenly said. "What do you think?"
"…"
"If you don't want to—hey! That's cheating!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Annie had already taken off at full speed. Her golden hair bounced as she ran, rainwater spraying outward. Lillian hurried after her, and the two maintained a distance of about one meter, running nonstop for a full hour—until they reached a small village.
"Hah… hah…"
Standing beneath a large tree at the village entrance, Annie's chest rose and fell sharply. Even for her, sprinting for that long under such harsh weather conditions was a tremendous drain on stamina.
By contrast, Lillian's cheeks were only slightly flushed, and his breathing was just a bit faster than normal. He glanced down the village streets and thought to himself that they must already be close to Wall Rose. Villages like this were never built too far from the walls—otherwise, daily life would be extremely inconvenient.
"I wonder if there's anywhere here that sells clothes," Lillian said.
"I really don't want to run all the way to Wall Rose dressed like this."
"…"
Annie's clothes were soaked through as well. She was wearing her standard uniform, which included not just her inner shirt and uniform blouse, but also her signature white hooded sweatshirt—and on top of that, her uniform jacket.
That amount of clothing made things even worse. The more layers you wore in the rain, the heavier, colder, and more uncomfortable it felt—not to mention the risk of catching a cold. She, too, wanted to change into dry clothes as soon as possible.
Just then, an elderly man wearing a straw raincoat happened to pass by. When he saw the two of them, he stopped.
He looked at Lillian's appearance, then at Annie's uniform, his expression turning somewhat strange. Still, he asked respectfully:
"Are you two Military Police officers? May I ask what brings you to our village?"
"Just passing through," Lillian replied.
"Sir, does your village have a place that sells clothes? Or somewhere we could rest for a bit?"
"Of course. I'll take you there."
"Thank you," Lillian said, then turned to Annie. "Let's go."
She followed without a word.
The old man led them down the street to a shop, knocked on the door, and after a moment, the sound of a latch being undone was heard. The wooden door creaked open, and a middle-aged man peeked out.
"Uncle Jay? What's going on?"
"These two are Military Police officers. They're looking to buy some clothes."
The moment he heard the words Military Police, the man immediately opened the door wide.
"Please come in, please come in!"
His attitude was extremely respectful. After all, becoming a Military Police officer was notoriously difficult—especially for someone from a small village. Just as Connie once said, if someone became a Military Police officer, they'd be the pride of the entire village.
Though… even if Connie had achieved that, there was no one left to be proud of him now.
Lillian exchanged a few polite words with the shop owner and stepped inside. It was indeed a clothing shop, though all the garments were made of coarse linen.
Which made sense—nobody in a place like this would buy anything fancy.
Lillian didn't care either way. He directly bought a simple gray linen outfit—using money borrowed from Annie.
Annie bought a few items as well. After changing, they also purchased two rain cloaks. Then the two of them set off once more.
Lillian had originally wanted to rest for a while, but Annie insisted on continuing, so he went along with her.
He knew she was in a bad mood—but honestly, he wasn't exactly feeling great either. After all, he had literally died once not long ago.
The rain outside had eased up a bit by now, and before long, the outer wall of Trost District came into view. They had both trained here as cadets once, though Lillian had no intention of entering the district.
"We're going straight outside the wall."
Annie frowned slightly and looked at him in confusion.
Earlier, Lillian had said he needed to take care of something, but he hadn't mentioned that it would involve leaving Wall Rose entirely. After all, beyond the walls lay nothing but Titans.
"We're going to pick something up," Lillian said.
"When I first disembarked from the ship, I brought some things with me. Before entering the walls, I buried them somewhere so they wouldn't be discovered during inspections. I'll probably need them very soon, so I have to retrieve them."
"What kind of things?"
"You'll find out in a bit."
"…"
The wall perimeter was enormous, making it impossible to fully man with guards. The two quickly found a suitable spot.
Annie used her ODM gear to fly up effortlessly.
Lillian, on the other hand…
He mimicked the Beast Titan, Zeke—grabbing onto protruding wall supports and climbing upward with brute force.
Every step required him to punch a handhold or foothold into the wall. By the time he reached the top, Annie was looking at him the same way one might look at a monster.
"Yeah," Lillian said calmly. "I got stronger again."
"…"
"The reason… I'll explain later," he added, then walked straight to the other side of the wall and looked down.
Below them, five or six Titans were wandering around aimlessly.
"I'll go deal with them first," Lillian said.
"Come down after."
Without waiting for Annie's response, he climbed down the wall at high speed. The Titans below, spotting fresh prey, became excited—raising their arms and clawing at the wall like zombies.
When Lillian was about ten meters above the ground, he suddenly twisted midair and leapt—landing directly on top of a Titan's head.
He shifted his stance, lifted one leg, and delivered a powerful soccer-style kick.
SPLAT—!
Half of the Titan's head flew off instantly. In the next moment, Lillian tore out its nape with a Claw–like motion.
From atop the wall, Annie watched the scene in disbelief, as if she were dreaming. Moments later, the remaining Titans were effortlessly eliminated as well.
Before, Lillian had needed weapons to fight Titans—and even then, he had to dodge their attacks carefully.
Now…
Their strength simply couldn't compete with his anymore.
"Hey!" Lillian waved up at her.
"Come down!"
Shh—!
Annie descended using her ODM gear. Seeing the steaming corpses around them, she chose not to ask any questions.
Lillian led her quickly to a small town not far from the wall. Beneath a ruined house at the town's edge, Annie watched as he dug a pit roughly thirty to forty centimeters deep with his bare hands.
From it, he pulled out a backpack.
The moment Annie saw it, her heart tightened.
She had seen that kind of backpack far too many times—it was standard Marleyan military equipment.
Lillian made no attempt to hide anything. He pulled open the zipper.
Inside, Annie clearly saw:
Automatic rifles. Handguns. Ammunition.
And—spinal fluid injection kits.
"Good. Everything's still here."
Lillian zipped up the backpack and slung it over his shoulders, then looked at Annie.
"Next, I'm going to settle accounts with your former comrades. Do you want to come with me?"