Roger also dispelled his Titan form. He knew Marley had been wiped out, and the world coalition would never again strike at the Eldians. Now a strange balance had been reached—there was still oppression and the oppressed, but humanity was beyond saving to begin with.
The moment Roger returned to human form, his first thought was to go back to Paradis Island.
All Marleyans were gone. No matter where you searched in the world, you could no longer find a single settlement of theirs.
Of course, there would still be a few Marleyans who had been scattered outside from the start, but no matter how loudly they cried out, they could never gather into a nation again—at most, they could form a small organization.
The Eldians had swallowed Marley whole, drawing it completely into their own territory.
Sitting aboard the ship bound for Paradis Island, Roger began to look back on everything he had done.
He had given others the power to kill, and he had watched others kill with their own hands—but could all of this really be blamed on him?
Even at the moment of death, the Marleyans never acknowledged the Eldians as truly human. Their racism toward this people was carved into their bones, impossible to scrape away.
So if these two peoples existed in the same world, then only one outcome remained: one would annihilate the other.
The only solution was for one race to change completely.
But the change Marley demanded of the Eldians was something so revolting it turned the stomach—using them, even treating them as tools for lust, using them as guns to kill.
The Eldians refused.
And so the final solution became one thing only: the Eldians had to destroy Marley completely.
Roger could never understand why the Eldian Empire of the past—an empire that once possessed nine Titans, no different from him now—had not simply erased Marley, that originally weak little country.
In his eyes, exterminating Marley would have been effortless.
And yet, in the end, this was the result.
The entire Eldian Empire shrank away from the continent, shrinking and shrinking until it finally retreated to Paradis Island.
Even with the memories of the 145th King Fritz, Roger still couldn't figure out what that man had been thinking.
Why be so indulgent toward Marley, even to the point of throwing his own people into hell?
Turning it over and over, Roger could only arrive at one answer.
Mercy.
There is benevolence and morality in this world—yet there is also cruelty and violence.
Benevolence without power, in the end, is nothing but cowardice.
King Fritz crippled himself and drove his people into hell.
He called it atonement, but in truth it was nothing more than guilt.
Because he couldn't bear it in his heart, he kidnapped his entire nation.
He called it mercy, but in reality it was merely another form of cruelty.
They were human—were Eldians not human too?
Roger sneered.
If he ever got the chance, he really wanted to sit down and talk to that king face-to-face, crack his skull open, and see what kind of structure was inside.
To be so vicious to himself—did he have Stockholm syndrome?
Or was he some disgusting kind of masochist?
Roger returned to Paradis Island and once again came to the capital.
There, wherever he went, people dropped to their knees, begging him to become their king.
But Roger had no interest in that at all.
Putting on a crown, then making decisions and plans for every petty little matter of these citizens' daily lives—how unbearably boring.
If bloodline truly had to be relied upon, then there was one person best suited to be their monarch.
The princess—Historia.
In the second week after the war ended, he and Historia held their wedding.
Just as he had said back then, he hoped the son she bore would be able to perfectly inherit the power of the Titans.
As for freedom in marriage, Roger had no thoughts about it at all.
Historia, as a wife, treated him very well.
Every night she would gently lean against his shoulder, kneading the soreness in his shoulders from bending over a desk and writing.
Roger had principles, and he respected Historia deeply.
Anything she disliked, he would never force her to do.
Historia understood that she didn't understand love. If Roger had never appeared, she might even have considered marrying the farmer's son who used to bully her—simply because, before she left, he shed a single tear for her.
Roger, the hero who had liberated all Eldians, inspired boundless admiration in Historia. And he had truly given her freedom—making her feel she could never repay him.
Yet Roger never once fell in love.
To him, it was simply a political marriage.
For a political marriage, feelings didn't matter. Have the child, and he would have fulfilled his plan—nothing more.
He recommended Historia as queen.
Because this was the choice of the Founding Titan, capable of ruling all Eldians, not a single Eldian raised any objection. And having Historia as queen made them feel incredibly fortunate.
At last, there would no longer be that kind of brutal king.
If it was this gentle queen, then perhaps she would lead the world within the Walls toward prosperity.
The people trusted her without limit.
And even more people believed in Roger. They knew that as long as it was Roger's decision, it would always be the most correct one.
He could make the world finally look up to them. He could make them fear to lay a hand on what the Eldians cherished most.
But Roger understood that the so-called "king" was, in the end, only a title. The true power structure was now held by the council formed from the combined four major corps.
The Scorpion Corps was fine—Roger knew them inside out. He knew their leader was Levi, and even for the next successor, he could give a steady, reliable judgment.
What he feared was that these four armed organizations had no political mind. If they became obsessed with provoking other countries, then they would not inspire much confidence at all.
So a new system had to be devised—something that could replace governance by these four corps.
And so, with a single order, Roger broke the four corps apart and reassembled them under one name: the "Eldian Corps."
Those soldiers who had originally followed him in the Scorpion Corps were all taken in by him again, given new identities, and renamed the "Scorpion Imperial Guard," serving at his side with absolute loyalty.
After that, Roger studied thousands of years of history and the wisdom of countless kings, and finally devised a system—
Popular elections.
All citizens would participate, actively voting to evaluate every political matter.
The option with the highest votes would be passed.
In some sense, this could be seen as reflecting the people's will.
At the very least, everyone would have a voice.
Even if darkness still lurked where the eye couldn't see, Roger believed that a system could always be improved.
And the person who could help him improve it—he already had the most suitable candidate.
Former Survey Corps Commander Erwin.
Roger still hadn't figured out how Erwin had ended up getting along with Senior Torin in the first place, but when Roger invited him out of the Underground, Erwin agreed out of love for the people—though, in truth, Torin had said many good words behind the scenes.
No longer leading battles, Erwin chose to enter politics. Planning to cultivate the character and quality of Eldian citizens from the root, he built many schools and educational institutions.
He wanted to enlighten the people.
Only when the people were rational could the nation become unbreakable.
Roger trusted him completely.
After all, Roger admitted it himself: in terms of strategy and intellect, Erwin was far above him—Erwin had even been able to easily detect Roger's past deception, the way he had slipped into the Walls under a stolen identity.
Roger wondered: if he hadn't been discovered back then, would he have ended up walking a road no one could have predicted?
When the new national system was announced, and with Erwin stepping forward, all Eldians immediately erupted into celebration—shouting Roger's glorious name, bowing and kneeling to him again and again.
Standing atop the royal city's walls, Roger looked down at the people kneeling below and shouted:
"I, Roger, have fought until today not so that anyone would become a slave.
"You are not livestock, and you are not inferior.
"You are my kin, of the same bloodline! You are heroes who were willing to build walls and stand guard—for the sake of the people you treasure!
"So stand up. No kneeling!"
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