"Wow, look, that potato girl is still running! That's insane—she's already done more than thirty laps."
Yago and the others, dressed in casual clothes, stood in the boys' dormitory corridor, watching Sasha slowly jogging around the field. Connie couldn't help but marvel—this potato girl really was amazing, to be able to run for so long.
Eren was impressed too. "She's been running continuously for five hours already. That's terrifying."
Hannah pointed at a carriage that was leaving the camp and asked,
"What are those?" There were quite a few people sitting inside.
Armin said, "They should be the recruits who were eliminated. A lot of people couldn't even make it to ten laps. If it weren't for Yago, I probably wouldn't have lasted either."
Eren said, "There's no helping it. The weak can only be eliminated."
Marco Bott, from the southern district of Wall Rose, leaned on the railing, watching the exhausted Sasha still stumbling as she ran, and couldn't help feeling sorry for her.
"Sasha has it really rough."
Connie suddenly seemed to think of something and walked over to Yago, asking curiously,
"Um, Yago, I remember you're from the Shiganshina District, right?"
Yago had been absentminded, but snapped back to attention at that. "Yeah."
"Then have you seen it—uh, that, that Colossal Titan?" Connie asked excitedly.
"Well… at the time I was accompanying my mom to church, so I really didn't notice the Colossal Titan. But that day, Eren and Armin should've seen it very clearly," Yago said uncertainly.
"Really? Eren! You actually saw it?"
Eren said, "Huh? Yeah. That day I really did see the Colossal Titan."
"Seriously? How big was it? What did it look like? Did it really kick down the main gate of the Shiganshina District with one kick?"
"Uh, that Titan was extremely tall—taller than the wall by a whole head. It looked like, like a Titan without skin, all red muscle," Eren described vividly, drawing waves of gasps from everyone.
This continued all the way until dinner in the evening, with many people still crowding around Eren to listen to his stories about the Colossal Titan.
"Then what about the Armored Titan that smashed through Wall Maria?"
Eren held his spoon. "The Armored Titan? In my opinion, it's not much different from ordinary Titans. Once we can skillfully master the vertical maneuvering equipment, we can drive all those Titans away!"
"Tch, are you crazy?" Jean laughed at Eren. "No way—you actually want to join the Survey Corps?"
Eren frowned and put down his spoon.
"Yes. I'm joining the Survey Corps. If I remember right, you want to join the Military Police and live an easy life, don't you?"
"Yeah. I'm being realistic. I want to join the Military Police. And I'm way better than certain people who are scared to death but still talk tough."
"Are you talking about me?" Eren stood up angrily. Jean didn't back down either. Just as the two were facing off, the bell signaling the end of dinner rang.
Jean took a step back first, not wanting to make trouble. His goal was to join the Military Police anyway; there was no need to clash with Eren. He held out his hand.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to belittle your dream. Since we're all recruits, let's be friends."
Eren wasn't as impulsive as he had been two years ago. After hesitating for a moment, he still took Jean's hand.
"I'm sorry too."
Then he turned and left. Mikasa, worried about Eren, hurried after him. As she passed by Jean, her long hair flowing, Jean caught sight of Mikasa's beautiful profile and actually blushed. He called out to her. Facing Mikasa's puzzled gaze, Jean stammered a compliment about how beautiful her hair was. Mikasa gave a faint thanks, then went out to catch up with Eren.
Jean was still a little intoxicated by Mikasa's beauty.
The next moment, as soon as he stepped outside, he heard Eren say that Mikasa's hair was too long, and Mikasa immediately agreed to cut it short. Jean was completely petrified.
...
Yago wrapped two pieces of bread in a napkin and prepared to leave the dining hall. After mealtime, it wouldn't be possible to eat in the cafeteria anymore. The potato girl, Sasha, hadn't eaten anything at all yet. Considering he'd watched her "food stream" for so long, Yago saved two pieces of bread at dinner and planned to bring them to Sasha.
At the doorway, someone stopped him.
"Annie? Is something wrong?" Yago looked at the girl in front of him. Annie said nothing, stuffing the water pouch from the afternoon and a piece of bread, also wrapped in a napkin, into Yago's arms, and said stiffly,
"A return gift." Then she left.
Yago looked down at what he was holding, feeling both amused and helpless. This girl looked cold on the outside, but she was actually quite kind inside.
...
Night fell. Sasha staggered.
"Finally… finished running…" Thud—Sasha collapsed onto the ground, completely like a dead fish. Suddenly, her nose twitched.
Her tightly shut eyes snapped open, seeming to flash with green light. She arched her body and pounced toward the darkness like a starving wolf.
"Ah!" With a cry, a blonde girl was knocked to the ground, still holding a water pouch in her arms.
Sasha bit into the bread she had snatched from the girl's hands, tearing into it fiercely and startling the girl badly. The girl cautiously said,
"Would you like some water? My name is Historia. I saved the bread for you. There was no way to save the rest of the potato soup."
At that moment, Historia stood under the torchlight. Her pretty face looked like that of an angel in Sasha's eyes.
"Wow! Are you my god?"
"Hey, are you doing a good deed?" A freckled girl walked out. Seeing a stranger, Sasha hurriedly stuffed the entire piece of bread into her mouth and chewed hard.
"No, Ymir, I just saw that she'd been punished to run all day, so I…" Historia explained cautiously.
Ymir looked at Historia and sighed. This silly child was still far too kind.
"Oh, looks like I worried for nothing." Yago came out of the darkness holding bread. "Historia? You're truly a kind girl."
Being praised made Historia a little embarrassed.
"Not really." Ymir, however, stared at Yago warily. "Historia, don't get fooled by sweet talk. A lot of men have sweet mouths but rotten hearts."
Yago was speechless.
"Hey, hey, that's going too far. I just complimented the girl—how did I become a bad person?"
Though Historia really was very pretty.
Ymir said, "Who knows? You can't judge a person by appearances!"
Yago sighed. "Then this bread…"
Before he could even react, the bread had already fallen into Sasha's hands.
"Thank you so much! I can still eat!"
Yago said, "...Fine. See you next time. My name is Yago. Remember, I'm not a bad person."
With that, he left. Historia looked at Ymir somewhat reproachfully.
"Ymir, weren't you a bit too harsh just now?"
Ymir curled her lips, grabbed Historia and Sasha—who was hugging several large pieces of bread—and headed back.
...
Walking back to the dormitory, Yago lifted his head to look at the sky. The black night dotted with a few stars had a unique kind of beauty. Years of living here had almost made him forget that so-called memory of transmigration in his mind—it was fading more and more—but this world seemed to be accepting him more and more.
"Join the training corps… then in the future, the goal is the Survey Corps!" Yago clenched his fist.