Year 845.
Near Shiganshina District, Wall Maria.
Out in the countryside lay a stretch of grassland and woods.
With baskets on their backs, Arthur and Mikasa walked through the woods, one behind the other.
After that tragedy, Arthur and Mikasa had moved into Eren's home at Eren and Grisha's invitation.
At first, they had felt awkward and uncomfortable in an unfamiliar home, but Dr. Grisha's wife, Eren's mother, Carla Yeager, had cared for them as if they were her own children.
Arthur and Mikasa had gradually grown accustomed to their new home and come to regard Eren's family as their own.
Today, Arthur, Mikasa, and Eren were supposed to gather firewood together, but that idiot Eren had forgotten his task and gone off to laze around beneath a big tree.
That left Arthur and Mikasa to carry on gathering firewood.
"Mikasa, want to take a break?" Arthur asked, looking back at Mikasa as she followed him.
"No, Arthur." Mikasa gave him a sweet smile, then shook her head.
"All right."
Arthur's heart ached as he looked at Mikasa. That incident had affected her deeply.
The girl who had once loved to smile was now quiet and withdrawn, only becoming a little more animated when talking with him, Eren's family, or Armin.
When they first arrived at Dr. Grisha's home, Mikasa had suffered nightmares for several nights in a row. Only after Arthur began sleeping beside her every night did she gradually recover.
After that incident, however, Arthur had also been surprised to discover that Mikasa seemed to have grown stronger. Her strength was nothing like that of an ordinary girl her age.
For a while, Arthur had wondered whether Mikasa had the same constitution as him, but even after asking her many times, he had failed to find the reason and could only let it go.
"All right, we've gathered all the firewood. Mikasa, go wake Eren up, then we can head home." Arthur looked at his basket, packed full of firewood. It held both his share and Eren's.
Seeing Eren run off to slack off and sleep, he had gathered Eren's share as well, so Aunt Carla wouldn't get angry and spank him for being lazy again.
Mikasa agreed and walked toward Eren, who was sleeping against the big tree.
"Eren, wake up." Mikasa gently patted his shoulder, trying to wake him.
"Ah!" Eren suddenly snapped his eyes wide open and cried out in sheer terror.
His inexplicable cry startled Mikasa too, and she gave him a slightly reproachful look.
"Mikasa, why are you here?" Eren asked, staring at her blankly.
"Huh? Are you still half asleep? It's time to go home." Baffled by his question, Mikasa sounded a little irritated.
"I think I had a really, really long dream."
Rather than answer her, Eren held his head.
"What was it about...? I can't quite remember." Eren struggled to recall the scenes from his dream, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing came back.
"What's wrong, Mikasa? Is Eren sleeping too deeply?" Having waited for quite a while, Arthur came over.
"Seems like it. He even seems to have forgotten what we came here to do," Mikasa answered, looking back.
Then she turned to help Eren up, only to freeze when she looked at him.
"Eren, why are you crying?" Mikasa asked, puzzled by the tears at the corners of his eyes.
"Mikasa, has your hair gotten a lot longer?" Eren was still saying things that had nothing to do with her questions.
"Huh? It's always been like this." Mikasa touched her hair, bewildered.
"Did you really sleep yourself stupid?" Hearing Eren's strange remarks, Arthur stepped forward and scrutinized Arthur suspiciously.
"Huh? Arthur, why has your hair turned black? Wasn't it white?" Eren followed up with another utterly baffling remark.
"Huh? White?" Hearing that, Arthur became even more suspicious that the boy had slept himself stupid. Why had he suddenly started spouting nonsense?
"Eren, what are you talking about?" Mikasa was speechless at Eren's claim that Arthur's hair was white.
"Uh, I must have confused my dream with reality." Eren scratched his head and laughed awkwardly.
"You don't have a fever, do you?"
Arthur reached out and felt Eren's forehead, but his temperature was perfectly normal.
"Arthur, I told you, I just confused my dream with reality."
"All right, then..." Since Eren was no longer babbling nonsense, Arthur decided he must simply have been groggy and said a few silly things, so he didn't pursue it.
He set Eren's basket beside him and spoke.
"Here! I gathered yours for you. If Aunt Carla finds out you've been slacking off again, you'll get another spanking."
"Hehe, thanks, Arthur!" Eren hadn't expected Arthur to do his work for him and felt rather embarrassed.
"All right, let's head home. Aunt Carla must be getting anxious waiting for us." Arthur took Mikasa's hand as he spoke to Eren.
"Okay." Both of them nodded.
The three headed toward Shiganshina District.
On the way, Eren looked at Arthur and Mikasa and suddenly spoke.
"Arthur, Mikasa, you absolutely can't tell anyone I was crying."
"You started crying for no reason. You should let Uncle Grisha give you a thorough checkup," Mikasa suggested kindly.
"That's right, Eren. If you're tearing up for no reason, it's better to get checked, just in case."
Arthur nodded in agreement.
"I told you, I don't need that." Eren stubbornly shook his head, clearly unwilling.
"Huh? What was Eren crying about?" A middle-aged man with blond, close-cropped hair approached the three of them.
Arthur knew the man before them. He was Hannes of the Garrison, a soldier famous for his love of drinking.
His face was flushed, and he was clearly drunk.
"Eren, did you upset Mikasa again and get a lesson from Arthur?"
Hannes rested a hand on Eren's shoulder and chuckled.
"What? Why would I cry?! Why would I get a lesson from him? Seriously! You reek of booze. It's disgusting!"
As though Hannes had touched a sore spot, Eren immediately jumped up. Then he caught the smell of alcohol on Hannes and waved a hand in front of his nose, shouting at him in disgust.
"You little brat." Seeing Eren's disgusted expression, Hannes gave him a light knock on the head as punishment.
Just then, Eren noticed the Garrison soldiers nearby, drinking and enjoying themselves. Their laughter reached his ears, grating like knives.
"How can you slack off like this? What will you do if there's an emergency?!" Eren shouted in displeasure.
"What emergency?"
Hannes looked at Eren in confusion.
"Do I really have to spell it out? Obviously, when Titans breach the wall!"
Eren shouted at Hannes, exasperated by his complacency.
But his words made the nearby Garrison soldiers burst into laughter, as though they had heard a joke.
"Ahahaha! The doctor's boy sure is full of energy. If they really breach the wall, of course we can fight! But that hasn't happened in a hundred years!"
A fat soldier spoke with a chuckle.
"But peaceful times can be the most dangerous times! That's what my father told me!"
Eren kept arguing.
Arthur and Mikasa quietly watched him from the side.
"You aren't prepared to fight at all! You shouldn't even call yourselves the Garrison. You might as well call yourselves the Wall Repair Corps!"
Eren angrily shouted at the men.
"Eren, you're right, but when soldiers like us have nothing to do, it means everyone is living in peace."
Hannes glanced back at the towering wall, then spoke meaningfully.
"But if we can never leave the walls our whole lives, and all we do every day inside them is eat, drink, and play, how are we any different from penned-up livestock?!"
With that, Eren ran off in a fury.
Arthur and Mikasa hurried after him.
As Arthur ran, he thought about what Eren had just said. He, too, wondered whether he would spend his entire life within the walls.
Watching the three retreating figures, Hannes slowly sank into thought.
"Hahaha, kids sure love to act tough, even though they can't do anything. Don't you think, Hannes?" Hannes's drinking buddies mocked what Eren had just said.
"Huh? Yeah..." Hannes nodded along.
"Don't tell me that kid wants to join the Survey Corps?"