Just as everyone was happily eating and drinking, those two idiots, Jean and Eren, started arguing again over their conflicting ideals.
"Why are you so determined to join the Survey Corps? You ranked sixth. You could easily join the Military Police Brigade." Jean looked at Eren, a little tipsy from the alcohol he had drunk.
He simply could not understand why Eren was so eager to join the Survey Corps, where he could so easily end up dying pointlessly in a Titan's jaws.
"Obviously, to drive out every last Titan! Are we supposed to cower behind the walls for the rest of our lives?" Eren voiced his thoughts.
Then he continued, "I'm joining the Survey Corps so humanity can live safely beyond the walls, instead of wasting our entire lives like livestock."
"Huh?! For some impossible dream like that? Have you lost your mind, Eren?" Jean could hardly believe Eren was actually talking about wiping out every Titan.
"Yeah, Eren. There are too many Titans. We can't possibly defeat them!" Jean's good friend Marco chimed in.
"I don't know whether humanity can defeat the Titans, but I do know that if we don't fight back, they'll wipe us out someday! How would any of you understand?!" Eren shouted, growing agitated. His raised voice drew the others' attention.
"I never thought Eren would join the Survey Corps."
"How could anyone defeat the Titans? Never mind the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan."
"Yeah, that's just a pipe dream."
"All we can do is protect the walls and keep them from being breached."
Everyone began talking over one another.
Listening to all the defeatist remarks around him, Eren's veins bulged. He had never imagined these people were so afraid of the Titans.
"Can humanity really defeat the Titans?" Even Thomas, who was close to Eren, sounded deeply uncertain.
Then he began recounting the fall of Wall Maria, the battles large and small over the years, and the Survey Corps' record of never returning victorious from an expedition.
It seemed the Titans truly were an unbeatable enemy.
As they listened to Thomas, many began to feel a flicker of fear toward the Titans. A pessimistic uncertainty about humanity's future began spreading through the crowd.
"If you refuse to fight because you think the Titans can't be beaten, how are you any different from lambs waiting to be slaughtered? Just a few years ago, this place was part of the interior too." Seeing so many people reject his views, Eren struggled to keep his emotions in check.
"..." Everyone fell silent at those words. Yes, before Wall Maria fell...
Wall Rose had been considered part of the interior too.
Can we win? Everyone asked themselves, filled with doubt.
Arthur sighed as he looked at the dispirited crowd. He knew he had to say something to rekindle their will to fight.
Eren was right. Refusing to fight meant being a lamb awaiting slaughter.
He rose and walked over to Eren and Jean.
"Honestly, Eren. Look what you've done to a perfectly good graduation dinner," Arthur scolded.
"Sorry, Arthur," Eren apologized guiltily.
Arthur swept his gaze over the crowd, then climbed onto a table, ready to give an impromptu speech to lift their spirits.
"You say the Titans can't be defeated. I'd like to know why you all think that." Arthur opened by throwing a question at them.
Everyone exchanged glances until Thomas stood up and spoke.
"The battle records from previous years..." But Arthur interrupted before he could finish.
"Past records don't define the present."
Arthur paused, then continued, "Do you think the Titans are invincible, that there's no way to kill them? But they have a weakness: the flesh at the nape of their necks. Cut that away, and even your supposedly invincible Titan will drop dead."
"They're made of flesh and blood, just like us. Unlike those witless Titans, we humans have brains and the ability to cooperate. We can work together to restrict their movements. We can destroy their eyes to blind them, then cut away the flesh at their napes with a single stroke. It's that simple." Arthur explained the tactics for fighting Titans.
"You're quicker and more agile than they are, and your minds are far more adaptable. If you work together with your teammates, I refuse to believe you can't defeat even one Titan."
"If you still think the Titans are unbeatable after all that, if you don't dare resist at all and only want to get farther and farther away from them, then let me ask you this: what happens if the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan appear again, and Wall Rose is breached?"
"You! Your families! Where will you go? Will you die in a Titan's mouth, or beg it not to eat you? Or do you expect that tiny stretch of land inside Wall Sina to feed hundreds of thousands of people?"
"Fine, then. Let's assume Wall Sina can feed that many people. What happens if Wall Sina is breached too? Where will you run then? Huh?" Arthur demanded of the crowd below him.
Everyone broke into a cold sweat as they imagined what Arthur described. Yes, if even Wall Sina were breached one day, where could humanity possibly flee?
Jean and Marco looked deeply conflicted as they listened. Arthur's words had sunk in.
Arthur continued.
"If we're all going to die someday anyway, then rather than die like cowards, we might as well shed our last drop of blood. Even if we die, we should tear a piece of flesh from a Titan and show them humanity's fighting spirit."
"Do you want to die on your knees, a coward despised by the people, or stand tall and fight until your final moment, a hero they'll remember forever?!" Arthur shouted fervently.
"I want to be a hero! Not a coward!" A trainee in the crowd raised a clenched fist and shouted, seemingly swept up in Arthur's passion.
That single cry sent a wave through the crowd. The others caught the fervor and shouted excitedly, "Be heroes! Not cowards!"
"To hell with these supposedly invincible Titans! Human civilization will burn like an undying fire. Our descendants will carry the torch of our hopes and keep it burning forever! Long live humanity!" Arthur raised his arm and roared.
The fire in everyone's hearts blazed to life. Eren, Jean, Marco, Armin, Sasha, Connie, Reiner, Thomas, Mina, Mikasa, Christa, Ymir, and the other trainees all shouted with excitement.
"Drive out the Titans! Long live humanity!"
"Long live humanity!"
Everyone present was now overflowing with emotion. Swept up in the atmosphere, they all joined in the chant.
The uproar was so loud that even the instructors having their own dinner outside the dining hall could clearly hear the trainees' stirring cries.
They too were swept up in the atmosphere. Every instructor, including Keith, had tears in his eyes. Listening to the trainees shouting inside, they felt that perhaps this very group would fulfill humanity's hope of striking back.
Bones would one day crumble into dust, yet life would endure...