"You little brat!"
The man with the middle-part lunged at Chen Si. Chen Si's gaze remained calm. In the next second, the man suddenly flew backward and crashed face-first into the dirt, his teeth sinking into the mud.
Beside him, Mikasa silently withdrew her outstretched leg and moved to Chen Si's side, her sharp eyes fixed on the other soldier.
"You dare attack a soldier?!" The soldier who had kicked Eren reached for his blade.
Before he could draw it, seven or eight refugee men rushed forward from the crowd. Like a pile of bodies stacked on top of one another, they tackled him to the ground and began beating him mercilessly—kicks and punches raining down.
"Well done!" Eren cheered excitedly. He wanted to rush forward and throw a punch too, but Mikasa grabbed him.
"You beast! Even a little girl isn't safe from you?!"
"Damn bastard! Are all soldiers like this?!"
"Except for the Survey Corps, they should all be thrown into prison!"
The men cursed as they beat the soldier senseless. Bruised and bloodied, he couldn't even speak beneath their weight.
At that moment, Annie walked past carrying her bread. She glanced briefly at Chen Si and Mikasa, lingered a moment longer on Eren, then left without much interest.
Chen Si suddenly noticed the blonde girl with the high ponytail.
That must be Annie Leonhart. Her presence stood out immediately.
Hm?
Annie was holding two pieces of bread. She handed one to a messy-haired boy with slicked-back bangs. His face was square like Reiner's, though his eyes were a bit larger.
Who's that? Chen Si thought. He couldn't remember him from the original story. Probably just some background character. Annie was relatively kind to ordinary people—helping someone carry bread wasn't unusual. Chen Si even remembered her once giving her own bread to a child.
Chen Si was making the mistake of assuming events would unfold exactly like the original plot. So far, everything had followed canon, so he believed nothing would change.
"I won't accept charity from those bastards! I'm going back to Wall Maria! I'll fight my way back and eat our own food!" Eren shouted angrily.
"That's impossible! How could humans defeat the Titans? We can only survive inside the walls! Acting recklessly will just get us killed—like my parents!" Armin pleaded anxiously, his voice higher than usual.
"So we're supposed to bow and scrape for scraps?! I don't want food given out of pity!" Eren hurled the bread Armin had handed him into the distance.
"Eren! What are you doing?! How can you treat the food Armin's grandfather worked so hard to get like that? Apologize to Armin right now!" Carla snapped, furious at Eren's recklessness.
"Eren, we don't have a choice. We need food to survive," Armin continued gently.
"You're just a coward! Go on living like livestock!" Eren shouted back.
"You child!" Carla slapped him. She hadn't expected him to be so immature, so unable to grasp the situation.
Chen Si was exasperated. The two soldiers had already been beaten, yet Eren still wasn't satisfied. His fighting spirit hadn't diminished much, even with Carla still alive.
Chen Si pushed off the ground, leaping lightly into the air. With one hand, he caught the bread Eren had thrown. Then he strode forward, grabbed Eren by the collar, and tossed him to the ground.
Eren landed on his backside, clutching his face. "Chen Si, what are you doing?!"
"What am I doing? Making sure you live."
He stuffed the bread into Eren's mouth.
"Wasting food is shameful. If you don't eat it, I'll have Aunt Carla discipline you. If I remember right, you get spanked for not finishing your food."
Struggling fiercely, Eren froze when he heard the threat of being spanked in public. He swallowed the bread.
Chen Si released him.
"If you're angry," he said calmly, "pick up a stone and throw it at your enemies—not bread at the people who care about you."
"Eren," Carla said softly but firmly, "you can't always rely on Chen Si and Mikasa to fix your problems. When you call people cowards, are you saying Mikasa, Armin, Chen Si, you, me—everyone here trying to survive—is a coward? Sometimes, it takes even greater courage to keep living."
As she spoke, she thought of Grisha. Her eyes shimmered, but she quickly held back her tears and cupped Eren's face.
"We escaped here thanks to others' help. Even our food is given to us. As we are now, we couldn't defeat even one Titan," Mikasa added quietly.
Eren sat on the ground, biting his lip stubbornly.
"Mikasa's right," Carla said, pressing the half-eaten bread back into his mouth. "Right now, our goal is to survive."
Tears ran down Eren's face—whether from humiliation or because the bread tasted awful was unclear. Chen Si certainly hadn't enjoyed it earlier, only finishing under Mikasa's threatening stare. He sighed inwardly.
Before long, the royal government issued an order: refugees from Wall Maria were to be sent to reclaim wasteland farmland.
Because Carla was still alive, and through the connections Grisha had left behind, Eren's family wasn't treated too harshly. They were assigned relatively light work at a stable and given a small house.
Year 846. Overcast.
Eren was feeding the horses. Standing on tiptoe, he offered fodder to a horse in the stall. The horse took a bite, pawed at the ground, snorted—then sprayed spit all over Eren.
Startled, Eren stumbled backward and fell. Wiping his face with his sleeve, he shouted, "You stupid horse! There's a famine! There isn't enough feed for you!"
The horse slammed into the stall in irritation. Frightened, Eren grabbed the feed basket and ran.
"Let's see if I feed you tomorrow! Stupid animal!"
Nearby, Mikasa was washing vegetables by the river. As she rinsed them, a corpse drifted past on the water.
She frowned.
She had grown used to it. These days, bodies frequently floated by—those who starved, those who took their own lives…
She sighed and quickly retrieved the vegetables. There was nothing she could do. She had seen enough of the world's cruelty. Silently, she vowed not to let Chen Si or the others suffer that fate.
Carla sat weaving cloth for winter clothes while listening to a neighbor lament about insufficient grain for the coming cold. No one knew how many would survive the winter.
Carla's expression turned sorrowful. She rationed carefully, eating only half of what Eren and the others did. Combined with occasional food from Military Police members who had once received Grisha's help, the family barely managed to stay fed.
Chen Si was chopping firewood.
Recently, he had made an important discovery.
While trying to catch fish, he wondered whether he could conduct electricity through metal to stun them. He stuck his dagger into the water and discharged electricity.
The result?
He fell into the lake multiple times and barely stunned two fish.
After that, Mikasa and Carla forbade him from fishing near the river—especially since most of the fish there were already dead.
To electrify a large area, he'd need dozens of blades in the water—and far more power than he currently had. Until he could single-handedly kill a Pure Titan, that wasn't happening.
However, he noticed something unexpected.
His dagger, repeatedly struck by his lightning, was becoming harder and sharper.
His lightning could temper metal.
Unfortunately, his energy reserves were limited. He could only temper a little each day, and each session required him to sleep afterward.
After a month of tempering, the dagger wasn't exactly able to slice through iron effortlessly—but it could cut through an untempered dagger cleanly without damage.
He decided not to waste too much energy on it. Eventually, he would temper a Survey Corps blade. A dagger was too short; fighting Titans with it would mean practically climbing onto them.
Returning home with firewood, Chen Si saw Eren covered in dirt, Mikasa carrying vegetables, and Armin standing at the doorway with his grandfather.
"Armin, Grandpa, you're here," Chen Si greeted, setting down the firewood.
Armin forced a strained smile.
"Chen Si… I came to say goodbye. This is the fishing rod you gave me."
His grandfather removed his hat and smiled.
"What's going on?" Chen Si asked, suddenly remembering the plot he had nearly forgotten.
"The royal government is sending two hundred thousand refugees to reclaim Wall Maria," Armin said, eyes brimming with tears. "Grandpa is among them."
Chen Si fell silent.
He remembered making simple fishing rods from wood and branches. Most people here still caught fish by hand or with nets. He had given one to Armin's grandfather. The old man had refused at first, thinking it too valuable, until Chen Si explained how to make it.
They had fished together. For the old man, it was a wonderful pastime—and it greatly eased Armin's family's food shortage.
Armin's grandfather gently placed his hat on Armin's head.
"Live well, Armin. Chen Si—catch a few more fish for this old man. Burn some for me in the future, haha."
His tone was unexpectedly open and lighthearted.
"I'll go too," Chen Si said suddenly. "Once I kill a Pure Titan alone, I'll unlock my full strength. I'll find a way to survive—and maybe bring Grandpa back."
"No!"
"Chen Si!"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
Mikasa, Carla, and Armin's grandfather spoke in unison.
Chen Si blinked in surprise.
"I'll be fine. I'm actually pretty strong." He flexed his arm.
Hearing this, Eren immediately shouted, "I'll go too! Mom, don't worry! Chen Si is strong! We'll take back Wall Maria!"
He raised his fist high in declaration.