Since Hannes was with the Garrison Regiment, it was easier to find medics from his unit to tend to Carla's injuries.
But the situation was dire—they couldn't afford to waste too much time.
The medics gave Carla a quick treatment, bandaging her wounds just enough for her to move.
Eren and Mikasa immediately helped her onto one of the boats.
Hannes stayed behind to guard the gate, ready to hold off any titans that might come charging in.
The southern gate of Wall Maria stood wide open, allowing the remaining civilians from Shiganshina to evacuate.
Cannons were mounted both at the gate and atop the 50-meter-high wall, intended to stop the Titans. But years of peace within the walls had dulled the military's edge—especially the Garrison. Frankly, most of them were just lazy, half-trained drunkards, barely capable of fighting. Many didn't even fully understand a Titan's weakness.
Even a Pure Titan was enough to give them hell.
As Eren and Mikasa helped Carla onto the boat, they ran into that white-haired older boy again.
"Big brother?" Eren called out instinctively.
Carla turned and recognized him too—the man who'd saved her life.
"You! Thank you so much. If not for you, I would've been eaten back there…" Carla said, her voice trembling with gratitude.
"Saving people is just what you do" Byakuya replied flatly.
Carla silently admired him. What a kind soul.
"And... is that girl with you? A relative?" she asked, noticing the green-haired girl standing beside him.
Green hair was rare enough to stand out, and she had such a lovely, striking face that it was hard not to notice her in any crowd.
"Ah, well—" Byakuya started to respond.
But Eto cut in with a mischievous smile, "Yep~ I'm his fiancée."
Byakuya's expression shifted ever so slightly. His relationship with Eto was... complicated, to say the least. Sometimes lovers, sometimes partners, sometimes apparently engaged — it depended on the day.
"Oh, I see" Carla nodded with a warm smile.
Eren looked confused.
"Hey, Mikasa… what's a fiancée?" he whispered.
Mikasa blinked, her cheeks turning a faint red. She quickly turned away, avoiding eye contact.
"I... I don't know" she muttered, but her expression gave her away completely.
Eren didn't notice, or perhaps didn't understand enough to care.
"Oh... okay."
Still curious, he just kept the question in the back of his mind.
The boat was packed. Dozens of people squeezed together in every corner.
Byakuya, Eto, Eren, Mikasa, and Carla all managed to find a spot on the deck. Cramped, but bearable.
"All right, all right! This boat's full! Wait for the next one!"
"Relax! The next one's right behind us!"
"We get it—Titans are terrifying—but panicking won't help. Just stay in line!"
Garrison soldiers were doing their best to maintain order. Without it, the panicked civilians would trample each other before the Titans even arrived.
Truth was, most of the Garrison had no real combat experience. They drank too much, trained too little, and were in no shape to fight Titans.
Even the Survey Corps — with their elite training — returned from expeditions with massive losses. The Garrison didn't stand a chance.
As Byakuya's boat was just about to push off, chaos erupted near the gate.
"Shut the gate! Shut it, now! There's a Titan charging in!"
"I'm trying! It's not shutting fast enough!"
"Fire the cannons! Don't let it through!"
Booming voices and the thunder of boots echoed through the gate.
Charging toward them was a Titan clad in hardened armor, about fifteen meters tall. Unlike the erratic movements of abnormal Titans, this one ran like a trained human soldier — disciplined, deliberate, and deadly.
This wasn't a Pure Titan. It wasn't even one of the odd types.
It was one of the Nine Titans.
The Armored Titan.
The cannons were useless. The shells bounced off its plated body without so much as a crack.
"Why?! Why isn't it working?!"
"We're screwed—it's gonna break through!!"
A moment later, the Armored Titan hurled its entire mass against the gate.
BOOM!
With a sound like a bomb going off, the doors burst open, shattered into splinters.
The breach was massive—fifteen meters high, just enough for any Titan to walk right in.
Wall Maria had officially been breached.
"It's over… Wall Maria's fallen..." Eren whispered, staring at the destruction in shock.
With the wall broken, all the territory between Wall Maria and Wall Rose — roughly 240,000 square kilometers — would be lost. Humanity's safe zone had just shrunk by a third.
Carla pulled Eren and Mikasa close, tears falling down her cheeks.
Mikasa looked heartbroken, but held herself steady.
Eren, though, didn't look scared.
His expression was resolute.
As if something inside him had been set ablaze.
He wanted to fight. To be free. To push beyond the walls.
Byakuya noticed it immediately. That fire in his eyes.
He wasn't surprised. Eren had always been like this.
The current year was 845. A year earlier, in 844, was when Eren first met Mikasa —when he killed those human traffickers, revealing the fearless, rebellious side of him.
Now, with humanity retreating behind Wall Rose, that desire for freedom was being stoked again.
But unlike the original timeline, Carla had survived. That alone shifted Eren's emotional course.
He didn't shout those infamous words: "I'll kill them all… Every last one of them!"
Not yet, anyway.
Beside him, Eto glanced at Byakuya.
She understood immediately—if Byakuya had wanted to, he could have stopped the Armored Titan before it broke through.
He didn't.
Which meant... he had a plan.