[Of course Maruki would spend Eren's time away comforting those that had lost him. Maruki's own loss was massive. Knowing his friend, he doubts he was given the same treatment, or that he asked for it.

[But he vouched for Eren's return, and he was right. Eren is right too. He knows that he is. He wouldn't have returned for no reason - he's convinced himself quite easily that that was his own choice too. He has unfinished business.

[It isn't time to rest yet.]

Maruki said that I'd come back, and he was right. You just said so yourself. [He murmurs this between them.]

You should trust, now, that he knew. For the same reasons he did, trust that I do. There's a lot you don't know, Thorfinn.

I will decide when it's time to go.