Krista Lenz

Reunited with Levi, the newly formed squad reviews the plan to close Wall Maria's breach using Eren's Titan abilities. Armin walks through its efficiency while conceding it may amount to wishful thinking, and Hange urges the group to keep Eren hidden for now. Levi picks up on Hange's unease, and Hange explains that Minister Nick was discovered dead that morning in the Trost barracks where Hange and Moblit had concealed him. Interior Military Police under Djel Sannes blamed a robber, but Hange saw torture marks on the body and left convinced the guards themselves were responsible. Accepting that threats now exist inside the Walls as well as beyond them, the squad chooses the path Erwin would take: press on toward Wall Maria and remove whoever obstructs them.

Later, Eren reflects on how differently Historia has carried herself since the squad relocated, and remembers the day she shared her history. Born on a farm within Wall Sheena on land held by the noble Reiss family, she grew up ignored: her mother refused to speak to her, her grandparents addressed her only to assign chores, and village children pelted her with stones. After teaching herself to read and learning what mothers were supposed to be, she once tried to embrace hers, only to be struck away as the woman muttered a wish for the courage to kill her.

Days after Wall Maria fell, Rod Reiss appeared and revealed himself as her father, intending to bring mother and daughter into his household. Men in black trenchcoats intercepted them, and when their leader asked whether the pair had any connection to Rod, he denied it. The leader cut her mother's throat; the dying woman's last words wished Historia had never been born. Rod stopped the man from killing the girl, instead assigning her the alias Krista Lenz. She spent two years hidden on a settlement before enrolling in the 104th Training Corps, where she found her first friends.

Squad Levi commits to the Wall Maria retaking plan while agreeing that Eren must stay concealed.

Hange reveals that Minister Nick was tortured and killed, with Interior Military Police under Djel Sannes the prime suspects, confirming the Survey Corps faces enemies within the Walls.

Historia's backstory is told: a neglected illegitimate child of the Reiss family, raised without affection on a Wall Sheena farm.

Rod Reiss disowns Historia and her mother before the trenchcoated men, and the leader, later revealed as Kenny Ackerman, murders her mother in front of her.

Rod spares his daughter by giving her the false identity Krista Lenz, under which she eventually joins the 104th Training Corps.

Krista Lenz is the 52nd chapter of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan, second in volume 13, released in Japan and the United States on December 9, 2013. It belongs to the Royal Government arc, positioned between Squad Levi and Smoke Signal.

The anime adapts its content across the episodes Smoke Signal and Old Story. The chapter shares its title with the alias Historia lived under through most of the early series, and Rod's line bestowing that name serves as its defining moment.

Minister Nick's murder marks the point where the conflict shifts from Titans outside the Walls to the human conspiracy protecting the throne, setting the stage for the uprising storyline.