Sin (Chapter)

With the Royal Government toppled, the military announces the coup to the people of Mitras from the very gallows built for Erwin Smith's execution. Nile Dok explains to the crowd that the Fritz line on the throne was a decoy and that the armed forces mean to seat the genuine royal heir, though a reporter warns him the public no longer knows what to believe. Riding through the city afterward, Erwin confides to Darius Zackly that the old regime, however rotten, at least kept humanity alive, and questions whether the revolution served mankind at all. Zackly cheerfully admits he despised the nobles for decades and simply wanted to watch them fall, then observes that both men have placed their personal desires above humanity's fate. Erwin traces his own motive back to a boyhood dream born in his father's classroom.

Hange coordinates the evacuation of the Berg Newspapers staff, regroups with Squad Levi, and shares an intelligence report on the Reiss estate. It describes a family of five children plus one illegitimate daughter, the beloved eldest heir Frieda, and a supposed bandit raid on the family chapel the night Wall Maria fell that killed every Reiss except Rod. The squad finds the story full of holes, from the chapel's improbably swift destruction to Rod's rush to rebuild it, and heads there expecting Eren to be taken to the site to be eaten.

Eren wakes gagged and chained in a crystalline cavern. Historia insists her father is no enemy of humanity, and Rod proposes an experiment: by laying hands on Eren's back, he and Historia trigger a torrent of stolen memories. Eren glimpses the Reiss family slaughtered beneath the chapel by an intruding Titan, then relives the night Grisha injected him with the serum in the forest. His newly transformed Titan seized and consumed his father. The memory ends with a young Eren clutching Grisha's glasses beside the remains, and Rod asks whether he now remembers his father's sin.

The coup is made public in Mitras, with Nile presenting the military's plan to install the true royal bloodline on the throne.

Erwin and Zackly privately question the morality of the revolution, each admitting he acted on personal conviction rather than for humanity's benefit.

Hange's report exposes the cover-up around the Reiss family massacre on the night Wall Maria fell, pointing the squad toward the rebuilt chapel.

Physical contact from Rod and Historia unlocks Eren's sealed memories, revealing that gaining his Titan power required eating Grisha Yeager.

The Japanese title is 罪 (Tsumi). The anime covers this material in the episode Sin.

Within Eren's recovered memories, a figure in a Survey Corps uniform appears near the chapel, a detail tied to Keith Shadis's account of Grisha's movements that night.

Armin's question in this chapter, about who was eaten so that Eren could gain his abilities, is answered by the chapter's final pages, giving the volume its grim closing beat.