Wald and Lou

"We're not upset. It's just that you're in our way."

- Wald explains the situation to Annie

Wald and Lou (ウォルド&ルー) is the 3rd chapter of the 1st volume and the 3rd chapter overall of the Attack on Titan: Lost Girls manga, written and illustrated by Ryōsuke Fuji.

Overview
After Annie rushes to lock the door of Wayne Eisner's home, the angry neighbor leaves and Annie decides to report Wayne's death anonymously after she finds Carly Stratmann. Thinking back to when she learned of coderoin's origin in the capital, she wonders how it ended up in such high quantity with Wayne. When she heads to a carriage awaiting her, she is caught by Wald Richter and Lou Meade, a pair of hired handymen. After they restrain her and remove her silver ring, Annie asks them about their motives, and after vague answers, they tell her of their plan to kill her and dispose of her body in the industrial area of town. Annie asks for her ring back, and Wald discovers the little blade in her ring. He tests it for poison by pricking Annie's hand, just as she had planned. Generating an arm of the Female Titan and destroying the carriage, Annie is freed from her restraints and retrieves her ring.

With Wald injured, Lou shoots both Wald and Annie through the chest, leaving both for dead. Annie heals her wound and questions Wald, who tells her that Carly is at his home. Their search for her led them to Wayne, who gave them Carly's whereabouts and in return, Wald and Lou blackmailed Elliot Stratmann with Carly's secret hand in the drug trade. After Wald dies of his wounds, Annie returns to the Pit Lidors where Lou is celebrating his future wealth.

Summary
As Wayne Eisner's neighbor angrily bangs on the door, Annie rushes to close the door and lock it. She succeeds and the man goes back to his own apartment, leaving Annie to consider whether or not she should report Wayne's death to the Military Police Brigade. Given the risk of being linked to the murder, she decides to report it anonymously after she has found Carly Stratmann. She locks Wayne's apartment and returns to the carriage outside South Aachen Street. Thinking back on a briefing in the Military Police barracks, she recalls that the drug coderoin was only recently introduced to Stohess District after it started circulating in the capital. She wonders how Carly and Wayne could have so large of a stockpile of coderoin, and she decides to return to Elliot Stratmann for further questioning.

When she returns to the carriage, she notices that the driver is someone different than the one from before. Before she can react, she is caught and pulled into the carriage by a thug, and within is the man with the artificial eye who was searching for Carly. The thug, Lou, restrains her and steals her silver ring. The man with the glass eye, Wald, informs her that the previous driver had been bribed to give over the carriage. Annie recognizes Lou as one of the patrons from the Pit Lidors earlier that day. Wald informs Annie that they plan to kill her and dispose of her body in the industrial area of Stohess. He tells her that he has spoken with Elliot Stratmann and knows she is working alone.

Knowing that she has found Wayne's body, she informs her that they were not the ones who killed him. Annie begins to ask many questions about what they know of Carly, the Stratmann family, and coderoin, causing Wald to become irritated. Receiving no answers, Annie asks for her silver ring back, falsely claiming that it is a gift from her father. Wald tells Lou to give him the ring, and he discovers the small blade hidden within the ring. Suspecting that it is poisoned, he pricks Annie's hand. All according to plan, Annie makes use of the wound and generates an arm of the Female Titan.

Wald is injured as the carriage bursts into pieces, an arm of the Female Titan in its place. With her restraints broken, she retrieves her blade-ring from her Titan's hand. As Wald wonders what has happened, Lou shoots Annie through the chest from behind. He steals her ring again, deciding to kill Wald and take over their job. Wald asks if Lou was the one who killed Wayne before he is shot in the chest.

As Wald is dying, Annie heals herself and asks him of Carly's location. Wald confesses that Carly is at his office, No. 197 Van Gelder Street. He tells her that he and Lou are odd-jobbers who were tasked by Elliot Stratmann to find Carly and return her to the Stratmann family home. On their search, they met Wayne, who knew of her whereabouts. Wayne had agreed to give them Carly's location if they did him a favor by blackmailing Elliot Stratmann with Carly's secret in the coderoin trade for a ransom.

As he is dying, Wald asks Annie of what she did. Annie tells him that she is indeed a Titan. Wald thinks she is joking, and laments that he was nearly able to leave Stohess had he finished his task. With this, he dies.

That night at the Pit Lidors, Lou celebrates his murder of Wald and his future reward from the ransom against Stratmann. During the festivities, Annie returns to the tavern, expressing her frustration with the events of that day.