Attack on Titan: The Harsh Mistress of the City, Part 1

Shingeki no Kyojin: Kakuzetsu Toshi no Joō (Ue) (進撃の巨人　隔絶都市の女王（上）) is a light novel based on the Attack on Titan manga. It is written by Ryō Kawakami and illustrated by Range Murata.

Plot
In this first of two parts, Wall Maria, humanity's outermost defense, has just been breached, and Titans roam what had once been the interior. Situated along the Wall like the fallen Shiganshina District, the town of Quinta finds itself surrounded on all sides by the monstrosities and severed from the rest of humankind's last bastion.

A stand-alone side story to the mega-hit comics franchise, this novel tells of the increasingly harrowing travails of Rita Iglehaut, a Garrison soldier trapped in Quinta, and her well-to-do childhood friend Mathias Kramer, who managed to flee the district in time only to face challenges for which he seems ill-suited.

Prologue
On the day after Wall Maria is breached, Garrison recruit Rita Iglehaut tries to help with the chaos as the remaining half of the population of Quinta District is escorted to Wall Rose. She tries to help the citizens escape and finds a young child who she then saves, joining her comrade Wilco as they are ordered to retreat into Quinta. Arriving at Quinta, Wilco is killed in an accident during the Garrison's attempts to ward off the approaching Titans, and Rita hands the girl over to a middle age woman upon their arrival. Fighting breaks out among the citizens as the order is given to close the inner gate of Quinta, and despite all her losses, Rita tries her best to maintain order over the citizens under pressure.

Chapter One
In Fuerth District, Mathias Kramer dreams about his past with Rita before waking up in his family's townhouse, having been in the first group of citizens to evacuate Quinta. He finds one of his family's servants, Suzanne, and asks if she knows if the rest of Quinta District has arrived yet, but she reluctantly informs him that half the population has been cut off by the Titans and never made it out. Most of the Garrison was slain as well. Mathias realizes that Rita is probably dead, but with no confirmation he cannot stop thinking of a way to find out.

Though not part of the royal government, the Kramer merchant family has a lot of influence, so Mathias tries persuading his father Jörg to mount a rescue mission. His father has other plans in mind though, and firmly turns Mathias away. Dejected, Mathias heads out to the refugee camp at the edge of the district.

While there he finds a line of men signing up to serve as volunteer soldiers to plug the hole in Wall Maria. Several of them are refugees, but others are poor people from Fuerth hoping to earn some money. Once he realizes that the volunteers will be allowed to leave Wall Rose, he tries to sign up as well, hoping that he can find out what happened to Rita, but the recruiters recognize his name and, due to his father's influence, deny his application.

Chapter Two
After the fighting dies down outside the Walls, Rita leads the remaining Garrison soldiers and members of the Training Corps on a search for survivors. To her distress, they do not find any and her former classmate Amanda forces her to realize that she is the highest ranking soldier in a command position. Though she is from the same class as the surviving Garrison soldiers, Rita is the only one who was made a team leader.

Worse, the Military Police Brigade has already abandoned Quinta District, as have all of the governing officials. There is no longer any government in place.

When looting breaks out, Rita takes charge. She sends Duccio, a trainee, off to get guns for the remaining soldiers and to summon reinforcements. Meanwhile she personally apprehends the scofflaws. To ensure she has control of the situation, she openly declares herself as the acting commander of the Garrison and assumes control of the city.

In Fuerth District, Mathias continues to try finding a way to return to Quinta. Overhearing that his father had left behind his valuable art collection, he looks for a military recruitment officer who might be unscrupulous enough to sign him up in exchange for the location of his father's hidden fortune.

He nearly gets killed in a seedy tavern, but is saved by a oddly confidant group of fresh military volunteers. They introduce themselves as Bernhardt, Jarratt, Klaus, and Nikki. As Mathias suspects, they are not ordinary recruits. Bernhardt used to be in the Military Police Brigade until he was sacked for rerouting supplies to the black market and turning a blind eye to the criminal activities of the other three. Now the four of them have signed up for the opportunity to loot towns and villages along the way to Wall Maria, and it would not be much bother for them to create a diversion towards Quinta.

Mathias does not entirely trust them, but he suspects they are capable of getting him to Quinta so he agrees to tell them where the treasury is located, but only once they arrive. Klaus protests that Mathias will slow them down and could be lying, but Jarratt thinks it is worth taking a look.

Back in Quinta District, Rita has a dream where she recalls a portion of her childhood from before she met Mathias. There is a man she knows who is hunched over a wooden box that he loves very deeply. When she touches his body it is cold and she catches the scent of decay.