A month after Kuklo first heard the whispers of expeditions being resumed, the rumor was proven true, making his timetable clear. In a week, the Survey Corps would leave Shiganshina District’s main gate early in the morning, then scout outside the wall for a few hours. The objective of the survey was not made public, but considering the fifteen-year hiatus, it was unlikely that they’d start exploring in earnest from the outset. At most, they would be observing the surrounding area.
After moving out of their room, Kuklo and Sharle hitched a ride on a carriage with a merchant who said he planned to go to Shiganshina on business. Naturally, the ride came at a cost. They could only get on if they handed over steel coins for the fare and for using the title of trader. Without the latter, their stories would not check out during any inspections, and they needed to avoid any conflicts they could.
Fortunately, they gained the merchant’s trust easily. All they needed to make his breed a superb, loyal partner was a handful of coins. Of course, that also meant their relationship would last only as long as their tender did.
✦ ✦ ✦
After leaving the underground city, Kuklo and Sharle stayed a night in Trost District, the halfway point to their destination, then arrived in Shiganshina District the next afternoon.
Shiganshina District was the town at the southernmost edge of Wall Maria. With a population a little over forty thousand, it was the largest in the country and important both militarily and politically─factors that conceivably underlay the calamity fifteen years ago. On top of it all, it was the place where Kuklo was born.
While a Titan had been allowed in, that was firmly in the past. No signs of damage could be found around the place, and none of the citizens seemed to live in terror of the Titans who were still a menace to humanity. Since the Survey Corps had proven they could be defeated, fears were toned down to a more rational level.
Shiganshina District was stirring with talk of the first expedition in fifteen years, and the mood was already celebratory. Of course the citizens were excited─there was hope that the Titans might be driven away, and in that event, humanity could finally move into the outside world.
“Wow…”
Kuklo was slack-jawed as he stared at the towering Wall Maria. He knew that it was fifty meters tall, and he’d already seen Wall Sheena and Wall Rose from the carriage, but the difference in impression between seeing them from afar and up close was like day and night. He almost felt like prostrating himself before it.
Scaling the wall would be an absolutely impossible feat. A single glance revealed the hilarity of the wishful scenarios he’d concocted. A human hoping to scale the wall couldn’t do so without the Equipment, which allowed for vertical movement. There were records that its creator, Angel Aaltonen, had wielded it to return alive from the other side of the wall.
If Kuklo had the Equipment, he could easily surmount the wall and forget about tagging along on the Survey Corps’ expedition. Yet it could be found for sale nowhere, not even the black markets, nor were there any rumors of its continued production. If it had been developed for use on the battlefield, there were no traces of that fact, either. Perhaps it had been put on hold, but there was no reason for its development to be halted.
Kuklo scratched his head, shifted his gaze to the gates, and said, “Even the gate is huge.”
“It’s over ten meters on its own,” concurred Sharle.
“So Mammon came through this gate…”
The Titan that had eaten Kuklo’s mother and turned Shiganshina District into a smoldering plain was also ten meters in height, just as tall as the main gate. That was enough to make it clear how ghastly the Titans were.
“They’re monsters.”
“Yes…” Sharle agreed.
“What are Titans like?”
“Human-shaped beasts. It’s like they were plucked straight out of a nightmare…” Perhaps recalling what the Titans looked like, Sharle shivered and said, “Kuklo? Do you really have to go outside the wall?”
Kuklo shifted his eyes away from the main gate to look at Sharle, who stood next to him.
He could tell from the fearful color she’d turned that the experience must have been truly terrifying. Sharle clearly had a strong antipathy for the Titans. After all, she had once come to kill Kuklo, the Titan’s son. That they were so abominable it drove her to attempt murder was proof of their monstrosity, but Kuklo still couldn’t form a mental image of a Titan. It was as though he was trying to see one through a pane of clouded glass.
“It’s okay. I will be back right away.” Kuklo smiled as he put his hand on Sharle’s shoulder, but it wasn’t enough to dispel her anxiety. “Let’s move,” he changed the topic, but as soon as he spoke, he noticed the sound of distant footfalls.
He stared at Wall Maria with a frown on his face.
“Was that…”
“Is something wrong, Kuklo?”
“I hear footsteps.”
They were surrounded by noise, but he could hear the footfalls coming from beyond the wall. Which must mean─
A Titan…
But the sound was so faint that even Kuklo barely registered it. Sharle, whose hearing failed to pick it up, repeatedly angled her head, but it was steadily closing in on the town.
With every step the Titan took, the ground shook slightly. It was clear that the specimen responsible for the footsteps was a gigantic creature.
The moment Sharle made to strain her ears, a thunderous roar tore through the sky overhead. The air shook, and she reflexively cowered. Her legs gave out and she plopped down on the ground.
Kuklo looked up at the sky, but he could not espy any thunderclouds. In fact, the sky was utterly clear, with not a single cloud in sight. No sign of rain, either─the only thing of note was a slightly burnt smell that lingered in the air.
“The cannons…sure are loud. That was my first time hearing them.”
When Kuklo heard Sharle’s explanation, it made sense to him. It was the smell of gunpowder that had stimulated his nose.
He sighed and reached his hand out toward Sharle, who still sat on the ground.