Having made a miraculous return from beyond the walls, Kuklo and Cardina found themselves on a gently rocking carriage. The same soldier was driving it north on an artery road along the main route connecting Shiganshina District and Trost District. Kuklo and Cardina hadn’t been told their destination, though. If they kept going north, they’d eventually reach Wall Sheena, but it seemed unlikely that they’d be taken back to the underground prison considering what had transpired.
─At least, that’s what I hope. The ride was comfortable. Kuklo, sprawled out, wondered what came next. I can’t complain, though.
The soldier had saved his life. Even if Kuklo was headed back to prison, he would have no choice but to accept his fate.
But why did he save me? Not only that, the man was in a special position in the military. That much was clear from the unicorn emblem sewn into the back of his jacket.
“So how do you know him?” Cardina, sitting upright next to Kuklo, whispered with a stiff expression.
“Don’t ask me.”
“So you two aren’t acquainted with one another?”
Kuklo shook his head. “Of course not.”
The same Military Police Brigade had captured and tossed him into prison without any solid evidence. Had Kuklo known anyone in it, he would never have waited patiently until his exile was meted.
“I see,” relented Cardina, but he did not look convinced.
“I’m Jorge Piquer, instructor for the Training Corps,” the soldier spoke in what seemed like a reply to their chatter.
Jorge Piquer?! The hero… Even Kuklo knew the name of the previous commander of the Survey Corps, Carlo’s father.
The story behind the dramatic rescue dimly came into view, but there was still no reason for Jorge to brave the risk and save Kuklo.
“Did he ask you to do this?” Kuklo said rising up, his eye on Jorge.
“I heard about an interesting talent on our hands. So I took it upon myself to come and see.”
“If that is so, why didn’t you do something before…”
“I would have, if it were possible. I did not have the time to prove your innocence, or pacify the prison guards. So I waited for them to carry out your sentence.”
“On purpose? We nearly died out there!”
While Kuklo criticized Jorge, Cardina nodded. “And that was the point.”
“Huh?”
“He’s saying he took advantage of the special qualities of the ‘exile’ sentence.”
“That is correct.” Jorge nodded, then elaborated in a dry tone, “The sentence of ‘exile’ does not exist on paper. If such a punishment were made public knowledge, it would cause great mistrust of the royal government.” No imaginable punishment was worse than allowing Titans to end the lives of prisoners. “You were dead the moment your sentence was carried out. That’s what it means to be exiled. Furthermore, no dead person could be living inside the country. And even if they were, they would not be tracked down for crimes after having received a sentence that doesn’t exist.”
“Meaning you needed me to be exiled beyond the Wall…”
It was a fairly reckless plan, but the payoff was fittingly large. Now Kuklo would be able to operate in broad daylight, freed of the need to slink away into the dark depths of the underground city in fear of his pursuers.
Yet it was only a miracle that had carried him to safety. Given his itinerary, he could have easily met a bitter end.
“What if I’d died?”
“Then that was what fate had in store, nothing more.” In other words, Jorge would have given up. “But because of that, I was able to save another life that I didn’t expect.”
“I’m sorry,” Cardina apologized, nervous for some reason. There were no signs of his usual big mouth, and he was visibly tense.
“Do you two know each other?”
Cardina ducked his head with a start when Kuklo asked this. The answer seemed clear.
“He’s my pupil.”
“You’re in the military?” Kuklo’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Well, I was. I dropped out while in training. I don’t strike you as soldier material, do I?”
It was nothing to brag about, but in fact, Kuklo didn’t see a soldier’s uniform suiting him well.
“My parents insisted I become an MP, though,” Cardina shrugged.
The Military Police Brigade exercised political influence. It was natural for his father to want him to serve as a channel. Dario had persuaded Xavi to strive to that end, but perhaps Cardina hadn’t liked the idea.
“You could have been in the top ten,” Jorge said with disappointment in his voice.
“Top ten?” asked Kuklo.
“Depending on your marks,” Cardina explained, “you’re free to choose the Military Police Brigade as your assignment after you graduate. It’s the only chance for a recruit to join the Brigade. It’s like getting yourself on the fast track.”
“But…you? An MP?” Kuklo looked attentively at Cardina but couldn’t even imagine him in a Brigade uniform.
“I know, right? That reaction tells you all you need to know about how out of place I was.” Cardina sighed and added, “I suppose you’d make a much better soldier.”
“And my son had the same idea. I believe that his assessment was correct.”
“You’re trying to turn me into a soldier?”
“This is incredible. You have both the former commander and the active commander’s personal recommendation.”
“I’m sure it’s very entertaining to you…” Kuklo objected.
“But think about it. It’s like you really are the Titan’s son.”
Cardina let the name slip from his mouth casually, but Kuklo’s eyes opened wide. “You knew?!”
“Well, of course I noticed.”
“How?”
“He always bragged about cutting out your right eye.”
“Xavi did…”
“Our families knew each other well, and we were in the same class in the Training Corps. He talked about you quite a lot. I got bored of hearing the same stories so many times.”
It was easy for Kuklo to imagine Xavi triumphantly reciting tales, filled with lies and exaggerations, of his heroics.
“Xavi has excellent marks,” Jorge noted. “If he continues to train, he should be able to apply to the Military Police Brigade as he wishes to do.”
“Him? You have to be kidding!” If that were to happen, the country would crumble from the inside before the Titans ever destroyed the walls.
“In that case, why don’t you get in his way?” encouraged Cardina.
“Get in his way?!”
“If you join and work your way to the top of the class, you may be able to take his spot.”
“That sounds interesting.”
Not only had Xavi taken his right eye from him, he had sent him to prison with his false testimony. Beating him up wouldn’t make Kuklo feel any better, but smashing his ambitions would be quite satisfying. It was an impure motive, but a perfect way to teach Xavi a lesson.
But… Kuklo quickly shook his head. He didn’t have a moment to waste on Xavi. “There’s something I need to do first,” he said.
His top priority was to be reunited with Sharle. For the time being, everything else was trivial.
Sharle has had to go through so much because of my selfishness… He couldn’t go off to start something new quite yet.
“Once you tie things up, will you consider the Training Corps?” Jorge insisted.
“I don’t know when that will be.” Kuklo sighed and scratched his head.
“If you’re talking about meeting that young lady again, that should be happening tonight.”
“What?!” Kuklo shouted in spite of himself.
“She was the one who begged Carlo to save your life. You ought to be grateful.”
“Sharle did that?”
Sharle meeting Carlo seemed improbable, but when he thought about it, both of them had been at the parade. He’d handed over her charm to Carlo. It wasn’t surprising if she’d seen that.
“Oh, her. The one you kidnapped, who was supposed to be my betrothed?”
“I didn’t kidnap her,” Kuklo retorted and pouted. Then he asked Jorge, “Where are you taking us?”
“The factory city. The young lady is there, too.”
“Why is she there?”
“I can’t abandon a girl with no family to go home to, can I? My friend works in the city, so I thought it would be the perfect place to have her stay. There’s also this machinery I need to return.”
Jorge pointed at the strange device he wore on his hips. It was the same mysterious contraption that had yanked Kuklo to safety from the outside world. Without it, he never would have been able to scale Wall Maria.
“What is that contraption?”
“This is the Equipment.”
“The Equipment? The one used when a Titan was killed?”
“It was originally a machine used in order to travel to high-up places, but I guess it can be used as an elevator, too. We put the handle on it specially for this plan of ours. Quite a brilliant idea, wouldn’t you say?”
As someone who owed his life to the Equipment, Kuklo agreed wholeheartedly, but it also gave rise to a question. The Equipment had even managed to defeat a Titan, so it could have been made standard-issue for Survey Corps members. Not seeing why it hadn’t been, Kuklo asked Jorge as much. “Why don’t you use it?”
“The Equipment had a fatal flaw.”
Jorge explained how the defect had led Angel Aaltonen, the Equipment’s creator and user, to halt development. It didn’t allow for sideways movement. The prototype Equipment, which served so long as a Titan stood completely still, ran into difficulties against moving targets. That was why the Survey Corps had not been equipped with it.
“So he gave up on defeating Titans…”
“No, he’s already completed an anti-Titan model that overcomes the problems of the original Equipment.”
Kuklo’s voice cracked. “What?”
“It’s called the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.”
“The Vertical…what?”
“The Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. It’s a version of the Equipment that allows for a full range of maneuvers in all directions.” According to Jorge, it was a unique armament they could employ to take on the Titans.
“We can kill Titans by using it?!”
“Without a doubt.”
Kuklo had no idea how the device worked in reality, nor could he picture a Titan going down─by human hands, no less─but Jorge’s words gave him hope.
In the near future, the Survey Corps would surely go on another expedition beyond the walls, there to slay Titans with the help of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.
But the words Jorge spoke next utterly derailed Kuklo’s train of thought.
“Kuklo. You’re going to use it to defeat them.”