As he expected, it was extreme. She dashed around Kuklo to hide.
“You don’t need to worry, that business isn’t valid anymore. I’d opposed my father’s plans, anyway, so I think that makes us something like friends.”
“Friends?” The word seemed to calm Sharle. She looked relieved.
“I might have been spared a prison sentence if I’d stayed in the Training Corps like a good boy.”
As luck would have it, Cardina had left the Training Corps just as Bruno, his father, had walked into a trap laid by his political opponents. He’d probably have avoided a sojourn behind bars simply by sweating his days away as a recruit. Even politicians couldn’t touch a member of the Training Corps, which was overseen by the Military Police Brigade.
Jorge would never have allowed it, either, Kuklo reasoned. The instructor hoped to see the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment in action, and training new recruits was his first priority. Besides, Cardina had been talented enough to contend for the top ten. There was not a chance Jorge would have surrendered him to politicians.
“So! Can I finally start talking about the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment?” Xenophon intervened with a forced cough in a blatant attempt to change the topic. He was so impatient to introduce the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment that his eyes glimmered like a child’s.
He was met by resistance from none other than Jorge. “I think this is enough for today. Both of you must be tired, yes?”
Kuklo and Cardina seconded this without a moment’s hesitation.
Xenophon looked displeased. “It would be helpful if you could provide feedback on how the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment handles,” he insisted.
Defeated by everyone else’s silence, he threw up his arms.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sharle had been assigned a small room measuring less than ten square meters. It had served as a nap room for craftsmen, a breed who loved their work more than their daily bread, so all it afforded was a place to sleep. The impression was reinforced by the fact that the beds occupied over half of the room. It reminded Kuklo of life in the underground city, but there was a skylight so it wasn’t suffocating. Despite the incessant echoes of craftwork, only the sensitive would have trouble sleeping here. Compared to life in the underground city, life in the workshop was heaven.
“I’m relieved,” Kuklo muttered, gazing about the room. He had no idea how Sharle had fared after Shiganshina, but the workshop seemed to be treating her well.
I’m not so sure about Xenophon, though. Even then, next to the likes of Xavi and Dario, the workshop chief was decent.
“I think I’m a lot more relieved than you are,” Sharle accused with a dry laugh, then sat down on one of the beds. “I’m shocked you were with someone from the Baumeister family, though. Where did you two meet?”
“In prison,” Kuklo replied, eliciting an oh and a nod of understanding from Sharle. Rumors of the Baumeister family’s fate had been circulating in the underground city, so the outcome was no surprise. “Believe it or not, he used to be in the Training Corps,” Kuklo told her.
“He was a recruit?!” No doubt having pegged him as a spoiled heir, Sharle’s eyes went wide with surprise. Her reaction was worth a chuckle, but Kuklo had received a similar first impression.
“He isn’t a bad person.”
“Well, yes, I can tell, somehow,” Sharle answered with a smile, but her face soon darkened. “The Training Corps…”
“Is something the matter?”
“You’re going to enter the training academy, aren’t you?”
“I suppose,” Kuklo said noncommittally. He hadn’t made the choice for himself so he was hardly to blame, but that wasn’t what bugged Sharle.
“If you join, that means you’ll be with my brother…”
So that’s what. Sharle’s complaint wasn’t that Kuklo wanted to become a soldier. It was that he’d be reunited with Xavi. Her anxiety was only natural considering how the two had parted ways.
“It’s not as though we’ll be alone,” Kuklo reassured her. Meeting Xavi back in the shed would be one thing, but the academy hosted many trainees. Xavi couldn’t attempt anything rash. Things aren’t like they were then, either.
Kuklo’s eye fell on his wrists. The sensation of the shackles once on his arms and legs still remained with him. Though seldom aware of it, listening closely now he even heard the metallic jingling of the chains, and just like that, he was brought back to the days of abuse he’d suffered as a Titan’s son. The countless wounds engraved on his body began to throb.
Kuklo balled his fists tight and drove the memories out of his mind.
Nothing holds me down now. He wouldn’t let Xavi pull ahead of him, either. “Apparently he’s good enough to apply to become an MP,” he said.
“My brother?”
“I can’t imagine him as one, though.” The Military Police were the elite who stood at the top of the military. The majestic figure that Jorge cut sufficed to convey their special status. Kuklo couldn’t imagine Xavi wearing the unicorn emblem on his back; letting him do so would jeopardize the Brigade’s dignity.
“It’s because he’s weirdly confident,” Sharle noted.
“Confident?”
“Well, he thinks he beat a Titan’s son.”
“Oh. I see…”
It was a truly annoying thing for Kuklo to hear, but subduing a Titan’s son did seem like an invaluable experience for a recruit. One could say Dario’s scenario had worked out well for Xavi.
“In any case, this is the last foolish thing I do,” Kuklo said, sitting down next to Sharle.
“I’m betting you’ll never stop.”
“I will, really. I know exactly what my goal is.”
“Your goal?”
“Killing Ogre.”
Sharle looked inquiringly at Kuklo, and he began to explain his connection to the Titan. Ogre and Kuklo’s family were bound by chains of misfortune.
“That’s why I have to kill Ogre with the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. That will be what finally severs our bond.”
“Ogre…” Sharle briefly sank into thought before speaking again. “I may have seen that Titan.”
“Seen it? Where?!”
“It was a long time ago─” Sharle began, telling Kuklo of the time she climbed atop Wall Maria on a family trip. The Titan she saw then was large, a ten-meter-class, and resembled a skinny twenty year old. The most lasting impression, though, was its smile. It sounded a lot like Ogre, the Titan that was Kuklo’s sworn enemy. “I’ll never forget what it looked like,” she said, finishing her story.
“Yeah.” The Titan was frightening enough to give Kuklo nightmares, so it was a given that a young Sharle would fear it.
“But I guess I should thank that Titan in some small way,” she said.
“Why is that?”
“If I’d never seen it, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that you weren’t a Titan’s son.” Sharle took out a familiar object from her pocket. It was the Iron Bamboo paring knife she kept as a charm.
That’s why I didn’t have to get killed that night… Sharle, knife in hand, had visited him with an intent to do harm the first time they’d met in the shed. If she hadn’t seen the Titan from the wall, she might have mistaken Kuklo for a genuine child of the monsters.
“You hold on to this, Kuklo. I’m sure it’ll come in handy.”
Sharle held out the knife and Kuklo took it from her. Right away, he clutched the sheath and pulled out the blade. Its sharpness evident, the knife that could rend even Titan flesh shone an unclouded silver. Kuklo had no idea how effective it was as a charm, but already having saved him more than once, the weapon was worthy of his trust.
Maybe it can sever my ties to the Titans, too. Perhaps a knife alone wasn’t sufficient for felling a Titan, but if he learned from Jorge and mastered the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, it didn’t seem impossible, either.
Then again, Kuklo didn’t have much of a clue about the machine. Not the faintest…