A week had passed since starting his life as a recruit.
For Kuklo, who had spent most of his life alone, everything about his time at the training academy seemed fresh. He ate together and slept together with five hundred other recruits, and that alone qualified as a dramatic change in environment. While it was a constricting one since he wasn’t accustomed to matching the pace of others, Kuklo didn’t cause too much friction thanks to Cardina and Rosa helping him along. To begin with, the other recruits didn’t go out of their way to accost him given Xavi’s proclamations that he was a Titan’s son.
Kuklo’s life was proceeding without a hitch. If he continued to train hard, he would no doubt post adequate grades. He might not make the Military Police, but a stable life as a soldier was nearly guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment training failed to put up any results to speak of. They tried everything they could imagine, but the gains were always trivial and resembled nothing like a breakthrough. Time passed idly by, and a fretful mood hovered over the team. Perhaps it just wasn’t possible.
It was when Kuklo and the others strapped on the Equipment to head toward the forest, the day’s classes over, that Jorge announced to them, “Today’s training is canceled. We’re all going outside today.”
“Outside to where?” Kuklo asked, to which Jorge replied, “Wall Maria.”
“Shopping in Shiganshina District?”
“There’s something I want to show all of you.”
“I assume it’s for our Vertical Maneuvering Equipment training.”
“You’re right, Rosa,” Jorge admitted, without divulging any details. He seemed to want it to be a surprise until they arrived, but it wasn’t as if keeping it a secret buoyed his students’ hearts.
“You’re not going to make us run to Wall Maria, are you?”
“We’ll go by carriage. You’re free to run if you want to build some stamina.”
“I’ll take the carriage, please,” Cardina took back his joke. He dashed straight to the stables, eager to prepare a carriage before Jorge could change his mind.
Wall Maria… Only half a month earlier, Kuklo had barely made it back from beyond the walls after being banished from the country. It feels like so long ago. Two short weeks felt like years thanks to a string of events that had changed his outlook on life.
“Kuklo!”
The yell cut short his train of thought. He hadn’t noticed, but Rosa and the others were already walking toward the stables and beckoning him to follow.
I should go. Kuklo nodded and hurried to them.
✦ ✦ ✦
Jorge Piquer drove his carriage southward down an artery road, his students on board.
All around him was enveloped in pitch darkness. Driving with neither street lamps nor moonlight was difficult even for a man of his experience. If not for his lantern lighting the path, he wouldn’t have been able to proceed.
Though the major route was full of carriages during the day, it was now deserted, with only the occasional patrolling soldier or diligent merchant passing by. It was not an ideal time to travel.
Jorge’s students were asleep in the wagon, tired from their training, leaving only him, the driver, awake. Vertical Maneuvering Equipment training was not an official subject, which meant it received no assistance from the corps. He had to prepare anything and everything himself. Normally, it was unthinkable for an instructor to sit reins in hand on the driver’s seat and personally transport recruits.
I should just be happy they’re allowing the training to take place… If he had not accomplished the incredible feat of defeating a Titan as commander of the Survey Corps, even that permission would not have been forthcoming from the brass. I have to prove the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment isn’t plain junk if I want it to be recognized as a subject.
While his students were working hard, they were stuck in a long tunnel with no exit in sight. They had yet to lose heart, but he knew it was going gradually downhill. Their doubts about the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment were sapping their spirits.
I hope this becomes the trigger… He hadn’t told them, but they were headed to the top of Wall Maria. The Survey Corps would be going on an expedition the next morning, and he wanted his students to watch.
Yet, it wasn’t the brave figure of the Survey Corps venturing outside the walls that he wanted to show them, but the opposite spectacle.
Carlo Piquer, Jorge’s son and the current commander of the Survey Corps, was the one to suggest an observational lesson upon hearing about the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment training’s status. Witnessing what went on in the field might help undo their stagnation. Envisioning a battle with a Titan might help them make free use of the gadget.
It was a different approach, but that was exactly why Jorge considered it necessary.
But it might also cause them to lose heart. While Kuklo and Cardina had already seen hell outside the walls, Rosa and the others had not. Though they knew from lectures the gist of what awaited them, it was ultimately nothing more than second-hand knowledge. The cruelty of the lands outside the walls could not be conveyed in words, and that was especially true when it came to the irrationality called the Titans. Jorge had seen the wills of scores of soldiers snapped in two by them.
“Shall I take the reins?” Rosa asked, peeking out from the wagon. She didn’t seem to have just woken up, so she must have been resting her body but not asleep.
“I’ll be okay. You’re the one who ought to rest.”
“I’m fine, too,” Rosa smiled. She moved to the driver’s seat, next to Jorge.
“You took after your mother. Considerate, in just the same way.”
“You know my mother?”
“Of course.”
Rosa’s father, Solm Hume, had served under Jorge in the Survey Corps. Jorge knew his fiancée, Maria Carlstedt─though they only met for the first time at Solm’s funeral.
“Maria was once called Wall Maria’s guardian angel.”
“I’ve never heard that before.”
“I would assume not. It was just something whispered among the Survey Corps.”
It was natural for his troops to search for special significance in a Garrison soldier named Maria. No one knew who first said it, but there had been a rumor that a corpsman who saw her before an expedition would return uninjured. Of course, it was nothing more than a superstition, but it was adhered to by countless men who hoped to glimpse her as they passed through the gates. In a way, that was how cruel the world outside the walls was. How ironic that others were able to return alive when Solm, her fiancé, died on an expedition.
“Maria doesn’t seem to be very happy that you’re going to become a soldier.”
“It’s because I want to join the Survey Corps.”
“So she doesn’t want Solm’s fate to be yours.”
“I don’t plan for that to happen,” Rosa replied firmly. “But I do see what they mean by ‘Like father, like daughter.’”
“How so?”
“It’s like I was guided by my father’s blood coursing through me. But maybe it’s just my imagination.”
“Solm was a talented soldier. Were he still alive, I’m sure my son would find his presence reassuring.”
The reformed Survey Corps was undeniably inferior to the corps under Jorge’s command. Troop quality could only deteriorate after avoiding actual combat for fifteen years. It was a grave problem and the reason Jorge couldn’t step down from active service.
Kuklo. He might be the same, too. It seemed too perfect a coincidence that Kuklo was in the Training Corps under Jorge. Heath had been appointed as team leader when Jorge was still commander. Carlo and Solm were in his team, and Carlo would later discover Kuklo in a Titan’s vomit.
Destiny, I suppose. The Survey Corps had resumed their expeditions as if they’d been waiting for Kuklo to come on stage. The Vertical Maneuvering Equipment had lurked in the wings as well. It only seemed right to call it destiny.
In that case, he’ll soon learn to use the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. Perhaps thanks to his newfound confidence, Jorge’s mouth loosened into the slightest of smiles.
“Is something the matter?”
“Oh, I was simply thinking about what I’ll do when I retire.”
“What’s that?!”
“Just talking to myself.”
Jorge cleared his throat and cracked his whip.