CHAPTER TWO
Having survived the assault by anti-establishment forces, Angel and the others finally made it to the factory city. They were a few hours later than originally scheduled; not so late that a new day had already come, but it certainly wasn’t the best time of day to be checking out the place. It was half-built and spottily lit by lanterns that dotted it like fireflies. Covered in darkness, the city was no place for a stroll let alone a tour.
No doubt because they were unable to see it in its entirety, they had little to no thoughts on the factory city. While Angel surely would have voiced an impression had it been daytime, all he felt was a sense of relief at arriving alive. His mind was completely devoid of any interest in the city’s appearance or the factories’ equipment. Perhaps any eagerness he once held had fallen by the roadside during their wild carriage ride.
In any case, they required a place where they could sleep in peace. They were so totally exhausted that they were ready to say it was the only thing they needed, and in fact, they headed straight for their lodgings.
Still, there was one thing that Angel took strong notice of. A sound. To be precise, the sound of water. It wasn’t the sound of rain, nor a murmuring stream. Perhaps there was a waterfall nearby. He could vividly imagine huge amounts of water thunderously flowing and falling.
There was certainly a plentiful amount of it involved as the roar was loud enough to hear inside their rooms. It must have been one of the sources providing Shiganshina District with its water. The realization ought to have been sublime, but sadly, for the time being Angel only heard a lullaby that coaxed him to sleep.
***
The first floor of the lodging facility was a lounge that also served as the cafeteria. The room could fit as many as a hundred people and was bustling with activity. Over half of the people there were, like Angel, craftsmen. They congregated in their own groups and spoke excitedly about whatever topics interested them.
A number of similar installations had been built in the factory city, and the one that Angel and the others stayed at was for visitors. As it was built on the assumption that its inhabitants would be there for short, roughly one-week stays, the facilities were incredibly plain. The rooms had simple interiors, with little more than the beds taking their pride of place.
The problem was that while they were in a cafeteria, they could not find anyone in charge of meals. Instead, they found boxes full of canned foods stacked in tall piles.
“Is canned food really the best way to start the day?” Angel sighed as he looked at the set lined up on his table.
It’s not like I was expecting local specialties, but this is a little extreme…
While he was not going to request a royal feast, he had at least hoped for a warm meal, especially after going hungry the day before thanks to a long battle with nausea.
“They’re letting us eat for free, so I don’t know if it’s really our place to be picky…” Corina chastised him as she used a can opener to unceremoniously pop the cans.
So we have meat, beans, fish, and dried fruit.
Disregarding the fact that everything was canned, they had a reasonably large selection. These food supplies must have come from an emergency stockpile.
I wonder about the expiration date…
As they smelled fine, they probably wouldn’t cause any upset stomachs. As far as taste, though, they seemed little more than edible.
“Have you ever had field rations before? These are delicious in comparison.” Solm pried the top of a can off with a knife and stabbed into a piece of dried meat. “They were made so that you could eat them on a horse, so not only do they taste miserable, they’re hard as rocks.”
As Solm voiced his discontent, Xenophon was up to something with his vials. “You only need to do a bit of work,” he opined, “to make canned food taste good.”
“What’re you doing?”
“It’s called cooking,” Xenophon replied casually as he began mixing chemicals on top of his plate.
“Nothing’s going to explode, right?”
“Do you really think I’d mess up like that?”
Xenophon opened the top to a vial and poured the liquid inside over the powders he had combined on his plate. Then, as if by magic, a bluish-white flame appeared.
“In place of solid fuel. How about the rest of you?”
Xenophon grinned as he began broiling his meat in the flame.
“I’ll pass.” Angel may have wanted a warm meal, but he had no interest in using the flame. If there were any deadly poisons among Xenophon’s chemicals, he would have to deal with a lot more than a stomach ache.
“These are the same chemicals that go into signal flares. Change the ingredients and you’ll get a Red Star, a Green Star, or a Yellow Star. Of course, White Stars emit the most light, so the rest are basically smoke signals.”
Sticking some lightly-salted cooked beans in his mouth, Angel asked Solm, “Speaking of White Stars, what happened to those guys from last night?”
“Those guys? We handed them off to the Military Police Brigade. They’re almost certainly members of the anti-establishment forces.”
“Still, I didn’t think we’d be attacked… What’s in it for them?”
“Identifying the factory city’s location. That, or kidnapping a craftsman.” Solm chuckled bitterly then continued, “Anyway, as long as this place is full of soldiers, it won’t fall into enemy hands.”
“You’re confident.”
“Of course I am.”
“You know, they say that the majority of the members of the anti-establishment forces are people from the countryside,” Xenophon noted. “There are numerous tired hamlets in this country that we don’t even put on maps. The people there would see these as luxuries,” he said, pointing to a can.
“So we should feel blessed.”
“Especially because Shiganshina District gets preferential tax treatment. It seems likely that they’d feel it’s unfair.”
While there had to be more reasons behind the anti-establishment forces’ existence, it was true that hunger impoverished the heart and the body. One could say that the groups were amalgamations of accumulated grievances.
“We’ll let the Military Police Brigade deal with them, but meanwhile you seem awfully savvy about them. Possibly some sort of suspicious relationship.”
Angel glanced at Xenophon.
“Could you please stop with the blatantly false accusations?”
“Oh? Don’t you think they’ll start confessing to all kinds of crimes, real or not, after a few days in the care of the Military Police Brigade?”
“Why should anyone confess to something he didn’t do?” Xenophon sighed in disgust.
***
The factory city far surpassed Angel’s expectations. While he had thought it would be no larger than a village, it was as expansive as Shiganshina District, and they eventually expected 50,000 people to live there. In addition to residential quarters where craftsmen and their families would live, there were also commercial facilities and amusement quarters to take care of their daily needs. The factories there, it went without saying, were fully equipped. The city’s functions would clearly outstrip Shiganshina District’s once finished, but the majority of the structures were still under construction. Relocating the workshop was not yet an urgent matter.
“What a view, though.”
Angel stared out at the grand waterfall located at the northern end of the city and the soaring mountains that stood behind it. The gushing cascade spanned five hundred meters across, with a drop of a hundred. While its unrestrained force reminded one of a flash flood, the waterpower it generated was central to the factory city. The potential it offered was the reason behind the city’s location.
The waterfall was not the only part of the factory city that drew one’s eye. In the center of the city loomed a giant building that could easily be called a landmark.
“So that’s the steel mill. Jeez…”
The blast furnace, the mill’s symbol, was over fifty meters tall and would surely come to represent the city. It consumed the majority of the energy produced by the waterfall. The water itself would be used to cool equipment and pig iron. Though they could smelt ore into pig iron at the workshop, the scale of the factory city’s facilities was on a completely different level.
Corina stared up at the gigantic blast furnace with a look of wonder in her eyes. “Just look at how much bigger it is.”
“It looks ten times larger than the one we have.”
“Which means it can produce ten times as much, too.”
“I bet it would have been a lot easier to meet the fulfillment if I could’ve used this thing for the cannons.”
The factory city’s blast furnace would allow them to handle large-scale orders with little to no problem. They’d be under less stress, which would let them focus on their work.
Looks like centralization can offer a lot of benefits.
They would be able to say goodbye to the days of complaining about a lack of time, capacity, and all the other things that they were short on.
“It looks like they’ve finished lighting it. The coal’s burning bright red.”
Through the peephole down to the bottom of the furnace, they could see its copper-red fuel emitting massive amounts of heat.
“That’s not coal, it’s coke.”
“Coke?”
“It’s a purer fuel made by baking coal. It’s vital to making pig iron because of the high amount of heat it generates.”
“We use coal at our workshop,” Angel snickered.
Solm spoke up. “So, think you can come up with any ideas?”
“The furnace is good, and if we use the converter, we should probably be able to refine some new alloys.”
Whether that would lead to any ideas for new arms was a different question.
“That reminds me. Wasn’t there some material here that’s even more interesting than the Iron Bamboo?”
“You mean the Iceburst Stone?”
“Ice…what?”
“Iceburst Stone. Has the chief not told you anything?”
“Not a thing.” Angel shrugged and let out a sigh.
“Some sort of rare metal, judging by the name?”
“He really hasn’t told you anything, has he?”
“Probably too much of a pain to explain.”
There was no way of knowing what Caspar was thinking at that moment, but he may have been imagining and guffawing at Angel’s confused expression.
Corina’s eyes seemed to be sparkling with an interest in this new material. “So what are these Ice-Burstones like?”
“How about we finish with the steel mill for now and move to the mining site?”
Angel and Corina agreed to Solm’s proposal, but Xenophon seemed to have something else on his mind and kept staring at the blast furnace with a pensive look.
“I’m going to stay behind.”
“You don’t want to see the Iceburst Stone?”
“Yes. I’ll leave that to you. I want to do a little experiment here.”
They couldn’t tell what Xenophon had in mind, but he wore the expression of a child who had just come up with a devious prank.
I’m pretty sure I know what he wants to do, anyway. There was only one experiment Angel could think of that used a blast furnace. I wonder what he’ll make with the Iron Bamboo.
Angel wouldn’t have minded sticking around to witness an Iron Bamboo’s moment of rebirth but didn’t care to spoil Xenophon’s fun. The man’s report on the results would do. While Angel had a lingering interest in the Iron Bamboo, his attention was quickly turning toward the Iceburst Stone.
***
The factory city’s existence was so thoroughly concealed because it was one of a kind. Though there were any number of waterfalls throughout the country, this was the only location with such a grand cascade. If it were to fall into the enemies’ hands, the country itself could be overthrown. The waterpower produced by the falls was immense and inexhaustible, and they had yet to find a comparable source of energy. As there were also plans to build a mint in the factory city, the royal government was surely keeping a special eye on it. Its eventual importance in politics, too, was certain.
This was reason enough to hide the existence of the factory city, but there was even more hidden beneath the surface.
“So next we’re going to go behind the scenes?”
Angel stared at the soaring cliffs in front of him. On first glance, there was nothing more to the location on the northern edge of town than the falls. That was not the only thing there, though, and Solm had taken them to a precipitous cliff to the side. What he wanted to show them was not its rock face but the cave whose mouth gaped there.
Corina stared inside from the entrance. “It looks pretty big. How far does it stretch?”
“We don’t know for sure. One thing we do know is that it’s full of detours, so if you get lost in there, you’re not coming out alive.”
“Perfect conditions to turn you into grave wax. Maybe we can use some bodies in place of our torches.”
“I’m not a fan of candles and mummies…” objected Corina.
“We have the fruits of civilization available to us, so we won’t have to defile any corpses.” Solm raised his lantern, removed its glass chimney, and lit the wick.
“How long will the fuel last for?”
“Half a day. We only need thirty minutes if we’re just going to see Iceburst Stone.”
“So we should be able to leave before getting ourselves lost.”
“Isn’t there a chance that you’ll become enraptured with the material?”
“I won’t rule out the possibility.”
No craftsman alive could resist the allure of a new material to work with, hence Solm’s fear.
“I know we didn’t have any samples at the workshop, but are these Ice-Burstones that rare?”
“No, there are piles of them.”
“In that case, couldn’t you at least have brought one out for us?”
“You’ll understand once you touch one,” Solm stated firmly and headed in, lantern in hand.
Angel and Corina followed behind.
***
The cave was biting cold. It was already at a high enough altitude to be chilly on the outside, but inside, it was like an ice house. The temperature was near freezing, so protection against it was indispensable for anyone going in for a significant period of time. In other words, the almost completely unprepared party would not be able to stay inside the cave as they were even if they wanted to.
The cave’s footing was poor and slippery, possibly from frozen water that had seeped out from under the ground. It was like walking on frozen pavement, but with the ceilings and walls frozen as well, the place was more like a cavern of ice. The world around them took in the light from the lantern and randomly scattered it about, creating a fairly unreal scene. The cave led underground, broadening before them as they went deeper. There were side paths, too, giving a sense of reality to Solm’s earlier warning about getting lost.
“There it is.”
Solm stopped and raised his lantern.
“This is incredible.”
In front of them was a gigantic space and an underground lake. It was so large that the lantern couldn’t light the entire thing, but they could tell that the area in front of them was wide open.
“This used to be what you’d call a caldera. At least, that’s what some important professor told me.”
“So we’re looking at a caldera lake. I see.”
“But that water seems a little…” Corina walked to the edge of the lake, stooped, and touched its surface. “It’s frozen solid.”
“It might look like water, but that’s not ice.”
“It’s not?” Following Corina’s lead, Angel touched the lake. His eyes and his fingers told him it was ice. “This has to be ice.”
“Nope.”
Solm unsheathed the short sword he carried on his hip and used it to stab the surface of the lake. The ice broke apart easily, and Solm picked up a fragment the size of the tip of his thumb.
“It’s Iceburst Stone.”
“This?” Angel stared at the piece Solm held. “Are you sure it’s not just a regular pebble?” That was indeed his only impression of it.
“Let me show you something neat.”
Putting the lantern on the ground and removing its chimney, Solm put the Iceburst Stone on the tip of his blade and moved it toward the flame. It ignited into a quiet, bluish-white flame.
“That’s…”
“The ice is burning!” Corina’s eyes fluttered.
“It’s too complicated for me to understand the details, but it’s apparently made of gases that leak out from underground. Apparently there’s an enormous amount of Iceburst Stone just sitting down here.”
“Like a mountain full of treasure.”
“Now I see why you didn’t have a sample.”
It made sense that Caspar had told them to see it for themselves. It was far more intuitive than having some gas sprayed in front of their faces.
“Have they started mining it yet?”
“It was just discovered. They haven’t established how to extract or store the gas.”
“And that’s where we come in!” Corina flexed her thin arms.
“Something that uses gas, huh…”
Ideas for many boilerplate weapons passed through Angel’s mind. A gas gun, a flamethrower, bombs…
If they’re powerful enough, then maybe.
But even cannonballs couldn’t hurt the monsters they were facing. Small arms were likely to be about as effective as a peashooter. In the worst case, they would just stir and anger the Titans.
If the Titans have emotions, of course.
Whatever the case, it was clear that they needed to produce a brand-new piece of equipment.
A flamethrower might be good.
While Titan skin repelled blades, perhaps it could be weakened with fire.
No, that wouldn’t work…
A flamethrower with overwhelming firepower that could instantly roast a Titan and turn it to dust, sure. But realistically speaking, they’d need to inflict more than a few burns. Building gas lamps would be more beneficial to society.
Angel scowled and groaned.
“See, didn’t I tell you?”
The voice jumped into Angel’s ear, abruptly stopping his train of thought.
“What are you talking about?”
“About your being a development geek.”
“I didn’t expect you to actually get this into it,” Corina chimed in.
“Well, excuse me for being a geek.”
As Angel huffed, he stared at an Iceburst Stone fragment lying on the ground.
“Can you think of a use for it?” asked Solm.
“This one begs for some unique thinking unlike the Iron Bamboo.”
“Trial and error will give us more interesting results in the end,” observed Corina.
“I hope so.”
Angel rolled the Iceburst Stone on the palm of his hand.
“What do you want to do? Go back for now?”
“Yes, let’s. We can’t do anything empty-handed like this, anyway.”
Corina rubbed her arms around her shaking body. “We should prepare some cold-weather gear next time.”
“Can we bring this stuff outside?”
“No, unfortunately.”
“Seriously? Does some bigwig have a monopoly on it?”
“That’s not what I mean. If you tried to bring it outside, then─boom!” Solm said with an exaggerated clap.
“It’ll explode?!” exclaimed Corina.
“It expands and explodes at room temperature. That’s why it’s called Iceburst Stone.”
“So we need some special way to extract the gas.”
These properties seemed to be why the Iceburst Stone had yet to be mined, despite its high potential utility.
“Let’s just go back for now. I can’t start on anything without my tools,” Angel said, tossing the Iceburst Stone fragment.
***
The amount of gas that could be extracted from Iceburst Stone was even greater than imagined. When vaporized, its volume expanded by as much as two hundred times. Finding the right use for it could mean dramatic changes in everyday life. If they could just prepare cylinders for transporting the gas, they’d be able to use it immediately.
“The problem is what to trap it in.”
Angel fell deep into thought as he stared at an Iceburst Stone fragment. Considering its rate of expansion, any gas cylinder they used would need to be strong. While they could avoid the risk of explosion if they put less in each cylinder, it wouldn’t be efficient.
“We’ll need to design a cylinder…”
“That’s a good idea, but could we have something to eat first?” Corina opened the can she brought from the lodging facilities, ignited an Iceburst Stone, and used the fire to warm her food.
“I see. Yet another way to use these stones.”
“A warm meal enriches the heart.”
“If they’d only also lead to flashes of inspiration.” Angel grimaced, looking down at the now-steaming can.
It was full of the same unappetizing cooked beans that they’d had for breakfast. But now, possibly because of his chilled body, they looked oddly delicious. The steam wafting through the air might have been causing him to have visions.
“Maybe my problem is that I’m thinking about how to use the Iceburst Stone as a weapon.”
“The Iron Bamboo seems more suited for that.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing how Xenophon cooks that ingredient, but in all likelihood, he’s going to make a short sword.”
“Something to replace the standard equipment soldiers receive.”
“It’s light and hard. Couldn’t ask for more.”
The Iron Bamboo had proved its effectiveness during their skirmish with the anti-establishment forces.
“May I ask a question?” Corina said, raising her hand. She closely watched Angel’s expression and ventured, “Why did you choose to become a craftsman?”
“That’s an odd question.”
“Well, it’s not an easy job, and…”
“And the pay is bad?” Angel finished with a wry laugh. “If you’re going to go demand better pay, I’ll be in there with you.”
“Ah, no, not like that. But I suppose higher pay would be nice,” Corina admitted.
“I became a craftsman because of a promise I made when I was a child.”
“A promise?”
“Yes, one that I made with Solm and Maria.”
For as long as Angel could remember, he had been without a single relative. He had no idea who his parents were. He didn’t know their names, so whether they were alive was a mystery to him, too. It was the same for any blood relations. The person who named him was the director of his orphanage. While it may have looked like an unfortunate situation to others, it was the only one he knew, and he never felt particularly lonely. In fact, he was more given to thinking about all that business now, after having grown up, than back then. Still, he knew nothing about his parents, even what they looked like, so he had no interest in learning more about them. Even if they were alive, they would be nothing more than strangers connected to him by blood, and any meeting would just be awkward. The parents who raised him outweighed the ones that had him.
It was thanks to the good environment he had, for an orphan, that Angel could grow up sound without any chip on his shoulder. One could even say that he had a fortunate childhood, as he never had to worry about basic necessities and even had a parent figure. The friends with whom he spent his days played an especially large role in his life, and Solm and Maria, who were close to his age, were like siblings to him. Each of their positions was clear. The solidly-built Solm was like the older brother, the firm and level-headed Maria was the older sister, and Angel was the troublesome little brother.
“Solm said something to me when we were kids. He asked me what I thought was happening beyond the Walls.”
“So Mr. Hume had an interest in the Survey Corps even as a child?”
“I don’t know if it was interest. He saw them more as a means. It’s the only way to go out there, for the time being.”
“Is the Survey Corps the kind of organization you can just decide to join because you want to?”
“I don’t know. Getting in can’t be easy, though.”
“He must have had a strong will.”
“Well, his body was pretty strong, too.” Angel chuckled. “Things got crazy once he started saying he wanted to join the Survey Corps. Maria was completely against it.”
“Of course she’d be. He could die, after all.”
“Maria tried hard to dissuade him, but Solm’s just too stubborn and wouldn’t give in. That’s why I decided to make Solm’s dream come true.”
“Didn’t that make Miss Carlstedt furious?”
“Yeah, she was mad. But getting mad wouldn’t change how Solm felt, would it? In that case, I needed to do what I could to make sure Solm came home alive and well.”
“And that was to become a craftsman.” Corina clapped her hands together in understanding.
“The survival rate for expeditions would rise if they only had a way to defeat the Titans.”
“And that would cause Miss Carlstedt to stop worrying, too.”
“It’d kill two birds with one stone.”
“So Miss Carlstedt joined the Garrison to guard where Mr. Hume would be returning?”
Angel nodded at Corina’s question. “That’s pretty much it.”
“It’s really nice that you have that.”
Starting to feel embarrassed by his own stories, Angel quickly tried to change the subject. “Anyway, back to the issue at hand.”
“Looking at the Iceburst Stone, I started to think.” Corina pointed at the Iceburst Stone as it burned a pale blue. “While it seems to have a solid shape, in reality, it doesn’t.”
“So it’s a good fuel source but can’t be used as a weapon?”
“It can be used as a power source, though.”
“Like for a heater?”
“It might be nice to have one,” Corina laughed, then continued. “The gas from it could be used to power something, just as the factory city uses waterpower.”
“The question is, what’s that something?” Angel laughed helplessly.
“For example, if you had some sort of equipment that allowed you to fight on even ground with a Titan, the gas could be used to power it.”
“Equipment that allows you to fight on even ground with a Titan?”
“Hypothetically speaking.”
“Okay, then. Hypothetically, what’s needed for humans to fight evenly with Titans?”
“Um… What do Titans look like?!”
“Just imagine that they’re gigantic humans.”
Corina responded with a groan.
“It’s a guess, but I think the Titans are about five or six meters tall.”
“You’ve never seen one, have you?”
“I may not have ever seen one, but I’ve heard their footsteps.”
Angel had had the opportunity at the Survey Corps’ return parade the other day.
They’re incredibly large, I know that much.
That much had been clear from the slight tremor in the ground.
“So visually speaking, the difference between humans and Titans is our sizes…” Corina continued, mumbling, her brow furrowed in thought. She seemed to be ordering her thoughts by speaking them aloud. “Whoever has the high ground in a battle is at an advantage, correct?”
“You hear that said often.”
“The same logic might apply to the Titans.”
“So it’s like the Titans are attacking from high above.”
“That seems to put humans in a bad spot.”
To the Titans, humans must seem like nothing more than puppies playing underfoot. “If there was some sort of device to make up for that, then humans could fight against the Titans, huh?”
“Yes.”
“I’m starting to get the idea.”
“In other words, we just need to create something that improves a disadvantageous situation.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Perhaps having an idea in mind, Corina slapped her chest.
“You seem confident.”
“I’m not the one who has to come up with it.”
“Ugh, that sounds like something the old man would say…” Angel smiled bitterly as he scratched his head.
“Was I of any help?”
“Yeah. You’ve got talent in more ways than one.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Corina gave a satisfied smile.
***
That night, Angel and Xenophon reported their results to one another over dinner.
“And that about does it as far as Iceburst Stone.”
Having gone on about its possible uses and potential, Angel put a portable gas stove on the table.
“So this is what I tried making. It was originally Corina’s idea, though.”
“This is the fuel.” Corina brought out a can and placed it inside the stove.
“It’s cold inside the cave, right? Well, warm food tastes great in a cold place,” Angel said, igniting the stove.
“The stove is fueled by Iceburst Stone. All we did was put some in an open can and weld it shut.”
“We’ll need specialized cylinders to transport it in large quantities.”
“Looks like my chemicals are going to be put out to pasture,” Xenophon lamented, stroking his beard.
“Not like they were doing much for us in the first place…”
Angel sighed and put a can of food on top of the stove.
“So, what’d you end up finding?” Solm asked.
Xenophon placed a hammer on the table. “It requires a fair bit of equipment to process metal extracted from Iron Bamboo. Jumping straight to making weapons was too much of a stretch.”
“Thus the hammer. Makes sense.”
The hammer seemed unremarkable, but it was shockingly light. Its weight meant that any able-bodied man or woman would be able to handle it easily.
That’s Iron Bamboo for you.
While Angel didn’t know how it felt in use, he imagined that it was suitably hard.
“Using this to forge the extracted metal, we should be able to come up with some fantastic weapons.”
“I’m sure it won’t be easy, but hone away.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine how difficult the work ahead of him would be, considering how hard the Iron Bamboo was.
“Oh, yes. I also made this.” Xenophon brought out something that looked like the skeleton of a small fish.
“Trash?”
“My goodness. I resent that.”
“What is it, then?”
“Still haven’t noticed?” Xenophon grinned triumphantly. “This is an Iron Bamboo leaf.”
“Iron Bamboo?!” Looking at it closer, Angel could tell that what looked like a skeleton was actually the veins of a leaf.
“You can dissolve the leaf to leave only the fibers behind. It just requires a little bit of temperature adjustment.”
Corina pinched the Iron Bamboo leaf with her fingertips. “Are you going to make combat uniforms out of this?”
“I don’t know anything about sewing, unfortunately. I’ll keep it in mind, though.”
“Only our first day, and we already have quite a few ideas. That’s why they call you the workshop’s two stars.”
Solm sounded honestly impressed, but the true test of their abilities as craftsmen still lay ahead.
“The old man back home won’t be happy with ideas alone. He’s not so kind.”
If a product cost too much, it wouldn’t see real-world use, no matter how fine its performance. If its design was too complicated, it wasn’t cut out for mass production. Creating a prototype was only the beginning. A craftsman truly showed his skill during the trial and error that followed.
“Well, we can’t go home empty-handed. Might as well give it our best.”
Angel looked at the can and reached out for the beans that danced inside.
***
Closing the gap with the Titans. Angel had decided that this was the short cut to contending with them. He was now trying to create a piece of equipment that would fill in one of those gaps: height. Even the physically blessed soldiers in the Survey Corps were like infants next to the Titans. The Survey Corps had no choice but to fight at their feet, and in the worst case, were simply flattened. But if Angel’s equipment saw field use, then the soldiers could fight eye-to-eye with the Titans. It was likely to lead to a complete overhaul of tactics, too.
While there were some barriers that no amount of technology could overcome, the Survey Corps could cope by changing their approach. For example, it was impossible to use machines to imitate the Titans’ recuperative abilities, but creating a weapon powerful enough to annul the disadvantage would have the same effect. Not knowing about the Titans’ behavior was unfortunate, but if the Survey Corps obtained results, the situation would have to change.
As Angel imagined what the Titans looked like, he began to see the outlines of the Equipment.
***
There were a number of technical hurdles that Angel had to overcome to develop the Equipment. As an entirely novel invention, there was nothing he could use as reference. All of the parts were hand-made, one-of-a-kind items, requiring time and effort and difficult to fine-tune. He faced so much trial and error that there was no time for sleep.
Angel spent most of his mere week-long stay in the factory city developing the Equipment, and his prototype was not finished until after they’d moved out of the lodging facilities.
“And so through trial and error, I finally came up with this piece of equipment.”
Everyone’s baffled gaze was set on Angel, who wore the prototype. On his back was an ill-formed canister made from linked empty cans, and on his hip was the main unit, attached to him like a waist bag.
I feel kind of embarrassed looking like this…
Even Angel was willing to admit it, but that was not all he had on, as under his left armpit hung a holster. In it, though, was not a gun, but a controller that operated the Equipment. While it was similar to a gun in appearance, it did not shoot bullets. Instead, it fired a sharp anchor made from Iron Bamboo that had a wire attached to it.
“That’s some heavy-duty gear.”
Xenophon stared at Angel closely as if he were looking at a rare animal. Angel felt mildly abashed, but he knew that appearance did not always dictate performance.
“So, how do you use that machine? And more importantly, what’s it for?!” Solm demanded with a dubious expression.
“Using it is simple.”
Angel removed the controller from its holster and pointed the muzzle toward the second floor of the lodging facility.
“You aim at your target like you would aim a gun, then pull the lever on the controller.”
As he pulled, the Equipment on his hips began to moan, and the anchor shot out from the muzzle. It bit into the wall like the claws of a predatory bird.
“Then, all you do is move the lever back, and…”
As Angel explained, he eased his grip on the controller’s lever. Yet, perhaps because he was still unaccustomed and didn’t properly calibrate the maneuver, the Equipment responded by spewing out all of its compressed gas. With the roar of a raging animal, it quickly began reeling the wire back in.
Oh no.
It was already too late by the time he realized what was happening.
Freed from the shackles of gravity, Angel’s body flew into the air.
“Wuh?!”
His body swept up so suddenly, his consciousness wavered from the pressure. He started to feel faint and his vision grew dark, but he opened his eyes wide and avoided passing out through sheer force of will.
He quickly adjusted the controller to reduce the wire’s retrieval rate, but his momentum was not as easy to manage. Angel crashed into the wall.
“Well, that’s how this machine lets you move vertically.” His entire body cried out in pain, but he acted as if nothing was wrong and continued his explanation. “This will let us fight eye-to-eye with them. I bet even the Titans will be stunned.”
Angel extended the wire to return to the ground, then pulled in the anchor and returned it to the controller.
It was a wild demonstration, but the Equipment was functioning without any problems. If there was anything that needed work, it was its user.
“How many meters will that thing let you move?” Solm bit, in an apparent show of interest.
“Thirty meters.”
“So you can’t scale the Wall in one go.”
“I’ll be working on that in the future. The longer the wire, the heavier the Equipment gets, so I won’t feel comfortable until we have lighter and sturdier materials.”
“You come up with some interesting ideas.” Solm nodded repeatedly.
“Don’t forget about my short sword. If you combine it with his invention, you should be able to fight on a whole new level.”
Xenophon took the short sword he had spent countless hours sharpening out of its scabbard and held it aloft. The silvery-white blade glinted in the sunlight.
“Doesn’t it seem to be begging you to wield it?”
“Put that thing away before you start cuddling against it. You might shave your face off.”
The edge of the Iron Bamboo sword appeared flawless and combat-ready. Xenophon’s smug expression may have been irritating, but he had earned his bragging rights.
“Don’t forget the stove!” Corina turned her back to everyone and pointed to the backpack she wore. The stove must have been shoved inside the distended bag.
“Looks like it’s going to burst.”
“I brought a bunch of fuel.”
Xenophon clutched himself as he began to shake. “Just no explosions, please. Death by exploding Iceburst Stone might seem funny until it actually happens.”
“Well, I guess it’s the most practical item of the three. I don’t know if they’ll sell Iceburst Stone to civilians, though.”
The craftsmen looked over each other’s results, then boarded the wagon with satisfied expressions on their faces.
***
The group seemed inured to the travel sickness they’d suffered on their earlier trip, as they were able to converse and enjoy the scenery during the ride home. They could thank the skirmish with the anti-establishment forces for that, though it was a drastic way to treat nausea.
Still, they felt a tinge of anxiety. Despite the attack by the anti-establishment forces, the number of guards accompanying them had not changed. Considering the earlier battle, they could not help but feel that four cavalry was less than they needed; the lineup didn’t seem intended to defend the craftsmen at all costs. Of course, the soldiers, headed by Solm, would fight to the end for Angel and the others, and two had in fact lost their lives in the earlier battle, but evidently what was important for the politicians was the factory city, not craftsmen. Rather than guards, it may have been more accurate to call the soldiers “escorts.” Caspar wasn’t far from the mark when he called them “navigators.” At least the contingent had been replenished.
While there was cause for anxiety, there were no signs of an assault by anti-establishment forces, and the company arrived in Trost District, their halfway point, at midday. Unlike their earlier trip, they were on time. They ate and rested there, then left for Shiganshina District.
***
By the time the gate leading into Shiganshina District came into sight, the sun was setting far to the west. Though the crimson sky resembled coke burning in a furnace, it was getting colder by the moment. Their breaths were snow-white, and sitting still made them shrink into themselves. At most, there seemed to be another hour of daylight left.
“We’ve been gone a whole week. It doesn’t feel like it at all,” Corina said.
The others in the carriage agreed.
“We might have been in the factory city, but it was no different from being in the workshop as far as working went. The sad habits of a craftsman,” Xenophon lamented.
“Also known as being a development geek.”
Corina’s shoulders sagged. “I was hoping for a vacation when we left…”
“If only there had been some amusement facility,” concurred Xenophon. “But it was still under construction.”
“I bet we’d have busted our asses anyway. The old man wouldn’t just decide to give us a vacation, you know?”
“I suppose you’re right…” Corina mourned, visibly convinced.
By the time their chat ended, they had approached the gate.
If the gate that led outside the Wall was the front gate, then the one leading to the interior could be called the back gate. The portals were positioned perfectly opposite each other, and if they continued in a straight line, they would reach the front or main gate. The difference was that only one of the gates stood open. With no particular reason to defend it, there were fewer guards here as well.
“I’m going to use the portable stove for dinner tonight. I’m sure it’ll make my parents happy.”
“The big shots, too. They’ll be happy enough to cry.”
Only a tiny fraction of citizens knew about the Iceburst Stone, a brand new material with no set use. Its enriching the dinner tables of regular households was a long shot.
“Wouldn’t you say it’s a bit restive, though?” Xenophon tilted his head as soon as they passed through the back gate. “I somehow find it hard to believe that we’d have a welcoming party waiting for our return…”
As they peeked out from the driver’s seat, there was a din in the air as if everyone was gossiping. The avenue was, as always, full of people, but this wasn’t the usual hustle and bustle. A mood like viscous muck seemed to be pooling.
“Looks like something happened,” Solm said grimly as he pointed forward. They could see Wall Maria and the main gate ahead of them, but he was trying to call attention to something else, a huge mass of people there from whom the commotion seemed to stem.
I have a bad feeling about this…
Angel felt his chest knot. He couldn’t tell exactly what was going on because of the distance, but it seemed to be some sort of gathering.
“Could it be a Survey Corps parade?”
As Corina observed, it closely resembled a Survey Corps expedition’s return. Yet, the throng was larger, over a thousand people in size.
“The Survey Corps lost a large number of men during their last expedition. It would take longer for them to reorganize,” reminded Xenophon.
“So they’d be in no shape to go on an expedition, huh? What’s that, then?”
In addition to the citizens assembled in front of the main gate, they could also make out soldiers. Perhaps there had been some trouble and the two sides seemed to be arguing, in some places scuffling. The clash appeared to be widening.
A citizens’ protest? It wasn’t rare to see citizens voicing their dissatisfaction with the regime through demonstrations. This is too big for a protest, though…
There was danger in the air as if a riot could break out at any moment.
“Let’s check it out.”
Solm slowly drove the carriage forward.
As they approached the mass of people, they started to get a better idea of the situation. The individuals there were indeed residents, but they seemed agitated, their eyes bloodshot, their breathing ragged. They wore black priest-like robes and let out bizarre shouts toward Wall Maria that sounded like chants. Their movements, nearly as regulated as the soldiers’ perhaps thanks to a crowd mentality, also exuded an erratic vibe as though they were dreaming.
“Something is strange about those people…” Corina frowned in clear discomfort.
“Yeah, creepy.”
Xenophon was observing the grotesque crowd as carefully as if he were appraising a product. “Looks like there has been a hell of a complication while we were gone.”
“Who are those people?”
“I think it’s clear enough from their actions.”
“All they’re doing is facing the Wall and shouting.” Hearing his own words, it suddenly came to Angel. “Wall Lovers…” It was one of the terms used to ridicule those who deified the Walls.
“Not them. I think they have the same roots, though.”
“Stop acting so stuck up and just tell me.”
The carriage had approached the front gate while they were talking. Given the mass of people they had to stop a hundred meters away, but they were still close enough to see what was going on.
In front of the gate stood a woman whom Angel had seen before, her back to the wall. “Elena Mansell…”
She wore black clothes that resembled mourning garb. She stood completely still with hollow eyes.
“Someone you know?”
“Kind of,” Angel answered vaguely as he focused on Elena. It seemed as though she still couldn’t accept Heath’s death, and there was no sense of vitality to her. Her expression was flat and mask-like.
What’s she up to?
Angel tried to figure out the situation based on Elena’s demeanor, but before he managed to, she made a move. Her voice defied one’s imagination, so loud was it for someone with her frame.
“I─we have but one wish. Open these gates immediately, that is all we ask!”
“Hunh?” Angel grunted involuntarily at her ridiculous request. He could have thought for days and not have arrived at such a conclusion. “Has she gone crazy?”
“I doubt that she or the people with her would say so.”
“Who are those people?!” interjected Corina.
“Oh? You still haven’t figured it out? Well, those people are─”
“Titan Lovers.”
Solm clicked his tongue.
“I see. So they’re the ones who worship the Titans.” Angel had heard rumors of them but had simply dismissed it as a tall tale. No sane person would ever deify and worship the Titans.
It was only a few decades ago that humanity had been driven to near extinction. No matter how much they loved the Titans, the Titans surely only saw them as food. Opening the gate was nothing short of risible.
“Open the gates! And let us be united with the great Titans!!”
The believers greeted Elena’s voice with shouts.
“Why is this happening?” Solm’s expression was growing more sour by the moment. There was no humor to be found in a former team leader’s bride falling for the Titans.
“They’re quick to exploit openings in people’s hearts to bring them into the fold. It was probably useful for them to have someone related to the Survey Corps join them.”
“And so this rally.”
Elena joining them may have encouraged them to mount a showdown instead of continuing on with their modest underground activities. It was clear that the believers were serious about their demands as they had placed a number of facilities under their influence.
This is going to be a pain…
No amount of logic would sway people with completely different values. To them, it was Angel that was simply a heretic.
“Why are the soldiers not doing anything?” implored Corina.
“They probably want to but can’t,” explained Xenophon.
There were enough troops mustered in front of the main gate to deal with an uprising. Soldiers from the Garrison, the protectors of the Walls, were there, of course, as well as men and women from the Survey Corps and the Military Police Brigade. The troop presence was so robust that it would be easy to quell any riot. They just stood and watched, however, and showed no signs of moving to subdue the believers.
“It seems as though they have a hostage.”
Xenophon pointed to a watchtower built on top of the Wall. It was occupied by a number of believers who held a blade to the throat of a portly middle-aged man. His plump body and well-tailored clothes suggested that he was one of the wealthy.
“Who is that?”
“He’s an official from the royal government,” Solm spat out, annoyed.
Ah, one of the shut-ins then.
Solm wouldn’t be irritated by just any affiliation with the royal government.
“Probably here to be wined and dined,” Xenophon noted. “Look at that slovenly body of his. He seems to be living quite the life of refinement.”
“He’s certainly not eating canned food.”
“Well, you have to wonder how he was being entertained.”
“Some beautiful woman must have catered to him for his meals.”
Angel glanced at Elena.
“I see. That does seem likely.”
While Angel and Xenophon saw fit to banter, the tussling between the believers and the soldiers by the main gate seemed to be moments away from getting out of control. If they couldn’t be neutralized quickly, they all faced the worst-case scenario, the gates opening.
So the problem here is the hostage.
The soldiers were unable to make their move thanks to the official who had fallen into the believers’ hands.
Not that I care about what happens to him…
The death of an incompetent only interested in political bargaining, who knew nothing about how things were on the ground, did no real harm. The soldiers were under the control of the royal government, however, and could not afford to see it that way.
“I know we just returned, but you should escape to somewhere safe. This place is about to turn into a battlefield.”
Right as Solm urged the others, out of the blue Liberty Bell loudly rang out.
“Give us true freedom!” Elena shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Give us true freedom!” The believers followed in chorus. Their voices soon grew so loud that they drowned out the sound of the bell.
What in the world is going on…
Then, as they were standing by idly, it happened.
The believers decapitated the official.
Wall Maria was stained red by the blood that gushed forth. Perhaps it had some sort of ritual meaning. As soon as this blood offering was made, something incredible happened.
“The gates…are opening…”
Whether or not the believers’ ardent wishes had reached heaven, the gates started to crack open.
It was operating smoothly. Careful maintenance had backfired, and the town was laid bare and defenseless within moments.
“Give us true freedom!” the believers cheered, rushing into the opening.
“No!”
Solm drew his short sword from its scabbard on his hip and began charging toward the main gate.
Now that the hostage was killed and the gates were open, the time to keep watching and waiting was over. Solm pushed straight through the crowds toward the gate, and various units followed him. While they were headed to the watchtower on top of the Wall where the equipment that opened and closed the gate was, the area by the front gate was a mess of soldiers and believers, making it difficult to even approach Wall Maria, let alone the watchtower. The soldiers had an overwhelming advantage when it came to individual skill, but the believers held a superior position. Fighting off the believers, getting to the top of the Wall, then going on to retake the watchtower meant the troops needed a significant amount of time to establish control.
“Let’s find somewhere safe.”
Not because they were in danger of getting involved in the battle. As long as the gates were open, being in the district was no safer than being outside the Walls.
“Indeed. We should turn tail and run.”
“Run…to where?”
“Anywhere farther in.”
At the moment, any location would do. Angel tried to set the carriage in motion, but the avenue was jammed full of soldiers, believers, and people scrambling for safety. It was no place to be using a carriage to get around.
“I guess we’ll have to walk…”
Angel hurriedly shouldered the gas cylinder, wrapped the Equipment around his waist, and attached the controller. Next to his life, there was nothing more important to him than the Equipment he had developed, and there was no way he was leaving it behind. Xenophon must have felt similarly, holding on to his short sword as if his life depended on it. Corina was the only one who decided to abandon her luggage.
By the time they got off the carriage, the town was already starting to show signs of impending chaos. The soldiers and believers had already been squaring off, and the air had been uneasy from the moment they arrived, but the opening of the gates immediately brought the sense of tension that surrounded them to new heights. It was natural for the citizens to act as they did. That the gates should be opened due to a riot was simply beyond their imagination.
If we don’t hurry, they’re going to all start panicking.
That would give rise to unforeseen events and accidents. But the biggest fear of all was that they would soon be faced with uninvited guests.
They’ll be here if we don’t do something.
Ignoring Angel’s unease, the believers wore gleeful expressions as they rushed beyond the Wall. For the men and women that worshipped the Titans, the outside world was a holy land, even a paradise. To Angel’s eyes, though, their actions seemed like tossing feed into a fish tank. It was clear that the hungry Titans would be drawn to the bait and approach the town.
We have to run. We have to…
But the road was congested, and they could only move forward slowly.
Everyone’s thinking the same thing.
Still, they had no other choice but to simply move forward.
As Angel headed toward the back gate, he suddenly heard a wave of cheers, screams, and shrieks coming from behind him.
The moment his body turned to meet the voices, Angel shivered. The blow was so brutal that he felt as though his heart was being torn in two. He gushed forth a soundless shriek.
“Aahh…”
Angel gulped, and his eyes jolted wide open. The understanding of the world he’d built up over his eighteen years of life came crumbling apart with a roar.
For a moment, he couldn’t understand what had happened. Or rather, he didn’t want to understand. His thought processes had shut down, and his mind grew as blank as a white canvas.
Once he somehow managed to put his thoughts back together, he took notice of a man who was pushing through the front gate.
“What is that…” Angel pushed the words out from his throat.
A middle-aged man one might see on the street had emerged at the front gate. While his calm face and figure offered no cause for surprise, he was nonetheless utterly different.
“A monster…”
The man was so large that it was not a stretch to use the word. No human being even came close. His size, reaching for the clouds, sufficed to impart an illusion that a mountain was writhing forth. His body was as tall as the gates, roughly ten meters in height. Faced with this overwhelming being that seemed to defy the laws of nature, Angel could do nothing but stand dead still.
It was either a god or a demon.
Now he could understand why the believers would want to worship them.
“So that’s a Titan…”
The Titan lazily stumbled through the gates.
Perhaps having no concept of civilization, the Titan was completely nude, and his protruding stomach rippled every time he walked. It went without saying what his stomach was filled of. He trampled multiple people to death with every step he took. No doubt excited by all the prey that he saw, a look of utter bliss had spread across the Titan’s face.
He stomped on the believers that offered their prayers to him as if they were worms and smashed with his palms any soldiers trying to put up a fight. There was no hesitation in his actions. Perhaps the Titan was driven to eat humans by instinct, as he greedily gobbled up one after the next. He either had no sense of taste, or the clothes and weapons he uncaringly ate together with the humans acted as spices.
Mammon.
The term suddenly bubbled up in the back of Angel’s mind. The hoggish, gorging, gluttonous, and greedy Titan, the incarnation of a nightmare, wore the glowing smile of an innocent infant. The sight terrified Angel.
Now that the Titan had been allowed to enter the town, it had become a crucible of chaos. The residents of Shiganshina District had, in theory, lived there aware of the risks, but they must have never thought that a Titan would actually be allowed in. The idea of one strolling straight through the main gate was utterly absurd. Terrified by their impending doom, the people of Shiganshina pushed toward their one route of escape, the back gate. There was no room for the spirit of sharing.
“Trying to escape right now doesn’t seem like a very good idea,” Xenophon conceded.
With thousands of residents surging toward the back gate, escaping seemed like a tall order. The gate was acting as a bottleneck, creating a huge backup. The people had been terrified into a state of delirium and were desperate to get even a single step closer to the gate. Morals and ethics had turned to dust in the wind as their survival instincts simply pushed others aside. Approaching the scene promised much more than some cuts and bruises.
As the people of Shiganshina worked in agony to escape, Mammon kept up his massacre. The Titan sauntered north through the town as he slew and devoured. There was nothing that could stand in his way. He destroyed buildings with complete ease, as if they were made from toy blocks, leaving mountains of rubble and bodies in his trail. He was like a walking disaster. While it was hard to imagine that humans could do anything to fight against the Titan, soldiers still challenged him with their useless blades. They were literally unable even to scratch him. Never mind slicing through his skin, their weapons simply bounced off of the Titan. His body was so tough it was as if he were covered in chain mail.
“No effect…” Corina shrunk to the ground in shock.
“So we’ve been up against…true monsters.”
“It’s no surprise that the Survey Corps suffers such huge losses,” concurred Xenophon.
They now truly understood why it was necessary to have a gigantic wall like Wall Maria. Without one, every last human would have been eaten by the Titans ages ago.
Having killed many, perhaps bored with his now-sparse surroundings, the Titan began to move to a new location with more humans to feed on. He ran with the quickness of a wild beast chasing after prey, the movements at odds with the dull and slow image his appearance implied. It was nowhere near a human’s sprint. He looked able to outrun even a horse.
His face still stretched into a beaming smile as though he’d just run into his best friend, the Titan continued to charge down the avenue, rushing forth like a surging wave, destroying everything in his path. Before Angel and the others had an opportunity to flee, the Titan had drawn close.
The Titan was big. That much was already obvious, but he was so gargantuan in size that it made Angel take notice of the fact all over again. He was so huge that his feet alone filled Angel’s field of vision.
It was too bizarre a scene. As though overwhelmed by the Titan’s noxious presence, Angel’s body locked up and his knees began to chatter. While his instincts had constantly been telling him to run, his body was still as if pinned down. The same had happened to Xenophon and Corina. They stood absolutely still like their bodies had been hardened with plaster. Their faces were a sickly pale color, and the vitality had seemingly been sucked from them by their sense of despair. What they saw before them was simply too absurd and threatened to make them regret they’d been born into this world at all. Keeping calm under the circumstances was an impossible feat.
The Titan raised a muscular arm overhead.
Run…
Angel tried to jolt himself into action, but his body was too busy shaking to move a single inch.
The Titan swung down his arm.
Move… Move…
Angel somehow broke his arms free of the chains of fear that had bound his mind, slamming both of them into his knees. The dull pain spread through both knees, and the feeling cured his trembling.
“Move!”
Angel braced his legs as he shouted, then kicked off from the ground to jump perfectly sideways. Moments later, the Titan’s fist smashed into the ground. A sound echoed like a cannonball striking home, and the ground rumbled. The pulverized road scattered in all directions together with clouds of dust. If he had been any slower, Angel would have surely been crushed.
Still, Angel was not yet out of harm’s way. The Titan slowly pulled back the balled hand he had buried into the ground. Fragments of the smashed road seemed to have cut through his skin, as fresh blood trickled down from his fist.
“Are you okay?” Angel yelled to his companions after regaining his bearings.
“Somehow…” While he was choking on the dust that filled the air, Xenophon seemed unscathed.
“Are you all right, Corina?”
There was no reply.
“Corina?”
Angel looked around. Corina, who just moments ago was next to him, had suddenly disappeared as if spirited away. A chill ran up his spine.
DRIP, DRIP.
Blood trickled down the Titan’s fist.
Terrified, Angel looked down toward the ground.
Where the Titan’s fist had caused it to cave in lay a lump of crushed meat.
“Corina…”
The hunk of meat so little resembled its former shape that he was only able to tell it was her from the work clothes that covered it. Bones all over her body had been broken, and what her cracked skull had once contained protruded out. It was instantly obvious that she was dead. The Titan grabbed the lump that used to be Corina with his fingers then brought it to his mouth. He wriggled his mouth and tossed Corina’s head aside like he was plucking a stem from a fruit. There was no trace of respect for the dead in his casual gesture. Spotting food on the ground, he’d picked up and eaten it, that was all.
“Damn it!” Angel spat, bit his lip, and glared at the Titan. Blood rushed to his head, and his body burned as though it had been thrown onto a fire.
The Titans were dreadful. Being near one was enough to freeze your body and threaten your sanity. But at that moment, Angel’s feelings of dread were overwhelmed by his hatred for the Titan. His desire to do harm anesthetized his fear.
“Give me the blade!” Angel barked.
Xenophon stood stock still, his eyes wide open.
“Xenophon!” Angel yelled again.
The man’s mouth just shook open and closed like a fish trying to breathe, his empty eyes fixed on the dripping blood.
“Xenophon, give me the blade!!” Angel screamed as if rebuking him.
This finally brought him to his senses.
Xenophon immediately tossed the short sword he gripped to Angel, who caught it, removed it from its sheath, and approached the Titan’s feet. He didn’t know how to fight, but even if he did, any standard tactics were surely worthless against the monster that stood before him. In that case, there was only one thing to do.
Angel slashed at the Titan’s ankles with all of his might. The blade sliced through the Titan’s skin with little resistance, opening a wound that laid bare bright red meat and the bones it surrounded.
“You did it!” Xenophon exulted, but that was the extent of the damage. In fact, it was hard to tell if Angel had even truly hurt his foe. The Titan showed no signs of being in pain, and moreover, the wound let out a white, steam-like smoke and began to scab over before their very eyes. It would have taken a human two to three months to recover from the deep cut, yet it healed as Angel watched.
“Damned monster…”
But Titans were organisms just like humans. Despite unusual recuperative powers, they wouldn’t survive a blow to a vital spot. The only problem was that Angel didn’t know where that might be.
Crap… Is it just pointless?
Short of a suicide attack, there was nothing left that Angel could do. He did, however, notice something after seeing a Titan for himself. The creatures were even less intelligent than he had imagined. They showed no interest whatsoever in how humans lived, only reacting to any food they saw in front of them. They captured and ate humans. That was all. Even dogs and cats seemed far smarter than the Titans.
While hardly a breakthrough discovery to turn the tables then and there, identifying a point where humans were superior was big. Being more intelligent, in particular, was an advantage that offered prospects of winning. Moreover, it was a defining human characteristic. With full use of their intelligence, they might be able to control, if not outright defeat, the Titans.
As Angel reached this conclusion, he had a flash of inspiration.
“Hey, freak! Just try and eat me!” Angel jeered at the Titan, waving at him as if to taunt him, and began running toward the main gate. The Titan seemed to accept Angel’s challenge and began to chase after him.
Angel’s plan was simple.
If I can’t defeat it, I just need to get it out of town.
The Titans hewed to a clear behavioral principle: eating humans, nothing more or less.
Show ’em bait and they’ll give chase out of instinct.
Of course, Angel would be acting as the bait.
The carriage they had abandoned earlier came into view. The horse appeared excited but not out of control. It looked like he could drive immediately.
Angel stepped into the driver’s seat and immediately whipped the horse into action.
Just as he had hoped, the Titan came after him. Angel’s original plan was to head straight forward to exit through the main gate, but the road was piled too high with corpses for the carriage to pass through. Angel moved from the driver’s seat to the horse’s back, then used the short sword to cut loose the harness connecting the horse to the carriage. Freed, the horse became more maneuverable, and Angel headed for the main gate skillfully avoiding obstacles.
“Angel!”
He looked toward the voice. Maria and the other Garrison soldiers had just taken the watchtower back from the believers. Seeing this, he pushed his horse to move even faster.
As they had not discussed his plan, Maria didn’t necessarily understand Angel’s intentions. But considering the Garrison’s duties, there was only one thing for her to do.
Angel passed through the main gate.
Before him stretched a barren, untouched plain. It was uncertain where all the believers who exited the walls had gone, but a number were now corpses, crushed by the Titan. Other than those bodies, though, he could see nothing worth taking note of. Perhaps there were unknown countries and peoples beyond the horizon, or even the holy land that the believers sought, but nothing Angel saw hinted at their existence.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the world outside of the Walls, but this was no time to satisfy his curiosity. Angel stopped his horse and used the reins to make it face the gate. Some compared the human world to a birdcage, and he could see why, looking at it from outside the Wall. In fact, a birdcage would be a step up since caged birds could at least see the outside world.
It’s like a prison.
Albeit the significant difference in scope, men and women were forced to live in there surrounded on all sides by walls─the very definition of a prison.
Soon, the avatar of fear appeared from the main gate.
“There you are, monster…”
As soon as he faced the Titan, the gates began to roar shut.
Looks like you got the idea, Maria.
Considering the Garrison’s mission, she had no choice but to close the gates. Placing Angel and Shiganshina District on a scale, it was obvious which way the balance tipped. Yet, Angel hadn’t dashed past the Wall in order to become a noble sacrifice.
“You know, common sense isn’t etched in stone. That’s what technology’s for.”
Angel pulled the Equipment controller from its holster and pointed it toward Wall Maria. He didn’t need to aim carefully. His target was so immense that he could have hit it with his eyes closed. As he pressed the lever on the controller, the Equipment began to hum, shooting an anchor with the speed of an arrow deep into the wall, about twenty meters above the ground.
“I’ll rewrite the common sense that you can’t defeat the Titans!”
With the controller’s lever returned to its original position, the Equipment began to wind in the wire at an incredible rate. Angel’s body was flung into the air, freed from gravity’s yoke.
But there was a price to pay for actually moving in such an impossible manner. Angel’s body was met with enough pressure to nearly incapacitate him. Perhaps due to not enough blood flowing to his head, his vision tunneled and the world began to turn gray. Angel grit his teeth and pushed through the pressure, adjusting his posture and fine-tuning his speed with the lever.
Until yesterday, entering and exiting through the gates was common sense. Starting today, though, things are going to be different.
Angel flashed past the Titan’s flank, and Wall Maria approached ahead of him. He balanced himself and made a soft landing against the Wall, then yanked himself upward. His body quickly rose toward high ground, where the Titan could not reach him. But shortly before his destination, the gas cylinder on his back made an odd noise like air was being let out of it.
“Gas leak…”
Something was wrong with the cylinder, whether it was shoddy welding or a structural defect. In any case, the gas leak caused the Equipment to stop operating. Angel moved the lever but there was no reaction, and he was left dangling eighteen meters above the ground.
“Damn it! Not now!!”
Malfunctions were part and parcel of prototypes, but Angel could not help but curse. He looked down to see the Titan reaching out to grab him. Jumping up may have allowed the Titan to do so, but the creature did not seem intelligent enough for that. While Angel had narrowly escaped death, he was still not free from danger. He had to somehow get over the Wall.
“Oh boy…”
If he had his tools, he could disassemble the Equipment and improvise something, but he had nothing at hand. All of his tools were in the carriage. He was hardly in a spot to tinker, either, dangling in the air like a bagworm.
Suddenly, his body sunk ten centimeters or so. He looked above his head to see that the wire supporting his body had started to fray. He had used multiple thin strands weaved together as one in order to ensure its strength, but even that, it appeared, hadn’t been enough. The wire frayed one strand at a time making an awful noise. It was only a matter of time before it could no longer hold his weight.
“Oh no…”
Right as Angel seemed doomed, a rope came dangling down from above.
“Grab on!”
His eyes followed the rope up to the top of the Wall, where he could see Maria’s face peeking out. Her expression was difficult to describe, a jumble of emotions from appalled to irate. Angel was sure he was in for an extended chewing-out later, but it surely beat ending up dead.
As soon as he wrapped the rope around his arm, he started being pulled up. In the meantime, Angel met eyes with the Titan, who was still smiling from cheek to cheek.
“What’re you so happy about?”
The Titan kept smiling even though Angel, his meal, was getting away.
“Are you still going to be smiling like that when I kill you?” Angel challenged, but the Titan merely smiled, not deigning a reply.
The sun was sinking below the horizon.
A horde of humanity’s sworn enemies was advancing toward them, drawn, no doubt, by the believers who had rushed outside the Wall. It was a desperate vista hinting to any who saw it that the end was nigh.