The slight figure fell far behind. Roger and Tours didn't slow, pushing toward Levi's encampment.
With ODM gear, the Central Military Police were far faster than men on foot.
They'd been blundering around Stohess like headless flies a moment ago, searching east and west, but in a blink they found the traces Roger left and sped after him.
"Boss, what do we do? At this rate they'll catch us in under ten minutes. Let's turn and fight!"
"Don't rush." Roger pulled out Nelly's flare. "At least try this first. That guy may be opportunistic, but you can't deny he's sharp."
"Heh, sharp my ass. Boss, that turncoat already ditched us. No need to make excuses for him now."
Roger smiled and shrugged.
"Can't be helped. People live for profit and die for profit—like a law of nature." He hooked the flare's ring. "Tours, I can't tolerate betrayal. But if all he wants is to run, I shouldn't stop him."
Fwoosh!
The flare shot up and burst into words across the sky:
"Nelly, present."
Then the unexpected happened.
A few seconds after the flare went up, an explosion thumped from Stohess.
Boom!!
It was big—there and gone firelight, a rolling wall of smoke. Quiet Stohess looked lit like a fuse; people jerked awake, stumbled outside, and stared at the blast site.
"Was that a Titan?"
"So the 'Titan shifter' rumor is true?"
"Damn it! Why Stohess?!"
Panic spread. People poured into the streets, hacking on the dense smoke.
The Central MPs chasing Roger heard it too. As one, they cut their flight, reeled in their lines, and stood on branches at the edge of the woods.
Pieck and Annie glanced at each other.
They didn't know what had happened, but the blast sounded like a Titan transformation.
And judging by the scale, it could well have been the seven-meter Jaw Titan.
Except…
Wasn't Roger ahead of them?
"Kenny, you sure? They really went this way?"
"Yeah, if those footprints are legit, then this is the direction. But…"
"What if he never left at all—what if he's heading the other way right now, skirting past the royal palace, transforming and escaping over the wall on the far side?"
Pieck squinted after the receding sprawl of Stohess.
Night was too dark. Even high on a big tree with a clear view, it was impossible to see whether a Titan was in Stohess—let alone a seven-meter small one.
The smoke could've been white fog or black soot; who could tell if it was an ordinary blast or a transformation shock?
"Kenny, keep the search going. Just in case, we have to go back and look," Pieck said.
Kenny nodded, helpless, and yawned. "Yeah, yeah. Go on then. I've got this."
He feinted like he was about to pursue, and once Pieck and Annie were far enough, he swung down off the tree, landed, and stretched.
The others looked puzzled, but dropped down after him.
"Captain, we're not continuing the chase?"
"Chase what?" Kenny eyed her. "If it were Grisha Yeager we were after, I'd be all in. That Roger's got nothing but that Jaw Titan. No Coordinate. What's to chase?"
"Then… where now?"
"Orvud District. Heard there's a famous tavern there. Since we're passing by, how about a drink?"
"But—"
"Natiya, you got a crush on that old man Reiss?"
"Huh? N-no, I—"
"Didn't think so." Kenny lit a cigarette. "All right, move out."
A few minutes earlier, in Stohess, at the Pete Ridoz Tavern.
Nelly had taken a side path, slipped around the Central MPs, and come back to the bar.
Under the counter, Babut—carved into a limbless stump—was already dead. Nelly closed his eyes for him, then lifted a hatch beneath the bar.
He'd dug that escape tunnel himself back when Red Eye was boss.
Being the barkeep, stuck behind the bar day in and day out, he'd designed himself a way out—insurance for a gang firefight, a quick exit when it all went bad.
Later, the gang became "Scorpio."
Watching closely, Nelly had sniffed out how different this new boss "Reiner Braun," or Roger Eikam, really was.
Other bosses grazed the legal line, raking money, committing crimes. This one drilled the gang like an army. They'd burned and robbed at the start, sure—but then… they started to "clean up."
On the principle of "prepare for the worst," Nelly had planted explosives in his tunnel.
If he lit them, they'd blow the tavern sky-high.
Monster or Titan, Roger would be badly hurt.
But now…
He was going to use those explosives to save him.
"Call it my last gift, Boss," he murmured. "Of all the bosses I've had, you're the biggest monster—and the best."
He struck the fuse and walked out through the tunnel.
The blast thundered. He didn't look back.
Outskirts.
A village.
Levi heard an odd sound and sat up in bed.
Through the window, he saw the words "Nelly, present" blinking in the sky.
"So those idiots finally hit trouble?"
He spoke low, swung out of bed, strapped on his ODM gear, checked his shotgun shells, and stepped outside.
A full row of soldiers already stood there. They didn't belong to any regiment and wore plain clothes, but their training had long since surpassed the Cadet Corps. Every one of them was elite.
"Ready?"
"Ready! Give the order! We're prepared to die!"
Levi shot the speaker a look.
"Is your skull packed with pig crap? Listen up: your lives don't belong to me or that moron Reiner. Your lives belong to you. If you hit a problem you can't solve, ditch him and run."
"What about you, Levi?"
"Me?"
Levi thumbed rounds into the shotgun and set off at a quick stride with the squad.
"I won't die," he said.
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