The following day.
"Thank you so much, Lillian!"
Eren handed the waist harness and belt back to Lillian, looking at him with eyes full of gratitude. "It's thanks to you that we discovered this problem. Otherwise, if I'd failed the assessment because of faulty equipment, that would've been unbelievably stupid!"
"Yes,"
"We've already gone to Instructor Keith to explain the issue," Armin said from the side. "He said this had never happened before—it was his oversight. From now on he'll also include this as part of the maintenance items to be reported."
Eren nodded vigorously. "Mm! That way, no soldiers will be eliminated because of defective equipment anymore!"
The happiness the few of them felt was completely genuine. Watching them, Lillian did not know what he ought to say. He thought to himself that Keith's mood must be extremely complicated.
In order to protect the child of the woman he had once loved, he had deliberately damaged Eren's belt, so that the boy would become an ordinary person and avoid the threat of the Titans. Yet now, this intention had come to nothing.
Of course, perhaps the moment he looked into Eren's eyes, he already understood—such determination was not something that could be crushed so easily.
Perhaps this squad might manage to eliminate Eren, but given his personality, he would certainly never give up. He would come again in the next squad. And if he were not allowed to participate, he would definitely not resign himself to becoming a farmer. On the contrary, he would fight the Titans as an ordinary civilian, and in that case the danger would be even greater than if he fought as a soldier.
So… precisely because he saw this, in the original course of events Keith finally changed his mind and allowed Eren to pass the assessment.
"Lillian, I'll never forget that you helped me so much!" Eren could not help saying again, clearly still shaken by lingering fear.
He had feared failing the exam and being unable to drive away the Titans; he had feared that all his bold words would come to nothing and that he would become nothing more than a laughingstock.
"Mm."
Lillian nodded. At this moment, the whistle outside also rang.
"Let's go. Training is about to begin."
Before long, three days passed, and the day of assessment arrived.
Most people passed the balance test. Especially Eren—he had gone from being a source of jokes at the beginning to now becoming one of the very best performers, surpassed by only five or six people.
This astonished everyone greatly. What they did not know was that although Eren's natural talent was merely average, his effort and clarity of purpose far exceeded that of others. His present performance was nothing more than the crystallization of more than ten hours of practice each day over the past three days.
"Instructor Keith, how is my adaptability rating?"
"…Very good. Keep working hard."
Keith looked at the smile on Eren's face, his gaze extraordinarily complex, and sighed inwardly.
—Grisha, your son has become a soldier.
One by one, everyone underwent the test. When it came to Lillian's turn, all eyes turned toward him with curiosity.
Although Lillian always behaved with great restraint, his striking hair and eye color and his gentle facial features were extremely eye-catching. Together with Mikasa, he almost became one of the most talked-about figures among the cadets, both girls and boys.
Quite a few boys liked Mikasa's elegant black hair and the gentle lines of her face, while many girls were naturally very interested in Lillian—of course, quite a few of them thought to themselves that it would be even better if only he were a little taller.
Besides his appearance, Lillian also had a nickname: "the freakishly strong short guy." Naturally, this was a name people gave him in private; no one dared to say it to his face. The reason, of course, was his astonishing strength.
The incident of Lillian punching an iron railing flat had already spread throughout the entire 104th training corps. That such tremendous power could be contained within such a small body was truly hard to believe. As a result, some boys who had previously looked down on him no longer dared to show it, afraid of provoking Lillian and taking a punch—something that would certainly not be a joke.
Now, as Lillian mounted the apparatus, his body was extremely steady and his balance well maintained. Of course, many people could manage this level; it could only be rated as "average." There was no chance of being rated "excellent."
"Lillian Kafka, passed."
After Instructor Keith spoke, Lillian dismounted the apparatus.
After another dozen or so people finished their tests, the entire group completed the assessment. Only seventeen people failed to meet the standard and were eliminated, and even these did not seem especially disappointed.
After all, they usually slacked off and did not train properly, and likely had already prepared themselves mentally to be eliminated. Being eliminated simply meant going back to farming—hard work, yes, but generally not very dangerous. And after farming for a few years, they could always change to another job. If luck favored them and they struck it rich, wouldn't that be far better than being a soldier earning a fixed, meager wage?
Thus, once those who held such attitudes were removed, the rest finally began their formal training.
---
Time passed swiftly. Several months went by, and everyone successfully gained a preliminary mastery of the use of the ODM Gear.
However, a soldier's training was not limited to this alone; there was also extremely important training in surviving under harsh conditions.
And today happened to meet precisely such conditions.
"What heavy snow…"
Everyone stood in the great hall, looking through the windows at the goose-feather snow drifting down from the sky—snow that had begun to fall from midnight the previous night. By the time everyone rose from bed, the lands were already a vast expanse of white.
"So cold…" Connie rubbed his hands together and breathed warm air onto them. "By the way, with snow this heavy, we probably won't train today, right?"
No sooner had the words fallen than a piercing whistle sounded.
Fii—!
"Assemble!!"
"..."
Everyone turned in unison to stare at Connie, silently condemning this ill-omened crow of a mouth. He himself looked thoroughly mortified and decisively became the first to bolt out of the room.
"Sigh."
"It's so cold and we still have to train."
"Honestly…"
"What if someone gets sick? It's really not worth it."
"Exactly."
They complained under their breath, but their feet did not slow at all. They hurried outside—no one wanted to be smashed on the head by Keith's knife-hand.
They lined up according to formation. Standing opposite them, Keith nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good. Even in this kind of weather you're not dragging your feet—you're already starting to look like excellent soldiers!"
After speaking, Keith shook his head. "But! Simply standing neatly in line is far from enough. You still need more training! And today, you will undertake a brand-new training exercise!"
"A new kind of training?"
Everyone was extremely curious. In this heavy snow, with the ground slick everywhere and visibility so poor, what kind of training could even be done? Yet no one dared speak; they only waited for Keith's announcement.
They saw him lift his hand and point into the distance. Their gazes followed his finger. In the hazy whiteness, they could just barely make out the shadowy outline of a mountain range far away.
"See it? The content of this training is—snow-mountain training!"
Keith said solemnly, "A qualified soldier cannot only enjoy comfort. He must also be able to survive under extremely harsh conditions! So you are no exception. This training is your trial!"
Snow-mountain training…
The expressions on everyone's faces turned rather ugly. From the name alone, it clearly wasn't going to be easy.
"Of course," Keith continued, "considering that this training is extremely difficult and carries a certain risk to life, you may choose not to participate."
As soon as he said this, everyone froze. They could choose not to go? That was wonderful—then that…
"But," Keith added leisurely, the corners of his mouth lifting, "the results of this training will be counted toward your overall evaluation."
"..."