"The situation has been affected by the thief we caught a moment ago, I sent a special team so that the first team is informed." Takashi stood in front of everyone and pointed out, "There will be three special groups during the night, the first group will be in charge of taking care of the horses, while the second to take roll call every two hours as we have been doing so far and lastly the final group will be in charge of keeping watch during the night."
Under Takashi's orders, everyone began to move in an orderly fashion. If the thieves' goal is only to steal the three-dimensional maneuvering equipment, the horses could also be a target of their plans.
Considering that the instructors went to Eren's group to try to steal them, Takashi was a bit calmer at that point. However, he was not to let his guard down against a possible enemy attack during the night.
Later, in the dark, in front of the campfire, Takashi was sitting on a stone and volunteered as part of the group to keep watch tonight.
It was already nine o'clock at night. Even in the summer, when the stars and moon were in full bloom, it was completely dark in the forest at seven o'clock. It was difficult to continue on the road. Takashi had assigned a special group of people to observe different spots during the night, while the others were lying in their sleeping bags.
Thomas approached and said, "Takashi, are you worried about the others?"
Takashi rubbed his forehead and denied matter-of-factly, "No, they are all trained to deal with this kind of threat without any problem, but I hope they are okay. By the way, is there a situation?"
Thomas shook his head and noted, "Everything is normal so far. The horses were placed in a wide spot to be watched, while the shifts were assigned."
"Very well, you must be careful." Takashi was a little distracted.
So far he thought it would be the end if someone killed them, just as it would be the end if a titan hit them while they were distracted. If they were thieves, Takashi wouldn't have rested until he saw them all tied up in a tree.
Only until now did he understand that not only must he watch out for titans, people are also something he must pay attention to.
This may be just a simple test, but that does not detract from the fact that it is very much related to reality.
I could only hope that Reiner and Mikasa along with the others would arrive on time, many important points for some of the other teams might be lost.
There was nothing major happening all night, Takashi and Thomas switched shifts in the middle of the night, so from their side there was no problem.
Early first thing in the morning, the sun slowly started to rise. After everyone finished breakfast, Takashi resumed their journey with the others. Approximately two hours later, they arrived at the intersection where the two teams were originally supposed to meet but group one did not arrive.
After waiting a long time, it was only after a few hours that team one arrived at eleven o'clock in the morning, evidently arriving late. Reiner, Mikasa and the others were also in group one.
Takashi could see that the morale of everyone in group one was obviously low, Christa's eyes were depressed and Ymir was comforting her on the side.
"Wow, looks like they got the worst of it." Thomas muttered under his breath.
"What was that all about?" Takashie was intrigued.
"You were right, they were instructors disguised as thieves, unfortunately for group one several got hurt." Annie said with a cold stare.
Takashi approached and found that many of the cadets were injured, it seems that the instructors were not very careful with them.
Eren, Jean, Armin and Nelson along with the others were on their horses in a very bad mood.
"Did it go that bad?" Takashi asked Armin, who was riding his horse slowly.
Armin was a little sad to tell what happened.
The group of instructors attacked class one at night and took Christa hostage along with other careless cadets. The soldiers were very uncared for. They didn't even have optimal organization in the group. Then they stole a lot of three dimensional maneuvering equipment, it is not known how they were able to steal so much equipment, when it was discovered that something was wrong they desperately tried to get the equipment and the hostages back.
When there was a direct confrontation, things got out of control and a painful fight broke out between instructors and soldiers. Unfortunately, some soldiers were wounded by the instructors. Fortunately, Nelson acted immediately, ordering torches to be dropped and fire spread to better identify the assailants.
Just when everything seemed to become more brutal, the team that was sent by Takashi surprised the instructors from behind, quickly ending the test.
Some were injured in the ankles, there were cuts with swords which was quite dangerous. Not to mention that in the forest there is no safe method to take care of serious wounds, with the medical level it is difficult for them to recover from infections or much more delicate wounds.
There was one soldier who wedged a knife in his leg, which generated considerable blood loss and quite possibly that cadet will die.
Jean expressed her helplessness and said, "If we had not been careless, if we had been alert during the test there would not be so many wounded."
No one knows the answer, and no one knows what the outcome will be until a decision is made.
Eren did not respond. After one of his teammates was seriously injured, he wanted to take his anger out on the instructors, but Armin and Connie stopped him. This test was to be taken strictly without hesitation, this is just more than their fault for not being responsible.
Takashi had many words to say to group one, but he knew that was not his responsibility and left that role to instructor Keith. He could only leave one question in his memory, what would have happened if they were in titan territory?
After checking that everything was all right, the two groups exchanged waybills and soon after resumed their way without delay to the base of the training corps.
Takashi called Mikasa, Ymir, Reiner and the others to join the group, compared to the agitated state they left in, they returned a bit calmer. Although there were no injuries in group two, after all the injuries in group one, everyone was silent when they found out what happened in group one.
Thomas suddenly said: "It is very possible that that soldier who was injured today in this test will not be able to graduate, if he manages to come out of this experience alive, he will know better than anyone that life is very important."
The edge of swords, knives and arrows have no eyes or feelings. A normal person can die after receiving a cut. There really is no time to hesitate when on the battlefield, let alone in this world.
"That's what we face coming here, what assures us to go on living tomorrow? One little slip up, it only takes one breath for everything to go dark in our consciousness." Takashi smiled slightly and pointed out, "We have to fight, for the fallen and the future, the least before my death I will make a significant change in this world."
"Playing and being carefree in this test, the cadet who was injured simply said he didn't want to die. What an idiot, if he doesn't want to die, why be a soldier in the first place? Christa felt guilty, everyone felt guilty..." Ymir said with a cold look.
"It was reckless, I heard that Christa was the one who warned that there were thieves in their group, they really could have stolen even their horses otherwise." Takashi said with a slight smile.
"Regaining morale is only a matter of time, if they don't do it just by having this small loss, once they become soldiers and have more than just a wounded comrade, they will possibly drop out of the army."
Thomas stopped abruptly when he heard Takashi's words, he knew what he meant.
In the afternoon, both groups returned to the training corps base, lined up in the long courtyard, instructor Keith stood on the high wooden platform with a grim expression and looked at the soldiers.
Instructor Keith had two sheets of the analysis during the trip and a route map with the path laid out and said with a roar, "I will post this on the bulletin board later, everyone should look at the performance of the other class and compare it with their own performance, especially those in group one."
"I've told you many times! Even though most of you are teenagers around fifteen years old, you are not village people picking up rocks, you are soldiers! Remember that you are always and at all times soldiers! Always be alert and maintain a will to fight at all times!"
Everyone fell silent, Nelson, Armin and Eren lowered their heads even more embarrassed.
"Damn!" Nelson cursed under his breath, he couldn't help but blame himself for not playing a better role as the leader of group one.
Some time later, in instructor Keith's office, Nelson, Armin, Mikaya, Thomas and Takashi reported on their assigned work in both groups. The explanation may be very detailed, but Instructor Keith needed to know what happened, especially the performance of both groups.
After the report, Instructor Keith did not make any comments.
Armin couldn't help but ask, "What about the recruit who was injured?"
Keith looked at Armin and said, "He is under observation, he lost a lot of blood so it is not assured that he will be able to return to the training corps later, hopefully there will be no aftermath from his injuries."
Armin was silent and did not speak, Mikasa patted Armin on the shoulder and said, "Let's go."
Keith watched the three leave and looked at Takashi saying, "Your orders were very wise, I hope you won't make mistakes later."
"Of course not, I'm retiring." Takashi said with a military salute.
...
A few days later, the soldiers of the training corps took a few days off, quite a few days off, but they were also the last days off of the year.
In the end, it turned out that the cadet who was wounded in the leg died from a high temperature in his body, not far from the base where his body was buried where the recruits who died in all generations due to accidents and the result of various training were normally buried.
For a long time, the training corps has trained countless outstanding soldiers to defend the walls and fight titans, maintain order and protect the king.
Generations of recruits grew up here, or died, or otherwise began their legends.
The days off have started, some people go straight home to visit their families and homeless people stay at the base, no one knows what will happen in the future.
As Mikasa said, this world is cruel and beautiful!
In the office, Instructor Keith sorted out the results of the soldiers' evaluation in the last training. Undoubtedly, as recruits, this group of teenagers still has a long way to go. As for what kind of soldiers they will become in the future, he doesn't know, but he will silently witness and send blessings from here for all of them!