AoT short stories 3 volume 20: Mike's game record
(From the short stories booklet that comes with the final season part 1 manga boxset)
A little while after the 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls, Survey Corps member Mike was entrusted with observing the new recruits, and so he waited in a facility in Wall Rose’s south district.
He happened to pass by his corpsmate Nanaba as he was on a security patrol, and he went to talk to her to in part make sure of her mission.
“Is the suspect really among those kids…?”
“This is in line with Erwin’s explanation. We’ll continue to wait here with them so long as the possibility exists.”
“They’re fresh recruits on edge after just experiencing the world outside the Walls. It doesn’t seem like a very good idea to make sit still and not move a muscle.”
Mike considered his kind corpsmate’s words.
“You’re right… Prepare a diversion, at least.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting, recruits. You’re going to have to sit here a little longer. I know this doesn’t make up for that, but I have brought you a care package.”
The fresh members of the 104th Survey Corps, who had been gathered in a single room, were then given drinks, scrounged-together books, and anything else that might distract them even a little bit.
“Where’d you get this from?”
“All kinds of places. That board game belongs to the Survey Corps.”
Among the items was a board game where you moved pieces to play war. The recruit who had picked it up then found a scrap of paper covered in scribbles.
“Um, this was in the box of pieces.”
“Ah, game records. I’ll give those to Mike.”
Nanaba took the paper and went to return it to Mike, the person in charge of the area.
[White: Soldier 5-8. Clever move.]
[Black: Knight 1-9. Questionable move.]
[White: King 0-3. Black has advantage.]
“Mike, this looks like your handwriting, but I never knew you had a hobby like this,” Nanaba casually asked Mike about what he’d seen while they travelled together, causing Mike to snort and take the paper.
Because of his rank of Squad Leader, he often accompanied Erwin, leader of the Survey Corps, when he visited the aristocrats and wealthy traders to ask for their support.
Known far and wide for his quick wits, Erwin would often be asked by aristocrats who had an interest in this game to play them in a match. On the way home from one such match, the leader of the Survey Corps sat inside his carriage, shoulders shrugged.
“Don’t you think it’s ironic? While aristocrats are playing and moving soldiers atop a board, the actual soldiers fighting on the front lines don’t have the time for this kind of recreation.”
“… So you entertain them with these games for the sake of the military’s budget.”
Alongside Erwin, Mike had been forced to wait by his side the entire time. Though internally dumbfounded, he looked at the scene through the carriage window expressionlessly. Erwin smirked at him.
“It’s common practice to keep records of matches. A player’s personality comes out in these records and can’t be deciphered by others… almost like a code.”
In other words, when Erwin entertained aristocrats with a game, he was on the surface fulfilling their desires, but at the same time he collected information about their likes and relationships that he used in order to raise money and procure operational materials from them.
“I see. So the matches you sometimes play with Erwin are like transfers of such coded messages. Still, I’m impressed you learned the rules. I learned them back in the Training Corps, so I’ve forgotten them by now.”
“… They’re simple once you remember them. You only move one piece on the board at a time, anyway. They have limited ways of movement too,” Mike and Nanaba discussed as they went to check on the recruits, only to find them playing that exact game.
“Agh! Connie, what’d you do to Reiner’s pieces?!”
“Ah! The board is a mess! So does Bertolt win by catastrophe here?”
The massive sneeze let out by the small recruit led to the table getting shaken, knocking down all the carefully placed pieces. As all the recruits laughed, the tense atmosphere seemed to relax a bit.
“… A real battlefield is full of unknown variables like that”
“Yeah, the game is much easier on you. I wonder what Erwin is doing right about now…”
Nanaba glanced up at the north-facing window. Mike joined her. A grand match that would go down in Survey Corps history seemed to await them on the other side of the sky they saw.
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