Nine - The collapse 1

It's been a month since he found them. Since then, he has been learning their daily routines. Seeking a weakness that he could exploit. All for the sake of satisfying his curiosity and getting rid of the shadow that girl left on his mind that day.

Observing the chandelier hanging on the ceiling, he took a sip of his wine and continued twisting the screwdriver. Every single one of the screws was less than a centimeter in size. It took him almost a year to finish them alone. Because he lacked machinery that could cut metal in precise shapes and forms, he did it all by hand using an amount of patience that he wasn't sure he was capable of.

In any other smith's hands in this day and age, this small piece of craftsmanship would have been considered a magnum opus. Not many were capable of producing it, and he had yet to see someone that could. Nonetheless, he doubted it would have the millimetric precision of his creation. As for why? Richard chuckled to himself.

Grabbing the last part, he finished putting everything together and wore it.

It was like a silver gauntlet. The design and craftsmanship surpassed anything he had seen in this world. The design was heavily inspired by tribal flames and the ingenuity of this project came not only in the form of its resilience but also its versatility.

Taking a small packet from his pocket. He took one of the small objects inside and looked sharply at it. It was a capsule of sorts. One projectile that was comparable to .50 cal bullets from his previous world. It was a little short due to the constraints in terms of equipment, but this in itself wasn't much of a problem.

Each shot was capable of producing no less than 680 kilograms of energy. He wasn't aware of anything besides the thick walls that surrounded the country capable of stopping this gun he created.

Pressing certain triggers on the lower side of the gauntlet, a case opened up. He put the bullet inside and pressed the same spots again. Turning towards the mannequin on the other side of the room, he lifted his hand towards it. From his perspective, a line suddenly surged from his arm and continued moving till it hit the first obstacle in the way.

It was an aiming tool he developed for Alf. Although it took a while to write the whole program, it seems to be working as intended. He would have to test it outside later to see if it's calculating the trajectory properly under the influence of wind, but so far, it fitted his needs.

He bent his index finger and thumb to the edge of his hand, and then the shot rang out.

It was a muffled and yet loud sound. He would have to be more than fifty meters away from the target so that the silencer could work properly but it was quite good. Even better than the trash he had seen in his previous world.

As expected, everything he does is a cut above others.

Smirking at his best creation yet he couldn't help but feel somewhat pleased. After a second, the muzzle that came out retracted inside the gauntlet, remaining hidden from prying eyes just as he intended.

But that wasn't the end. He wore the other gauntlet intended for his right hand and then twisted and coiled his little finger around his ring finger. The action triggered another mechanism that revealed a round plate shield about 17 millimeters thick. There were many claw contraptions that trapped them in position and he made sure to use only the best combination of alloys capable of resisting extremely high impact and pressure. This little baby could block just about any melee weapon those people are capable of producing. And if anything was damaged it was only a matter of building a replacement for the claw or the plate that was damaged.

Then, he brought his left hand towards his right and touched the fin-like protrusion on his other gauntlet. The trigger caused an opening to appear, revealing a handle of sorts. Grabbing it and pulling it out, it revealed half the body of a sword. The body of the blade seemed to have been cut in half, it was a lot thicker than most common swords and it seemed to lack the sharp edges of an actual sword.

Then he pressed the middle of the crossguard and the rest of the blade revealed itself.

This weapon was a sword about 60 centimeters long. The inside was mostly composed of a sturdy mechanism that allowed the blade to retract and fix in place while the cutting edge was just attached to it for the sake of easy repairs. It could take quite a lot of impact without chipping and he used high-carbon steel containing 18% tungsten, 4% of chromium, 1% vanadium, and 0.8% carbon.

This weapon had two purposes. The first was being a durable weapon for emergencies or situations where he needed to be armed but couldn't be seen carrying an actual weapon. The other was merely being a prototype for a new type of Titan-slaying sword.

After many years of bribing he finally got his hands on detailed information regarding the titans and was finally taking precautions against them. How, you might ask? Simple, just like he thought many years ago, The swords those people use are basically trash. It wears too quickly for two reasons. The toughness of the titans and the extremely high temperature of their skin which is speculated to reach between a hundred and three hundred degrees celsius.

The blade he created isn't supposed to have any effect from the temperature so long as it doesn't surpass six hundred degrees, besides, the better materials crafted using his superior craftsmanship and the blade itself in general should be able to easily cut through any titan since the weapon itself was forged while taking into consideration metal-cutting tools.

It's in no way the best weapon a foot soldier could carry, but spears wouldn't be of much use against those monsters.

Now, for the finale. With flexion of his middle finger and index finger, a blade protruded from below the gauntlet in his right hand with a speed that exceeded what his eyes could normally see. This weapon was for the sole goal of assassinations. It was quick, extremely sharp, and could be used without anyone noticing if he was careful enough.

Moreover, the size was just right to reach the heart if there was a need to stab someone from the back or through a chair for example. If he did it right, he could kill someone without them even noticing, a quick and merciful death.

Unfortunately, it was all he could manage with his current resources and time. As for full body armor... it would have to wait till he could produce a pocket-sized reactor and the tools to create complex machines. Otherwise... a gambeson with a little more work on the materials would basically fit any situation so long as the enemy didn't possess a gun. In that case, he would have to bring graphene into this world a lot earlier than he thought he would. Not to mention things such as nanofiber soft armor for whole-body protection against projectiles.

Thinking of the future threats he will have to deal with, he felt a slight headache and stopped to catch his breath.

For now, those gauntlets would be among his main equipment. Looking to his left, he sighed in relief seeing the backup replacement he built. In total there were three pairs. So long as nothing surprised him, he might not even have to use them.

Scratching the back of his head, he was about to read a document when someone rushed inside.

"C-commander! Are you okay? We heard a strange noise just now! It sounded like a cannonball!"

It was Tobias and Wazo. Amongst the five division heads, they are the ones that spend the most time inside their smaller-sized mansion built where the warehouse used to be.

"It was nothing. I was just... testing a new device I developed."

Richard's words threw them off. What kind of device could make such a loud noise? Moreover, why built something like this? For distraction?

Unable to comprehend his thoughts, they sighed and made themselves comfortable inside the room.

Seeing them taking a seat in his office, he rose his eyebrow in curiosity.

"Anything else?"

"Yes, commander. Uh... do you want to do it, or should I?" Wazo asked Tobias who just shrugged.

"Recently, we have had a few conflicts with the Garrison Regiment. They tend to be regular customers in our brothels and bars and they recently started stirring up trouble..." Wazo explained the situation in detail for about half an hour.

It was one of the usual reports. When Diemut wasn't around, Wazo did the job of telling him the news that was deemed important and needed Richard's take on the matter before they could do anything.

After all, it was a matter involving the military. Richard's strict order was to not do anything related to them without consulting him first.

Crossing his hands in front of his face, he pondered for a moment before replying.

"Do we have their files?"

"Yes!"

Smiling Wazo stood up from the chair and approached the table, He took the three archives he was carrying beneath his arm and put them on the table.

'Hannes, Bernd, and Wolf...' Taking the files, he looked through them with but a glance. Alf did the heavy work of compiling the information and transferring everything in full to his mind without him having to do the heavy job of decorating and processing everything.

Having done so, he closed the files and put them down.

Looking at Wazo, he spoke without rushing. "Is this Hannes truly related to the Yeagers?"

Hearing his words made Wazo and Tobias just as astonished as ever. Nodding in their hearts, they couldn't help but have a glint in their eyes. There was a rumor but they never managed to confirm it till now.

They knew that the Commander wasn't aware of those people, so when he only gave one look at each of the files before closing them, they thought he wasn't interested but to their surprise, he actually spoke of something that was only mentioned in passing. As for why they knew of this? Simple, they made sure to decorate the three files just to verify this urban legend inside Shattered Heavens.

'So it's true!' Awed, they barely managed to recompose themselves after a few seconds.

"Y-yes. He seems to have a good relationship with Grisha Yeager and the children of the family. One of our men saw him saving them from a drunkard and taking the trouble of bringing them home for nothing."

This was also written in the file but he wanted confirmation because he had already warned his men to pay extra attention to that family.

Leaning back on his chair, the gears of his mind started turning. Finally, an opportunity has arisen. It was due time to explore the secrets of the Yeager family house.