Paradis Island, Command Room.
"How did it go? Were you able to establish contact with the people outside?" Pixis stroked his mustache and murmured, "For now, there are no problems in the capital, so you have nothing to worry about."
"Commander, we hope you can transport the surplus grain to our current port." Eren spoke through the Titan's mouth.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Due to the fall of its kingdom, Isfar shelters numerous refugees. The Marleyan government destroyed Isfar's government and armed forces."
"They recruited Isfar soldiers to serve as volunteers in their own country, but very few occupation forces remained. Much of the region has fallen into chaos."
"Our intention is to help these refugees who are suffering from war and hunger, and use them as our spokespeople to avoid drawing the attention of the Marleyans, so we need food."
"That's possible, but without your power, we can only build sailboats. Building new ships takes time, and transporting food does as well. In a short time, we can't move much."
"Don't worry about that. We've captured several armored warships. Commander, you only need to follow the route and transport the grain to the port near the underground shipyard. We'll handle the rest."
"Using war to sustain war…?"
"That's how things are. Commander Erwin and the others said they would make good use of the outside world."
"I understand. How much do you need?"
"We'll take as much as possible, as long as it doesn't disrupt the island's normal operations. Also, we need stones that can detonate ice…"
Eren and Pixis detailed all the required supplies.
The food was meant to attract refugees, while the explosive ice stones would be used as fuel for the armored warships.
They had to make use of the resources available to them.
Since they had only recently made contact with the outside world, using explosive ice stones could save them a great deal in fuel costs and also help avoid drawing attention.
Eren and Pixis quickly finalized the details.
"Then… this communication ends here…" Eren said, controlling the Titan. "The next communication will be in three days, and I'll contact you according to the calibrated time zone."
"Good."
Eren regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and found himself in a simply decorated room.
The style was quite different from that of the island.
Compared to the island's simple stone constructions, these painted walls were undoubtedly more refined.
However, it seemed that the soldiers of the defeated nation had not maintained these rooms well, as there was a lot of foamy and peeling plaster on the ceiling.
Eren released Dina's hand and said, "Commander Pixis said he would transport the food and the ice bombs to the shipyard as soon as possible, according to our request."
Gale, who was nearby waiting for answers, nodded. "We've tested the speed of the armored warship. At maximum speed, it's almost three times faster than the Navy One."
"That means it can basically make a round trip between Paradis Island and the landing port in about twenty days."
"We need to be careful with the timing; we can't let Marley's transport ships find us," Erwin said, somewhat concerned.
"Marley's transport ships only stay on the island for one or two days a month. They fear the Titans even more than we do. We should try to avoid arriving at Paradis Island at the same time as them." Gale agreed that they needed to be cautious.
"Then let's schedule the next trip for seven days from now," Hange said while writing the data in her notebook.
"If the armored ships reach Paradis Island within 10 to 15 days, it will be just in time to avoid the Marleyans' usual schedule. When they're about to arrive, we can ask Eren and the people at the watchtower to check the situation."
"Let's do it that way." Gale had no objections and sighed. "We still don't have enough armored warships. It would have been great if we could have kept a few more intact…"
"Transport is a big problem."
"Yes, we have little time." Gale understood all the island's complications, because he had been calculating everything in detail.
"But with the steam engine technology of the armored warships, we can build specialized transport ships on the island."
"If we can transport the finished steam engines to the island, the shipyard workers should be able to carry out the work independently by just assembling the ships."
"Let Mick's squad and Levi's squad handle escorting the prisoners," Erwin said with a cold expression.
"Take them to the island and have them teach us how to operate the armored ships. After some time, we'll be able to train our own marines specialized in armored vessels."
…
The group debated and made decisions on various matters in the office.
Seven days later, the two armored warships set sail from the border port of former Isfar.
Of the 149 prisoners, 102 had all their weapons and equipment confiscated.
All of them were escorted by 80 marines, led by Mike, the successor of the Armored Titan, and Levi, and boarded the armored warship as crew members to operate it.
As for Gale, he was modifying the blueprint of his armored warship to replace the Titans with steam engines.