Bauduin Bernhart

A hooked nose and a heavy mustache dominate Bauduin's face, and dark hair completes the look of an imposing career officer. The story never shows him working in the field, though he presumably wears the standard Military Police uniform of his rank.

Behind an approachable front operates a ruthless political animal. Bauduin covets command of the Military Police and treats anyone in his path, rivals and relatives alike, as expendable. He holds his opponent Jentsch Dafner in open contempt, sees the Survey Corps as a pointless drain on money and manpower, and campaigns to dissolve it. Even the flicker of remorse he feels while deceiving Gloria evaporates the moment she bleeds out in the street; he walks away laughing.

Bauduin's brother took in an orphan named Gloria and raised her as a daughter. When the brother and his wife died, the girl passed into Bauduin's custody, and her later acceptance into the Military Police likely owed something to his influence. He first enters the story as one of two candidates for brigade commander, opposite Jentsch Dafner, captain of the Industrial City force. After the Dissidence Movement's failed uprising costs Jentsch his rank, Bauduin receives command and installs Gloria as the city's interim head, appearing with her at society functions where the young officer Xavi Inocencio takes notice.

Weeks later Gloria brings word that the Survey Corps is collaborating with the inventor Xenophon Harkimo on a device for fighting Titans. Bauduin wants the Corps gone, but grudgingly grants a three-month reprieve, capped by a test expedition; if the equipment fails, disbandment follows at once. He never intends to honor the deal. Working behind his niece's back, he overrides her order to execute Moritz Hellmesberger, knowing the rebel wants revenge on her, and points the killer at Gloria. Claiming motion sickness, he coaxes her out of their carriage to walk the rest of the way, and Moritz stabs her fatally in the street. Bauduin shoots the assassin through the head, then stands over his dying niece and laughs before leaving both bodies where they fell.

His victory does not last. Gloria had fed Xavi detailed records of the political smears and errands she performed for her uncle, and fellow Military Police arrest Bauduin for her assassination. Stripped of rank and title, he ends the story in prison.