The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 100

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 100

──────

Your Faith (3)

──Crk! Bzzzt!

The dark interior of the house lit up at once. Instead of soot-stained candles, the mana stone hanging from the ceiling gave off a white glow.

“It’s done.”

A lamp made from a mana stone. The structure was simple: a neatly carved stone shelf, and a high-purity mana stone carefully set on top.

I always carried spare mana stones. Thanks to the virus’s intuition, I could pull off tricks like this.

“It should last a long time.”

A mana stone itself was not all-purpose, but if you etched a quick circuit inside and supplied mana at optimal efficiency like this, it worked like a well-made machine.

“As long as the lamp doesn’t break, it should easily last ten years.”

The head of the household stared with wide eyes. The front gate I had broken, for reference, had already been replaced by soldiers.

“Thank you.”

──Fwoosh!

The sound of fire being lit drifted in from outside. The soldiers were in the middle of dinner.

“......”

I sat at the table. The family still watched me with fear in their eyes, and the man kept clutching the check to his chest without letting go. It was oddly cute.

“Any bank will cash it, so don’t worry.”

I picked up the steaming black tea. The mug was rough, but the tea had a deep aroma.

“The meal was good. The doneness was just right.”

Even for me, someone who ate top-grade ingredients prepared by chefs every day, local food had its own distinct appeal.

“......Th-thank you.”

His wife lowered her head shyly.

The man asked carefully.

“But... how did a noble like you learn Zerpan?”

To them, seeing an Imperial, and a noble at that, speak a foreign language fluently was probably rare.

For the last hundred or two hundred years, Imperial nobles had often appeared as villains in novels and plays across other countries. Masterminds, villains, they were always that type of noble bastard.

Izenheim’s meddling was one reason, but corruption in noble society was more than enough reason on its own.

“Hmm...”

I set down my cup and looked at the man.

Before my regression, one of the biggest reasons the Empire’s wars failed was contempt for locals. They looted everywhere they went, so public sentiment collapsed, and resistance exploded like madness even in western countries they had barely managed to occupy.

“Learning languages is a hobby of mine.”

When fear was needed, you had to be as cruel as possible. But there was no need to go out of your way to make enemies.

That was my creed.

“They say it resembles birdsong.”

I answered softly.

“Zerpan has a uniquely beautiful rhythm.”

Even saying that, I felt a little petty. My language ability really did come purely from the virus.

Because of the virus, my memory became as exact as a photograph. As my memory improved, things I had never cared about got easier. As I got better at them, they became fun. Once they became fun, I naturally learned them more deeply.

One virtuous cycle after another.

“The intonation sounds like singing, so learning it was enjoyable the whole time.”

A strange smile spread across the husband and wife’s lips.

Language came from the mouth. Maybe almost everything humans spoke was the language of their own land.

Pride in the language that watered your roots crossed every border.

“...Also.”

I looked at the staff displayed in a frame above the fireplace.

It was a shepherd’s staff, worn smooth where it had been gripped for years.

“I heard the shepherds of Zerpa are those who follow the King’s Path.”

“Ah... y-yes. Th-that’s right.”

The man scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“W-we have been shepherds for generations... and around here, we’re from a line important enough that the royal family does a tour every few years...”

He suddenly stopped. He seemed to realize what he had just said and checked my expression.

I waved my hand.

“Any household that keeps its family precepts, protects its family trade, and passes it down through generations is a house of lineage. You may take pride in that.”

“Haha...”

He smiled, embarrassed, but his shoulders straightened a little. I watched them and spoke in a low voice.

“Let me give you one piece of advice.”

Tok. I set down my teacup.

“Just as I learned your language, you should learn Imperial too.”

A local who could speak Imperial would at least avoid a pointless dog’s death. More likely, they would be treated well.

“It will probably be very useful in the near future.”

I gestured toward the children peeking at me from behind.

The man nodded quietly.

“Yes, yes. N-now that we have money, I’m thinking of sending the children to school too...”

“That’s good to hear.”

I rose with a smile.

“I hope it lasts. Your tradition.”

That wish was sincere.

Your children’s children. And their children too.

I hoped this world could continue.

I hoped this tiny family line would not be cut off, and would not be destroyed...

* * *

The Berton force slaughtered a cow.

They served a thick soup made by boiling fresh meat and bones for a long time, and salted the remaining meat for later operations.

“...No, but this makes no sense.”

Royce sliced his steak with his personal tableware, a silver knife he had hidden in his clothes so it would not be caught during loadout inspection, then dipped it in sauce, a custom special product he had also hidden for the same reason, and let out a disbelieving laugh.

“How, no, seriously how?”

“How what?”

Dare Tan, sitting next to him, kept slicing his steak and raised his brows.

“What he said earlier made no sense. What was that?”

Royce truly did not get it.

Maximilian’s learning... no, his language skill, was that refinement?

Either way, it was unexpected.

“Honestly, I don’t remember him having grades that great at Empire Point.”

Royce muttered, tilting his head. Dare Tan nodded.

“True.”

“We checked his report card back then and got shocked. He was way too average.”

“Yeah. Still, he looked cool today though. Like, speaking all that foreign language stuff. What was it again, shala syong make depasifrom?”

Dare Tan babbled the bit of Zerpan he had caught.

“Maybe I should learn a language too.”

Maximilian’s foreign language had sounded extremely fluent. At least that was how it felt.

“What nonsense. Imperial is the continent’s common language, so why bother. Just do Imperial well.”

Royce grumbled and chewed his meat.

“──Sir Knights.”

At that moment, Leon appeared. As always, he wore a bright smile.

“Finish eating and come to the barracks. Meeting in ten minutes.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Yep!”

Both stood up and saluted sharply. Leon waved and went into the barracks.

As soon as they sat back down, Hanna returned with her arms full of ingredients.

“I got cabbage nearby. You two want some?”

“......”

Royce and Dare Tan looked exhausted. Hanna frowned.

“Then don’t.”

She chopped the cabbage and dropped it into the pot. A crunchy texture was added to the thick meat soup. It definitely looked much better.

Maybe it was because she came from the sticks. She seemed to know how to eat.

Royce and Dare Tan quietly pushed out their own soup bowls.

As she served them, Hanna muttered,

“By the way, Sir Leon seems really kind.”

“......”

That statement was genuinely absurd. Royce and Dare Tan looked at each other, stunned.

“What. Why.”

Hanna’s brow creased.

“You don’t know?”

Leon von Adolf Askar.

He looked gentle. He seemed kind. His actions and voice were soft too.

But his house, Askar, was infamous.

The most notorious nest of supremacists in the Empire. A family that did not even treat subspecies as human, and was insanely strict even about internal birth background inside the Empire.

Hanna, a commoner, seemed unable to imagine what darkness might hide behind Leon’s smile, but Royce and Dare Tan, both high nobles in their own way, could feel it instinctively.

More exactly, they felt it seep through.

“...Forget it. Just eat.”

Royce did not bother explaining.

“You two really live on jealousy every day. Seriously.”

At Hanna’s nonsense, they could only laugh dryly.

Royce scooped up cabbage and meat from the soup, then suddenly felt anger rise.

“Hey. Honestly I’m better looking, okay? Objectively I’m the best-looking, so what jealousy are you even talking abou-”

......

The knights gathered in the command barracks.

At the center, Lieutenant Colonel Kai Han had spread out a map. Maximilian and Leon stood on his left and right.

“Our current position is here.”

On the map, Lieutenant Colonel Han planted a blue flag on hilly ground not far from the canyon exit.

“General Richter is probably at this point.”

He planted a red flag much farther north, on the mountain detour route.

“He has likely realized he has lost tactical superiority.”

Loss of tactical superiority. Royce rolled the phrase in his mouth.

It sounded impressive. He should use it when he got back to the Empire.

“The royalist faction is currently holding out inside the capital against the republican faction. But if we rashly march to rescue them, we may be encircled instead.”

Lieutenant Colonel Han drew across the middle of the map with his baton.

“Our main force does not have enough numbers to crush them outright, and General Richter will obviously turn back and strike our rear.”

Then he swept his eyes across the five knights.

“Therefore, from this point on, you knights will carry out independent operations.”

He pointed at the enemy encirclement line blocking the route between the capital and main force.

“First, break through the enemy encirclement, enter the capital, and link up with the royalist command. Inform them of our arrival and coordinate the timing of the joint operation. In short, become messengers.”

When an area was encircled, collecting mana-wave signals was basic doctrine.

In a situation where communication might be intercepted or blocked, no messenger was as reliable as a knight.

“Second, strike enemy facilities, including supply routes, to induce chaos.”

Faster and more covert than a normal scout unit, this was a rear disruption operation using the asymmetric strength of knights.

“You must prevent the enemy from focusing on our main force, and buy time so Imperial follow-up reinforcements can enter more easily.”

The Imperial army sent to this civil war was not just Berton. If anything, this side was the small mobile unit.

A combined force of twenty thousand would march into Zerpa’s plains, and reinforcements would also come through the canyon we had cleared.

Still, none of those bastards would fight with full sincerity.

Before my regression, they had used new tactics and new weapons for tests, massacred innocent civilians, and returned.

“Our main force will establish a defensive line here and prepare to break the encirclement later.”

* * *

Late night. A ridgeline where even moonlight was hidden by dark clouds.

“This device has a communication range of twenty kilometers. At high altitude, that can extend up to one and a half times. If you inject mana directly and force-amplify output, the signal can reach up to two and a half times that.”

Before deployment, I explained the equipment to the knights in exact terms.

Everyone inserted the communicator into an ear and nodded.

“If a dangerous situation arises, you must communicate. Knights are the Empire’s most critical combat asset.”

To be honest, I hated admitting it, but from the Empire’s perspective, losing one Year 0 here hurt more than losing the entire Berton force.

“The strike points are four bridges and one tunnel.”

The Zerpa Kingdom had an unusually high number of hills and rivers, so if even one bridge was cut, supply units had to detour dozens of kilometers. We would use that terrain feature.

“Each of you takes one bridge. After destroying it, move to the capital where the royalists are holding out. If the route is blocked and you absolutely cannot reach it, return to the Berton main force.”

I tapped the red points on the map and warned them.

“Also, do not get buried in destruction itself. What matters is making the enemy recognize that a guerrilla unit exists.”

If their rear was attacked, they would panic. They would communicate among themselves and tighten security. Units on heightened alert would stay pinned in place instead of moving.

For Lieutenant Colonel Han, that was enough.

“What about the tunnel?”

Leon asked. It was the deepest point and the most heavily guarded.

“I’ll take it.”

The leader took the hardest part.

That was too obvious to even discuss.

Before my regression, I abandoned duties like that out of fear. Only now was I finally doing them again.

“Understood.”

Everyone nodded behind black masks.

I looked at the youngest, Dare Tan.

“Nineteen, you too?”

“Understood!”

Dare Tan answered with his back straight.

“Max, if someone saw you, they’d think you were thirty.”

Leon threw out a quick joke from the side. I frowned.

Leon quickly avoided my eyes and scratched his cheek.

“Sorry.”

I was already past thirty.

“Infiltrate.”

With my signal, we scattered into the mountains.

From here on, it was individual combat.

Whoooosh.

I sprinted across high ground. Night wind brushed my cheeks. Legs wrapped in mana moved quietly and fast.

There was no noise in an Ebenholtz step.

I was stomping over grass and fallen leaves, yet no sound leaked out.

It was an effect of the mana attribute called Ebenholtz, and because of that it was optimal for covert movement.

“......”

As I built speed and ran, a searchlight flashed far away in the dark.

The target point, the tunnel.

I stopped at the edge of my visible range.

A control post had been built at the tunnel entrance. Heavy machine gun positions stood on both sides, and armed soldiers were on guard behind mana-stone plate barricades.

──Thump.

The moment I stared at them, my heart started beating hard.

A familiar pulse.

A disgusting presence.

There was Izenheim mixed in with them.

“...Haa.”

I let out a deep breath and drew my longsword. The cold blade caught silver light.

Step on the ground, yet do not step.

Kill sound, erase presence.

Quietly, becoming part of the dark itself...

──Tick.

Time slowed.

My soul accelerated.

──!

I shot forward at a speed even the wind could not follow.

Before the searchlight could even cast an afterimage, I was already above the post.

Srrr...

The bandages wrapped around my longsword scattered away, and countless silver trajectories burst out.

Like petals falling across the night sky. Dozens of slashes spread.

──Slash.

The gunner holding the machine gun lost his head, the patrol soldier’s chest split open, the watchtower collapsed without a sound, and the neck of the young man staring at me with widening eyes flew high into the air.

They were not Izenheim, but... it could not be helped.

Blood surged upward like a fountain, and only then did my foot touch the ground.

Tok.

The moment I landed, I leaped again.

Izenheim.

I drove my blade through the heart of the one wearing a commander’s cap.

──Tick.

Acceleration ended.

Kwasaaash!

A soft gust exploded behind me with mana and echoed through the tunnel.

“Ghk, ggh...”

Izenheim let out a choking groan and stopped breathing.