The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 121

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 121

──────

Life Might Be the Play Itself

Goebel moved quickly. He rushed straight to the Imperial Palace to meet Ken Bertem and Grossman. He had practically forced the meeting into place, and Grossman had barely carved out a gap in his schedule.

“......So that happened.”

Grossman set down his teacup, one brow twitching.

“We already seized a fair amount of paperwork from the Order. If we pull back now, we will look ridiculous.”

“I am...... deeply regretful as well.”

Goebel bowed his head, cold sweat running down him. Ken Bertem beside him looked just as strained.

“It seems we misunderstood things a little.”

Grossman showed no emotion. Nothing would change by blaming anyone.

“Kairon worked harder for us than expected, and Maximilian’s ‘promise’ was solid, just as you would expect from a noble.”

To guard against some other force trying to tear Goebel apart, he had planted the trap of a forgery.

Whether he had expected another knight to get caught in it too, no one knew.

“It cannot be helped. As for oversight and audits of the Order......”

It had long been Grossman’s ambition: to secure a sheath that could control a blade too dangerous even for the Imperial Guard and the Palace itself to rein in.

“Tell them to settle it within the Order.”

“Will that still be all right?”

Ken asked carefully. Grossman picked up a cigar.

“It is not bad for us either. Think about it. If Kairon handles the audit, do you think he will treat Adria rationally? He will latch onto anything and tear at her.”

So they handed authority to close this incident to the Order, not the Palace or the Imperial Guard.

On the surface, the Palace and Guard would look like they were making a major concession. Precisely because of that, division inside the Order would be inevitable.

“And if, in any direction, bad politics are carried out.”

Grossman exhaled a long stream of cigar smoke.

“Then we gain both the justification and the authority to correct it. It will not be too late to intervene then.”

Ken and Goebel brightened at once. They understood Grossman’s meaning in an instant and nodded in admiration.

* * *

──[ Imperial Palace Special Audit Request ]──

Recipient: Sentinel Order

Sender: Imperial Secretariat

Content: In relation to recent suspicions of evidence fabrication in the case involving Senior Imperial Guard Commander Goebel, a full audit is requested of Knight Adria von Hardenberg, who led the case, and all personnel who entered Goebel’s residence.

Note: This matter has received His Majesty the Emperor’s approval.

──────────

In this forgery incident, Goebel himself had closed things with “neither side will press charges,” and all talk of limiting the Order’s power had vanished.

Then the Imperial Household directly requested an internal audit.

The stated reason was to wrap things up properly, and with the Emperor’s seal on it, refusal was impossible.

Probably a gift from the Imperial Guard.

“......I thought this would suit you.”

Kairon handed that sword hilt to me.

“I am not rational right now, so I will give you full authority. This is too hard for a first-year...... no, honestly, you are not just a first-year anyway. Handle it.”

His decision was wise.

“Yes. Understood.”

I thought about Adria.

Adria von Hardenberg.

Codename Blue Owl. A noble-line mole who had spent over a decade as a key Revolutionary Faction operative.

“The audit covers her whole line too, not just Adria herself. Everyone who entered Goebel’s residence.”

I looked at Kairon.

Kairon was an honest man. A transparent one too. He never hid his ambition for power. This time, he clearly wanted to cut off not just Adria but everyone hanging under her.

“Still, direct agency personnel have already come to Sentinel and seized quite a lot of materials.”

“I will recover them immediately.”

“Good. Go.”

“Yes.”

I left Kairon’s office.

I wandered through the Order’s corridors.

Something like nausea rose in me, so I kept walking.

Before I noticed, the scenery had changed.

When I came to my senses, I was in Central Park, not far from the Order.

The fallen leaves were beginning to turn. A season at the threshold, where clear green shifted to red and yellow.

I sat down on a bench.

“......It is complicated.”

Faced with this kind of situation, this kind of pattern, that was all I could say.

My thoughts and actions kept spreading into places I could not see, in directions I never expected, and I could not rein them in.

It was uncontrolled expansion, and still I had to reach out.

I had to grab hold with everything I had.

Even so, all of it made me sick.

All I could do was endure.

Endure my disgust for all of this.

If I could not endure it, I would collapse.

“......Max?”

Someone called my name. A mage in a hooded robe. Ezel. My eyes narrowed.

“......What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? This is Magic Tower Park. Long time no see?”

Magic Tower Park. Another name for Central Park. Sentio Magic Tower stood nearby.

Ezel sat beside me, still holding an ice cream cone.

“You’ve been busy lately. What are you doing here?”

I looked at her ice cream.

It looked good.

Ezel seemed to notice and pulled it farther away, with no intention of sharing.

“Don’t stare. What are you doing?”

“......Nothing much. Just thinking.”

I leaned back on the bench and let out a deep breath.

“Thinking about what?”

“Things like whether I should do what I want, or think about what other people want too.”

Factions and power blocs. Kairon and Adria. The Palace, the Imperial Guard, and the Sentinel Order.

Should I become a bat belonging to neither side, or stand with someone.

“Hmm...... I don’t know the details, Max, but didn’t you only just start doing what you want?”

Ezel took a bite of ice cream as she spoke. My gaze drifted toward her.

“It would be a waste to put it down now. You worked hard to get this far. You are all over the papers too.”

Whoooosh-

A light breeze slipped by and pushed back her robe. Her blue-gold hair scattered softly.

“Max, you are already not the Max I used to know. You overcame your own temperament and nature. I don’t know if that is entirely a good thing, though.”

At those words, I could only nod.

She was right.

It would be a waste to put it down now.

I had gained a conviction more important than myself.

If I had conviction, my position did not matter.

Because I had conviction, I could move anywhere.

“......You’re right.”

An Ebenholtz was not a bat. He was human.

Humans did not live by reading the room.

“That’s right.”

Factions and power blocs were only that.

They were not choosing me.

I was choosing them.

Who to save, who to kill, who to pull to my side, who to turn into an enemy.

That choice belonged to me alone.

“Thanks. That helped.”

I rose from the bench. I turned to leave, then stopped.

“Where did you buy that ice cream?”

“Huh? Ah, over there. Street vendor.”

First, I walked in the direction Ezel pointed.

I needed ice cream.

......

All I had to do was hold my own center. Among the countless gears in the Order, only I could do what I wanted. The Ebenholtz bloodline had been given that kind of power, authority, and qualification.

“Starting with Senior Knight Adria.”

In an office arranged outside, I addressed the officers handling the audit.

“Rip through her entire line.”

Every knight who joined Adria’s operation would be audited. Tiana was no exception.

We would fully investigate the cases, missions, and fund flows they had handled over the last nearly three years.

Some knights would be cut away. There was bound to be corruption among them.

“And Otto. Hans.”

The two most experienced officers under me.

“You two will recover the materials the Palace took.”

I gave that key task to them, both former prison staff, one from deputy prison administration and one from the guards.

......

Imperial Palace, in front of the direct agency records room.

Maximilian’s two officers stood there, tense.

“......Can we really do this?”

Officer Hans whispered.

“Don’t flinch. Remember what you learned at the main house.”

Officer Otto answered.

“Yes. As Master Engi taught us......”

They were civil employees who had caught Maximilian’s line together with Schatz when Schatz was imprisoned.

But now we were no longer civil employees.

Not that this was contempt for civil service. I had never once treated the blood and sweat we spilled then as trivial. It was simply that the responsibility and authority given to us now were on a different level.

“Let’s go.”

After a deep breath, they entered the records room. It was full of direct agency personnel, busy sorting documents seized from the Order.

“──We came to recover the documents you took!”

Otto called out first, his voice clear.

“What are you? How did you get in here?”

A direct agency operative approached with an irritated expression.

The officer pulled out a document and held it up in front of him.

“Order from Knight Maximilian.”

The operative frowned and took it. A recovery order stamped with Maximilian’s knight seal.

“And these are our IDs.”

They held out their identification cards as well.

[ Sentinel Order Working Officer ]

Name: Otto Baren

Position: Working Officer

Affiliation: Maximilian

The operatives checked the order and IDs back and forth, then gestured aside.

“......We will hand them over.”

The operative nodded and stepped back.

A direct agency operative from the Imperial Palace, people known for arrogance and for being difficult, was listening without resistance to men who had been prison guards barely two years ago.

It was astonishing, but the two officers bit their lips and steadied themselves.

They could not get carried away.

I was not Maximilian. I was not Ebenholtz.

The core lesson Engi had drilled into them at the Ebenholtz main house.

The moment a servant mistook the master’s authority for his own, that servant’s life...

“There is a lot. Can you carry all of it?”

the operative asked. Otto picked up a box and replied.

“We would appreciate your help.”

The operatives helped move the boxes without complaint. Together they carried the Order documents and loaded them into the trunk.

* * *

......The Sentinel Order internal audit was completed.

Maximilian mobilized all his personnel to comb through nearly three years of records from the knights under Adria. At last, a reporting meeting was held to announce the findings.

“......”

In the heavy conference room chaired by Vice Commander Anton, the knights stared at Maximilian at the front with tense expressions.

“I am getting tired of seeing meetings like this. Being a knight is not exactly a profession of meetings.”

Maximilian made a rare joke.

Kairon hesitated, then laughed a beat late.

“Ha. Hahaha! Hahahahaha!”

Kairon’s side smiled along with him.

The mood on the opposite side turned even colder.

“I will now announce the results of the Order’s internal audit, approved by His Majesty.”

“I wonder whether you are ready to accept them.”

Kairon sneered at Adria’s faction.

“Sir Kairon.”

Maximilian stopped him.

“Please refrain from side remarks during the meeting.”

“Ah, right.”

“No. Sir Kairon is right.”

A knight from Adria’s side suddenly cut in.

“How are we supposed to trust what you people say?”

It was Jerome.

He spoke of trust while looking fully prepared to believe nothing, and Maximilian answered calmly.

“All imperfect evidence was excluded. Also, this is only a notice of audit findings, not a disciplinary committee. You will have ample opportunity to explain later.”

Jerome fell silent. Kairon looked at him and shook his head in disgust.

“First, I found that some knights who participated in this Goebel operation had previously accepted bribes and solicitations. I also found signs that evidence was concealed or manipulated during investigations.”

Maximilian picked up a document.

“Among them, the most notable findings involve Knight Werner and Knight Muller.”

The faces of the two named men wavered.

“Evidence substantiating your suspicions is attached separately. You will be given a chance to explain after review. If your explanation is insufficient or unreasonable, I will recommend referral to a disciplinary committee.”

Kairon nodded with satisfaction, while Adria’s side still looked unconvinced.

“The Imperial Household specifically requested a strict audit of Senior Knight Adria.”

Maximilian lifted another stack of papers. This one was very thick. Adria’s assets, communication records, mission reports. A file containing everything about her.

“The audit team’s one-line assessment of Senior Knight Adria is.”

He paused. Kairon’s eyes shone like a spectator waiting for a climax, while Adria’s side looked ready to leap up and object.

“‘No faults found.’”

“As expected......?”

“No way......?”

Kairon’s face went blank. Jerome froze half-risen from his chair.

Even Adria herself looked confused.

“Not only was there no tax evasion, there was not even any intent toward legal tax minimization. All other fund flows and movement records were clean as well, and there was no basis to call any part of her mission execution illegal.”

Adria was a clean person. After the Empire’s fall, many talked of revolution while neglecting their own conduct, but at least she was not one of them.

“I will now add my view as the Sentinel knight who handled this internal audit.”

Maximilian set down the papers.

“As someone who has also exercised a knight’s detention authority, the success or failure of that authority is a risk borne by the knight personally.”

A dry conclusion based strictly on facts.

“Therefore, I judge this is not a matter for Sentinel’s own disciplinary action.”

A ruling by principle alone, with no private emotion.

Jerome sat back down. Kairon’s open mouth did not close.

“That concludes the audit briefing.”

Maximilian continued calmly.

“Also, the investigation materials have already been distributed to each office. Those who need to explain themselves should prepare thoroughly.”

Vice Commander Anton watched Maximilian in silence.

Then he sighed and announced the end of the meeting.

“......Kairon. Adria. Everyone else, leave except those two.”

At that, the knights filed out one by one.

Only Anton, Kairon, and Adria remained.

Kairon was about to speak first when-

“Do not worry.”

Adria cut in first.

“It is not like I do not understand what he meant.”

She took out an envelope she had prepared in advance.

“The risk is borne by the knight herself. He is right.”

She set it on the table.

A resignation letter.

“......”

Kairon’s expression slowly settled. Adria gave a faint smile.

“A junior far beneath me is letting me leave with dignity.”

Looking at her, with memories of those younger days from over a decade ago overlapping in his mind, Kairon quietly opened his mouth.

* * *

While Kairon and Adria were likely speaking.

I arrived at the Royal Opera House. Whether it was the Revolutionary Faction or Izenheim, they would likely target the princess before long, so I came to clear my head and build justification.

“Hmm......”

Before the opera began, I sat in the VIP section and looked up at the VVIP balcony on the second floor.

A woman sat there with her robe pulled low. With security that tight around her, anyone would assume she was the Emperor’s daughter.

......She was a servant imitating her.

The real princess was probably hidden somewhere in the regular seats, watching the opera.

“──Do you like opera?”

A voice came from right beside me.

I turned.

A woman in a simple dress and glasses, yet carrying unmistakable dignity. Princess Justine.

She had sat down beside me.

I expected Her Highness to be in the regular seats.

Then again, this section did give a better view.