WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 122

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Life Might Be the Play Itself (2)

The curtain rose on the opera.

The audience reacted in all kinds of ways. The nobles in the VIP seats wore easy, relaxed expressions. The bourgeois commoners still blinked, as if they were not used to this kind of place.

On the other hand, the commoner couples who came for the anniversary simply enjoyed the moment itself.

Not the aristocratic culture called "opera," but each other’s company.

Watching them, I realized it again.

Time.

Yes, time.

What I had to earn, the only thing only I could secure......

Our time.

“Ah, my love! A world without you is only pitch-black darkness!”

At that moment, Reynold’s voice burst through the hall. I flinched and looked over.

He sang far better than I expected. Then again, he would later become a great actor who even mastered musicals, a genre that fused opera and theater.

"......Your skill improves by the day."

The princess beside me murmured.

I glanced at her.

"Aren’t you being too careless?"

"It can’t be helped. The balcony seats are hard to see from."

She answered without taking her eyes off the stage.

"Besides, I have a guard knight right beside me."

I looked to her left. The guard knight’s vicious gaze stabbed into me for a moment.

He was probably from the Royal Guard. Those Royal Guard bastards did not care whether someone was Ebenholtz or not. They did not even try to care. Even though Duke Sebestian Ebenholtz was both Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army and official commander of the Royal Guard.

"When you’re up there, even people’s faces and the flow of the play...... it all feels like you’re only watching from far away. I hate that."

Her eyes were fixed on Leonard.

A beautiful face shining under stage lights, and acting embodied in every movement.

"Do you like that actor?"

I asked.

"......"

Princess Justine said nothing. She neither agreed nor denied it, only stared at him on stage.

"If you want, I can arrange a meeting."

I offered casually.

With the name Ebenholtz, arranging a meeting with a great actor was not difficult.

"......No, it’s fine."

She shook her head.

Thump-

My heart jumped. The actor who had just stepped on stage was Izenheim.

No, Izenheim were hidden in the darkness behind the stage, and even among the audience around us.

"......Are you tense?"

Princess Justine suddenly asked.

"Your heart is pounding."

Her eyes stayed on my chest.

"My senses are a little sharp."

"......It’s nothing."

I answered calmly, but inside my thoughts were tangled.

“Life is a play, and death alone is reality......”

Like the lyrics Leonard cried out, life really was hard to predict. The "development" was set to a certain degree.

Thump-

Terror.

A terror attack would happen in this theater before long. I even knew the exact date.

Yet instead of stopping the attack itself, I kept thinking about what value I could gain by joining that flow.

Thump-!

My heart kicked hard again.

"......"

The princess stared at me. Her gaze was strange.

I wanted to leave, but standing up right now would only look more suspicious.

"With someone so noble beside me, how could I not tremble?"

I shamelessly tried to keep watching the opera with a brazen face.

"......Yanik. Shall we switch seats?"

Maybe I made her uncomfortable, because the princess switched seats with the guard knight on her left.

"Pleasure to meet you."

I nodded to a man I was not pleased to meet at all, and he seemed to feel exactly the same.

* * *

Kairon obtained Maximilian’s [Audit Report]. In truth, "obtained" was not even the right word. Maximilian had transparently disclosed the audit details to the knights involved.

"......There was not even an inch of personal bias."

Kairon was honestly just surprised.

"Even after suffering that humiliation."

The real reason Kairon delegated the matter to Maximilian had been to let him vent his anger.

The heir of Ebenholtz had been called to Imperial Guard Headquarters, that rat nest. Rumors that he had even been kept waiting there for hours had spread throughout the Order.

Even after being treated like that, Maximilian had not been swept away by rage. He untied the knot more coolly than anyone else, and even extracted suspicious gifts from Goebel and the Imperial Guard.

If it had been me, I would have grabbed any pretext I could and torn down Adria’s prestige.

"......"

As Kairon set the documents down, he suddenly remembered his beginning.

Kairon, Adria, Yulian.

Their entry years differed by one year each, but they were the same age. That was possible at Empire Point because admission timing differed based on many conditions.

From the day he joined the Sentinel Order, Kairon had worked relentlessly to survive, and beyond that, to build his own force.

He had aimed for the top from the start. Even while being scorned as a nouveau riche house, he climbed the ladder of ambition without breaking.

'Kairon. You never change.'

Adria’s words from when she laid down her resignation letter rang in his ears.

'Still, I will respect you. Maybe people who do not change have value in that itself.'

Kairon rose from his chair and looked out the window. His reflection in the glass had changed a lot from his twenties, but his heart remained the same.

'Unlike you, I changed. I got dull, and tired.'

But Adria’s heart broke.

She accepted defeat.

'......I thought about hanging on to Sentinel, even if I had to do it dirty.

Should I fight? At least for the knights who trusted me and followed me. But inside, the conclusion came quickly.'

Kairon covered his face with both hands.

'For that, I am too worn out. And if I leave, they might get a chance too.'

She said she would take all responsibility and leave, so please make sure her subordinate knights would not be treated unfairly.

As Kairon replayed that voice, through the gaps in his fingers,

"......Ha."

Something leaked out.

His own emotion.

"Hahaha......"

This laugh, to the point he could not hold it in.

"Hahahaha!"

A deep, sincere burst of laughter exploded out.

"Kuhahaha─!"

Genius of Hardenberg. You, child of a prestigious house, lost to me.

"When you chose Anton, I was happy."

It was no different from throwing your own house into the trash.

"You were right."

Yes. I did not change. Then or now, I was always the same. I craved a higher place, and I held onto the stubborn defiance that I would not be trampled.

And what was the result?

Those who called me nouveau riche now looked up to me. The noble brats who mocked my family’s lowly history now swore loyalty under my command.

"I......"

Kairon clenched his fist.

Adria, Anton’s right arm, was cut off.

Now only one old lion remained.

"I will become Commander of the Order."

......

Sentinel Order, Jerome’s office.

"The evidence against Werner and Muller was too clear."

Several knights from Adria’s faction, including Jerome and Tiana, had gathered with grim faces. On the table lay the "materials requiring explanation" that Maximilian had distributed.

Most were minor rule violations or small mistakes made during work. Things that could be tolerated, matters for warning rather than discipline.

In reality, Maximilian had shown flexibility.

But that did not apply to sixth-year Werner and seventh-year Muller.

"Both already confessed. Bribery and destruction of evidence. The charges are too clear, with no room for excuses. They expect at least six months of suspension, and possibly dismissal."

A sixth-year knight, Mila, let out a disgusted breath.

"Why did those idiots...... do that crap?"

"......"

Tiana quietly pressed a hand to her chest. Her file was clean.

For a knight, performance and reputation were life itself. Especially now, with the practice of funneling work to one’s faction or covering for one another, a six-month suspension was almost a death sentence.

The promotion ladder from regular knight to senior knight to high knight would be severed. They might spend life branded as "corrupt knights."

"......Is Knight Adria still unchanged?"

Tiana asked carefully.

Jerome shook his head.

"There was no room to persuade her from the start."

Adria took all responsibility on herself. In truth, the knights already knew. The moment "detention authority" failed, a knight’s political life ended.

Staying in Sentinel would only be painful for her, and an even longer torture for those under her.

"She abandoned herself to protect us. The path that made that possible......"

Maximilian had opened it.

That was why Jerome understood even less.

Because of our mistake, he was dragged to the Imperial Guard and humiliated, so why?

Why, why, why......

The more Jerome thought about Maximilian, the more he became a man covered in whys.

Imperial Palace direct agency, Special Affairs Inspection Department.

The agents thoroughly reexamined the "audit results" sent by Maximilian. They glared at the records as if through a microscope, trying to find even one speck of dust.

"......There is nothing in particular to fault."

That was the conclusion of the direct agency chief.

"......"

Chief Secretary Grossman sat in his chair and lowered the report.

"That is how it looks to me too."

They were the results audited by Maximilian himself.

You could see he had flexibly passed over minor matters that were technically against the law. But trying to nitpick even that was hard when the backing called Ebenholtz was so huge.

Grossman let out a dry laugh.

"I underestimated my opponent."

"Chief Secretary."

Suddenly, the chief made a serious suggestion.

"How about exposing that Maximilian intentionally planted the forgery to help Goebel. If we bring Adria back and make them check each other-"

"Even if we do that, it solves nothing. It could instead strengthen ties between the Imperial Guard and Maximilian."

Grossman rubbed his cigar and shook his head. Goebel already owed Maximilian. If our side publicized that fact, Goebel might cling to Maximilian completely just to survive.

"Watch for a chance, then kill Goebel."

Grossman’s tone turned cold.

"A dog with a leash on its neck is useless. It does not have to be now. When he is off guard, handle him quietly."

Goebel was extremely skilled at uniting the Imperial Guard. It would be hard to find someone to replace him, but not impossible.

"We can find at least one to take over after him."

Grossman lit his cigar.

Pssst-.

As he exhaled thick smoke, he thought about Maximilian.

Second-youngest recipient of the Imperial Gold Lion Second-Class Medal, and a pure imperialist. A knight of Sentinel, and a monster of Ebenholtz.

But......

"I cannot read him at all."

Questions circled in Grossman’s head.

If he wanted power, the right move was to step up directly and aim for Commander of the Order. Wipe out Adria’s faction in full, crush or absorb Kairon, and stand at the top. That was the ordinary path.

Yet Maximilian looked like he was fully yielding that seat to Kairon, and even showing gestures as if he would forgive Adria’s faction too.

"Maximilian Ebenholtz......"

A name mixed with chaos. Grossman recited its rhythm into the thick smoke.

......

Adria’s resignation was accepted. She kept her knight rank, but she no longer belonged to Sentinel.

"Yes. I see."

I nodded calmly. Before regression, Adria had left Sentinel with Anton anyway. The cause she held as a Revolutionary Faction member had been "not starting a war."

"Well, this is good."

A knight with cut ties would not help the revolution at all by staying in Sentinel.

Instead, she would work as a personal knight, taking the role of secretly releasing or protecting people tied to the Revolutionary Faction.

If we kept watching her, we might step on the Revolutionary Faction’s tail.

"Also, the Palace will likely formally grant you 'standing audit authority.'"

Kairon added.

"Anton will probably notify you directly."

He had already dropped Anton’s title. As for me, I was about to hold almost perfect authority.

Before regression, Sentinel had been devoured by the Imperial Guard, and rotten noble brats had run wild since the Empire Point days.

Accomplices in humanity’s destruction who took money and let Izenheim go, traitors who took Revolutionary Faction bribes and looked away, idiots who obeyed Imperial Guard requests......

So many knights had fallen into the status of "pushovers," turned into targets that just got shelled on battlefields, then turned their hearts to revolution.

"Yes. Understood."

In this life, the Sentinel Order would not have that petty, lowly future.

The authority of knights would rise day by day.

I would make it so.

The more thorough the Order became, the sharper that blade became, the stronger my power would become as well.

"From now on, I will gladly cut off the heads of those unqualified to be in Sentinel."

Sentinel.

This group, where the military force of the Iron Men was concentrated, would one day become the strongest foundation supporting me......

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