WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 123

──────

Life Might Be the Play Itself (3)

"──Hanna Usar. Mission."

Around the time Sentinel's political infighting entered a brief lull, rookie knight Hanna was summoned.

"Bolska, sir?"

Her superior nodded.

Bolska bordered the Empire's northeast. It claimed to be a republic, but in reality it was a dictatorship run by a military faction that was all but a monarchy.

"This came from an intelligence informant. Movement from an anti-Imperialist terror group has been detected."

Sentinel was not just Kairon and Adria's factions. Those two were the main powers, but there were clearly third and fourth groups that held voting rights too.

People who best embodied the saying that knights were independent contractors.

"Large-scale weapons and illegal mana stones are being traded in Bolska. The buyer is presumed to be remnants of Gentra."

Gale was one of the core figures in that neutral bloc. Like Hanna, he came from common stock, and he was a senior knight who had long since thrown away any ambition to rise higher.

He lit a cigarette and explained in a dry voice.

"Even if it isn't Gentra, it'll be some equivalent pack of anti-Imperial reactionaries."

There were more anti-Imperial groups than anyone could count. The Revolutionary Faction was the most famous, so people spoke of them in broad strokes, but their branches and lineages were as diverse as religions.

"But them buying weapons is nothing new. The real issue is who's selling."

Gale tapped ash into the tray.

"Any force that can supply high-performance weapons and illegal mana stones in bulk to anti-Imperial groups is a clear enemy of the Empire. The core of this mission is to identify who's behind the seller and shut the deal down."

Hanna nodded.

"Leon already moved to Bolska. This may be difficult for a Year 0 knight, but you took part in Path of Dreams too, so I doubt you'll complain."

Maybe it was Gale's way of looking out for her. As a commoner himself, he was giving fellow commoner Hanna a chance to build her record.

"Yes. I'll leave immediately."

......That was how Hanna Usar ended up setting up a cover office in a run-down building in the Bolskan capital.

Tick. T-tick.

Staring at the flickering mana-stone lamp, Hanna scratched the back of her neck.

"Sorry. Budget was tight, so I rented a cheap place."

"It's fine."

Two field officers and one administrative officer had come with her. Thanks to Operation Path of Dreams, the budget had grown enough to hire two more people.

"Still, if we clear this mission, look forward to it."

She planned to split a bonus. A knight's work was never done by the knight alone.

"Yes. First."

The administrative officer handed her a document.

"This has the date and location for meeting the Bolskan informants, plus the code phrase."

2 p.m. Orakan Hamburger. Sit in seat seven, order a cheeseburger, fries, and oatmeal, look out the window, then glance at the seat directly behind you.

"Yes. Confirmed."

* * *

When I got home from work, an unfamiliar vehicle was parked at the estate.

A truck reinforced with bulletproof, bladeproof, and anti-magic plating. Lorenzo must have come.

I went inside. In the living room, Schatz and Lorenzo were talking.

"Ah, you're here."

Lorenzo greeted me. Beside him sat Leo, poised and dignified.

Shoulder height: 73 cm. Weight: 45 kg. His frame was complete now, and he was at the stage of building muscle and moving up in class.

I walked to Lorenzo, hiding my anticipation.

"So the finished product is ready?"

"Yes. The custom armor you ordered for your dog."

Lorenzo opened the box.

Shaaah──

Silver light spilled out. Mana-stone armor, precisely built for Leo's body.

"Leo has an especially large build even for an Aran Shepherd, so this had to be custom-made."

Lorenzo pointed to the joints as he explained.

"It has elasticity, so it'll still fit even if he grows a little more. We also engraved camouflage mana stones on the surface, so it's designed to take on protective coloration that matches its surroundings."

I took out the armor and put it on Leo myself. He held still and let me do it.

"It can deflect most rifle rounds and sword strikes, and endure mana projection from magic to a certain degree. Even so, it's light and doesn't interfere with movement at all."

Leo stood there in silver armor. Schatz clapped in admiration.

"Also, there's enough storage space inside for emergency rations. Whether a dog can actually take the food out and eat it himself is still an open question, though......"

"He can."

Leo was a genius. I had to think of him as human, or beyond human.

"......Ahem."

Schatz suddenly gave a proud little cough.

"Sir Knight. We have armor for our branch office dogs too."

Then she lifted it and showed it off. It was a standard model for the guard dogs at the Gennen branch office.

Compared to Leo's, it was clearly a lower tier, but it looked more than usable in the field.

"We covered it with branch office budget."

"Good work. Ah, if budget runs short, ask Dieter in your name. Your signature is enough, Schatz."

Dieter and his experts managed budgets rigorously.

Schatz was reliable, of course, but if money was handled carelessly just because there was plenty of it, thieves would appear.

"The same goes for you, Mr. Lorenzo."

"Haha. I'd like to, but the academy has finally started turning a profit these days."

I smiled faintly. Lorenzo Academy had become one of the Empire's proud export businesses.

Its window-unit air conditioner was the star product.

"Ah, right, this too......"

Lorenzo held out a small case. Inside was a tiny earpiece shaped to fit a dog's ear exactly.

A communication device made from ultra high-density mana stone.

"It runs on mana. With Leo's hearing in mind, it can selectively amplify and transmit subtle signal tones, or only your voice, Sir Knight. It can also block harmful loud noises like blasts, but......"

Lorenzo still looked doubtful about Leo.

"Whether a dog can fully understand and carry out human speech-"

"He can."

By now he'd already mastered Ebenholtz mana breathing, movement methods, tactics, and training.

I picked up the earpiece and fitted it to Leo.

"Think we can run as a two-man team?"

Leo nodded.

I stroked his head and widened my eyes on purpose.

"......What? You can even run solo missions?"

Woof!

Leo barked deeply, as if he meant it.

I patted the back of his neck.

"I actually do have a task for you."

From now on, you were going to earn your food, your elixirs, and your armor too.

The reality we lived in was harsh. You couldn't spend forever just pooping and going on walks.

......

Aternum military factory. Under the name of "national industry," it had separate interrogation and detention rooms below ground.

"That makes twenty-three."

Yukia set a stack of documents on the steel table in the interrogation room.

"They're the ones who smell like rotten water."

It was a list of Izenheim who had slipped into the factory. As Aternum's workforce grew, it was inevitable that rats would mix in.

"I only put seven of them in detention."

I wanted to kill every one of them, but if too many Izenheim died at once, the bastards might grow suspicious.

I still couldn't let Izenheim discover my ability.

"And this is from the guard captain too. Among the ones who stole internal supplies, these are the worst offenders."

Twenty-seven total. All of them were behind bars in the detention cells.

"Yukia."

I gestured to Leo beside me.

"Let Leo smell them too."

"...?"

"You alone aren't enough. We need to train him on that 'smell' too."

Yukia looked puzzled, then nodded.

Tap. Tap-tap.

Leo followed behind Yukia with quick puppy steps.

Inside the cells were workers caught stealing and selling supplies. Among them were Izenheim, Arans, and other races.

Yukia walked up to an Izenheim first. After confirming the disgusting fishy stench coming from him, she pointed to Leo.

"Smell."

Sniff sniff.

Leo flared his nose. Yukia imprinted the scent on him.

This was the enemy's scent. The enemy of humanity he had to tear apart.

"Find them."

Leo moved through the detention room, sniffing on his own. After checking carefully, he stopped in front of several people and growled low.

"......Thirteen."

Leo flagged thirteen suspects total. Only five were actual Izenheim. The other eight were just humans who smelled bad, or gave off a similar foul odor.

Even Leo, a genius among genius dogs, was still inaccurate. That meant this could never be taught to 99.99% of dogs. Even so, I saw hope.

Leo alone might eventually learn to identify them through steady training.

"Good work. But you only got five right."

Leo's ears drooped.

"......Kkiing."

"It's okay. It's hard. You'll get better. You were cute."

I rubbed dejected Leo's head, then looked at the guard captain, who was watching with puzzled eyes.

"Execute all of them."

"......Excuse me? All of them?"

The guard captain asked in shock.

"Embezzling military supplies is treason. No exceptions."

To kill seven Izenheim, I buried the other thieves with them.

That way the bastards wouldn't realize I could specifically identify Izenheim.

"S-sir, but among them...... there are some very diligent workers."

Every target the guard captain pointed to was Izenheim. Of course they pretended to be diligent to deceive human society.

I stared him down.

"Captain. Do you know who you're speaking to right now?"

He choked on his words. Trembling, he lowered his head.

I had to cut off their room to think. I had to shape them into people who could carry out my orders plainly.

"Only pure Arans may enter Aternum. Faking your identity means execution."

Proper documents could be made if needed, and if not, so be it.

"They are enemies of the Empire. You can tell from the way they look."

Some Izenheim looked like Imperials, some did not.

The physical traits they supposedly shared included brown eyes, hawk noses, pale skin, and more, but in truth those rates were only similar to, or slightly above, normal racial averages.

"Do autopsies and report."

It didn't matter anyway.

The moment they died, their subspecies nature would be exposed.

"Carry it out."

"......Yes, sir."

I turned away without looking back.

As I climbed the stairs, cold gunshots echoed through the factory.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"Um......"

Then Yukia called out from behind me.

"Hm?"

She handed me something.

"......A pistol?"

It was a smooth silver pistol in Ebenholtz's color.

"I made it."

"You did?"

"Yeah. You looked uncomfortable."

Yukia pointed to the longsword on my back.

"There's a Yaken saying. If you use a monster-slaying blade to butcher livestock, in the end you sink to that level."

"..."

She had a point. Swinging a 1.6-meter longsword every time I killed some worthless bastard was a hassle.

"Magazine?"

"None."

"There goes your casual speech again."

"......It fires mana."

Yukia added bluntly.

"It stores mana instead of bullets, compresses it, then fires."

I blinked.

"Is that possible? What's the principle?"

A pistol that fired mana. I'd never heard of such a thing.

Lorenzo would faint if he heard this.

"I got absorbed in making it...... so I don't really know the principle. It just worked."

"Can you make more?"

"Almost impossible."

Yaken craftsmanship was exceptional, and in mechanical work Yukia was far, far better than other Yaken.

So this pistol probably embodied her personal talent.

"I'll put it to good use."

I gripped the pistol. It fit my hand perfectly, but then something came to mind that I needed to tell her.

"......I might kill hundreds with this. No, maybe thousands."

Yukia stared straight at me.

"Are you still okay with that?"

Two steps below me, she looked up with steady eyes.

"Will there be a reason for the killing?"

She was asking for the reason behind it.

I didn't waver.

"More than enough."

In her eyes, I must have looked just as steady.

"We have to do this."

Not for the Empire,

"for us."

Yukia met my gaze and nodded quietly.

* * *

The Empire's Royal Opera House.

I'd been visiting often lately. Every other day, sometimes with my identity hidden, sometimes with my face exposed, I mapped the entire structure and checked the emergency routes. It had become routine.

"..."

The opera house was needlessly large, with far too many gaps.

I stood in a backstage corridor and activated my mana.

Srrrrk.

Ebenholtz mana passed through the marble floor and sank deeper. As my senses swept the ground, they suddenly caught an empty space.

......Underground.

Too wide to be drainage, too deep to be storage.

Did this building have a basement too?

It definitely wasn't on the blueprint.

A faint smile spread across my lips.

A hideout.

"Who's there?"

Someone called from the other end of the corridor. It was the great actor Leonard.

I took off my hat.

"So it was you, Sir Knight. You've been coming often lately."

I answered with a quiet shrug.

Meaning I had reasons I couldn't discuss.

"I understand, since you're a knight, but the staff is uncomfortable."

Leonard wore a guarded expression. Since our last clash, he was clearly wary of me.

"Well...... more importantly, Mr. Leonard. I have a question."

It was something I genuinely wanted to know.

"Why is the repertoire here always the same? 「The Elixir of Love」, 「The Emperor's Sword」...... and beyond that, only four operas are ever performed."

Leonard set down his towel and gave a dry laugh.

"I heard you're widely learned, Sir Knight, but it seems you don't care much for the arts."

"..."

I couldn't deny it.

I studied scholarship, culture, language, and history because they helped me.

I enjoyed fine food because it was my only stress relief.

But art, well. I mostly memorized the basics.

"The world could end while we stand around singing."

Leonard's brow twitched.

For us, art came second. Songs could only survive if the world survived first.

"More importantly, I'd like you to answer my question. I am trying to take an interest."

"......Yes."

Leonard exhaled and began.

"Under Imperial law, for a work to be staged at the Royal Opera House, both the composer and lyricist must be 'pure Aran.'"

He ran a hand roughly through his hair, clearly frustrated.

"But the Empire has always been barren ground for opera. Most masterpieces come from western Prozen or the south, yet the Empire treats staging foreign works as shameful. Then do they support new productions? No."

In short,

the Empire had no interest in art and no desire to develop it, yet obsessed over bloodline and let everything stagnate.

"The Royal Opera House facilities are outdated, but still excellent. I think this place would be ideal for musicals that combine theater and opera. They're already hugely popular in Prozen."

"......A musical."

Listening to Leonard, I gave a low nod.

"I understand. I'll personally submit a proposal on that law."

"...?"

Leonard looked blank for a moment.

"I'll try to ease the regulations and introduce new genres. I'll look for people too. Aran purity is excellent, so there must be hidden talent somewhere."

"......Aran purity."

Leonard repeated the words in an odd tone.

"If you want, I can sponsor your troupe too."

At that, his face hardened. He looked at me with serious eyes.

"May I ask why? You don't seem interested in opera."

I considered my answer, but the reason was obvious.

"......Because someone wants it."

Someone who would leave the VVIP-only balcony, come down to the VIP seats, and soon watch performances alongside commoners.

"That person will want to see a new stage. I'm only doing this for that person's sake."

Tick.

Right then, Leonard's wristwatch chimed.

"I'll be off. It's practice time."

Leonard turned and left. He did not refuse the sponsorship.

Watching his back, I felt a sudden suspicion.

"Opera tickets are this expensive......"

No money, huh. That thought overlapped with the underground hideout here, and then, maybe.

Was Leonard part of the Revolutionary Faction too?

If so, was his approach to the princess before regression, and their tragic love, all staged from the beginning?

"Hmm."

Of course, nothing was certain, and I couldn't afford certainty, but......

"......Life is a play, and death alone is reality."

I murmured Leonard's line under my breath and left the corridor.

......Tok.

At the place Maximilian had left, only after he was completely gone did a trace of presence seep out of the dark.

From a corner of shadow where nothing had stood, a woman appeared.

She was exceptional at erasing her presence.

A secret art passed down only through noble bloodlines. Magic that blurred you like air so no eye could catch you.

If she could not become strong like Sebestian or the Jackal of the North, then she would master one thing to its limit: hiding herself.

Princess Justine was an expert in exactly that.

'......Because someone wants it.'

She tilted her gaze as she replayed Maximilian's words from moments ago.

'That person will want to see a new stage. I'm only doing this for that person's sake.'

She stared blankly down the corridor he had disappeared through, then,

"Ha."

A hollow laugh escaped her, as if the whole thing were absurd.

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