WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 126

──────

A Fake Play (3)

Chew, chew.

Hanna chewed gum with her arms folded. She wore thick horn-rimmed glasses, with makeup around her eyes to fake wrinkles and make herself look older.

“So. Are we doing this deal or not? I’m a busy woman.”

She attended the meeting as an Imperial businesswoman, “Harmush.” Across from her sat the weapons sellers, a hard-looking man and woman, while the broker smoked between them.

“...How are we supposed to trust you?”

The woman asked, eyes sharp.

Hanna let out a scoffing laugh.

“Who trusts people in this business?”

Thud. She set a suitcase on the table.

“You trust money.”

Click. The case opened.

“500,000 Imperial dollars. Down payment.”

“...Hmm.”

The man and woman’s eyes flickered. They exchanged glances.

“Go ahead, touch it. It’s not fake.”

At Hanna’s chin gesture, the man reached out and ran his hand across the stacks of bills. Crisp under his fingers. Genuine notes issued by the Imperial Central Bank.

“Well, if we’re talking business. Explosives, rifles... sure, those are good too.”

Hanna closed the case and moved to the point.

“But first, I need synthetic mana stone.”

“...I thought you were buying weapons?”

The man frowned. Hanna smirked.

“Ah, well.”

They were probably thrown off. Based on the broker’s intel, they had almost no mana stone stock.

“I’ve been in this game a long time. Got connections in border control too.”

She crossed her legs, putting on an arrogant air.

“You know about the Gigantes incident, right? It hasn’t even been a year, so weapons are under heavy regulation right now. Once you factor in all the grease money, margins are garbage. But mana stone is different. Imperial factories are running like mad right now, so even if you pass it off as natural mana stone, it still gets through.”

Synthetic mana stone. Far less pure and more dangerous than natural mana stone, but good enough to sell as fuel for trains or cars.

Once it got into the Empire, it guaranteed at least triple profit.

“Instead of selling guns to anti-Imperialist bastards, feeding illegal mana stone to Imperial bastards is better business. That’s what I’m saying.”

The man and woman stared at her for a while, then twisted their lips.

“...Then we’ll meet again tomorrow.”

“Sure. My patience isn’t long, so you’d better move fast. If I find another supplier, I might switch.”

Their reason for asking for another meeting tomorrow was obvious.

Hanna packed up the case, stood, and returned to her suite at the Bolska Hotel.

Beep.

She opened the door with her key card.

‘...It’s gone.’

Her eyes swept the bottom crack of the door. The tiny scrap of paper she had wedged into the handle before leaving had disappeared. Proof that someone had entered. Yet the room itself was spotless. No signs anyone had searched her luggage. Even the money was untouched.

Which meant the intruder had not come to steal. They came to install something.

Just as expected, a wiretap.

Hanna acted as if she noticed nothing, kicked off her shoes, and hummed.

“Hmm-hmm~”

She dropped onto the sofa, took out her terminal, and called someone.

“Hello.”

It was her operations officer on the other end.

“Yeah. How did it go, Ms. Harmush?”

“Ah, damn. Those bastards are paranoid. They should just do as they’re told and make money, tsk.”

She grumbled with irritation in her voice.

“They said to meet again tomorrow, but I don’t like the feel of it. Look into other suppliers too.”

“Exactly. We’re in trouble if they drag this out.”

“By the way. Is that customs grease payment still good?”

“Yes. We fed him well.”

“Ah, good. We need one big score before that guy retires.”

She kept the conversation intentionally vulgar.

“What about weapons?”

“Mana stone is good, but weapons are the real money. Revolution, anti-Empire, whatever, those idiots pay high.”

Hanna tapped the bag with 5 million dollars on the bed.

“Thanks to Gigantes, supply dried up and prices shot through the roof, right? That’s why I tested them with mana stone first.”

She made her voice clear and greedy, for invisible listeners.

“Then how much more should we prepare?”

“For now, five million... We’ll decide after we see volume. Are we sitting on around thirty million in retirement funds this round?”

Most likely, every single word of this conversation would be delivered to them.

* * *

Royal Opera House corridor. Under pale emergency lights, a figure wrapped in blood-stained rags approached slowly.

“...”

Leonard swallowed hard. But he did not let go of the princess’s wrist. The script had already fallen apart, and the operation looked ruined, but then-

Bang!

A gunshot rang out from the darkness. Thud. The axe wielder’s back jerked.

Support fire from Revolutionary Faction members.

Bang! Baaaang! Baaaang!

A barrage of shots hammered the figure’s back. Leonard pulled the princess along through that opening. She followed calmly behind him.

“This way!”

Whoooosh!

The sound of air tearing. Leonard looked back.

Woooong.

The axe left the attacker’s hand and spun through the air. It sliced through armed members’ necks, chopped bodies apart, crushed them, then returned to his grip.

Swaaash!

The bastard hurled the bloodied axe at Leonard. He swung his sword and deflected it.

Clang!

Mana sparks burst. His wrist went numb. Still, he had no time to breathe.

He ran down the corridor, shielding the princess.

Bang! He grabbed a random door and threw it open. Inside was a storage room for stage props and equipment. Wood, plaster statues, flashy costumes, crane-like rigs, all piled high under dust.

They hid between the piles.

Thump. Thump.

His heart pounded like it would burst.

Thump. Thump.

Leonard looked at the princess. She wore her robe hood low, but her exposed jawline and jewel-like multicolored eyes were unmistakable. It was her.

“Please calm down.”

“...You should calm down first.”

Leonard gave a bitter smile, and then-

Booooom!

A crash erupted in the corridor. A battle between the unknown killer and the armed Revolutionary Faction members who had entered according to script. Screams and gunfire mixed together.

Ratatat! Bang...

Then at some point, the noise died down. More precisely, the gunfire stopped. The killer had slaughtered all of them.

Step. Step.

In the silence settling over the corridor, wet footsteps drew closer.

Step. Step.

Blood-soaked steps.

He was coming.

“...Listen to me carefully.”

Leonard turned to the princess.

“When I give the signal, run without looking back.”

He mapped the opera house layout in his head and pinpointed the escape route from the script.

“Take the back door of this storage room, go right, and there’s a staff emergency elevator in the B3 corridor. Do not go up, go down. It connects to the underground waterway, so you can survive if you go there.”

Leonard released her hand.

“And... did you perhaps know? I, you, before...”

He stopped, trying to say something to her. His lips hesitated, then he lowered his head. She probably would not understand no matter what he said.

“What?”

She asked.

Leonard changed the words that had blurred on his tongue.

“...Nothing. Please, stay safe.”

Craaack!

The killer tore through the door with his axe. Leonard stepped forward, and the princess turned toward the back door.

Whirl!

The axe flew in first.

Claaang!

Leonard squeezed every bit of mana from his body and blocked it. The impact almost buckled his knees, but he held.

Behind him, he caught a flicker of the princess’s fleeing hem.

The killer swung the axe.

Claaaaang!

Twice.

That was all. His sword shattered. Leonard was flung back by recoil and rolled across the floor. Only the broken hilt remained in his hand.

Panting, he looked up at the killer.

“Haa...”

The killer had taken multiple gunshots but had not bled a single drop.

He raised his axe over Leonard. Leonard did not close his eyes. He only stared at his own death...

...

Booooom! Kaaaaboom!

As blasts flooded in from all directions, Justine ran through the corridor. She reached B3 exactly as Leonard said, a dead-end hallway. She found the staff emergency elevator.

She stood in front of it and pressed the button.

Sliiide...

She watched the slow-moving elevator rise.

Ding.

The doors opened. Justine paused and stared inside. People were there.

Another group of killers, hoods up, armed with rifles and grenades.

But every face was terrified.

“Who are you!”

A rifle snapped up at her.

Even so, Justine did not step back. She faced them calmly.

“I said who are you!”

They glanced sideways at the corridor she had come through.

“Where’s Leonard? Where did Leonard go?”

The princess did not answer.

Their rough breathing and sweat stench reached her like rot.

“Talk!”

These men were confused too. Fear, panic, shock. They had fallen into a state where rational judgment was impossible.

Click. One man set his finger on the trigger.

“Speak, you bitch, before I fucking kill you!”

Bloodshot eyes wide, he spat the threat.

“Where is Leon-”

Then it stopped.

---

A silent line drew itself in the air. Thin as moonlight, thin as thread. A silver flash crossed the elevator interior. Faint tracks appeared on the gunmen’s necks.

Slice.

Their throats parted lightly, heads tipped, and bodies collapsed to the floor.

Step.

A man walked out behind Justine. Silver current trailed from his whole body, the knight Maximilian. Even in work clothes, noble bearing flowed from him.

“How rude.”

He said quietly and flicked blood from his sword.

Kaaaaboom!

An explosion sounded far away. The whole opera house shook.

“Let’s go.”

Maximilian held out his hand. Justine stared at him, but did not take it, and stepped into the elevator on her own. She stood straight in the empty space between corpses.

Maximilian did not care.

Ding.

They stood side by side. The doors closed, and the elevator descended.

Ding.

They arrived underground. The two walked through the waterway without speaking. Maximilian led, Justine followed.

Wet sewer passage.

Even their footsteps did not echo in the silence.

“Why did you watch?”

Justine asked. Maximilian’s steps paused briefly.

“...You knew?”

“From when you stood behind the stage disguised as staff.”

Maximilian could have saved Leonard, yet he had watched. Instead, he waited until the situation reached its worst point.

“As you know, Your Highness, I’ve been watching the opera house continuously. It-”

“Why?”

“...”

“Because it is a place Your Highness likes. But until fairly recently, it was safe. Yet today of all days, the day you went out without a guard, a terror attack happened.”

The princess thought quietly.

“...Someone inside the palace is watching me?”

“That possibility exists. But for Your Highness, I-”

“Then did you let Leonard die because of me?”

“Do you admire that actor?”

Maximilian asked coldly, then moved forward again. The princess gave a small snort.

“Feelings are useless to me. This is about necessity. In this false world, not many things entertain me.”

Emotion.

The princess felt little of it. Partly by nature, partly because everyone around her watched her or tried to feed off whatever scraps they could get.

“Now even that is gone. Thanks to you.”

That was why she was the most dangerous person in the palace.

Anyone who fell out of Princess Justine’s favor ended up dead, or at least miserable.

“Leonard is probably with the Revolutionary Faction. At minimum, he is close to them.”

“...”

A quiet smile appeared at her lips.

“You knew?”

“No. I didn’t.”

The princess touched the opera-house bracelet on her wrist.

“But even that was interesting.”

Maximilian watched her and lifted a hand to his mouth.

“Shh.”

They stopped for a moment. Ahead stood another killer in rags.

“I’ll cut him down.”

One short sentence.

One step that followed it.

---

Ebenholtz’s sword was quiet. Like a stream flowing, like wind settling, it moved forward and cut the enemy’s neck. The killer’s head rose into the air and fell in silence.

Fssssss.

Where steel had passed, only a silver flash lingered.

“...”

That refined edge of the blade looked graceful and elegant even to the Empire’s most noble being.

“Let’s go.”

Maximilian guided her in Leonard’s place.

...

Escape was easy. This terror attack could never have lasted long in the first place.

The Royal Opera House was somewhat far from the center, but it was still central territory.

Grrrk.

The two pushed open a heavy manhole cover and climbed out.

This exit, reached through the waterway, was a back alley quite far from the opera house. Probably the Revolutionary Faction’s escape route.

“Quite far.”

Maximilian brushed the dust off his clothes first.

“What did you tell the palace?”

“I just snuck out, that’s all.”

Justine answered curtly and pulled her robe hood down tighter.

“Let’s go.”

They left the alley and walked slowly back toward the opera house.

Sirens wailed in the distance. Police and Sentinel knights already filled the scene.

When they approached slowly through the crowd.

“...?”

The princess’s eyes opened slightly as she looked ahead.

Leonard.

Unlike what she expected, he was alive.

Maximilian said to her.

“It was a two-man team.”

Beside Leonard stood Leo.

A Shepherd in silver armor. He stood with dignity, a mystical beast that had done the work of a full knight.

Now, rewind a moment.

When Leonard watched the falling axe with his eyes wide, right before the red blade split his skull.

Flash!

A silver blur flew in from somewhere. Too fast for Leonard’s naked eye to follow. Very quiet, very covert movement that did not stir even a breath of wind.

Leo leaped in one burst and tore into the enemy’s neck.

Crunch!

“...”

The one bitten by Leo clutched his neck, staggered around, then dropped like a puppet with cut strings. Leo’s teeth already carried mana close to a fine blade.

“...A dog?”

Leonard stared blankly at the sight.

An Aran Shepherd. No, too tall for just a Shepherd, wearing armor far too precious. To Leonard, he looked more noble than any human...

“Grrr.”

Leo nudged the fallen enemy with a front paw. Leonard’s brow twitched.

The killer was a puppet. The reason he had not bled despite taking gunfire was simple: he had never been human.

“Woof.”

Leo turned as if telling him to follow. Leonard jolted up and followed him.

This was what Maximilian had ordered Leo.

If Leonard abandoned the princess and ran, do not help him. A man like that was only worth that much.

But if he took responsibility and fought, facing death, then save him. At least he would have proven his life was worth preserving.

At minimum, Leonard did not turn his back. He did not beg for his life, and he did not use the princess as bait. He tried to protect her with his own life on the line.

So Leonard had saved himself.

Back to the present.

“However... the more this incident is investigated.”

Maximilian gestured with his chin toward Leonard.

“The more it will come out that Leonard had deep ties with the Revolutionary Faction.”

Police were dragging related people up from the opera house basement.

People who should have been treated as victims according to script were now caught because the play fell apart.

“So now, I dare to ask.”

Maximilian’s gaze sharpened.

“Your Highness Justine... what do you want?”

The princess looked at Maximilian with strange eyes.

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