WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 131

──────

The Face of the Empire (4)

Royal Guard.

They were fundamentally different from knights. They existed solely to protect the Emperor, or more precisely, the central power. Put simply, they were no different from the Imperial Palace's private army.

The knight orders and the Royal Guard. Both groups symbolized the Empire's tradition, military force, and its unique Iron Men ideology, but as usual, they did not get along.

Just like the regular army and the Imperial Guard despising each other......

Gale looked at them and asked Hanna,

"Hanna. Are you holding up?"

Hanna drew her sword.

"Yes. The painkillers are finally kicking in."

It might have been adrenaline. Every time she moved her mana, pain twisted through her guts, but she had no room to complain.

Srrr-

Before they knew it, the ship had already set sail. No, land was already far behind them. On the deck.

On the open sea, with nowhere to run, the two of them faced the Royal Guard.

“Put down your sword.”

A royal guardsman spoke. The voice through the helmet was stiff, like a machine. Gale and Hanna studied them closely and gauged their strength.

"Looks like men sent to fight knights."

A snake-like smile spread across Gale's lips.

There were eight royal guardsmen. But the lineup was extremely aggressive. Three with the rank of Captain of Ten, and the commander was a Centurion. In the Royal Guard, rank could be identified by cape color and by the shape, texture, and purity of their mana-stone armor, so it was fairly easy to assess their strength.

Even one Centurion alone would be equal to, or stronger than, a high-ranking knight.

Fsss-

The ship kept moving, cutting through the acrid sea, and thick marine fog rose above the water. Light spilled from inside the Royal Guard helmets shrouded in mist. They looked even more like uncanny, suspicious shapes.

"Hanna."

Without taking his eyes off them, Gale asked,

"Do you think we have a chance?"

The killing intent pouring through the Centurion's helmet slit grew heavier.

Hanna looked at them one by one.

"......"

A sharp tingling ran through her head. The Centurion would be far stronger than the bastards she had fought in Bolska.

"......A chance."

She muttered under her breath. She looked down at her own sword. Her fingers trembled slightly.

“I will not say this again. Put down your sword.”

Gale signaled toward Hanna's blade.

"......Hanna Usar."

Gale looked like he was trying to persuade himself.

Hanna slowly looked around at Gale, the Royal Guard, and the fog-shrouded deck.

Do not trust.

Do not trust the part of yourself thinking maybe you could somehow survive against a Centurion.

Right now, do not even trust Gale standing beside you.

Trust no one, Hanna Usar.

You have nowhere to lean.

“Both sides have something at stake.”

As if trying to buy Hanna time to think, Gale stepped forward.

"Let's talk. Let's make a deal."

“Talk. Deal.”

The voice came from behind the helmet. Not dignified, just bizarre, and with no rise or fall in tone, hardly human.

"Fine."

Gale turned slightly toward Hanna.

"Hanna. Tell them what you have."

Evidence hidden somewhere in Bolska. Rifle parts stamped with Gigantes marks, and ledgers.

"......What I have."

At Hanna's words, Gale swallowed hard.

Clank. The royal guardsmen adjusted their grips on their swords and stepped forward.

Srrr.

The fog was so thick it felt like she could grab it.

The humidity felt like they were already underwater. Everywhere her eyes reached felt like a blade. Even the air had sharpened into silence.

"Haa......"

In tension so tight it was hard to breathe,

"What I have is-"

BWAAAAAANG-!

A massive ship horn tore through the air in an instant.

Everyone covered their ears and turned.

"......Kgh!"

"Ugh!"

Another ship appeared through the fog.

A vessel that had approached silently like a ghost ship.

A man stood at its bow.

──Fweeeeee.

The hem of an imperial knight's uniform fluttered in the sea wind. His blond hair shone cold in the moonlight, and his golden eyes looked down at them without emotion.

So quiet, yet his presence felt like it filled the entire sea.

The most imperial man of all, Maximilian, stood there.

Thud.

He jumped down from the bow as if stepping off a curb, landed on the deck without bending his knees at all, glanced around, and spoke calmly.

"......Looks like this is already mostly wrapped up."

His gaze suddenly landed on Gale. Gale tensed for a moment, but it was needless. Maximilian instead gave him a gentle smile.

"You've worked hard, Sir Gale."

Gale's eyes shook. His expression mixed confusion and suspicion.

"......What?"

Hanna reacted first. She stared blankly between Maximilian and Gale.

Did he come to save me? Or the opposite......

Maximilian shrugged.

"Either way, you know this too, Sir Knight. I was also an investor in Gigantes."

Maximilian was one of Gigantes's victims. Right after pouring in a huge amount of money, the terror attack happened, and he received no compensation at all.

"I took practically the biggest loss. Tens of millions just vanished into thin air."

Maximilian glared at the Royal Guard Centurion and frowned.

"It means I also deserve compensation for my losses. I lost quite a lot of money."

"No, wait-"

Just as Hanna was about to say something, the Centurion closed the distance in a flash. A cold blade touched the back of Hanna's neck.

“Do not move.”

Hanna bit her lip. Eyes wide, she glared at Gale.

Her look said, say something, damn it.

Gale looked at her indifferently, then asked Maximilian,

"......So you knew everything?"

"I found out a little late. I did not know you had such great ambition, Sir Knight."

Gale gave a bitter smile.

"A commoner without ambition cannot reach Sentinel."

He scratched near his eyebrow. As if his tension had drained away, wrinkles bloomed across his face like flowers.

"Wow......"

Hanna felt admiration and disgust at the same time.

Was this rigged from the start? From the moment Gale handed her that mission?

As much as betrayal, it was simply absurd. It felt like someone had pressed an electric prod to her skull.

"......At first, it was chance."

Gale ran a hand through his hair. A dry smile rose at the corner of his mouth.

"But when chance kept piling up, it started to feel like heaven's blessing."

What did commoner knights live for? With what heart did they go on living?

A neat shell with no hope and no vision, just earning money.

Swallowing dry bitterness with a yearly salary, growing old while satisfied with assigned work, just like clerks and staff officers with no desire at all.

Worn down by reality as a knight and as a human being, soaked in inertia, unable to hold even the smallest ambition, sneering at himself as he sank lower, and then one day.

During work, Gale "happened" to obtain intelligence.

“Sir Knight. It seems Gigantes goods are circulating in Bolska.”

At first, he thought it was the usual story of scrap and secondhand weapons moving around, but while looking into it out of boredom, he learned something huge.

Again by "chance," because of one rifle with its serial number not fully erased.

A rifle from right before Gigantes was destroyed by terror.

And certainty that some high-ranking figure in the Imperial Palace was selling these for money.

"I started to think maybe the world, maybe the Empire itself, wanted me."

As those coincidences piled up, Gale took it as revelation and knew it was his lifeline.

'──Hanna Usar. Mission. Large-scale weapons and illegal mana-stone trade is being attempted in Bolska. The buyer is presumed to be remnants of Gentra.'

Gale sent Leon and Hanna in. Leon was the justification, Hanna the merchandise.

Both did their jobs well.

Leon returned by order of his house, and Hanna stayed in Bolska.

The unexpected part was Hanna's excessive competence. And her persistence.

"Fortunately, things worked out well."

In exchange for burying this Gigantes case, burying it in a prettier form, and handing over Hanna...... Gale had grabbed Julius's line.

"......Hah."

Hanna let out a hollow laugh. The blade touched her neck, but her scalp burned so hot she could barely feel it.

"What are you staring at? You should've known when to stop too. If you had listened, it would've ended with dismissal, but you acted like someone desperate to lose her head."

Gale grinned while brushing dust off his body.

At some point, the fishy smell of the sea seemed to cling to his lips.

"I'll leave her handling to you, Maximilian."

"Yes. We'll discuss the details later with him."

"......Haha. You mean Duke Julius? Fine by me."

Gale patted Maximilian's shoulder.

"Ah, take good care of that Centurion too. He's Duke Julius's man."

Maximilian's eyebrows twitched, silent.

Step. He walked up to Hanna.

"......Is this what you call the Empire?"

Hanna glared at Maximilian and muttered.

"Selling out your subordinates, colluding with trash who smuggle weapons to terrorists. Is this the true face you are trying to protect?"

"And if it is?"

Maximilian asked calmly.

"If this is the true face you never knew, what will you do?"

"No."

Hanna shook her head firmly. Her wet hair swayed.

"The face of the Empire I know is not this."

"This is for the Empire."

"Absolutely not! This garbage, this dogshit-"

"No. Think more clearly. Sell cheap Gigantes goods at higher prices, take terrorists' money, and fill the national treasury. Have you never thought of that?"

"Shut up with that bullshit! Imperial subjects bleed because of those weapons!"

Hanna shouted. The swell of the sea amplified her cry like an echo.

Maximilian narrowed his eyes, as if she were pathetic.

"......Hanna. You remind me of that one whose neck was cut beside you."

Jacob.

He had deserved death because he was identified as a subspecies. Hanna had accepted that, but the Maximilian in front of her now looked like an even worse son of a bitch than that subspecies.

"Yes. Then kill me too. I'm not a subspecies. Fuck."

"......"

Step. Maximilian moved one step closer.

"Hanna Usar. I will ask again. What is the Empire you believe in?"

Hanna ground her teeth and looked up at him. Breathing hard like she wanted to kill him, she spat out broken words.

"......Strength."

"Strength?"

"Strength to protect imperial subjects. Strength to maintain order. A country with the strength to bind the inside together and protect us from chaos outside, that is the Empire."

"Right. You are disturbing that order."

"That's bullshit."

Hanna almost spat, then held back. If she spat, it felt like her neck would be cut off. The Centurion's blade was right in front of her throat.

"The Empire's system and social ranks do not exist just for oppression."

"Oh? So you deny the class system?"

Maximilian tilted his head with interest, and Gale laughed out loud.

"No. I do not deny it, because it is the Empire's natural order. But!"

Hanna stared at Maximilian with bloodshot eyes.

"The reason commoners like us willingly accept that oppression is because we believe the strength above us will protect us from external threats."

"Right. You are a commoner. If you are a commoner, you should be able to carry out anything for the Empire. Offer your life-"

"So for the Empire!"

She cut him off and shouted. A line of blood ran down from the back of her neck.

"This is not for the Empire! Selling Gigantes-made weapons to terrorists and killing imperial subjects, how is that for the Empire! It's just filthy shit to fill these fucking bastards' bellies!"

Her rough breathing circled above the deck.

Maximilian stared quietly into her fierce eyes.

"Hopeless."

Really......

With a dry laugh, he turned to Gale.

"What do you think?"

Gale nodded like he was disgusted too.

"I agree. Hopeless."

"Yes. Then."

Maximilian gestured to the Centurion.

"Step aside."

“Swing. I'll dodge on my own.”

Maximilian nodded. Gale watched like he was enjoying the scene, imagining the rosy future waiting for him.

Shing.

The Ebenholtz longsword, blade soaked in moonlight, was revealed.

Hanna squeezed her eyes shut.

───.

The sword cut through the air in silence. The thick fog split into pure white in an instant, and a silver arc pierced the deck.

Thud.

Something fell.

But no matter how long she waited, there was no pain.

Or was she already dead? Had she reached the afterlife? When that thought came, Hanna slowly opened her eyes.

"......?"

It was bizarre.

On the deck lay Gale's face, not hers.

“You lunatic. What are you doing-”

"From this moment, in the name of Sentinel Knight Maximilian von Ebenholtz, I declare."

Just as the Centurion flared up, Maximilian's firm voice crossed the sea.

"Under Article 14, treason, and Article 27 of Imperial military law."

Silver mana rose quietly from the Ebenholtz longsword.

"A traitor who framed a fellow knight for personal gain and tried to harm the Empire by manipulating a case tied to national industry is subject to summary execution as a caught-in-the-act offender."

“......”

Even the Royal Guard flinched in shock, and on this vast open sea where Hanna was still blinking blankly,

the silver blade without a drop of blood slowly changed target and pointed at the Centurion's neck.

"Deliver this to your master as well. For violating order, and for daring to fatten his own belly with assets built on the blood of imperial subjects-"

His voice rang clear across the entire deck.

......At that moment, everyone fell silent.

Hanna Usar, the Centurion, the Captain of Ten officers, the other guardsmen, all of them simply stared at Maximilian.

"......"

If the Royal Guard truly decided to subdue him, if they truly tried to kill him, Maximilian might lose.

Their force right now was that overwhelming.

“This......”

Yet they could not bring themselves to swing their swords at him.

No, they could not even think of resisting, could not even dare take one step closer.

In that strange silence, Hanna thought:

Strength.

This was true strength, transparent power.

He cut down a fellow knight without hesitation yet lost no legitimacy, and even the Royal Guard was crushed into stillness by the name of his house, unable to move a finger.

Even the Centurion could not treat him carelessly...... the heir of Ebenholtz.

Imperial Knight Maximilian.

"Hup!"

Only then did Hanna do what she had to do. She moved sharply, shoved the Centurion away, and leaped to Maximilian's side.

"......Hanna Usar."

Looking at her, Maximilian said,

"That was the right answer."

A shiver ran down Hanna's spine. The words right answer had never sounded so beautiful.

"What you answered is the proper face of the Empire."

She bit her lip hard and nodded.

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