WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 133

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Your World

I submitted a petition to the Imperial Palace to strip "Julius" of his seat in the Noble Council, naming him as the one behind this entire affair.

The charge was that he had embezzled and smuggled Gigantes weapons, draining national wealth, and I attached Leutern II's document as evidence.

Losing Noble Council status meant expulsion from the Imperial Palace. For people like them, that was punishment on the level of a death sentence, so political war was inevitable.

Now the palace factions would split, tear each other apart, and in that chaos even the Imperial Guard would fiercely weigh which side to join.

A single incident spread like wildfire, but I planned to stay well away from that bloodbath.

"Good work."

At the Sentinel Order, Kairon smiled, clearly in high spirits.

"Dune Kan Beheading. Path of Dreams. And now this operation, 'Truth of the Weapons.'"

Truth of the Weapons. It sounded like Kairon's own name for it.

"What about 'Beyond Steel'?"

"Oh. Very philosophical. Let's use that."

Operation names mattered more than people thought. They were permanently preserved in official files in the Sentinel archive, later printed in Empire Point textbooks, or used as training material for new knights.

"I hear war winds are rising in the Imperial Palace."

"Yes. But political infighting is not our part to play."

"Right. Honestly, I never knew Leutern II had that much ambition."

That bastard Leutern was probably still clueless about what was going on, but whatever.

It did not matter.

"By the way, a letter came from Zerpa."

"Yes. It was already delivered to me."

The Zerpa civil war was still ongoing. The incompetent Royalist faction and the Republican faction, crazed with rage, kept clashing, and only innocent citizens suffered.

Someone had to break that vicious cycle.

"I heard there are military officers siphoning off the supplies I sent."

Until now, I had been waiting, building justification.

From here on, I would weed out those in Zerpa's military who needed to be removed, raise the capable ones, and bring them over to the Empire's side.

"Haha. Right. So what is the operation name this time?"

Kairon asked lightly, but this was not something that could be brushed off as just another operation.

My objective had already been in motion for a long time...

"It is the first step toward the Annexation of Zerpa."

Kairon's expression stiffened at once.

* * *

Before leaving for Zerpa, I made a brief visit to southern Hermes Province.

"This is the warehouse."

That place's strength was its vast land, so we rebuilt the underground to make it even larger. The entire space, divided into dozens of sectors, was used for food storage.

"In preparation for emergencies, we are storing supplies across multiple sectors. Mana-stone powered climate-control magic circles run twenty-four hours a day, blocking food spoilage at the source."

I nodded at Lorenzo's explanation.

"From now on, prepare enough canned and preserved rations to feed the entire Imperial Army for at least ten years."

At the latest, war would break out within six years. It might come sooner, but never later.

The Western Alliance had already noticed the Empire's military expansion, and the Eastern Alliance, now fully taken over by Izenheim, was rapidly expanding its own military power.

We had exactly six years of golden time to crush them.

That was accepted doctrine from Republican military scholars after the Empire of the previous timeline fell, so it was reliable.

"Taste matters too."

Food for soldiers could not be like garbage. Flavor was critical for morale.

"Concentrate every mind in Lorenzo Academy on this."

"Yes, understood. Also, Sir Knight, Armand says he has something to report."

Lorenzo pointed deeper into the underground warehouse.

Footsteps echoed.

A man walked out.

It was Armand.

"...Are you really Armand?"

"Yes. Once the growth phase starts, I get bigger by the day."

He had grown absurdly fast. The buzz cut I remembered had grown long like an orange mane, and he was almost up to my shoulder.

"Sir Knight. The prototype for the mana stone waterwheel is finally complete."

Even his voice had deepened after puberty.

I felt it again.

Time moved fast.

Amazing, and bittersweet at the same time...

"Lead the way."

"Yes."

We moved together through the underground passages.

Past the tunnel connected to the warehouse, in a hollow cavern where the mana ore vein had already been fully mined out, one huge machine stood installed.

A massive waterwheel rumbled as it turned.

"It captures mana from this mana ore vein, or from atmospheric mana pooling underground, and produces natural mana stone. But the purity is still not very high."

Armand scooped up a handful of output piled below.

They were crystals infused with mana.

"How much production?"

"Right now, one waterwheel can produce in one day enough low-purity mana stone to run one tank for one month."

I looked at Armand. He had grown too much to pat on the head.

"Armand. Wear gloves. Touching mana stone with bare hands is dangerous. Wear a mask too. You need to live a long time."

"Yes."

"You've grown up."

Armand gave a small, shy smile.

"It has already been almost two years since I first met you, Sir Knight."

...It had.

How did you mature this much in that time? Did you even get a lover or something?

"But this waterwheel still has a problem."

"Cost?"

"Yes. We improved durability as much as possible based on the points you identified before... but to increase size and secure stability, there are components we cannot compromise on."

Armand took a deep breath and continued.

"In short, production cost is ten million dollars per unit."

Very expensive.

If one tank's yearly mana stone cost was fifty thousand dollars, then this machine had to run for seven years, without breaking, just to break even.

Was I pouring in too much money?

"Hold on."

Whenever doubts like that came up, I checked the numbers in my accounts that Dieter had organized perfectly, through the [Twin Notebook] we shared.

"...Hmm."

A row of endless zeroes. I predicted the Kanillan bubble collapse and absorbed their capital, and beyond that, multiple businesses, companies, and mana stone exploration projects had succeeded. I had too much money.

These paper scraps had to be burned through someday, no, as quickly as possible.

I had to convert all of it into physical assets.

The value of imperial dollars would swing violently the moment war began.

"Proceed."

"Huh, are you really sure? If we mass-produce like this, we'll run deficits..."

Armand asked again, worried.

"Do not worry about money."

I watched the mana stone fragments the waterwheel spat out and spoke.

"Make one, then two, then keep making them. Someday you'll find a better way in your own head."

I had more than enough capital to absorb failure, so there was no reason to fear it.

"Armand. You're a genius. I do not spare costs on imperial talent."

At that moment, Armand's eyes gave a small, startled tremor as he looked at me.

* * *

This was a dormitory at Empire Point.

A commoner cadet, Eric, opened the delivered mail with shaking hands. It was an envelope stamped with an elegant silver seal.

"Hah, hah..."

He tore it open while breathing hard, and at the very top it read:

[Maximilian Foundation: Eric Franz, Notice of Selection for Empire Point Academic Merit Scholarship]

"...Wooooah!"

A shout burst out of him.

He was the son of a farmer from the Empire's remote frontier. His whole family had gone deep into debt just to get him enrolled, and he had been desperate over living costs.

Everything had gone dark in front of him.

Then salvation he had never dared imagine fell into his hands.

"Ah, I'm tearing up..."

Inside the envelope was a huge check, and one book.

A leather-bound hardcover with a gold-stamped title.

「The Knight of the Empire」

Author: Johann Georg Goetze

Editor: Johann Georg Goetze

Review: Maximilian von Albrecht Ebenholtz

It was an ideological training book Johann wrote under Maximilian's direction, covering Aran blood purity, Empire Point's historical mission, and the absolute loyalty an imperial knight should possess.

There was a clause at the bottom of the notice.

"Future support continues only if you pass the theory exam hosted by this foundation."

The exam location was Maximilian's estate.

In other words, to keep receiving support, he had to read the book and fully internalize that ideology.

"..."

Eric stared blankly at the check beside the book.

Three hundred thousand dollars.

It was more than enough to cover his living costs and pay off all his family's debts back home in one shot.

"Cadet Eric. For the glorious future your abundant talent will paint. We await you, who will devote yourself to the Empire."

Maximilian von Albrecht Ebenholtz

The handwritten line Maximilian had scrawled on the back of the check struck Eric hard in the chest.

He was overwhelmed that "that person" had recognized his value. He clenched both fists tight.

BOOOOM!

Out of nowhere, a heavy vibration rang out from outside the dorm window. He flinched and turned.

On Empire Point's rear mountain, construction was in full swing, carving away the dense forest and hillside. In that space, magical structures would be built to recreate countless battlefields as if real, including urban warfare, mountain warfare, and trench warfare.

The training ground's name was 「Maximilian Ground」.

"...Hoo."

Eric took a deep breath. He had a live Aerial Descent evaluation this afternoon.

Maximilian, founder of knight descent tactics. His 「Dune Kan Beheading」 and 「Path of Dreams」 operations were now in textbooks, and because of those two achievements, descent had become beyond essential.

"Move, damn it!"

An irritated shout came from the far side of the drill field.

The Central Second Knight Order had come all the way to Empire Point for descent training.

They had no transport ship of their own and no descent training ground either.

"Ah, they came again. Those people."

So both sides had plenty of complaints. Cadets were losing descent training time they valued more than life itself, and Novus knights felt humiliated having to come to Empire Point packed with fresh-faced juniors.

"..."

Eric pulled the curtain shut. He sat neatly at his desk. For food, he took only half a bowl of soup. To avoid vomiting during descent, he needed an empty stomach.

As he imagined himself jumping from the distant sky this afternoon, he opened Johann's book, 「The Knight of the Empire」.

Mind control.

...

Knight Hanna Usar received a plaque in Sentinel's grand hall.

"Operation Beyond Steel. Year 0 Knight Hanna Usar. We commend your contribution to safeguarding imperial security."

She barely remembered Deputy Commander Anton's words. She had been practically half-conscious.

She did receive a thick bonus, and her knight budget tripled.

Everyone clapped and celebrated her achievement, but inside Hanna there was a strange emptiness.

Late at night, even while organizing her things alone in her upgraded knight office, that hollow feeling would not go away.

Because of that, she visited Empire Point for the first time in a while.

As a proper senior knight of the Sentinel.

"You came."

Her old mentor, the commoner instructor Phillips, welcomed her warmly.

"Yes. Sorry I couldn't even stay in touch."

Hanna gave a small smile as she set the gifts she brought on the table.

"No, it's fine. You must be buried in work."

"It's not that bad. Ah, this one is for Cadet Commandant Dane."

Top-tier whiskey and an expensive tea-leaf set. Luxury her one-year-ago self could never have imagined.

Phillips studied Hanna for a moment.

She still had traces of youth, but now her face also carried the poise and cold edge of an imperial knight.

"...You seem tougher."

"Well, I'll be Year 1 soon."

She had clearly changed.

"By the way, how is Empire Point? I heard training got insanely hard. And I heard a lot of new facilities were built."

"It got much harder. Forty percent of this elite cohort is already down in hospitals. The noble brats whine the worst."

"Huh. And the noble parents are staying quiet? They must have protested like crazy."

A noble cadet hospitalized? In her day, the whole school would have exploded. A few instructors probably would have been forced out.

"Commandant Dane was determined. In this environment, you actually would have had an advantage."

Hanna smiled quietly at Phillips's words. For some reason, she missed those days a little.

Back when she could focus on training with no worries and no extra thoughts...

"Then I should get going."

She had to report back to the order tomorrow too.

Piled paperwork, training, and new missions would all be waiting for her.

"Before you go."

As Hanna stood up, Phillips called to her in a heavy voice.

"There is something I need to tell you about Jacob."

"...Jacob?"

"Yes."

He let out a deep sigh.

Hanna was still nineteen. No, she had probably turned twenty by now.

Either way, back then at Empire Point she had been even younger. For cadets that age, classmates meant a lot, so he had hidden this all this time in case it shocked her too badly.

"The truth is... Jacob tried to frame you."

"...What?"

Hanna awkwardly sat back down.

"What, what are you talking about? Out of nowhere?"

"While sorting Jacob's belongings, we found a diary."

Phillips continued in a low voice.

"It had detailed entries claiming you sneaked out of the dorm every night to meet subversive forces."

"No, I never did that!"

"Are you sure you never did?"

"Of course not! I was busy training all the time, where would I even go? Me! Is this really true?"

Phillips squeezed his eyes shut. In contrast, Hanna's eyes widened in shock. The memory of being betrayed in Bolska by Gale, another commoner senior, overlapped with this.

She had barely survived death, and now this too?

"As expected, it was Jacob's frame-up. I thought so too."

"Obviously! Jacob, that... no, where is that diary now?"

Phillips shook his head, face dark.

"It's gone."

"What?"

"Burned."

Burned.

Gulp. Hanna swallowed hard.

"...By you, Instructor?"

"No."

With a bitter smile, Phillips spoke a name Hanna never expected.

"Maximilian."

At that moment, Hanna's eyes shook hard.

"It happened over a year ago."

His voice remained calm and slow.

"Over a year ago already, Knight Maximilian saved you."

A talented commoner. Simply because she could help the Empire...

Jacob Mack was a subspecies, and a bastard like him had no credibility in a diary like that.

But Hanna Usar's birth was clear. She was an imperial citizen born and raised in the imperial center. Even if she came from a rough rural backwater and had nothing, she was still a pure Aran of the Empire.

He said someone with talent like Hanna had every right to rise to Sentinel.

"..."

Hanna listened in a daze.

A faint smile spread across Phillips's face.

"Congratulations on your achievement. You proved his faith in you."

In that instant, Hanna's mind went blank.

A shock like an electric current ran through her, like when Gale betrayed her, but its meaning was the exact opposite.

Maybe faith discovered in a place you never expected could hit you with a shock that felt almost like betrayal.

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