WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 134

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Your World (2)

......One day, while I was preparing for my trip to Zerpa.

Nobles from the Imperial Palace came to the Knight Order in person. They were fairly low in the palace hierarchy, and after offering me expensive gifts, which I refused, they asked me something.

“Sir Knight. In the Imperial Palace, there is an unwritten rule that no matter how fiercely people fight, it never goes as far as expelling someone from the Noble Council.”

That trashy unwritten rule was exactly why the palace had gone stagnant.

“I am sorry, but no such unwritten rule exists.”

“In nearly a hundred years, there has not been a single removal-”

“There were cases before that. Quite a lot, actually.”

“Ahem......”

Deep worry spread across their faces. I could practically hear their brains turning.

“But, Sir Knight. Duke Leutern surely does not truly want Duke Julius removed. Until now, he has always-”

“If you thought that, then you misread him.”

I rose from my seat.

After letting out a low breath, I poured hot water into my coffee cup with a soft trickle.

“......Hmm. I do not know what people out there think of me.”

I took an unhurried sip of coffee. Their eyes stayed fixed on me, and I continued in a low voice.

“Well, some call me a monster, some call me a knight, and some call me a heretic. Let me be clear. I am not as meticulous and calculating as you think I am.”

A small dry laugh slipped out.

“I am just a rookie knight in my third year.”

Their expressions changed. If anything, the worry on their faces only deepened...

“Th-then does that mean... Duke Leutern personally set this entire board in motion?”

I twitched an eyebrow slightly. There was no need to leave a verbal lie.

Nonverbal language was the best way to make them interpret the situation however they wanted.

“I cannot possibly grasp all of his intentions, but perhaps... he may have predicted all of this from the beginning.”

I built up Leutern II. I praised his abilities to the skies.

“Ha......”

The best ending for me was for them to splatter blood in the mud and destroy each other. So if Leutern’s reputation rose behind a pretty facade, that was not a bad outcome.

“Hoo...”

“Hah...”

The palace nobles clearly had not expected my reaction at all. Like goldfish, they only opened and closed their lips while exchanging meaningless looks. I looked down at them without emotion.

“Time is up.”

“Ah, yes. Then we will take our leave.”

“Thank you for making time for us.”

They hurried out and took back the wristwatches they had left with my staff officer.

There was one mandatory condition for entering my office.

No one was allowed to wear an analog watch in front of me.

* * *

The transport ship crossed the western border and reached Zerpa. First, I visited that border village beyond the canyon where Lieutenant Colonel Han had once pushed through.

“......This place has grown a lot too.”

The money I had given when I bought a few hundred cattle had multiplied into a few thousand head in less than a year.

A herd spread across the horizon, and the village itself had expanded and buzzed with life.

“This village is now supplying military provisions to our unit. The quality of the beef is excellent, and above all, the villagers are extremely eager to learn the Imperial language, so communication has been smooth.”

Lieutenant Colonel Han continued.

“Also, the grassland here grows unusually fast.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Because this terrain is surrounded like a folding screen by the canyon and the Alberon Mountains, mana in the air seems to settle into the basin and enrich the soil.”

The nature of mana. It changed from place to place, and here it nourished the grass and the land.

It was naturally gifted pastureland.

If I had bombed it like I did before regression, it would have been permanently destroyed and turned barren...

“Interesting.”

The stream of history I had twisted was slowly gathering smaller currents and becoming a river.

I turned to Lieutenant Colonel Han.

“Are preparations done?”

“Yes. They are.”

“Then let us go.”

I boarded the transport ship again.

Annexation of Zerpa.

The first step, to be carved into the history of the continent by my own hand.

If possible, I only hoped Crown Prince Alonso would follow my will without causing trouble.

......

“Duke Maximilian! You finally arrived!”

“Yes. It has been a while.”

Zerpa Royal Palace, Alonso’s reception room. Crown Prince Alonso welcomed me with the brightest smile I had seen from him yet.

“Has it been almost a year?”

“Yes, that is right. It was winter then too.”

“Ah, right. Sit, please, sit.”

We sat across from each other at the table and exchanged light greetings.

“Thanks to the Empire maintaining Zerpa’s security and handling our supplies, the Royalist faction has held firm.”

“......That is good to hear.”

I picked up my teacup and took a sip. The black tea tasted excellent. No matter how I thought about it, Zerpa had too many good ingredients.

The prince watched my expression and carefully raised the subject.

“Still, I sometimes get confused whether this devoted support for Zerpa is your personal decision, Duke Maximilian, or the will of the Imperial Palace...”

A faint suspicion settled in his eyes. I looked at him steadily.

“Ah, of course I trust the Empire, but this is what the Republican faction keeps shouting. That the Empire is trying to swallow Zerpa.”

“Do not be shaken by enemy agitation. That is exactly what they want.”

I did not need to answer his question directly.

I only needed to convey my intent.

“I sincerely respect you, Your Highness.”

“Hm? No, well, why say that all of a sudden...”

“As you know, the Empire has countless royal descendants.”

The Empire had begun in the center. Originally, only what is now the central region had been “the Empire,” but it expanded east, north, west, and south, growing larger. In that process, royal families of fallen states that had “cooperated” with the Imperial House were absorbed into palace nobility.

“But now, compared with Crown Prince Alonso, those people in the Imperial Palace are very...”

I looked into empty air and briefly closed my eyes.

In the past, royals had been used as chess pieces by the Emperor to check the power of imperial meritorious houses, and now the side effects of that were surfacing.

Alonso knew that history too.

“Very corrupt, and no more than worthless parasites.”

“......Come now. I am sure they have their own good sides.”

“No. Recently I have grown even more convinced of it. You will be shocked when you hear what happened.”

I let out a deep sigh, as if exhausted.

“A very large incident broke out in the Imperial Palace, and it looks like one very high Noble Council seat may be wiped out entirely.”

I was planting him an escape route.

Even if you abandon this palace, there is still a place for you in the Imperial Palace.

“......As always, with time, someone else will slowly fill that spot anyway.”

From Alonso’s face, though, he still looked uninterested, so I stepped back.

“Probably.”

Alonso licked his dry lips. He had another concern. Most likely his growing disgust with the Royalist military leadership.

But he was too weak to say it out loud.

So I said it for him.

“Your Highness. I heard rumors that Zerpa’s military is skimming off the supplies I provide.”

“......”

Alonso nodded as if he had been expecting this.

“I heard that too. From my close aides.”

So Alonso had gathered “close aides” before he even realized it.

“Yes. You know that is why I came.”

“Of course I know. I have no intention of betraying you in the slightest.”

“Then, Crown Prince Alonso, will you become my justification?”

I deliberately drew out my voice. As if I were soaked in fatigue, as if I were tired of politics, I did not hide it.

“If you become my justification, I will handle them with my own hands.”

Alonso nodded confidently.

“Do it. I have already told my close aides to follow your will. They will be a great help to you.”

He emphasized those close aides. Hiding a smile, I pulled one document from my coat.

“And this is the personnel list to replace the emptied military command.”

I placed it on the table.

“Take a look.”

At that moment, Alonso’s face hardened.

I continued as if I had not noticed.

“Please use it as reference when you lead affairs from now on. If you place them in key positions and keep them near, they will support you perfectly.”

The prince’s expression wavered coldly. He glanced at me, then took a deep breath again.

He needlessly straightened his already neat clothes, tried to keep that solemn royal face, and spoke in a low voice.

“......I am sorry.”

His voice trembled slightly.

“Sir Maximilian. This is interference in Zerpa government personnel authority.”

“......”

I watched him quietly. Alonso met only half of my gaze and spoke.

“But Zerpa also has sovereignty.”

As crown prince of a nation, he had finally developed pride.

“I have received very great help from you, Sir Maximilian, but I cannot hand over even my nation’s personnel authority.”

My eyes settled lower.

“My nation. Our Zerpa’s...”

Alonso clenched both fists under the table, but could not hide the trembling.

He was truly a weak man.

“Spirit, heart. We still have those.”

“......”

I stayed silent. No words, no expression, just silence.

When I waited until his breathing grew rough, I smiled brightly.

“Yes.”

I nodded without resistance.

“As expected, Your Highness is of noble blood.”

As if acknowledging him, I picked up the personnel list.

“As Your Highness said, if I interfered even in this, it would be a disrespectful act that clearly violated Zerpa’s sovereignty.”

Riiip, shrrrk!

“Then please take this too as my sincerity.”

I tore the paper in half.

“I respect you, honor you, and trust you.”

“Ah, ah...”

Had he not expected me to back down this easily? Alonso’s eyes widened.

“Sir Maximilian...”

He even looked deeply moved, almost teary.

Still, there was a reason I stepped back.

Eight months earlier.

At Maximilian’s estate, I personally interviewed agents recruited from across the Empire.

“Your Zerpan is native-level. Even the accent is perfect.”

There were quite a few Zerpan mixed-blood people even in the Empire, so I selected them thoroughly and forged their identities. For months, they received brutal training from Engi at Ebenholtz’s main estate. After job training, cultural education, and strict ideological screening, they departed overseas disguised as Zerpan elites, businessmen, and experts educated at Imperial universities.

All of them were my people.

They bribed pro-Empire elements inside Zerpa’s royal palace and naturally seeped into the palace’s core departments. There was no limit on operation funds, and they threw money around as naturally as breathing. My money never stayed in one place. It circulated through the whole palace like blood in veins, and the reputation of my people rose day by day.

“Is this person really that capable?”

Crown Prince Alonso was clear and innocent.

“Yes. An elite graduate of Imperial Central University. The Empire urged him to naturalize, but he chose to return home for Zerpa.”

“Oh. Such a loyal subject... I should meet him.”

If many people praised someone as capable, he believed it without suspicion.

He never thought to check with his own eyes.

“Your Highness. This is fine liquor brought back from this latest Imperial trip.”

“...Oh? Is this Snow Feric from the north?”

My people presented him with fine liquor, gifted beautiful sculptures, and sometimes, in official meetings with the prince present, pretended to be fiercely devoted to Zerpa, using flashy expertise and difficult terminology to burn in the impression of “capable loyalists.”

At times, they even fought palace nobles and military figures who ignored him, helping build Alonso’s own faction.

As a result:

“Nice shot!”

Whenever Alonso played golf, the caddie applauding beside him and helping his swing, skilled and smooth-tongued enough to become the prince’s favorite, was one of my people.

“Your Highness. This quarter, the capital’s finances should finally return to surplus.”

The official Alonso especially trusted in the Ministry of Finance, right beside him, was also my person.

“Surplus? A surplus? Is that possible?”

“Yes. The emergency fiscal plan I proposed four months ago worked.”

They manipulated the numbers skillfully. They minimized deficits on paper, then inflated the massive covert aid brought in from Maximilian as if it were their own policy success, acting like capable loyalists who could save the kingdom.

“Ha... this is something.”

Those I sent all became Crown Prince Alonso’s close aides.

They were recruited to become close aides from the start.

“Just as I thought. You are my treasures.”

The chief of security who protected them at his side, the chief secretary who managed the prince’s schedule, and even the head chef who controlled palace ingredients.

All of them were my people.

Like this, the people around the crown prince were already filled with my people.

Alonso had come to trust them completely, so he probably had no idea, not even in his dreams.

For his own sake, it was better if he never found out.

“......When I look at Crown Prince Alonso.”

Back again, in the reception room of Zerpa Royal Palace.

I looked at Alonso and smiled softly.

“For some reason, you remind me of my past self.”

At those words, Alonso wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and waved his hands.

“What are you saying now, really.”

As if he had not expected me to give in this easily, as if his worry had been pointless, he relaxed. He looked exactly like my endlessly weak self before regression.

He looked like my past, when I knew nothing and could only be pushed around.

“Thank you so much for understanding. I knew Sir Maximilian would understand.”

“Yes.”

That was why.

“If not me, who would understand Your Highness?”

It would be far better for you to live happily in your own world, knowing nothing at all.

For someone like you, this world is too cold, and too cruel...

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