The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 136

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 136

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Your World (4)

A military villa far from the Zerpa Royal Palace.

Key generals of the Royalist faction had gathered there for an emergency meeting.

Fssssss......

Outside, early-winter sleet drifted down. Inside, the air hung low and acrid, thick with cigarette smoke and anxiety.

"......Maximilian. That knight bastard caught on."

Lieutenant General Pavel, seated to the right of the head seat, ground the words out. Through wiretaps and surveillance, they had learned the crown prince's intentions and the ominous undercurrent inside the palace.

"Looks like he even secured concrete evidence that the military embezzled Imperial Army supplies."

Every scheme they had run, siphoning off supplies to sell on the black market, inventing ghost soldiers to issue fake ration tickets, forging the royal granary ledgers.

The Knight of the Empire had seen through all of it.

"But is there anyone here who did not do it?"

Pavel swept his gaze across the room. The generals coughed awkwardly or avoided his eyes.

"......You forced us."

A brigadier general in the corner spoke carefully.

"You dragged in people who said they did not want this, and-"

"What do you mean forced?!"

Bang. Pavel slammed the desk and shouted.

"We did it so everyone could eat and live well, did we not?! It was not for me alone! Major General Bielsa, were you not the one saying that taking from those imperial bastards would benefit the whole country?!"

Corruption rooted deep in Zerpa, and a civil war born from it.

Zerpa had already been eaten away for far too long. They were accomplices, each one binding the next.

"......At this point, we really have no choice. This is not the old days, when we could stall forever because we were scared."

Pavel's eyes flashed as he continued.

"The Imperial Army will soon march on the Zeronica Mine. When they do, we strike the palace first."

Silence fell over the meeting room.

A coup. Treason.

Everyone held their breath and looked toward the head seat. There sat Army General Garcia, head of the Royalist faction's military, sunk in deep thought.

"......Is there no other way?"

Garcia asked in a tired voice.

"At this stage, another way?"

Beside Pavel, Major General Iker beat his chest in frustration.

"Are we just going to sit and wait for that knight to take our heads? He has no mercy! You all saw how those Governor-General's Office bastards in Gennen died!"

While Pavel kept nodding, Iker's voice grew hotter.

"The crown prince is no different. He is already keeping unknown outsiders close and calling them elites. He is just looking for a pretext to purge us!"

The room went cold. Looks of betrayal and fear passed back and forth.

"Iker is right. If it were me, I would rather side with the Republican faction. That is our only way to live. Who cares if the country collapses or the king dies? If we die, what is any of it for?"

Pavel spread a map and pointed between the Zeronica Mine and the royal palace.

"Once they march to the mine, the capital will be empty. Then we strike from inside and open the gates, and the Republican faction will push in. The Imperial Army will be isolated and die off on its own."

An operation that looked like a perfect scenario.

"And this damned endless civil war too. How long are we supposed to keep this wartime state? For the Zerpan people, at least......"

The generals swallowed hard.

But they were already thinking the same thing. There was no other option. Their own crown prince was trying to kill them, so to survive, they had to kill him first.

"......"

Garcia slowly opened his eyes. What lingered in them was not loyalty, but survival instinct.

He spoke heavily.

"......Prepare in absolute secrecy."

In the end, they made an irreversible decision.

......

Sloppy. Incompetent.

Or maybe the power of capital was greater than I had imagined, enough to make me briefly think it could make everything I wanted possible.

Do not get careless, Maximilian.

Not all enemies will be like them.

"-And this damned endless civil war too. How long are we supposed to keep this wartime state? For the Zerpan people, at least......"

I folded their meeting transcript and tucked it into my coat. Standing near the barracks, I looked over the army spread across the plain. The Empire's Durkon Legion. Schweitzer's hardened troops.

"Leave the Zeronica Mine to Durkon."

I spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Kai Han beside me.

"We handle Zerpa's military command."

It was a diversion operation.

Countless eyes and ears were already planted inside the Zerpan capital. Not only the corrupt military of the Royalist faction, but Republican faction spies were crawling there too.

That meant I had to move on the assumption that everything I did would be exposed to the enemy in real time.

"The insider was this Major General Iker?"

"Yes. That is correct."

A meeting transcript. Not incomplete intelligence from wiretaps or eavesdropping, but a document recorded directly by an insider who attended the meeting and submitted every word exactly.

To fully win Alonso's trust, and to cleanly wipe out the rotten military command, I planned a small play.

That too was a lesson I learned from Izenheim.

If there is something you want, write the script.

"How much did he get?"

"So far, around two million imperial dollars in bearer bonds."

I gave a mocking smile.

Cheap, for selling out a country. He was probably expecting more rewards later.

"Tell him that if the operation succeeds, the bond maturity will be pushed back around five years. He will probably receive ten million dollars over ten years."

That was how bonds worked, something I learned from Dieter.

Never pay a lump sum to people who sell their souls for money. Bearer bonds gave them a safe escape hatch called anonymity, while also becoming a firm leash of control.

Give them money, but make sure they need my permission to spend it.

Once they were soaked in that sweet taste, they would get addicted and never leave.

"Yes. Understood."

At that moment, Kai Han's adjutant approached.

"Preparations are complete."

I nodded. Our Imperial Guard troops, disguised in civilian clothes, had already infiltrated the Zerpan capital.

Of course, I checked every unit one more time. I could not allow Izenheim to slip in and create dissonance.

"Lieutenant Colonel Han, take charge of the ground."

"Yes."

I looked at the craft waiting on the plain.

A helicopter. I passed Lorenzo a new aircraft concept pulled from my pre-regression memories, and after a year of research, Lorenzo Academy made it real.

A transport ship was excellent for fast high-altitude movement, but limited when it had to stay in one place and watch the ground.

A helicopter, though, could take off and land vertically and hover in place, giving it an edge in dense urban battles or guerrilla warfare.

"Ready."

I boarded the helicopter. The rotor spun and kicked up a violent wind.

"Yes. Loyalty."

"Woof!"

Leo stood proudly beside Lieutenant Colonel Han as well. Wearing silver armor, Leo would do his part reliably as Kai Han's adjutant.

"Move out."

At the signal, the helicopter rose into the air.

Thududududududu-

The rotor, powered by a mana stone engine, roared. The propeller tore through the wind, and the vibration rattled my bones.

No matter how innovative the technology was, the early model still had limits.

Still, I knew a temporary fix for that.

I placed a hand on my collarbone. I drew up the mana inside me and breathed it into the craft. A graceful current of silver airflow softly wrapped around the helicopter interior.

Sssssss-

The rough engine roar dropped in an instant. Even the explosive tearing sound that disturbed the air softened into something like a gentle wind.

The mana unique to Ebenholtz, handed down through bloodline and secret breathing method.

Nurtured by top-grade elixirs born from nature, and by natural, non-artificial mana breathing, the purest and stillest attribute.

Even a machine like this helicopter took on that Ebenholtz nature.

From inside it, I looked down. Far below, the scent of war was heavy.

Thump-thump-thump.

Schweitzer's Durkon Legion was advancing. They would reach the Zeronica Mine far faster than anyone expected, and the moment intelligence arrived that fighting had broken out.

A coup would unfold inside the Zerpan capital as well.

Thump-thump-thump.

I stayed in the sky over the helicopter's route, to control any worst-case variable. Taking advantage of this chaos, Izenheim, hard to handle on the ground, could appear.

"......Comfortable."

Now the sky felt like my home.

People I feared on land were no longer frightening here. My power multiplied several times when I struck from above.

From the start, knights never needed to keep their feet on the ground.

A strategic weapon that reaches the deadliest moment from the highest place.

That was the new knight model the Empire would use......

* * *

At the same time, Crown Prince Alonso's office.

"......"

Alonso stared quietly at the document on his desk.

"If the Imperial Army retakes the Zeronica Mine, they may demand quite a lot."

The deputy finance director pointed at the paper and continued.

"So we set negotiation guidelines in advance."

[Ownership of the Zeronica Mine shall be clearly recognized as belonging to the Zerpa royal family. However, for any newly discovered veins found through future exploration, initial development costs and facility investment shall be fully borne by the Empire, or by a company designated by the Empire. Profits shall be distributed at a ratio of Zerpa Royal Family : Empire (or Empire-designated company) = 40:60, and all related technology and facilities shall be transferred after 30 years.]

Alonso let out a dry laugh.

If new veins were discovered in Zeronica, even full cost coverage and profit sharing were not enough. They were also asking for core technology and facilities to be handed to Zerpa after thirty years.

"......I doubt they would accept this."

Even Alonso himself, crown prince of Zerpa, knew this proposal was absurd.

This was far from the exploitation anti-Empire Republican faction members shouted about. If anything, it looked closer to Zerpa exploiting the Empire, using imperial military power for free, developing the mine with imperial capital, and still pocketing forty percent of the profits.

"......Yes. If this reached the imperial household directly, they would probably sneer. But."

The chief secretary spoke carefully.

"Crown Prince Alonso. We hear Sir Maximilian was recognized for lifting Zerpa's siege, and the imperial household granted him near-total authority. In other words, his decision is the Empire's will."

"Is that so? Well, that sounds right."

"Still, that same Knight Maximilian...... seems to genuinely respect you, Crown Prince Alonso."

"Right. I know."

"Yes. When you walk together or talk, the way he treats Your Highness carries a very human warmth."

"......So?"

Alonso asked. He seemed to have guessed where this was going, and a slight edge entered his voice.

"I am sorry to say this......"

The deputy finance director swallowed dryly. Alonso's brow tightened as he watched him, then the man raised his head as if he had made up his mind.

"Your Highness must use that."

"......Use the goodwill Sir Maximilian feels toward me?"

"Yes. For the national interest, even personal closeness can be an excellent diplomatic asset."

"......"

Alonso said nothing, his face stiff. For a long while he looked around at his close aides without a word. Every one of them held his gaze with solemn expressions.

"......You people really are."

As crown prince of a nation, Alonso understood how they felt.

He knew they were loyal only to the country. He knew this was obvious advice from loyal retainers.

But those hearts were sometimes so practical, so calculating, that they felt brutally cruel like this.

"You are cold and ruthless people."

Alonso threw the words at them bitterly. The aides lowered their heads in grief.

"But this is for the nation-"

"I know."

He raised a hand and cut them off.

"I know. I know that much too."

Irritation leaked out before he realized it.

Without meeting their eyes, Alonso dismissed them with a tired gesture.

"Leave me for a while. I need time to think alone."

"......Yes. Understood."

Step. Step.

One by one, the aides who had filled the room withdrew.

The office fell empty. Left alone, Alonso sank deep into his chair.

"Haa......"

A sigh rose from his core.

Maximilian. Would it have been easier if he had been cold, calculating, selfish, and arrogant, just another imperial noble?

Yet the opposite was true, and the face of the man who had cared for him beyond expectation kept flickering before his eyes.

He respected every part of Alonso. He even learned and spoke Zerpan fluently, enough to show affection for Zerpa itself.

But.

My aides, and I as well, had to calculate his goodwill and secure national interest. We had to use the man called Maximilian.

As crown prince, that was what he ought to do, but as Alonso the person......

"Sir Maximilian...... I am in a very hard position."

Guilt weighed on him.

He felt sorry, and sad too.

If Maximilian accepted this proposal from him again without hesitation,

if he tried not to negotiate at all for Alonso's sake,

would that become Maximilian's mistake?

Would it shackle him inside the Empire?

Those worries bloomed in a tangled mess, and Alonso fell into torment.

"......Ngh."

He tried to steel himself, telling himself he must become a ruthless ruler, but effort alone could not solve it.

* * *

These days, as the weather turned colder, Leutern II, noble of the imperial palace, kept running into strange situations.

"I support you."

"......Huh?"

Like this, every time he walked around, random nobles kept saying weird things to him.

"Duke Leutern's decisiveness. That boldness truly resembles the spirit of a lion."

"Huh? Uh, yeah, yeah."

"We support you."

Then they left with bright smiles.

He wanted to grab them by the hair and ask what exactly they supported, but as Leutern, who knew everyone in the palace, his pride was hurt by the fact that something was happening that he did not know.

"What the hell is going on."

He could strongly feel something else was happening in the palace. Like something busy moving under the surface.

But when he tried to meet people, nobody met him. They kept saying, Sorry, I do not think I am ready yet, I really want to meet you too, and this kind of crap.

What preparation did they need just to eat and drink together?

"......Ah shit, this is annoying."

Even his dad was not hanging out with him, saying he had lots to do, and that made him even more irritated.

Leutern scratched the back of his neck and wandered the palace corridors.

"Ah, I am bored."

Life felt dry and dull these days. Nothing was fun. He was sick of most things. So the only hobbies he had left were food, and......

"Should I ask to join the military too?"

A commander. It sounded cool as hell. Military uniforms looked damn good these days.

Maybe later he should ask Max to take him along.

"......Duke Leutern."

Then again, out of nowhere, another palace noble appeared. Mid-to-lower rank, by the look of him.

"Uh, yeah. What?"