The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 139

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 139

──────

The World Thinks of Us as It Pleases

Zeronica Mine was completely destroyed. It had fallen into ash, beyond even the need for repair. The news sank the Republican command into heavy silence.

"......Are you telling me the crown prince and those rotten council bastards allowed this outrage?"

"Yes. If anything, they are giving it full support."

Frank, supreme commander of the Republican faction, slammed his fist onto the desk.

"That maggot bastard!"

Zeronica Mine was all but a symbol of Zerpa. The biggest reason Zerpa could even be called a "mana stone nation" was that place, the heart of its economy, responsible for more than forty percent of the country's mana stone production.

The royal family had blown it up with its own hands.

"Incompetent."

Bang. Frank struck the round table.

"Stupid."

Bang. His bloodshot eyes flared as he spat out the words.

"Filthy piece of trash......!"

Bang. Frank lowered his head as if coughing up blood. Angry sighs rose from every side, heating the conference room.

After barely calming himself, he swept his gaze across the room.

"......How strong was the Durkon Legion?"

"Stronger than expected. Their speed, equipment, troop quality, and above all, the new weapon they developed......"

"What about the capital?"

A staff officer answered with a grim face.

"According to our spies inside, after the regular army's coup was suppressed by the Imperial Army, discipline in the Royalist military has firmly taken hold."

Frank pressed a hand to his forehead. Zerpa had now split completely in two.

The Royalists, once cornered and nearly strangled, had overturned the tide by climbing onto the back of the devil called the Empire.

"That crown prince bastard probably has no idea what he's done."

He sold his country to the devil. From here on, the Zerpan monarchy, and Zerpa's pitiful people, would be squeezed even harder.

"Maximilian."

Frank ground out the name.

Originally, the Empire had no reason to intervene this deeply in Zerpa's civil war.

Zerpa was mostly rugged mountain terrain, with little exploitable resource value and weak territorial value, the kind of land that simply was not worth the cost.

That was the standard assessment.

And yet one man still prodded the imperial high command and dragged troops into this barren battlefield, that knight bastard lower than a dog.

"What was his real motive? From the start, this made no economic sense!"

At Frank's furious shout, the generals traded uncertain glances.

They all rolled their eyes, clearly having no answer. Then an intelligence officer spoke carefully.

"For now...... there is one report."

"Intel? Then say it."

"That is...... according to a spy who infiltrated the capital...... Crown Prince Alonso's persistent persuasion proved effective......"

Even he sounded like he could hardly believe it.

"And...... it seems Sir Maximilian himself felt human respect...... and pity for Crown Prince Alonso."

Frank's face went blank.

"......Human respect? Pity?"

"Yes. That is what the report says. The two were seen walking together and drinking tea several times, building a bond...... That knight rarely smiles, but he smiled often......"

"What?"

"Well, even within the Empire, Sir Maximilian is famous as an elitist and classist. So they think he may have had a strong fondness for royal blood itself. And Crown Prince Alonso is humble and modest for royalty, so perhaps that also......"

Frank pressed his temple.

Bullshit.

It sounded like complete bullshit. But if no other reason could be found no matter how hard they looked, they had no choice but to treat it as fact.

"He poured his own fortune into Zerpa and moved the regular army for that?"

"Yes. At the moment, no other motive has been found...... well, there is one possibility, but he destroyed that mine with his own hands...... so, yes."

It was absurd. He was too stunned to even laugh.

"......"

Frank stared blankly into empty air.

"Status. Birth. Royal blood."

Because of something as trivial as bloodline kinship, their sacred revolution, the republican cause they had prepared for decades, had been crushed this pointlessly.

"Unbelievable......"

Frank pictured Maximilian of Ebenholtz, that arrogant imperial noble. He imagined that filthy face called the symbol of the Aran.

"......A bastard worthy of the Empire."

Grinding his teeth, he swallowed his boiling hatred and clenched his fist until it bled.

* * *

"It is completely ruined."

Engineers from Lorenzo Technology arrived at Zeronica Mine, now reduced to ash by bombardment.

"Can it be restored?"

"Yes. It will take significant manpower and money, but it is not impossible. The issue is profitability."

"In what way?"

"We would need to remove the existing facilities, now basically scrap, and rebuild from scratch. But Zeronica has been drilled for a long time, so it is unclear whether the remaining mana stone reserves can cover the cost."

If you judged only by visible reserves, they were right.

But deep inside Zeronica, a kind of resource still slept that the world did not know.

That was the real reason I forced my way into Zerpa's civil war and rushed here amid palace infighting.

"It's fine."

Before regression, I had once seen a headline in the mana technology section of a newspaper from the future.

In Zerpa, a substance called room-temperature liquid mana stone would be discovered.

It remained a viscous liquid even at room temperature, so miners sometimes got splashed by it from cracks in the rock and never realized what it was.

"Instead, dig far deeper than the existing shafts."

This mana stone held mana unique to Zerpa.

A basin-like landform ringed by harsh mountains, steeped for thousands of years in dense mana and the force of nature, room-temperature liquid mana stone.

"You never know. Something else may turn up."

Mana stone was only mana stone. Currency was only currency. I did not understand economics or money well, but I did understand that in the end, they were not tangible things, only promises.

When every promise collapsed in war, only tangible goods mattered.

That was why room-temperature liquid mana stone was such a vital strategic material.

Ordinary solid mana stone was used as an energy source, and when highly pure, it could be processed into top-tier artifacts, equipment, valuables, and luxury goods at enormous prices. Room-temperature liquid mana stone could not be used that way.

Its true value lay elsewhere.

Dilute it with water and spray it over land, and mana seeps densely into the soil, sharply raising the earth's fertility. Even depleted soil can be turned into rich farmland in an instant, making explosive yield growth possible.

"Yes. Understood. But we do not have enough manpower to mobilize right now......"

"With this many able-bodied soldiers right here, what do you mean?"

I gestured behind me. Major General Schweitzer, who had been watching from the side, stepped in with visible irritation.

"......Sir Knight. We are soldiers."

He cut in another step.

"Soldiers do not do miner grunt work. If we told you to sit at a desk and write paperwork, would you like that?"

Schweitzer was always like this. No matter how many times I pushed him down, he crawled back up and tried to meet me head-on.

That rotten temperament and aggression were probably what got him this far.

"Grunt work? This is a major national industry for the Empire's future."

Schweitzer snorted, and just as his adjutant was about to agree with him.

Vrooom, vroooom.

A convoy of trucks rolled in from a distance, kicking up dust.

"Those are special compensation packages."

I nodded toward the trucks.

"They are loaded with bonus cash for all troops who took part in the operation, premium cigarettes, plus sweets, chocolate, and whiskey airlifted from the homeland."

"Y-yes, sir?!"

The adjutants' posture changed instantly.

They were already about to put the soldiers to work, but one thing remained.

"We also brought letters from the Durkon soldiers' families back home."

Before regression, I had read interviews with soldiers who went to war.

It hardly needed proving, but on hellish battlefields, the treasure soldiers held dearest, what they tried to protect even at the cost of their lives, was a single letter from home.

"......Do we really need mere letters?"

Schweitzer, lacking in empathy as ever, could never grasp it.

"No. No, Major General. We do need them!"

At Schweitzer's indifference, the adjutants jumped in, startled.

"We will ask the troops for volunteers right away. It will probably fill up in no time......"

I told them to proceed, and thirty minutes later, just as expected.

Almost all Durkon personnel, aside from essential sentry units, had gathered at Zeronica Mine.

......

Reconstruction of Zeronica began at once. I left the site to the engineers, returned to the Zerpan capital, and went to see the crown prince.

"......"

Crown Prince Alonso was bedridden, gaunt and exhausted.

Even his condition looked incompetent. He was clearly not suited to times like these.

"Are you all right?"

A good man, just a little lacking...... he kept overlapping with who I had been before regression.

Alonso looked at me with hollow eyes and gave a weak nod.

"I am fine."

He looked nothing like fine.

"Thank you, Sir Maximilian. I survived because of you."

"......No."

"The loyal men by my side all died protecting me...... and the military that trusted and followed me stabbed me in the back."

Alonso muttered through self-mocking tears. I stepped to his bedside and spoke quietly.

"There are still people who offer their loyalty to Your Highness Crown Prince Alonso."

The vacancies left by agents who staged their deaths and withdrew would be filled, in time, by other people of mine.

New Zerpan officials bought with my capital, or conditioned by imperial power. They would keep covering the crown prince's eyes and ears, slowly rocking him inside a false cradle.

"......If there is anything you want, say it. To the man who protected me and this country, I want to give anything."

It was a sincere offer from the crown prince.

But if I accepted that one-sided goodwill without limit, it would become exploitation.

From now on, Zerpa had to remain the Empire's key bridgehead and rail corridor for expansion into the western continent.

Every time war broke out, skirting all the way around Zerpa's harsh Alberon Mountains meant wasting huge amounts of time and straining supply lines.

That was why I wanted coexistence.

Before regression, the Empire exploited the surrounding occupied states. But it spent exactly that much, or more, trying to suppress resistance and independence forces.

It was incredibly stupid.

"Your Highness Crown Prince Alonso. I have already received enough."

I took out a document and handed it to him. It was the negotiation guideline on profit sharing after Zeronica Mine's restoration, drafted in advance by one of the crown prince's finance officials and given to me.

[Ownership of Zeronica Mine shall be clearly recognized as belonging to the Zerpa royal family. Profit rights for veins currently under extraction shall also be monopolized by the royal family......

However, for 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, while generated profits shall be distributed at a ratio of Zerpa Royal Family : Empire (or Empire-designated company) = 60:40......]

After reading it, Alonso shook his head, flustered.

"......No, Sir Maximilian. Things have changed. You practically saved this royal family. We should give you more than this-"

"Let's keep it as it is. This is enough for me."

I cut him off firmly. Alonso's pupils stilled for a moment, then filled with deep emotion.

"I did not come all the way to this harsh battlefield to strip things from you and exploit you."

Once liquid mana stone was discovered, the investment could be recouped at more than double anyway. The Empire would buy all of Zerpa's liquid mana stone.

"Then what did you come here for, to this insignificant little country?"

The crown prince asked, voice trembling.

I thought for a moment. It was unexpected, but still.

"......Your Highness is different from the greedy nobles in the imperial palace."

Reasons could always be found.

"To stand beside someone sincere and precious like Your Highness is enough for me. So please rise from this bed."

"......Sir Maximilian!"

With tearful eyes, Alonso gripped my hand tightly.

"By the way, Your Highness."

There were a few other things I wanted to request.

Without realizing it, I had learned about Zerpa's high-quality cattle and unusual ingredients, including mushrooms.

Zerpa was mostly mountains, so many remarkable raw ingredients came out of it.

"The mushroom from Zerpa was very good."

That mushroom I once tasted by chance in a house in that gorge. It was only finely ground over meat, only added to soup, yet the flavor was strikingly distinct.

"Mushroom?"

"That wrinkled one. I smelled that aroma for the first time in my life."

"Ah."

The crown prince wiped his eyes and smiled.

"I know the one. In Imperial, it would be something like tree mushroom. In Zerpan, it is called truffle."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. I would like the right, or commercial authority, to distribute and exclusively manage specialties like that in the Empire."

Not just mana stone from the mine, but exclusive distribution rights for those ingredients, contracted under the name Maximilian Ebenholtz. Truffle and Zerpan mountain beef would reliably pull in the money of nobles who lived for luxury.

That was true before regression as well. Zerpa gained a reputation as a gourmet nation.

Of course, after my fall, I never got to go.

"Hah...... Maximilian, you truly are......"

The crown prince stared at me in disbelief, then let out a laugh.

"You are impossible."

He seemed to believe I was acting purely for his sake.

In practice, too, I was the good man who took only cattle and mushrooms instead of mine shares.

But those cattle and mushrooms would soon become scarce. More importantly.

"......Isn't this also part of Your Highness Alonso's ability?"

I had to push Crown Prince Alonso into the image of a ruler who was not so bad.

Because until the next war, Zerpa had to hold its place as an ally of the Empire.

They still had much more to give me.