WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist
Chapter 143
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Shadow Intrigue
These days, a heavy silence hangs over the imperial palace. Or rather, every place anyone sets foot in feels that way.
No one knows whether the Emperor has fully grasped how brutal this current political war has become.
No, he surely has.
Still, palace intrigue always works in the Emperor's favor, so this time too, he will likely remain a calm observer.
The palace nobles no longer meet one another. They cannot tell who to trust and who not to trust.
Leutern I has also been holding back on meetings and audiences, but for him it means something different.
This incident has grown into an attempted murder of his one and only son.
Because of that, he has been forcing himself to stay in control, afraid his boiling anger might burst out......
That had been the case, but today an even more absurd rumor reached him.
"A staged act?"
"Yes."
Even his usually rational confidant looked twisted with anger this time.
"They say Julius suspects Leutern II staged the whole thing himself."
"Ha."
Madness.
It has to be madness.
With a crisis before him that could bring the first expulsion from the House of Nobles in a hundred years, maybe even execution, his head must have finally snapped.
"No matter what insane drivel that lunatic spits out, legitimacy is on our side. Maximilian?"
Maximilian.
Even within the Sentinel Order, only Maximilian can fully handle and control an incident this large. The same is true of the Sentio Magic Tower.
Ebenholtz on the Sentinel side and Runselot on the Sentio side were named lead handlers on this case by no coincidence.
"He is still maintaining an extremely cautious and objective stance, focusing only on securing physical evidence."
"...He has no choice. The case involves palace royalty from the start."
The pace was frustrating, but Leutern had begun to like Maximilian.
He had heard, through wiretaps, how Maximilian spoke to his son.
-"A distinct brilliance found only in someone who looks far into the future, builds solid inner strength, and perfectly hides his true intent......"
Words like that.
Leutern liked those words very much. Maximilian truly had the insight to see straight through people. He had seen through his son's heart, one even his father had not known.
His son's friend was his friend too. That was only natural.
"They will strike us soon. Raise security to maximum at all times, and station anti-assassination forces densely around the hospital where the Second is staying."
"Yes. I will remember."
His confidant bowed and turned away.
"...Sir Duke Leutern."
Suddenly, he stopped.
His name was Bern. A former Sentinel knight who had served as Leutern's retainer for over thirty years, he was Leutern's closest companion.
"If by some chance. If, somehow, this is truly so."
Because each man knew the other, the lord could already guess what his knight was about to say.
"If this was truly Leutern II's intention......"
It was too irreverent to finish aloud, but Leutern I had already considered even that possibility.
"I do not believe my son would risk his own life to do such a thing, not even by the slightest chance."
If this incident had truly been Leutern II's staged act.
"If his ambition is truly that great, then as his father, being fooled by him would be the proper thing to do."
If anything, it would be admirable.
A wrinkled smile rose at the corner of the old royal's mouth.
His confidant nodded as if he felt the same and turned away.
......
Meanwhile, Sonnet Kandel was reading in the deepest corner of the imperial archive.
No, she was stealing while watching to make sure no one noticed.
"......"
She slipped one old book into her sleeve, another into her inner pocket, and another into her underwear.
She would take them to her mansion, finish copying them by hand, then return them anyway. Better that than letting these precious books rot here forever. Surely they wanted to be read by someone.
Even the security of the imperial archive, famous for being strict, had loosened lately.
She left the archive and waddled along. Since she wore a robe, maybe it would not show.
"There is nobody around to begin with."
Night in the imperial palace was dangerous now.
Still, no matter how she thought about it, Sonnet Kandel found Leutern II's transformation strange. The Leutern II she knew was absolutely not that kind of man.
Was he being manipulated? That did not seem right either. His pride and ego were so hard and so high they were almost disgusting. Even if someone tried to control him, he was the kind that could lurch in any direction without warning.
Sonnet waddled forward in thought.
......Maximilian.
When people guessed who was behind many of the major incidents in the Empire these days, the interesting ones, or the ones shaking the whole continent, pointing at Maximilian meant they were right about half the time.
Still, this one felt different.
Because he had no motive. He had no grudge strong enough to drag Julius to ruin, and nothing to gain by doing so.
If he hated Julius's house itself, then by that same logic he should hate Leutern's house itself too, and above all,
Maximilian was a man with an exceptionally strong sense of self and pride.
There was no reason for him to suppress his own nature and align himself with Leutern.
Then had Leutern truly hidden his ambition all this time?
Sonnet had known Leutern since childhood, and no matter how she thought about it, that did not fit.
-Pat pat pat pat.
Faint footsteps suddenly reached Sonnet's ears. Armed forces were quietly running through the palace corridors.
Inside the palace, a small whirlpool had finally begun to form.
This turmoil probably would not leak beyond the palace walls, but inside, a stench of blood as vicious as any battlefield would spread.
Then when everything was finally over, they would all pretend nothing had happened and busily compose themselves with noble dignity.
......
Julius von Arensburg was a royal of a fallen kingdom. A lofty being who had inherited the pure bloodline of his old noble ancestors.
After House Arensburg was absorbed into the palace, it spent a long time building influence and factions, scattering wealth and power.
Maybe all of that had been to prepare for days like this.
"Tell them this. If they do not move now while standing on my side, all that remains is mutual destruction."
Yet those bastards who had greedily swallowed Gigantes black money and sworn loyalty were now trying to draw a line between him and themselves.
A truly wretched situation where emotion reacted faster than reason.
"Yes. Understood."
From the beginning, Julius had not understood this crisis. The Gigantes bombing incident. To recover the huge investment losses from that, they moved the remaining surplus stock into the black market and sold it.
It was nothing more than common business, raising prices three to four times with black-market premiums to cover everyone's losses.
Yet through some pig bastard's trick, it had become a dagger aimed at his heart.
"Are the troops ready?"
"Yes."
There was no way to block expulsion from the House of Nobles. Too many had already turned to Leutern's side.
"Send the ledgers to those bastards first."
So the choice Julius could make was blackmail.
He would wave the ledgers of those who had taken his money and force them.
"And keep the private soldiers sharp, ready to deploy at any moment."
And then the final method, killing.
He would cut down the members certain to vote for Leutern, physically reducing the ballots themselves.
......
One day. One moment.
Before they pointed blades at each other, before blood was spilled.
By sheer chance, the wills of everyone entangled in this political war aligned, and a meeting was arranged.
A private meeting between Leutern I and Julius.
Perhaps the last chance for reconciliation.
"......"
"......"
With stiff expressions, the two nobles entered the meeting chamber without bringing a single adjutant.
Outside, each side's guards stood and waited under tight tension.
-Thud.
No one knew the exact words exchanged behind the firmly shut door. But furious shouting and curses unfit for royal dignity burst out.
From Julius came the words "staged act," and from Leutern came abuse like, "A leech dares to...."
--Thud!
In the end, both men kicked back their chairs and stormed out at the same time.
Their swollen pride had crashed into each other.
Reconciliation was impossible, of course, and that very day the guard knight Bern came to visit Leutern II in the hospital.
"Bern."
Leutern looked up at Bern from his bed. To Bern, his face somehow felt different from before.
"Yes."
"We have to kill him."
That one sentence from Leutern.
A childish voice not much different from usual, just one short line.
"......"
But Bern understood the implication, and his suspicion turned into certainty.
The young master who had once seemed like just a boy had grown before he knew it. He now carried such sharp wildness.
People say you can measure ten fathoms of water but not one fathom of a human heart. It was true.
Bern felt both pride and a chill.
"...Yes."
He nodded politely and placed flowers into the vase.
......
Late night in the imperial palace. Pitch black, without even an inch of light.
---.
Assassins moved like ghosts without a sound. Some crawled across ceilings, others slipped through floors into someone's bedchamber and killed.
Kwah-zzzzk!
A sharp blade tore through flesh.
But behind that assassin, another assassin appeared.
Clang! Clang!
Sharp metal cries. Sword struck sword. Sparks leaped and lit their masks in scarlet.
Clang! Clang-!
Palace Royal Guards, or private soldiers secretly raised by each house.
In the heart of the palace, they fought a silent civil war.
Clang. Clang.
At that same hour, the Emperor slept quietly in the Most Holy Sanctum.
Or perhaps he was watching peacefully with a smile.
When his subjects cut into their own flesh and waste their own strength, it only strengthens imperial power. In a broad sense, it is almost the act of loyal servants.
Clang-
Julius's assassins slipped into the quarters of nobles aligned with Leutern and went for their throats.
But already, perhaps from the moment this fight began, the winner had been decided.
Clang-!
In war, the side with legitimacy always had the advantage.
Without legitimacy, people chose surrender over fighting to the death.
"...P-please, spare me."
Branded with the filth of national wealth outflow, Julius's side had already lost momentum, and once pushed onto the defensive, they quickly lost the will to fight.
They threw away their weapons.
"S-surrender. I surrender. I, I was forced by old man Julius!"
In that darkness, the number of Julius faction men shrank helplessly......
At last, Bern, holding a blood-soaked sword, reached deep inside Julius's detached palace.
Bang-!
After smashing open the tightly shut door and entering, he found-
"...He is not here. It appears he already fled."
"So even a royal can run with his tail tucked. Chase him now. He could not have gone far."
"Yes!"
At Bern's order, everyone turned and tracked the traces.
Bern also moved, leaving Julius's empty residence behind.
......
Before dawn fully broke, every bloodstain scattered here would be wiped clean.
As if nothing had happened at all.
......
Julius retreated. He had no choice. Leutern II had planned carefully to trap him, and for now there was no visible way out.
"Step on it harder."
"...Yes."
Vroooom.
He had already set the escape route perfectly in preparation for the worst case.
Kanillan. All his assets were stored in banks there, so he could simply start again from that place.
He had to forget this misery. If he had time, if he stayed alive, a chance would always-
-Bang!
A gunshot rang out from somewhere. The car's wheel twisted.
Screeeech-!
The car lost balance. It spun like a top, drawing black streaks across the road.
"Wha, ngh-!"
Screeeech- thud!
It slammed into a tree off the road. The engine roared once and died.
"......"
In the silence that settled, suddenly.
-Thud. Thud. Thud.
The heavy echo of steel crushing the road surface.
Julius looked through the crumpled window. Imperial Royal Guards had already arrived. He was surrounded in an instant. Front, back, sides, every direction was filled with Leutern's damned men.
"Pleasure to see you, Duke Julius."
Leutern's confidant, Bern, gave a light bow. Julius bit his lip as if resigned.
"...Let my family go."
Bern looked inside. In place of Julius's son who had died long ago, there were his grandson, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law.
"Hm. I am sorry, but the order I received from Duke Leutern was"
He pulled out a heavy mana bomb from inside his coat.
"'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'"
He set it down on the crushed hood with a tap.
"If you survive this blast-"
"There is no way I survive it. You know that too."
The veins in Julius's neck bulged. His blood pressure spiked with rage, blood ran from his nose, and capillaries burst in his eyes.
"Because all of this was your staged act."
Bern did not answer. There seemed no need to drag out the exchange.
"Then. Thank you for your hard work all this time, old man."
"You bastard......!"
Just as Bern smirked and reached to press the detonator.
Flash-!
A sudden, blinding light washed over them. At the same time, shadowy figures rushed in. Julius was startled, and even Bern flinched. The guards hurried into combat posture, but-
"--Stop here."
At that voice, everyone froze.
......Step. Step.
Calm footsteps sounded through the beams of the searchlights, and soon one person appeared.
Julius, frowning, barely looked over.
"It seems all of you are under a slight misunderstanding. This place is clearly outside the imperial palace."
Cold, sunken golden eyes and blond hair. A refined gait. He stepped forward without the slightest disorder and swept this chaos with a quiet gaze.
"Therefore this is a zone where an imperial knight's duty and authority apply in full."
A knight of Ebenholtz, carrying the unmistakable dignity of a great house.
Maximilian walked between them as if nothing were wrong, and no one there dared to stop him.
"Unless this is wartime."
He picked up the bomb on the hood.
"You still have no right to carry out summary execution on suspects who have not even gone to trial yet. The same goes for collective punishment."
Inside the car, the grandson and granddaughter were trembling. Ten and nine years old.
Maximilian glanced at them, then threw the bomb far into the forest.
"From this moment on, custody of Julius von Arensburg will be transferred by the Sentinel Order."
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