WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 15

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One Step (3)

Tick. Tick.

In the quiet office, the second hand ticked.

"..."

The president of 「Veritas Trade」 sat there sweating, watching my face.

Besides him, two other shareholders sat stiffly, a young man and woman who looked like his son and daughter.

"Now all you need to do is stamp it."

The president looked ready to burst into tears.

They were probably thinking this was exploitation, or outright seizure. Maybe they were half right.

"The payment is 4 million dollars. You will receive it immediately once the contract is signed."

"...What?"

All three stared with wide eyes, shock and disbelief mixed together.

"F-four... four million dollars?"

"Yes. Cash."

"..."

They exchanged glances. The president wiped his forehead with a trembling hand.

"W-well, 4 million dollars is certainly a lot. Much more than this company's value. But this family business was built by our late father over his entire life..."

I gave a small laugh. I could see why those Imperial Guard bastards used to just take things by force.

Give them an inch and they take a mile... no, stop that. At the very least, I cannot become the same kind of man they are.

"Forget those old stories and stamp it quietly. Your late father would want you to live comfortably in your old age."

I looked back and forth between the president and his son and daughter. They looked twenty-two, maybe twenty-three at most.

"You should think about your children's future too. I'll leave you an additional 1% stake."

Their stubbornness would not help them, and persuading them would only waste my time.

If the future stayed unchanged and the world ended, we would all die together anyway.

"Ah..."

The president groaned and agonized for a long time, then finally stamped it with a shaking hand.

"...Here it is."

"Good."

I took the contract and spoke to the shell-shocked president.

"Then please hand over the transition to Mr. Dieter Schmidt. Transfer all information you held as owner."

"...Yes."

The president left with his children. Their slumped backs looked pitiful, but whatever.

"Hm. Not bad."

I sat in the now-empty chair in the president's office. It was shabby, but it had everything it needed. It was only forty minutes by car from Sentinel Order headquarters, so it was not far either.

Bzzzzzz-

An alarm rang from the terminal in my coat.

"Jun?"

The caller ID read "Jun Kandel."

Just seeing that name made me sick. Old memories surged up like bile.

I frowned and answered.

"Hello."

“It's been a while, Sir Max. Jun Kandel speaking.”

Jun Kandel was the legitimate heir of House Kandel. Kandel was one of the Empire's pillars, on par with Ebenholtz. In simple terms, he was my rival.

"What is this about?"

“Nothing much. I just heard a rather interesting piece of news. Is it true you clashed with an Imperial Guard major?”

As expected, Rodriguez had already run to Kandel wagging his tail.

"Rather than a clash, a fly got annoying while I was on my way somewhere."

A low laugh came from the other end.

“Yes, I understand. Still, this is not something we can simply pretend never happened. A formal Imperial Guard officer was killed, after all. There has been talk in the Guard as well.”

"I see."

So what now, you bastard? This snake always talks in that greasy voice, circling around the point. Not even a proper man, just a filthy parasite-

“Sir Max. I heard you had your eye on "Egoros's White Porcelain" for this auction.”

White porcelain.

...White porcelain?

Pottery? Why pottery?

I searched my memory for a moment.

“Sir Max. Can you hear me?”

Throb!

At that instant, the virus inside me pulsed hard and my vision flipped. Scenes from the past spread before my eyes like film rewinding.

"'Egoros's White Porcelain'! Opening bid, 3 million credits!"

"Number 131, 4 million!"

"Number 151, 4.1 million!"

"Number 131 again, 4.5 million!"

"Oh, number 151 calls 5 million!"

"The competition between 131 and 151 is intense!"

"...Ah."

That happened.

Egoros's White Porcelain. An item rumored to boost virility if you drank water from it.

“So you do want it after all.”

I understood what Jun Kandel meant. I used to get worked up over useless collector pieces like that, but now I barely cared.

"Yes. I do want it. It's a genuine antique, and it's been a while. But."

“...But?”

If I wanted him to think I was letting him win, I needed words like this.

"Unfortunately, I don't think I can attend this auction. I've been swamped with work lately."

It meant I would yield the white porcelain, and Jun Kandel smiled in satisfaction.

“Understood. A small gift will be delivered soon.”

The deal was closed in an instant.

I traded the porcelain for a small gift, and what that gift would be was obvious.

“Then goodbye.”

Jun Kandel hung up.

"...His voice is still grating."

Forget the porcelain and Rodriguez. I focused on the strange thing that had just happened.

Even for a regressor, it was hard to remember every trivial detail from decades ago.

Yet the memory of that old auction had come back like it happened yesterday.

The cause was probably-

"Was that you?"

I placed a hand on my collarbone.

No doubt about it. This virus fragment had revived my memory.

If so...

"...Dig deeper."

I closed my eyes.

Memories buried in dusty drawers of my mind. Things I had brushed past once. Among them, I searched for future information that could make money.

"You know that southern mine? I hear it hasn't produced anything lately. Not mana stone, not even decent iron ore."

Old memories spread before me like a panorama.

A flashy but decadent noble salon. Thick cigar smoke and expensive perfume mixing in the air.

"Anyone getting into the mana stone business these days is an idiot. Better to invest in capital real estate."

"True. Our house sold almost all our southern mining shares too. It was like pouring water into a bottomless bucket."

That was the time I mingled with nobles and discussed business.

When I drifted through the Order, and my life drifted with it.

"In a few years they'll all go through closure procedures. Nothing is left in that barren land."

"...Tsk. Some people break their nose even falling backward, while those Republic bastards just dig and mana stone pours out, huh?"

Those nobles had said the South, once the cradle of mana stone, was finished. Because of that, I also sold the mines I had bought in advance.

But one day, out of nowhere, an article broke.

The newspaper headline came back clearly.

[Unidentified mana wave detected in the Rommilton Mountains region, Beston County, Hermes Province in the South... Academic circles raise possibility of a large-scale mana stone vein discovery]

"Found it."

I opened my eyes.

Beston in Hermes, the Rommilton Mountains region. Mana stone mining demanded huge upfront costs and high failure risk, but once you hit a jackpot, the returns were enormous. The textbook hyper-risk, hyper-return business. In any case, House Ebenholtz would fund the mining costs.

I hurried out of the president's office and walked over to Dieter at the desk in the corner.

"Mr. Dieter. You heard, right? I acquired this company."

"Yes."

"Any chance you only serve the former president, or-"

"No. I am an employee of this company."

"...Good."

Dieter really was hard to read.

"From now on, you'll hold full authority over this company. At the same time, you'll also handle work as my personal administrative officer."

Maybe I imagined it, but Dieter's face seemed to brighten slightly.

Maybe he was the type who liked overwork.

"First order. We're buying all land across Beston County in southern Hermes. Keep it as quiet as possible so rumors don't spread."

Dieter looked up at me and nodded.

"Yes. I will do that."

Then he buried himself in mountain-like paperwork again. He did not even have a computer. He was handling everything by hand.

"I'll get you a computer too. Do you know how to use one?"

He looked up again and said,

"I will learn."

He pushed his rimless glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"...Right. Good work."

The more I watched him, the stranger he seemed compared to the rumors. He was a single-track man impossible to judge by normal standards, but maybe that was exactly why he was trustworthy.

Dieter Schmidt.

You are my first administrative officer.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rodriguez received good news.

He strode proudly into the backyard of Imperial Guard headquarters. Lieutenant General Strassen was waiting there.

"Loyalty!"

Rodriguez saluted first. Strassen, in plain clothes, smiled.

"Did you hear?"

"Yes, sir. I heard your agreement with Duke Kandel went well."

"...Right. We reached an agreement."

Strassen nodded. Rodriguez's cheeks flushed red with excitement.

"That is a relief. I believe this incident will become another opportunity and turning point for the Imperial Guard. We can cut out the stale nobles who maintained power under the name of tradition, and our Imperial Guard can step to the front-"

"-We decided to throw you away."

"...Step to the front...?"

Rodriguez's long speech stopped dead, and his expression froze in an instant.

He tilted his head as if he had misheard. Strassen let out a deep sigh.

"Rodriguez. Looks like you're some country bumpkin who rolled in from the East, so you don't understand how things work."

The lieutenant general stepped closer, yanked his tie, and whispered.

"Ebenholtz is a name you never touch carelessly, even if it's a newborn puppy."

In that instant, uniformed men appeared from the dark. They grabbed Rodriguez's arms roughly.

"S-sir? What is this-"

"Shh. Handle it quietly."

"Sir! Sir Strassen! What is this, what are you doing, sir!"

Rodriguez screamed as he was dragged away. At some point his mouth was gagged, and Strassen clicked his tongue and muttered.

"Idiot."

No matter how reckless he was, Maximilian was still Sebestian's only son. Rodriguez, a rural nobody, was dealing with a noble far above him, someone he could not even dare look up at.

"This is why country bumpkins don't know their place."

Strassen took a silver toothpick from his inner pocket and cleaned between his teeth.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

As if flicking out food scraps, someone's neck was severed.

* * *

My last day at the main house.

Engi delivered House Kandel's small gift. It was a zippered bag. I opened it, and Rodriguez's face was inside.

"Yeah. Confirmed."

"Yes."

Jun Kandel got the white porcelain at a relatively cheap price at the recent auction, and Rodriguez got his head cut off. In other words, Rodriguez's life was worth one piece of pottery.

He was always insignificant, but the Empire's high nobles judged human worth far more coldly.

"Engi. Didn't Father say anything?"

"I did not report it separately."

Engi's narrow eyes curved into a gentle line.

"He likely knows. He is probably proud of you. But Sir, if this is for your father, you don't need to go this far."

Engi seemed worried about how sharply I had changed. Around this time before regression, I was just going around trying fine dining places.

"No. I did this because I wanted to. It has nothing to do with Father."

I stared at Rodriguez's closed eyes.

"A man who didn't know his place tried to stand as my equal."

I held the bag back out to Engi.

"Burn it. Is the move ready?"

"Everything is finished."

From the wooden training sword my mother made for me when I was young to books worn by my hands, everything was packed into moving boxes. Furniture I used often, like my sofa and bed, had already been moved to the new mansion.

Engi had probably taken care of even the small details I never mentioned.

"Engi. Can I look through the Ebenholtz armory before we go?"

I was looking for a sword. I had to catch and crush Head-Eater, and no matter how I thought about it, standing alone without the family's help was just reckless pride.

I had to make full use of what I had been given. We had an enemy that demanded it.

"Of course. The entire armory belongs to you, Sir. This way."

Engi opened the door. As always, the way he guided me was gentle.

...To be honest.

I was sadder when Engi died than when my father's head was hung in the street.

I was a truly unfilial son.

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