The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 157

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 157

──────

Gift (3)

...I attended this hearing in person as a spectator and watched it unfold. I had to. It involved matters that would never be disclosed to the press.

As expected, the proceedings were a disgrace. Oswin's background and stubborn resolve got the retrial accepted, but the trial itself had already tilted.

The Imperial Guard would never back down, and the judge was on their side.

No, not just the judge. Before long, this entire judiciary might become theirs.

"The probability that this family tree is forged is very high."

Witnesses requested by the Imperial Guard. From appraisers already bought and paid for, the word forgery rang out again and again.

On the other hand, Professor Oswin had no witnesses. Naturally. If you went against the Imperial Guard, you could end up hanged before you even knew what happened.

"...Counsel. Until the trial date, you did not submit any witness application at all."

Even after the judge said that, Professor Oswin stayed silent.

Had he run out of words, or had he already given up?

"Counsel. Are you giving up your argument?"

The judge asked, and Oswin lifted his head.

"...No. I did not submit a separate witness application."

As if he had made up his mind, he clenched his teeth.

"Under the in-court witness system, I would like to request a new appraiser as a witness, one who is present in this courtroom right now."

In-court witness. A system that allowed someone present in the courtroom, including the gallery, to be called to the stand immediately without separate procedure.

"...Here?"

"Yes. The witness I am requesting is in the gallery right here."

He wrote and submitted the request. The presiding judge looked at it.

His expression twitched.

At the very moment I was about to find this suddenly interesting.

"I would like to request the Sentinel knight sitting over there."

The professor said something bizarre and shifted his gaze. His straight, unbending eyes turned toward me.

"I request Sir Maximilian Ebenholtz as the appraiser."

A turn I had never expected. Oswin pointed at me, and every spectator looked at me.

That rush of attention, and what he had just said, felt very theatrical.

"..."

Suddenly, I was interested.

I met Oswin's gaze quietly.

How long had he known I was here?

"...I, I object!"

The Imperial Guard side sprang up like a released spring.

"Your Honor! This sudden witness request, with no prior agreement at all, may cause confusion in court, in court proceedings, and in the trial itself!"

They were spouting nonsense, but the judge gave no response and only watched my face.

He was probing my intentions. Recalculating the weight of power.

Those bought with money knelt to bigger money, and those who clung to power attached themselves to greater power.

It was the unavoidable logic of the strong devouring the weak.

"Sir Maximilian. Will you accept the witness request?"

The judge asked politely. I thought for a moment, then removed my hat and gave a small nod.

"Yes. Please come to the witness stand."

I rose from my seat and crossed the central aisle of the courtroom. Then I stepped onto the witness stand below the bench.

"..."

Oswin and the Imperial Guard. The judge and the clerk. His wrongfully detained mother, Sarah Muller, looked at me.

Thankfully, there was no Izenheim among them.

I spoke to Oswin Mason.

He placed a thick stack of papers in front of me.

* * *

Tick.

The second hand moved.

Time passed.

Oswin kept wiping his face with dry palms as if it were burning, while Maximilian quietly reviewed the evidence. Not a trace of change appeared on his face.

That stillness became tension itself for everyone watching, heavy with every possible meaning.

Tick.

In the lobby outside the courtroom, lawyers who had just heard the news could not hide their confusion.

"What in the world is this..."

"Why did Professor Oswin-"

"More than that, why was Maximilian in there?"

"Why else. He came to monitor it."

"So this means Maximilian is better than the Imperial Guard?"

"No chance."

The situation itself unsettled the lawyers. One of the people who drafted the 「Imperial Civil Law」 was now reviewing the authenticity of family trees.

An imperialist more soaked in chosen-people arrogance than any other noble would never side with commoners accused of ideology crimes.

"No matter what, Maximilian is... one of the people who built the Imperial Civil Law."

"Let's watch. You never know."

They bit their lips and let out deep sighs.

Tick.

At the same time, in Sonnet Kandel's office, she also heard what was happening there. Informants she had scattered across the courthouse moved busily, relaying the latest situation to her.

"..."

Sonnet pushed up her glasses and read the reports.

To be honest.

She wanted Oliver Muller to survive safely.

That was an emotion called friendship.

Even if she had grown up half her life in the palace without warmth, it was impossible to have no private feelings at all.

Oswin Mason, the teacher who had taught her law and reason since childhood.

Oliver Muller, the student who had always focused on his studies in a corner of Oswin's school.

Under normal circumstances, this case would never even have reached court. The only reason she pushed it this far, even while taking on debt to Maximilian, was one thing.

A gift for them.

The people who reminded her that someone like Sonnet Kandel had once had a past like that, that I too had once had human feelings like that.

For you.

"Hmm..."

Sonnet let out a faint sigh and slowly closed her eyes.

The darkness in the room wrapped around her quietly and gently.

Tick.

The air inside the courtroom felt frozen. Cold enough to sting. Not even breathing could be heard. Every gaze gathered in one place.

Maximilian examining the family tree. Sentences and seals settled into his sharp gaze.

"..."

Soon, he tapped the family tree and related documents into order and set them down.

He slowly looked around at the people filling the courtroom, then spoke.

"I am not a professional appraiser who makes a living from document authentication."

That single line made the whole court rigid. The flow of air, the weight of space, everything leaned toward him.

In extreme tension, everyone stared only at his lips as each word formed.

"Since ancient times, the Empire has managed bloodlines and family registers thoroughly and with utmost importance in order to prove Aran lineage."

Now a storm would sweep across the Empire, one that obsessively dug up and verified records from generation after generation.

"The family tree of the defendants' grandparents from thirty years ago, and the original birth registration records of their parents."

Maximilian's long, pale fingers slowly brushed over the old documents.

"The age and wear of the paper used in these documents, and the degree of discoloration in the ink used for the signatures."

Tick.

"Above all, the wear marks on the iron seal stamped by government offices, and even the minute differences in pressure that seal left in the paper grain."

He examined and compared every part of the documents in detail.

"This family tree..."

He simply stated the fact as it was, without the slightest addition, subtraction, or concealment.

"Can be judged authentic, with no traces of forgery or alteration found."

He was only appraising.

The families cheered belatedly at his statement, while the Imperial Guard's faces fell apart. Even the judge looked deeply startled and pressed between his brows.

Only Oswin stood apart from that chaos, blankly staring up at Maximilian.

"..."

Heir of Ebenholtz, and one of the people who enacted the Imperial Civil Law.

If I stepped outside my own prejudice, he was the man most capable of accuracy.

He would not sell his honor just to kill one commoner. He would simply enforce the law strictly and precisely. That was the face of the noble called Maximilian...

Tick.

At the witness stand, Maximilian suddenly glanced at the courtroom clock.

Tick.

It was a very irritating sound.

...

Maximilian officially gave an appraisal opinion that the document was not forged. The Imperial Guard could not dare challenge his authority. Then, in a ridiculous farce, the appraisers who had testified forgery began rushing to submit revised opinions, claiming they had "belatedly" discovered their serious mistakes.

"...What a relief. Truly a relief."

At the Zestpol office, Oswin Mason looked at the mother of defendant Oliver Muller.

His mother, Sarah Muller, covered her mouth with both hands and trembled as she barely held back sobs.

"In just a few more nights, your son will return safely."

"Thank you... truly, truly thank you, Professor..."

"No. You should not thank me."

With reddened eyes, Oswin Mason looked around the office.

Though it was not their own case, though they had so much to lose if they stood against the Imperial Guard, though one wrong step could brand them ideology criminals and drag even their families into danger... countless lawyers and fellow scholars had gathered here willingly and lent their wisdom to save a wronged young man.

"You should thank everyone gathered here. And."

Oswin gave a warm smile and comforted the weeping mother.

"In the end, it was Oliver's sincere character, refusing to give up even under a false charge, that saved him."

Knock knock.

A light knock sounded.

"Hm?"

Who would come at this hour?

Oswin walked over and opened the door. A woman in a wide-brimmed hat stood there, Sonnet Kandel.

"I heard the news. Congratulations, Professor."

Sonnet Kandel offered a short greeting in a dry voice. Oswin's expression brightened.

"It was thanks to your advice. I owe you."

"Do you?"

"Yes. Truly. I had my own prejudices too. Shamefully enough."

"..."

Sonnet stayed silent, her expression unchanged. Oswin added in a voice full of fire.

"But this is only the start. Among the many young people the Imperial Guard seized at random in Zestpol, there are still countless children as wronged and innocent as Oliver."

"..."

Sonnet listened quietly.

"Yes. Let's meet later, with Oliver."

Leaving that faint smile behind, she turned away.

* * *

I personally visited the headquarters of the Special Imperial Guard battalion for the proper enforcement of the 「Imperial Civil Law」. I had come to demand the original records on Oliver Muller, the key defendant in this ideology trial.

"Looks, birth registration, even grandparent records, everything says he is a perfectly pure Aran."

"Ah, yes. I don't know the field details very well. There was a separate investigator bastard who directly dragged him in."

Lieutenant Colonel Lorentz sat across from me in the visitation room. Before my regression, he had been a notorious war criminal. Now he was drenched in sweat, making excuses.

"But still, even if someone is a clean-blooded Aran, if his ideology is impure, isn't the point of this bill to lock him up?"

If we only chased physical evidence, we might miss the real traitors who needed to be caught. I thought that too.

The saying, "Even if ten criminals go free, do not create one wrongfully accused person," was only incompetence that hastened destruction in our era.

What mattered was standards and direction. Our strength was limited.

It meant we could not waste it by grabbing and locking up fellow Aran.

"If he openly planned complaints or resistance against the enforcement of Imperial law, then of course he should be punished."

"Exactly. But those rats hide and whisper, so it's very hard to separate them. Our difficulties too-"

"It is not difficult."

I tapped the table lightly with my finger and shot back coldly.

"If you put more effort into routine surveillance and intelligence collection."

"...To be honest, we wanted to. But in this Zestpol night school case, one investigator bastard was unusually overeager and pushed too hard trying to rack up results..."

Lorentz was desperate to dodge responsibility somehow.

He was not a soldier like Schweitzer. He also did not have a powerful backer like Leutern. A talentless war criminal from a nouveau riche family.

In other words, worthless trash.

"Then bring in that overeager investigator, and the suspect Oliver."

I picked up Oliver's investigation file as I spoke.

"...Yes. I will bring them."

Lorentz shuffled out of the room, and I waited in silence.

Creeeak.

Soon the heavy iron door opened, and someone stepped inside.

My fingers twitched almost imperceptibly.

...Thump.

Below my collarbone, my heart thudded.