The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 164

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 164

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Exploration

A dawn that felt like the sky was breaking apart.

In the Sentinel office, Kairon was still gathering every document he had.

These were the fruits of a relentless hunt, won by fully mobilizing the intelligence network he had run like scattered cells for years. The result of the obsession he had built with blood and sweat would finally shine today.

At the public hearing that would judge Deputy Commander Anton.

Anton’s former lover, Martel, who had become part of the Revolutionary Faction. The child they lost, a doctor’s testimony. The love letters they had exchanged.

Kairon tied the thick stack of files together and shoved it into a high-grade leather briefcase.

He rose from his seat and stepped into the empty corridor of the Order, an uncontrollable smile spreading across his lips.

If he fed all of this to the press now, Anton would definitely go down in flames. He would tumble into the abyss with no chance to recover.

Certain of that, he headed down to the underground parking lot.

“......?”

Under the dim lights, someone was standing there.

In the dark, his blond hair gleamed coldly. He seemed to have noticed Kairon too, and turned toward him.

“Sir Kairon.”

Maximilian.

“May I have a brief conversation with you?”

He asked politely, with a faint smile. Kairon nodded in good spirits.

“Of course. What is it?”

“......”

Instead of answering, Maximilian quietly looked at the briefcase in Kairon’s hand.

“Ah, this?”

Kairon lifted the bag.

“You can look forward to it. It is the final wedge that will completely cut off old man Anton’s last breath.”

Maximilian watched him in silence.

This too had been Kairon’s effort.

A man who had run without end to seize what he wanted.

Kairon was a man who did not change.

And people who did not change were special for that alone.

Even in the waves of war that would soon crash in, Kairon would still stand as Kairon.

Still.

“I do not think a finishing shot is necessary.”

Maximilian slowly shook his head.

“...What?”

Kairon’s smile froze. He looked at Maximilian with a faintly twisted expression.

“We are Imperial Aran, and also Sentinel knights.”

As he said that, Maximilian held out his hand to Kairon. He was asking for the documents inside.

“And Sentinel is still Sentinel in the end.”

Kairon’s eyes shook hard. For a moment, he could not understand.

This was the perfect chance to crush Anton and cut down his entire faction.

Then, by his confused ear.

“Sir Kairon.”

Maximilian called in a low voice.

“What brought you this far, the dream of a knight named Kairon, or.”

In the dawn parking lot, the settled smell of dust and the sound of wind were unusually clear.

Outside, snowflakes shimmered, coldly, almost warmly.

“That feeling you still cannot let go of.”

A feeling.

Kairon looked at Maximilian.

He stood there in a daze and searched his own heart.

He picked up the old sediment buried deep in his chest.

The inferiority that had piled into his bones as orthodox nobles dismissed and scorned him as new money.

That ugly truth inside him, trying to grind Anton into the gutter, Anton who had shone above him despite coming from a fallen noble line, just to compensate for that vicious inferiority.

Maximilian was right.

Anton had already collapsed enough.

Even so, this malice, trying to bury him by scraping up facts unrelated to the hearing, was not for achieving my dream. It was only to ruin him.

“...There is nothing more for me to gain.”

As Maximilian said, Anton too was Aran in the end, and Sentinel too.

For Sentinel, for the Empire, and most of all for my own future beyond him.

There was no need to go out of my way to throw filthy insults and mud over the line.

“......”

A deep sigh rose from Kairon’s chest.

He pressed his brows, then handed the briefcase to Maximilian.

“...Take it.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Maximilian accepted it politely.

“Come with me. Someone is waiting for you.”

He pointed to a car behind them. An attendant sat in the driver’s seat, hands on the wheel.

Kairon got into the back seat, and Maximilian gave a short bow before vanishing beyond the parking lot.

Vroooom.

Inside the car moving through the hollow dawn roads, Kairon sank into thought as he watched the cold winter night of the snow-covered Empire. Too many thoughts tangled on their own.

Before long, they arrived in front of a restaurant with dimmed lights.

“We are here.”

With little time left before closing, Kairon walked in under respectful guidance.

He arrived at a private room deep inside.

“......”

Inside the wide room behind the heavy oak door, there was only one person.

Anton Jefren sat there alone.

......

Elsewhere, in a secret chamber of the Imperial Palace.

Kents Bertem sat across from Chief Secretary Grossman, sipping top-shelf wine. Glug, glug. The crystal glasses stained red and sparkled under the grand lights.

“It seems Anton Jefren is about to give up becoming commander.”

Kents spoke in a voice drunk on victory.

Anton had failed, and Sentinel had split into commoners and nobles. The palace faction now had endless gains to take.

For one thing, Kairon would be far easier to control than stubborn Anton. The biggest reason palace politics and capital had not been able to penetrate Sentinel so far was Anton’s rigidity.

“If so, Kents, your time to move in seriously seems to be coming soon.”

Grossman savored a sip of wine and casually opened the topic.

“Move in, meaning.”

“A new minister post will be established soon.”

At that moment, Kents’s eyes shook with excitement.

“It is about time we properly handled the regular army and Sentinel.”

A key post managing both the regular army and Sentinel. A long-held wish Grossman had prepared for years.

If he rose to that seat, he could reach higher, and faster, than his older brother who was heir to the house.

“Ha, hahaha, hahahaha. That is excellent news.”

Kents burst into loud laughter. Grossman kept a soft smile and swirled his glass.

“But about that closed hearing. I heard you deliberately brought up the miscarriage.”

To become an imperial minister too, as Anton had just experienced, a hearing was mandatory.

“Yes. I wanted to make it certain.”

“Can you handle the cleanup?”

Kents nodded as if it were obvious.

“It was a closed hearing anyway.”

What was said in palace closed hearings was kept in strict secrecy. Fragments got passed from mouth to mouth, but no one could confirm them clearly.

By imperial law, they were top-secret, punishable if leaked.

“Still, people can guess to some degree.”

“That is better for us. We leak lies first, mixed in.”

Kents answered calmly, swirling his wine.

“The rumors will mix themselves. We already prepared. The miscarriage part probably will not be said to have come from me, but.”

As if he could guess the answer, Grossman raised one eyebrow slightly.

“It will likely be settled as something Maximilian von Ebenholtz said.”

It was a closed hearing. He could not publicly explain it was not him, and trying to explain would itself look strange.

More than anything, Sentinel factions that had lost Anton would believe what they wanted to believe. They would want to hate someone clearly on the other side.

“Is this not exactly what politics is?”

Drop Anton, divide the Order, and stain Maximilian’s dignity.

Even Kents thought it was beautiful politics.

* * *

Sentinel Grand Hall.

This was where the public confirmation hearing for Anton Jefren’s commander ratification was being held, and the place was packed. Hundreds of current and former knights, palace officials, and reporters from major imperial press outlets stared at the podium, holding their breath. The tension wrapping the room felt heavy.

Then.

“Urgent news!”

Someone suddenly ran in from the entrance of the grand hall, shouting in panic.

“Deputy Commander Anton Jefren has just fully withdrawn from commander ratification!”

At that first sentence, everyone jumped to their feet at the news that Anton had dropped out as a commander candidate.

“And he is stepping down from the Sentinel front line!”

At the second sentence, the hearing hall exploded. Reporters scrambled to grab cameras and notebooks before losing the scoop, then yelled and rushed out in a wave.

Palace nobles looked blank for a moment, then smiled in satisfaction. Commoner knights started muttering, faces burning with anger.

“......”

In the middle of all that chaos, I simply sat quietly and watched.

“...Hey, Max.”

Tiana pushed through the commoner knights’ anger and came to my side.

“What exactly did you say in that closed hearing?”

Disappointment she could not hide sat in her eyes.

“...Me?”

I pointed at myself. Tiana nodded as if it were obvious.

“Yes.”

“Hmm. Classified.”

I truly was not allowed to say it, especially in a place this public.

I answered dryly and rose from my seat, but Tiana grabbed my sleeve and whispered.

“At least say something. Do you even know what kind of damned rumors are going around about what you said in that closed hearing?”

This too might have been unavoidable. Since the Imperial Civil Law, my image had probably hardened into exactly that shape.

No.

Someone in the palace might have spread it on purpose.

What I said to Anton in the closed hearing might have irritated some people there.

Kents Bertem, especially.

This might be familiar politics to them, but there was no need to correct each point or explain myself.

Before long, the transcript would leak.

“Rumors are only rumors. Do not believe what you want to believe. Believe only what you can see.”

Leaving Tiana behind, I walked out of the grand hall under the cold stares of commoner knights that carried killing intent.

I still had a lot to do.

* * *

Anton Jefren gave up commander ratification and left the Sentinel Order. Because of that, Commander Alberich’s retirement age was forcibly extended by six months.

Alberich, who desperately wanted to retire, he was already over seventy, looked miserable, but there was no helping it.

In exchange, Kairon became the sole candidate for the vacant deputy commander post.

He had finally drawn close to the place he had craved all his life, and I boarded the newest Kanillan-made military transport aircraft.

“...I want to jump.”

Inside the transport cutting through the distant sky, my head hurt.

No time to rest. I wanted to eat something good.

My body was harder and stronger than ever, but I needed to manage my mental stress. Maybe I should just make a descent.

Thunk.

Before I knew it, we had landed at the Lobrus military airport. The hatch opened as the craft settled.

Whoosh. The surge of cold wind made me flinch.

This was beyond cold. It felt like the air itself was frozen, but I did not show it. That was what nobles did. My mana would adapt to the environment soon anyway. Ebenholtz resembled nature, and cold was just part of nature in the end.

Wheeeeeee.

Amid the raging bitter wind, a familiar figure welcomed me.

“Good to see you, Knight Maximilian.”

Yelena Yumanov. A power broker of the Eastern Alliance and the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs. Her face was quite familiar now, and she stood there in uniform.

“You are alone, without even an escort, Sir Knight. Is that what being a knight means?”

She looked behind me and asked, sounding puzzled.

“Yes. I wanted this visit to stay quiet.”

I answered with deliberate ease.

In truth, Schatz, my strongest force, had already entered Lobrus territory over land under a disguised identity. There was no reason to show the eastern bastards my hand.

“I see. Let us go.”

I got into the waiting car with Yelena. The engine growled heavily and carried us toward the capital of Lobrus.

Even Lobrus cars were heavy. It felt like riding a giant brown bear.

Meaning the ride quality was not very good.

“......”

I watched the scenery pass outside the window. The rough, grand architecture unique to the Eastern Alliance, people walking the streets wrapped head to toe, and the Izenheim.

For now, I planned to establish multiple footholds here in Lobrus.

No matter who I was, I could not safely pull her out of the coming vortex of the Great Purge without minimum safety measures.

No, first I had to check whether Yelena had the will and ability to keep herself alive in that power struggle.

If she was swept away and died just like that, I had no reason to save her.

I had not come to find a weak refugee. I came to find a powerful, dependable strategic partner who could shape the Empire’s future with me.

“We are here.”

We arrived at the restaurant quickly. I stepped out of the car. Honestly, I was excited. I had never tasted Eastern food in my life.

“It is not Lilac Vita, but it is still good enough to be called the East’s best.”

If the food was good, my stress would ease.

When I came to my senses, a dish piled high with sturgeon roe was in front of me.

I cut into it with my knife and took a bite. It was definitely a new taste. It deserved to be called a delicacy.

“...Your formality and etiquette are really impressive.”

Yelena seemed fascinated by the way I handled the knife and moved.

“More importantly, what exactly are the ingredients in this dish? I know caviar, but.”

“Yes. Sturgeon eggs, caviar, and bear paw.”

“...Ah. Bear paw.”

It did not look like one. Yelena smirked.

“That bear is very hard to hunt. How does it taste?”

“There does not seem to be any special recipe, but it is very good. I would even want to bring this caviar into the Empire.”

Yelena nodded.

“The caviar is managed by House Yumanov. So, shall we write an import-export contract right now?”

She asked in a joking tone, but I was serious.

“Good. Let us write it now. I will take it with me when I return to the Empire.”

Fine food was my hobby. Eating delicacies from land, sea, and sky made me feel the meaning of this world’s existence. It made me accept, with my whole body, why this world must never be destroyed.

“Uh. Yes. I will deliver the contract later.”

“Ah, so you were here.”

At that moment, the restaurant door opened and another guest appeared.

A small-bodied man with a rather unpleasant face.

I recognized him.

Zerof. The one regarded as the General Secretary’s second-in-command. A core axis of power driving this coming Great Purge.

“An Imperial knight. Just as I heard, dazzling enough to make one jealous.”

Zerof smiled and sat in the seat beside us. Yelena clearly did not like him, and neither did I, but this meeting was necessary.

“Sir Knight.”

Zerof stared straight into my face.

His licking gaze felt filthy.

“I will ask directly.”