WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 17

──────

Kill, or Save (2)

The Empire had autonomous territories too. Among them, "Gennen" was famous as a resort, the kind of place every proper Imperial noble was expected to own at least one villa. That also made it one of the places suffering most directly from the Empire's rot.

"......"

I arrived at Saint Bridge in Gennen. It was the only bridge linking the autonomous territory and the Empire, spanning a deep river.

"What a mess."

From a car parked well away from it, I watched.

“Repeal the evil law that oppresses the autonomous territory!”

“Repeal the evil law!”

Shouts roared through the air. Protesters packed both sides of the bridge.

This time of year, protests were frequent in Gennen. Before imperial annexation, Gennen had been a democracy, a nation without class ranks.

“Separatists destabilizing society, get out!”

The independence bloc, which demanded stronger autonomy for Gennen, clashed with the imperial bloc, which wanted full integration into the Empire.

If that conflict reached its peak, it would flow into the historical tide later called the Gennen Spring.

Their desperate struggle against an Empire they could never defeat. Too many people would die, and too many things of value would be destroyed.

"Imperialist bastards who do nothing but lick the Empire's asshole!"

"Braindead idiots with flowers in their heads. Maybe you'll wake up when your skulls crack open at a protest."

I watched in silence. There was no reason for me to get involved.

In something this big, even I was just a calf among killer whales. For now, all I could do was search for the Izenheim bastards hiding here and stirring things up.

They had to be here.

"I'll find them and kill them. Got it?"

I sent that hostility to the virus inside me.

You were no longer one of them. You were part of me now.

Then.

───KWA-A-A-A-A!

That startled me.

An explosion erupted without warning. People's screams tore through the air as a violent gust whipped across the bridge. Debris and sparks sprayed everywhere.

Only then did I step out of the car. I walked onto the bridge, now in total chaos.

Kyaa-a-a-ak──! Uaa-a-a-ak──!

People fled, shrieking. I moved against the flow, pushing through them.

Aaa-a-ak! Aak, uaa-a-ak──!

In case anything happened, I moved my sword into my hand.

"K, khh......"

Then I spotted someone on the right side of the bridge with a twisted ankle.

He looked young. He was slumped against the railing, with the river directly below him.

Trd-d-d-dk......

The badly damaged bridge was about to collapse.

Yet instead of worrying about himself, he was staring somewhere else.

"No......"

At the end of his gaze were three children. Four, maybe five years old, crying as they dangled from the broken edge of the bridge, ready to fall at any second.

"No─!"

He reached for them. It seemed pointless, but strange mana gathered around him.

Bright yellow and bright white. Particles like tangled sparks.

My eyes widened.

I remembered something old Edmund said before my regression.

"...With help from the Yaken tribe, we held out for a while at the start. They had power that could fight Dimensional Devourers..."

The Yaken tribe. Some of them were born with a special power, a supernatural ability people called psychic power.

──KWA-A-A-A-A-A!

In the next instant, a second explosion erupted. A massive steel support bent and crashed toward the young man.

I drew my sword. Shrrk. The bandages unfurled like flower petals, and the long blade surged free.

Swa-a-a-a-ak──.

Link.

Dozens of curved lines stitched across the air. Fluttering. Even to me, the flow was shockingly elegant, and the pillar caught in that current was cleanly sliced into small pieces.

* * *

──30 minutes earlier.

"Repeal the evil law that tramples autonomy!"

Yan Novak, who joined today's scheduled protest, came from Gennen's lower class.

His family had farmed, shined shoes, and made dishes for generations, dating back to when Gennen was still an independent nation.

"Repeal it──!"

The eldest child in a family of two sons and three daughters, Yan grew up in a slum on Gennen's outskirts.

Yet he never felt miserable about poverty. His home was warm.

"Repeal the evil law that tramples autonomy!"

When he was little, everyone struggled, so they endured with smiles. Because they were together, they could laugh.

But as he got older, reality began to sink in.

'Hey, you beggar bastard. Stop acting tough.'

'What are you gonna do? You even got a hundred dollars?'

'Ugh, this stinking bastard......'

From the day he entered an Imperial school, Yan faced hatred he could not understand. He could not grasp why extreme poverty and family background had to be targets of contempt. He endured anyway.

'Should people like that even be allowed in?'

'I don't know. My mom keeps filing complaints......'

Despite all the bullying and humiliation, Yan did not give up. He kept pushing. He worked three jobs a day and still focused on school.

But then.

'I'm telling you, that homeless bastard stole it! That stinking piece of trash.'

He was unfairly expelled over one incident.

That was what drove Yan into social activism. He could endure this injustice himself, but if nothing changed, one day his siblings and countless other children would suffer the same thing.

Gennen's problems were not just today's problems. They were not only his, either. They had been festering for far too long.

The powerful colluded with the Empire as bourgeois elites, manipulated the legal system, and exploited people's lives through the autonomous territory's institutions. They built walls of status and wealth. Then they wanted to be called nobles.

"Abolish the evil laws that exploit workers──!"

Yan, only sixteen, had become an activist. Society had made him one.

Even so, he still held his hope and convictions close. He treasured abandoned books, gathered discarded magic journals from the ground, and studied them.

His dream was to become a mage.

"You little punk, where do you think you're-"

"─Guarantee autonomy!"

There were many things protests alone could not achieve.

Shouts without growth were empty, and he had to become better himself. So even now, he still dreamed of becoming a mage.

"Go study at home, you brat!"

The more adults shouted at him in anger, the louder Yan shouted back. Then, in that instant.

───KWA-A-A-A!

A sudden explosion surged. Cries and screams burst out all around him.

"Khk!"

Caught in the shockwave, Yan was thrown aside. When he opened his eyes through the pain, his body was slammed against the bridge railing.

"...Khk!"

He tried to move, but his chest hurt badly. It felt like his ribs were broken, and even breathing was hard.

"Kgh."

He coughed blood and forced himself up.

Then.

"W, waa-a-a-ng──"

He heard crying from somewhere. Yan whipped his head toward it.

Three children he did not know were hanging from a railing that looked ready to snap.

Yan's eyes widened.

Kki-gi-gi-gik──.

The railing was collapsing. The three children would fall. They would hit the river and drown.

"No......"

In the ash-filled wind, their faces overlapped with his younger siblings.

Yan reached out.

This could not happen. It could not. Children, at least children, could not be sacrificed to a world like this.

"No─!"

Yan forced his mana into motion. The magic he had only learned by peeking over shoulders had never worked even once, but this time he had to make it work.

He reached for the children, and-

Kwa-a-a!

At that moment, a second explosion hit. A much larger blast shook everything around him. One of the bridge pillars snapped and crashed toward Yan.

"Ah......"

The steel pillar came rushing down. Time seemed to slow, and his life flashed before his eyes. Yan swallowed in despair. His eyes closed on their own.

......But.

No matter how long he waited, his body did not burst. His breath did not stop, either.

Yan opened his eyes, dazed.

"Who......?"

A knight stood there holding a longsword. Blond hair, golden eyes. Sentinel uniform. The Empire's strongest knight order, and at the same time the force the independence bloc feared most.

"Is this the time to stand still?"

The knight looked down at him as he said it. His voice was cold enough to freeze your eardrums.

"Ah!"

Only then did Yan look back toward the children.

Whiiiiiing─── A heavy gust swept past the railing.

Kududduk! The railing the children clung to snapped completely.

There were no screams. They had already passed out.

"No!"

He reached toward the falling children. Veins stood out in his arm.

Mana surged clearly.

Pajijik──!

A strange spark burst in the air beside the children.

Bright yellow. Or white. Or maybe completely colorless [colorless].

Yan found all three children in his own arms.

"...Huh?"

He blinked blankly. The weight of the children in his arms was unmistakable.

Then, a beat later, pain shot through him like his skull was being crushed.

"Kkeu-eu-eukgeuk─!"

"Spatial talent."

The knight muttered it suddenly. His accent was perfectly aristocratic.

"You're Yaken."

Yaken. Yan's heart dropped. His bloodline had indeed been Yaken from his ancestors onward, and that alone had always been enough reason for discrimination.

"But you must hide it, until you become strong enough."

"...?"

But the knight's words were strange. Yan could not understand them, so he could only stare.

"Your name?"

He could not answer. His lips would not move. The knight's overwhelming presence held his whole body in place.

"Do not make me ask twice."

Yan barely forced out a single syllable. At a time like this, his short name helped.

"...Yan."

The knight gave a small nod, then turned and started walking away.

Yan stared at his back in a daze.

Wiiiiiiing──!

The blaring siren snapped him back. Chiiiiiik! Smoke grenades hissed as police rushed in.

"Yan! Are you okay?!"

One of his comrades ran up. Yan immediately pushed the unconscious children toward him.

"Take care of these kids first!"

"What? Where did they come from? Who are they?"

"I don't know either. Just take them!"

"Shit, what about you?!"

"I'll find a way out! Hurry!"

The bridge was wrecked anyway, so no one was escaping quickly.

"Damn it. You better come back!"

"Just go!"

His comrade ran off with the children. Watching them go, Yan let out a relieved breath. A faint smile touched his lips.

It lasted only a moment.

Police charged at Yan.

* * *

Somewhere in Gennen.

I was in a place so thick with smoke that everything blurred together. Brushing dust off my knight uniform, I walked in silence.

────Thump.

At some point, my heart started pounding.

It meant an Izenheim was nearby.

───Thump.

I left the bridge and moved into Gennen's ruined streets.

──Thump.

Police were beating people down without identifying friend or foe, and civilians were screaming.

─Thump.

I passed through that chaos and looked at the mouth of an alley where nothing could be seen.

Thump!

I stepped in. At the entrance, I looked inside.

"Whew. Thank god everyone made it."

"If we wait, support will c-......"

Five people stood at the dead end. Their voices stopped. They all turned to me at once. Their expressions hardened when they recognized the Sentinel uniform.

I should change into plain clothes. This uniform only raised pointless alarm.

"Don't come!"

They raised their swords. One of them pulled a revolver.

I did not need to kill all of them. The blond, blue-eyed man at the very back. He looked similar to an Imperial, but my radar reacted to him.

"We'll hold him off! Sage! Go first!"

Sage. I vaguely remembered the name. An executive in Gennen's independence bloc, a member of the Revolutionary Faction.

So you were one of them too.

Whiiiiiik─!

A group on hoverboards suddenly appeared above the wall. Revolutionary Faction bastards in masks. Sage climbed onto one of their boards and tried to escape.

If he got airborne, I would not catch him.

So I had to move before he flew.

I gripped my sword.

────Tick.

A resonance in my soul.

Time slowed for a moment. I rushed through the people frozen in place and swung my blade. The curved longsword cut through the hoverboards first.

Boards falling apart like fragments, and Izenheim "Sage."

I stopped right in front of the bastard as he fell.

"......"

Without a word, I looked into his eyes. Staring at those shaking pupils, I spoke in a low voice.

"It's you."

He gritted his teeth and pulled up his mana. There was a suicide belt at his waist.

But my sword fired before it could activate.

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