WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 170

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Do Not Abandon Comrades (2)

Whoooooosh-

Northern Lobrus. A snow mountain whipped by a blizzard.

The place had settled as if nothing had happened, and the three of us stood there.

"Haa..."

Yelena let out a relieved breath. I smiled faintly and looked over the Adversary corpses.

"Ms. Yelena. Did you know?"

Five bodies in total. I split open the chests of the ones sprawled across the snow with my longsword.

Crunch!

"I'm pretty good at telling subspecies apart."

I pried bone and flesh apart and pulled out a still-warm heart with my bare hand.

Chaotic circuits were tangled beside the myocardium. It was a subspecies heart.

Yelena's eyes widened.

"So they were subspecies."

"Yes. Most likely Izenheim."

I placed the heart into a box I had prepared in advance.

Every Izenheim heart was subject to analysis. We could identify them as subspecies by heart structure, but we still could not pinpoint the exact subtype, Izenheim, from that alone.

"...You can identify Izenheim?"

Yelena narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Yes. It is not that surprising. Izenheim give off a foul stench."

While Yelena and Schatz watched, I opened the other two chests and recovered their hearts as well.

"The smell comes from the Izenheim species itself."

Tap, tap. I shook blood from my hands and gave a cold smile.

"Let's move. Schatz?"

"Yes."

Schatz signaled to Yelena with her eyes. Yelena moved to the point with Schatz first, and I laid my sword on the Izenheim corpses.

Hoooo-

Resonance of the virus. Mana was absorbed through the longsword. I did not know exactly how this worked or what kind of power it would become for me. But the virus grew stronger by feeding on their mana.

"...Done?"

Thump.

Lately, it answered me pretty often. Ah, and for reference, the virus's "digestive capacity" had limits, so this could not continue forever.

"Yeah."

I swung the longsword and chopped up what remained of the corpses. The blizzard would sweep over them and bury them on its own.

After that, I followed behind Schatz and Yelena, who had already left.

Before long, we reached a perilously steep cliff on the snowy mountain.

"It's here."

The mana-propelled glider Schatz had prepared was waiting there, with wings made of wood and special fabric.

"Ms. Yelena. We'll ride the updraft and wind, cross the border, and fly out."

A natural craft that would never be caught by detection nets. We would cross the border using only this glider and mana, then enter the Empire with a vehicle we had prepared.

"...Can we really do that with just this?"

Looking down at the raging white blizzard below the cliff, Yelena swallowed hard.

"Yes. The wind is blowing west anyway."

I gripped the glider handle.

"Hold on to my back."

"..."

Yelena looked at Schatz beside her. Schatz shook her head.

"I'm fine."

Of course. Schatz could cross border zones like this on foot.

She could pass unnoticed by anyone.

"Then..."

Yelena pressed herself against me, and I lowered my stance.

I got ready to run. I could feel her trembling through my back.

"Don't worry. Knights are freest in the sky."

"Ah, um..."

Before she could get any more scared, haah!

I drove both legs forward and sprinted toward the cliff.

In only five steps, my feet left the ground and found open air.

I caught the current and shot upward.

"Aaah!"

I ignored the voice behind me. I simply gave myself to the sky.

Whoooooooosh!

Tearing through the skin-cutting blizzard, I spread the wing and glided past the border of Lobrus.

A pleasant wind rushed in.

It felt like a flight that stripped away all my tension and stress.

I smiled brightly and began a descent that meant something different than usual.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Empire's central district.

Sentinel Order Deputy Commander Office.

"...Ha."

Kairon ground his teeth, forcing down his anger.

What a rotten mess.

"That worm."

Bang! He slammed his fist onto the wooden desk.

"...Ah."

He glanced at it, wondering if he had left a mark. Luckily, he had not.

"..."

Rub, rub. Rub, rub. He wiped his palm across the desk.

As if that was not enough, he almost reached for a cloth, then stopped.

Cliff's voice replayed in his ears.

'I have nothing to say.'

That bastard who kept repeating that brainless line, a knight not fit to be called one.

'The Imperial Palace will use this incident as leverage.'

Kairon had rebuked him with stern authority, but

'You people who drove out Deputy Commander Anton-'

'I'm the deputy commander, Cliff.'

'You people who drove out Deputy Commander Anton.'

'I'm the deputy commander, Cliff.'

'Weren't you hoping to wear the Imperial Palace's leash from the beginning?'

Cliff had said it all too easily.

'From the start, Knight Kairon also-'

'Deputy commander.'

'Knight Kairon also used the Imperial Palace's power to sit in that seat.'

'...'

Kairon had glared at him. Rage surged up from his core and pounded at his skull, but he forced a smile and endured it. There was no need to drag out the argument.

He had never liked that hardhead anyway.

'You're dismissed. There is no coming back from this.'

As Kairon stood and turned away, Cliff spat out more nonsense.

'Yes. Thank you, Knight Kairon.'

Kairon stopped, glared again, and snapped back.

'I said deputy commander, you lunatic-'

Knock knock-

The knock shattered his recollection. Kairon ran a hand through his hair.

At some point, his forehead had grown burning hot.

"Come in."

Kairon's administrative officer entered and said,

"Deputy Commander. Knight Maximilian has returned."

* * *

The moment I returned to my office after finishing a solo mission, I received some interesting news.

"...There was a disturbance while you were away, Sir Knight."

I listened to the officer's report while scanning Cliff's explosion case file.

"Is this a knight order or a political arena..."

I set the document down and rose from my seat.

"Where is Knight Cliff now?"

"He's in the waiting room for the temporary disciplinary committee."

Cliff's disciplinary action had already been decided while I was gone. Now it was time to debate the severity.

The Imperial Palace leeches, including Grossman, would never miss a chance to drag down Sentinel's authority.

I headed there.

[Waiting Room]

When I opened the door and stepped in, I saw Cliff with a hardened face.

He spotted me too, and his expression turned fierce at once.

"..."

A short silence passed between us.

I sighed. Cliff ground his teeth.

"Why are you here?"

"You don't know? I have internal audit authority over the Order."

It was authority granted by the Imperial Palace after I reviewed Adria fairly and impartially.

"Knight Cliff. You look deeply dissatisfied."

At my question, Cliff gave a bitter laugh.

"As if I wouldn't be."

Anton's influence and reputation were that strong. Strong enough that incidents Anton himself never wanted could still happen. Proof of the upright life he had lived.

"Good timing. There was something I wanted to ask you."

"At the closed hearing, the one who first tore open Deputy Commander Anton's wounds and stirred them up, lower than a beast..."

A clipped line forced out through gritted teeth and glaring eyes.

"Was it you?"

I scratched my eyebrow.

I could not explain it here. The Imperial Palace code itself did not allow it.

And if, by some chance, the future shifted and that transcript was never released?

Then that too would be my miscalculation. Nothing more.

Either way, being misunderstood by someone did not frighten me.

I was a man who had to exterminate tens of millions of Izenheim in the future.

Still, I asked calmly.

"If I did."

At that moment, Cliff's brow twisted sharply.

"Would that justify what you did?"

"..."

"What changes? Do you think dragging innocent civilians into that explosion helps Anton in any way?"

Cliff could not hold back his rage. Crash. He sprang up, came over the table, and grabbed my collar violently.

"You inhuman-!"

Bang! The door flew open and knights rushed in from outside.

They tore Cliff off me, slammed him to the floor, and chaos broke out.

"You bastard! Because of you, because of you-"

They clamped a hand over Cliff's mouth.

I brushed down my wrinkled clothes. I looked at Cliff thrashing on the ground, then walked out.

By then, many knights had gathered in the corridor. Jerome, Tiana, Raynel, Leon, Hanna, and many others, commoners and nobles alike...

No. I was tired of those categories now.

In Sentinel, everyone should be the same kind of knight.

"Max. Don't let it get to you."

Kairon walked over and patted my shoulder. The noble-born knights behind him nodded in agreement and stared at Cliff with contempt.

"That hardhead will be dismissed anyway. His knighthood and pension will both be stripped. Fool."

"..."

Without a word, I left the Order.

I called for my administrative officer, had a car brought around, and headed to Central District 14, where Cliff had caused the explosion.

[No Entry]

Scorch marks, shattered buildings. Debris still littered the scene, and not only police were present. Imperial Guard soldiers were there as well.

"So from the start, that lunatic knight blindly fired that crude sword wind into this dangerous warehouse."

"Look at the mana condenser wreckage. There is no way he jammed into that without knowing it would explode. It was intentional, for sure."

"Thanks to that, all the illegal mana stone evidence got blown away too..."

Those voices, thick with obvious intent, drifted into my ears as they pointed at the wreckage.

I walked toward them.

"What is it?"

A large Imperial Guard soldier controlling the entrance moved to block me, then flinched when he caught sight of my uniform beneath my coat.

"Who, who are you?"

"I'm from Sentinel."

"Ah, ah. Yes."

The Imperial Guard soldiers saluted with stiff faces, and someone who recognized me stepped forward.

"Ah, Sir Knight."

The insignia on his shoulder showed his rank. Imperial Guard Colonel.

His face... I vaguely remembered it. The name was Wolfgang. Another future war criminal. A scion of a prestigious house. It seemed the Imperial Palace had sent someone with status and backing.

I asked him,

"Why is the Imperial Guard here in a Sentinel matter?"

Wolfgang lifted his chin and answered,

"We received a separate special mission order from the Imperial Palace. They judged it necessary to investigate transparently whether the Knight Order bears fault in this explosion tragedy."

Tragedy. They were already trying to manipulate the language.

"This is a crime scene subdued by a Sentinel knight. Investigative authority and jurisdiction belong entirely to Sentinel, so the Imperial Guard should return now."

I gave a polite order to leave. But Colonel Wolfgang frowned and shook his head.

"...No. We clearly received superior orders and are preserving the scene and collecting evidence. This means this case has been assigned to us, not the Knight Order."

He seemed intent on holding out behind Imperial Palace authority like a shield.

How amusing.

The Imperial Palace Guard was like this sometimes. After living inside the palace too long, they forgot how the world outside actually worked.

I smiled faintly.

"Then let me ask."

I stepped closer.

"From whom?"

At my sudden question, Colonel Wolfgang blinked and asked stupidly,

"...What did you say?"

I closed the distance by one more step and said quietly,

"I asked who gave you an order like that."

Wolfgang's pupils trembled slightly. He closed his mouth, unable to answer.

It could not be an imperial decree from the Emperor. At best, it was Kents Bertem, desperate for a minister post, or shallow pressure from Imperial Guard leadership.

"You cannot answer. Then."

I leaned toward his ear.

"Compared to that 'superior' who gave you the order."

My expression vanished. The smile left my lips.

"How do I look to you, standing right in front of you now?"

Thud. A chunk of debris dropped from the ceiling.

My gaze paused there for a moment, then returned to Wolfgang.

"Can you handle Ebenholtz?"

Wolfgang swallowed dryly. His jaw trembled.

Perhaps the name Maximilian was finally flashing through his mind.

Heir of Ebenholtz. The monster who crushed Gennen with tanks and butchered a cartel in a single night.

Infamy was useful at times like this.

"...Ahem."

Even so, he still clung to a scrap of pride. He shot me one sharp glare, then gestured to the Imperial Guard soldiers.

"...We are withdrawing. Fall back."

The Imperial Guard group receded like an ebbing tide.

The local police chief, who had been stuck in a corner, approached carefully.

"Ah, Sir Knight..."

"Preserve the scene exactly as it is. Do not disturb even a speck of dust."

I gave the order while surveying the blast site.

"What about the suspects?"

"Yes. Well, they're hospitalized at the moment. They're low-level dealers who distributed illegal mana stones. They do not appear directly connected to the Revolutionary Faction."

-Click.

Heels sounded behind me. I turned.

Sonnet Kandel stood there in a neat suit.

My brow tightened slightly.

"What brings you here?"

She pushed up her thin gold-rimmed glasses, deliberately with her middle finger again, and answered,

"I have quite a few jobs. As a real estate owner... one of the buildings caught in this explosion is under my name."

She swept the site with an indifferent glance, then fixed her gaze on me.

"I heard the rumor. Cliff grabbed your collar."

Rumors spread fast.

Maybe I really had become that big a figure.

"Have you ever had someone grab your collar before, Duke Ebenholtz?"

Sonnet's question was almost funny.

Many times. Before regression.

After the Empire fell and I wandered the back alleys as a fugitive, it happened all the time. People grabbed my collar, tripped me, picked fights even while I slept.

You could say I was used to it.

If anything, I welcomed it. I was even grateful. It reminded me of my original resolve after so long.

"Knight Cliff is in serious trouble now. He dared lay hands on you."

At Sonnet's words, I looked over the scene again.

"No."

I shook my head while straightening my disheveled coat collar.

"Knights of the Empire-"

One day, was it Kairon? Or Adria.

One of them, or maybe both, had said this.

"Sentinel is Sentinel in the end."

I agreed completely.

Which meant this incident was an opportunity.

I would drive an investigation favorable to Cliff. By any means necessary, I would prove his legitimacy.

"Knights never abandon comrades."

We had to bind together even more tightly against the outside pressure of the Imperial Palace.

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