WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 172

──────

Sentinel...... (2)

Power did not remain in one place.

Nor did it become one.

Kents Bertem's confirmation as Executive Affairs Minister. Even inside the Imperial Palace, there were clearly officials who disliked that decision. Even so, it was already a "settled" matter, so they accepted it while hiding what they truly thought.

But then.

"Minister Aints."

In the middle of the hearing, a book was handed to Interior Minister Aints.

He adjusted his glasses, read the underlined paragraph with his eyes first, then recited it aloud.

"......'Candidate Anton insisted on lifelong celibacy and never married, but it turns out he once had a deeply involved lover.'"

The original transcript of the closed Imperial Palace hearing on Deputy Commander Anton Jefren's confirmation.

A record of the words Kents Bertem had poured onto Anton, who had rejected his bribes and favors again and again.

"'We confirmed hospital records that there had been a pregnancy in the past, but it ended in miscarriage.'"

"......"

Kents Bertem's relaxed face on the podium faltered in an instant, and Aints gave a faint smile.

"This was just delivered to me. They say a book like this was published this morning."

Then he lifted the cover.

[Anton Jefren Closed Hearing Transcript]

Every gaze in the hearing hall fixed on it. Kents still took a deep breath. His expression settled again, calm and composed.

"It is fabricated. An impure document maliciously forged by someone trying to smear me. A record from inside the Imperial Palace leaking outside? That is impossible to begin with."

He smiled and waved a hand. Aints gave a small laugh and nodded.

"Then to verify whether this transcript is genuine, may we call former Deputy Commander Anton Jefren himself as a witness later?"

Kents's face hardened. His lips twitched. One eyebrow trembled.

Still, he had one ledge left to cling to.

"......Isn't it legally and strictly forbidden to disclose or verify the contents of a closed hearing?"

"No. There is no such law. Closed hearings are a principle, an unwritten rule."

Aints laughed softly.

An unwritten rule was not law. Of course, the hearing transcripts were stored in the deepest section of the Imperial Palace Archive, so entering there without permission was a serious crime. But there was no explicit legal clause banning publication of hearing transcripts. It only earned the "great" hatred of the imperial family.

"Well, we cannot know right now which bold fool published it, but if we want to verify whether what is written here is true, we can call witnesses and ask the people involved directly."

Kents looked around. Bound copies of the transcript were already in the hands of many reporters and officials.

Asking only whether an already public matter was true was not, by itself, an act that had to provoke imperial wrath.

"......No, wait. Even if part of that content is true, what does it have to do with confirmation of the Executive Affairs Minister?"

Lawmakers from Kents's faction tried to defend him, but Interior Minister Aints gave a crooked smile.

"The man who hurled such base and insulting words at the former deputy commander of Sentinel, the Empire's most elite armed force, and at someone deeply trusted by the knights under him."

Minister Aints opened to one page of the transcript and raised his brows.

"Can that man truly build mutual respect and cooperation with the knight orders? The core of the Executive Affairs Minister post is coordination and control with the knight orders, and the knights gathered here."

Sentinel. And not just Sentinel, Novus and Essentic as well. He raised the transcript high so they could see.

"Can you accept his confirmation as Executive Affairs Minister?"

Before long, this "book" was handed even to Kents's supporters. As they read the lines, their faces turned sour.

"......"

Kents bit his lip. His clenched hands trembled. A pounding headache rang through his skull. Through his dizzy vision, one bastard's face suddenly surfaced.

Blond hair. Curls. Plump cheeks, as if he had been eating well all this time. A grin split so wide it looked ready to tear to his ears.

Sitting in the gallery with that split-open smile, Leutern II.

"Ha......"

Someone with enough intimate authority to leak the transcript from the Imperial Palace Archive, and enough malice to screw me over.

No matter how he thought about it, there was only one fucking bastard.

* * *

At the same time, Sentinel Order, Cliff's personal office.

He was packing his belongings in an empty office. After the explosion incident, no practical officers or administrative officers remained there while he waited for disciplinary action.

He was going to be dismissed anyway.

There was no reason left to stay attached to this place.

Knock knock.

A knock suddenly broke the silence.

Cliff opened the door with a tired face. No one was in the corridor. At his feet, though, lay a thick document envelope.

"......"

He picked it up. Sitting at his desk, he pulled out what was inside.

[Anton Jefren Closed Hearing Transcript]

The moment he saw the cover, his face twisted. He gripped the book so hard it almost crumpled and turned the pages.

One line.

Two lines.

Three lines.

Without a sound, moving only his lips as he read, his eyes began to shake harder and harder.

Hundreds of pages.

Inside them, the raw, unfiltered exchanges from the closed hearing were preserved.

[Kents Bertem: To think he tried to carry a filthy seed with a woman plotting treason. Absurd. At least it got erased in the womb, so that was fortunate.]

Kents Bertem's abuse, degrading Deputy Commander Anton, stabbing at his wounds, hurling vile mockery.

Anton, betrayed by his old friend.

The desperate lines where Anton, cornered psychologically, stammered, fell silent, sighed.

And then......

Near the end of that record, one man appeared.

Maximilian.

[Chair: Then what do you think about these seditious private letters Candidate Anton exchanged with anti-state figures?]

[Maximilian: Well. There are many possible interpretations of letter content.]

He treated Anton with respect.

[Maximilian: Deputy Commander Anton may have held seditious thoughts toward the Empire, but conversely, is it not possible that he stayed close to those who held such thoughts in order to monitor and control them?]

He did not judge Anton easily, and he did not suspect him rashly.

Cliff's hand on the book trembled faintly.

[Chair: But Knight Maximilian, look at this disgraceful record. Anton's former lover, current first-class wanted criminal Seria Martel, and]

[Maximilian: That is a very private and unfortunate matter.]

Far from pushing Anton off a cliff, he firmly cut off the malice and contempt filling that closed room.

In fact......

[Maximilian: Private life is only private life, so I do not think this is a topic to be handled at a hearing discussing confirmation for command of the knight order.]

[Chair: Even so, Candidate Anton with an executive of the Revolutionary Faction]

[Maximilian: Conversely, it is entirely possible to interpret that the pain of that miscarriage made him declare a complete separation from her and draw a line as a knight of the Empire.]

Cliff grabbed his own hair. He writhed as if tearing into his own stupidity, then suddenly noticed the recorder enclosed with the book. With trembling hands, he picked it up.

Click.

He pressed the button.

......I heard a rumor. Cliff grabbed your collar.

A woman's voice flowed through the static.

A calm tone that sounded familiar, yet could not be clearly identified.

......In your life, has anyone ever grabbed your collar, Duke Ebenholtz?

Duke Ebenholtz. That name stabbed into Cliff's ear like a blade.

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

A voice that seemed to rake his chest, as if striking his mistakes one by one.

But then.

......No.

The answer she got back was clearly the voice of someone Cliff knew too well.

......A knight of the Empire......

Maximilian Ebenholtz.

To a knight named Cliff, who had gone blind with rage, lost reason, and grabbed his collar.

......Never abandons comrades.

"......"

Cliff swallowed a dry breath.

He set the recorder down and quietly lowered his head.

"Ah......"

Who had left this here?

For what purpose had they left this truth for him?

......That line, a knight does not abandon comrades......

Tap. The woman's voice continued.

Cliff raised his head.

......May I ask why Anton was excluded?

It seemed the recorder still had words left to tell him.

..........

Beyond that moment came the faint sound of Maximilian's small smile.

Then his answer, spreading like a gentle current.

......This...... was the way to protect Anton.

At that instant, Cliff's heart stopped for a beat.

......Surely one day, in the far future, when the Empire is a little more peaceful.

Before Anton had to wear even more filth, as recorded in this transcript.

Before worthless men could insult him again.

In this filthy, vile political arena, this was the way to protect Anton.

......The day someone like Anton Jefren is needed will definitely come.

At last, Cliff understood the whole truth.

He let out a trembling breath and closed his eyes. He stood in silence for a while, deep in thought, then rose to his feet.

......This is preservation for that day......

Listening to Maximilian's final voice, he walked out of the office.

* * *

A rear mountain not far from Sentinel Order headquarters.

Someone quietly approached Jerome, who stood alone by a clear lakeside watching the night.

"......"

Kairon. He came to stand beside Jerome.

"......The lake is clear."

Kairon broke the silence first. Moonlight rippled over the water and scattered beautifully.

"It is."

Jerome answered evenly, without taking his eyes away.

"......"

"......"

Kairon was from a higher class year than Jerome, but they were the same age. Like it or not, they were comrades who had seen each other's faces for over ten years.

"......"

"......"

Two men who could only feel awkward. Jerome watched Kairon from the corner of his eye, and Kairon stared ahead in silence.

"......"

"......"

Jerome closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.

"Did you read the transcript?"

Kairon nodded. [Anton Closed Hearing Transcript] had already been delivered to almost everyone in the Order, and it had stirred a deep wave in all of them.

"Then...... Cliff will be dismissed."

Kairon did not answer right away. He stayed silent in the night wind, then murmured.

"The night before former Deputy Commander Anton left Sentinel."

Jerome's shoulder stiffened slightly.

"I met him."

A faint bitterness seeped into Kairon's voice.

No resentment. No anger. No sadness.

At some point, Anton had accepted the self worn down by the weight of the age, and even smiled.

"Anton was...... yes. He was absolutely someone worthy of respect."

Looking at the clear lake, Kairon recalled the words Anton left that day.

'But if you must break what you want in order to get what you want, it may no longer be what you wanted.'

Words he could not fully understand back then.

'So please protect it. What you wanted...... in its most complete form.'

Words Maximilian had already understood.

'That is all I can say to my successor.'

Kairon laughed quietly.

A split in Sentinel was exactly what the Imperial Palace wanted. They wanted commoners and nobles to fight, using Anton as the fuse. If they danced to that tune, they would no longer be able to preserve this proper form. They would lose the Empire's greatest authority and fighting strength.

"......Sentinel is Sentinel in the end. There will be no dismissal."

But what Kairon wanted, like Anton said that day, was Sentinel in its most complete form.

Jerome drew in a deep breath. He swallowed in silence. Then he lifted his gaze to the night sky.

"I will persuade Max somehow."

Across a horizon covered in gray clouds, a round full moon rose between them.

"It is dark, Deputy Commander Kairon."

Jerome murmured like a monologue.

"Where should we go...... and where are we going now. Looking back, it feels like we have always been wandering."

Even after ten years, they were still not much different from their twenties.

Still lost, still afraid of what they could not see.

The only difference from then...... was that now they could not show it.

"Who knows."

With no particular change in expression, Kairon looked up.

"......The moon."

His heavy voice spread quietly along the lakeside. Soon it drifted away with the night wind.

"Moonlight is shining on us."

Cliff.

He stood stiff-faced in front of a certain door.

An office still brightly lit in the late pre-dawn hours.

Knock knock.

He knocked, and when he heard "Come in," he opened the door.

"......We only have to follow that light."

Cliff came forward with a deep sigh,

and Maximilian received him with calm golden eyes.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried