WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 18

──────

Kill, or Save (3)

Wheeeeeeen-!

Aaaaargh, grab him, fuck-

Wheeeeeeen-!

In Gennen's streets, sirens, screams, and shouts crashed together into one deafening roar.

"Fuck, who the hell set off the bomb?!"

The independence faction executives fled as far from Saint Bridge as they could. They had led the protest, but the bomb itself was never expected. It was never in the plan. It just exploded out of nowhere.

"I don't know which bastard did it-"

"It means they're that desperate."

Sage said it. As an independence faction executive with ties to the Revolutionary Faction, he had always been warned by the leadership. Some in the independence faction said, "If we take help from the Revolutionary Faction, our pure cause will be stained," and Sage despised those leaders as cowards.

"Sage, don't tell me you..."

By then, they had reached an alley.

"Here."

Sage raised his wristwatch. It was the latest model terminal, with a crystal orb built in. He had already called for support.

"Here? This is a dead end."

"If we wait, support will-"

Clack.

Cold footsteps drifted in out of nowhere. Everyone's gaze snapped that way.

Clack, clack.

Blond hair and golden eyes. A Sentinel dress uniform, navy with gold trim.

An Imperial knight none of them recognized.

He held a sword in one hand and looked them over.

"Don't come any closer!"

Everyone drew their weapons at once.

"We'll hold him! Sage! You go first!"

Sage was an executive. The rest were just comrades. If there had to be people who could not be caught and people who could, then Sage was the first kind, and the others were the second.

"...Thank you. I'm sorry, everyone."

At Sage's words, the others smiled.

It was okay. They were ready for an ending like this.

"You are not getting through."

They blocked the path with grim resolve.

Bwooooom!

Right then, a Revolutionary Faction hoverboard appeared, and just as Sage grabbed onto it in time.

Swaaaaaaash!

Something tore through. It was too fast to see with the naked eye. A violent gust suddenly blasted through them like a shockwave, swept the whole alley, and shattered the hoverboard to pieces.

Everything collapsed.

"..."

Silence swallowed the alley. Gripped by fear, they looked around.

In the time it took to blink once, Sage's face was already hanging in the hand of the knight who had cut through all of them.

"S-Sage!"

"You fucking bastard-!"

A revolver fired. Bang bang bang bang bang bang. He emptied the whole cylinder, but every shot died against the longsword.

Srrrk.

The hem of the knight's coat shifted faintly. He simply stood there without a word. That alone was crushing.

Gulp.

The remaining independence fighters swallowed hard. Tension so thick it could choke ran through their entire bodies-

Hey! Over here!

A shout suddenly rang out from the sky. A rabbit mask, fancier than usual, and a hoverboard even fancier than that. The Revolutionary Faction member, impossible to tell if man or woman, pulled out a ball the size of a ping-pong ball.

Whoosh!

At the same moment they threw it onto the road, they fired a wire.

Pop!

The ball burst into flash and smoke, and the wire yanked the four surviving independence fighters up into the air.

"Gaaah!"

"Gyaaah!"

The independence fighters screamed as they dangled from the hoverboard. The rabbit mask quickly changed direction. As they pulled away fast, they looked down at the ground. The knight watched them for a long moment, then drew back his sword.

Luckily, it looked like he was letting them go.

"T-that Sage..."

"I know. I caught a glimpse from far away. Looked exactly like a Sentinel. A total monster."

A uniform with a gold eagle on navy. From the Revolutionary Faction's point of view, those were the scariest bastards. Unlike the Imperial Guard, who crushed you with numbers, each one of these guys was a big deal.

That knight was special from hair color to eye color. Anyone could tell he was noble.

"If you see guys like that, run if you can. Don't play tough. Most of them are hard enough to beat, and if you do beat one, that's even worse. More importantly, why did you use a bomb?"

"It wasn't, it wasn't in our plan."

The rabbit mask clicked their tongue.

"Ah, figures. Fuck. You people never stick together."

It was one of two things. Either radicals trying to force Gennen independence supporters to fully merge into the Revolutionary Faction, or Gennen Imperialists setting this up to wipe out the independence faction in one sweep.

Whichever it was...

"Anyway, this got seriously tangled. If you want to live, hold on tight!"

The hoverboard roared and tore through the air.

* * *

"Loyalty! As expected of you, knight-nim!"

By afternoon, after things had calmed down somewhat, police officers received the head of a key executive from a Sentinel knight.

The knight asked,

"Is this the one?"

"Yes! That's right! Sage Zen."

Face, features, all of it matched the wanted sketch exactly.

"A core figure in the independence faction, with ties to the Revolutionary Faction-"

"Vermin."

"...Yes, sir!"

The knight nodded and walked past them.

"Thank you for your hard work!"

"Thank you for your hard work!"

The police saluted as the knight walked away. Only after he vanished completely did they brush back their hair and let out a breath.

"What a shitshow. Because of these useless bastards..."

...

Right after the bridge terror incident, investigators from the Gennen Police Bureau were mobilized in full force.

Using prior wiretaps and tips, they tracked the locations of independence faction members believed to be responsible.

"...Ready."

In the dark, nine officers waited at the entrance of a stationery shop with a bomb planted in place.

"Go in!"

Boom!

The door exploded, and the police rushed in immediately. Inside, independence members were huddled together like rats.

The suppression squad raised batons first.

"You little rat bastards, you half-grown punks, round up every one of them!"

Kyaaaah, gaaaah-

They beat the independence faction down literally by force. Some had baby faces and looked very young, but that did not matter.

To them, independence supporters were no different from livestock.

Crash, bang!

Then one boy tripped over a bookshelf and fell. At most he looked thirteen, maybe fourteen. His face was covered in blood, and he trembled in tears.

"Oof."

Investigator Zendo walked over to him.

"That must hurt."

Notorious as a gutter specialist, he grinned and kicked the back of the boy's head.

...

"We picked up around two hundred from fourteen locations. This bunch was the most hardcore."

"Looks like it."

Investigator Zendo nodded at his subordinate's report. Eight people hung in front of him like slaughtered pigs. Bags covered their faces, and cuffs bound their arms and legs.

"In order, Bell, En, Kellio, Sato, Yan..."

As Zendo looked them over, he stopped in front of Yan.

"How many times is this now for a little brat like you?"

He smacked Yan's head hard. Yan's body trembled in pain.

"Hey, you crazy idiots. Do you know who was there when you hit that place?"

Zendo wandered around lazily as he spoke.

"Maximilian was there, Maximilian. Ebenholtz, you know that name or not?"

No answer came no matter how long he waited, and Zendo's face twisted with irritation.

"Do you know him or not-!"

The hanging bodies shook hard. Hoarse voices answered, "We know-"

"Right. A man worth more than ten million of you got caught up in that terror attack. So."

Tapping his palm with a baton, Zendo spoke.

"Talk while I'm still asking nicely. If you don't, you probably won't make it out of here alive."

Gennen's investigators interrogated the independence faction.

Wet towels over faces, bodies hung like whole roasted pigs, threats against family, it was torture in all but name.

"You don't even have to be directly tied to the bombing. Out of the people you know, got any bright ones? Like these guys."

Zendo shoved several photos at one man. They were faces of independence faction executives.

"We don't want to do this either. But this is for public order. If you people go blowing up bridges with bombs, hey, even people who sympathized with you will all turn away."

The man said nothing. He just shook and panted.

Zendo tapped his head with the photos.

"Aren't you pissed? Those bastards hide somewhere nice and live well because they're executives. While only you get caught and suffer like this."

"..."

"Huh? Not angry? They used you as meat shields-!"

Zendo grabbed the man's hair and yanked his head up. His blood-covered face wheezed in front of Zendo.

"...You don't seem to understand your situation. You are not leaving until you confess."

Zendo's expression turned frighteningly cold.

"Confess who did it, even if you have to make someone up."

...

Yan endured the investigators' torture. He was hung from the ceiling and beaten in the stomach with a baton. They shoved his face into toilet water until he blacked out. When they threatened even his younger siblings, his core churned, but he still endured.

You must hide it, until you become strong enough.

It was because of those words from the nameless knight who had saved him.

The bourgeois of Gennen and the Empire feared talent rising from the bottom more than anything. If he revealed his ability, he would definitely be killed.

"Wow. This little bastard is stubborn as hell."

Someone muttered with a hollow laugh. Yan could not see anything with the bag over his face.

"Let's see his face."

The bag was pulled off. Sudden light stabbed his eyes. Yan panted and lowered his head.

"You dumb bastard. In a place like this, the ones who hold out are the ones who get broken. Don't you know that?"

The other man crouched on one knee. Yan raised one eye and looked at him.

It was Zendo. A devil to the independence faction. He picked up a sheet of paper and shoved it in front of Yan's face.

[ The culprit who instigated the terror attack was Yan Novak...... ]

Handwritten statements from his comrades, confessing that he was the culprit.

"...You'll take the whole blame. Every single one of them betrayed only you. Know why?"

For a moment, Yan's mind went blank.

"Because you're the poorest one. Because you're the youngest one. Because you're the... weakest one."

Heat surged up right after that. He ground his teeth in betrayal. Rage hit him. His whole body jerked, and harsh breaths burst out.

His veins felt like they were writhing, yellow particles flickered.

You must hide it.

The knight's voice rang through his body. A cold echo calmed his boiling insides.

Yan shut down his mana circuits.

"...Khk, hngh."

He forced himself down with tears.

He hid himself.

Zendo smirked.

"Pathetic bastard. Hey, lock him up. If he kills himself for nothing, we take the loss, so feed him something."

Investigators shouted at Zendo's back as he walked away.

"Yes, sir!"

36 hours after the terror incident.

"...Ah, Chief, yes. We got the confession."

Standing in front of a large telephone, Zendo smiled smoothly while speaking with the bureau chief.

"Yes, yes. Send an official notice to that knight too. Tell him we caught the culprit."

In less than two days, they identified the culprit and extracted a confession.

It had been hard, but it felt rewarding.

"Yes, Chief. Thank you! Loyalty!"

Clack.

Zendo put the receiver down, looked at the black phone, and gave a dry laugh.

"Wow, tech progress is nice. Makes me feel like a wizard."

Crystal balls were communication tools allowed only to wizards and knights.

You had to handle mana to use them.

A telephone needed no mana at all. If you had fingers, ears, and a mouth, anyone could use it.

"Real nice."

He tapped it once and shouted to his subordinates behind him.

"Let's go have a team dinner!"

The guys who busted their asses for two days deserved meat.

* * *

Clap clap clap clap. Clap clap clap clap.

Applause echoed. Refined noble laughter mixed with camera shutters.

I stood on a platform receiving a medal. For capturing one of the young Revolutionary Faction executives believed to have led the bombing terror attack, Sage, the Imperial military awarded me directly.

Gold Lion Third-Class Medal. The Empire's honors system was strict, so third class at my age was a big deal.

"Knight Maximilian, over here please!"

Click! Reporters shot photos of me shaking hands with Lieutenant General Walter.

"Your father will be very proud."

I smiled at Walter's words. I used to hate nobles bringing up my father. More than hate, I found it laughable.

Now I needed social maneuvering too. I was still just a small fish, and Ebenholtz was not the Imperial family.

"Thank you."

"Right. Back in Empire Point, was that a bit of a wandering phase?"

"...Yes. I was thinking about what I should do, but honestly I still don't know. Even this time, I caught him by chance."

I just could not look like a dangerous blade to them. For now, it was better if they saw me as a somewhat naive, somewhat usable man in his twenties.

"Exactly. Like father, like son."

"Thank you. I will pass your kind words to my father, Lieutenant General."

"Hahahaha."

"Hahahaha."

We faced each other and laughed.

"Hahahahaha."

"Hahahahahaha."

"Hahahahahahaha."

"Hahahahahahahaha."

How long do I have to keep laughing, fuck.

...

"Ah, my mouth hurts."

After the medal ceremony, I returned to my office. I took off my outer coat and sat down. Today's newspaper was on the desk.

[ Group Arrest of Suspects in Gennen Bridge Terror Incident ]

The investigative authorities announced they had captured the criminal group in no time, and they separately sent me a letter as the knight who had detained one suspect at the scene.

[ To the esteemed Knight Maximilian.

First, on behalf of the Gennen Police Bureau, we offer our gratitude. Had you not been there, significant civilian casualties would have occurred......

The perpetrators who planned the bombing terror attack were seven hardline independence activists, including 'Yan Novak,' 'Jason Cole,' and 'Tom Lane'...... ]

"Yan?"

At that name, my brow tightened.

Lightning-fast investigations were always suspicious, but the name Yan was even worse.

The young man who had fought desperately to save a child was not the type to commit terror.

No, even if by some chance Yan was the real culprit and the investigators who caught him were sincere and clean men, Yan's value as a Yaken tribe member was far greater than a dozen officers, or even hundreds of them put together.

At least, that was my judgment as Maximilian.

"...Tsk."

Another annoying problem had appeared.

I put back on the uniform coat I had just taken off and walked out.

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