WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 282: Collapse (3)

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Across the Empire, in its center, west, and east, heterogeneous bloodlines were dragged away under the newly introduced Bloodline Act.

Izenheim. Dromon. Kenshi. Mer. Those the Empire arbitrarily classified as "subspecies" were excluded from all commerce. The assets they had built over a lifetime were seized in an instant.

"Fuck, does this make any sense?"

Reporter Alphonse clenched his teeth and raised his camera.

Click. Click.

People driven from the places where they had made their lives. Families expelled with nothing but a single bundle.

Click. Click.

Alphonse swallowed the fire lodged in his heart and took their photographs.

Click. Click.

Their shops and workshops, built over decades, were being stolen from them, yet there was no violence in the process.

At least, it looked as though there was none.

Click. Click.

Cold uniforms took them away on the basis of a single absurd document.

That made it all the colder, more imperious, and more fucking vile.

Click. Click.

An Imperial Guardsman smiled contentedly before an ownerless tailor shop. As though he had already marked it with his spit, he casually shoved away another Guardsman who approached.

Click. Click.

Executions without gunfire. Massacres without violence.

That was why photographs alone could not fully capture the meaning of this place.

Click. Click.

Even so, Alphonse's lens continued to stare them down.

Believing that someday, this continent would understand the meaning captured in his photographs......

Click. Click.

"Hey! Who's that bastard?!"

Someone shouted while pointing somewhere.

Alphonse, whose conscience had pricked him, hurriedly turned and ran.

......

Elias Walter of the Gennen Autonomous Territory organized an enforcement committee and very cleanly disposed of the heterogeneous bloodlines within Gennen. He permitted no disturbances or protests. He removed them with nothing but lists and trucks.

Afterward, he stepped onto the balcony of the Governor-General's residence and gave this speech.

"Gennen is Aran. It has always been Aran!"

Gennen, too, was Aran.

The moment Elias Walter declared a fact proven by the history of the continent,

"Elias! Elias!"

The Gennen people filling the space beyond him like waves answered with cheers.

"Therefore, every brick in Gennen, and every railroad passing through Gennen, was built by Aran hands. Because we are Aran!"

"Elias! Elias!"

He raised a hand and briefly quieted the cheers.

"Some ask whether Gennen is the Empire or Gennen. I answer that the question itself is wrong......"

Gennen was an autonomous territory within the Empire.

For a long time, Gennen had felt discrimination and resentment, but over several years, it had melted away like snow.

Life throughout Gennen had improved. We had always been brothers, and the "common enemy" was clear.

"Gennen's will is the Empire's will, and the Empire's will is Gennen's will. We know that. The Empire knows that as well."

"Elias! Elias!"

"Gennen is not a borderland. Gennen is the Empire's brother. Because the same blood that crossed the same river centuries ago flows equally through the bodies of our brothers......"

His ancestors had been Imperial nobles. Born the son of a family that settled in Gennen because it loved Gennen, Elias had grown up a native son of Gennen.

The people of Gennen loved his words, and they loved his appearance, like that of an Imperial noble.

"Gennen is Aran!"

Elias's speech ended where it had begun.

"Elias! Elias!"

He turned away from the cheering crowd.

"You've worked hard."

An aide of "someone" smiled at Elias.

Elias smiled with satisfaction as well.

"That person has worked harder than I have. Please convey my thanks for this gift."

He indicated the world-renowned fine liquor he had received as a gift from "that person."

"Yes."

Elias's office was filled with his family's family register, the medals of his grandfather, who had been an Imperial noble, and proof of the bloodline that had continued from that time.

Rustle.

He opened the newspaper resting on his desk.

"......"

Elias, once Gennen's student council president, stared at the front page for a long time.

[ Diplomat Stationed in the Empire Shot Dead. Izenheim Identified as Instigators. They Called for Izenheim's Liberation. ]

"Just as before."

Izenheim. Those who manipulated others with misguided ideas and ambitions to achieve what they wanted.

Having come to know them, Elias now trusted the Empire completely.

......

No.

He had come to follow the person called Maximilian.

......

Arthur Winston visited Gary Beaufort's office.

Bang!

He threw open the door as if he were about to break it and dropped several photographs onto Beaufort's desk.

"Do you still think the Empire will preserve peace after seeing this?"

There were photographs not only of Izenheim and Mer people being taken away without having committed any crime, but also of the Camp where they would be imprisoned.

"......The Empire is going mad."

Gary Beaufort gave a hollow laugh, gripping his fountain pen.

"Rude of you, Arthur. Did you make an appointment?"

"You weren't moving, so I did."

"......"

Gary studied Arthur for a while, then set down his fountain pen.

"Arthur. What is it you want?"

"I want my country's prime minister to act a little more actively."

Arthur sat before him.

"I see you signed off on military expansion as well."

"......Hah."

Gary sighed and pressed his temple as though a headache were coming on.

"What I signed was defense, not attack."

Arthur glared at Gary. Picking up a glass of whiskey, Gary said,

"Knight Maximilian said this. A person holding a gun does not try to speak with someone empty-handed."

Conversation could not take place in the first place.

But two people holding guns could speak. Therefore......

"Attack is a matter of who fires first, but defense is bringing a pistol with you. Still, if we fire first, could we kill him?"

It was the same tiresome principle. Arthur clenched his teeth.

"Prozen, Balkania, Yursled, Bolska. If even that fails, the east. If Bolska and we had joined forces from the beginning, those Imperial bastards could never have gotten this far..."

"We could never have joined forces."

Gary Beaufort tightly gripped the glass, its contents sloshing.

"Arthur. You are receiving support from Izenheim and the Mer, aren't you?"

Arthur's brow twitched.

"Do you think the Empire simply arose on its own? If so, is the Empire the source of all evil, while everyone else is good?"

Gary shook his head.

"No. Not only the Empire, but this entire continent has despised them. Izenheim, Mer, Kenshi, all of them have been looked down on by everyone."

Those who were different from us. Those who were different from us, who had never lived alongside us, yet coveted our living space and dared to earn more money than us.

But now that the Empire was grabbing them by the hair and dragging them down, we were pretending to be saints. Pretending to be the conscience of the continent.

"Let's speak plainly, Arthur."

Gary Beaufort placed a hand over the photographs.

"We aren't opposing the Empire for morality or humanity. We are doing it so Hailand can survive, and so Hail people can survive."

"......"

Arthur met his gaze and remained silent for a long time.

"......Is that your will?"

Gary nodded.

"It is my will."

Arthur Winston and Gary Beaufort.

They looked at one another, neither avoiding the other.

The voices of two men clashing at the summit of a nation,

"......Is that your will?"

"It is my will."

were transmitted through a listening device.

"......"

Leonard, Hailand's Izenheim-descended Army Minister, sat beside members of the Gray Apostles' Society.

An old secret gathering of Hailand's upper social circles. It began as a university alumni association, but now ministers, bankers, businessmen, and editors-in-chief sat within it. Nearly half of them were Izenheim.

"......You truly are a coward."

"You must know how to distinguish recklessness from courage, Arthur."

As they listened to the reel of the listening device turning,

"Gary Beaufort cannot remain in that position."

Gary was as stubborn as expected, but the Empire was calmer than expected.

Therefore, to accomplish their "cause"...

"Prepare a scandal."

They needed to bring Gary down far earlier than planned.

* * *

......People sometimes say time flies like an arrow loosed from a bow.

These days, it was not even that.

It was like a bullet fired from a gun barrel.

Before I knew it, winter had come again, the season to prepare for the New Year, and I was at the Sentinel Knights.

I was handling work in my office, mostly cases that required review.

Whether the Imperial Guard or Georgen, the two organizations that would soon become one, they were the sort to go mad as they pleased if I relaxed my vigilance. I needed to keep them in line like it was a hobby.

In addition, money had recently been withdrawn from Master's account, where I had deposited funds. Of the twenty million imperial dollars, ten million had been spent all over the continent.

I marked the locations of the banks where the withdrawals had been made and dispatched agents.

If they kept spending my money like this, a "map" would soon take shape.

"......Hm?"

On a snowy afternoon, I was walking around the Sentinel grounds for a change of pace when I spotted a rather cute sight.

"The mindset Moonlight Below emphasized to knights is that you must work even harder where no one can see you."

Hanna Usar seemed to be giving a lecture in the Sentinel auditorium. Her audience was junior knights.

"The knight the Empire sees is an image falling from the sky, but that is only the result. The descent takes only a few minutes. Preparation beforehand and recovery afterward take days."

A knight from among the commonest of commoners, from among the remotest of backwater villages, Hanna Usar.

She was famous as a self-made figure. Her name recognition was probably the greatest of all. She was always bustling around, giving lectures here and there.

"So always, as knights and as Aran, you must temper your own ideas and convictions......"

Most of the juniors listening to her lecture were commoners, of course, but some were of noble birth.

"Then discuss what we covered today among yourselves and organize your thoughts by next week."

Hanna gave instructions like a teacher. In truth, compared with four years ago, even her face had grown remarkably more mature.

Hanna came outside.

"Oh!"

When our eyes met, her cheeks slowly reddened. As though embarrassed, she gave an awkward cough.

"Ahem. Were you watching?"

I smiled a little and nodded.

"You did well."

"Well...... It was an ordinary lecture. It seems a lot of them have been neglecting their theoretical studies lately, so I've been trying to talk some sense into them."

The fact that the theory was from my textbook embarrassed me instead.

"How is life as a knight?"

Naturally, we walked down the corridor side by side.

"It's fine."

"It feels like only yesterday that you came to my office saying you couldn't take it anymore."

It truly did feel like only yesterday.

"How long ago was that?"

Hanna narrowed her eyes.

"The activated residue."

"......I only came to see you once then. Once."

Behind the Sentinel grounds was a forest. It was a park I had deliberately created after buying the land, for the knights' mental health.

It was a large, deep forest, so they could spend time alone there.

We walked along the trail through it.

"But, Sir, you don't seem to have aged at all since then. Do you use cosmetics or something?"

"What knight uses cosmetics?"

Hanna looked at me closely, then opened her eyes wide as though something had occurred to her.

"Oh, Sir. Do you remember someone named Ruin?"

"I do. The new knight who joined the Zerpha civil war. Is there a problem?"

"No. I'm just having drinks with that group today. We still pull all-nighters talking about those days."

Hahaha.

Laughing, she recited it in a tone full of pride.

"......That is a relief."

I had been worried. They had joined battle and cut down dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people.

Fortunately, rather than guilt over killing, they seemed to have gained a sense of unity with knighthood and the state.

Was it because of the concept of totalitarianism? Or had my helmets played an effective role?

It was still too early to know.

"Sir! Sir Maximilian!"

At that moment, someone ran over, calling my name.

It was a Yaken staffer.

"Look at this!"

This was one reason I used Yaken as staffers. Wherever I was, they had an uncanny ability to find me whenever something urgent happened.

"It is urgent!"

I took the bundle of newspapers they handed me.

[ Hailand Prime Minister Gary Beaufort Meets Socialite Woman in Secret. What Lay Beneath the "Umbrella of Peace"? ]

[ Exclusive: Four Photographs Obtained. At a mansion near the prime minister's residence, the woman is said to be the married wife of an Imperial merchant...... ]

[ Common Hall Opposition Demands Emergency Questioning, Prime Minister's Office "Refuses." ]

"......"

I furrowed my brow.

Gary Beaufort, prime minister of Hailand.

The most popular prime minister in Hailand's history, a man whose conduct as a gentleman had always been impeccable, was reportedly having an affair.

"Wow. There are photos too."

Hanna gave a hollow laugh. The photographs left no room for denial.

At a second-floor window of the mansion, through a gap in the half-open curtains, Beaufort stood in a shirt with an arm around a woman's shoulders, while she buried her face in his chest.

"What is all this......"

Hanna swallowed as she stared at the newspaper. It seemed a very provocative sight to someone who had never dated a single man.

"......"

For me, this was quite serious.

The future I knew had collapsed.

This had not happened before my regression.

Beaufort had remained in office until the following spring, but someone had torn apart that timeline.

Was it Izenheim? Or another faction?

Either way, from now on, a new history that I did not know...

"But aren't these photos too explicit...?"

"Stop swallowing so much."

"W, what do you mean? Sluurp."

Hanna replied while swallowing.

"When did I swallow......"

......

"Prime Minister Gary Beaufort! Prime Minister Beaufort!"

All of Hailand was in an uproar.

Gary Beaufort's scandal appeared in every newspaper, and reporters camped before the prime minister's residence day and night.

I, too, disguised myself as one of the countless reporters standing before it.

"......Prime Minister Gary Beaufort! Please explain yourself!"

This incident was certainly someone's scheme.

"Have you been carrying an umbrella all this time to hide your affair?!"

If so, had Arthur Winston chosen an ugly method?

Or had Izenheim decided to take one step further?

"He looked incredibly kind, though."

Hanna spoke beside me. In her arms was a copy of "Sunday Lamp," a magazine famous for exposing people's private lives.

It seemed she had bought it to look at a few more photos. If she was going to do that, she might as well buy an openly pornographic magazine.

"To think the prime minister is this bold..."

"Don't talk to me."

We were of different identities.

Hanna was an Imperial tourist because her Hail language was poor. I was a Hailand reporter.

"......Yes, sir."

First, we established an intelligence base in Hailand's capital.

The method was... we simply bought a mid-sized Hailand media company outright.

It was not that expensive.

"Ah, he's coming out! He's coming out!"

"Prime Minister Gary Beaufort!"

"Prime Minister! Please say a few words while looking this way......"

At last, Gary Beaufort emerged from his residence.

Countless reporters surged toward the haggard man all at once.

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