WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 33

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From a Tense Routine

Major Kai Han entered the interrogation room. With a hardened face, he looked back and forth between Lorenz and me.

"......Major-nim."

Lorenz relayed what I had just said to the major,

and I, as a knight, gave a clear conclusion.

"Lieutenant Lorenz was, in truth, a victim who had been blackmailed by Jeremy Keshun for a long time. Jeremy Keshun was an Izenheim subspecies who coveted internal information from the Imperial Guard, so this killing is fully worthy of leniency."

Major Han and Lieutenant Lorenz exchanged looks. Their eyes held a strange mix of confusion and caution.

"That is my conclusion."

"Then... what is it you want from us, Sir Knight......"

Major Kai Han asked.

"A faction."

Within the Imperial Guard, to be precise, my own faction planted inside the military.

Right now they were tiny and weak, but that was exactly why they could be trusted.

The other factions were already massive. Even if I funded them with tens of millions of dollars, they would betray me for their own interests whenever it suited them. Those not yet tainted were far more reliable.

Kai Han, in particular, was a very striking figure even in my hazy past.

He gave a bitter smile.

"......We are not in a strong enough position to be your strength, Sir Knight."

"It doesn't matter. You can grow from now on."

With Ebenholtz support, I could pin stars on even a mere commoner. My father, Duke Sebestian, was the Empire's commander in chief to begin with.

......Though I doubted he would really help me.

"......Yes. Please speak freely, Sir Knight."

Major Han accepted my proposal.

I switched my tone right away.

"Major Han. Then from now on, there is a mindset you need."

Would you keep living as a mere commoner, trampled like a weed in this rotten organization, or...

"Ambition."

Would you climb higher and seize power.

"If you've decided to stand with Ebenholtz, then throw away the idea of staying a mere soldier. Half-baked effort will never meet my standards."

My eyes drifted to the clock in the interrogation room.

Tick, tick.

"Major Han. Do you know the difference between commoners and nobles?"

Tick, tick.

That second hand still grated on me.

"......That they are born different."

I shook my head.

"No. What differs is not birth, but time. The power of houses, wealth, and people layered over years."

Before my regression, as I watched the Empire decay and the nobles fall apart, I had held a conviction.

"But individual ability is nothing like that. If anything......"

Life as a fugitive and a drifter had taught me something else.

"If anything, one rotten noble bastard causes more harm than thousands, tens of thousands of commoners. If we truly serve the Empire, we don't need trash nobles. Nobles who are not respected are not respected because their conduct is wrong."

"......"

Han and Lorenz both stopped breathing at the same time. Their eyes shook wide.

To them, were my words shocking, or contradictory.

"I don't care whether someone is a commoner or a noble. If they have ability, if they can help the Empire, that is all."

I would raise these men, who were nothing more than nameless weeds in the Imperial Guard, to high places.

At least until they could stand against the Imperial Guard's secret police organization, the Enforcement Department.

"What do you two think?"

Major Han was already a resource I had verified, and Lorenz Tillman was also a very promising mage. They were enough to become my first pieces.

"......"

"......"

Major Han kept his mouth shut tight. Lorenz did too, but only for a moment. Soon both of them let out heated breaths and answered with action.

They shot up so hard it looked like their chairs might break, then saluted me.

I gave a small smile and nodded.

"Then return as if nothing happened."

With solemn faces, they left the interrogation room.

* * *

Knight office. A calm afternoon.

"......Um, Sir Knight. I think there was a mistake with the deposit."

Two staff officers from the western prison came to request a meeting, both looking flustered. They said they could not believe the number stamped in their salary accounts.

"What is the problem?"

"The amount is so different from the base salary you told us, so maybe there was an error-"

"The base salary of six thousand dollars is correct."

Even if I wanted to pay more, my knight budget was six hundred thousand dollars a year, and the monthly amount I could pay staff officers had limits.

"But bonuses paid from my personal account are separate."

"T-then this means all of this is our monthly pay......"

"Yes. Think of it as fifteen thousand dollars a month in practice."

Back when they were prison guards, they made barely three to four thousand dollars. This was more than four times that. The two staff officers stared at each other blankly.

I gestured to them.

"That's enough, go back to work."

"Y-yes! Understood! We will give our full loyalty!"

Neither of them hid their joy as they left the office.

Money, Imperial dollars, was the surest and simplest reward. People threw away their lives for it, and for it they also gave endless loyalty.

That was why I needed money.

I would pour humanity's greatest invention into preserving humanity.

......

Pazzzzt! Pazzzzt!

At the polished training ground, Schatz honed mana without rest. Through sincere effort, she had come to control her own attribute, electromagnetic mana, perfectly. When she detonated mana under her feet, her body shot up like a bullet. When she discharged current, it could melt steel.

"......Agent Schatz-nim."

Someone called her then.

Zendo and his investigators had come up from Gennen. By Maximilian's order, they were the new colleagues Schatz had gained.

Zendo said,

"We found a lead on the Revolutionary Faction."

They would now work with Schatz, monitoring inside Gennen and identifying the "subspecies" trying to stir it up.

"This is the meeting site we uncovered through wiretap and eavesdropping, where the Gennen independence bloc and the Revolutionary Faction make contact."

Schatz looked at the crate packed with evidence.

"That's a huge volume of records."

"Yes. We reviewed tens of thousands of minutes of recordings."

As he said that, Zendo's face twisted. He clenched his fist hard, as if in disgust.

Schatz shook her head.

"For now, put personal feelings aside. They are no help to the work."

It was the first thing she had learned from Ebenholtz's nature.

When carrying out a mission, even if it was revenge soaked in your own grudge, you had to cool yourself down.

......

Dieter moved fast. He started building a plant to refine mana stone mined from the Rommilton Mountains, and for now the funds were covered through loans from Hermes Province. He also kept workers' wages at the top level in the industry during extraction, and invested without holding back in safety gear and welfare facilities.

"It's amazing how fast this Rommilton backwater has changed, haha."

Mayor Jensen came by and fawned. Thanks to jobs, newly paved roads, and new shops and restaurants, the mine development's economic effects had pushed his popularity in Hermes very high.

"By the way, Officer-nim. Did Knight Maximilian happen to leave any other instructions......"

"......There will probably be people here who complain or agitate that the mana stone from this land is being monopolized by nobles or the bourgeoisie."

Dieter's expression suddenly turned cold.

"Those people are our enemies."

He looked straight at Mayor Jensen and added,

"That is what Sir Knight said."

"......Ah, yes. Of course. Of course. But do we really have to issue that mask thing to every worker? I heard it costs quite a bit."

Mask. Safety equipment that filtered fine mana dust produced during mana stone extraction.

"He said not to spare expenses when it comes to Imperial safety."

"......As expected! Sir Knight is a true noble, hahahahaha!"

Ding, ding, ding.

8 p.m. The bell announcing shift change rang out. Their workday did not exceed ten hours.

Families stood at the entrance to greet workers pouring out of the mine shaft. Tired miners walked up with bright smiles and warmly embraced the child, wife, or husband coming toward them.

"It's a lovely sight, isn't it?"

At Jensen's pleased words, Dieter answered in a businesslike tone.

"There are probably subspecies among them too."

"......Pardon?"

"Knight Maximilian deeply despises Izenheim among subspecies. So that part."

In a low voice, Dieter continued,

"Please pay attention. It means to analyze workers' backgrounds in detail."

"Ah, yes. Of course. I will absolutely keep it in mind."

Jensen's face also turned serious, and he wrote it down in his notebook.

......

Step. Step.

As usual, Major Kai Han reported to the Imperial Guard.

Step. Step.

He walked down the hallway in military boots, then sat in front of someone's office, hugging a fruit basket he had brought as a gift and glancing at the nameplate.

[Imperial Guard Command Headquarters Deputy Chief of Staff Office: Jens Joachim]

He waited five minutes.

He waited ten minutes.

He waited thirty minutes.

That was the position of a commoner named Kai Han.

"Major Han-nim?"

Had an hour passed? At last, the deputy chief's secretary called him.

"Yes."

"He says to come in."

Major Han straightened his clothes and went inside.

"Loyalty."

He saluted, then sat across from Deputy Chief Jens.

Major Han, now holding a new "line," would start his work from here.

Jens was not far from retirement, but he was widely respected, and many of his juniors were general officers involved in personnel appointments.

"What is it."

As if he had just eaten meat, he asked while cleaning between his teeth with floss. He did not even treat Han like a former subordinate under his command.

Han knew why. Until now, even if he wanted to give Jens what he liked, he had not been able to.

"Brigadier General Jens-nim. I heard you will soon retire from active service."

"......I still have six months left. Did you come to mock me?"

Jens frowned and swept back the little hair he had left.

"No. I came to give you a gift."

"A gift?"

Han lifted the fruit basket he had brought in advance. The moment he saw it, Jens snorted.

"Take that away. I don't need things like-"

"Please pick one up."

"I said take it away."

He irritably tried to shove it aside, but the basket did not move.

"......?"

Push. Push. He pressed the basket with his palm, and the weight was unusual.

Jens looked at Han with a puzzled expression.

"It's fruit."

Only then did Jens pick one up. His expression changed at once.

"Very yellow. I selected only good ones."

From the outside they looked like ordinary apples, but inside the peel they were packed entirely with gold. Crafted by a skilled alchemist, they were worth more than face value.

"No... how did you even get this?"

"It's just my respect for you, Deputy Chief. I've saved these up little by little."

"......"

Jens suddenly turned serious. He crossed his arms, let out a heavy breath, and asked,

"Fine. What do you want from me?"

"Ah. Nothing major, but I heard a command seat in the Imperial Guard Mage Corps direct From Company just opened up. Nothing major, but I know a soldier who is very suitable for it. A man named Lorenz Tillman......"

"......"

Jens's face hardened. Han tensed for a moment too.

Had he said it wrong? It was his first time making a request.

"......"

"......"

"Hahahahaha! Look at this guy."

"......Haha."

Han laughed along.

"Don't worry. Who doesn't know you care about your subordinate? I already thought he was a perfect fit for that seat. Lortzlan Talso. He came from a Magic Tower, right?"

"Yes, Lorenz Tillman. That's correct. As expected of Deputy Chief Jens-"

"Hahahahaha. Honestly. That aside, I have no idea how you've grown this much. They say land prices in the capital are rising these days, did you ride that wave?"

"Ah, that is-"

"No need to tell me. It's your secret, so keep it hidden. Right. Hahahahaha!"

"Haha......"

Major Han forced a laugh as he looked at Brigadier General Jens.

He looked at that noble.

At the bald man laughing until sweat formed, at the wrinkled hand clutching gold...

Suddenly, that person's voice echoed in his ears.

'If we truly serve the Empire, we don't need trash nobles. Nobles who are not respected are not respected because their conduct is wrong.'

Brigadier General Jens was already sixty years old.

Age was not experience, though. Not maturity. Not wisdom.

The personal capital this sixty-year-old noble had built up did not amount to even the dirt under that young man's fingernails.

"Then I'll be going."

"Ah, right, right. I've felt bad you haven't shown your face lately, it was good to see you. Drop by anytime."

"......Yes. Loyalty."

Major Han saluted without showing anything, then quietly left the deputy chief's office.

"Ah, this really is something, hahahaha......"

Even after he shut the door, laughter leaked out from inside.

Hearing that laughter, Major Han sank into a cold silence.

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