WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 34

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From a Tense Routine (2)

I swung my sword.

...No, "swung" was not the right word.

I traced a path through empty air. Like a painter laying brushstrokes on canvas, I focused every nerve on this longsword and drew a line.

Ssssh...

The noise was still there. I could not avoid the sound of the blade tearing through the air.

But Freya had told me to make no sound, and her sword really had been silent.

Whoooosh...

Wind brushed my cheek. Fallen leaves rustled. Dirt and dust spread under my feet.

As I moved the sword, I thought.

I had to become like the wind. I had to let the sword flow like running water.

I had to polish my inner self until it was clear.

I deployed Ebenholtz's Link.

Shiiing...!

I did not cut off the motion with brute force. I connected the sword and my body.

Sak, whiik...

Like nature in motion, the sword should not split the wind. It had to move forward while embracing it. A solitary sword dance. No opponent, no master, only me honing myself.

Then, suddenly, I thought about myself. Moment by moment, I looked at my face reflected on the blade.

Before regression, I had been powerless.

Now, I was anxious.

Where could I really go. How far could I reach.

The cry of ruin from a distant world, and the whisper of the monster writhing inside me. Countless questions bloomed and vanished along the arc of my sword.

"..."

I stopped training for a moment. I lifted my sword toward the moon in the night sky. The blade, still wrapped in bandages, reflected a clear light.

My sword was still different from Freya's. Her sword had shone without sound, without form.

"...Freya."

Freya, not an Ebenholtz, understood the Ebenholtz sword more deeply than Ebenholtz did.

Who was she, and why was she teaching me...

"Working hard, I see."

A familiar voice drifted in. I turned quickly, and a smile came naturally.

"Edmund."

Edmund Bwindol. A man who had grown up with me like a brother, then eventually threw himself into the Revolutionary Faction.

Maybe he was the one who had sent me back here.

The red-haired man removed his hat and smiled.

"Long time no see, Max."

Edmund had returned to a young face again, and I still could not hate him. I walked up and looked at his hair, still thick for now.

"...Edmund. Watch your hair."

"My hair?"

He tilted his head.

"Yeah. You never know when it'll suddenly vanish. Start taking care of it now."

He smirked, clearly taking it as a joke.

"If anything, I have too much."

"You'll regret that later."

"Sure."

Then he pulled out a scroll. The imperial seal was stamped on it clearly.

"Read it."

I opened the scroll. It was an imperial decree saying signs of treason had been found in a certain house, and ordering me, a knight, to "prepare."

"A beheading operation will be carried out. I recommended you from among the knights."

Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Bwindol, aide to Sebestian, Commander in Chief of the Imperial Army, had recommended me for this mission before regression too.

Because this itself was a huge achievement.

"Thanks."

"For what."

Edmund gave a short laugh, then quickly turned serious.

"But... discussions about race are getting harsher in the Imperial Palace these days. His Majesty is leading them personally."

The Emperor. The ruler of this massive nation. Even by imperial history standards, he had rare legitimacy, the trueborn eldest son and trueborn eldest grandson.

I did not know him in detail, but he was clearly a man of desire. His actions proved it. He wanted to dominate this whole continent, and he carried the delusion that he was a god.

That made him dangerous. Even Ebenholtz could not dare oppose him.

"Max. What do you think?"

Edmund asked.

"Well. If you ask me, between races..."

The Emperor hated subspecies. He believed that was his calling, so he allowed no dissent.

"There is a hierarchy."

For now, all I could do was twist the Emperor's intent in subtle ways.

"A hierarchy?"

"Imperial Aran are the most superior. No doubt about that. Under Aran come the subjects of the western kingdoms and the republican union. They are moderately contaminated, but their bloodlines are relatively close to Aran."

"...Contaminated."

Edmund repeated my words with a faint smile.

"The Sled tribe in the east are inferior. The Mer who believe in the Mer religion, and the followers of Edellem too."

"They all deserve to be killed."

Edmund deliberately chose harsher words. His effort pained me.

He continued.

"The bigger problem is the subspecies. Dromon, Elina, Yaken, and..."

"Izenheim."

I stressed Izenheim.

"But even among subspecies, there is clearly a hierarchy. Dromon are useful enough. Most of them are skilled with their hands.

"Elina and Yaken are the same. They can be used as Aran's dogs or pigs. It might even be possible to domesticate them fully."

Edmund hesitated. But Edmund, in the past you had said, better the second-worst than the worst.

I agreed with that completely. Compared to an ending where an entire race is annihilated, becoming the Empire's livestock was hundreds of times better.

"But Izenheim cannot be recycled."

Edmund pressed his lips together. His face said he was trying not to show anything.

"They're waste. Beings with no room for sympathy, beings that should not live on this continent."

"...Damn."

He laughed bitterly and shook his head.

"Then I should hope I don't have Izenheim mixed in my blood."

Edmund's greatest weakness lay in a single document. A single line written in this hardened man's family registry.

"Mother: Celi Bwindol, born in the Western Prozen Republic."

"Edmund. You are Aran."

I had already decided that.

"Max. Don't say that carelessly. Agentes are listening."

Agentes. A special position called the closest of the close to the Emperor.

Still, no one in this world knew what they really were. Before regression, the Revolutionary Faction had concluded that Agentes were false intelligence.

"Agentes will take down Ebenholtz? If anything, isn't it more likely I'm Agentes."

"...Heh. Fair point."

Edmund smiled faintly.

"I'm off. Ah, I left a gift from my business trip with your butler."

Edmund turned to leave. I watched his back.

Thick hair and a sword at his waist. Broad shoulders and a straight spine.

Old Edmund was gone now, the bald one with the bent back, leaning on a cane instead of a sword.

"Edmund."

He looked back at me.

After a long time, a very long time, I asked him:

"...How's the outside?"

Edmund raised his brows and answered shortly.

"It's still hell."

He seemed to take "outside" as the battlefield. Against monsters, or against humans.

"So stay inside when you can, Max."

I found it ironic, hearing him say "inside." Because of you, I had stepped out into that outside.

"Edmund. The Empire will get better."

Edmund nodded and turned away.

"...Of course it will."

He waved one hand behind his back and left.

Alone again, I unfolded the decree once more.

I read the contents written in imperial handwriting and let out a sigh.

* * *

The beheading operation targeted a house called Kailus. They had been orthodox power ministers in the west, but now the imperial family suspected them of treason. More precisely, several collateral and direct-line members were marked for eradication.

But this was a small rebellion caused by Kailus's collateral line, meaning the house head's younger brother clinging to the imperial family.

I had taken part in this operation before regression, so the memory remained clear.

If you looked closely, there had been an incident that could serve as a pretext. The Emperor coveted an ancient treasure passed down in House Kailus for generations, and the house head politely refused.

That alone was the beginning of treason.

In this era, anything could become treason, and anyone could become a traitor.

"It couldn't be helped."

Sebestian had said this about Kailus.

"That youngest son over there looked pretty useful too."

That level of praise from Sebestian had been very rare.

Honestly, it was such high praise that it made me jealous, and it echoed in my ears for a long time.

"...But why did you go there?"

At the same time, my father had despised me for failing to earn any merit there.

Anyway, the operation had already begun. Using a business trip as a pretext, I boarded a transport plane on the knights-only runway.

"Loyalty."

I sat down after receiving a salute from an unnamed pilot.

Rooooar...

The transport flew under sunlight and landed on the western imperial coast, at a point where House Kailus's main castle looked small in the distance.

By then, night had grown deep.

"...Sir Knight. Do you not have separate manpower?"

The pilot asked me.

A knight was the Empire's sword and final overseer. It meant being alone was fine. Especially in a beheading operation like this.

"I'm enough."

"Yes, sir."

The pilot boarded again and left. He probably did not know what kind of operation was about to unfold here either.

I sat on a rock in the dark grass. Far away, House Kailus's main castle stood on a sheer cliff.

"..."

I waited there quietly. I let time pass, sunk in stray thoughts.

Then, at one moment.

Kwoooom...!

A huge explosion erupted. The signal of battle. The Imperial Army had launched a preemptive strike.

I walked toward it slowly.

A house's castle, what they called the main seat, was basically a solid fortress. High walls and mana batteries, plus layers of defensive magic circles.

Kailus did not even know clearly who was attacking or what the cause was, so of course they retaliated...

Tududud...!

Mana shells spat fire from the walls.

They had aimed their guns at the Imperial Army, so the charge of treason was now perfectly complete.

I walked through the darkness and reached into the past. I had once read related records at a merit review session.

The virus revived those memories.

[House Kailus Treason Case]

[...The four direct blood relatives, including ringleader Yusef von Kailus, attempted escape to the coastline through the main castle's underground moat, but were killed at sea. The remaining blood relatives who tried to flee separately were discovered near the western border's Macken Mountains and...]

Kailus's direct bloodline would soon realize the enemy they faced was the imperial family itself, and they would search for an escape route just to save their lives. The underground moat beneath the main castle, a secret passage leading to the coast.

But that information had already leaked too. The sea had already been completely sealed by the imperial fleet.

Their future held only annihilation.

Before regression, I had only watched from afar. Once the Empire had decided to kill them, the gap in force was close to infinite.

Not this time.

I needed to build merit. I had to climb to the highest place as a knight, and I had to win acknowledgment from Sebestian, and beyond him, from the Emperor.

Of course, the Kailus blood relatives were not Izenheim, but...

"Hup!"

I charged toward them. I concentrated mana in my legs. With every stride, every instant my feet kicked off the ground, I detonated mana. My body tore through the brush faster than a warhorse.

Tatatat...!

Before I knew it, I had reached the wall. Gunfire rained from above. The wall's magic systems were defending against the Imperial Army bombardment. Without slowing, I untied the bandages around my longsword. For a moment, the moon reflected on the blade.

Ebenholtz First Form, Link.

Sgagagak...

A silver sword aura burst from my blade in an instant. A pure white arc swallowed the wall and the troops on top of it. Cracks spread like a spiderweb, ripping apart stone and steel, flesh and bone.

"..."

I recovered the sword and straightened my stance. Part of the wall collapsed like a sandcastle. I passed the briefly stunned Imperial troops and charged into the castle.

Thump. Thump.

From somewhere, I felt Izenheim presence. They were hiding among these Imperial Army forces. But that was for later. I could deal with them anytime.

Right now, the top priority was only one thing: my own merit, in service of the Empire.

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