WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 4

──────

Method

An adult knight on the verge of joining the Sentinel had killed a cadet.

The attacker was the eldest son of House Ebenholtz. The victim was a cadet with no backing at all.

It should have been easy to bury the case, but a few media outlets that called themselves the conscience of the Empire latched onto it.

“Does this even make sense?! If it’s Ebenholtz, does that mean they can just kill people?”

They camped out in front of the main gate of the Imperial Saheran Police Station. The chief waved a hand and told his officers to hold them back.

“I told you there was a reason, so go back now-”

“What reason could there be?! What reason could possibly justify killing a fifteen-year-old cadet!”

“You people sure talk a lot......”

Tsk. Clicking his tongue, the chief listened as a subordinate stepped up and whispered quietly.

The chief’s eyes widened.

“......You serious?”

“Yes. Sounds like they’re pretty confident......”

“Fine.”

The chief looked at the reporters and clicked his tongue again.

“A public autopsy’s been scheduled, so come watch then.”

An autopsy was the only way to determine race. Just as the eldest son had stated, if the dead cadet turned out to be a minority race and not an Imperial, that was enough grounds for summary judgment.

Here, “enough” meant “under Imperial law.”

“A public autopsy?”

“They’re doing it publicly?”

The reporters looked at each other, baffled.

An autopsy itself was a given. Even for Ebenholtz, it was a step that could not be skipped. But a public autopsy was hard to tamper with, so if there was anything to hide, it would come out.

“It’s at eight tonight at the Eton medical examiner’s office, so get moving.”

The chief went back inside the station. The reporters murmured for a moment, then hurried into their cars. “See you in Eton!” and similar shouts rang out from every side.

* * *

8 p.m.

“......The autopsy has concluded.”

The coroner placed the deceased’s heart on a tray. A crowd watched through the glass wall.

“Analysis result.”

The public autopsy was fully transparent. Many reporters had gathered, and even enemies of House Ebenholtz had joined. If this dead man had been an innocent Imperial citizen, Maximilian would have been indicted.

“The deceased named Jacob Mack was not an Imperial.”

An uproar broke out.

When a heart was analyzed with magic, racial differences showed clearly. The hearts of five races in particular were distinct: Dromon, descendants of dwarves, Elina, descendants of elves, Yaken, descendants of beastfolk, plus Izenheim and Edellem.

The Empire classified them not as races, but as Ain species.

“Jacob Mack is presumed to have been either Izenheim or Elina.”

Only Imperials could enter Empire Point. If someone faked their identity, Imperial law made that a capital crime.

So Maximilian Ebenholtz had made the correct judgment.

Some reporters left quickly. Some stood there blankly, as if they could not process it. The retainers of House Ebenholtz looked relieved.

“......No tampering?”

In contrast, Ebenholtz’s political enemies looked disappointed.

“No. One of the coroners was our man.”

“Tsk.”

The eldest son of House Ebenholtz, Maximilian, had killed an Izenheim who had disguised himself as an Imperial. On top of that, the deceased had been an outstanding cadet at the academy, a prospect almost guaranteed to be knighted.

It was a clear military merit. He had caught a spy who had nearly entered the center of the Empire.

“For a guy who made cadet rank, he sure lacked caution.”

Ken, second son of Bertem, blamed the dead man without realizing it.

The retainer beside him chimed in like a sycophant.

“Do you think he never expected Maximilian to catch him?”

“Ha. Maybe.”

Maximilian was famous in noble society as a half-wit. He looked more Imperial than anyone, so he drew envy from many nobles, but that was all he had.

“He stumbled backward and caught a rat.”

“Exactly.”

“Let’s go back.”

“Yes.”

Reporters who still had not let go of their conscience grabbed the coroner and asked:

“......He really wasn’t an Imperial?”

“If you’re that suspicious, check it yourself.”

The medical examiner pointed at the heart on the tray.

Mana stayed in a dead body for quite a long time, and the estimated time of death could be calculated from the remaining amount. A heart swap was impossible.

“Ugh......”

The reporter, Alphonse, looked at the dead boy’s face lying on the metal slab. He was not an Imperial, but he was still a boy whose baby fat had not even fully faded.

That peaceful face somehow felt warm, which made it even sadder.

It felt wrong.

Grit.

Alphonse clenched his teeth.

* * *

I sat with my eyes closed.

It was not a prison.

If anything, the ones locked behind bars were the cadets.

“......Wow. You hid it really well in this novel. Impressive, truly.”

I was getting praise from detectives instead. A man with a mustache held a page of the book out toward me.

“Shame there wasn’t any hideout location in here. I guess that was their rule.”

“Please let those kids go. They’re normal cadets.”

I jerked my chin toward the bars. The three cadets inside still looked like skeletons.

It looked like they still could not believe that their friend of years had died, and they were still afraid.

“No, we still have to investigate just in case. Their thinking could be twisted.”

“......If you investigate them, what happens to them?”

“Ah. Speak comfortably, Sir Knight. I’m Sergeant Georges.”

I changed my tone right away.

“What happens to them?”

“Oh, well. Since one of their classmates was Ain, of course their future gets blocked. That’s only right.”

“......”

It was wrong.

The Empire’s oppression of minority races was clearly wrong.

With one exception.

Izenheim.

They were not a race but a species, and not even Ain. They were an alien clan.

So if they were not Izenheim, it was fine. And these cadets were not Izenheim.

The thing inside my body did not react, so I was sure.

“......Let them go.”

“Come on, still-”

“I said I’m fine. I won’t repeat myself.”

“Uh...... yes. Hey, open it!”

Clang. The bars opened. The three remaining cadets walked out.

“You little punks. Pick your friends better.”

Sergeant Georges smacked each one on the head with a document file as they came out.

“Move it. Bow to Lord Ebenholtz before you go.”

“......”

“......”

“......”

The cadets glanced at me, then bowed their heads in silence.

I asked them as they passed by.

“Were you close?”

That was the only way I could ask it. I did not know what else to put in those words.

“......No.”

One of them answered. It was a girl. Was her name Hanna?

It was a good answer.

I signaled the detective.

“Write it in the statement. They weren’t close.”

“......Ah, yes.”

Joshua added one more sentence to the statement, and I turned around. The autopsy result was out, so I planned to head back.

Then Hanna grabbed my sleeve.

“Are you insane!”

The sergeant’s face twisted like a devil, and the other cadets cursed at her, asking if she had lost her mind.

“......”

I stopped the sergeant from beating Hanna. Instead, I looked into her eyes. I looked into pupils seized by a sense of justice. I looked at her and thought of the ruined world. I remembered Edmund, fading like a candle. I recalled that grotesque dimensional eater that had lunged at me.

I spat out the core formed by those memories of future and present.

* * *

The Ebenholtz main house.

“This is the autopsy report.”

Sebestian had never expected much from small things. To be honest, he had not expected much from big things either.

It had been a long time since he had expected anything at all.

This time, though, it was unexpectedly not small.

The first report had already been strange.

Max was not the type to kill easily. If anything, he was the type who could not kill. He was soft, the kind who still had not forgotten the dog he had raised at eight years old.

Yet that boy had killed a cadet who was only fifteen. He had cut his head off in one stroke.

That alone was shocking enough, but on top of that, the cadet had been a minority.

An insolent Ain who had dared infiltrate the Empire’s Empire Point.

“What a ridiculous thing.”

For now, it seemed better to believe it was a coincidence. Expectation only led to disappointment, and Max had always been a child who did nothing but disappoint.

“When is the Sentinel induction ceremony?”

“Never mind.”

The Sentinel induction ceremony was a major event even in the Empire. It was where the Empire’s greatest talents gathered.

But Maximilian was far from the greatest. Even if he went, he would only become fodder for those hateful nobles and be laughed at.

Of course there had been no favor-trading for Maximilian’s admission, but personnel would not have been able to ignore the name Ebenholtz.

“I already have something scheduled that day.”

For Sebestian, who had always ridden a road of success, a son had now become a blemish.

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