WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 59

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Scarcity (3)

I watched Jun Kandel and Sonnet run. The two of them ran in silence for hours. Jun had surprisingly good stamina.

His form never wavered, as if he had trained hard.

“We should rest a bit.”

As the sun went down, Jun pointed at a cave in the forest.

“Sure.”

We went inside. Sonnet spread out her sleeping bag and lay down at once, while Jun sat with his back against the cave wall.

I lit a campfire.

Flare.

The fire lit up the cave.

I looked from Jun to Sonnet and thought of House Kandel before my regression. I could not remember the details. During their fall and extermination, I had been too busy running for my life.

I did not know how Jun met his end.

Still, there was one thing I remembered clearly.

Sonnet Kandel had been hanged.

“Maximilian.”

Jun suddenly called my name.

“Yes.”

“How did you... Pexy...”

His lips worked wordlessly for a moment, then he let it out like a sigh.

“How did you know that thing was the culprit?”

That memory still tormented him.

“It was simpler than expected. Once I assumed the Head-Eater was a mage using 「Chimera Brain」, everything fell into place. The Head-Eater first appeared three years ago, and that subspecies also came up to the capital then.”

“He could not have been the only one.”

At some point this bastard had started speaking casually to me, but I did not care.

On paper, he was nine years older than me anyway.

“Even so, he was the only noble with no ties. Plenty of nobles had no mother but still had a father, no father but still had a mother, or no parents but siblings.”

“...Right. That damned bastard probably killed Pexy and her family before coming up. Such a waste of a face.”

Jun bit his lip hard.

It did not look like pain anymore. He was still hung up on Pexy’s looks.

“Ha...”

I watched him quietly as he raked his fingers through his hair.

“Sir Kandel.”

“...Why so formal all of a sudden.”

“What does Kandel want?”

House Kandel was a great house. It backed the Magic Tower and mana engineering, controlled finance and commerce, and shaped the direction of arts and culture.

So why had they suddenly coiled themselves around the Imperial Guard?

At my question, Jun answered with a smile that felt like a sigh.

“Ask my father.”

That answer felt strangely familiar, and Jun threw the same question back at me.

“What does Ebenholtz want?”

“...”

I used to hate Jun quite a lot. I had never felt this kind of rivalry, not even with my Empire Point classmates or other nobles my age.

Only now did I think I understood why.

“Ask my father.”

People hated their own kind. The part of myself I most wanted to throw away looked back at me like a mirror.

“...”

“...”

I looked at Jun. Jun looked at me the same way. The moment our eyes met, we both frowned a little and looked away.

What a damn unpleasant face. Jun probably thought the same.

I still did not get it. How could someone’s name be Jun? On that front, Sebestian Ebenholtz was slightly better than Mateus Kandel.

Then Jun stood up.

“Then take care of my sister.”

“You are leaving already?”

“We ran enough.”

He shrugged and walked out of the cave. He left with the guards who had come up at some point, trudging away.

“...”

I looked at Sonnet. She was lying down asleep.

She was probably pretending, but I also closed my eyes with my sword resting against my shoulder.

Even guards needed rest.

......

We kept running like that for two days. At night we found decent campsites and slept, and during the day we ran. Monsters showed up now and then, but we handled them easily.

Sonnet did not say a single word to me the whole time. I did not bother speaking to her either. There was no reason.

In the end, we were children of competing great houses, so-called enemies.

“Hm?”

Then, while running, I spotted a milk lake. A deep lake, white as milk.

There was also a crystal cave, and ornamental trees made entirely of gold leaf. Decorations the organizers had set up in advance. A showcase of waste and luxury.

“There are a lot of events.”

“...”

Whenever one appeared, Sonnet stopped for a moment and watched closely.

I could not tell whether she found them beautiful or pathetic. Her expression was hard to read.

Then she took off through the forest again. I followed.

“Let’s rest here tonight.”

Before long, the sun was setting again. I set up camp near a stream.

I lit a fire and was about to make pasta for dinner.

“What do you think about the Empire’s economy, Sir Knight?”

Out of nowhere, Sonnet spoke for the first time.

“...The economy?”

“Yes.”

“I am not an economist.”

“To put it simply, the top 10% currently hold over 80% of the Empire’s wealth. It is a very unstable structure.”

As she said, inequality in the Empire kept getting worse by the day, likely at its highest point in history.

“The lower classes can barely secure even the minimum goods needed to survive. In the central lower districts, subjects are dying of hunger-”

“I see.”

I nodded and dropped the pasta into the pot.

“...That is unexpected.”

Sonnet looked at me with a strange expression.

“Unexpected?”

“Yes. When I say things like this, imperialists like you usually ask whether I am denying the Empire.”

Imperialists like you. Even from Sonnet, that was a risky phrase.

I asked back.

“Are you not an imperialist?”

“I am a writer with no interest in politics.”

“You are Imperial Aran too. Take some interest.”

This was an event. We did not know where, or who, might be listening.

We always had to remember. The imperial house owned the Empire. Corrupt or declining, they had ruled this state for a thousand years. We could never underestimate them. The Emperor’s eyes and ears were everywhere and nowhere.

“Do you think words like mine are attacks on the Empire?”

Sonnet asked steadily.

“No. If someone thinks that, they are fake.”

“Fake?”

“Yes. Denying reality does nothing for the Empire. In fact, wealth concentration harms the Empire.”

Did I even have culture and learning in my head?

It was not like I had none.

Lately, I felt the best thing I had done before regression was reading.

After the Empire fell, the New Cabinet excitedly talked about why the Empire had fallen and how they had won. Newspapers, magazines, and countless books were filled with histories of victory and free scholarship. Freed from imperial oppression, they spread highly creative knowledge.

“When lower-class subjects fail to function as efficient production factors and wealth becomes overly concentrated in the upper class, it naturally leads to a vicious cycle where reinvestment in human capital stops.”

As a fugitive wanderer, I read things like that.

I had no choice but to read.

As a wandering war criminal, all I had was time. Those bundles of paper were my blanket, floor mat, and pillow, so how could I not read them?

Thanks to that, conversations like this no longer scared me.

“Subjects who receive no education or technical training decline in quality, and that directly leads to losses for the entire Empire.”

A quote from a column I once read, 「The Empire Fell from Its Economy」.

Sonnet looked at me and asked,

“...If it harms the Empire, should we not solve it?”

“Yes. I already know the answer.”

Nobles who lived by exploitation. Bourgeois calling themselves businessmen while exploiting workers.

There was a chance to wipe out those trash bastards in one stroke.

“War.”

War was the process of tightening the inside and crushing the outside. The parasites eating away at the Empire would be swept away by war. The power and authority I built would smash them.

And then, the sharpest blade honed to the limit would exterminate the otherworldly species hidden across the continent, Izenheim.

“As subjects of Imperial Aran, we subjugate all inferior races...”

That was the core idea held by imperial war criminals. The very banner of the Empire that the Revolutionary Faction despised, and at the same time the only way to preserve humanity.

“We establish perfect rule.”

Sonnet nodded quietly.

“Then can the Empire win the war?”

At Sonnet’s foolish question, I gave a bitter smile.

“It absolutely must.”

The Empire, hated by the continent, was humanity’s only breakwater.

There was no option called defeat anymore.

The moment we lost, all existence would perish.

* * *

Sonnet crossed the forest. She was right at the finish. Marathon running was one of the things she hated most, but she still needed this to grasp Maximilian’s intentions, now that his fame had risen so sharply.

“It is over there.”

Maximilian smiled as he looked at the finish line. He seemed to hate marathons just as much as she did.

Many people were already waiting there.

“They are coming!”

“Ah, yes! This finisher is Lady Sonnet Kandel of House Kandel!”

She crossed the line amid applause and fanfare. Sadly she did not place in the rankings, but it was still worthwhile.

“Oh? Good to see you, Max!”

As she was being congratulated, someone called Maximilian Max.

Sonnet turned too.

Familiar curly hair and a pale white face.

Leutern II.

“...”

Maximilian looked at him and said nothing. Leutern frowned slightly.

“Not happy to see me? What is with that face?”

Leutern II’s father, Leutern, was a giant in imperial politics. He was one of the pillars of the aristocratic council in the imperial palace.

He carried the bloodline of a royal house that had been subdued by the Empire long ago.

“No. Not at all. I am very glad to see you.”

No matter who Ebenholtz was, he had to show manners to people of the imperial household.

Maximilian smiled at Leutern.

“Duke Leutern, what brings you here?”

“Ah, nothing much, it is about that Spherical Aura Guard thing! Sell me some! I heard it is popular lately. My guard seems to want it too.”

“...Yes. I will do my best.”

People from the imperial palace deliberately picked fights with heirs of great houses, and those heirs often took the bait, especially Jun.

Maximilian, unexpectedly, hid his true feelings very well.

“Max, seeing you doing well these days makes me happy. Last time I saw you, you looked half dead. Now you are getting all chubby too.”

“Really? My weight has not gone up.”

“Really? No way. You are fat.”

Leutern II’s words and tone clearly carried an intent to insult.

“Anyway, send it right away. You know my address, right?”

“Yes. Understood.”

“Mm, thanks.”

Even so, Maximilian did not show humiliation. To Sonnet, that was quite interesting.

“Let’s go, Sonnet Kandel.”

Maximilian gestured to her.

Sonnet followed close behind and muttered,

“I heard Spherical Aura Guard is in short supply. You must still have stock left?”

“No. None. So even if I want to send it, I cannot.”

A faint sneer sat at the corner of Maximilian’s mouth as he muttered it.

“I see. That is unfortunate for Leutern.”

He did not assert his pride in front of imperial palace people, but he also did not get dragged around by their pettiness.

A solid person.

“Are you acquainted with Duke Leutern?”

At Maximilian’s question, Sonnet looked back for a moment. Her eyes met Leutern II, who was glancing at her.

“Yes.”

She touched the necklace at her chest and answered softly.

“I saw him often when I was young.”

...Suddenly, her past came to mind.

Sonnet Ensiela von Kandel.

As the daughter of House Kandel, she had been raised deep within the imperial household from a very young age. It had been arranged that way from birth. She was raised as the Emperor’s eyes and ears, and now carried the duty of tracing the Empire’s shadows and delivering them to the imperial house.

The imperial house had no official name for such beings, but all imperial subjects compared them to a legend and called them this:

Agentes Augusti.

* * *

One month after Maximilian’s 「Knight Technique: Spherical Aura Guard」 was published.

Kairon’s hunch had been right. 「Spherical Aura Guard」 had fully caught fire.

Now not only knights but mages across the Empire were searching for the technique book, and scarcity naturally followed.

Noble knights repeated “I need Spherical Aura Guard” like parrots. Some even tried to ask Maximilian for favors, but he turned them all down, saying production took too long.

“...I could not get one either.”

“Same here.”

This was Kairon’s private room.

Not only first to third years, but even knights entering their fifth and sixth years were making those complaints.

“You know Eron, right? Every time I see him, he brags that he got one. So annoying.”

“...Honestly, it pisses me off. I keep hearing retired knights are getting the books, but those people are already close to fifty, so why are they doing that? They should yield a bit to us younger guys.”

There was especially strong resentment toward retired knights, meaning those who left the Order and opened private knight offices. This was how generational conflict surfaced, but young or old, they were all adults. Every adult liked excellence, and every adult wanted to own something impressive.

Youngsters had no right to criticize them just for being younger.

“Ahem. Stop the nasty talk and focus. I have something to show you.”

Kairon took out a cube. It was the mana stone cube Maximilian had delivered just last night.

The knights’ eyes widened.

“Watch carefully.”

He fixed it to his chest and manifested Spherical Aura Guard.

Whiiiiir-

Its overall strength was not fully complete yet, but the shape of a translucent sphere was clear.

The knights looked jealous.

“This is why I called you here.”

“...To show us Spherical Aura Guard?”

Raynel and the other younger knights pouted in annoyance.

If things ended with just this, his own reputation would sink.

“Hahaha.”

Kairon laughed and snapped his fingers. Attendants came in and placed luxurious boxes at each knight’s seat.

As they looked confused, Kairon set his expression and spoke seriously.

“I know this too. Among Sentinel’s powerful noble houses, I may look unorthodox.”

Orthodoxy was time accumulated over very long years.

No individual could overcome time.

“But I want to put it this way. That is why it is ‘newness.’”

Then he nodded at the boxes.

“Open them.”

The knights opened them one by one. Their eyes immediately widened.

Inside were top-grade hardcover copies of 「Spherical Aura Guard」, gleaming silver.

“Yes. Starting today, we will study this technique book together.”

Kairon continued.

“His Majesty the Emperor will eventually want war, and we cannot avoid it.”

He was good at reading the political climate. He had a rough sense of what the imperial house ultimately wanted.

“This is my gift to help you perform when that time comes. At minimum, you can move ahead by a few months.”

“Sir Knight, how could you give us something this valuable...”

“Are we really allowed to accept this?”

Kairon’s subordinates all looked moved.

“Do not feel burdened. It is just from the heart.”

“...Sir Knight.”

Then one by one they jumped to their feet and saluted.

Kairon swept his gaze across them.

Many among them had higher lineage than Kairon’s house, true orthodox bloodlines. Raynel and Zionne especially.

Even so, they showed gratitude and loyalty like this.

“...Good.”

Things you could buy with money were low grade.

Things you could buy only with a lot of money were middle grade.

But things money could not buy were noble goods, and they stirred loyalty like this.

“Sit down now. This is embarrassing.”

Kairon himself was no different. He had received ten full theory books from Maximilian. That favor had come with a clear condition.

Lately, Kairon felt a certain line shimmering above his head. A silver line like moonlight, connected to the Empire’s greatest prestigious house.

But that line was still testing him. If he grabbed too quickly, it might slip right out of his hand.

So he had to wait until Maximilian could trust him. He had to make his own faction more solid first.

“Thank Maximilian, the original author, not me.”

Kairon still remembered that day.

The authority that had driven off Master of the Magic Tower Nicolaus with a single line.

The orthodoxy he had longed for endlessly.

To seize that Ebenholtz line, to stand on more equal footing with it.

First, he would have to equip himself with a form worthy of it.

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