The Reluctant Imperialist - Chapter 62

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 62

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Enemy of the Empire (2)

Arnold von Essenbach was the Empire’s intellect. A towering figure rooted deep in the lineage of knowledge, moving across the boundary between magic and mana engineering.

He devoted his life to studying the principles of mana and the laws of nature, and he opened his estate as a school, mentoring younger scholars without conditions. His generous character earned him broad respect among intellectuals, and he came to be recognized as one of academia’s leading figures.

Recently, one of Arnold’s disciples attended an overseas academic society, then was arrested by the military while returning to the Empire.

The charges were spreading subversive ideas and leaking technology. He had been caught in the Empire’s censorship net.

Still, Arnold knew his disciple was not that kind of man, so he decided to go in person to where he was being held.

“Will you be alright, sir?”

His butler asked with concern.

“I may be, or I may not. Even so, if I am a teacher, should I not go see my disciple......”

He tightened his tie and got into the car.

“We are departing.”

In the back seat, he pulled his fedora low and looked out the window.

“We have arrived.”

Lost in thought, he did not notice the trip pass. Their destination was a military base on the central outskirts, next to the airport.

The moment Arnold stepped out of the car, soldiers with cold expressions approached him.

“Mr. Arnold. This way.”

They led him inside. It was not a dark interrogation room, but a neatly organized office.

“A pleasure to meet you, Mage Arnold.”

“The pleasure is mine.”

“Please, have a seat.”

On the desk sat a nameplate reading [Keynes], and the colonel behind it politely gestured to a sofa. Arnold sat down and tried to bring up his disciple at once.

“First, about the young man you arrested, he-”

“Ah, yes.”

Colonel Keynes raised a palm and stopped him.

“One more person will be joining us.”

“......One more?”

“Yes.”

Keynes looked at him and smiled.

Step. Step.

At that moment, steady footsteps echoed from the hallway beyond the office.

Colonel Keynes craned his neck to peek outside, and Arnold watched him.

Step. Step.

The distinct sound of knight boots, leather and steel striking marble.

Creak──

Then the door opened, and he appeared.

Keynes stood and saluted. Only then did Arnold turn and look at him.

Time seemed to slow, and the man’s figure burned into Arnold’s vision.

Golden hair and golden eyes. A handsome face and textbook-perfect proportions.

His form was the image of Aran, his bearing unmistakably noble.

Not a strand of hair out of place, every movement disciplined, he approached with a soft smile and offered his hand.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mage Arnold. I am Knight Maximilian.”

Arnold rose awkwardly and shook his hand.

“My apologies. I should have been here first.”

“......That is alright.”

“Please, speak comfortably. Let us sit.”

Even Maximilian’s voice and diction were those of a perfect central noble.

Just as the rumors said.

“There was a small incident two days ago, and it only just wrapped up, so I was a little late.”

“Ah, I heard.”

Colonel Keynes nodded like he already knew, and Arnold hid his tension as he asked,

“What incident was it?”

Maximilian went still for a moment and looked straight at Arnold.

“......Are you curious?”

Arnold gave a small nod.

“I am curious about a knight’s work.”

“Hmm. It was nothing major, but......”

......

Two days earlier.

The luxurious office of Johann Schille, vice president of Golden Gate Trade.

“Johann Schille. You are under emergency arrest under Imperial Law Article 112, conspiracy to revolt, and Article 114, funding anti-state organizations.”

In the past, on the very day he bought Litruman’s useless sword for ten thousand dollars at the charity auction party.

The Izenheim named Johann Schille had been written into Maximilian’s kill list.

Records from weeks of wiretaps and financial flow tracking, gathered by Schatz’s team, were thrown onto his desk as evidence. Johann Schille only looked up at Maximilian with a hollow laugh, as if he had given up.

“Search.”

At Maximilian’s signal, investigators moved in unison and tore through the office.

“This is illegal! You do not even have a warrant!”

A company lawyer shouted. For a moment, the investigators’ attention shifted to him. Zendo let out an incredulous snort.

“Illegal? Can you not see this evidence?”

“Evidence obtained illegally has no legal force-”

“No.”

Just then, Maximilian slowly walked toward him. The lawyer flinched and stepped back. His bold blue eyes trembled.

“You seem not to understand.”

Maximilian placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. Staring into his frightened pupils, he spoke in a low voice.

“The law is set by the Empire, not by trash like you.”

After that, the trading company called Golden Gate was dismantled on charges of funding the Revolutionary Faction, and Maximilian’s report was delivered to the Sentinel Order and the imperial household.

The two institutions reacted very differently.

Anton sent a concerned reply saying he wanted formal procedures followed, while the imperial household was satisfied with the swift efficiency.

......

“That was all. Nothing serious.”

At Maximilian’s words, Colonel Keynes quickly chimed in.

“As expected of a knight of Ebenholtz.”

“It was simply what had to be done.”

Maximilian waved it off. Arnold gave a bitter smile and asked,

“Then what happened? To that man named Johann.”

“Well.”

As if recalling that day, which had been “nothing serious,” Maximilian lifted a brow for a moment.

“He refused to confess to the bitter end, but the evidence was clear.”

Maximilian’s gaze sharpened. Looking directly into Arnold’s eyes, he said,

“I killed him. Probably yesterday.”

“......”

Arnold swallowed without meaning to. His face felt stiff.

From across from him, Maximilian spoke quietly.

“So this matter will also be a simple procedure.”

His tone remained calm and steady.

“If your disciple has no relation whatsoever to the Revolutionary Faction, and this is all a misunderstanding, then of course we will release him.”

Maximilian signaled to Colonel Keynes.

“Ah, yes. First, these are the letters we obtained.”

The bundle he handed over was correspondence between Arnold’s disciple and scholars in the East. Most of it was ordinary, daily academic exchange. Still, mixed among them were criticisms that strict censorship hindered academic development, and lines suggesting they discuss certain magic and mana engineering techniques together.

That was treated as technology leakage.

Colonel Keynes asked Arnold,

“Do scholars often exchange letters like this?”

“......It differs by person, but we usually do not place borders around scholarship. A researcher’s background comes after. To develop one’s research, to learn something new. Even so, we never leak secrets. That magic theory as well was simply ordinary-”

“Then.”

Maximilian watched him steadily.

“Mage Arnold, do you also have pen pals like this?”

“Not ongoing enough to call it pen pals-”

“So that means you do.”

Maximilian’s gaze tilted slightly. His eyes swept over Arnold’s half-gray hair, his glasses, then his wristwatch.

“I will ask directly. Have you also received proposals for this kind of ‘discussion’?”

“......”

In that suffocating atmosphere, Arnold thought hard.

Still, hiding things from this knight might not be a good choice.

“It has happened before, but there was no reason to accept. I have many disciples I can discuss things with.”

Maximilian glanced at Colonel Keynes. Reading the room, the colonel stopped the recording device that had been capturing the conversation.

“Mage.”

Then Maximilian rose first.

“Let us speak outside for a moment.”

Colonel Keynes pulled his hat down, hiding a smile, and Arnold stood with a hardened face.

* * *

As the sinking sun scattered red twilight across the sky,

Anton arrived at the military base where Maximilian had reported in.

Screeech!

The vehicle stopped loudly near the main gate. Anton and Adria threw open the doors and got out.

They were just about to run toward the base.

Boom──.

The steel gate at the entrance opened heavily, and two people walked out from inside. Arnold and his disciple.

Arnold spotted Anton first.

“Hmm? Anton?”

Anton looked at Arnold’s face too. He looked tired, but completely fine.

“......Huh?”

Anton and Adria froze where they stood, like they had been struck by lightning. They only blinked in a daze.

Anton swallowed and barely got the words out.

“What happened?”

“......What happened, you ask.”

Arnold jerked his chin at his disciple, Ensillen.

“This brat pulled some nonsense, so I cleaned it up.”

He cleaned it up?

How had it been cleaned up?

Still unable to understand the situation, Anton asked again.

“Did Knight Maximilian come here, by any chance?”

“Ah. He did.”

Even so, the military had released Arnold’s disciple. Anton and Adria had no idea why......

“Haha.”

As if he could read the question on their faces, Arnold gave a faint smile.

A memory from only a few hours ago rose vividly before his eyes.

......

Arnold had walked along a quiet path inside the military base with Maximilian.

Between the well-kept trees, he looked at the young knight walking ahead.

A straight back, steps without a single break in form. A face that looked carved from the very Aran ideal the Empire praised.

Without realizing it, Arnold let out a quiet murmur of admiration.

“You truly are the image of an Imperial.”

Maximilian only gave a brief smile, nothing more.

Rustle. Rustle.

He kept walking down the forest path. Arnold followed behind him.

They stopped in a place with few people around, enclosed by trees.

Whooooosh──

An outlying spot where the air felt bleak and ominous, leaves whispering in the wind.

A longsword was still strapped to Maximilian’s back.

“Mage Arnold.”

Maximilian had already reached a conclusion.

Detaining him here or harming him was not the right choice. It was a dirty trick from those Agency bastards, and a short-sighted move mixed with personal emotion.

If Arnold were detained, the entire academic world would turn hostile to the Empire, and to Ebenholtz.

As Ebenholtz’s heir, he had no reason to take that risk, and above all, he had no interest in moving like a puppet for the damned imperial palace and those Agency bastards.

“Say you never received such a proposal in the first place.

From now on, never exchange letters like that again, and if letters come from the East, do not even read them. Burn them.”

A clear division was necessary.

The will of the imperial palace was not the Emperor’s will. In the same way, the will of the Agency was not the Emperor’s will.

The sycophants in the imperial palace who lived off the Emperor were nothing but vermin that had to be cut out one day.

“Trying to protect your pride, or insisting on speaking the full truth, is only reckless bravado.”

On the other hand, Arnold was someone useful to the Empire. He was not a revolutionary, but an outstanding mage and a perceptive mana engineering scholar.

“Also, from now on, stop making remarks about subspecies. The imperial palace no longer has the patience to tolerate your statements.”

Arnold looked puzzled, and Maximilian placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Mage Arnold, what do you think about subspecies?”

“There are differences, but not to a degree that justifies discrimination.”

Differences between races did exist. Even so, they were at a level that could be called natural, like skin color.

“They are racial traits that make the world more diverse.”

A bitter smile touched Maximilian’s face.

“You are wrong. Subspecies are inferior races that must be controlled. Do you know this, Mage?”

“Know what......?”

“You are a pure Aran noble. You are far more useful to the Empire than dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of lower humans put together.”

Arnold looked at the young knight in silence. There was much in his claim that Arnold wanted to correct, but now was not the moment.

“Even if you deny it, this world will judge it that way. Your life is not equal to theirs. That nonsense about every life being equally equal is clearly wrong.”

From the start, this knight might have been the kind of person who could not be persuaded at all......

Arnold shook his head.

“Even so-”

“Close your mouth.”

Maximilian cut him off coldly. That single line stopped Arnold’s words.

Silence settled in the forest.

“......Haa.”

Then Maximilian looked up at the sky and let out a faint sigh. Arnold quietly followed his gaze.

“The world is changing fast. Scholarship will be contaminated by ideology, and knowledge will become a weapon that kills people.”

Maximilian lowered his head. He looked directly into Arnold’s eyes again.

“I will not deny it. I am also one of those imperialists.”

No emotion showed in Maximilian’s desert-like golden eyes, and that made them feel even more like a blade.

“So please, do not make me cut you down.”

There was no lie in his words. It was sincere advice from the young knight.

Arnold nodded as he faced him, and Maximilian soon led him somewhere.

“Please follow me.”

They went together to the military prison.

After passing cold iron doors and corridors, they stopped in front of the cell where his disciple was being held.

Beyond the bars stood a gaunt man.

“Ensillen!”

Maximilian signaled to the guard.

“Release him.”

The guard looked briefly flustered, then quickly brought the keys and opened the door.

Clank-

He opened the bars,

Clank-

and removed the chains binding the disciple’s body.

“Please wait outside while we finish the paperwork.”

Arnold turned away in silence, then called him again.

“......Knight Maximilian.”

Maximilian turned to look at him.

“Was this, perhaps, Anton’s request?”

Anton’s request. Maximilian repeated the words softly and smiled. It was a twisted smile, almost a sneer.

“No. I rather dislike him.”

In times of peace, a wise man with the virtues all people wanted.

In chaotic times, an old man trying to clutch floating-cloud ideals.

“Still, my personal feelings are separate from his ability, so I respect him.”

A fallen noble who became Sentinel Order vice commander by skill alone-

a man born into the wrong era.

“......I see.”

Arnold looked at Maximilian for a moment, then nodded quietly.

......

Inside Anton’s car, Arnold was on his way home with Anton.

“What was Maximilian like?”

From the driver’s seat, Anton suddenly asked about Maximilian.

“Ahem......”

Arnold sank into thought for a moment.

Today, from what Maximilian told him, he could at least glimpse one part of him.

‘You are a pure Aran noble. You are far more useful to the Empire than dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of lower humans combined. Even if you deny it, this world will judge it that way. Your life is not equal to theirs.’

Pure Aran. Division between lower and upper.

He was someone who fully followed the Empire’s will, yet he was not a man blinded by that alone.

“If I had to say...... a noble with his eyes open.”

Maximilian directly said things rarely heard from nobles.

‘Scholarship will be contaminated by ideology, and knowledge will become a weapon that kills people.’

He diagnosed reality accurately. Even so, he did not withdraw his respect for Arnold himself. Every gesture and word carried class.

‘So please, do not make me cut you down.’

It was hard to judge him. From a first meeting alone, there was no way to read his depths. He was too many-sided.

Still, one thing was certain.

“Very......”

Even while threatening to kill people, even while showing blunt hatred toward subspecies, he never seemed to lose dignity as a human being.

“He was an aristocratic imperialist.”