WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 65

──────

The Unknowable

──Srrk.

Arshtel’s neck parted from his body.

My sword had cut him down.

Thud.

His body slumped over the table, and his head rolled across the sewer floor.

That was how Izenheim died. Their breath stopped like any ordinary human’s. Without ever revealing they were Izenheim, they served their species’ cause to the very end.

And that cause was the extinction of humanity, an otherworldly species bound together by the most toxic creed imaginable.

“You killed him.”

Sonnet said it. Her expression did not change. This level of violence was not enough to shake her. Maybe even what I had just done was still within the range she expected.

That reaction stirred an unconscious fear in me.

Because I was not real, not like her.

Even as a regressor, I had never felt my way through the Empire’s deepest darkness. I had never crushed enemies through vicious political struggle.

My strength came from the future, from a place that might not even exist anymore.

Outside and inside, I still was not a true Ebenholtz.

I was still half-grown, a noble hanger-on who could not even trust himself fully.

But...

“Yes. Your venture succeeded, Lady Kandel.”

As long as she did not discover it. As long as I did not expose how unstable I was inside.

A tremor was only a wave seen from the outside.

If I calmly gathered everything rising inside me, that was enough.

“I will give you ten million dollars.”

I adjusted my clothes without haste. I straightened the hair and sleeves that had come loose when I swung my sword.

“His head was worth at least that much.”

Never lose, Maximilian.

At least in every visible moment, before any opponent, I had to maintain a noble bearing.

“The information might have been worth ten times more.”

“Then I will offset that value by factoring in the possibility that he was a double agent.”

“Even double agents can be useful. Spies hand over truth to buy trust.”

I looked at Sonnet.

No matter how much I tried to read her, I could not see through that face.

If I could not know, then I should not try to know.

If she was someone who predicted people, then I had to become someone she could not predict.

Everything I did had to stay vague, and every intention of mine had to remain unreadable.

Today, Sonnet taught me something valuable.

The unknowable creates fear. Fear born from uncertainty is the strongest.

“There is no nourishment in that kind of truth.”

“......”

Sonnet said nothing more.

Was she acknowledging me, or simply letting it pass?

Or had she judged me as the type who could not be persuaded right now?

“I will deliver the ten million separately, in a better way.”

I only had to make sure her books showed that much net profit.

“Do you have anything else to say?”

Sonnet shook her head.

“No. You do not need to repay me. House Kandel also received a great favor from you during the Head-Eater case.”

She stood and shoved Arshtel’s head into the bag she had brought.

“Take it.”

Then she trudged back toward the far end of the sewer.

“......”

I watched her back, then shifted my gaze to Arshtel’s corpse.

Twitch-

The virus moved. It reached toward his body.

Writhing-

It absorbed the Izenheim mana still left in the corpse. A dark red current crawled up my arm.

“......Done?”

When the feeding seemed finished, I slung the bag containing Arshtel’s severed head over my shoulder.

I turned to leave, then stopped.

Arshtel.

This Revolutionary Faction officer could certainly count as one of my achievements, but it might not help my personal safety much.

“I do not need flashy military merit on display.”

This was work for the Empire alone.

I pulled Arshtel’s head back out.

Splash.

I threw it into the stagnant sewer water with the body.

Then I left it there to rot and came back up.

I passed through the dizzying corridors of the underground city and boarded the elevator to Floor 9.

Chaotic light slipped through the narrowing gap of the closing doors, then vanished.

Today I learned something about Izenheim, maybe something obvious.

For their own interests alone, they would sell out the Revolutionary Faction, other comrades, even their own kind if needed. That was how they won trust, rose to the top of a group, and wielded their beliefs however they pleased...

Ding-

The moment I reached the surface.

“Sir Knight!”

Near the underground city exit, resident agent Ashton spotted me.

He had two large duffel bags tucked tightly under his arms like treasure.

“Sir Knight!”

Something about him hopping around in that small frame looked weirdly cute.

“Siiir Kniiight-!”

“I see you.”

I raised a hand and walked over.

“Good work.”

“No, not at all. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No.”

As Ashton handed over the duffel bags, he stared at me.

I wondered why, then remembered the promise I had made him.

“Pick anything you want. One item.”

“Thank you.”

He slid open a duffel zipper, then agonized over the choices for a long while.

He said he did not need anything earlier, but now that he had the chance, he looked paralyzed by choice.

“Uh...”

“......”

“Hmm...”

This one? This one? This one? He muttered to himself while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Uh...”

“......”

No, seriously, this is taking too long.

I picked up a compass.

“Take this one.”

“No, I still-”

“It cost fifty thousand when I bought it, but you can probably sell it for two or three times that.”

“Thank you.”

After thanking me, the resident agent went back down to the underground city by elevator.

“......Haa.”

I walked alone through the Empire’s lower district.

So much was in ruins, and people like moss clung to the broken ground.

Even here, life was born, died, and was born again. That flow felt like a natural tide, like ebb and flood that simply happened on its own.

It all seemed so far removed from me, as if none of it had anything to do with me at all...

Yet their lives were still lives. They were still clearly alive.

There was simply no country anywhere that could make everyone comfortable.

This place was one of countless proofs that the Empire was wrong.

Even so, the greatest reason the Empire still had to function swallowed all those contradictions.

Because we had to survive.

Even the beggar with fading eyes, even the child begging for bread while drinking filthy water, all of it could exist only if the species called humanity endured.

My cause existed exactly there.

A revolution where everyone lives well was impossible.

We had to fight just to barely survive.

* * *

An undeveloped tract in Imperial Central District 35.

By the time Lorenzo Academy was completed there, the place had already filled with life.

Around the academy, dormitories, dining halls, and research buildings went up. On the outskirts, they installed guard units to protect people from monsters, housing for those guards, and watch posts. Parks, restaurants, taverns, and other infrastructure for residents expanded as well, and foot traffic grew substantially.

It was slowly taking the shape of a city.

“There are more students than expected?”

I visited the academy headmaster’s office today. Lorenzo gave a wry smile, proud and shy at the same time.

“Yes. I expected around a hundred students, but word spread, and talented kids have been coming from all over.”

I had seen them on my way in. Some were young like Armand. Others were in their mid to late adulthood, people chasing the dream of invention.

They researched practical things. For example, ways to process mana wastewater from Golden Grain, which we had acquired. Facilities to convert it into a pharmaceutical factory. Interior systems for tanks and new shell designs, and so on.

“I will leave the academy entirely in your hands, Headmaster. By the way, I heard the workshop made a new luxury cube this round?”

“Yes. About half a step below yours, Sir Knight. Master grade.”

I nodded.

A master-grade cube. It was irritating that I had to give the second luxury product from my workshop to that bastard, but...

“Can you add a wiretap and eavesdropping function to that cube?”

Wiretap and eavesdropping.

The person receiving this gift absolutely needed that kind of mechanism.

“Wiretap and eavesdropping?”

“Yes. So no one can ever detect it.”

“...It should be possible, but output will drop a little.”

I looked at Lorenzo. There had been a subtle hesitation in that answer. Probably because he still had a conscience.

“Mr. Lorenzo. I think this should be enough justification.”

I handed him Leutern II’s criminal record.

That man was not Izenheim, but he still sat at the very top of my kill list. He was simple, stupid, and protected by bloodline, which made him highly useful. Winning his favor would also be easier than with the other palace dogs.

Leutern II could be summarized in one line.

“Likes pretty, rare, and expensive things.”

He was like a symbol of the rotten palace itself.

“......”

Lorenzo kept reading Leutern’s file, and his face slowly turned serious.

“This is how I see it. Subspecies can be controlled and isolated, and except for Izenheim, most can be handled one way or another. But...”

I pointed at the document listing Leutern II’s crimes.

“There is no answer unless someone keeps a leash on trash like this. His brain structure and thought circuits are already hardened this way.”

Lorenzo looked up at me.

These days there were people I wanted to turn into my accomplices. More than accomplices, people who would trust me no matter what I did and follow my orders as naturally as part of daily life.

Lorenzo was definitely one of them.

“Yes. I’ll make it. I’ll also try to add the same function to other cubes.”

Seeing him move in that direction made me smile.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

I grabbed the duffel bag and laid out every magic and mana-related invention I had bought in the underground black market.

Lorenzo looked startled.

“Use them as teaching materials. Order and regulation are absolutely necessary, but this kind of disorderly emergence also blooms where regulation cannot reach.”

Lorenzo was a genius. Armand was the same. If they dismantled and analyzed the inventions my virus judged as high grade, they might gain insights or even write meaningful textbooks.

“Yes. Thank you very much. I needed real examples like these.”

“If you need anything, tell me anytime.”

I took out my checkbook again.

“There is no cap on funding support.”

I donated ten million dollars as Maximilian’s scholarship fund.

A bright smile bloomed across Lorenzo’s face.

* * *

Leutern II had been in a very bad mood lately. He was furious.

The reason was the new trend sweeping through the palace.

Not only palace knights, but even mid-tier figures were carrying a copy of the 「Spherical Aura Guard」 theory book under their arms.

After rumors spread that it was extremely effective against possible assassinations, this became the norm...

“Haa.”

Leutern II did not have that theory book.

That bastard who said he would give him one, that fucking bastard, still had not handed it over.

“Fucking bastard... can’t even keep a promise.”

To Leutern II, Maximilian was a son of a bitch. He also hated how that guy had been treating the palace direct agency lately.

“Fuck! Fuck!”

“Please hold back, Your Grace.”

“No! I’m not mad because of what he did to me.”

Leutern II looked at the man sitting across from him in his private room.

It was Lutz, a department head of the palace direct agency.

“That fucking bastard couldn’t even keep Arnold down. What the hell is he doing, that yellow-chicken-looking prick?”

This time, the palace had tried to suppress academia centered around Arnold, but Maximilian had neatly stabbed them in the back.

“Seriously, Lutz. Why does it matter that you’re a commoner? That bastard fell out of his own father’s favor anyway.”

Department Head Lutz swallowed a laugh that almost escaped.

“And now he made some cash off mana stones or whatever and acts like nothing can touch him.”

Leutern was so vulgar and childish that you could never believe he carried royal blood.

His father was close to the Emperor, so his rank in the palace was high, and he had been spoiled as the only son born after two miscarriages.

“Just trust me, Lutz. I’ll crush that bastard.”

“No, I-”

“Hey. Just trust me. From today on, I am your backing. I hereby declare it!”

Leutern II stormed out, still fuming.

“So he dares to treat the palace like a joke.”

As he walked down the corridor, a butler suddenly approached and called out to him.

“Your Grace-”

“What!”

“A delivery came from outside.”

“What is it this time!”

“The sender is Knight Maximilian.”

“What?”

Book-shaped wrapping. A square box. And what looked like a letter.

Leutern tore open the book package first. As expected, it was the 「Spherical Aura Guard」 theory book.

“Hah. Filthy worm. I’ll take it for now, but tell him he’s already too late.”

“Yes. What should we do with the rest?”

There was another item. A small casket of polished red sandalwood, glimmering with a subdued sheen.

“What is this now.”

The design is not bad. But what is it.

Still grumbling, he opened the lid.

Shwaaaaa-

A dazzling light burst out, bright enough to blind.

A flawless blue radiance with not a speck of impurity, the kind only a pure crystal of mana could give.

Leutern’s eyes suddenly softened, as if soaked in ecstasy.

“...Wow.”

The rage and impatience that had covered his face moments ago vanished without a trace, and only pure wonder, empty and innocent like a newborn child, filled its place...

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