WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 87

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Party

Thud. Rattle-rattle-rattle.

Corpses and debris slumped down like mud. Charred blood and flesh covered everything, and violent smoke drifted through the air.

Fssssss...

Unlike the wrecked interior, I was fine. Yukia was too.

Whiiiiiing.

The translucent Spherical Aura Guard, like a silver veil, did not even have a scratch. Only about 3% of the core mana was gone.

"..."

I looked at Yukia in my arms. Her eyes were fixed on my neck. Through my disheveled uniform, a faint fragment of the wooden necklace showed.

"A-are you alright!"

Right then, police officers rushed in. I set Yukia down.

"It's nothing. Looks like they hid a trap in the corpse... but the whole scene is gone now, so there is no reason for us to stay."

I raised a brow calmly. Thanks to those bastards, every bit of my work had gone up in flames.

"Whew, whew. Thank goodness you're safe. I never thought they would do something like this to a corpse-"

"No. The murderer and this magic bomb were not the same person."

The mana the killer left at the scene and the traces of mana that just crushed this workshop were clearly different.

"What? Then..."

"That part is for the police. Investigate everyone who passed through this area before and after the estimated time of death."

"Ah, yes. Yes. Understood."

I brushed the dirt and dust off my clothes and walked out of the workshop.

Then I asked Yukia, who followed me in silence.

"...Are you okay?"

Yukia nodded.

"This kind of thing will keep happening."

"..."

"Always be careful, and keep working on your own growth."

You absolutely must not die.

"Yukia. You do not know this, but."

I could not tell her the real reason.

"I owe you a debt."

So I made up something that sounded plausible.

* * *

A new bank established in the Kanillan Independent State, 「Kronen Schatzinsel」.

Dieter, on a business trip, admired the exterior first.

Smooth marble outer walls without decoration, coldly straight lines, and a massive bronze front gate. Every material had mana circuits embedded in it, sturdy even against possible terror attacks.

Dieter had never trusted his own eye for aesthetics or architecture, so he commissioned Lorenzo Academy. This was their first completed project.

"Officer Dieter. This way."

"...Yes."

Dieter stepped inside.

The colors in view were built on a calm, dark-ink palette. Smooth stone from floor to ceiling unified everything in a neat tone.

Yet it never looked poor or empty.

All unnecessary decoration had been stripped away, creating, oddly enough, a dense stillness with weight. Like the elegance of old nobility, it looked luxurious without any gold plating.

"Hmm."

Dieter was very satisfied. To his request, "Build the most trustworthy space possible," the architects of Lorenzo Academy had given a perfect answer.

A bank overdressed with ornaments would only feel like it had missed the point.

"We have already been open for about four weeks."

Historically, finance had always been the hardest industry to enter. Money gathered only after enough of the invisible asset called trust had been built.

But current Kanillan was special.

Regulations were gone, and oversight had disappeared. Mutual trust was no longer a factor worth considering.

If a rumor spread that you had money, people flooded in asking to borrow it.

At Dieter's question, an employee handed him a thick file.

"Here it is. As instructed, we secured mostly physical assets."

He skimmed it. Among countless real estate collaterals, one item stood out.

[Akarius Mercenary Corps - Rights and Revenue Dividend Rights from Mercenary Contracts]

A contract stating that if Commander Ren failed to repay her debt, the bank would own rights over the corps personnel and the income they generated.

In peacetime, that would be a high-risk bad bond. In wartime, the story changed. Mercenaries, especially skilled ones, became resources as valuable as mana stone.

When that happened, this bond's value would shoot through the roof.

"How is the safe-deposit vault occupancy?"

"Currently around 5% full. Mostly off-book funds deposited by imperial nobles."

Still, the core product of 「Kronen Schatzinsel」 was not deposits. In Kanillan, people only wanted to spend money in the first place, so they were not interested in entrusting it.

Instead, Kronen ran an "ultra-high-performance secret vault" that no other bank had.

A vault zone built like a fortress in the harsh southern mountain range of the Empire. Any valuable could be stored forever, as long as the storage fee was paid.

"We still do not have many clients."

The employee looked concerned, but Dieter adjusted his glasses and shook his head.

"It does not matter. We wait."

Once the bubble burst and Kanillan collapsed, they would distrust the financial system that ruined them. They would despair in front of securities turned into scraps of paper and tightly shut bank doors.

Only then would our time come.

A bank that never wavered. Absolute neutrality untouched by any state's interference.

"Let us confirm our principles again."

Dieter swept his gaze over the staff. These were the iron rules of 「Kronen Schatzinsel」 that he designed himself.

"Never ask where assets came from."

It did not matter if money was soaked in blood, earned through drug sales, or stolen through embezzlement. A bank was not a place to judge morality.

"Even so, identify the depositor accurately and thoroughly."

No matter what, the owner of the money had to be certain. If possible, even dig into their family lines. They had to confirm exactly who was trying to deposit assets.

"For that."

Dieter took out a small box. Inside was a blue cube, about the size of two finger joints.

"An Identity Authentication Cube."

A miniature version of the Spherical Aura Guard cube used by knights, and a security device condensed from Lorenzo's mana engineering.

"This artifact remembers a human being's unique mana wavelength."

An unforgeable soul fingerprint, a security key that used mana.

Even ordinary people who could not handle mana could use it through blood extraction.

"Any client trying to use a safe-deposit vault for assets valued above 3 million dollars must purchase this."

"Yes. Confirmed."

"How is open recruitment?"

"The competition rate is very high."

Several thousand to one. The salaries set by Kronen were that high even by Kanillan standards.

One reason embezzlement and negligence had never appeared in Maximilian's businesses was that the performance-based reward system was firm.

Maximilian could have had more than ten times his current assets. But he kept only what he needed and gladly shared the rest.

"For people from securities firms, reject them at document screening whenever possible."

"Yes. Understood."

Dieter guarded against moral hazard. People biased toward emotion over numbers, blinded by greed, and quick to underestimate risk. He prepared a test to filter them out.

"This is the employment test sheet. Keep it sealed."

"Yes."

After that, he entered his office in one corner of the bank.

That space was wooden and completely undecorated. He looked out the window.

Kanillan's brilliant nightscape flooded in.

"..."

When lights that dazzling went out one by one, we would shine like a lighthouse.

We would rise as the most brilliant number.

Dieter sat down and opened his papers.

An ocean packed with numbers. Countless figures poured down hard enough to drown him, yet pleasure surged in his heart instead. Mana overflowed through his brain's synapses.

I was handling liquidity this vast. I was shaping numbers by my own will.

That fact itself was indescribable pleasure and ecstasy.

Dieter was living inside a dream now.

The name of that dream was Maximilian.

* * *

When warm winds started blowing from the south, someone reported me to the Imperial Palace. The charge said I was creating a huge slush fund through the military factory Aternum and moving it overseas.

"I apologize for troubling you... but this is sensitive, so we had no choice."

The Imperial Palace Inspectorate visited my mansion in person. By imperial order, I had to submit not only explanations of fund sources, flows, and uses, but also every tax filing to date.

That was right, the Emperor had ordered it personally.

"First. Documents related to Aternum."

As if I had been waiting, I stacked the prepared documents on the table.

The Inspectorate Director flinched for a moment, then accepted them and spoke.

"Are you aware that Director Lutz Rozen of the direct agency's Special Affairs Inspection Department has gone missing?"

"...Missing?"

"Yes. His whereabouts have been unknown for several days."

Not surprising. Leutern II was probably behind it.

"I see."

To be honest, I pictured something like a trial.

I got cornered on embezzlement and slush fund charges, Lutz looked proud, Leutern burned with anxiety and rage, then I submitted these materials and flipped the whole game in one move...

Looks like I still did not fully understand how the Imperial Palace worked.

"That is unfortunate."

"..."

The Director looked suspicious of me, but Leutern was never going to handle this cleanly. The direct agency would identify Leutern as a suspect soon enough.

I pointed at the ledger.

"As you can see, there is no embezzlement. My personal assets simply passed through a corporation and were paid in and out through bearer bonds."

The Director examined the books carefully.

The funds came from a personal account and were converted into bonds through legal procedures.

"Hmm... but why go through all this complexity to convert them into bearer bonds?"

I paused for a moment, then shrugged.

"There are many people in the palace who care about appearances. I set aside a little spending money for them. If I pulled cash from my pocket and handed it over, the recipient would feel insulted, and it would not look good for me either... so I just borrowed the form of a financial product."

Wrapped as consideration, not a bribe.

The Director lowered his gaze for a moment, as if he had found a clue about the culprit in my words.

"Also."

Snap. I flicked my fingers. Servants carried in stacks of documents that had been stored until now.

"Tax filing records."

The Director and his subordinates widened their eyes.

"That is a massive volume."

"Yes. I have never evaded even a hair's worth of tax, so it had to be this much."

That was true. Noble tax rates themselves were lower than commoners', but even then, most of them still tried not to pay. I was very exemplary.

Especially, even the "special mana stone consumption tax" and "mining tax," which nobles with mana stone mines usually evaded by custom, I paid in full, exactly.

"...You seem confident."

"Call it thesis-antithesis-synthesis. There had to be suspicion so I could prove myself, no?"

I smiled at ease.

"I only hope my heart for the Empire reaches His Majesty."

A dry laugh rose at the corner of the Director's mouth too.

"If that is so."

He stood up. Agency personnel each picked up stacks of documents.

"We will investigate properly and return them."

"Very well. Travel safely."

The agency people rushed out like an ebbing tide.

I ran a hand through my hair, feeling a strange emptiness.

Whoooosh.

Wind streamed in through the open window gap.

It was already February, and the air was slowly getting warmer.

Spring was coming.

"...No, but these thieves."

I picked up letters sent by securities firms in Kanillan. Most were warnings framed as concern, but they were basically mockery.

[Notice of Risk Recalibration for Your Product]

[Notice of Increased Margin Requirement Ratio and Fees Due to Expanded Market Volatility]

[Request for Additional Margin Deposit]

"My margin is sufficient, but they keep demanding more."

They cited their own arbitrary internal rules, raised risk ratings, and used that as an excuse to demand additional margin. They kept pulling this nonsense to squeeze more fees out of me, annoying enough that I started memorizing company names.

"Hold it in..."

That day was close, and I picked up an invitation from one company.

[Kanillan Tech Summit: Land Protocol Technology Demonstration]

Artificial continent creation technology. A ridiculous dream that promised Kanillan eternal prosperity.

I was happy to go watch this technology demo.

They would show flashy magic, and then fail completely. A price paid for underestimating variables, forcing reckless mana computation, and ignoring nature's power.

"...The future did not change, right."

Anxiety brushed past me for a second. The possibility that history had twisted because of my intervention honestly frightened even me.

Still, according to the economics paper I clearly remembered reading before regression.

That moment of reckoning had simply arrived, and thankfully.

I was the one making the claim.

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