WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 9

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A Blade Lurks Beneath the Throat (2)

I moved fast. For the first time in my life, I was trying to be "independent."

Back then, I always felt suffocated in the main house, but I never once thought about leaving. I thought that if I escaped that place, I would finally be out from under Father's gaze forever.

I was an idiot.

First, I checked my personal account.

There was more money than I expected.

"How is there this much?"

18.7 million dollars. That was seven or eight years of salary for a respectable knight.

It was probably a legal gift. Part of it would be the inheritance my late mother left me, and part of it would be money the family formally deposited for my coming of age. Father did not care about me, but he was not the kind of man who would ignore the family's dignity.

The more money, the better, and that was even more true right now. I needed much more money to change the future.

I was short on power, and money was part of power. Even Ebenholtz did not have unlimited funds. Compared to the other "pillars," we were actually on the poorer side.

"The biggest advantage of regression..."

My greatest weapon was information. So I would keep half the account for investments and buy a house with the other half.

Decision made.

I drove straight to a real estate office.

[Imperial Brokerage Office R]

"...Welcome~"

The owner, who had been eating lunch in the back, jumped to his feet. I looked over the maps of the capital covering the wall.

"What brings you here?"

"I'm here to buy a house."

I wanted a mansion not far from Sentinel Order headquarters. There were apartments and mansions on the market too, but I needed a place of my own where I did not share space with anyone.

"Ah, I see."

"Kleinschmidt Street. This area looks best."

I pointed to a section of the map.

[Imperial Capital Arcadia District 3, von Kleinschmidt Street address]

It was prime real estate with a full view of the Empire's Epsilon River. Listings rarely appeared there, but with the Empire's recent policy changes, someone had to be trying to sell.

"Uh... ah, there are no listings around there."

He said there were none.

The way he said it smelled fishy.

"None?"

I kept my words short on purpose. I stared him down and asked again.

"Check one more time."

The owner sized me up again.

I was dressed casually, but everything I wore was top-tier fashion in the Empire. He might not know Maximilian's face, but he would know the luxury brand Geronimo.

"Ah... tsk. There is one place that came up in a rush."

"Show me."

"Yes. It is a mansion right around that area. This is a recent photo."

The broker trailed off as he pulled out a photo of a mansion. The windows were shattered, and part of the outer wall was broken. Clear signs of violent damage remained.

Ah.

I understood right away.

The owner was probably not a pure Imperial. And he had probably made a "very minor mistake."

The Empire's racial policy had been growing more extreme by the day. Its blade had even turned toward descendants of foreign families who had naturalized generations ago and pledged loyalty to the Empire.

The main targets were Mer bloodlines, especially wealthy merchant families.

The newly rising power bloc, the Imperial Guard, was especially greedy for their assets.

"...As you can see, there is too much to fix."

"That is fine. I'll buy it."

"..."

The broker ran a hand through his hair, visibly flustered.

"Where is the owner?"

"Ah... but... um..."

The broker glanced at my face, then let out a long sigh.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but the mansion is tied up in a complicated situation."

"What do you mean, tied up?"

"There is already someone claiming seizure authority over the mansion..."

Just as expected. I gave a faint smile.

"And who is that?"

"Ah, um... Baron Rodriguez? He is with the Imperial Guard."

At that moment, my temple throbbed.

I knew that name.

“I'm Rodriguez. Nice to meet you, Knight Maximilian.”

A senior Imperial Guard officer I had met once before. A bastard who had climbed high by squeezing wealth out of people in every way possible.

"I see."

"Yes. If possible, you should avoid..."

The broker still did not recognize my face. He had not even asked my name. He probably thought I was just some rich young noble based on my expensive clothes.

"You should head back today-"

"Listen carefully. My name is Maximilian Ebenholtz."

"...Pardon? M-Max, Eben, E-?"

The owner's eyes nearly popped out.

In Arcadia, the imperial capital, the name Ebenholtz was close to invincible. At the very least, grubby low-ranking nobles who drooled over other people's property would not dare touch it.

"I'm also a rookie knight of the Sentinel Order."

Rodriguez was filth. Most Imperial Guard types were. Vermin obsessed with the Emperor, insects that hastened the Empire's fall.

You had to cut them down while they were still sprouts.

"Knights maintain imperial public order. But no matter how I think about it, this talk of 'seizure authority' makes no sense. I'll need to find out what happened."

Maintaining the Empire's public order was one of a knight's duties.

He was exactly the kind of mudfish that dirtied that order, so I would turn him into one of my achievements.

"But never reveal my name."

A kind of undercover operation. Cockroaches hid when people came in.

Yeah, Rodriguez was exactly like a cockroach.

* * *

Baron Rodriguez was a nobleman who had been getting a lot of attention in the Empire lately.

He came from a frontier family, but a few years ago he captured a senior member of the Empire's rebel force, the Revolutionary Faction. For that achievement, he was selected for the Emperor's Imperial Guard and advanced into central politics. From then on, he showed his specialty to the fullest. He tracked the flow of funds belonging to foreign-origin capitalists in the Empire, meaning those who were not pure Aran, and exposed tax evasion and illegal activity. He made problems out of things that were not problems. The Imperial Guard wanted exactly that, and Rodriguez rode the fast track upward.

"The mansion?"

Rodriguez asked while barely skimming the report his butler had handed him. His office was filled with expensive artwork he had seized or bought for next to nothing.

"Yes, someone has appeared and expressed intent to buy the mansion on Kleinschmidt Street."

"Who?"

"The broker said he looked like a young noble..."

It was a mansion in a prime location. Rodriguez liked it enough that he had already laid firm groundwork. He had put a noose around the original owner, a Mer merchant, by accusing him of funding rebels, and had nearly reduced him to a half-corpse. Now all that remained was to swallow it legally.

"Detailed background?"

"Um... they said they did not ask that far, but since he is looking for a mansion near the knight orders, he seems like a rookie knight from the provinces. Haven't there been induction ceremonies all over lately? Sentinel, Lotus-"

"Hmph. Ridiculous."

Rodriguez scoffed.

Of course the knight orders had high status in the Empire. But that was only public prestige. Real power would soon move to the Imperial Guard. That had been the Emperor's goal from the beginning.

If the knight orders were the Empire's blade, the Imperial Guard was the hand gripping that blade...

"That Merlin or Morlaine fellow, is he still holding out?"

"Yes. He still refuses to confess."

Merlin, the Mer businessman who owned the mansion. The listing he put through the real estate office was only a formal procedure forced by Rodriguez's pressure.

No one would buy the house, the price would naturally crash, and later they would send it to a prearranged auction and buy it for scraps.

"...Are you planning to go in person?"

The butler asked, confused. It was rare for a baron to step in personally over such a minor matter.

"I should. He's a knight, isn't he. No harm in getting acquainted, and if things collide too hard, that could create another problem. I'll go in person and persuade him myself."

"Yes. Understood. Then please rest."

The butler left. Rodriguez filled a glass with red wine. His eyes turned red as he watched the liquid sway.

A smile spread across his lips.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

Rodriguez owed me time, and that day I would collect every bit of it.

Anyway.

"...Are all these people my instructors?"

Today was gift day. Ten swordsmen stood in formation in the great training hall of Ebenholtz. They were the "new swordsmanship instructors" I had asked Sebestian for earlier.

"Not all of them. You only need to choose one."

Engi smiled brightly. I swept my gaze across their faces. Every one of them carried the sharp aura of a strong fighter.

"These are carefully selected candidates. They passed both document screening and practical interviews."

I knew nine out of ten.

Of those nine, seven were former knights who had shown excessive loyalty to the Empire in the past, and the other two were faces I had seen so often in the newspaper society pages before regression that I was sick of them.

Enemies of the Empire, executives of the revolutionary army.

Those two were dangerous factors I could not get close to right now.

As for the other seven, they were people I did not want to get close to either.

Naturally, I looked at the one person left.

It was a face I had never seen before. My memory was not exceptional, but I was unusually good at remembering faces.

I had to be. I had spent a long time in hiding, and I had to remember and distinguish countless mugs.

"Hmm..."

She stood there in plain training clothes, barehanded, without even a sword. She seemed far removed from the flashy resumes and forceful presence of the other candidates. She was a woman in a hooded robe. What I could see of her face was unremarkable. If anything, it was lined with deep wrinkles.

"May I ask your name?"

On the battlefield, old people and children were dangerous.

Likewise, in a place full of strong people, the one nobody knew was often the strongest.

"Freya."

I decided to choose her.

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