WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 90

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Party (4)

Krrrunch-

An ominous tremor scraped beneath our feet.

"...What was that?"

Ren flinched and muttered. The champagne in her glass quivered faintly.

"Who knows."

I answered as if I had no idea and took a sip. Around us, people traded uneasy glances.

......

But after that first cracking sound, nothing happened. No disaster followed, only a short silence.

“Hoo, now then!”

The CEO quickly composed himself. He scratched his brow with a fingernail, then clapped.

“Were you all startled? Every great birth comes with labor pains. That grand pulse was only the sound of new land settling onto the seabed, so please relax and enjoy yourselves!”

"Whew."

Ren and many others let out breaths of relief, and then it came again.

Fussssss-

Beyond the stage, the sea churned strangely. Waves heaved hard enough to swallow the island whole.

"..."

I looked toward the sea. The virus inside me understood the flow of mana rising from that scene before I did.

Creating artificial land with human hands.

It was possible. The technology itself was not impossible. A small island like Panulan Island might even have been sustainable.

They got greedy.

Force too much land up too quickly, and the mana balance between the sea and the bedrock collapses.

The sea's pressure, gravity, and the repulsive force of a massive lump of compressed earth would tear against each other. That struggle would shatter mana engineering, and the price of underestimating natural law would be brutal.

“Now, to the main point. Our Ransom Corporation will grant today's shareholders priority rights to purchase territory in this newly risen continent-”

Krrrunch-

“granting-”

Krrrrrrunch!

A bone-crushing sound kept erupting between the CEO's words.

It was past the point anyone could ignore. Most VVIPs who cared about their own safety were already preparing to leave with their guards.

"...Ah, shit. Why is this happening."

A rough curse burst from Ren.

I quietly set down my glass.

Krrrrrrrunch-

The shaking worsened. Only then did a bodyguard rush onto the platform and urgently whisper something in the CEO's ear.

The CEO's face flushed red. He shoved the guard aside and grabbed the mic.

“......”

No sound came out. I could not tell whether the power was cut or the machine had broken, but the sight of him mouthing words in silence was pathetic.

Kwooooooom-

The artificial land collapsed as if it had exploded. The enormous impact made the sea surge, and wall-like waves rushed in from all directions like a tsunami.

People began evacuating too late.

Kyaaaaah- Aaaaah-

I stood up. Then I walked calmly through the chaos of screams, curses, and crashing waves. I stepped around overturned tables and shattered glass.

"W-what is-"

In the middle of that hell, I spotted Russell frozen in place, unable to move either way.

"Ah, fuck, what the hell is-"

"Vice President Russell."

I put a hand on his shoulder. He jolted and turned. With a blank, almost innocent look, he tilted his head.

"...Boss?"

"The thousand-times payout on the hundred dollars we promised."

The bet had been simple. If Ransom failed, I would pay him one thousand times one hundred dollars.

If Ransom succeeded, he would pay me one hundred dollars.

"Huh? No, what, this isn't the time for a bet-"

"One hundred thousand dollars."

"One hundred thousand my ass, what the fu-"

I pulled out the check I had prepared in advance and handed it to him.

"...Huh? Wow. Well, thanks, I guess?"

Russell took it right away and tucked it into his inner pocket.

"Take care, then."

I left Russell's dazed stare behind and moved on. Pushing against the panicked crowd, I reached the helicopter pad.

"Boss. You can board."

I got onto the helicopter where Dieter was waiting.

Dudududududu-

The helicopter roared and lifted off.

Below us, the artificial island became a disaster zone and receded into the distance. Crumbling land, heaving seawater.

Countless people were escaping on lifeboats. They screamed as the waves tossed them, but they would probably make it.

Kanillan was famous for insurance. Anyone wealthy enough to be invited to that island would have no trouble paying the price of their own life.

Dudududududu-

A little later, the helicopter landed safely on Kanillan's main island.

"Boss."

Dieter handed me the terminal. I checked the screen. Huge profits from short selling were already posted.

"Good work."

I gave Dieter's shoulder a couple of pats.

"Too bad about Kanillan."

Today was only the opening shot.

Then again, this would have happened even without me. Before my regression, there were a few financiers who timed it just like I did.

"I'll stay in Kanillan for the next few weeks."

"All right."

Dieter would be busy. He needed to turn money into more money, build influence in Kanillan, and buy up the core technologies worth taking.

"Good work."

For me, this was where it really began.

* * *

Ransom Corporation failed.

At the same time, one of the key elements that made up Kanillan's golden age was partially destroyed.

Ransom's stock plunged through every safety mechanism, and signs appeared that the shock would spread to other firms.

"Ha......"

Ren spent the entire day pacing inside the Akarius commander's office. Her eyes were bloodshot. Clutching her terminal, she kept making calls.

Riiing- Riiing-

Every extra second of ringing burned her from the inside.

Riiing- Riiing-

“Hello.”

At last, a voice came through.

"Motherfucker, you pick up now?!"

Ren spat the words out.

“......Ugh. Hey, why are you like this. I'm having a hard time too, right now. You know that.”

Russell's voice was thick and exhausted. Loud shouting, ringing phones, and the sound of things breaking bled through in the background.

"Hey bastard I'm not trying to blame you let's just talk."

She fired it all out in one breath, afraid he would hang up again.

“All right. Talk. I won't hang up.”

"Whew. Look, Ransom, fine, call that a loss. But those remaining CDO things, I'm still up on those, right?"

Ren asked like she was grabbing at the last straw.

-......

Russell said nothing. That silence made her even more nervous.

"Can't I sell now? Can't I cash out right now?"

“I told you, you can't sell. That's in the contract terms. One-year mandatory lockup, how many times did I tell you? No early redemption.”

"Hey!"

“Just wait a little. Once the market calms down...”

"Fuck this!"

Ren almost spat phlegm, then held it back.

“......I'm sorry about Ransom. But honestly, that's investment. You carry your own risk.”

"I know. I know, but can it recover?"

“How many companies does Kanillan have? One failing doesn't mean the whole country fails.”

Rustle, rustle.

Through the receiver came the sound of him packing something, like stuffing bundles of paper into a bag.

"You bastard, you're not planning to run, are you?"

“Hey, what are you saying. Wow, but seriously, good thing I made that bet with that gentleman.”

"What bet."

“Nothing. Hanging up for now.”

Click.

The call ended at once. A vein throbbed at Ren's temple.

"Fucking bastard, seriously-"

Just as she was about to throw her terminal.

Riiing.

Another call came in immediately.

The instant she saw the screen, Ren's heart dropped.

「Kronen Schatzinsel」

The bank that had lent her money against all Akarius mercenary contracts and future revenue.

......

Ransom Corporation's failure. The shockwave hit Kanillan's securities firms, banks, insurers, and corporations one after another. The air in the securities district offices felt razor-thin.

Of course, so far only one company, Ransom, had failed.

But that crack planted the same thought in everyone's head.

Maybe we had overextended all this time.

"No, no. It doesn't matter. It's fine."

In the break room of Merilchi Securities, employees smoked with shaking hands and talked.

"We have insurance, right?"

Insurance products that covered principal and losses if a company failed.

Insurance and corporations were inseparable.

"...Hey."

Then a team lead in the corner spoke with a bloodless face.

"We sold all of it."

"...What?"

"Don't you remember? Last quarter, to hit targets, we sold everything with a risk premium. We said those companies would never fail anyway, and those premiums were a waste."

The employees' faces turned gray like cigarette ash.

"To who, then? What kind of psycho bought that, and when?"

The team lead rubbed his dry face and muttered.

"Don't know. Name was something like... Small Money. A fund made by some imperial noble."

A lunatic who suddenly appeared, got treated like an idiot, and still bought every insurance contract and related derivative.

In other words, a madman who shorted all of Kanillan.

No, maybe now they should call him a prophet.

"We're still better off. Some insurers even made separate products just to sell those."

"Huh...... no, no. Still, no way it'll collapse that badly, right-"

"For now, we'd better hope so."

The team lead ground his cigarette between his teeth.

......

A high-rise in Kanillan's financial district, the managing director's office at Lekiano Securities.

Badger-like Dayson had his back soaked with cold sweat.

"..."

The numbers on the monitor swam. Ransom's share price was nosediving.

This Community Land Protocol had to succeed. At the very least, it had to show some chance of success. The resources poured into that project were astronomical.

A scenario took shape in Dayson's veteran mind.

First, subcontractors supplying Ransom would go under one by one, and the banks that loaned money to Ransom would fail to recover funds. Then, to cover those losses, the banks would stop rolling over other corporate loans or call them in outright. And then...

"S-sir."

A secretary entered and handed him papers.

"Ransom has requested emergency financing......"

Dayson clawed at his thinning hair.

"Ransom crashed that hard, and now financing what? More importantly, that guy who bought the insurance contracts, right?"

With a trembling hand, he braced himself on the desk.

"That imperial guy, Ebert or Small Money or whatever."

"Y-yes."

"He's imperial, so he still won't understand how bad Kanillan is yet. He'll think he just got lucky. Ask him to sell it back."

They had to buy it back somehow.

"Offer double, including all fees we've taken so far."

"Will double be enough?"

"Pretend to negotiate and go to triple, no, even quadruple is fine. But not above that. If we offer too much, he'll get suspicious."

Before long, the payout value of those insurance contracts would shoot through the roof, and if that happened, Lekiano was finished.

"Ah, but we don't know where he is......"

"Find him! Search everywhere and find him-!"

The badger screamed and hurled the phone.

"Fuck, bang your head, lick his shoes, do whatever it takes and buy it back! If not, we're all- dead!"

......

After returning to the Empire, I put Kanillan out of my mind for a while and went back to a knight's regular duties.

Analyzing the backlog of activated residue.

"..."

When I studied crime-scene documents, the virus inside me took over my optic nerves. Fragments of mana in the photos, activated residue, burned blue and reconstructed themselves before my eyes.

I analyzed scenes like this, then analyzed more, and then-

"Sir Knight."

An aide stepped in. He held an envelope.

"A letter from Empire Point."

"A letter?"

"Yes. An instructor named Phillips came directly to the Order and asked us to deliver it to you."

Phillips.

I searched my memory for a moment. A commoner-born instructor at Empire Point.

A decent man who had worried about Hanna during the Jacob incident.

I took the letter and unfolded it.

-To Sir Maximilian, knight of the Sentinel and heir of Ebenholtz-

I am Phillips, an instructor at Empire Point. I am deeply sorry for taking up my pen despite knowing this is rude......

......The cadet I instructed, Hanna Usar, achieved by far the top record in this graduation class. Not only in swordsmanship, mana sensitivity, and tactical understanding, but also in every category including the newly added Aerial Assault, she is an exceptional talent with excellent results.

Yet Cadet Hanna currently has not received a single letter of recommendation.

At this rate, she will not be able to join the Sentinel, and may not even receive an ordinary knighthood appointment, leaving her in danger of repeating a year or abandoning the path of knighthood......

I skimmed Hanna's grade sheet attached behind the letter.

Perfect practical score. Highest instructor evaluation.

Even so, the reason no recommendations were attached was obvious.

At this time of year, a commoner had almost no chance of entering the Sentinel in the first place. Noble cadets schemed so fiercely that even other nobles failed to secure recommendation letters.

"Hm."

Even for me, putting my own name on a recommendation felt burdensome. I was still not senior enough for that.

Still, Hanna had to enter the Sentinel.

I still did not fully know her ideology, but she was clearly a talented Aran. Someone who could give hope to commoners too.

"Three should do......"

To join a major knight order like the Sentinel, you needed three letters of recommendation.

One from the military, one from a knight, one from the Imperial Household.

I had people in mind for each, so there would be no problem.

"I'll see you soon."

Looking at Hanna's photo enclosed with the letter, a crooked smile tugged at my lips.

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