Semi-Coercive Imperialist-Chapter 129: The Face of the Empire (2)
Click. Hannah opened her bag and tucked the bundle of Imperial dollars deep inside her coat.
The total was five million dollars. An amount she'd never even laid eyes on in her entire life. With this much money, at minimum, she wouldn't die, and what mattered more was what came after.
“.......”
This was the shabby office in Volska that she had first rented. She returned under the logic that “it’s darkest under the lamp”, but someone had already anticipated this visit.
[The eagle hunts the mouse. Though the mouse has done nothing wrong.]
It was Leon’s handwriting. He had left the message before leaving.
Did it mean that someone high up was trying to frame her?
Hannah’s expression turned cold.
"Those bastards siphoned off Gigantes' goods."
Gigantes. According to information from the broker who had already been killed, the weapons those people had sold off to date were worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
It was a serious crime.
They had embezzled national revenue worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and countless people had shed blood because of it.
It was clearly an act of rebellion against the Empire. Therefore, she had the obligation to catch them and make them pay.
But mere suspicion wasn’t enough. She needed to know exactly who was behind it, where and how the weapons from Gigantes had been leaked──
"If I back down, I die."
A cornered rat bites the cat. No, this was a case where a cat of unknown identity had suddenly thrown the first punch. She had to bite back if she wanted even a chance at surviving.
There was no leisure or time to lament why things had suddenly come to this.
Perhaps being weak itself was the sin.
“.......”
Hannah stared intently at the terminal. It was something she had retrieved from the already-dead dealers. These guys were probably just the tail end of it. They probably had no idea whose or what kind of weapons they were selling.
Click.
She deliberately powered it on. She checked through all the internal messages. There wasn’t anything that could be called solid evidence, but there was a suspicious name in the contact list: [CODE A].
She dialed the number.
Ring ring— ring ring— clunk.
The other party picked up.
─.......
There were no words, but some instinct sent a sharp jolt through her temple.
"You people siphoned off Gigantes' weapons, didn't you?"
─.......
"You thought I wouldn't find out?"
She was trying to provoke them into spilling information.
“On top of that, you pull this kind of scheme on an active-duty knight? You didn’t see Operation Path of Dreams?”
─.......
"You'll all be executed if you're caught. You know that?"
Still no answer.
“You fucking know that, asshole?”
─Young one. Watch your mouth.
Fluent Imperial tongue. The tone was unmistakably that of a noble.
─You should’ve come in when we told you to. Why haven't you?
“Would you go in, if you were me? When there's a goldmine right here, you fuck. You treasonous bastard.”
Hannah licked her lips.
'I’m no clueless moron.'
If she had gone in as told, she would’ve been framed right then and there.
─The Knight Order surely issued a return order. The one defying that order is you. The longer this defiance lasts, the more you become the traitor, not us.
“Fuck off! Moron.”
─Foolish. Then again, what point is there in conversing with lowborn scum?
"Do you even have a mother?"
Hannah was a commoner who'd grown up in the sticks. Meaning she wouldn't lose a war of words like this.
─......How utterly vulgar. Still, I'll give you a chance. Come back now. This is a domain a commoner like you can't involve herself in, and shouldn't. We'll leave it at dismissal.
His voice was revolting.
But he too was stalling for time. Likely to track her location.
"Dismissal, my ass. I'd rather kill myself than accept that."
After everything she'd endured to become a knight. She wouldn't let go even if it killed her.
“I can see your face. I bet you're bald as an egg, dumbass!”
Hannah immediately hung up. She tossed the terminal carelessly onto the desk.
Then she climbed down through the window, hiding in the bushes as she watched the entrance of the office building.
──Creeeaak.
As expected, not even five minutes had passed before several black vans approached silently. The men who got out of the vehicles moved into the building.
They had taken the bait.
The bastards stormed the empty office, grabbed the terminal belonging to the dealers, and returned to their vehicles.
VROOOOM─!
The cars sped off. That was when Hannah began to move, tailing them. She sprinted in the direction they were headed.
VROOOOOOOM──
The cars picked up speed, but the knight did not fall behind. The physical prowess of a knight, trained to the limits of human ability.
Her stamina, enhanced by mana, allowed her to relentlessly pursue the speeding vehicles, and Maximilian's camouflaging armor changed color to match the surroundings, erasing all traces of her presence.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
They left the city behind, running a long stretch down the coastal road. Her breath was caught in her throat, but she didn’t stop.
Swooooooosh.
At last, the sound of rough waves and the fishy smell of the sea wafted toward her.
Near the seaside cliff. Several buildings that looked like they were cobbled together from abandoned factories loomed in the mist.
“.......”
This was the place.
Catching her breath, Hannah stared at the buildings.
“Haa.......”
Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it might explode.
Could she do this alone? There was no one to help her, and countless enemies would be inside.
She was afraid. She was scared. She was tense.
But still, she had to do it.
“......For the Empire.”
A mere commoner child, born with nothing in a remote rural backwater. And yet, she had dared to dream such an audacious and lofty dream─ to become a “knight”, and she had desperately worked to achieve it, ultimately making it come true, as Hannah Usar.
As a proud sword and sentinel of the Empire, duty-bound to cut out the parasites gnawing at it from within.
“If I want to live, I have to do this.”
Hannah gripped her sword tightly.
If she wanted to survive, she could never let go of the sword she had taken up.
***
A reception room engraved with the Imperial Palace's emblem.
A certain nobleman slowly sank into an antique chair.
“This is the report from Volska. It seems that commoner knight intends to settle everything from the inside.”
Crackle. The man smiled deeply, enjoying the texture of fine velvet.
“Excellent. She’s taking care of it for us.”
He tapped his finger on the table.
“The preparations?”
“They’ve been perfectly arranged.”
His aide held out a document envelope.
"From this point forward, Hannah Usar will become a spy for the Revolutionary forces, an organization seeking to overthrow the Empire. She will be painted as a cancerous growth that infiltrated the Knight Order, harboring twisted ideology since childhood."
There was plenty of evidence. Testimonies from her hometown, proof of Gigantes weapon smuggling and revolutionary forces directives to be found on the corpses.
"It'll be a good thing for the Knight Order, too."
Lately, the Knight Order was in need of results, so they’d be handed a whole pile of additional targets. There were plenty of criminals set aside for days like this. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Improved transparency within the Knight Order itself. Restoration of authority. Elevation of standing.
For the cost of expelling a single commoner, the gains would be more than enough.
"I'm sorry to bring this up, but......."
At that moment, the aide spoke up after a brief hesitation.
“I have a bit of a personal grudge as well. During the previous ‘Path of Dreams’ operation, that knight interrogated my uncle.”
“......A commoner? Interrogated your uncle?”
“Yes. He said she dared to treat a noble like a criminal and humiliated him.”
The man let out a snort of laughter. There was scorn in the absurdity of it.
"These are dark times indeed."
He stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray. The ember was crushed and crumbled into ash.
"At some point, this country lost its most essential hierarchy."
The reason the Empire had come to this point was because those who didn’t know their place dared to climb, and they ignored the Empire's traditions and acted as they pleased.
As a noble of high birth, it was his duty to set things right.
"Enmil. What do you think the essence of the Empire is?"
He asked in a low voice. The aide only blinked, seemingly unsure.
“Power. The strong devour the weak, the great consume the lowly. The weak are trampled to establish order, and chaos is not tolerated.”
His name was Julius Valentin von Arensburg. One of the direct descendants of the royal family annexed into the Empire hundreds of years ago.
“A mere commoner daring to call herself the Empire’s sword and thrusting at a noble—that must not be allowed to stand.”
***
Chiron had moved to a new residence. The location was in the 3rd District of the Imperial capital, Arcadia, on Von Klein-Schmidt Street.
It was only two blocks away from the Ebenholtz estate. From there, Maximilian’s residence was clearly visible. He had steadily purchased the surrounding land at high prices and expanded his estate, now forming a space that resembled a small castle.
Chiron was a man who could smell power. Moving to the vicinity of the Ebenholtz heir and closing the physical distance was itself an act of politics.
“......Fetch.”
He was even keeping a dog. When he threw a disc in the garden, the Aran Shepherd shot out like a bolt and snatched it from the air.
Top-class bloodline.
“Well done.”
Woof woof.
Giving it a stroke with compliment the dog seemed happy. It did seem about as smart as its expensive price suggested.
“Sir Knight, you have a visitor.”
At that moment, the butler approached and informed him.
“Who is it? I don’t think I have any appointments.”
“Woof!”
"They say they're from an agency directly under the Imperial Palace."
“Woof.”
Chiron's eyebrows twitched.
A direct agency. The shadow of the Imperial palace, and recently recognized as a new axis of power.
“......Let’s go.”
“Woof!”
Upon entering the reception room, two agents in tidy suits greeted him.
"Sir Chiron. Please forgive our rudeness. We're sorry to visit so suddenly......"
“It’s fine. Just get to the point.”
“Ah, yes.”
The agent pulled out a thick envelope and placed it on the table.
“This concerns 0-Year Knight Hannah Usar.”
Chiron opened the envelope.
Inside was a pile of so-called evidence. Letters suggesting Hannah had colluded with the Revolutionary forces, fake ledgers indicating she had pocketed proceeds from arms trafficking, and testimony from close associates claiming she had harbored anti-Imperial ideology since childhood.
“......Is this true?”
Chiron asked with a feigned look of surprise. The agent nodded, putting on a sorrowful expression.
“Yes, of course. We’re just as shocked. For a Sentinel knight to have committed such terrible acts…”
Then he whispered in a suggestive tone.
“Take this credit, Sir Chiron. We’ll help you handle it quietly so the Sentinel’s reputation won’t be tarnished.”
“.......”
“You understand, don’t you? A commoner with no roots like her is nothing but a ticking time bomb. It’s fortunate we caught her early.”
Chiron fiddled with the documents. He could read the situation clearly in his head.
A few days ago, Hannah Usar had refused a return order issued by command.
That was the full extent of what Chiron knew at this moment, but some powerful figure's dirty secrets were probably entangled in it.
"Hmm."
So they were trying to eliminate Hannah, and asking him to bury the case.
“0-Year Knight, Hannah Usar.......”
This commoner’s talent was exceptional. She’d even set records at Empire Point.
Her raw ability might rival or exceed his own or Julian's at the same age, but in the end, without backing, she was nothing more than a pawn on the chessboard. Refusing a return order was far too bold for a 0-Year Knight.
If he discarded her, what could he gain?
“The Knight Commander election is next year, isn’t it?”
The agent murmured quietly.
Soon, winter would pass, and spring would arrive.
In the coming year, as his seniority grew by another year, everything would be decided.
"We might need to offer our congratulations in advance."
Those words, casually tossed out with smiles by the agents of the direct agency, for some reason......
Chiron found them revolting.
***
Maximilian Albrecht von Ebenholtz.
That is my name.
All my agents work under that name, move for that name, and sometimes even shed blood in place of that name.
“.......”
I looked at Gale across from me. He had entered my office and hesitated for a long time before finally placing a top-secret investigation file on the desk.
“I’m not sure if I’m right to ask you for help.”
Gale spoke with a suspicious look on his face.
Within the Sentinel Knight Order, there were a fair number of commoner-born members. Over the past five years, the intensification of social discrimination in the Empire had dried up new recruits entirely, but since Anton became Deputy Commander, a third and fourth faction had quietly managed to keep their lifeline intact.
They had lived lives thoroughly excluded from politics.
Not because they lacked interest in politics, but because they knew the moment they got involved, they would be pushed out. So they closed their eyes and ears.
“What’s got a senior knight being so cautious?”
“A commoner is just a commoner, after all.”
But no matter how much they tried to avoid politics, the rotten Empire dragged them into the mud.
...Or, they threw themselves in, trying to grab hold of a lifeline.
“Take a look.”
Gale handed me the records of weapons trafficking he had secretly investigated. I unfolded them and compared them with my own intel. Like gears meshing together, the blanks were filled.
“When I first looked into this case, I thought it was just about weapons smuggling.”
Perhaps from the moment this operation had begun, every kind of pressure had come raining down?
“Hannah Usar is in Volska now.”
"That's right. I hate to say this, but...... she's refused the return order and is being stubborn about it."
Gale cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Can't you bring her back now and wrap things up with something like a suspension?"
I fell into thought for a moment.
The most important things in an organization are ideology and trust.
I don’t trust Gale. I’m not naive enough to accept everything he’s brought me at face value.
However, I did trust Leon.
Because I know his Imperial noble tendencies, his honesty, and the hatred and cruelty that lie beneath his gentle appearance.
In that sense—Hannah is someone I don’t know at all.
Before my regression, she was just one of the countless commoners who faded away without ever blooming.
“You know it too.”
Gale spoke in a quiet voice.
“Countless commoners have tried to climb the ladder around you, only to fall and die.”
How merciless is the Empire to those without backing? How cold is this country to a commoner who starts at the very bottom?
I’ve watched, from the very top, as they plummeted to their deaths.
“To a commoner with nothing, talent is nothing but a curse.”
It’s a truth that cannot be denied.
Because I am the one standing on the ‘opposite side’ of the commoners.
Even now, I remain wary of Hannah’s talent.
As the heir of a prestigious family, as one of the Empire’s most powerful and wealthy elites—will her blade someday point at me?
Will she, driven by her identity as a commoner, stray from my beliefs, my convictions, my cause, and eventually betray the Empire?
“Yes. I understand.”
I nodded as I closed the file.
“Take care on your way out.”
At the very least, thanks to them, my doubts had been resolved.
Now all that remained was my decision on where to go and how to act.
