Semi-Coercive Imperialist

Zestpol was a city directly hit by the Imperial Citizens Act.

It had the highest proportion of non-Aran residents: people of mixed heritage, foreigners, Izenheim, Yedlem, and more. Many of them held senior or professional positions.

Their knowledge and talent had been a major pillar supporting Zestpol, yet the Empire now intended to drive them out.

Zestpol's citizens fiercely resisted the prospect of suddenly losing neighbors, colleagues, friends, and lovers from their workplaces. The heat of that resistance had yet to fade, though Joshua's family belonged to a relatively moderate faction.

Joshua himself might not have.

But his family certainly did.

"......"

In the silence of the interrogation room, Julian read the statement with his eyes while listening to Joshua's breathing.

People revealed more openings when someone read through the lies they had written than when they lied outright.

Julian likely did not know exactly why. Few mechanisms were harder to understand than the way people worked.

Still, one thing was certain. The thing people found most difficult was waiting.

"You acted alone."

Joshua's breathing trembled faintly.

"That's right."

The moment he answered, he regained his composure. His mask was back in place, the one he wore to deceive others.

"So you're the leader of the Blue Rose Society."

It was clear that Joshua had been one of the central figures behind the founding of the Blue Rose Society.

"No. The Blue Rose. Singular."

Joshua's face, dark with bruises, was certainly blue enough.

"You delivered these pamphlets by yourself?"

Julian pointed to the pamphlets on the table.

Joshua remained silent for a long while before giving a faint smile.

"......It's absurd."

Julian listened.

"More than speaking of the suffering of people who are dying......"

Listening was an important virtue people in this world ought to possess. Perhaps the most important, considering how many had forgotten it......

"More than crying out the truth of children who are discriminated against and people suffering under oppression......"

It was an argument of principle.

The kind of words people liked to hear. The ideology of the Republic, too.

"Is mocking one man, Maximilian, truly a greater and graver crime than that?"

Julian answered with a principle of his own.

"In the Empire, it is."

"......"

Joshua's eyes held something closer to confirmation than disappointment.

So you are one of them too.

"Do you think that's right, Sir Knight?"

"Laws and systems are determined by those who hold power. Whether they are right or wrong is a question that comes after."

A single person's sense of justice could not overturn them in an instant. Anyone who believed otherwise was a fool.

"Sir Knight. While we wait for that 'after,' people are dying. The city of Zestpol is being destroyed."

Julian raised an eyebrow. Rustle. He turned a page of the statement and asked,

"So you spoke out?"

"......Yes. I did. Someone had to."

"And did the world change after you spoke out?"

Joshua's mouth closed.

Nothing had changed.

No, something had.

Only Joshua himself had ended up sitting here, with his entire family hanging over a cliff.

"Then what should we have done? What did we need to do in the face of this injustice and unfairness?"

Joshua's question carried genuine emotion. Julian answered.

"Time."

Only that one word.

"If what you believe is right is truly right, then one day, the time will surely come when it becomes right. If you sincerely believe in your righteousness, you must wait for that day."

"......The words of a bystander."

"Perhaps they are."

Julian did not deny it. Nor did he try to lecture Joshua with the logic of the Empire.

He was not someone who judged people too quickly.

Thud.

Julian closed the file. Leaving Joshua behind, he rose and left the interrogation room.

"......"

Silence settled over the room.

An administrative officer entered in Julian's place and set a meal tray before him.

"Eat before it gets cold."

Joshua picked up his spoon. The officer watched him for a moment, then added quietly.

"If you can, cooperate with Sir Knight Julian."

Joshua's hand paused.

"Did you know? Sir Knight Maximilian formally requested that the case be handed over to him, but Sir Knight Julian refused. He's barely holding back pressure from the other agencies under his own name. That means he's taking on considerable risk himself."

"......Then let me ask you something too."

Joshua looked up at the officer.

"The moment I'm handed over to that man, will I die?"

The officer met Joshua's gaze steadily. Their expression held pity rather than contempt.

"Is Maximilian greater than the Emperor?"

Joshua asked again.

The officer shook their head.

"Don't be so cynical. You're not really capable of it."

"......What?"

Joshua's brow furrowed.

"It's the opposite. You're too idealistic. You get angry because you believe the world should be different from what it is. And because you're angry, you imitate cynicism."

"......What are you..."

"If you're going to be cynical, be cynical about everything. The Empire, the Blue Rose, and yourself. Then at least you'll live longer. The most dangerous people are those with ice on one side and fire on the other. People like you."

The officer took hold of the doorknob and spoke with a sigh.

"Do you think you're smart? If you were truly smart, you'd know this. The world is vast, and there are countless people smarter and more powerful than you. So why don't all those smart people act like you do?"

Creeeak.

The interrogation room door opened.

"......If this goes wrong, you won't be the only one who dies."

Thud.

The door closed again.

"......"

For a long time, Joshua stared at the cooling food before him.

* * *

Finished works arrived one after another.

The artists I had personally recruited, the sculptor Max Riefenstahl, the musician Richard, the cinematographer Lenny, and several painters, came to Prozen with their works.

Every piece had been placed inside the Imperial Pavilion, though they remained hidden beneath canvas.

They waited in silence for the moment of the opening.

"I finished it perfectly within the deadline."

Outside the Imperial Pavilion, along a main avenue in Prozen's capital, Max Riefenstahl stood beside me with a smirk.

"You finished sooner than expected."

"Nobody interfered, that's why. I've always had a contrary streak. If people pressure me, I stop wanting to make anything. This time, I found myself wanting to hurry instead."

He stroked his beard with satisfaction. I smiled faintly.

"There's still plenty of time until the opening, so get some rest. I've arranged an itinerary for you."

"Oh? Have you now?"

"Yes. Just enjoy yourselves."

After that, I left all the artists in the care of the staff.

They would be free to tour downtown Prozen.

"Max!"

A familiar voice called out.

Ezel Runselot had arrived with Jun Kandel and the mages from Sentio Magic Tower.

"Oh. You're here?"

I had received a letter saying she was coming.

Ezel smiled brightly.

"So this is the Imperial Pavilion. When will it be unveiled?"

"Probably at night next week."

Only a week remained.

I was rather tense. I was certain of success, but variables like sabotage were impossible to predict. I had people on constant alert.

"At night?"

"Yeah."

"Wasn't the opening at noon?"

"It should be finished around then. We can do things whenever we want. We're the Empire, after all."

Ezel nodded, but her gaze drifted toward the Eastern Union grounds in the distance.

"What about over there? Lobrus, I mean. I sometimes see people in red uniforms."

"Who knows."

Like the Imperial Pavilion, the Eastern Union grounds were still wrapped in canvas.

"......Are you confident?"

Ezel looked up at me, concern in her eyes.

At the very least, we had to make something better than theirs.

"I was worried. If you lose......"

How badly would people tear into me? Half of Maximilian's career might be ruined. The World Expo was that large a stage.

"I'm confident. I always am."

"Certain?"

"Yeah."

I smiled, but after watching her for a moment, I added quietly.

"I'm more worried about you, Ezel."

"......"

Ezel's eyes wavered faintly.

"......Why?"

Because I was afraid you would try to start a revolution and be caught by someone other than me.

"......Nothing. The mages' work has been getting too harsh lately. I'm worried you won't be able to study what you actually want."

It was an era when magic was treated only as a weapon, not as a field of study.

The shadow of war had already swallowed even the magic towers, symbols of intellect.

"Oh, please. Don't you know? The higher-ups at the tower are the ones watching their step around me. I'm Sentio's Maximilian, you know."

Just as I smiled at that.

"Sir Knight."

One of the staff members approached and whispered a report in my ear. An unwanted guest had entered the Imperial Pavilion.

I nodded lightly.

"Keep them under watch, but leave them alone unless they intend to commit terrorism."

"Yes."

At my command, the staff member quickly disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

A man stepped into the Imperial Pavilion construction site, which was wrapped in layers of canvas.

He wore the uniform of a safety inspector. The person in charge of the Imperial Pavilion searched him with a metal detector, but there was no reason for anything to be found. His means were perfectly peaceful, and his purpose far removed from attack.

He entered and surveyed the progress of the construction.

He was a spy.

An eye of the Prozen Intelligence Bureau, one of those who sought to protect their own order.

To memorize the structure of this space, he first tilted his head up.

It was because of Maximilian Ebenholtz's grand claim about the greatest height.

"......?"

The ceiling was lower than expected.

The canvas itself seemed to rise over a hundred meters, but the structure within looked less than half that height.

Doubt stirred for a moment, but a spy's role was to gather information. There was no room for personal judgment. He only had to report what he saw.

......

Distinguished guests from across the continent, including the Empire, arrived in Prozen one after another.

As a result, every security officer and intelligence agent in the nation had been concentrated around the Expo grounds.

Professor Jean Pierre gathered in a hotel conference room overlooking the Expo grounds with Akenji, director of the Prozen Intelligence Bureau, and Arthur Winston of Hailand.

"According to the spy's report...... the Imperial Pavilion's ceiling height is still not very high."

At Akenji's words, Arthur Winston set down his teacup and muttered,

"Are they planning to use the same method as the East?"

The Eastern Union. Lobrus had chosen a modular approach, completing components in its homeland and assembling them on site.

"Still, building higher than Prozen Tower with prefabricated parts would carry considerable structural risk. Maximilian isn't foolish enough to overlook that."

"To begin with, we must wonder whether he personally said it would be higher than Prozen Tower. Perhaps the political establishment exaggerated an offhand remark or figure of speech......"

Akenji spoke.

The story had appeared in Prozen newspapers as well. A headline quoted Maximilian, though the papers had called him the person in charge of the Imperial Pavilion, saying it would be taller than Prozen Tower.

It had been a deliberate attempt by the political establishment to shape public opinion, and naturally, citizens had scoffed.

The Empire's pigs are making a fuss again. I suppose I'll go watch it collapse......

Thanks to that, the Expo was expected to be a huge success.

"......Maximilian isn't one to exaggerate. At the very least, there must be some meaning behind it."

Arthur Winston put a pipe between his teeth as the three men considered Maximilian's intentions.

"The Eastern Union delegation has arrived."

It was a report from an intelligence agent.

They hurriedly rose from their seats. There was no need to go far. They threw open the hotel balcony doors.

Whoooosh.

Across the Expo grounds below, the Lobrus delegates in red uniforms cut an imposing figure. They unloaded iron crates from several trucks at the center of their grounds.

"Just as we heard. It's modular construction."

"Yes. No doubt about it."

From the lead truck stepped the person in charge of the Eastern Pavilion.

Tatiana Volkov. One of Lobrus's foremost sculptors and painters. Perhaps the only artist to earn recognition from its strict and demanding Supreme Leader.

"That's the woman who painted Steel Dawn."

Steel Dawn, a masterpiece of the East.

It was a famous painting depicting a procession of workers beginning their dawn shift, with the red glow of a blast furnace at their backs.

The work was praised for embodying Eastern ideology on canvas. It had been exhibited in Prozen as well, shocking critics who loudly declared that Lobrus art was dead.

"Yes. I'm curious what masterpiece she brought this time."

The Imperial Pavilion drew attention through its boastful claims, while the Eastern Pavilion drew attention through the reputation of its director.

Of course, they would have to wait and see what happened.

Still, thinking rationally, they had no choice but to give the Eastern side the advantage for now.

......

Tatiana Volkov.

Over the past several months, she had sculpted a symbol through feverish obsession. Even her memories of the process were hazy.

Those had been months in which she burned her soul away.

She had first shown the completed work to Supreme Leader Varmil, and the assessment he gave her had been a single sentence.

"It is worthy of becoming a symbol of Lobrus."

"Are you nervous, Comrade Tatiana?"

An Adversary beside her asked.

"What is there to be nervous about!"

She shouted heartily, adjusting her gloves.

"If anything, this is going to be a letdown."

She was a woman who embodied the East's confidence.

"I heard our opponent is Maximilian. Does a bastard who has done nothing but wield guns and swords know anything about art?"

The Imperial knight. That bastard with nothing but a tin can in his head was their opponent. This would be easy.

"Still, be careful. Maximilian is...... someone who can influence the East."

In Lobrus, where they condemned even Imperial infants simply for being Imperial, that was effectively the highest praise they could give an Imperial figure.

"Enough. Let's start assembling it!"

Tatiana raised her fist into the air.

"Hey! Get ready!"

A booming shout burst from her slender frame. She had once aspired to become an Adversary herself.

"Bring the hammers and anvils......?"

That was when it happened.

Across the street, the crowd split to either side as a procession in black uniforms appeared.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Their boot heels sounded like drums, steady as a metronome.

Imperial bastards.

"......"

To an artist's eye, the scene looked like a painting walking toward her.

First, Prozen's broad avenue was the canvas.

The crowd lining both sides of the procession formed the frame, while the Imperial bastards became a black vertical line cutting through the center.

At the head of the line was a single golden point, catching the fading afternoon light head-on.

Tatiana and the Adversaries instinctively turned to face them, arranging themselves in a formal line so as not to be outdone.

Before their ranks, arrayed like a red tide, a knight bearing the gold of the Empire came to a stop.

Maximilian Albrecht von Ebenholtz.

He approached with the scent of blood about him, smiled elegantly, and held out his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you."

Tatiana stared at him.

She could not deny it.

The man before her looked like a sculpture himself.

But she could not be fooled by that handsome exterior. She knew well the madness beneath it and the inhuman massacres he had committed.

"It is an honor to meet one of Lobrus's great masters at such close range."

Maximilian, said to be talented with languages, did not abandon the Imperial language this time. Perhaps that alone was an act of diplomacy.

"Pleasure to meet you, Imperial knight!"

Tatiana gripped his hand roughly and answered in harsh Lobrusian.

"I hear you possess a deep understanding of art! Then you must know that the height of art is not measured with a ladder!"

She gestured with her chin toward the canvas-covered Imperial Pavilion.

"Still, naturally, some heights are greater than others. I sincerely look forward to the day I can see with my own eyes whether that magnificent claim of being taller than Prozen Tower is true!"

A polite insult wrapped in hearty laughter.

They traded this sort of psychological maneuvering.

Click. Click. Click.

Camera shutters sounded somewhere nearby.

Were they Imperial reporters? Prozen reporters? Or Lobrus reporters?

No matter which side they belonged to, a camera lens was pointed at them.

Tatiana suddenly took in the scene from above, as if by professional habit.

Against the backdrop of a Prozen avenue, a tide of red uniforms stood on one side, black vertical lines of uniforms on the other.

Red and black.

Two camps faced one another with empty space between them.

At the exact center, where the two colors met for the only time, two clasped hands overlapped.

Fortunately, Tatiana was tall for a woman. Tall even for a man. She was not greatly overshadowed by him in height.

Composition, contrast, tension. The three elements were perfect.

If she had to give this photograph a title......

Well.

This could become a photograph remembered by history.

Heh.

Just as a laugh was about to escape at her own silly thought, Tatiana suddenly realized something.

"......"

Their clasped hands had remained locked together for quite some time.

Tatiana raised her eyes. Maximilian only smiled.

Click. Click. Click......

Until the shutter sounds finally subsided.

Only then did he release her hand, half a beat late.

He did not avoid being photographed. If anything, he paused so the cameras could capture him better.

......This bastard understood cameras.

He knew a little about art.

"There's nothing in this for you."

Tatiana murmured quietly.

The photographs would only heighten attention and expose the Empire's disgrace when it lost to the East before long.

Maximilian met her eyes and answered.

"We'll see."

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