Semi-Coercive Imperialist

Fifth floor of the Sentinel Knights' new hall, the "Maximilian Operations Room."

"......"

Yan Novak stared blankly around the room.

It was spacious and clean. Each agent had an assigned desk, and the windows offered a clear view of the lake park and its green trees.

"This is your desk."

His direct superior, Yukia, pointed to one of the desks.

She was the Sentinel Knights' chief administrator, overseeing all Yaken agents. She had risen to what was effectively the highest position a Yaken could attain, making her something of a living legend.

"Yes."

"Write down the equipment, supplies, and operational funds you want. They'll be provided later."

The freedom was absolute. When he asked about a limit, her answer was simple.

"As much as you think your life is worth."

Yan was considering what number to write when Yukia spoke again.

"One condition."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're Yaken."

Within the Sentinel, Yaken were known as the knights' field partners.

Their exceptional physical abilities, special talent for mana, and above all, their heightened senses for tracking and locating targets were highly valued.

That did not mean they could afford to grow arrogant.

"You must always remember that the honor of your people rests on your shoulders."

"Yes. I'll remember."

Yukia studied Novak for a moment before asking,

"Can you smell things?"

She tossed something onto the desk. Several pebbles scattered across its surface, perhaps thirteen in all.

Without even bringing them to his nose, Yan picked out three stones, the only ones carrying a blood-tinged odor.

"Three. These ones."

"......Show me your other talent."

Yan opened his empty hand. Mana seemed to gather in his palm, then whoosh! A pebble at the far end of the desk flew through the air and landed in his grasp.

It was an ability related to space.

"So there was a reason you passed."

Yukia nodded in satisfaction. Maximilian had already given her the rough details.

A Yaken with the qualities to become a loyal retainer.

"From now on, you're directly under my command."

She spread something across the desk.

A map of the entire Empire, densely marked by hand with red and black dots.

"......A map?"

"That's right."

Yukia placed a fingertip on one of the dots.

"We're going to make a map."

Hideouts and burial sites the Izenheim scum had used. Locations where their altars lay concealed.

They would move through the shadows, marking every place connected to them on the map.

"We'll find the revolution's nest."

Yukia had once belonged to the Revolutionary Faction, only to be betrayed by them. Her voice was dark as ash.

"And we'll learn Izenheim's purpose."

"Their purpose......?"

At Yan's question, Yukia looked at him as if weighing him.

"We don't know the details yet. But their purpose is connected to the ground. The silent rite. Do you know about the Nico Beber incident?"

"Yes, I do."

Izenheim and the Revolutionary Faction had set up shell companies to bleed the Empire dry, only to be punished by Nico Beber, a hero of the Empire.

"Sewers. Abandoned mines. Basements. Wells. They're obsessed with underground places. They're clearly doing something beneath the earth, and it's tied to their religion and the horribly twisted values they worship."

The Silent Communion, in which they crushed the heads of their own kind with stones. A demonic rite where they offered even their own lives as sacrifices.

Their faith did not rise toward the sky. It descended beneath their feet.

"We'll connect their places of worship. Once we have enough points, we'll know exactly where beneath this land they're crawling toward."

Yukia lifted her hand from the map and looked Yan directly in the eye.

"Remember this. They are the enemy of the Yaken, and the enemy of the Empire."

* * *

I received certain pieces of "evidence" from Georgen.

I had never asked them for cooperation. Someone within their organization had leaked information to one of our agents.

Too unsettling to be free, too valuable to be bait.

"......There's quite a lot."

A list of people connected to the Blue Rose Society.

Prominent Zestpol professors, clerks, editorial writers, literary figures, and scholars. There were many names, along with clear reasons and evidence. If they wanted to implicate someone, they had no shortage of names to use.

Thanks to that, I was beginning to understand their objective.

Why they had disguised themselves as the Blue Rose Society and denounced Joshua. Why they had so carefully prepared such a list.

It was a death list containing only Zestpol's intellectual elite.

This had not happened before my return.

It was likely one of the "synergies" I had worried about.

As I grew stronger, their methods became more persistent.

Filthier. More disgusting.

I moved to the Gennen facility.

This was a large-scale operation. With so many names, I would have to mobilize many people as well.

"You're here."

Director Schatz stood alongside Zendo and the other agents, all lined up.

The Gennen incident was already several years in the past. In the time since, they had honed themselves into elites and veterans.

I had summoned every one of them.

"Memorize this."

No lengthy explanation was needed. Copies of the list were distributed among the agents of the Gennen facility.

"The names and faces of everyone on this list."

Each of them picked up a page and scanned the names, their eyes sharp as blades and their hands swift and precise.

"And every one of them."

A brief silence fell, so complete that even the rustle of paper stopped.

"Pursue them."

* * *

A list had reached Georgen.

It was a list of people connected to the Blue Rose Society.

Or the names of people who had helped them, even a little.

The problem was how that "even a little" would be interpreted.

Those who printed pamphlets. Those who supplied paper to the printing shops. Those who exchanged letters with the Blue Rose Society.

Employers at places where one member of the Blue Rose Society had once worked. Even teachers who had taught a member something at some point.

The net could be woven as tightly as desired, and the Empire would indeed weave it that way.

The Blue Rose Society had insulted the most dangerous person in the Empire.

"This came from someone inside."

A reception room in a Zestpol mansion.

One evening, a young man with an ordinary face and ordinary clothes arrived without a sound. He delivered the news to Alfred, an elderly professor in Zestpol University's Faculty of Mana.

"Your name is now on Georgen's list, Professor."

A renowned scholar of the Empire.

His crime was having taught, cherished, dined with, and spoken with a student named Joshua for years.

Alfred asked in a grave voice,

"Even if I had nothing to do with the Blue Rose Society?"

"The Empire doesn't care about facts like that in the first place. You know Maximilian."

Even if he did not agree with the Blue Rose Society's ideas, the Empire only wanted an excuse, a pretext to crush Zestpol's educated class.

That was the young man's logic.

"......You must run. The dean is already being detained."

"The dean is not being detained. They are staying there."

For their son Joshua, perhaps. Or for their family.

"It's the same thing."

The young man replied shortly and pulled his flat cap down low.

"I've told you what I came to say. There are still many people I need to visit."

Other teachers, scholars, and mages in Zestpol. The names written on that list.

"......"

Professor Alfred watched the young man, who was risking his life to warn others. With a deep sigh, he fell into thought for a moment.

"Please. I hope you make the choice that is best for you as well."

"Wait."

As the young man hurried to turn away, the elderly professor held something out to him.

Bread and water.

"......I cannot send a guest away empty-handed."

The young man accepted them and smiled for the first time.

"Thank you."

Watching the young man leave, the old professor prayed for his safety even more than his own.

......

The office of Theodore Brandt, professor in Zestpol University's Department of Mana Wave Studies.

"Professor."

Theodore looked quietly at the man seated before him.

"These are pamphlets insulting the Sentinel. This is more serious than the Imperial Citizens Act. No, it will become more serious because of the Imperial Citizens Act."

Zestpol had already made itself thoroughly unpopular during the Imperial Citizens Act. Using this incident as an excuse, the intellectuals of this city would suffer an even greater disaster.

"Besides, the other party is Maximilian."

Even among the Sentinel, who prided themselves on being the Empire's sword, he was the sharpest, most ruthless monster, filled with mad certainty.

"Do you know how many soldiers he had shot at the eastern border?"

Hundreds.

The exact number of regular soldiers he had lined up and executed without hearing a single defense was still unknown.

"And what about those who were crushed under his orders in Guernica?"

"Guernica."

Through the artwork displayed in Prozen, the truth of that day was only now slowly seeping into the world.

"The Titan. Of course you know about it."

A name that remained both sorrow and fairy tale for the people of the Empire.

The love between an Aran commoner who miraculously survived that day's disaster and a young lady from a distinguished noble house.

The two held a grand wedding, and Maximilian even invited the couple and their noble house to the Imperial Pavilion in Prozen.

"But you don't know what lies beneath that story."

The man's voice grew quiet.

"There were minorities who boarded the Titan to flee the Empire. People who tried to escape in violation of Imperial law."

The next page of the fairy tale.

"They too survived the disaster, but Maximilian did not choose them. As a result..."

Those who were invited stood in the Hall of Light.

"None of them remain in this world. Not one."

The rest had vanished into the afterlife.

"Above all else."

With a grave expression, the man slightly drew back the office curtains.

"Can you see it?"

A dark alley.

At the edge of a streetlamp, a faint shadow flickered.

"Professor. They are already here. They are watching you."

"......"

Professor Theodore listened to him, bit his lip, and covered his face with both hands.

......

Zestpol University, Mana Stone Critical Resonance Studies research building.

In the field of mana stone chain resonance, a subject handled by only a select few even in academia, Professor Erich Salzmann was considered the continent's foremost authority.

He had finished preparing for his journey.

Fortunately, it was Exhibition season. With so many travelers heading to Prozen, border inspections would surely be more relaxed.

The decision had not been difficult for him.

His name was on the Blue Rose Society list acquired by Georgen. And he had no one but himself to consider.

Not entirely no one, though...

"......Don't worry."

His mother, now nearing eighty, smiled first.

"What could they possibly do to this old body? I'll live out my natural lifespan."

Professor Salzmann could not say a word. Holding back his tears, he bent down and buried his face against her chest.

"Mother......"

Suddenly, those days flashed through his mind.

They spread wide before him like a panorama.

Her dream had been him. Her hope had been him too, ever since the day his father, whom he could not even remember, had left.

Her joy when he entered Imperial Central University. Her radiant expression when he became a professor. Her happiness when his paper appeared in a continental academic journal, and on every day the Empire awarded him a medal.

All of it had been held within her narrow embrace.

"If you ever need a bribe."

She took a ring from her thick-knuckled finger and placed it in her son's hand.

"Use this."

He could take only what he could carry on his body. Too much luggage would expose him.

So this one ring was everything she could send with her son, her entire fortune.

"......Yes."

Salzmann wiped his tears and accepted it.

In her arms, even at his age, he felt like a child again.

"Don't come back."

At his mother's farewell, her son could not add a single word. Leaving only his love behind, he crossed the threshold.

Outside stood the young man who had come to guide him.

Salzmann nodded.

"Let's go."

"You made the decision you had to, Professor."

"......It's thanks to you."

"Yes. Trust me."

The journey felt like a dream.

Whenever he closed and opened his eyes, he had moved another step forward.

Home.

Street.

Car.

Platform.

Train.

Seat.

Clatter, clatter.

When he came to his senses, fields were already flowing past the window.

The landscape of the Empire was growing farther away from him.

"Our first destination is Prozen. Fortunately, it's Exhibition season, so it should be easier to pass inspections if we blend in with the tourists."

The young man's words from across the seat made his shoulders twitch.

It felt as though he had returned to reality.

"Let's do that."

Salzmann nodded. The young man asked with concern,

"......Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

His face said otherwise. He was pale, soaked in sorrow.

The young man carefully added,

"......You'll be all right. Your knowledge will be valued in any country. That's what your mother would want as well."

"You know, don't you? The Empire is not a country generous enough to embrace intellectuals..."

At that moment, something inside the young man's coat vibrated softly.

It was a small machine, a radio that communicated only in Morse code.

After checking it, the young man's expression stiffened slightly.

"......Excuse me. Please get some rest."

"Very well."

The man left his seat, and Professor Salzmann closed his eyes for a moment.

Clatter, clatter.

The rattling rocked him like a lullaby.

Beyond the professor's closed eyes, fields passed by. Rivers passed by. The lights of unnamed stations flickered past the window one after another.

Clatter, clatter.

The border was drawing near.

Rustle.

Then, suddenly.

Someone sat down across from him.

"You're late...?"

When Professor Salzmann opened his eyes again,

"......!"

His heart lurched violently.

No, it felt as though his entire body had already exploded.

Clatter, clatter.

Sunlight flowing through the window touched a man's blond hair.

He had a face that looked cut from a painting, with a faint smile resting on it.

Clatter, clatter.

The man who should have been at the Imperial Pavilion was sitting within arm's reach without warning, looking directly at him.

Clatter, clatter.

......Maximilian.

A disaster in beautiful form.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

His voice was astonishingly gentle.

"You are Professor Erich Salzmann of Zestpol University, specializing in Mana Stone Critical Resonance Studies, are you not?"

He was in no hurry. He continued calmly, as though asking after an old acquaintance.

"The Chain Resonance of Mana Stones. On Mana's Critical Conditions. Papers you published ten years ago and five years ago, respectively."

A cold sweat ran down the professor's back.

"I read them with great admiration. Every footnote as well."

He let out a faint sigh and looked around.

The professor's gaze followed his.

There was no one.

Not a single person remained on the train.

"What a coincidence, meeting someone like you in a place like this."

A coincidence.

Yet faint bloodstains marked the man's shoes.

They trailed in spots from the corridor.

He had walked here after stepping through blood.

"......"

Without realizing it, Salzmann clenched the ring in his pocket.

Silence passed.

"......"

The man did not hurry him. He only watched and waited.

What was he waiting for?

What did he want?

The professor had spent his life pursuing only scholarship, so he did not understand people. Then, when that waiting passed some critical point, the man's expression suddenly sank.

What remained after the gentleness faded was neither anger nor threat.

Only nothingness.

"You should answer."

The moment those words, not even a question, left his lips, they became an interrogation too heavy to bear.

With a scholar's instinct, the professor understood that silence had never been an option.

"......I see. Quite a coincidence, meeting for the first time like this."

"In truth, this is not our first meeting. I saw you once. You came to the Sentinel to protest during the Imperial Citizens Act."

"Did I?"

"Yes. I was not the knight in charge, though."

That gentle smile returned to Maximilian's face.

"Then where are you going in such a hurry?"

He had walked in on feet that had erased people, then asked for another person's destination in a human voice.

The human being feared more than anyone else on the continent.

The Empire's monster.

Only now did the professor accept that epithet as a very precise classification.

Footnotes:

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!