Semi-Coercive Imperialist

Roaaar!

A blizzard swept through the mountain range like the howl of some beast. The Zerpha soldiers had found a deep cave and were taking a brief rest.

"Wow. Yakens sure know how to find a path... Oh, this looks delicious."

They ladled soup made from a deer they had just caught into mess tins. Steam rose from the meat broth as a veteran handed it to the Yaken couple.

"So, did you cooperate with the Republican faction?"

His name was Gonzalo, a sergeant with icicles hanging from his mustache.

"No. We... don't know anything about politics."

"Well, that's usually how Yakens are. Then why'd you run?"

They had joined a column of refugees. Their destination was not the Republican faction, but an entirely different country, Prozen.

"Unfortunately, that isn't going to work. Even if you make it to Prozen, those bastards won't take you in. They're nothing but stuck-up snobs."

Just in case, the two Yakens had handcuffs around their wrists.

They fed them soup and put them in handcuffs. That was how one treated merchandise.

"Start from the beginning. What exactly happened?"

"..."

The Yaken man looked at his wife, hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

"...We hired a broker with our relatives. Someone who said they'd take us to Prozen."

While following the broker, they encountered superhumans. The superhumans claimed to be guides, but a few people sensed something suspicious and caused a scene. That was when they revealed their true colors.

The broker had sold the Yaken clan to the superhumans.

Everyone scattered. The two of them survived, but most of the others...

"That's how we ended up here."

Crackle. Crackle.

The campfire burned inside the cave.

"Hm."

Gonzalo casually raised an eyebrow and took out a compass.

"Let's move once the blizzard lets up. Rest here today. We've got food, soup, and a fire. It's safe here."

"...But is the Empire really safe?"

The Yaken asked in a trembling voice. Gonzalo snorted and nodded.

"I told you. Lying is second nature to those Republican faction bastards. The ones who spread that nonsense and the ones who killed your relatives were probably all from the Republican faction too. They heard the Empire wanted Yakens, so they tried to wipe you all out."

"..."

The Yaken fell silent, deep in thought. The soldiers sat around the fire, chatting about nonsense before going to sleep with a sentry posted.

Whoooo.

Even amid the raging blizzard, the Yaken couple occasionally lifted their noses toward the cave entrance.

As if checking the scent of the wind.

...

The blizzard had died down by morning. Treading over the frozen mountain ground, the six of them arrived at the command post in Zerpha's Seventh Sector.

"Here we are. See? You made it."

It was a field command post built to maintain the encirclement. Gonzalo grinned at the two Yakens. They gave bitter smiles in return.

"All right, let's go."

They stopped at the guard post together.

"Are they prisoners?"

One of the guards asked.

"They're Yakens, you idiots."

"Oh... Is that so?"

The guards' eyes immediately filled with envy. Two walking bounties. The Yaken couple, meanwhile, looked as though they truly were about to be sold off.

"Try to see it positively."

Gonzalo grinned around his cigarette.

"We wouldn't help you if there wasn't anything in it for us, right? That's the most trustworthy thing in the world. Someone else's livelihood."

They went through the procedures.

They deposited their rifles at the guard post, then wrote down their affiliation, rank, and the "items being transferred," Yaken 2, one man and one woman, in the handover log.

After looking over the documents, the duty adjutant led them to the commander's office.

"You'll stay here for a while, then head to the Empire. Rest easy until then."

Knock, knock.

Gonzalo knocked on the commander's office door and spoke to the Yakens.

"I'll go in and explain first. Come in when they call for you."

He spoke quietly before entering the office.

"Captain."

He smiled slyly and sat across from the field captain.

"Sergeant Gonzalo. You rescued Yakens?"

"Yes, sir."

An orderly brought coffee and documents. The captain nodded as he flipped through the pages.

"First, congratulations. Are you planning to send them straight to the Empire?"

"Yes, sir. Please contact headquarters."

"All right. Have the Yakens come in now."

The Yaken couple entered under the adjutant's guidance.

They awkwardly sat in their chairs, and the captain smirked.

"They do look like Yakens. If you truly are Yakens, you can expect good treatment in the Empire."

"See? Didn't I tell you?"

Just as Gonzalo chuckled.

Sniff.

The Yaken man's nose twitched faintly.

Sniff, sniff.

"..."

Gonzalo's expression hardened for a moment.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the Yaken's nostrils.

Sniff, sniff. He was smelling something.

Then Gonzalo looked again at the captain organizing the documents.

His gaze suddenly fell on the back of the room.

There was a shelf beneath a mounted deer head.

It held a line of small carvings.

Birds, tigers, and other unidentifiable animals, all carved from wood. Crude, yet somehow lifelike.

It was one of the Yaken traits. They carved anything and everything with exquisite skill.

"Hm..."

Something was off. It was the instinct of a soldier who had spent a long time on battlefields.

Why did this Royalist captain have so many things that appeared to be Yaken carvings?

Sniff, sniff.

And why did the Yaken man keep smelling him?

"Captain, where should we keep the Yakens?"

"Put them in the temporary barracks next to the supply warehouse. It will take around two days to arrange an escort."

"Yes, sir."

It did not sit right with him, but Gonzalo gave no sign of it as he nodded toward a glass jar on the desk.

"Captain, may I take some of these candies?"

"Huh? Ah, go ahead."

Gonzalo grabbed a handful and stuffed them into his pocket.

Then another handful.

He looked ready to empty the whole jar.

"..."

The captain stared at him in disbelief, but Gonzalo answered with a sly grin.

"Ha ha... It was quite a struggle bringing the Yakens here."

"...Fine."

"All right! Get up!"

Gonzalo gestured to the Yakens.

"Let's go!"

They went outside together.

Step. Step.

After leading the two halfway across the yard, Gonzalo slowed down.

"...Did that captain have the same smell too?"

He asked in a low voice.

The Yaken man quietly nodded.

"Yes. When we came in... not only the captain, but several others..."

"Wasn't it a smell only those superhumans had?"

"No... I don't know. It's just the same smell."

"The captain's adjutant too?"

"Yes."

Something was strange.

The Yaken carvings on the captain's shelf.

The captain's scent, the adjutant's scent, and the superhumans' scent.

The Yakens' senses, said to detect danger more sharply than any other race.

Gonzalo stopped in the snow and put a cigarette in his mouth.

"...Nine tonight."

Puff. He had barely smoked it before dropping the cigarette to the ground.

"Come out by this cigarette butt. I'll be waiting with my squad and our gear."

The Yakens agreed without much resistance. They must have felt the same unease.

"For now, rest. Don't let them notice."

"Yes."

"Get going."

The Yakens entered the barracks, and Sergeant Gonzalo slowly looked over the field command post.

* * *

On a snowy day, the largest movie theater on the continent was completed in the imperial capital.

It was a multipurpose building erected after taking an Izenheim businessman's property for a pittance. It had been the first facility begun under the plan to supply theaters across the country, and the one completed with the greatest care.

Naturally, its opening feature would be Lenny's documentary, 「The Thousand Year Empire」.

"Congratulations, sir."

I watched the opening ceremony from a distance.

There was no need for me to step forward and cut the ribbon. That was the lead architect's role.

As the Empire's hidden hand, it served me better to own it in secret.

"Dieter. How profitable do you think it'll be?"

It had been quite some time since I last saw Dieter Schmidt. He looked exactly the same as before.

"It's a new business, so it remains uncertain."

Dieter's talent for handling the present was the kind people called historic, but he seemed to have no interest in looking ahead.

In that sense, he and I worked quite well together.

"It'll probably be a decent source of profit."

Film would become a worthwhile industry, both before the war and after it.

"Yes. I will evaluate it later."

Compared to mana stones or automobiles, it would be small change. That was precisely why I monopolized it.

First, I established more than eight production studios. Each had its own name and identity by genre, but the ownership of all of them led back to one place.

The films those studios made would pass through my distribution company, then screen in my theater chains across the country.

A monopoly gripping everything from production to distribution and exhibition.

With it, I could control public opinion and let propaganda flow like entertainment.

It could also serve as a painkiller to ease the scars of the coming war and the fatigue caused by the "unavoidable" massacres that would have to be carried out.

"There's somewhere else we need to go too."

"Yes."

The invention should be finished by now. I had waited a long time.

"It's in Hailand. You have time, right?"

"Yes."

Dieter never asked questions. He looked like he wouldn't object even if I said we were going to hell, which only made me want to tell him more.

The truth was, I was looking forward to it too.

"I'm looking for drinks and food to have while watching movies."

I'd already decided on the food. There were bread, sausages, and plenty of other options, but the key was popcorn.

Even before my regression, movies and popcorn had gone hand in hand.

There was one more thing, though.

That drink...

* * *

At nine o'clock, when darkness had soaked into the earth and sky.

Behind the temporary barracks where the Yakens were staying, next to the supply warehouse.

"Did everyone bring their things?"

"Yes."

At Gonzalo's words, everyone showed their gear. One had cooking equipment, including a pot. One had camping supplies. One had a sack full of food.

Each carried a backpack equivalent to a full combat load. Under the pretext of a patrol, Gonzalo had quietly retrieved their rifles from the guard post and handed one to each of them.

"But, Sergeant... can we really leave on our own?"

"The Yakens say something's suspicious. If something goes wrong, they could take our bounty away. You want to give up that money?"

The youngest soldier, who had looked frightened, shut his mouth at the mention of a bounty.

It was a fortune they would never touch even after earning several military merits, enough of an achievement that it might raise their bloodline grade.

"And what do you think they'll do to us after taking our bounty, huh? Of course they'll try to harm us!"

"Uh, they're coming. There they are."

Soon, the Yaken couple approached the meeting point without a sound.

Their coats were bulging too, as though they had concealed something inside.

"Let's go. Follow me."

Six shadows left the command post, avoiding the lights of the sentry posts.

They crouched low and slipped into the mountain range behind the fence.

Crunch. Crunch.

Fortunately, heavy snow had begun to fall. The accumulating snow would swallow up their sounds and tracks.

"Our destination is..."

Just as Gonzalo began to speak.

Woooo!

A siren from the command post behind them tore through the night sky.

"Ah, I think they noticed!"

"Yeah. That settles it."

Gonzalo spat out the words.

Ricardo, the second veteran and a sergeant, asked.

"Settles what?"

"Think about it. What reason would they have to check on Yakens this late at night?"

Transferred goods were counted at morning roll call. They were not prisoners. They could have simply left them alone and gone to sleep.

Why open the barracks door at this hour, then sound the alarm?

It meant those bastards definitely had business with the Yakens.

"Go. Run. Each put a candy in your mouth."

Gonzalo handed out candies by the handful.

Something he had learned through experience: keeping something sweet in your mouth made you tire less easily.

With a candy in each of their mouths, the six began crossing the dark mountain range.

* * *

Hailand, a powerful nation capable of standing against the Empire, had a place called [Stinger Pharmacy].

Yes, it was only a pharmacy. Not even a particularly large one, run by a single pharmacist.

The reason I remembered this pharmacy in an island nation was because of a drink from before my regression.

I first tasted it during the war. It was captured from enemy soldiers.

To be honest, I fell for it with my first sip. It was a shocking taste, perfect for my childish palate at the time.

From then on, I paid extra to buy it and drank it every night. After the Empire fell, I even sold dozens of kilograms of scrap paper for a single bottle.

"Hailand definitely gets less snow."

Old memories welled up as I took in Hailand's scenery.

It was winter here too, but there was barely any snow. The people on the streets wore lighter clothes than those in the Empire.

"Yes. Hailand has that kind of climate."

I was disguised as a businessman. Dieter beside me was as well.

"I'd wanted to visit at least once as a tourist."

...The next time I set foot on this land, it would not be as a tourist.

"Let's go."

"Yes."

We got into the waiting car.

Clunk. Clunk.

The car soon left the city. Our destination was the outskirts.

If my memory was right, it would be there.

Of course, my only basis was a few lines from a newspaper article I had read before my regression and the history of that success story...

Before long, a sign came into view.

"Stop here."

"Yes."

We got out of the car.

It was a clear day. Under blue-tinted sunlight, among the many shops lining the road, stood the pharmacy from the photograph I had been looking for.

"...Here it is."

I looked up at it, overcome with emotion.

"This pharmacy?"

"Yeah."

With Victor watching, I pushed open the door and went inside.

Jingle.

The doorbell rang.

I quietly looked around the interior.

A man half-dozing behind the counter. The smell of disinfectant. Medicine lined up on the shelves.

Then something with an unfamiliar name caught my eye.

[ Bang Wine Cola ]

→A newly developed tonic!!!

It was exactly as I had seen it in the old newspaper.

That black liquid from the past sat there in its original form, bottled as medicine.

Fortunately, I had arrived at exactly the right time. Neither too late nor too early.

"...Found it."

Smiling, I picked it up.

The recipe for this damned thing had never been released to the public. It could not be reproduced, and no matter how much money I had, all I could do was wait.

Thunk.

I set the bottle on the counter.

"How much is this?"

The pharmacist jerked awake and answered as though yawning.

"Ah... fifty shillings."

I looked at him steadily and shook my head.

"No. I'm asking how much the rights to this entire drink cost."

"...What?"

"Read this."

I placed the letter of intent to purchase that I had prepared in advance on the counter.

"...What?"

The name of this man, who still looked half asleep, was John Stinger.

He was the inventor of a drink that would one day sweep across the entire continent.

"It'll be an offer you can't refuse."

Yet he would suffer under debt and illness, sell the rights for a pittance, and die helplessly watching the continent become stained by his black liquid while crushed beneath a mountain of debt.

At least, that was how it had happened before my regression.

"Uh... Ah, yes?"

The liquid I loved far more than wine.

In other words, he was the great man who invented cola.

Footnotes:

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