Semi-Coercive Imperialist - Chapter 123: Life Itself Might Be a Play (3)
“──Hannah Usar. You have a mission.”
Around the time the political infighting within the Sentinel had entered a brief lull, the rookie knight Hannah received a summons.
“Volska, sir?”
At Hannah’s reply, her superior nodded.
Volska is a country bordering the northeastern part of the Empire. It claims to be a republic, but in reality, it is ruled by a military dictatorship, resembling a monarchy.
“A tip-off from the Intelligence Bureau. Movements of an anti-Imperialist terrorist group have been detected.”
Within the Sentinel, it’s not only the Chiron and Adria factions that exist. While they are the main powers, there are clearly third and fourth factions that hold voting rights.
They were the ones who best fit the notion that a knight is an independent contractor.
“They’re attempting a large-scale transaction of weapons and illegal mana stones in Volska. The buyers are presumed to be remnants of ‘Zentra’.”
Gale was a central figure in this neutral faction. Like Hannah, he came from a commoner background and had long abandoned any ambition for advancement, now a senior knight.
He lit a cigarette, took a drag, and explained in a dry tone.
“Even if it’s not Zentra, it’s probably reactionary scum on par with them.”
Anti-Imperial organizations were a dime a dozen. The most well-known is the Revolutionary forces, and everything tends to get lumped under that name, but in truth, their sects and branches are as diverse as religions.
“But it’s nothing new for those bastards to be buying weapons. The problem is the sellers.”
Gale tapped his cigarette ash into the ashtray.
“A force capable of supplying high-performance weapons and illegal mana stones in large quantities to anti-Imperialist groups. They are clearly enemies of the Empire. The core of this mission is to uncover the sellers’ backers and shut down the deal itself.”
Hannah nodded.
“Leon has already moved into Volska. It might be a difficult mission for a zero-year knight, but since you participated in ‘Path of Dreams’, I’m sure you won’t complain.”
Perhaps it was Gale’s consideration. As a commoner himself, he was giving another commoner, Hannah, a chance to build her record.
“Yes. I’ll depart immediately.”
……And that was the sequence of events that led to Hannah Usar setting up a disguised office in a worn-down building in the Volska capital.
Tick. Tick-tick.
Looking at the mana stone lamp that kept flickering on and off, Hannah scratched the back of her neck.
“I’m sorry. The budget was a bit tight, so I rented a cheaper place.”
“It’s fine.”
Two field officers and one administrative officer were with her. Thanks to the recent Path of Dreams operation, their budget had increased quite a bit, so she was able to hire two more people.
“Instead, look forward to it when we complete this mission.”
She was planning to distribute bonuses. A knight’s work was never accomplished by the knight alone, after all.
“Yes. First of all.”
The administrative officer handed over a document.
“These are the date, location, and code phrase for meeting with Volska’s informants.”
2 PM. Orakan Burger. Sit at table number 7, order a cheeseburger, fries, and oatmeal, look out the window, and briefly glance at the seat directly behind.
“Got it. Confirmed.”
***
When I got home from work, an unfamiliar vehicle was parked at the estate. A truck reinforced with bulletproof, blade-proof, and anti-magic armor. It looked like Lorenzo had arrived.
I went inside. In the living room, Schatz and Lorenzo were in the middle of a conversation.
“Ah, you’ve returned.”
Lorenzo greeted me. Beside him, Leo sat with a dignified bearing.
Leo’s growth phase was over.
Standing height, 73 centimeters. Weight, 45 kilograms. His bone structure was fully developed, and now he was in the stage of adding muscle to build his frame.
Hiding my anticipation, I approached Lorenzo.
“Looks like the final product is ready?”
“Yes. The custom-made armor for the dog you requested.”
Lorenzo opened the box.
Sssshhh──
A silver mana stone armor flowed out. It was equipment crafted with precision to fit Leo’s physical structure.
“Leo has such a large build even for an Aran Shepherd that special fabrication was necessary.”
Lorenzo pointed to the joints of the armor as he explained.
“It’s flexible, so even if he grows a little more, it’ll still fit without issue. Also, the surface is engraved with camouflage mana stones, so it’s designed to blend into the surrounding environment.”
I took out the armor and personally dressed Leo in it. He calmly let me do as I pleased.
“It can deflect standard rifle rounds and sword strikes, and withstand Mana-based projectile attacks to a reasonable degree. Despite that, the weight is light enough that it doesn’t hinder movement at all.”
Leo was now clad in silver armor. Schatz clapped her hands in admiration.
“Also, there’s ample storage space inside for emergency rations. Whether the dog can take out and eat the food on his own is unknown, but…”
“He can.”
Because Leo is a genius. You have to think of him as more than just a dog.
“……Ahem.”
Suddenly Schatz cleared her throat with a proud shrug.
“Sir knight. We also have armor for our branch’s dogs.”
She proudly held up the armor. It was standard-issue gear for the guard dogs of the Genen Branch.
It was clearly a lower grade compared to Leo’s, but it looked more than sufficient for actual combat use.
“We secured it with the branch’s budget.”
“Good work. Ah, if the budget falls short, ask Dieter under your name. Your signature is fine, Schatz.”
Dieter and the specialists under him manage the budget thoroughly.
Schatz was, of course, trustworthy, but if he got careless just because he had plenty, thieves were bound to appear.
“That goes for you too, Mr. Lorenzo.”
“Haha. I’d like that, but the academy has finally started turning a profit these days.”
I gave a small smile. Lorenzo Academy had become a proud export business of the Empire.
Especially the window-type air conditioners were a bestselling item.
“Oh, right, there’s also this…”
Lorenzo handed over a small case. Inside was a pair of ultra-compact earphones, perfectly designed to fit the ears of a dog.
A communication device crafted from ultra-high-density mana stone.
“It runs on mana. Taking Leo’s hearing into account, it selectively amplifies only subtle signals or your voice, sir. Conversely, it blocks harmful noises like explosions or loud sounds, but…”
Lorenzo still seemed doubtful about Leo.
“Whether a dog can completely understand and follow human commands—”
“He can.”
The boy had already been perfectly trained in the Ebenholtz Mana Breathing techniques, movement techniques, tactics, and drills.
I picked up the earphones and fitted them into Leo’s ears.
“A two-man team, doable?”
Leo nodded.
I widened my eyes slightly, pretending to be surprised as I patted his head.
“…What’s that? You say you can handle solo missions too?”
Woof!
Leo barked in a deep tone. As if he really meant it.
I tapped the back of his neck.
“Good, because there’s something I need you to do.”
From now on, you’ll have to earn your keep—for food, elixirs, and armor.
The reality we face is cruel, and you can’t just keep pooping and going on walks forever.
…….
Aternum’s munitions factory. Under the name of ‘national industry’, the basement of this place was equipped with separate interrogation and detention rooms.
“This makes twenty-three.”
Yukia placed documents on the iron table in the interrogation room.
“They all reek of foul water.”
It was a list of Ezenheim infiltrators who had snuck into the factory. With the number of Aternum workers increasing, it was inevitable that rats would slip in with them.
“We’ve only locked up seven of them in the detention room.”
As much as I wanted to kill them all, if we killed too many Ezenheim at once, it might raise suspicions.
I couldn’t let the Ezenheim learn of my abilities yet.
“Also, from what the guard captain provided. Among those caught smuggling internal supplies, the ones with particularly bad offenses.”
A total of 27. All locked behind iron bars in the detention room.
“Yukia.”
I gestured with my eyes toward Leo, who was standing next to me.
“Let Leo smell them too.”
“……?”
“You alone aren’t enough. I need to train him on that ‘scent’ as well.”
Yukia looked puzzled for a moment, then nodded.
Tap. Tap tap.
Leo followed behind Yukia with his puppy-like gait.
Inside the cell were workers caught stealing and selling off supplies. Among them were Ezenheim, Arans, and people of other races as well.
Yukia first approached one of the Ezenheim. After confirming the foul fishy smell coming off the guy, she pointed him out to Leo.
“Smell him.”
Sniff sniff.
Leo flared his nostrils. Yukia imprinted the scent on Leo.
This is the enemy’s scent. An enemy of mankind that must be bitten.
“Find them.”
Leo walked through the detention room on his own, sniffing carefully. After thoroughly checking, he stopped in front of a few people and growled lowly.
“…Thirteen.”
Leo identified thirteen suspects. Of those, only five were actual Ezenheim. The other eight were simply people with foul smells or similarly bad odors.
Even Leo, a genius among genius dogs, wasn’t perfectly accurate. Meaning it couldn’t be taught to 99.99% of dogs—but even so, I saw a glimmer of hope.
With Leo, if I continued to train him steadily, he might be able to accurately identify them.
“Good work. But you only got five right.”
Leo drooped his ears.
“…Whine.”
“It’s okay. It’s a hard job. Just do better next time. You were adorable.”
I stroked Leo’s drooping head a few times, then gave a glance to the guard captain, who was watching with a puzzled expression.
“Execute them all.”
“……Pardon? All of them?”
The guard captain asked again in shock.
“Embezzling military supplies is an act of treason. No exceptions.”
To kill the seven Ezenheim, I would bury the rest of the thieves with them.
That way, they would never find out that I could specifically identify the Ezenheim.
“B-but among them… there are some very diligent workers.”
The ones the guard captain pointed out were all Ezenheim. Of course, they would have been putting on an act of diligence to deceive human society.
I gazed sharply at the guard captain.
“Guard captain. Do you even realize who you’re talking to right now?”
The guard captain was at a loss for words. Trembling, he bowed his head.
I had to cut off any room for them to think. I had to make them carry out my orders as a matter of routine.
“Only pure-blooded Aran may enter Aternum. Falsifying one’s identity means execution.”
The appropriate paperwork could easily be fabricated, and even if it wasn’t, it didn’t matter.
“These people are enemies of The Empire. You can tell just by looking at them.”
Some Ezenheim resembled Imperial citizens, and some did not.
The physical traits they supposedly shared, such as brown eyes, aquiline noses, and pale skin, were numerous, but in truth, the prevalence of these traits was only equal to or slightly above the racial average.
“Conduct autopsies and submit a report.”
Of course, it didn’t matter.
Once they were dead, their nature as a Subspecies would be revealed anyway.
“Carry it out.”
“……Yes, sir.”
I turned and walked away without looking back.
As I ascended the stairs, the chilling sound of gunfire echoed through the factory.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
“Um…”
Just then, Yukia called out to me from behind.
“Hm?”
She handed me something.
“……A pistol?”
It was a sleek pistol imbued with the color of Ebenholtz, silver.
“I made it myself.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. You looked so inconvenienced.”
Yukia pointed at the long sword on my back.
“There’s a Yaken proverb. ‘If you use a monster-slaying sword to butcher livestock, soon, that’s all you’ll be able to kill.’”
“…….”
She had a point. It really was a hassle swinging around a 1.6-meter-long greatsword every time I had to kill some third-rate bastard.
“What about the magazine?”
“There isn’t one.”
“You’re dropping the formalities again.”
“……It fires with mana.”
Yukia added curtly.
“It stores mana instead of bullets, compresses it, and fires.”
At that, I blinked.
“Something like that is possible? What’s the mechanism?”
A pistol that fires mana. I’d never seen or heard of such a thing.
Lorenzo would probably faint if he saw it.
“I got obsessed while working on it… so I’m not really sure how it works. It just does.”
“Can you make more?”
“Almost impossible.”
Yaken are known for their exceptional craftsmanship, and Yukia, in particular, far surpasses even other Yaken when it comes to mechanical things.
So this pistol must be a product of her unique talent.
“Thanks. I’ll use it well.”
I gripped the pistol. The grip fit perfectly in my hand, but then something I needed to say to her came to mind.
“……With this, I might end up killing hundreds—no, thousands.”
Yukia looked straight at me.
“Is that still alright with you?”
Two steps below on the staircase. Yukia’s eyes, looking up at me, were unwavering.
“Is there a reason for the killing?”
She asked about the reason behind the killing.
I didn’t waver.
“There’s more than enough reason.”
The version of me reflected in her eyes was equally unwavering.
“We absolutely must.”
Not for the Empire—
“But for us.”
Facing me, Yukia gave a silent nod.
***
Royal Opera House.
I had been visiting there frequently as of late. Once every two days, I would go with my identity concealed or my face exposed, mapping out the entire layout and checking the emergency exits. It had practically become a routine.
“…….”
The opera house was needlessly vast, leaving far too many blind spots.
I stood in a corridor behind the stage and activated my Mana.
Srrrkk.
The Ebenholtz Mana seeped through the marble floor and penetrated deeper underground. The senses that had been scanning the foundation suddenly detected a hollow space.
……Underground.
Too wide to be a drainage tunnel, and too deep to be a storage room.
So this building has a basement?
It wasn’t marked on the blueprints.
A faint smile spread across my lips.
──A hideout.
“Excuse me, who are you?”
Someone called out to me from the other side of the corridor. It was the renowned actor, Leonard.
I took off my hat.
“Ah, it’s you, Sir Knight. You’ve been visiting quite often lately.”
I just shrugged silently.
It meant I had my reasons, which I couldn’t speak of.
“Of course, since you’re a knight, I understand. But the staff are feeling uneasy.”
Leonard made a subtle expression. Ever since the last incident, he’d been watching me warily.
“Well… more importantly, Mr. Leonard, there’s something I’ve been wondering.”
There was indeed something I was curious about.
“Why is this place’s repertoire always the same? ‘The Elixir of Love,’ ‘The Emperor’s Sword’… I noticed only four operas are ever performed here.”
Leonard gave a dry chuckle as he put down his towel.
“I’ve heard you’re a man of great learning, sir knight, but it seems you have little interest in the arts?”
“…….”
I couldn’t deny it.
I had studied literature, culture, languages, and history because they were useful to me. Fine dining was my only form of stress relief, so I indulged in it.
But art? Not really. I’d just memorized things on a surface level.
“The world might end while we’re busy singing.”
Leonard’s eyebrows twitched.
Art was a low priority for me. Life had to go on before anyone could sing.
“Still, I’d appreciate it if you could answer my question. I’m trying to take an interest, after all.”
“……Alright.”
Leonard let out a sigh before he began.
“Under Imperial law, any work staged at the Royal Opera House must have both its composer and lyricist be ‘pure-blooded Aran’.”
He roughly raked his hair back in frustration.
“But the Empire has traditionally been a barren land for opera. Most masterpieces come from Western Prozen or the South, but the Empire considers it shameful to perform works from other nations. Do they support new productions, then? No, they don’t.”
In short—
The Empire has no interest in art, no will to develop it, and while fixating solely on origin and bloodline, it has allowed the scene to stagnate.
“The facilities at the Royal Opera House may be outdated, but they’re still quite excellent. Personally, I think it would be good to stage musicals here—combining theater and opera. They’re already hugely popular in Prozen.”
“……Musicals.”
I nodded quietly as I listened to Leonard.
“I understand. I’ll personally propose changes to that legislation.”
“……?”
Leonard’s face went blank for a moment.
“I’ll try to lift the restrictions and introduce new genres. I’ll even scout for talent. Arans possess remarkable purity—surely, there are hidden talents buried somewhere.”
“……The purity of the Arans,”
Leonard repeated the phrase in a peculiar tone.
“If you’d like, I can even sponsor your troupe.”
At that, Leonard’s face hardened. He looked at me seriously.
“May I ask your reason? You don’t seem particularly interested in opera.”
I considered my answer, but the truth was simple.
“……Because there is someone who wishes for it.”
Someone who would come down from the VVIP balcony to sit among the VIPs, and eventually watch a performance among the commoners.
“That person would want to see a new kind of stage. I am simply acting on their behalf.”
──Tick.
Right on cue, Leonard’s wristwatch chimed.
“Then if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for rehearsal.”
Leonard turned and walked away. He didn’t refuse the offer of sponsorship.
Watching his retreating figure, I suddenly felt a doubt rise within me.
“Opera tickets are this expensive, and yet…….”
And yet he claims to have no money. That thought overlapped in my mind with the underground hideout here, and made me wonder—just maybe.
Was Leonard part of the Revolutionary forces too?
If so, then his approach to the Imperial Princess before the Regression, and their tragic love, had it all been an act?
“Hmm.”
It was far from certain, of course, and I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but……
“……Life is but a play, and death alone is reality.”
I softly recited Leonard’s line as I walked away from the corridor.
……Thud.
In the spot where Maximilian had stood, only after he had completely disappeared, a presence seeped out from the darkness.
From a space where nothing had been, from a shadowed corner, a woman revealed herself.
She was exceptionally skilled at erasing her presence.
A kind of secret art passed down only to those of noble blood. A magic that made one fade like air, invisible to any eye.
If she could not become strong like Sebestian or the jackals of the north, then she would instead hone the art of concealing herself to the extreme.
In that respect, Princess Justine was an expert.
‘……Because there is someone who wishes for it.’
She recalled the words Maximilian had just spoken, focusing her thoughts.
‘That person would want to see a new kind of stage. I am simply acting on their behalf.’
She stared blankly at the corridor through which he had departed, then,
“Ha.”
let out a scoff, as if she couldn’t believe it.
