Semi-Coercive Imperialist - Chapter 163: Blizzard (5)
The closed hearing was already nearing the end of its second week.
In a cramped, dark chamber deep within the Imperial Palace, Anton Zefren was being subjected to an endless interrogation disguised as a “approval review”.
“I can vouch with absolute certainty for Anton’s upright character.”
Most of the witnesses who attended were former members of the Sentinel. Already retired from active duty or working belatedly as independent knights, many among them spoke in Anton’s defense.
“Do you remember the fierce battles on the old western front? This man never once retreated. He stood at the vanguard and broke through the enemy lines. Countless soldiers survived because of him.”
Yet their advocacy and moderate opinions were, in truth, meaningless. What mattered most, in the end, was whether the Sentinel, the Empire’s supreme iron legion, could be entrusted to him. In other words, the question of Anton’s loyalty and ideology.
“…Candidate Anton was known to express highly progressive opinions without reservation.”
“It is an undeniable fact that since he assumed the position of Deputy Commander, discipline among commoner-born members of the knight order has visibly deteriorated.”
Witnesses came and went in an endless rotation.
His longtime colleagues, or subordinate knights he had personally taken in and raised.
Anton simply sat in silence, listening to their words.
“…Yes. I have maintained a close friendship with Anton Zefren, the subject of this hearing, for a very long time.”
At that moment, he found himself looking at an old friend seated in the witness chair.
Erich von Schultz.
The man who had once debated reform of the Empire with Anton through sleepless nights now wore the formal uniform of an Imperial Palace official, averting his eyes from Anton as he continued his testimony.
“Then were you also well aware of the anti-imperial ideology contained in this letter from Candidate Anton?”
The hearing committee chairman asked Erich.
“I had heard him make remarks with such seditious undertones from time to time. So, to speak frankly, entrusting someone like him with the title of Knight Commander of the Empire’s most elite knight order would be…
Extremely dangerous, in my assessment.”
Anton forced himself not to hear those final words.
He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them, the witness had already changed.
Kentz Bertem. Having returned to the hearing chamber once more, he cast a contemptuous glare at Anton.
“Candidate Anton has insisted on remaining a bachelor his entire life and has never married, but it appears he once had a lover with whom he was deeply involved.”
The committee chairman wore a thin, acrid smile, and Kentz struck at Anton’s most intimate vulnerability.
“‘Seria Martel.'”
Anton, too, had once had a lover he loved passionately. One he had wished to stay with, even if it meant sacrificing himself…
But.
“I’m sure you are all aware. The fact that that name now belongs to a core cadre of the revolutionary forces, subject to a Class 1 wanted notice across the entire Empire.”
Anton’s heart sank like a lump of iron.
“Furthermore.”
Kentz tapped the documents sharply and added.
“We have confirmed hospital records showing a past pregnancy that ended in miscarriage.”
Miscarriage.
That single, short word echoed as though reverberating through the room, and Anton felt the mud closing over him. He accepted the tide as it surged in, silent and relentless.
“Revolution. Whether a man who once shared an intimate relationship with a wanted fugitive bent on overthrowing the Empire, who even conceived a child with her, is truly qualified to uphold the Empire’s law and order… I simply cannot say.”
The love and the wounds of his past, which he had never once considered shameful, they condemned as filthy disgrace and tore into them.
They had looked down with contempt upon the woman he loved and the child who could have come into this world.
As Anton wavered── the witness changed once more.
“Yes. I am Adria, formerly a senior knight of the Sentinel.”
Even in this suffocating place, a name that rang clear and welcome in his ears.
Anton quietly raised his head.
“If you ask me about Sir Anton, I will answer as follows.”
Now attending the hearing as an independent knight rather than a member of the Sentinel, Adria glared at the committee members and spoke with resolve.
“He is a knight whose distinction between public duty and private matters is clearer than anyone’s, a man who devotes himself solely to the safety and welfare of the Empire and its people…”
Her words stretched on at length.
But no one was listening closely, except for Anton.
“Is that all?”
The committee chairman did not press further with specific questions. He had likely summoned Adria as a mere formality to begin with.
“…”
Adria looked at Anton with her lips pressed tightly together. In her eyes, countless words she could not bring herself to speak seemed to shimmer and blur together.
Anton simply gave a faint smile and nodded.
That was enough.
“…Yes. That is all.”
Adria rose, looking forlorn.
No longer a member of the Sentinel, having been defeated in that arena, she no longer had the power to support Anton.
Adria left the hearing chamber, and the committee members suddenly straightened their attire. They collected their wristwatches and placed them into a container. They even urged Anton to do the same.
“Now, we shall bring in the next witness.”
The moment Anton surrendered his wristwatch, the door opened.
A familiar silhouette stepped inside.
“Sir Maximilian. Please take a seat.”
Maximilian Ebenholtz. A knight who had been commissioned barely three years prior. The youngest man in this room, yet the presence emanating from him was singularly immense. It seemed enough to fill the entire space.
“I am Maximilian Ebenholtz.”
Maximilian introduced himself, and the chairman placed a certain document on the desk. The committee members passed it to Maximilian.
“The reason Sir Maximilian has been called here as a witness is, in fact, very specific. Are you perhaps aware of it?”
Tapping the document on the desk, the chairman smiled with a scheming air.
“We have received a report that the ‘ideological verification of intellectuals’ mission, which should have been assigned to Sir Maximilian, a critical mission to conduct background investigations on various progressive scholars, including longtime acquaintances of Candidate Anton, was deliberately omitted and blocked at the level of Deputy Commander Anton.”
A report.
Was it Chiron’s handiwork, or the doing of another knight under Anton who had betrayed him?
“Please, read it.”
Maximilian picked up the document the chairman had indicated.
A mission proposal to track and investigate the activities of several scholars, mages, and soldiers.
“The Imperial Palace attempted to assign this mission directly to Sir Maximilian on multiple occasions, yet Deputy Commander Anton abused his authority to redirect it to other commoner knights or simply buried it. Such testimony has been given.”
Maximilian met the chairman’s gaze.
“If this was a deliberate omission of a mission intended to shield those with seditious ideologies… well. I won’t bother saying the rest.”
If true, this was a matter that could lead not just to the denial of his Knight Commander candidacy, but to outright dismissal.
“Therefore, the question I have for Sir Maximilian is very straightforward.”
Yet Maximilian showed not the slightest disturbance, simply gazing steadily at Anton.
“Sir Maximilian, were you ever informed by Deputy Commander Anton about such a mission?”
To Anton, the entire room seemed to recede into a vast distance. A gritty, sandy dryness filled his mouth. A hot wind coiled around his spine.
“…”
Maximilian said nothing, composed and calm, yet his silence bore down on the room.
Anton, and everyone else present, had felt this atmosphere somewhere before.
…Sebestian.
In the end, a son takes after his father.
* * *
Meanwhile, Yelena, having returned safely from the Empire, was back at her official residence.
Her title was People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. A key post that held real authority over public security, intelligence, and law enforcement, and accordingly, a great deal of work had piled up.
“…It was nothing but dead weight.”
She had worn it all as a precaution against potential assassination or whatever other threats there might be. She took off the tiger-fur coat, then began wrestling off the layers upon layers of equipment underneath: high-grade Mana Armor, a Mana Barrier, a poison gas detection Artifact, and so on…
She was groaning and struggling to disassemble all the gear when.
“Commissar, a rather important assignment has come down.”
Her adjutant approached and held out a document.
“An assignment?”
“Yes.”
Yelena read through it, and a curious expression settled over her face.
[ To: Yelena Yumanov, People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of Robrus ]
[ From: Robrus National Security Committee ]
‘Maximilian von Ebenholtz’, a knight who is the de facto next power and highest-ranking figure within the Empire’s military establishment, is scheduled to make an official visit to Robrus.
As this individual is a prominent figure of the Empire, the highest level of escort and courtesy befitting a state guest must be provided, while simultaneously activating a thorough surveillance and close-contact counterintelligence network covering his every move.
Given that during Comrade Commissar’s recent visit to the Empire, knight Ebenholtz personally took charge of escort and reception duties as a diplomatic gesture, this reception and close-surveillance mission is hereby ordered to be carried out personally by Comrade Commissar. ]
The Empire and Robrus were currently in a state of hiding knives behind smiling faces. As such, for the time being, both sides were extending a degree of state-guest treatment to each other in order to avoid diplomatic friction.
[ …The General Secretary has also determined that the only person suited for such a critical mission is Comrade Commissar Yumanov, with her cold and sound judgment… ]
“Hmm…”
Yelena lowered her gaze to the name ‘Maximilian von Ebenholtz’ written on the document.
Well, what goes around comes around.
“Is Father still staying at the Central Palace, by the way?”
She folded the document, slipped it into a drawer, and asked her adjutant.
“Yes. It appears so.”
Whoooosh!
Suddenly, the ashen snow particular to the east battered the window.
Winter in Robrus was bitterly cold and bleak, cutting to the bone. In other words, it was hardly the ideal season for sightseeing.
“That’s a problem. There’s nowhere in Robrus that serves food as good as Lilac Vita.”
Recalling the dishes she had tasted at Lilac Vita, she gazed out at the snowstorm raging violently beyond the glass.
* * *
The final day of the second week of Anton’s closed hearing. A night when a cold full moon hung in the sky.
Stepping out of the Imperial Palace, I surveyed the scene. The streets were empty, not a soul in sight, but I turned my gaze toward the exit on the opposite side. Anton was standing there. He looked at me. I looked back at him.
Our eyes met, and I replayed the hearing that had just concluded.
‘Therefore, the question I have for Sir Maximilian is very straightforward. Sir Maximilian, were you ever informed by Deputy Commander Anton about such a mission?’
Anton had deliberately excluded me from the mission to investigate intellectuals, including his close friend Professor Arnolt.
That was certainly true.
──Yet even so.
‘Yes. I was informed.’
That was how I answered.
In that instant, the air in the hearing chamber seemed to freeze.
It was the first time I had ever seen Anton caught off guard.
‘I was aware of it.’
I did not appreciate the committee’s ploy to use me as a tool to entangle Anton, and above all.
This was a strategic move for my own sake.
‘However, other missions took greater priority, so I simply never had the capacity to take on such a mission in the first place.’
The prerequisite of a closed hearing is absolute secrecy. Whatever is said there, whatever lies are spoken and whatever truths are told, it is premised on the understanding that nothing will be leaked.
And that is precisely why so many had betrayed Anton. But the transcript from this day would, before long, be leaked by someone within the Imperial Palace.
Therefore, I needed to manage my image, and…
Shuffle, shuffle.
…Before he knew it, amid the scattering sleet, Anton was looking at Maximilian.
The man standing before him seemed to be saying something with his eyes.
But Anton could not read what he was saying, and Maximilian simply gave a slight bow of his head before stepping into the car that had arrived.
‘Y-you… you were informed?’
Watching the car recede into the distance, Anton recalled what Maximilian had said at the hearing that day.
‘Yes.’
‘Then, then what do you make of these personal discussions that Candidate Anton exchanged in his letters?’
The committee members hastily snatched up the letters and passed them to Maximilian. Maximilian read through them carefully, but.
‘I couldn’t say. The contents of the letters are open to multiple interpretations. It is possible that Deputy Commander Anton harbored seditious ideology toward the Empire, but conversely, it is equally possible that he kept those who harbored such ideology close in order to monitor and control them.’
Maximilian set the letter down.
‘To begin with, the contents of this letter are far too ambiguous, and this is not a court of law.’
He was saying that a hearing was not a place for interrogation. That it was not the venue for adjudicating serious disputes or proving crimes.
‘However, Sir Maximilian. Please look at this abortion record. Regarding Seria Martel, the current wanted fugitive who was Deputy Commander Anton’s former lover-‘
Then, when the chairman brought up Seria, Anton’s former lover.
For the first time, Maximilian’s calm expression creased slightly.
‘…That is a deeply private matter.’
He stared at the chairman and cut him down coldly.
‘Personal affairs are nothing more than personal affairs, and I do not believe they are a subject fit for discussion at a hearing.’
‘Be that as it may, Candidate Anton was involved with this cadre of the revolutionary forces-‘
‘Conversely, it is entirely plausible to interpret that the miscarriage led to a complete severing of ties between them.’
With each word he spoke, the hearing chamber fell quieter.
The mouths that had been chattering so loudly snapped shut.
‘…In my view, what determines fitness for the title of Knight Commander, beyond such matters, is.’
Maximilian was swayed by no one.
‘Ultimately, the character the candidate possesses.’
Instead, he conveyed his own convictions, entirely uncompromised.
‘Whether one can sacrifice the few for the greater cause. Whether one can forsake everything of oneself for the Empire. Whether one can coldly excise one’s own compassion…’
A passage recited while staring directly into Anton’s eyes.
‘But Deputy Commander Anton is not that kind of person. I suspect the Deputy Commander himself is well aware of this.’
His piercing voice still seemed to linger faintly in Anton’s ears, even now.
‘…Before you became Deputy Commander, when you were a young and spirited knight who went out into the field to resolve cases yourself.’
It was clearly a declaration of Anton’s unsuitability, and yet.
‘Back then, when you rejoiced with the comrades beside you and took pride in the juniors who followed behind you, that time was more…’
Even as Anton repeated his words silently to himself.
‘You were happier then.’
He could not bring himself to deny it.
‘This seat will only torment you further.’
…Anton Zefren looked up at the night sky and let out a deep sigh.
