Semi-Coercive Imperialist - Chapter 193

A Country for the Weak

[ Prozen Republic Strongly Condemns Balkania’s Illegal Invasion! ]

[ Itelik Kingdom Declares Participation in Economic Sanctions on Balkania ]

[ Statement from the Lobrus Eastern Alliance: “Stop this anachronistic, barbaric war of aggression at once!” ]

Just as expected, major states across the continent condemned the war of aggression one after another. At the same time, they cut trade with Balkania. Strategic supplies and food lines were severed.

A pretty justification, all in the name of helping the weak state of Mekerel.

The entire continent was isolating Balkania and pointing fingers, while only the Empire still kept its mouth shut.

“It suits you well.”

I called Professor Ruben to the imperial capital and dressed him in a top-tier custom suit.

“Ah, thank you……”

The brand was Exinon. A high-end tailor favored by palace nobles, and the place exclusively responsible for making Sentinel Order dress uniforms.

“Professor Ruben, remember this. No matter what you hear from the man you’re meeting today, keep repeating praise like it’s second nature.”

As I personally straightened his collar and cuffs, I drilled into him how to handle Leutern II.

“If you mean praising him……”

“For example, even if he starts spouting nonsense about Balkania’s current situation.”

Palace nobles, especially Leutern’s type, often disliked scholars and ended up on bad terms with them.

The reason was simple.

Scholars couldn’t stand the nonsense nobles blurted out while pretending to know what they were talking about. They kept interrupting and pointing out mistakes.

“If there’s even a tiny shred of proper context in what he says.”

I met Ruben’s eyes and emphasized every word.

“Your expression can be exaggerated. Raise your voice if needed. Shower him with praise without holding back.”

“…Yes. Understood. But.”

Professor Ruben asked carefully.

“What if there is nothing correct in what he says, not even one thing……?”

“Not even one?”

“Yes. Not even one.”

“…It doesn’t matter. As long as the conclusion drawn from his faulty logic fits our objective.”

Our objective was to stir up and cement one perception inside the palace: Balkania was an incompetent state that offered no meaningful help to the Empire.

“Academic right and wrong is completely irrelevant.”

Leutern II was incompetent and shallow, but as a loudspeaker capable of shaping palace opinion, his value surpassed anyone else’s. He had become that influential a royal figure.

So we had to make Leutern mistake himself for an “expert on Balkanian affairs.” Only then would our intent reach the Emperor’s ears.

“Professor Ruben. This is a critical mission tied to the Empire’s security and future.”

Leutern might earn the Emperor’s dislike in the process, but Balkania’s incompetence would be proven soon enough anyway.

Those people couldn’t even properly defeat a weak state without imperial help.

“…Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

Professor Ruben took a deep breath.

* * *

At noon, sunlight streamed in. Leutern II’s lavish private room.

He leaned against a sofa and stared at Professor Ruben, who sat upright across from him.

“Hmm, hearing you out, professor.”

He lightly swirled the teacup in his hand as he spoke.

“So you’re saying these Balkanian bastards are a bad fit as allies for our Empire?”

“…Allies, you say?”

“Yeah. That’s the rumor going around the palace these days.”

“Ah…… May I ask what made you think they are a bad fit?”

Professor Ruben asked cautiously.

“Isn’t it obvious? Logistics are life in war. Supplies, equipment, machinery, that’s what matters most. You said it yourself earlier, right? They hand-file even their tanks. Then they can’t produce in volume.”

“Yes, exactly!”

Leutern’s whole body twitched at the sudden shout.

“You startled me.”

“You struck the core point perfectly.”

“…Really?”

“Yes. To instantly see through the lack of mass-production capability, the essence of modern war. Even academia often misses that blind spot, yet you identified it this sharply. A remarkable insight.”

“Hm.”

Even under Ruben’s embellished praise, Leutern tried to keep a straight face. He pressed down his twitching lips and sat a little straighter.

“Is that so? Well, and this is my personal view, but isn’t their war pretext totally forced? Saying it was their land hundreds of years ago, so it’s still theirs now, does that make sense?”

“Hah…… As expected, that is an extremely brilliant line of thought.”

Ruben clasped both hands as if he couldn’t contain his admiration. Leutern’s curly hair seemed to spring up.

“…Why is everything brilliant?”

“I mean it. What you just pointed out is exactly what many political commentators overlook.”

“What is this, why do they overlook things so often?”

“That is how exceptional Duke Leutern’s foresight is. In the first place, Mekerel was never formal Balkanian territory in the past.”

“Oh really? So they were just forcing the claim?”

Leutern II’s eyes widened.

“Yes. Mekerel and Balkania were once grouped under a single state called Balkan, but Balkan is not Balkania. Balkania merely claims unilateral succession to Balkan.”

“Hmm, I see.”

He listened with his ears while picking up snacks with his hand.

“Also, tribes in the Mekerel region had clear sovereignty and identity even back then.”

“Ah, so from the start Mekerel saw itself as fundamentally different from Balkania? Different race too?”

At that moment, Professor Ruben sucked in a sharp breath and opened his eyes wide.

“!”

“W-what, why? Did I say something wrong?”

Leutern asked with a flinch. Professor Ruben shouted in an emotional voice.

“Amazing, Duke Leutern. You saw the essence before I even brought it up. Yes, exactly. Race. The fact that their racial roots are different is the core of this crisis.”

“Ahem. Is that right?”

Leutern coughed for no reason.

The words he casually tossed out were being recognized by the Empire’s top expert.

Could he be some diplomatic genius who grasped current affairs and geopolitics by instinct?

“If the main races are different, how can that be called one nation? Think of our Empire.”

“Right. Exactly. That would be a huge issue in the Empire. That’s definitely the core.”

A triumphant smile bloomed across Leutern II’s face, and Professor Ruben continued lecturing about Balkania’s sloppy military structure.

Leutern talked with Ruben for quite a long time that day.

The promised two hours became three, three became four, four became five, then when they got hungry they went to Lilac Vita and kept chatting……

Anyway, he talked his head off.

“Among the palace nobles now, there is probably no expert on Balkania better than Duke Leutern.”

That line Professor Ruben left before parting.

That compliment, “expert.”

It lodged right in Leutern’s ear.

……

On the Balkania-Mekerel war, nearly every country on the continent had stated its position.

Even so, behind the heavy curtains of the Most Holy Sanctum, the Emperor still did not reveal his divine voice. Instead, he watched his officials.

The brief phrases that drifted out of the darkness from time to time were tests in the form of questions.

In the end, only after weighing and confirming every intention of his servants would the Emperor press through his own true will without hesitation.

That was why today’s state council felt like walking on thin ice.

“……”

Grand conference chamber of the Palace House of Nobles. Today’s agenda was special, a special meeting to discuss the Empire’s response.

Sonnet Kandel sat at the clerk’s seat, pen in hand, trying to read the will of the heavens.

“His Majesty seems to hold a strange intention.”

Her intuition whispered.

The Empire was a great power, but for that same reason it was like a thoroughly isolated island.

So the Emperor was lonely.

He wanted an ally to join this lonely hegemony, or at least serve as a shield.

“…A weak man.”

Sonnet erased her final assessment from her mind.

“Still, isn’t Prime Minister Azento of Balkania showing outstanding leadership?”

From among the officials came voices evaluating Prime Minister Azento positively.

The reason was that the Emperor showed subtle reactions only to those kinds of words.

“It is said that even His Majesty, in his youth, drew deep inspiration from Prime Minister Azento’s decisive conduct……”

Prime Minister Azento was certainly no ordinary man. A dictator who, with hard power and charisma, reduced Balkania’s king to a puppet and swallowed the state’s real power whole.

To an Emperor pursuing absolute power, Azento might be the kind of figure who sparked a sense of kinship, or a strange fanlike admiration.

“No, more than that, aren’t those western states too underhanded? If they want to condemn Balkania, just condemn them. Why cut trade too?”

“Exactly. If they hate it that much, they should just go to war. Guess they can’t even do that. What cowards.”

As clerk Sonnet observed the room and scribbled quickly,

“Lady Sonnet.”

Someone called her in a low voice. It was Chief Secretary Grossman.

“What do you think of this Balkania situation, Lady?”

[The Chief Secretary asked. “What do you think of this Balkania situation, Lady?”]

A bitter smile spread at the edge of Grossman’s lips. Sonnet recorded even that bitter smile and answered.

“My opinion is not what matters.”

For now, Balkania and the Empire did fit each other’s needs.

With the whole continent condemning and isolating Balkania, they had no option but to take the Empire’s hand.

“…I wonder how long they will keep pretending not to know.”

Sonnet wrote down all of Grossman’s side remarks. Grossman shook his head, then suddenly looked somewhere. Sonnet followed his gaze.

There sat a certain royal.

Center of a faction. Sitting in a seat that stood out even among precious bloodlines, a man coldly scanning nobles and officials in the chamber.

Leutern II.

Unlike usual, he was not dozing, not yawning, and he brushed back his hair with a sour expression. Even nearby nobles began watching him, sensing something unusual.

“As you all know, the Kingdom of Balkania recently invaded southern Mekerel.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Theodore announced the true opening of the meeting.

“Even though Balkania’s recovery of territory is historically a very legitimate measure, the international community is now branding them aggressors and pouring out fierce condemnation.”

He continued while sweeping his gaze over the lawmakers.

“On top of that, they are imposing embargoes on key resources such as mana stone, steel, and food, tightening a noose around Balkania’s throat.”

“……”

But Sonnet’s eyes were on Leutern, not Theodore.

No matter how she looked at it, something was off with him.

“Therefore, I propose this. Should we not share our strength with Balkania, now trapped in isolated peril?”

Theodore’s voice was already full of certainty.

As Sonnet saw it, that meant he believed he had grasped the Emperor’s intent.

“Historically speaking as well, the enemy of our enemy is our friend. This is part of a very strategic diplomatic judgment.”

Most officials in the chamber stayed silent. But it was a silence close to agreement, not opposition.

Grossman also nodded with a faint smile. The room was flowing toward support for Theodore’s argument.

“Then first, in the Empire’s name, we should provide support to Balkania-“

“Wait.”

Just as they were about to settle on that conclusion, someone raised a hand as if to object.

All eyes turned to him. He seized the room’s attention.

Sonnet and Grossman both looked over.

“I have something to say.”

Leutern II stood up with a confident smile.

He climbed the podium with great pomp and placed several documents on the round table.

“This is the truth about that ungrateful and incompetent country called Balkania.”

Sonnet’s pen stopped dead. For a moment she forgot her duty, and a small voice drifted into her ear.

“Lady Sonnet, you should be recording.”

It was Grossman, speaking as if he had expected exactly this.

* * *

I left imperial diplomacy to Leutern II. Hoping he would do his part well in the House of Nobles, it was time for me to do my own work.

“Dieter. Is everything ready?”

Trade port of the Kanillan Independent State, lashed by sea wind.

I asked while looking down at the moored cargo ships.

“Yes. All loading is complete.”

Dieter handed me the documents.

From now on, millions of rifles and rounds, plus large quantities of mana stone bombs bought through Kanillan ghost companies, would be sent to southern Mekerel, the weakest state that had just been invaded.

And I would subtly hide the backer behind this massive arms support. Even if left alone, rumors would spread on their own.

“Set sail immediately.”

I wanted relations between the Empire and Balkania to collapse completely.

If possible, I wanted Balkania to treat the Empire like an enemy and cling instead to the Eastern Alliance or western states.

The Empire had to remain completely alone.

The Empire did not need allies.

If it wanted allies, that meant weakness, and a weak Empire could not survive.

The moment it leaned on flimsy alliances, doubted its own strength, or relied on outside variables, the Empire’s blade would dull.

“I will issue the sailing order.”

At the Empire’s act of pouring weapons into its enemy state, Prime Minister Azento of Balkania might rage and protest to the palace.

But the moment Balkania crossed the line and barked too loudly, the Empire would show its most imperial face.

The Empire did not soothe noisy barking dogs.

It just shot them in the head and killed them.