Semi-Coercive Imperialist - Chapter 194

A Country for the Weak (2)

The grand conference hall of the House of Nobles in the Imperial Palace.

Leutern II stood at the center of the podium and raised his voice.

“Dear members. The materials before you are statements that Balkania’s Prime Minister Argento has spewed in both official and unofficial settings.”

At the clerk’s desk, Sonnet listened closely and moved her pen.

──As long as the threat called the Empire exists, our national defense must be strengthened, even if we must endure bone-cutting pain.

For Sonnet, whose habit of collecting and analyzing records had long crossed into obsession, this was all familiar.

From the moment Balkania invaded Mekerel, she had analyzed every document and speech related to Argento.

──I loathe the submission of vile nobles who settle down and parasitize beneath the Empire’s shadow.

But the lines now coming out of Leutern’s mouth were different from the originals.

──Weak cowards who cannot even breathe without the Emperor’s command.

He was manipulating the sentences.

He changed the word choice and twisted subtle nuance into hostility, riling them up.

──Bastards like rotting corpses, alive yet decaying.

Those irreverent words flowing from Leutern II’s mouth settled into the nobles’ ears like grains of sand.

Every face in the hall froze cold.

“Members, let me ask you this. Why should we support barbarians who spit arrogant, insulting drivel at the Empire like this……!”

All of those words would surely reach the Emperor’s ears, but Leutern did not hesitate.

“Why should we share the Empire’s sacred resources and military power with such low creatures?”

A propaganda script refined by Johann Georg Goetze to suit noble tastes, then reinforced with academic backing by Professor Ruben and offered to Leutern.

Leutern recited all of it as if it were his own, as if he had reached every one of those insights himself.

“Balkania is vermin not even worthy of receiving the Empire’s mercy.”

Sonnet recorded every word Leutern said without missing a single one.

“Above all, they dared to wage war without so much as one word of notice to our Empire, which protects order on this continent……”

The order of words, the breathing rhythm that raised emotion, the delicate rhetoric that stimulated the nobles’ sense of superiority.

A speech written for propaganda and agitation alone.

Scratch. Scratch.

As the pen tip scraped over paper, Sonnet was forced to admit something she did not want to admit.

……It is well written.

So Leutern did have ambition she had failed to grasp.

……

Because of Leutern II’s opposition, the House of Nobles meeting ended pointlessly, and Grossman set his direct agency to investigate Balkania.

Leutern II. He meant to uncover why that snake-like bastard had moved at all.

“……Hm.”

Grossman’s brow furrowed deeply as he reviewed the dozens of pages compiled by the direct agency.

After cross-checking internal Balkanian political texts and Prime Minister Argento’s unofficial remarks, it became clear they had openly shown a hostile stance toward the Empire.

Then there was Professor Ruben, a rare scholar who had spent his whole life studying Balkanian affairs, and the military commentary book he had recently published.

“……”

Grossman held a cigar in his mouth and turned the pages.

One page, two pages, three pages…… he read the entire work, hundreds of pages long.

The incompetence of Balkania’s military, its miserable logistics system, and their hostility toward imperial nobles, all of it matched what Leutern had poured out from the podium with shocking precision.

“He is still impossible to read.”

Grossman touched his temple.

A smart bastard.

Not just someone who read politics, but someone who understood diplomacy and looked into foreign states.

“……If anything, this is good.”

A faint smile spread across his lips.

The man who had obsessed only over sorting power among the royal bloodlines had finally revealed his intent in front of the Emperor.

Which meant he had finally entered the game.

“Better someone I can see in front of me.”

Blowing out cigar smoke, Grossman pictured Leutern II’s face across from him. Three people seated at an invisible chessboard.

You, me, and that woman.

Only the three of us are left now.

……

“Kkhkhkh. Kyakyakyakya.”

Meanwhile, Leutern II lay sprawled across a sofa in a side room, replaying “that incident” from the House of Nobles.

“Ah, this is fun.”

More than three days had already passed, but he kept rewinding that day and laughing.

“Hey. How was I back then?”

He asked the secretary standing beside him. The secretary grinned brightly and chimed in.

“You were magnificent, Duke Leutern. Not a single person dared to rebut your remarks.”

“Ah, right? Hah, that agenda never made sense in the first place. Why the hell would we help those ungrateful idiots?”

Leutern II ran a hand through his hair in satisfaction.

He had memorized that script he wrote with Professor Ruben, with a few small mistakes, and delivered it. The high-nosed nobles had stared up at him like mutes, and the thrill of that moment still ran through him.

“Did you see the face of that old man Theodore or whatever his name was? Guess this is why people say you need to study.”

“Yes. As expected, your insight is extraordinary.”

“Of course. I’m the top authority on Balkania.”

Leutern II lifted his chin arrogantly and chuckled.

“We will never!”

Then he jumped up to reenact his speech from that day.

“……What was it again. Ah, I forgot.”

“It was, ‘at their barbaric game!'”

“Ah, right, right. Hey, how did you memorize all that?”

“It made that strong an impression.”

“Wow, you’re good. Want to go to Lilac Vita with me today?”

“……It would be an honor!”

Ha ha. Ho ho. These days, Leutern kept thinking this.

Life really was fun and delightful.

* * *

One day, Princess Justine summoned me to her hideout.

She praised my purge of corruption on the eastern frontier, then naturally asked about the Balkania war.

“What do you think?”

“What words could I possibly dare add to the Imperial Household’s diplomacy?”

I answered as if politely avoiding it, but the princess was persistent.

“Father is also thinking about it. If the Empire joins hands with Balkania, we may gain a firm ally. What do you think?”

She asked for “my thoughts” twice.

It meant I was not allowed to avoid it.

“……Does Balkania as a state really have enough value for the Empire to reach out first?”

When I asked back lightly, her brow twitched.

“Did Leutern II tell you that too?”

Leutern II had condemned Balkania in the House of Nobles.

It seemed the princess was also watching his moves closely.

I gave a faint smile.

“Rather than persuading me, he only passed along the information he gathered.”

“……True. What that bastard Leutern said wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t wrong.”

The princess gave a short laugh. It was not a pleasant smile.

“Then, Maximilian. How should the Empire move now? What should I tell Father?”

Again, she asked for my thoughts.

Maybe it was a test.

“Then how about preserving the Empire’s dignity.”

“……Dignity.”

“Yes. The West is cowardly. They fiercely condemn the invading Balkania with their mouths and play the apostle of justice, but they have no courage to suppress them by force. They cannot even dispatch troops for the weak state Mekerel that was invaded.”

Let’s sacrifice our own citizens’ lives and money for Mekerel.

Any politician who said something like that would be removed on the spot.

“The Eastern Alliance is worse.”

Lobrus, where General Secretary Varmil’s Great Purge was in full swing, and the eastern states suffering economic crisis.

“Outwardly they condemn Balkania, but behind the scenes they are secretly selling mana stones to Balkania to enjoy wartime profits.”

The princess’s red lips twisted.

“The Sled are still the Sled. None of those bastards are sane.”

“Exactly. But our Empire can move differently from them.”

“Differently?”

“Yes. The Empire does not need to open its mouth.”

On the continent, many weak states still remained outside the spheres of the Empire, the West, and the East. They would not become the main players in the coming continental war, but they would be variables no one could ignore.

In the first timeline, after all, more than half of the continent’s independent states had entered that war.

“Cowards let their words and actions diverge. The strong prove themselves through action.”

Before my regression, the Empire’s diplomacy had been disastrous. Coercion and threats were constant, yet words and actions never matched, and that turned the Empire into a public enemy for every state on the continent.

I had no intention of repeating that history.

The Empire had to become an object of fear, not something filthy.

“How about staying silent, but helping Mekerel.”

“Help a weak state…… and what help would that primitive tribal country give the Empire in the future?”

In southern Mekerel, combat tribes lived on barren land. If trained until right before war, they could be used as sufficiently capable manpower.

“It will greatly improve the Empire’s reputation. Unlike the East and West, who are nothing but hypocrites, we plant the image that the Empire quietly gives relief without words.”

“Then we would become enemies with Balkania.”

“Either way, it is a country we will have to occupy someday.”

“……”

The princess suddenly sank into silence. She seemed to mull over my words, then smiled faintly.

“I do have one question.”

“What is it?”

“Are all of those truly your own thoughts?”

At that moment, I understood what was in her heart.

She likely believed Leutern II was the strategist behind this.

“……In truth.”

Well, the first person to speak up about Balkania had been Leutern, and I, Maximilian, was only an imperial knight.

In that case.

“I did have deep conversations about this with Duke Leutern.”

I had no reason to deny it.

The princess’s golden eyes rippled for a moment. She laughed softly and tilted her gaze. Her clear eyes flowed like wine.

“Maximilian, what do you think of that bastard Leutern?”

A dangerous exchange.

Depending on my answer now, Leutern II might be removed from the Imperial Palace in the near future.

“The Leutern II I know.”

……But not yet.

“He is one of the few loyal subjects in the Imperial Palace.”

Leutern still had value to use.

“And I believe he is a pure imperialist.”

“……”

Princess Justine nodded without a word.

Seeing that, I suddenly felt a certain trust.

──Justine had started to trust me.

* * *

The royal palace of the independent state Mekerel. Late-night fog wrapped the place in despair.

King Batimus stared at the operations map and sank into deep worry.

After Balkania’s invasion, Mekerel’s front had been pushed back helplessly. Their army had no edge over Balkania in supplies, equipment, or firepower.

“……What happened to our support requests?”

At the king’s question, the Interior Minister lowered their head.

“We received no proper replies.”

The great western states only preached peace with their mouths.

King Batimus sent envoys across the continent and begged for military aid. But the responses from western countries and the Eastern Alliance were all the same.

‘We have already imposed strong economic sanctions and embargo measures on Balkania.’

‘Further intervention is impossible, as it may escalate tensions between states.’

‘No, then what exactly are you asking for?’

‘If you are an independent state, you should behave like one.’

Pathetic declarations could not save Mekerel’s dying people.

He could understand their claim that they could not dispatch troops. Their own citizens mattered to them too.

But saying they could not provide supplies, no, that they could not even sell them……

In the end, it was little different from saying they did not care what happened to Mekerel.

“……How dark.”

At that moment, when grief blanketed the palace because they could not properly resist even the enemy’s flimsy pretext.

“──Your Majesty!”

The captain of the Royal Guard rushed in with urgent steps.

“A secret letter like this has arrived!”

A black envelope without a seal. King Batimus took it, unfolded it, and read the contents. He took in each line written in the Mekerel language.

“……!”

At some point his fingers shook violently. The paper fluttered and slipped down.

“Your Majesty?”

“……Ah.”

The king collapsed into his throne. Your Majesty! Your Majesty! His retainers cried out anxiously, and the king’s complexion changed in a strange way.

It looked far more like joy than sorrow or despair.

……

That night, the ghost port in southern Mekerel.

Swaaaaaa……

Cutting through the fog-covered sea, beyond the rocking waves, dozens of cargo ships of unknown nationality docked in silence. Endless piles of food, medicine, rifles, anti-tank mines, mana stone bombs, and more were unloaded onto land.

“Move, everyone.”

The Mekerel regular army that had been waiting in advance moved in.

They transported the stacked military supplies to the Mekerel-Balkania front line.

Of course, even with better weapons, Mekerel’s army, still lacking combat experience, could not crush Balkania’s regular army in one stroke.

But at minimum, they now had enough strength to stop massacres and drag the front into a stalemate.

Then a few days passed, and passed, and passed some more……

Northern front of Mekerel.

“What the fuck is this!”

In the middle of a fierce local battle, a Balkanian officer who had captured a Mekerel trench frowned as he picked up captured loot left behind.

A modern rifle finished in smooth steel.

It was clearly a modern weapon in a completely different class from Mekerel’s crude old arms.

“……How the hell do those dirt-eating beggar bastards have weapons like this?”

The officer disassembled the rifle’s barrel.

“Fuck…… how does this make any sense.”

It even looked much better than Balkania’s own standard issue.

“Hey, get over here!”

The officer called a passing soldier.

“Yes. Loyalty!”

“Take this to headquarters.”

“W-what is this?”

“What else, a weapon. No wonder those bastards resisted like crazy……”

The captured weapon would be delivered to Balkania’s military top command immediately.

Before long, Prime Minister Argento, the true power in Balkania, would learn of it too.

And once they mobilized their entire intelligence service to track the source of these weapons, and track it again, and again, then at the end of that trail, perhaps.

Would they not find the name Leutern?