Chapter 37: The Path I Must Take (3) | Semi-Coercive Imperialist
The sun had risen. I looked up at the sky and unsheathed the longsword of Ebenholtz. The blade, edge, and hilt were all worn, yet it was strangely sharp. Its material was also so deep I could not identify it.
It was a fine sword that not only elevated a swordsman's skill by two or three levels, but was particularly effective against "monsters".
The sword Akard had clashed with it using was also a fine sword.
Whether Akard survived Mekken or not, I did not know. But any further concern was not mine to bear. From now on, it was his task to prove his talent through survival.
"...."
I looked at the sunlight breaking through. The once-dark mountain range was now bathed in bright light.
"...Sir Maximilian. May I ask you to explain the situation?"
Jekerd returned with the private soldiers. I spoke to him.
"The bodies of the pursuit team, including Hans, have been discovered. I do not know if they ever caught sight of Akard, but it seems they were all killed by the monsters of Mekken."
"Was Akard's body confirmed?"
He seemed to show no concern whatsoever for the death of his younger brother, Hans.
"No. However-"
"It must be confirmed."
Jekerd furrowed his brow. He even cut me off mid-sentence.
I looked at him. My gaze cooled.
"...Jekerd."
Calling his name, I stepped forward.
"Akard Kailus is merely a boy. A small child from the west who has not even been knighted."
I placed a hand on his disheveled collar. Jekerd flinched and trembled.
"There's no way such a child could survive in Mekken, and even if by some miracle he did survive."
I dusted off the dirt that had clung to him, likely from rushing here, and gave a faint smile.
"For a promising man like you to be frightened by such a child, does that make any sense?"
You are a noble of the Empire. You are the villain who beheaded your brother and stole everything. So stop being a nuisance and take responsibility for a mere child.
You fucking moron.
"...Yes. You are right."
Jekerd gave a servile smile. He did not say anything more. Instead, he offered me a box containing some treasure as a gift.
"Please distribute it among the soldiers who went through more hardship than I."
Rejecting him, I departed from Mekken as it was.
***
A small riverbank reached after crossing the Mekken mountain range. The boy looked toward the other side of the river, where the border of the Western Kingdom shimmered faintly beyond the mist.
Whoooo...
The cold wind blew the torn hem of his robe. Gentle sunlight reflected off his tears.
"...."
Akard had survived.
It was something he had every right to rejoice over.
His life to live in this world. The most precious achievement he had attained in his life.
"...Father."
He had kept his promise. The one promise he had made and shared with his entire family, he had finally fulfilled it.
There was no one left to take pride in this accomplishment, no one to gently pat his head and praise him....
"I survived."
The boy knelt. Clutching the damp mountain soil, he cried out in a choked voice. The last images of his family, the blazing flames, and his own helplessness all surged through him at once, tearing into his heart.
'Hone yourself.'
At that moment, there was still a voice ringing clearly in his ears.
The knight of Ebenholtz. He was the very one who had beheaded his family. But at the same time, he was also the one who had saved him from death.
The man who killed his family had saved him.
Akard felt a strange confusion.
At the same time, he recalled the knight's back.
'So that one day, you may recover what you have lost.'
A knight is one who enforces the will of the Empire, and this purge had originated from Jekerd's scheme. Even so, the knight had not killed him, a blood relative of Kailus.
Instead, he had given him a costly lesson.
Why had he done so? Was it mere whim, or was it also part of a deception?
Akard still did not know.
"What I have lost...."
However, there was a path he had to take.
That path lay on the knight's contradictory back.
There were things he absolutely had to return and reclaim.
The tears streaming down his cheeks were no longer just from sorrow.
***
After the beheading operation, the military tallied the merits. Though the word "tally" might sound rather comical, it is a very important process whether one is a soldier or a knight. Some stake their lives on it, and others form grudges and seek revenge over it.
However, today, at least for this operation, there would be no objections from anyone.
"Congratulations, Knight Maximilian."
At the Imperial Army Headquarters' main conference hall, I stepped up onto the platform laid with red carpet and received my medal.
But because the essence of this operation had not been 'putting down a rebellion', but rather a 'purge', there would be no large-scale publicity or media announcements.
"Just one more third-class medal, and it'll be a second-class Gold Lion Medal. That's a very rapid pace for your age."
"Thank you."
The Empire's medal system was as strict as it was intuitive.
Receive the third-class Gold Lion Medal three times, and you move up to second-class. Roughly speaking, if you achieve merit worthy of receiving the second-class medal about nine times, you can receive the first-class.
The glorious name of that medal is [Empire Hero Golden Lion Medal].
"Congratulations, Knight Maximilian."
As I came down from the platform, the officers approached and offered handshakes. I did not go out of my way to refuse their goodwill.
Click.
As the commemorative photos were taken once more, I looked around at the figures filling the room.
Click.
Suddenly, I recalled the Emperor's closest aide that Edmon had mentioned, 'Agenthes'.
Click.
A madman born with the most perfect legitimacy in the Empire's history, who deludes himself into thinking he is a god. He must be watching over this entire system. Eyes watching me must exist somewhere, even at this very moment.
"Knight Maximilian."
At that moment, a soldier in uniform approached. A balding man nearing sixty, a Brigadier General with one star. Jens, the former superior officer of Major Han.
"I received the gift well."
I immediately understood what he meant.
Even if he looked like a greedy man, a general has his own kind of ability. Being old in the military meant surviving, and surviving meant being strong in a different sense.
Young officers like Major Han or rather, people as honest as he was, could never reach that level.
"I heard Major Han recently moved."
I searched my memory of this man named Jens. He was quite a well-known politician. Passive in all the military's actions, and always left himself an escape route. A fox-like man. Because of that, even after the revolutionary forces gained power, he survived and maintained his wealth.
Could he become my ally?
Could this man be trusted?
However, for Major Han to rise high within the Imperial Guard, this man was absolutely necessary. Moreover, he was as skilled in maneuvering as he was in politics. Being skilled in maneuvering means knowing exactly when to step down.
"Brigadier General Jens, I'll be counting on your guidance going forward."
Mutual trust is unnecessary. This is merely a transaction.
Jens would pretend not to know the relationship between Major Han and me and lend his aid, and once Major Han was on the right track, he would gladly step aside. I wanted it that way, too.
All the gifts I would pay him from now on were nothing more than tuition fees.
"Yes, of course. Leave it to me. Hahahaha."
A man who knows how to lower himself endlessly, the bald fox Jens.
I smiled faintly and shook hands with him....
──「Supreme Commander of the Empire's Office」──
After the tallying of merits ended.
I stood before the plaque marking the deepest door of headquarters. As a knight who had participated in the beheading operation, I now had to report directly to the Supreme Commander.
"...Hoo."
My heart pounded.
It doesn't mean that my father is of the Ezenheim race.
Even now, at this point, the man named Sebestian still makes me nervous.
"I'm coming in."
I opened the door.
Beyond it, with sunlight streaming through the open window, was Sebestian.
A towering figure over 2 meters tall. Even outside his thick military uniform, his body was perfectly sculpted. As a noble, he always kept his beard neatly trimmed and his hair slicked back without a single strand out of place.
I approached him.
Come to think of it, since my regression, this was the first time I'd faced him at such close distance.
"...."
Sebestian looked toward me. He said nothing. Even so, the sheer majesty that emanated from him was overwhelming. It was the reason even the most renowned generals of the military shrank in his presence.
I gave him a nod. But the first move wasn't mine to make. Sebestian also acted as if he hadn't seen me.
The military staff approached him first and handed over the documents.
Sebestian read through them. Apart from that, not a single sound was heard. A heavy silence dominated the entire space. An absolute hierarchy and order pressed down on everything inside.
The already small-framed officers looked even more withered in comparison to Sebestian. The longer time passed, the more they seemed to crumple. Crumpled and crumpled again, until only Sebestian remained visible.
The Commander signed the last page of the documents with a swift stroke.
"Loyalty!"
As soon as they received his approval, the others fled the commander's office like they were escaping.
But I remained there.
As both a knight who participated in the beheading operation and as its assigned observer, the final report had to be delivered verbally, in person.
"...We have secured the heads of four direct blood relatives, including the family head Yusuf von Kailus, who planned the treason, and have annihilated all resisting collateral relatives and private soldiers. However, we failed to locate the body of the youngest son among the direct line."
"You let that one escape?"
"It is not yet certain."
"I asked what you think."
"...If he is never found, then it means he chose to ascend Mekken. And if he chose to ascend Mekken, he will either live or die depending on his own ability."
Sebestian looked at me.
"Knight Maximilian."
I met Sebestian's gaze. A man who never felt like a father, still even now, not a father, but a monster, I did not avoid those eyes.
Suddenly, his face before the regression overlapped in my mind. Back then, when I had accomplished nothing, he had said this to me:
'But why did you even go there?'
"It was a duty that I, as a knight, was duty-bound to complete. Nothing more, nothing less."
That future had changed. It wasn't scorn or contempt, but it wasn't praise either. It was just a statement that I had done what was expected.
A conversation between father and son, yet not truly a conversation, dry and emotionless.
And yet, even a moment like this was a first for me.
"Yes."
I saluted as a knight and stepped outside.
Thud. Thud.
I walked down the long corridor in front of the commander's office.
Thud. Thud.
Suddenly, unable to bear it anymore, I sat down on the empty landing. I raised a hand to cover my face.
"...Ha."
Emotion surged from within my chest.
Tingle. Tingle.
A tingling sensation from my toes rippled all the way to the top of my head.
It was a feeling I had never experienced in my life, a foreign sensation.
Perhaps it was joy.
Just from the fact that I had changed even one word from him, I was overwhelmed with a strange sense of elation. Laughter I couldn't hold back spilled from me like a hiccup.
It was ironic.
The person who had made me genuinely laugh for the first time since returning to this goddamn world was none other than Sebestian, the man I had feared so deeply.
The man I had hated so much was you.
And here I am, still bound by you.