Semi-Coercive Imperialist

Lucen Auction House. The high-end auction had ended, and they were riding back to the train platform.

Ezel Runselot turned the pages of the auction catalog.

”We ended up with nothing after all. Not even the Silver Diamond.”

The secretary in the passenger seat pouted with undisguised disappointment.

”......Can’t be helped.”

Ezel Runselot. She was the heir of House Runselot, a high-ranking mage family that had pursued magic and scholarship for generations. She knew the value of every magical implement and artifact listed in this catalog. How each had been made, how long it had been handed down, how it had been stored...... She had even met some of their original owners in person.

Which was exactly why she knew that not a single item in this catalog had come from a legitimate transaction. These were assets soaked in the blood and sweat of colleagues who had once debated scholarship with her, or of their parents and ancestors.

Objects plundered by the Imperial Guard’s brutality at prices that amounted to theft, or stripped away entirely under a false charge of treason. People expelled from the Empire or executed for the crime of not being pure Aran.

”......”

Ezel closed her eyes.Behind her eyelids, she could almost hear the screams of people persecuted and despised for being labeled subspecies. The face of a junior mage driven out of the dormitory for not being pure Aran was still vivid in her mind. Had he been executed, or was he rotting in a prison cell somewhere......

But Ezel had no stake in the grand cause the Revolutionary Faction proclaimed.

What she wanted was something far simpler and more self-evident than heavy words like revolution or the overturning of systems.

Why must human beings treat one another differently? Could the shape of a heart, the circumstances of a person’s birth, the religion they followed,could such crude measures really be allowed to define human dignity and decide who lived and who died?

The trouble was that the Empire as it actually existed was too far gone in its madness for anyone to stop and sit with questions that fundamental.

The cousin she had treated like an older brother had become a soldier of the Empire and a devoted follower of pure Aran ideology. The innocent boy she had first met at eight years old, running through gardens together, had somewhere along the way become the sharpest blade in the Empire.

The Empire as a nation, the people who constituted it,where were they all drifting toward?

She was still too young to bear the full weight of that answer, and too old to go on pretending she knew nothing.

She quietly reached into her coat and drew out a book.

”Moonlight Below.”

The book that was soaking the Empire in cold light these days. Stamped clearly on the cover: Maximilian von Albrecht Ebenholtz.

”......Sorry, Max.”

Ezel smiled bitterly and mouthed the words without sound.

”I think I see things differently from you, no matter how I look at it.”

She ran her thumb gently over his name, embossed in gold foil, then slipped the book back deep into her coat.

An unexpected feeling welled up in her.

Without noticing, we have been growing older like this.

Walking different roads.

”We’ve arrived!”

The secretary announced. Ezel looked up.

They had reached the train platform before she realized it. Her face pulled slightly taut as she reached into her robe’s inner pocket and fidgeted with the scroll tucked inside.

* * *

Items from the Lucen Auction House were not delivered immediately after the auction ended. They were first placed in temporary storage in hidden vaults scattered across the continent, and only released to buyers once payment was confirmed. Distributing the risk that way was far safer than keeping anything inside Lucen itself.

────!

A whistle shrieked across the platform.

Screeeech!

The train ground its wheels against the rails and pulled into the station. Celine Dubois stepped aboard quietly.

Seat number 10-93-01.

She found the designated spot and settled in without drawing any attention.

This operation would not take long. A clean seizure,one where no one needed to bleed or get hurt. The only variable was the Prozen intelligence operatives who had appeared out of nowhere.

”......”

Celine leaned back into the soft seat and closed her eyes. She breathed deeply and waited, still.

A sizeable number of passengers were on board.

Somewhere among the crowd, her allies were impossible to identify.

The Revolutionary Faction operated on a cell structure. Each person was a dot forming part of a larger picture; all that was required was for each dot to execute its assigned task without error.

Celine’s orders amounted to a single line.

Place a small adhesive explosive in the train’s lavatory and detonate it at the designated time.

Pshhhhh......

The train departed, and as it passed the second and third platforms...

Celine rose from her seat as naturally as someone who needed to use the restroom. She stepped into the cramped compartment, reached under the sink into a blind spot no one would think to check, and fixed the device in place. She set the timer, then returned to her seat.

Tick.

She waited for the moment.

Tick.

By now, she imagined, countless comrades in the Revolutionary Faction were cycling in and out of the lavatory to make it impossible to pin the act on any one person.

Tick.

How much time had passed.

Screeeech──!

A grinding noise came from somewhere in the train. The speed fell off visibly, then the train stopped altogether. Next, an unidentified mist began seeping through the ventilation shafts and curling into the passenger car.

Sssssss......

Gray mist rose through the air. Passengers stirred in confused murmurs.

”Everyone, please stay in your seats!”

A crew member called out urgently over the intercom.

”There appears to be a minor load on the engine!”

It was a non-toxic gas, so there would be no innocent civilian casualties. The revolutionary comrades were moving through their own positions, advancing the plan one step at a time.

”It will be resolved shortly,please remain calm and stay where you are!”

The murmuring gradually died down, and Celine Dubois waited without a trace of agitation.

Her role ended here.

Editor-in-chief of Jemion Daily. As a Revolutionary Faction operative embedded deep within imperial society, her single most important obligation was to never be seen.

......

Thud. Thud.

Someone walked through the thick gas-mist like a ghost,a silhouette slipping out of a VVIP private compartment and moving quietly down the corridor.

Thud. Thud.

She reached the freight car where the items were being held. For a freight car, it was accorded more VVIP treatment than the actual VVIP compartments, yet the security was anything but rigorous. The armed guards had all sunk into a deep sleep. Probably one of them had been a Revolutionary Faction member.

Then again, maybe not.

Creeeak.

She,Ezel,stood before the vault and opened it. She unrolled a scroll of parchment. The intricate magic circle contained within it spread open, and in that instant the inscribed magic unfurled into the air and activated.

Swoooosh──!

Strange light swept through the freight car. The crates and auction items inside the vault shrank all at once. A box the size of a person compressed to the size of a palm; a palm-sized box shrank down to the size of a knuckle. A spatial magic that reduced mass and volume.

Her role ended here.

She turned and walked straight back to her original place,the VVIP private compartment,and sat down.

The person who would carry the safely packaged goods away was another member of the Revolutionary Faction.

Who that person was, even Ezel did not know.

......

At the same moment, Schatz Heizen sat on the roof of the train, watching a particular direction.

At the far end of her gaze, she caught sight of someone slipping off the train and disappearing rapidly into the rugged mountains.

”......”

It looked like someone making off with the auction items, but she did not give chase. She only watched, still.

Not long after, the engine was restored and the carriage shuddered back to life. Schatz dropped down silently and slipped inside the train.

”The engine has been restored! We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience to our passengers!”

With the crew member’s announcement, the ventilation fans kicked on again. The gas slowly cleared, and the whole incident was smoothed over as nothing more than a minor mishap.

”......?”

Schatz was walking the corridor at an unhurried pace when she caught a glimpse of someone through the gap of a VVIP private compartment window.

A woman resting her chin in her hand, gazing idly at the scenery outside. Ezel Runselot.

From her, the trace of mana she had just expended drifted faintly through.

”......”

The dark eyes watching Ezel slowly filled with something deep.

* * *

A luxury hotel penthouse in a neutral country.

”They took the goods.”

Schatz, just returned, stood before me and gave her report. I nodded without lifting my eyes from the newspaper.

I had never intended to stop their operation in the first place. If anything, I had been perfectly willing to let them have it.

”Also, Prozen Republic intelligence operatives appeared at the scene. They did not overlap with the Revolutionary Faction’s movements and appeared to be operating with considerable coordination.”

A smile spread across my face.

”Ah, right. That figures.”

Before the regression, a rumor had floated openly through the Empire.

”The Prozen intelligence service was subordinate to Izenheim, and along with Lobrus, was the organization that most heavily backed the Revolutionary Faction.”

Prozen had denied it even after the war, but today, through the identity of Felix Renoir, I had confirmed it for certain.

”Izenheim at the upper reaches of Prozen intelligence...... and the tracking of the items?”

”No problems.”

Schatz answered with clear confidence.

Yukia had built a small device for this operation,an ultra-compact transmitter that emitted a specialized electromagnetic signal detectable only by Schatz. We had embedded one in every item put up at the auction.

Which meant that wherever they stashed the stolen goods, whether in some deep underground facility or sold off through a black market, every route of funds and logistics would flow back to us intact.

”Things are about to get busy, then. Keep a distance they’ll never notice, and start connecting the dots they’ve spread to map out their structure.”

”Yes.”

What we were ultimately tracking was the Revolutionary Faction’s leadership,the Veil.

Fail to catch the Veil, and we catch no one. That place mattered that much.

”They’ll be desperate for cash right now. They’ll want to move those items fast and turn everything to currency.”

Part of the proceeds from that sale would, true to the promise made with Ezel, go toward supporting poverty relief for the lower classes.

”Yes. I will proceed with care.”

”Good. And thanks.”

But Schatz did not turn to leave.

She stood there, openly watching me.

”What?”

At my question, as though she had been waiting for it, she reached into her coat and held something out.

A gem with an unusual silver sheen. The Silver Diamond.

”I set this one aside separately.”

”......”

I looked back and forth between the glittering stone and Schatz’s face as she watched me. A joke came to mind.

”Is this a proposal?”

”......?”

Something shifted across Schatz’s face,a rare, genuinely flustered expression.

I laughed out loud.

”I’m joking. But, you know, if this one piece is missing, they might notice and get suspicious?”

It was a playful jab, but it was also true. Schatz had let her composure slip for a moment.

”......”

Her face stayed expressionless even so, but to me it felt somehow full of things unsaid.

”Still, thank you.”

I turned the diamond over in my fingers and smiled.

”I really did want this.”

Something I had quietly wanted. The reason she had taken this risk on herself was, in the end, because she had sensed the lingering attachment in me.

”Yes. I’m glad.”

Of course, I still could not fully read her feelings.

What was it that Schatz, the person hidden beneath that expressionless mask, truly wanted? It did not come through clearly. But the one thing I knew for certain was that her gratitude toward me was real.

”Go rest for today. We’re going to be very busy from here on.”

”Understood.”

Schatz withdrew from the Penthouse.

I leaned back in the chair and turned the diamond between my fingers. For a moment I sat with my thoughts.

”The structure of the revolution......”

We still did not know the roots of the organization called the Revolutionary Faction. We did not know how deep they ran. Even after the regression, they had been nothing but questions.

Now, at last, a real trail was open: where the source of Izenheim had coiled itself on this continent.

”......Ezel. This is thanks to you.”

I looked out at the dense scatter of stars beyond the window and smiled, faint and quiet.

* * *

......Colonel Edmund Bwindol.

The youngest colonel in the Empire’s history,a man who carried the confidence of Supreme Commander Sebastian and had grown up like a brother alongside Maximilian. His bloodline was not pure, mixed as it was, but every one of those distinctions more than covered for it.

”Salute!”

A frontline unit pressed against the Eastern Alliance’s border. Edmund received the crisp salutes of the sentries and walked into the command building.

”Salute!”

Lately, though, the salutes had been noticeably loud.

”Salute!”

It was not his imagination. Even accounting for strict military discipline, it had not been like this two or three weeks ago.

”Salute──!”

”......”

He fixed the soldier who had shouted right in his face with a long look.

”SA, SALUUUTE──!”

The soldier went even louder.

There’s no saving this.

Edmund just rubbed his ear and pushed open the door to his office. Some uninvited guest was sprawled arrogantly across the sofa.

”Oh. You’re here.”

Major General Schweitzer. He was assigned to the Zerpa front, so what was he doing all the way out here in the east? Strange,but then, Schweitzer had never been a man who fit neatly into common sense.

”Salute.”

Edmund gave a respectful salute.

”Ah, drop it, drop it. At ease.”

Schweitzer waved a hand and let out a short laugh.

”How is the situation on the Zerpa front, sir?”

Edmund asked as he removed his coat. Schweitzer gave a dismissive snort.

”Ah, it’s just a matter of time. Lobrus has apparently been supplying weapons to those Republican faction rats from behind the scenes,which actually makes it more entertaining. They need to hold out a little longer before there’s any fun in tearing them apart.”

Edmund knew Schweitzer’s madness and arrogance well, and he knew the man’s exceptional tactical ability alongside it. The feeling went both ways. Schweitzer was a general who had too much faith in himself, but he equally had a fondness for talented juniors who showed genuine ability. Edmund was one of the very few people he acknowledged as the real thing.

”Hmm~”

Schweitzer’s gaze drifted to the stack of books on one side of Edmund’s desk.

”You’ve been reading these too, I see.”

”Moonlight Below,” ”Baltaras,” and even the recently popular manga ”Outcast.”

”This one here.”

Schweitzer pointed specifically at ”Moonlight Below.”

”Yes, sir. It’s been distributed to nearly the entire military.”

”......”

Schweitzer stroked his chin and gave Edmund a strange, probing look.

”You haven’t read it.”

”......”

He genuinely had not. No time for it was the excuse he told himself. The truth was that knighthood still felt like a thorn pressing into him from the inside.

”Read it. Your name comes up.”

”......My name, sir?”

”Yeah. Chapters one and three.”

Edmund understood, belatedly, why the salutes directed at him had been so unusually loud lately.

”By the way, have you seen that knight’s report that came through to the military brass? The one Maximilian wrote.”

”I have.”

Knights held a supra-legal authority to monitor and evaluate every aspect of the Empire, so their reports were taken seriously even at the highest levels of military command.

”Max spoke quite highly of you, sir.”

”......’Max,’ you said.”

Schweitzer’s eyes narrowed.

”Is he trying to quietly put the fear in me? Like, don’t get too full of yourself just because you’re on brotherly terms with that knight?”

Edmund knew Schweitzer’s unhinged temperament better than almost anyone. Provoke him needlessly and it just got exhausting.

”......You’re not the kind of man who’d be cowed by a connection like that, sir.”

So he stepped back with practiced ease. Schweitzer raised an eyebrow at that.

”True enough. Anyway,the reason I’m here.”

He held out a piece of paper.

”This.”

”......Hm?”

Edmund looked carefully at what was written on the document.