Semi-Coercive Imperialist

The waters where the Titan had sunk.

A warship packed with divers arrived at the site. They were there to gather evidence, and before the work began, the sailors aboard fired flares into the air.

Fwoooosh!

For one brief moment, the sea shone bright and clear.

”Descend.”

At the captain’s short command, divers carrying oxygen tanks plunged into the water.

They moved to recover wreckage, bodies, and any evidence that might remain. The Titan’s hull itself had already sunk into depths beyond human reach, but they hauled fragments floating on the surface, pieces suspended in the middle depths, and countless corpses drifting through the waters onto the lifeboats.

”We found a suspicious fragment!”

Among them was an object caught in one diver’s hand.Whether it had truly been there from the beginning did not matter.

It did not matter whether the diver had brought it from land and scattered it into the sea, or whether it had drifted in from somewhere by chance.

All that mattered was that it had been ”found.”

After all, a certain someone possessed the authority to fabricate and reconstruct an incident as easily as that......

* * *

Sentinel Order interrogation room.

”What is your name?”

Hanna’s voice flowed from the mana stone recorder.

”I understand you’ve had many false identities. Tell me your real name.”

I had deliberately left Victor Heim’s interrogation to her.

”......Victor Heim.”

The answer came from Victor Heim, the subject of the interrogation.

That bastard’s voice.

The sailor’s eyes flew wide open.

”You’re the backer behind Alchemia, correct?”

”......Does a Sentinel knight use words like backer?”

”Financier, then. Is that better?”

”Th, that’s the voice! There’s no mistake!”

The sailor shot to his feet, his hair seeming to stand on end.

As I scribbled across the statement with my fountain pen, I asked again.

”Is this the voice of the man who shot Captain Erio?”

”Yes! I’m certain! What happened was...”

With a face burning with rage, the sailor continued his testimony.

Captain Erio had tried to remain in the bridge even as the ship went down. The sailor had gone to the door to evacuate the captain, but hid briefly after hearing voices and gunfire from inside.

”When I looked inside, the captain had already stopped breathing......”

The sailor clenched his teeth hard. I wrote down the words as a statement.

The sailor glanced over my handwriting.

”......You write really well.”

I smiled faintly.

Victor Heim. Despite being Izenheim, he had not even tried to conceal his malice, and that had led us to discover him.

”To be honest, I also believe this man was behind the disaster.”

The air in the interrogation room sank heavily.

”......Behind it? What do you mean, behind it?”

The sailor asked as though struggling to breathe.

”I’m certain he was the terrorist responsible for attacking the Titan.”

”Hah......”

The sailor’s eyes widened. Hot breaths hissed through his teeth before he leaned back in his chair.

I looked at him steadily and made a request.

”Will you testify in court?”

”......Yes! Of course! I’ll definitely go, I swear I will!”

In truth, Captain Erio’s murder had nothing to do with the Titan terrorist attack, but this was how truth would be fabricated.

Unrelated crimes would be woven together and carefully combined.

For the benefit of humanity alone.

......

A knight trial was held for Victor Heim.

Nearly all the evidence presented to ”create” the culprit pointed to him as the terrorist who had plotted the sinking of the Titan.

It was an age far too convenient for fabricating an incident, and I held power far too useful for it.

Victor Heim protested his innocence, but the outcome had been decided before the trial even began.

Every piece of Sentinel evidence was admitted. Every claim from Victor Heim was dismissed.

It was only natural.

He had already been branded an anti-imperialist who endangered the Empire’s security as Alchemia’s financier.

The many nobles and officials who had once worked with him had already cut ties, and now they stepped forward to condemn him.

”The submitted evidence is clear, and the witnesses’ testimonies are consistent......”

The presiding judge delivered the ruling as if reading a fairy tale.

”......Therefore, the defendant Victor Heim, who has committed numerous grave crimes against the order of the Empire, is sentenced to death.”

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The wooden gavel echoed through the room.

Later, I walked down the courthouse corridor.

”Hm?”

I spotted one face I was rather glad to see.

The handsome young man from the Titan, handsome in a way fitting for an Aran.

Yan.

”......?”

My gaze suddenly fell to his wrists. Rope bound them tightly, and an Imperial Guard officer with a vicious-looking face stood beside him. He appeared to be under arrest.

I stopped walking for a moment.

”Loyalty!”

The Imperial Guard officer hurriedly gave a salute. Yan, who had cheerfully called me ”brother” before, could not even bring himself to look at my face. Like a criminal, he bowed his entire body deeply.

I asked the Imperial Guard officer.

”......What’s going on? He looks like a survivor of the Titan.”

”Ah, sir knight. You see...”

The officer explained several things.

The love I had witnessed aboard the Titan had spread in a very different form.

Yan had been charged as a scoundrel who, despite being a commoner, had dared to covet a noble.

Perhaps that was the difference between a fairy tale and reality.

”You. Raise your head.”

”Hey! Can’t you hear the knight? Raise your head, bastard!”

At the Imperial Guard officer’s shout, Yan slowly lifted his gaze.

Golden hair and golden eyes. A high nose and a firm jaw.

Bruises covered parts of his face, but he still seemed to carry light in his features.

”That is an Aran face.”

”Ah, yeah, it is. With that pretty face of his, the bastard.”

”......Keep up the good work.”

”Yes, sir!”

I passed him by.

Fairy tales and reality.

A thought came to me.

In a bleak world where people died every day, where people had to be killed every day, would it really be so bad to leave behind at least one fairy tale worth reading?

Even if I could not become their knight on a white horse, perhaps I could at least write them a happy ending.

* * *

Eston House, a declining noble family in the western Empire, was thrown into chaos today.

One of the Empire’s most influential figures had arrived at their main house without warning.

Name, Maximilian.

House, Ebenholtz.

Every servant of Eston lined up and held their breath, while the house head greeted him with a pale face.

”Please, sit.”

Eston seated Maximilian in a reception room they had arranged as neatly as possible.

Maximilian gave a faint smile, adjusted his clothes, and spoke first.

”I came to offer comfort to the survivors of the Titan.”

”Ah...... I, is that so? For someone as distinguished as you to personally visit such a humble place...”

”I also heard some interesting news while I was at it. There are a few things I’d like to ask.”

Facing Maximilian made Eston feel as though he could hardly breathe. Every word from the man seemed to prick at his heart.

”Th...... What would you like to ask about......?”

”Do you know a commoner named Yan?”

Maximilian asked the Eston house head about the young man named Yan.

”Ah, ah...... Yes. Yes. That lowborn bastard tried to kidnap my daughter...”

”I see.”

”Yes, yes! He tried to harm a noble. I looked into him, and he was a drifter with neither connections nor blood relatives. Something like that dared to covet my precious daughter...”

”May I meet your daughter myself?”

The house head flinched at the abrupt demand that cut him off.

”K, Knight sir. But this is practically a family matter...”

”House head, I could take over this case at the Sentinel level.”

Maximilian’s calm voice sent an enormous ripple through the house head’s heart.

”......What? The, the Sentinel?”

”Yes. A commoner trying to dishonor a noble. That is a serious case that disrupts the order of the Empire, is it not?”

Only then did the house head understand what he meant.

”Yes, yes. Understood. Please wait just a moment......”

The house head hurried inside, then returned a little later with his daughter walking before him.

”Nice to meet you...... I’m Lian.”

Her voice was barely audible. With trembling eyes, she studied Maximilian.

So her name was Lian.

Maximilian gave the house head a look.

”I would like to speak with your daughter alone.”

”Yes. Yes, I understand.”

The Eston house head reluctantly left the room.

Thud.

In the closed reception room, the second hand of the grandfather clock ticked loudly.

Maximilian asked Lian, who sat across from him with her head lowered.

”I’ll ask directly. Did the young man named Yan try to kidnap or harm you?”

”......”

Lian remained silent.

Was it fear, or guilt? Unable to meet his eyes, she only fidgeted with her fingers.

Maximilian took a fountain pen and a sheet of paper from inside his coat.

”It is a letter requesting a knight trial.”

Lian’s shoulders shook violently.

”Let me tell you this. Your words may now kill him, or save him.”

She squeezed her eyes shut.

”Answer honestly. You do not need to be afraid.”

For some reason, his voice seemed warm as it settled over her.

Lian forced her trembling eyelids open.

”......If I answer honestly, can you help me, sir knight?”

Answering a question with a question was rude. Yet her voice held the kind of courage only someone standing at the edge of a cliff could possess.

Maximilian watched her quietly.

”I am a knight of the Empire. I only act in ways that benefit the Empire.”

An indifferent answer, leaning toward neither side.

Yet Lian looked as though she had made up her mind. As if things could not possibly get worse than this, she began to speak.

”......It was an arranged marriage. Father was going to sell me to some general officer in the Imperial Guard whose name I don’t even know, to restore our declining house. It was closer to a contract than a marriage arrangement. I...... I did not want to become an object. I only wanted to run away.”

That was why she had gathered the allowance and jewelry she had saved, intending to leave both her house and the Empire......

Her trembling voice continued.

”They say leaving the Empire is a great crime. But I...... felt like simply remaining here was a crime. Then, on that ship, I met Yan.”

Yan.

The moment she spoke his name, life entered her voice for the first time. Warmth returned to her pale face.

”He was the loveliest person I had ever seen. He was a commoner, one from the very bottom......”

Maximilian already knew Yan’s background.

A pure Aran, but an orphan who had lost his parents too young.

A boy with no connections, blood relatives, or backing.

All he had was gambling luck, a handsome face, and...

”His soul was freer than anyone else’s.”

Maximilian listened without a word.

”You asked whether he harmed me, didn’t you? No. Not at all. I was the one who harmed him. Because he became involved with someone like me, he was hurt. He was wounded far too deeply.”

Swallowing back a sob, she placed a hand over her heart.

”I want him to be happy. He did nothing wrong. So...... sir knight. May I ask you for a favor?”

Maximilian watched her for a moment.

Before long, a quiet smile formed on his lips.

He put the fountain pen back inside his coat.

”I think the two of you should simply meet again.”

”......What?”

Lian asked blankly. She looked as though she could not understand what she had just heard.

Looking out the window, Maximilian added.

”Yan has the flawless appearance of an Aran. You, too, are a beautiful noblewoman of the Empire.”

The Titan.

The love between a noble lady and a common young man that had blossomed aboard the Empire’s sinking ship. Affection that had crossed the wall of status.

A story so much like a fairy tale was excellent material for stirring the pride of the Empire’s people. It could become very useful propaganda.

”I will help you.”

”......?”

For a moment, Lian could not understand those words.

Help her.

Who, helping whom?

Her dazed eyes trembled widely.

”Fulfill your wish. Make your heart’s desire come true.”

Then her face brightened as though dawn had broken over it. Tears flowed from her widened eyes. Afraid that this moment might shatter if she cried aloud, she desperately covered her mouth with both hands.

”That is what benefits the Empire.”

The ending of a fairy tale must always be beautiful.

Only then can it be a fairy tale.

Fairy tales are made to help people forget reality.

* * *

──【Special Feature: The Miracle of the Titan】──

There was a young man who risked his life to save a noble lady aboard the deck of the sinking Titan.

His name is Yan. He is a commoner who has lived with nothing but the pride of being Aran, without parents, relatives, or backing. Though he became an orphan at a young age and drifted around the docks, it is said he never once forgot the dignity of his bloodline......

(Omitted)

In the face of death, the wall of status meant nothing. Only the heart of the Aran swelled within them. Yan willingly gave himself for Miss Lian, calling her name and remaining at her side until the end upon the freezing night sea.

Sailors aboard the rescue vessel say they still cannot forget the sight of the two survivors sharing a single blanket as they looked at one another......

(Omitted)

The two now live happy lives.

Yan, whom this paper met, was a very handsome young man in the proper Aran fashion, while Miss Lian seemed like a shy young girl at his side.

The Eston house head said he would support the love between the two. He added that this love itself was proof of the Empire’s health.

Even amid such a terrible disaster, Aran love did not sink.

Aran blood runs deeper than the sea, and Aran pride floats longer than steel.

The Empire’s future will be the same.

◆Jemion Daily

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