Semi-Coercive Imperialist

The minds the Empire needed. The minds the Empire did not need.

And the minds that must never be handed over to the enemy, whether the Empire needed them or not.

Salzmann belonged to the third category.

Before the regression, a technology called the Mana nuclear bomb existed.

Its principle was as follows:

The mana within a mana stone was originally trapped inside a stable crystal lattice, leaking out little by little over its entire lifetime. Mana stones could serve as sources of light and heat because of this slow leakage. It would not be far off to call mana engineering the study of controlling that rate of extraction.

Yet among ten thousand tons of refined mana stone, there was a rare variant that might yield only a handful, if that. It possessed an unstable resonant core. The material the academic world named 「Critical Stone」 released all the mana trapped within it at once the moment a powerful wave struck its core.

The problem was that the release itself became another wave and struck a neighboring core. That core rebounded and struck the next one.

Thus, it became a chain reaction.Normally, the density of these variants was too low, so the chain reaction died after only a few repetitions.

But if high-purity 「Critical Stone」 was gathered in one place above a certain mass, above critical mass, the chain would not fade. Instead, it fed on itself and grew exponentially, releasing a city’s worth of mana from a single point in an instant.

That was a Mana nuclear bomb.

Salzmann’s two papers, 「The Chain Resonance of Mana Stones」 and 「On Mana’s Critical Conditions」, were the first two keys to opening that door.

He believed they were nothing more than pure theory.

If Izenheim was trying to smuggle them out of the Empire far earlier than in the original history, then it was probably because they too wanted the bomb in their hands far sooner.

Some of the brilliant minds I knew could not be allowed to leave for either the west or the east.

This technology had to be delayed as long as possible, or kept in our hands for use only as a final resort.

Nuclear weapons deterred war simply by existing. That was precisely why they were the worst weapon for humanity.

”......Professor Salzmann.”

The train stopped in the middle of an open field. Vehicles rolled up beside us, raising clouds of dust as they lined up.

”You will be staying at a special detention facility for a while.”

At the word Camp, Salzmann’s face turned ashen.

”K-Knight Maximilian, I don’t even know anything about the Blue Rose Society.”

The professor grabbed my sleeve.

”My lecture hall and my laboratory. That was my entire life. I’ve never seen a pamphlet, never even touched one. If teaching even one student is a crime, then how is anyone supposed to be an educator in this country......?”

Listening to him, I quietly removed his hand.

”......Ideology spreads like pollen. From one flower to the next.”

For the sake of those who were probably hidden somewhere nearby, watching even now, I shaped my words and the scene before them. So they could judge me easily, and see me clearly.

”That is why we have no choice but to cut off the source. I ask for your cooperation.”

Salzmann’s shoulders slumped.

”I...”

”You should think of your elderly mother.”

At those words, the professor’s lips froze.

”Rest comfortably. It won’t take long.”

Drip.

A tiny drop of water fell from the sky.

Drip. Drip.

As the rain gradually grew heavier, my people approached and took Professor Salzmann away.

Shhhhhhh.

Water poured down as though the clouds themselves had melted.

I silently looked up at the sky.

Then an umbrella was suddenly held over me as I stood in the rain.

”Your hair will get wet.”

Schatz Heizen.

”......Thank you.”

I gave her a faint smile.

* * *

Shhhhhhh.

Rain fell.

It was pouring.

Summer had come before anyone noticed, and rain like iron bars drove into the earth.

Squelch, squelch.

The sound of water mixing with soil to make mud. By tomorrow, it would become a quagmire.

The seasons changed so quickly.

”......”

Former Sentinel high knight Adria looked out the window, thinking that.

「Knight Adria’s Office」

A knight without an order could serve only in limited capacities as a lawyer, prosecutor, or soldier. They could not refer someone to a knight’s tribunal, nor did they possess detention authority. The authority belonged to the individual knight, but the place where that power could be exercised was the knight order.

Even so, they could still investigate suspicious cases on their own or defend someone.

”......This is the list.”

Adria received information from former field officers who had left the Sentinel with her.

A list of those who had cooperated with the Blue Rose Society.

Those who had insulted the Empire’s ideology and dishonored the Sentinel.

”Tch......”

The Empire would soon go to war. It was only a matter of timing. They would certainly start one.

That meant this was ideological censorship. It did not matter to them whether the Blue Rose Society was real or false. Especially when the targets were the intellectuals of Zestpol, who found fault with everything the Imperial family did and questioned every action they took.

The Empire might kill everyone on this list.

”Let’s move.”

This office still retained the authority to defend and investigate, and Adria still had enough influence left to protect a few people.

......

Shhhhhhh.

Rain poured down over the university residential district of Zestpol.

”Treat him with care!”

In the garden of a mansion, Sergeant Gewin of Georgen shouted beneath an umbrella.

The person being taken in was Professor Brandt of the Department of mana wave studies. His name was on the Blue Rose Society’s list.

Shhhhhhh!

”Move it, move it!”

The rain continued to grow heavier, until misty water spilled from the brims of their hats.

A car stopped in front of the garden. One of the Georgen officers recognized the man who stepped out and instinctively saluted.

Gewin’s eyes widened when he saw him as well.

”Oh? Inspector Fried. Good day, sir.”

It was Inspector Fried.

Standing there without an umbrella, he surveyed the scene. They were not only taking the professor, but also dragging away his teaching assistants and students.

”Detective Gavin.”

Fried called to him. Gewin’s brow furrowed slightly.

”It’s Lieutenant now, Inspector.”

Fried gave a hollow laugh at the correction.

”......What do you think you’re doing?”

”Ah, did you not know? It’s the Blue Rose Society.”

Fried glared at him.

”The names of these teaching assistants were on the list too?”

Gewin’s lips moved silently.

That sharp tone, those eyes looking down on him, that stiff attitude. Every part of it irritated him.

”Inspector, as I told you, I’m no longer a sergeant.”

It had been a special promotion. Fried, on the other hand, had been suspended after brutally beating Nico Beber and had only recently managed to return.

”You have no authority to interfere with my work.”

”......”

Fried stayed silent for a long moment.

”You’ve grown quite a bit.”

Ha.

He twisted his mouth, gave a faint nod, then turned away.

Gewin watched the military boots receding through the mud for a while.

”......Hey! Don’t touch the professor. Get him into the car gently!”

His face lost all trace of amusement as he turned back to his work.

......

Joshua’s detention was extended. A recent legal amendment now allowed a second extension of the Sentinel’s detention authority.

”Have a seat.”

Joshua, brought up from the underground prison, sat blankly in the interrogation room. In only a few days, his face had become noticeably gaunter.

Creeeak.

The iron door opened.

Thud.

Someone walked in.

Short hair. A woman. A knight.

Not Julian. Her hair was even shorter than Julian’s. Perhaps Julian’s hair was long for a man. He even considered getting a haircut a waste of time......

Joshua’s thoughts wandered on their own.

”Nice to meet you. I’m Hanna Usar.”

Tap, tap.

The knight neatly aligned the corners of the documents she had brought, then spread them all out on the desk.

”Well, we don’t have much time, so I’ll get straight to the point. This is a list of those who cooperated with the Blue Rose Society.”

She turned the papers so Joshua could read them.

”Every person on this list.”

Joshua stared blankly at it. Pages packed with ink, filled with familiar names.

”They are scheduled to be sent to the special detention facility.”

”......What?”

As he sat there stunned, Hanna calmly added,

”Your two sisters as well.”

Clank!

Joshua tried to leap to his feet, only to be caught by his chains and thrown back down.

Clatter! Clang!

Amid the frantic rattle of metal,

”No!”

For the first time, he shouted. His weakened vocal cords scraped, and his voice sounded almost bloody.

”You’re chasing the completely wrong thing! We...”

”We?”

A cold smile formed on Hanna’s lips.

”Only now are you saying ’we.’ You said it was a lone act before.”

”......”

Joshua’s expression hardened.

”You’ve been acting like some useless idiot, pretending you could carry everything alone. Now that it’s come to this, you finally realize something’s fucking wrong, huh?”

”......What?”

”What do you mean, what? You screwball bastard.”

Bang!

Hanna kicked the desk. Its iron edge struck Joshua in the chest.

”Ghk!”

”Listen carefully. Everyone written here is going to die because of you. Because you pulled that pathetic hero act, saying you’d die alone.”

Joshua raised his upper body and found Hanna’s face close before him.

”Every person even slightly connected to you is getting dragged in.”

Killing intent seemed to pour from her twisted expression.

”This is what happens.”

Hanna suddenly thought of the diary.

I almost got killed for nothing back then too.

Because of bastards like this, who believed they alone were right.

”......”

Joshua’s breathing came apart in short bursts. He looked at Hanna Usar before him, then at the names on the pages. His eyes moved between them in confusion.

”You thought you could carry it all alone, but life isn’t a game, you little shit. The world doesn’t go the way you think it will.”

Hanna’s voice gradually settled into a calm tone.

”It will destroy everything around you instead. It will turn it all to ash. Do you understand now?”

Joshua’s body slumped to one side.

”......”

”......”

In the empty interrogation room, neither spoke. Only their strained breathing echoed through the silence.

How much time passed like that?

”......Then. Again.”

As if nothing had happened, Hanna pulled out a chair and sat down. The killing intent from before vanished as though it had never been there.

”As a fellow Aran, I ask you.”

Her hands rested neatly atop the documents.

”Who is the ’real’ collaborator who founded the Blue Rose Society with you?”

......

Lawyer Oswin, house head of House Mason, had once defended Oliver Muller. For the past few days, he had been curled up in his office without even turning on the lights.

In the Oliver Muller case, the defense had won. Officially, that was how it appeared.

Yet Oliver’s birth registration itself was incorrect, and his mother had hidden the truth despite knowing it. In the end, he was executed.

Oswin had won in court, but lost at the execution site.

That was no different from defeat, and just as he had then, he would lose again now.

Since that day, Oswin had been drowning in self-loathing and helplessness.

Knock, knock.

The sound pierced his ears.

He forced his heavy body up and opened the door.

Oliver Muller’s mother, Sara, stood there.

”......Please, come in.”

Tap.

At the table in the reception room, silence stretched on as the coffee in their cups grew cold.

”......I heard Oliver’s teacher was taken away too.”

Sara spoke first.

They said Zestpol had frozen over.

Oswin lowered his eyes to his cup, taking a long time before he finally spoke.

”Then there is nothing we can do. This is different from before.”

His fingers trembled faintly.

”This time, the case involves insulting Maximilian, and Maximilian himself is arresting them.”

The figure of Maximilian he had once confronted. His portrait. His very form.

As time passed, they mixed together like a nightmare, like a brand. Now they had become a great darkness embedded in his heart.

”If it is something he wishes to do, we cannot stop him. You know that. He is a monster.”

He was not becoming a monster.

He already was one.

”......”

Sara looked steadily at him, then placed her hand over his trembling one.

”But Lawyer Oswin, even so.”

She took out a bundle of letters covered in many different hands from within her clothing and placed it down.

Letters the families of those taken away must have stayed up all night writing.

”The person who has stood before that monster, the person who can face him......”

Sara’s voice settled, clear and firm.

”In all of Zestpol, perhaps you are the only one.”

Oswin only lowered his head.

Sara watched him silently for a while. She remained there quietly, as though offering him her warmth.

Then she left without a word.

The sound of the door closing seemed distant.

”......”

Alone, Oswin stared at the bundle of letters for a long time.

At last, he picked up one envelope and broke its seal.

He read one page.

Then another.

He read and read again, until the sky outside the window began to pale.

Knock, knock.

He rose at the sound.

Adria stood outside.

”Os... Oh, you startled me. What happened to you?”

Oswin stared blankly at himself in Adria’s eyes. There were deep black shadows beneath his golden eyes, the face of a man who had gone twelve days and nights without sleep.

”Is it because of the Blue Rose?”

At Oswin’s question, Adria nodded.

”Yes. We’re gathering evidence ourselves.”

”What evidence?”

”......Evidence that their involvement was extremely slight. You know.”

Adria continued. It was an entirely obvious thought.

If someone who had only contributed a little money to buy paper, or lent space to a printing shop, was imprisoned in a Camp alongside the person who wrote the pamphlets, then what did the law exist for?

”Would that argument even stand in court...... No. Could they even be brought before a normal court?”

The Sentinel of today was different from the past.

Organizations changed by nature, but the Sentinel had become especially bloated with power and authority. It had also been molded around the framework of one man. His ideology had become the Sentinel’s textbook, and anyone hoping to join had to recite that textbook.

He was an imperialist of his era, so the Sentinel had become a stronger institution of the Empire than ever before.

There could be no dissent within the Sentinel that differed from his views. At least, not among the knights who had joined more recently.

Even the brightest elite had soft minds when they were young. Ideology poured in while the mind was still soft hardened more firmly than bone.

The generation raised that way was becoming the hands and feet of the organization.

Would Maximilian, who was practically their totality, truly let those who opposed him live?

Even so, Adria’s answer was simple.

”We have to try.”

* * *

Quite a few people were imprisoned in the specially prepared Camp. Almost every name on the list.

Julian was still away on assignment, even in a situation like this.

I thought I understood the meaning of that assignment.

Julian did not say much, but this too could be considered our cooperation. Perhaps Hanna was involved as well. Gears that meshed together without speaking, without colliding.

It was quite an ideal organization.

”Yukia. How is Novak?”

I asked Yukia. I was very curious about the abilities of the newly inducted recruit.

”Exceptional. Even among the Yaken, Novak could become my right hand.”

”That’s good to hear. I’ll count on you.”

I placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a faint smile.

Yukia’s expression did not change, but a Yaken’s faith always drew a response from the heart.

Thump.

A sound hundreds, thousands of times more pleasing than Izenheim’s.

Then a field officer entered.

”Sir. Just now......”

At a whispered report, I nodded.

”Prepare a place.”

”Yes, sir.”

Oswin Mason was coming.

He was one of Zestpol’s brilliant minds who had no choice but to come to me.

Now, let us sort this out.

The intellectuals of Zestpol might never truly become allies of the Empire. Their thoughts and convictions had already hardened beyond measure. They were rocks that even the Hall of Light could not permeate.

So I would keep them within the Empire forever, ensuring that not even one line of Salzmann’s formulas or Brandt’s waves crossed the border.

Yet when it came to this Blue Rose Society case, I intended to pardon them all.

There were three reasons.

First. This list was Izenheim’s death list. The moment I cut down these names, I became Izenheim’s sword. I had no intention of letting them use me.

Second. A dead intellectual became a martyr, and a martyr produced a hundred successors. But a pardoned intellectual became a debtor. Their lives would be owed to the Empire’s mercy. That debt would dull their pens, if only a little.

Third. A pardon required grounds, and those grounds were the true prize.

’You were manipulated by a greater evil called Izenheim.’

The moment the Empire announced that it was freeing these intellectuals, Izenheim’s existence and crimes would receive the Empire’s official recognition and be permanently displayed across the continent.

What could be gained by giving was greater than what could be gained by cutting down.

Therefore, it was a very easy calculation.

......For now.

”You have arrived.”

By then, Oswin had already come up to the knight order’s office.

”Welcome.”

I greeted him with a broad smile.

”Lawyer Oswin. It has been a long time.”

Having brought the evidence I needed in my stead, I offered him my hand.

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