Semi-Coercive Imperialist

Changing Days

“──Captain Bernhardt. Captain Adel.”

In the grand hall of Imperial Command, the two soldiers stood on the platform and received plaques. Decorations were pinned to their chests, medals hung at their throats. They stared blankly at the honors and at their new rank insignia.

“From this point forward, devote yourselves to the Empire and the military with loyalty that cuts into bone and flesh. As His Majesty’s spotless sword and shield, hold only pride in your hearts and advance without wavering……”

Still, the two of them could not return to the Eastern 7th Armored Grenadier Brigade. It was a measure taken for their own sake.

Even so, they were still soldiers of the Empire. Adel and Bernhardt remained at headquarters for a while, chose a border post, and were assigned to the 2nd Eastern Border Defense Division.

“……My head’s spinning.”

One day, as those matters were finally wrapping up, beneath an old tree in headquarters’ rear garden,

Adel and Bernhardt met again.

“Hey, Adel.”

“……”

Adel looked at Bernhardt without a word.

“From now on, stay under me.”

“……Hah.”

Adel let out a disbelieving laugh.

“Just half a step under me. I helped you this time, didn’t I? If things had gone even a little wrong, you’d have died in that solitary cell without anyone ever knowing.”

Bernhardt puffed up and took full credit.

Adel just shook his head.

“Sure. Do whatever you want.”

That easy reply seemed to make Bernhardt more self-conscious instead. He pulled a crumpled report from his pocket.

“……You seen this?”

It was the post-action report written after the purge.

Of the 280 executed, the proportion identified as subspecies was extremely high.

“I told you before. The ones with something to hide are always the ones with other intentions.”

Greed could blind someone and push them into corruption.

But encouraging corruption and spreading it like a plague was a different matter entirely.

“Even the regular army had bastards like these hiding in it. This isn’t small. We Aran have to stick together, damn it.”

“……Then stop slacking off all the time. You dump all the paperwork on me and then…”

“That’s exactly why division of labor exists.”

Bernhardt tapped his temple and gave a sly grin.

“I’ve got strategic sense. You know that.”

Second in tactics and strategy. First place in the chess tournament.

That was roughly Bern’s academy record.

“My brain burns through absurd amounts of energy, so I can’t run my body like that too. That’s why your obsessive precision and my sense need to work together.”

Bernhardt slung an arm over Adel’s shoulder and added in a serious voice.

“Only then……”

They could survive.

That eastern field was still vivid in their minds.

Maximilian’s face, his voice, even the hand gesture he made when he ordered the executions all came back as if it had happened yesterday.

“Well. If we keep at it, it’ll work out somehow.”

Adel had survived. In exchange, hundreds of soldiers had died.

Eaton Weiss, once a highly respected commander in the East, was now a man who no longer existed, and even House Weiss had fallen into ruin.

All because of one person.

Then,

“Captain Adel. Captain Bernhardt.”

A messenger officer from headquarters suddenly approached, saluted, and handed over a document envelope.

“This is news of promotions for both of you.”

“……Promotions?”

“Yes.”

Adel and Bernhardt looked at each other.

It had not even been a few weeks since their last promotion.

“The formal commissioning ceremony is in two months.”

Was it because their role in rooting out eastern corruption had been recognized, and the eastern front was now short on manpower after the mass purge?

Or was it because of a single word from someone?

“Also, there was a message from that person: ‘I am watching.’ Congratulations. Loyalty.”

The messenger left.

Those words made it clear whose doing this promotion was.

Maybe it had been obvious from the start. A two-rank special promotion, especially from lieutenant to major, was nearly impossible for a soldier.

“……”

“‘I am watching’……”

So both men could only stare at the promotion envelopes with vacant faces.

──Whoooosh.

The wind shook their not-even-that-long hair.

* * *

War was not far off. At most, four or five years remained.

Lately, that fact had started to press against my skin. Even a casual walk through the Empire’s streets was enough to make me feel it.

「No Entry for Subspecies」

「Izenheim and Mer Strictly Forbidden!」

Blatantly hostile signs hung in every shop window.

“Those Mer bastards are thieves to the bone.”

“Never gamble with those fuckers. They cheat every single time.”

Reckless words of hatred and contempt echoed from all over the streets.

“Hey! I heard your mom is Izenheim!”

At the mouth of an alley, children threw stones and shouted, mocking another child.

It was a natural self-cleansing process, and beneficial to humanity, but……

“Dirty monster bastard! Get lost!”

As I walked, a question suddenly crossed my mind.

That child wasn’t Izenheim. Even so, the child was being insulted for having an Izenheim mother.

If what those children said was true, had an Izenheim adopted a non-Izenheim child to hide itself?

Entirely possible.

At the same time, unavoidable.

The sacrifice of the small for the great.

As long as the cause was the survival of the world, we could not dare to pick and choose our means.

……By the time I finished turning those thoughts over, I had reached my destination.

In front of a church in District 19. Quite a few armed police were already lined up.

“Loyalty!”

The police chief rushed over and saluted. I entered the church without a word.

Inside was a wreck.

The place had been smashed in the course of suppression. The nuns huddled in terror in one corner, and in the center, ragged people were bound. Their bodies were bloodied, as if they had been beaten enough.

“Sir Knight. First, I’ll brief you on the case! We received a report that this church was illegally hiding unidentified vagrants and subspecies!”

The chief reported with a triumphant expression. I slowly examined the kneeling figures. A man missing his legs, leaning on crutches.

A man with half his face twisted by burns. A blind, one-armed woman.

“……”

My heart stayed calm as I looked at them.

Not one Izenheim among them.

“Also, every nun here, every single one of them, has no genealogy records! Every single one!”

The chief pointed at the nuns.

“They must be impure elements linked to the Revolutionary Faction, or subspecies!”

The police were thrilled. Probably because of performance metrics.

“No!”

One young nun could no longer hold back and cried out through tears.

“We’re Aran born and raised in the Empire! And these people are just poor souls with nowhere to go!”

“Is this bitch insane? How dare you run your mouth in front of Sir Knight!”

Just as a sergeant raised his baton, one man stepped forward to shield the nuns.

Soft footsteps stirred the church air.

“……Forgive us.”

An old priest, protector of this worn church, lowered his head and spoke quietly.

“……”

I looked at his face for a moment.

I knew him.

The real reason I had come here in person was this priest.

“However, Sir Knight.”

The past,

that past still alive in my memory.

The man who once hid the wanted criminal Maximilian Ebenholtz.

“We have committed no crime.”

He looked straight at me.

I met his gaze and said,

“Under the 「Imperial Civil Law」, the operation and activities of all religious facilities within the Empire are permitted only to pure Aran.”

Gulp. The policemen beside me tensed for no reason, and even the chief quietly took a step back.

The priest answered calmly.

“We are Aran born and raised here.”

“No proof, no proof! No genealogy records, and you’re pretending to be Aran?”

That same sergeant shouted, face red.

“Look, Sir Knight! Look at those things. Every one of them is a cripple missing limbs. They clearly got hurt committing treason and ran here! And he hid men like…”

“Sergeant.”

“Y-yes, Sir Knight!”

“You talk too much.”

At my single sentence, his mouth froze open like a frog’s.

“Talk less from now on.”

“……”

“Wait outside.”

“……!”

The sergeant left the church without another word. The other police hurried out after him.

Now only I, the priest, the frightened nuns, and the sick remained.

“Hm.”

I sat on a wooden pew. Creak. These planks had creaked back then too, still sounding like old rigging.

“Father.”

“Yes. I am Ast.”

“Father Ast. What happened to the genealogy records?”

At my question, Father Ast lowered his head with a bitter expression.

“……They were lost.”

What lay behind that answer.

The circumstances hidden in that word, lost.

And the absence of Izenheim here.

I understood at once.

“Someone stole them and ran.”

“No. They were lost.”

It was about what I expected.

After the 「Imperial Civil Law」 took effect, original genealogy records proving pure Aran lineage had become valuable in themselves.

Compared with making clumsy forgeries, it was far safer and more popular to steal a real Aran genealogy record, erase the ink, and overwrite a new name to launder identity.

“Then in the end, you have no records?”

The priest closed his mouth.

“……”

I watched him for a long time. In the silence, the nuns’ sobbing carried through the room. The priest’s face darkened as well.

I smiled faintly again.

“Why such a grave expression?”

As the Empire was inevitably stained by contempt and discrimination, this was one of the few places that could still hold warmth.

“I understand.”

I looked over the bound sick on the floor. Most had pale blond hair and golden eyes.

“Sometimes people need the peace of religion.”

Their blood might contain a little from other races, but at least they were not Izenheim.

Then there was no reason to dirty my hands further.

“Father Ast.”

I rose and stepped in front of him.

“I will accept that your genealogy records were stolen.”

I looked into the eyes of the priest, now much younger than the wrinkled face I remembered before regression.

“If you’ve been born and raised here for generations, you should be able to gather testimony from those around you.”

Testimony carried enough force to serve as evidence.

“And those people Father Ast has taken in.”

I pointed at them. The priest’s shoulders stiffened.

“They may not all be pure Aran either, but those merely receiving charity and relief are not subject to the 「Imperial Civil Law」.”

In other words, they were innocent.

The priest let out a breath of relief, and I quietly turned away.

“……However. What matters is that you protect things yourself.”

As I opened the church door, I added in a low voice over my shoulder.

“If you fail to do that.”

One day, you will no longer be able to protect what you truly cherish.

At my words, the priest quietly closed his eyes. He bowed his head slightly in small gratitude.

Creeeak.

When I stepped outside the church, I felt eyes observing me.

Filty.

As always, she was steadily watching me.

……

“……We’re sorry!”

Outside the church, in a quiet alley, the chief and the other police had thrown themselves face-down on the ground.

For the record, I never told them to.

“You have nothing to apologize for. You only worked sincerely to protect imperial public order.”

I looked down at them and spoke.

“But in any investigation, accuracy matters most. If you rashly label that priest and those nuns subspecies and close the case carelessly, what happens?”

The police shoulders flinched.

“The vermin-like subspecies criminals who stole their genealogy records will instead pass as true Aran under lawful imperial protection.”

“We’re sorry! We’re sorry!”

The police repeated their apologies.

“Stand up.”

Only then did they rise awkwardly, and I scanned their faces without emotion.

No Izenheim among them either.

Was today a lucky day.

Or rather, an unlucky one.

For these policemen, it was probably a very lucky day.

“From now on, track whoever reported that church. Their genealogy records were stolen, and then they were suddenly reported. A very curious coincidence.”

“A-as expected of you, Sir Knight! We’ll do exactly that!”

The chief answered loudly, and I signaled to the aide beside me.

The aide pulled a thick bundle of cash envelopes from his coat.

“…Everyone. This is a bonus Sir Knight Maximilian is granting the security personnel for your hard work. It’s a reward for your dedication, so take one envelope each.”

The police expressions wavered. They glanced at each other, then quietly lined up in front of the aide.

“Chief first.”

“…Ah. Yes. Thank you.”

“Come on, step forward. Don’t covet someone else’s. The amount is the same in all of them.”

As I’ve said many times, charges like bribery do not apply to an imperial knight in this context. This is part of oversight duty.

“…Oh!”

“Huh!”

The police took the envelopes in confusion, then checked the amount and broke into huge smiles, bowing over and over.

I turned to get into the car.

“Extra! Extra!”

Suddenly, a paperboy came running from the distance, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Flap. Flap. Flap.

I picked up one sheet from the papers spilling out.

A headline printed in thick red ink.

[ Balkania, Surprise Declaration of War! ]

“Balkania……”

Balkania was a peninsula state jutting out in the Empire’s southwest.

Its territory was fairly large, and its terrain made it a strategic point.

North of the peninsula lay Zerpa and the Prozen Republic in the west, while to the east it bordered the Empire’s Gennen Autonomous Territory and Bolska of the Eastern Alliance, layers of borders stacked together, the so-called “throat” of the continent.

“Extra! Balkania has invaded Mekerel! Extra!”

Out of nowhere, Balkania had started a war.

Its target was Mekerel at the southernmost edge of the continent, an independent tribal confederation state in lands far, far below even the Empire’s south.

Its justification, absurdly enough, was an old historical claim that more than five hundred years ago, the two regions had once been unified under a single dynasty.

“……What now?”

“Where even is Mekerel?”

Imperial citizens seemed largely uninterested, but this was one of the events that would shake continental politics.

From here on, western union powers like Prozen and Itelik would immediately denounce Balkania, issue daily statements branding it an illegal aggressor, and pass strong sanctions resolutions.

Even Lobrus, already in turmoil from internal purges, would likely pile on.

[ Lobrus General Secretary Varmil strongly condemns: “Balkania must immediately stop its barbaric armed atrocities!” ]

Something like that.

Then what stance had the Empire taken before regression?

When the entire international community denounced Balkania as an invader and turned away, the Emperor had bet in the exact opposite direction.

He reached out to the diplomatically isolated Balkania, and later even formed a military alliance with it.

For the Empire, it was the worst possible choice.

Of course, even without Balkania, the Empire would still have fallen, but continental military theorists judged the Imperial-Balkanian alliance this way.

“It takes only three divisions for the Empire to crush Balkania. But if Balkania is the Empire’s ally, it takes more than ten times that force just to block the enemies pouring in from Balkania’s borders.”

Put simply, a country far too incompetent to keep as an ally.

The moment Balkania allied with the Empire, it became the worst kind of burden, dragging the Empire down and sucking in resources without end.

“……Tsk.”

I crumpled the newspaper and threw it out the car window.

This too was unavoidable.

From now on, I had to shatter that future by any means necessary.