Semi-Coercive Imperialist

Lately, I have been thinking about the future.

The future will not be the same as before the regression.

No, it must not be the same.

I have to make it that way. The only variable in the catastrophe leading to destruction is ‘me’.

However, history is a great torrent. It will not be easy to twist it on my own. It will not change in an instant.

Therefore, from now on, I must open the stream of change.

Currently, the Empire and the military are not thinking deeply about war. More precisely, there are not many generals who hold concrete suspicions.

The Empire’s stance on war has always been the same.

“If we perfectly control the internal situation, the external will surely submit.”

In that case, did the Empire perish because it failed to control its internal affairs?

That can’t be.

There were more complex factors. To begin with, the Eastern Union of the continent was by no means a force to be taken lightly.

…Actually, I don’t know the details either.

Just because I’m a regressor doesn’t mean I suddenly become smart.

Of course, I will make efforts in my own way, but there was a book written by a scholar far smarter than me in the future.

Several years after the Empire fell. A publication by a very prominent historian, 「Reasons for the Empire’s Downfall」

At the time, the book gained immense popularity and was widely distributed in all kinds of bookstores and magazines, so even I, who was a fugitive, could easily obtain and read it.

“Let me recall it.”

I placed my hand on my collarbone. I demanded memory from the virus. That record I had once read…

── 「Reasons for the Empire’s Downfall」 ──

…This paper defines the collapse of the Empire not as the result of a single event but as an inevitable downfall caused by contradictions within a complex structure reaching a critical point, and aims to analyze the core reasons for it.

1. The emperor’s incompetence, the unchecked expansion of the Imperial Guard, and the fragmentation of the military

The last emperor of the Empire recklessly expanded the ‘Imperial Guard’ to strengthen his own power. The Imperial Guard, which stood above the law, committed all sorts of corruption and atrocities throughout the Empire, causing severe conflict with the traditional military and dividing the Empire from within…

2. The illusion of pure-bloodism – The myth of the ‘Aran’ and the failure to recruit talent

In the late Empire, the ‘pure-bloodism’ that dominated society was a noose the Empire placed around its own neck. The Empire referred to themselves as a sacred ‘Aran’ bloodline, rejecting and oppressing numerous competent talents of other ethnic groups. This gnawed away at the nation’s own potential…

3. Technological stagnation and economic rigidity

The Empire was once a leader in magical engineering technology, but by the end had fallen into severe technological stagnation. The high nobility, who held monopolies over key technologies like mana stone mines, labeled new innovative technologies as “blasphemous acts against the laws of nature” to protect their vested interests, and suppressed them. They confiscated the assets of promising companies and buried technologies…

4. Knight Order, the failure of asymmetric power

Knights were the sword of the Empire. Human weapons born from the consumption of virtually infinite resources, trained only by the Empire. In contrast, the Eastern Union and Western countries developed more advanced, mass, single-target lethal weapons like ‘tanks’ and ‘guided missiles’. Knights could respond almost invincibly against rifle units, but against tank bombardments and anti-personnel guided missiles…

────

Knights are not invincible. Neither are wizards. Since the invention of the crude weapon known as the ‘mana firearm’, battlefields have begun to shift.

A strong knight can cut down hundreds of soldiers alone. But in ‘war’, no soldier stands alone.

Mana can easily deflect the physical force of bullets. However, tank shells and missiles must be avoided. That is because tank shells and missiles, much larger than bullets, contain a significant amount of mana stones.

The elements that claimed the most knights in the war against the East were tanks, anti-personnel guided missiles, and suicide bombings.

Even so, the Empire focused only on nurturing the ‘elite’. So did Sebestian. My father was a man noble to his very bones, too old to chase the progress of the times, and blindly believed in such a philosophy of the iron will.

…And yet, he was also the monster who singlehandedly destroyed hundreds of tanks.

Thus, the reason the Empire collapsed was not only because of rebellion.

Fundamentally, it was due to its own corruption, defeated from within by the Revolutionary forces and from without by the alliance of the East and West.

“The Empire thus became a loser.”

Sitting in the study, I murmured to myself, and suddenly─

A strange question arose.

How did the New Cabinet come to power in the place where the Empire perished?

The moment the Empire collapsed, the forcibly annexed nations and various autonomous regions declared independence, but the core territory of the Empire immediately came under the control of the New Cabinet, to which Edmon belonged.

It was an eerily peaceful and orderly transfer of power.

But let’s think about it.

If I had been the leader of the Eastern Union, would I have simply allowed a new cabinet to rise in the place of the fallen Empire, which had sacrificed tens of millions of lives?

At the very least, I would have tried to seize territory under the pretext of reparations, or more seriously, sought to fragment the cabinet.

That’s the natural logic of power between nations.

Even so, they stepped back far too peacefully.

Why?

Why on earth?

How was Edmon able to become Prime Minister of the New Cabinet, and how could he so precisely and amicably root out only the war criminals of the Empire?

“What if……”

This might be a hasty assumption of mine.

But for me, who has directly ‘seen’ the future of destruction, it is a possibility that cannot be overlooked.

“……The head of the East.”

I thought about the leader of the Eastern Union.

Varmil Rextun.

“If it’s Ezenheim.”

One fact that is all too obvious.

Ezenheim is not exclusive to the Empire.

“War is inevitable.”

That was the conclusion that formed in my mind.

***

Whirrrrrr─

The next morning. A tank roared as it was delivered. Dieter had purchased the tank in just a single day and had it brought to our home.

“……What is this?”

Freya, who had come for a lesson, looked flustered as she saw the steel monster in the middle of the yard.

“It’s a tank. A state-of-the-art model made by Berton Industries in Zestfall.”

The Zestfall Autonomous Region. A very problematic area, but also the only place in the Empire capable of producing tanks.

I said as I fiddled with the tank.

“This barrel is loaded with a 120mm magic shell mixed with high-concentration mana and armor-piercing shrapnel. It can blow away most castle walls in one shot.”

“You’ve got money to burn. Why on earth did you buy this?”

“Even the knights of the Empire need to experience this weight at least once. Before that, I want to personally think through how to counter this tank with my own body. I’d like you to assist me as well, Master.”

“……You try it first.”

I stood about 200 meters away from the tank’s barrel.

“Fire.”

No matter how long I waited, the shell wasn’t fired.

“……Yawn.”

Freya yawned.

“Fire!”

The tank’s hatch opened, and the driver asked with a face on the verge of tears,

“Are you sure I should really do this……?”

“If you do not, there will be a problem.”

He went back into the tank.

“Fire!”

KWAHHHH──

The moment the barrel flashed.

Tick.

Even in the slowed time, the shell flew in like a bolt of light, and I released my long sword.

Sssch─!

I sliced through the trajectory of the warhead. The shell, cut clean in two, crashed into a corner of the yard.

“Oh~ not bad. What do you think?”

“……Since I’m quite fast in movement, dodging it itself shouldn’t be a problem.”

When mana is drawn out to the extreme, a knight’s body can move at very high speed. But the duration is limited. Not every knight has the same ability as me, and even I can only use this technique a few times a day.

“If hit directly, it would be a serious injury or death. But damage from the explosion’s shrapnel can be sufficiently blocked with a knight’s aura protection.”

If the shell itself strikes a knight’s body directly, the mana stone compressed inside the shell will shatter the aura protection and inflict fatal wounds.

However, if it explodes after embedding into the ground, the shock and shrapnel can be endured.

“So the area of potential damage is narrow. The probability of a tank hitting a knight directly is low. But battles last long. Guided missiles aimed solely at knights will also be incoming.”

A knight is not a machine. The more exhausted, the slower they become, and the higher the probability of a direct hit.

However, if a method is invented that can perfectly deflect even two or three direct hits from shells or missiles, knights could become irregulars on the battlefield once more.

“I think we just need to control aura protection more efficiently.”

“How do you propose we control it?”

“Aura protection usually clings to the skin like armor, right? What if we extend it outward, shaping it into a spherical wave form around the body?”

“You’re telling knights to cast magic now? Aura protection is manifested through the mana circuit. It can’t be maintained if separated from the body.”

What Freya said was true. But I didn’t think so. More precisely, the virus inside me had a counterargument.

“It might be possible. If we use high-purity mana stones as a medium.”

Freya gazed at me quietly. After staring into my eyes for a while, she asked a curious question.

“Just one thing. What’s all this for?”

“For the knights to face tanks—”

“That’s not what I mean. In the end, what is all of this for?”

I looked at Freya.

She was asking about my principle.

But there was only one answer to every action I took, one reason behind all of my resolve.

“Solely, for the Empire.”

***

Deploying aura protection in a spherical form is entirely possible.

Rather than logic, it was intuition. An instinctive ‘knowing’ directly transmitted from the virus within me.

But as Freya said, mana is manifested and controlled through the internal circuit. That is why defensive aura never separates from the outer layer of skin.

If there is an external ‘medium’, the story changes.

I placed a high-purity mana stone, about the size of a finger, worth a staggering 300,000 dollars, on my palm.

If I infuse my mana into it using a specific [form], its flow will resonate with the mana stone and form a spherical aura centered around the stone.

For me, the process is as instinctive as breathing. The higher the purity of the mana stone, the purer and more solid the aura that will form.

The problem is how to explain this principle of deploying aura protection through a mana stone to someone else.

What I need is a mana ‘formula’ to transmit the spherical aura protection.

In order to first understand the intuition whispered by the virus, and furthermore to convey it to other knights, I must use the ‘language’ this world employs to explain mana.

I picked up a technical book I had purchased from Lorenzo. Thankfully, I wasn’t a complete amateur. Back at Empire Point, I had been practically forced to take lessons from a private tutor.

“Mana is expressed through a refined agreement called a formula…….”

A knight calculates the amount, flow, and nature of mana needed to realize the phenomenon he wishes to implement. Then he completes that concept as a ‘technique’ within his mana circuit, explosively enhancing his physical abilities or manifesting sword force and sword aura.

All of the above process begins with the pen.

“……First.”

I picked up the pen.

Start from the draft.

Even if it’s incomplete, I need to at least put this idea on paper first.

──[ Introduction ]──

Mana is a powerful force granted to mankind, and at the same time, a difficult tool to wield…….

The Empire’s knights utilize aura protection, enveloping their bodies through long years of training and study, which has made them the masters of the battlefield. However, in the future battlefield that we will inevitably face one day, overwhelming firepower will emerge that cannot be blocked by current aura protection alone.

(omitted)

Thus, the author proposes a new method of mana utilization that expands and deploys traditional aura protection into a ‘spherical defense shield’ form using mana stones as external mediums.

Through this, the goal is to maximize the survivability of knights and secure the Empire’s military superiority in the changing battlefield environment……

────

Anyway, if I write it out roughly, Mr. Lorenzo will probably turn it into something proper.

……To be honest, I can’t deny that’s also how I feel.