Semi-Coercive Imperialist

To Tiana, it felt like something had poured down from the sky. In the dim dawn, a silver meteor flashed for a moment and arrived on the ground with a tremendous gust of wind. Maximilian’s aerial knight assault. Descending from high altitude, he precisely severed Dun Caan’s neck.

Pussshhhh!

Steam escaped from the headless body. Like the air leaking from a large balloon, the bastard spewed mana for a while before going limp.

“…….”

“…….”

A rare silence settled over the battlefield.

From a distant height, a knight rushed in swinging his sword. A strike aimed at only a single target. As if a full moon had struck down on the enemy’s neck, everyone blankly stared at Maximilian, engulfed in the silver shockwave.

“Move!”

Leon and Tiana belatedly snapped out of it at Julian’s command. They dashed toward the next target─Emulen.

Emulen had a dazed expression. It seemed he couldn’t believe the death of Dun Caan that had just happened before his eyes.

An opponent who had lost focus on the battlefield was nothing more than prey. Leon and Tiana simultaneously slashed across his left and right sides.

After that, they launched a counterattack with the mercenaries.

The scattered remnants of Zentra, having lost their focal point, either fled or resisted and died, and before long the entire situation came to an end.

“Ah…… I’m tired.”

As morning gradually dawned, Tiana rubbed her crushed shoulder and glanced around the area.

The port was a mess. Countless containers were torn apart like taffy. Quite a few mercenary corpses were piled up among the cargo.

“…….”

Tiana looked at the body of the Akarius mercenary that remained. Clicking her tongue in bitterness for no real reason, she turned her gaze back to Max. He was leaning against a container.

“Aerial knight assault.”

She muttered to herself. The movement from high altitude. The act of combining potential energy with mana to literally slam down with overwhelming force. The phrase “the most destructive application of a knight” felt not just idle talk, but rather quite persuasive.

This entire battlefield had been resolved by that single variable alone.

In the meantime, the post-operation cleanup team from Escal arrived. Julian stood in front of them before the corpses of Emulen and Dun Caan.

“These two bodies will be recovered and taken in by us.”

Julian quietly handed over his knight identification card. They too seemed to grasp the situation appropriately and nodded.

From their perspective, it wasn’t a bad deal. Originally, everyone would have died and lost the cargo, but thanks to us, they at least salvaged the goods.

Kududududu──

At that moment, a helicopter landed with a roar. One person stepped out from inside.

Red hair tied high like a horse’s tail. A black cape fluttering in the wind. Though she wore a neat Akarius uniform seemingly modeled after a knight order, it was the dusty old sneakers that stood out most.

It was ‘Ren’, the leader of the Akarius Mercenary Corps.

She stood before a member whose head had been blown off. Taking a small mana stone fragment shaped like a four-leaf clover from her chest, she tossed it onto the corpse and flicked her fingers.

Fwoosh!

Blue flames erupted and turned the body to ash in an instant.

“……What is that woman doing?”

At Tiana’s whisper, Max replied.

“It’s Akarius’s rule.”

The Akarius Mercenary Corps never allows the transport of fallen members’ bodies. The same applies to burial or autopsy. That’s simply how the contract is written. Even the corpses of members ultimately belong to Akarius.

Ren silently watched the member turn into a handful of ash, then turned and boarded the helicopter. Her face as she departed was obscured by her red hair.

“Move. We’re leaving too.”

At Julian’s words, everyone prepared. The valuable war trophies, Dun Caan’s head and body, and Emulen’s left and right halves were each packed into corpse preservation bags.

***

We were awarded medals. It was in recognition of eliminating Emulen, a mid-level officer of Zentra, and the red-level wanted criminal Dun Caan.

Tiana and Leon received the Golden Lion 3rd Class Medal for the first time, and I, combining the two previously received ones, was promoted to the 2nd Class Medal.

Julian, as the operation’s commander, received a special bonus. On his chest already shone two 2nd Class Golden Lion Medals.

“You narrowly missed the youngest record.”

After the ceremony ended, Julian looked at me and said.

“What youngest record?”

“The 2nd Class Medal.”

“Ah. The youngest record must be……”

“Supreme Commander Sebestian.”

Sebestian was dispatched to the Western War immediately after being knighted. There, he achieved monstrous feats, and though he became entangled in a royal succession conflict afterward, he led that to victory as well.

There was no defeat in his life. Sebestian was a noble who had never once failed.

“Max. You played the biggest role in this operation. I’ll write it that way in the report to the higher-ups.”

At Julian’s words, I nodded.

“Thank you.”

“The aerial knight assault was also effective enough. You should formally propose opening a program in the Knight Order.”

“Yes. I’ll personally sponsor the related costs.”

Julian looked at me silently.

“The Knight Order upper ranks will likely review it favorably. There’s no need for you to spend your own money.”

I gave a bitter smile.

Contrary to Julian’s thinking, the Knight Order is a rigid organization. And within the Knight Order, there is no small number of factions that fear military enhancement, in other words, the increase in the Empire’s war capabilities.

Anton is that kind of person. They believe that war is a cruel waste that kills the next generation.

It’s a very noble idea.

If not for the Ezenheim.

“No. The Knight Order will only move if I do this.”

The upper ranks will certainly nitpick using budget as an excuse, and I have no intention of letting time be wasted.

“That may be true.”

Julian didn’t try to persuade me a second time. Whether he gave up persuading or understood my meaning, I don’t know.

Julian had always been that kind of person.

“Well done.”

“Yes.”

I came out to the parking lot. I got in the car and headed home.

By the time I arrived, it had already turned to night.

I took a quick shower and laid on the bed.

“…….”

I couldn’t sleep. My eyes were wide open.

For some reason, everything that had happened yesterday felt like a dream.

I had severed that bastard’s neck.

No, did I really?

It felt like the adrenaline from that moment had surged so much that even my memory had become jumbled.

But one thing was clear.

“They weren’t Ezenheim.”

Neither Dun Caan nor Emulen were Ezenheim.

From now on, among the enemies I’ll face, those who aren’t Ezenheim will likely be far more common.

To cleanse a single race, I’ll have to tear through this entire world.

War.

Eventually, a massive war will break out, and the aerial knight assault is merely a method of knight deployment for victory in that war.

“……To survive.”

To avoid annihilation, the Empire must kill countless people.

Step by step. We’re marching toward that future.

When I cut down Dun Caan, I didn’t close my eyes.

Because now, I know a fear far greater than that.

***

Dieter secured an airdrop training ground and a transport aircraft. Even for Dieter, getting the aircraft was a struggle, but among the stocks I had invested in the Canilan Independent State, one happened to be an aircraft development company, and under the condition of additional investment, I obtained one latest-model unit.

I put up a poster I had prepared in advance next to the door of my office.

[Knight Order Independent Research Group: Aerial Assault Training]

Even if the Knight Order accepts my proposal, it will take at least a few months to be included as an official curriculum. So before that, I plan to give the knights a taste of skydiving.

Some senior knights may think of it as a mere hobby activity or the wasteful indulgence of a thoughtless noble, but soon, word about our mission will spread rapidly.

Knights are a group bound together by ambition for growth. Only those kinds of people become knights to begin with.

If I wait just a little, they’ll come looking for me on their own, pleading, “Please, could you get a plane in the air─?” That’s when I’ll start picking people carefully.

My faction begins here.

“Looks good.”

I nodded in satisfaction, looking at the rather well-made training poster.

…….

Lately, officials of the Imperial Knight Order have been called to the Imperial Palace day after day.

It was a sign that the appointment of the new Knight Commander was imminent.

“They say it was brought up lightly in conversation. About Deputy Commander Anton.”

Chiron gathered opinions from the knights. He reached out not only to those affiliated with the Sentinel and other knight orders, but also to former knights who had retired and opened private offices.

“Most of them answered honestly. ‘He’s an admirable man, but not fit to be Commander’…….”

The noble knights pretended to respect Anton on the surface, but clearly held underlying dissatisfaction.

He was a fallen noble… no, even calling him that was a luxury. Not one, but two generations had passed since his family’s downfall. His father never held a title, how could the son of a commoner be considered a fallen noble?

He was essentially just a commoner.

“And this is what you mentioned last time.”

A subordinate knight handed over the mission report Julian had submitted to the upper ranks. Chiron skimmed through it.

[……During the operation, an unexpected appearance of red-level wanted criminal ‘Dun Caan’ put the mission in danger, but Knight Maximilian’s proposed aerial assault strategy proved effective, enabling the mission’s success……]

“Dun Caan?”

Chiron knew the name too. Dun Caan, Zentra’s core combatant and a vicious criminal wanted across the Empire.

“Dun Caan, taken down by Maximilian?”

“Yes. That’s what it says. The details are described further below.”

Chiron read the report again.

[……Knight Maximilian performed a high-altitude drop and directly strike the target ‘Dun Caan’ directly, beheading him in a single assault……]

Chiron fell into thought for a moment.

A knight falls from the sky. From the perspective of a noble, it was complete nonsense. It was behavior that went against the dignity and decorum of a knight.

However, the one who had done this was none other than Maximilian, one of the highest-ranking nobles in the Empire.

“There’s currently a poster in front of Maximilian’s office. It says Aerial Assault Training, and if you sign up, you get to board a transport aircraft─”

“Then go ahead and sign up.”

“Yes.”

None of Chiron’s subordinates objected.

Perhaps, deep down, they wanted to learn it too.

That was likely. From the time of Empire Point, they had looked down endlessly on Maximilian, and now that he’d suddenly cut off a red-level criminal’s head, they probably wanted in.

…….

Tiana stared at the crude poster stuck on the wall of Maximilian’s office.

[Knight Order Independent Research Group: Aerial Assault]

Falling from thousands of meters in the air was scary, but Max she’d seen at the harbor that day had been undeniably powerful.

It was more than worth learning, and above all, she didn’t want to fall behind Max.

She picked up an application form placed on the table next to the poster.

“Oh? Tiana?”

Tiana turned. It was Leon. He already had a pen in hand, ready to fill out the application.

“You too?”

Leon wasn’t alone. Behind him, four or five other knights crowded forward, trying to grab application forms.

“W-what? I came here first!”

Tiana, without a moment of hesitation, took the spot right at the front of Max’s office door.

…….

Canilan Independent State.

Ren, the commander of Akarius, had been replaying the port CCTV footage obtained this time over and over through the night.

“Hmm…….”

In her blue eyes, a silver flash descending from the sky was reflected. She had seen this glow of mana, like it carried the color of the moon, before.

Sebestian.

But there was no way he had come here.

Click.

At some point, she paused the CCTV. It was a moment when the knight who had fallen from the sky and cut down Dun Caan could be faintly seen from a certain angle. His hair was black, but that was clearly disguise dye.

“……Ebenholtz.”

No doubt, it was Sebestian’s son, Maximilian.

─Knock knock.

Ren turned off the CCTV footage. Morning had already broken outside the window.

“Come in.”

Deputy Commander Jesik entered. He was accompanied by some young guy.

“Commander. I brought someone pretty decent.”

Jesik had very high standards. Ridiculously high. His eyes were practically on top of his head.

“Decent?”

“Yes. He’s a kid who’s been cleaning the mercenary toilets since a month ago… but when I tried a bout with him, he was surprisingly good with the sword.”

“What’s your name?”

At Ren’s question, the boy replied.

“……My name is Shane.”

Ren calmly stared at the boy with blue hair and blue eyes.

The movement of the pupils. The subtle tremble of the skin. Just those alone are enough to distinguish truth from lies.

“Don’t lie in front of me.”

“…….”

“Hey. Get this kid out of here.”

“My name is Akard!”

Akard. There must be a reason he deliberately hid his name.

“You want to be a mercenary?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I heard this is the best mercenary corps. I want to develop my skills here.”

“And we’re supposed to spend my money to train you, why?”

“Yes.”

Akard answered shamelessly. That shamelessness, Ren secretly liked.

“I won’t accept any payment for any missions I perform.”

The boy’s eyes, subtly bold, appealed to Ren.

“Then tell me, completely honestly. Why do you want to improve your skills?”

Akard seemed to hesitate for a moment and took a deep breath.

“I’m a noble of the Empire. My family was framed for treason. I will return there one day and restore the honor of my house and my family.”

And then he conveyed his origin, very earnestly.