Chapter 280: Collapse (1)

Yvette recounted her life. Every rise and fall, great and small, stretching back to her birth.

Ordinarily, I would not have taken much interest in another person’s life, but what she told me belonged to quite a different world.

“……I was just tired.”

What a curse beauty could be.

It drew all kinds of people, enough to make one lose faith in humanity itself.

Men and women alike, criminals, nobles, clergy, swindlers…….

Amid all those people constantly trying to force their way into her life against her wishes, throughout a life that exhausted her to the bone, there was only one thing she had tried never to forget, one thing she had clung to and refused to let go.

Her mother and father, who had sacrificed themselves to give her freedom.

“I already got my revenge.”

Yvette did not speak the names of those two people so precious to her. Perhaps they had never even had proper names.

“I brought down the family that treated mine like slaves, too.”

At some point, she had started speaking casually to me, but I decided to let it pass.

“Ah, don’t jump to conclusions. I didn’t get any help from the Revolutionary forces.”

She smiled.

No doubt there had been plenty of people like Halbert Goering.

“But once I got my revenge, it all felt kind of empty. So I started looking for something fun to do. I wondered if there might be other victims like me…….”

From there, she threw in her lot with the Revolutionary forces, and after countless twists and turns, eventually made her way here to the north. In the end, even the position of ‘Master’ had been forced upon her.

“Well? Hard to believe, right?”

I shook my head.

“I believe you.”

Something similar must have happened before the Regression as well.

A fake Master, her comrades in the Revolutionary forces, and a spy. They must have used circumstances manipulated with meticulous care to temper Yvette’s resolve.

That was how they would have made her into a new, perhaps even the most perfect, ‘Master’.

“Haa…….”

Yvette let out a small sigh.

She did not seem to believe me when I said I believed her.

“By any chance, did you register your fingerprints with Veil?”

Yvette tilted her head at my question.

“I’ve never been to Veil. Do you have to register your fingerprints to go there?”

“……Well. That’s what I heard.”

“Whoa~”

I merely smiled.

Yvette was the sort who would pull away all the harder if anyone tried to bind her through loyalty or coercion. The Ezenheim knew that, so they had waited until she decisively chose their side of her own free will. Since no one imitated humans better than they did, they had chosen the most cunning method possible.

“……Then.”

She took out a pack of cigarettes. Lighting one, she asked me.

“Is the Empire going to execute me now?”

I looked steadily at Yvette.

“……Now that it’s come to this, I kind of want to live. My mom and dad would’ve wanted me to live a long life.”

Yvette had enormous value. If she could become a loyal servant of the Empire, she might well go down in history as one of its greatest spies.

But she was already too worn down, too tired of these games of emotion, and wanted to leave the Revolutionary forces behind.

A woman whose heart had already been worn bare.

Asking someone so weary of life to work as an agent would be too cruel. There was no point in forcing someone to stay when she had already let go precisely because she wanted out.

Still.

“If you provide that map, it will count as a ‘defection with assets’. You would be providing information of enormous benefit to the Empire, which would be more than sufficient grounds for leniency.”

“…….”

Yvette slowly exhaled a long stream of smoke.

“So you’re telling me to betray them again.”

“The choice is yours.”

“…….”

Tap. She flicked the ash from her cigarette.

As though deep in thought, she rested her chin on one hand and stared into empty space.

She stayed that way for a long while…… Then, with a snort, she spat out the words almost mockingly.

“When I said I wouldn’t be Master, that bastard tried to kill me. We were comrades. Fuck, if he wanted a Master that badly, he could’ve done it himself.”

She cursed bitterly, then let out another sigh filled with complicated emotion.

“……But someone else saved me even though he knew what I was. Of course, he did have backing he could count on.”

Yvette casually pointed the end of her cigarette at me.

Her tone still sounded as though she were testing me, but I answered with a straight face.

“You wouldn’t understand what Paul felt when he betrayed me.”

Even as I said it, I felt a faint shiver of embarrassment.

Acting really was difficult.

“……I know. I was merely joking.”

Yvette ground her cigarette out against the metal desk.

“Then I’d like to have a family tree of my own, too. My birth was never even registered. I’m probably three or four years older than you, you know?”

She suddenly began listing her conditions.

“So, from now on, I want an identity no one knows about, and I just want to travel all the time. I get sick of the same places, the same scenery.”

“I’ll give you an identity and an account that will let you travel anywhere in the world without trouble.”

“……Then the only problem left is my face.”

Yvette smiled brightly.

I gave her the only answer I knew.

“Time will take care of it.”

Time.

Humanity’s time, which must never be allowed to stop.

“……Yeah. I guess so. I hope it does.”

Rustle. Yvette took a piece of paper from inside her coat. It was the will the previous Master had left her.

“I hope growing old makes me ordinary.”

…….

At the place she told me about, I found the bonds and the account.

A bundle of Bearer Bonds. There was also an account accessible solely through a number and password, with no name attached. Anyone could deposit money into it, but only someone who knew the password could make a withdrawal, and the bank verified only the withdrawal records.

“…….”

This alone could serve as a clue for tracking the Ezenheim.

There was something else I was curious about. If I deposited some money, would I be able to watch the Revolutionary forces spend it? Any outflow of funds would be reported to me in real time.

They had surely accounted for the possibility that their ‘Master succession’ plan might fail…… but I took the bonds for now.

Afterward, I headed deep into the mountains.

“Sir Knight.”

The Operations Officers had already finished all the preparations.

Borch and Elmer. The two pawns were hanging from a tree. Elmer was not an Ezenheim, but Borch was.

“Ghk. Grrk…….”

His entire body was drenched in blood, and foam bubbled from his mouth.

There were no second chances for Ezenheim.

Bang—

I shot him dead.

I turned toward Elmer beside him and asked.

“……You’re awfully calm.”

He looked at me and smiled. Somehow, he looked almost pleased to have encountered the famous ‘Maximilian’ in person.

“You’re…… a butcher…….”

Even in this state, he had not lost his spirit. I stepped closer.

“Even after killing so many people…… you still aren’t satisfied…….”

As Elmer spoke through blood-flecked foam, I stared into his eyes as he hung from the tree.

“……You’ll become a sinner against humanity-”

“I know.”

I was well aware of it. Of how I would be judged in the future, and what the records and commentaries would say about me.

“I will become the butcher of this age.”

Even so—

If we could only stay alive until that distant future, long enough for history itself to judge me.

If only we could.

“I will erase the Ezenheim from this continent.”

I would welcome that judgment.

I would willingly endure endless disgrace.

“So…….”

I looked into his eyes. Into the steadfast eyes of the man named Elmer.

There was a clarity in them that did not waver even in the face of death.

“……Elmer Gor.”

Natural Rights of Man. Equality and freedom. He had pursued just ideals. Ideals that were undeniably right.

He was the kind of man who would never compromise or betray his convictions, even in the face of fear and intimidation.

In other words…… a man ‘worthy of an enemy’s respect’.

And yet, because of the Ezenheim, the root of all this evil, we had met each other as enemies.

And so, there was only one thing I could say to him.

“──I’m sorry.”

For a moment, his eyes wavered.

He seemed startled, but the flame of revolution soon returned to his gaze.

……A man like this deserved my respect.

Bang──.

I fired my pistol between his eyes.

Without a word, I watched him go limp, then turned away.

“We also killed every Georgen agent Borch recommended. Apparently, every one of them had that same briny smell.”

I nodded at the Operations Officer’s words.

“Let’s go. We have the rest to deal with.”

“Yes.”

…….

I summoned every agent in Georgen’s northern branch to the lobby.

Nearly all of them gathered in the vast first-floor lobby.

“These are the results of the full investigation.”

The Operations Officers stood beside me as well, holding boxes filled with documents.

There was a certain amount of corruption here. Not enough, however, to call the place a hotbed of corruption.

“S-Sir Knight!”

The Branch Chief looked ready to fall to his knees, but I stopped him. I swept my gaze over the agents standing in formation, one by one, their faces looking close to tears.

“……On duty. During the course of your work, or afterward, there was a fair amount of corruption.”

I looked around at them. Half had bloodshot eyes from being questioned all night, while the other half had only just learned that several of their colleagues had vanished overnight.

The atmosphere in the corridor had gone cold, like a stove whose fire had died.

──But.

I signaled the Operations Officers with a glance. They dumped all the investigation files detailing the misconduct onto the floor.

Then they poured oil over them.

“……?”

“Huh?”

A few agents murmured in confusion. Every pair of eyes turned toward the pile of papers.

“Nor can the Empire be said to be blameless, when it failed to properly reward those of you who have done such fine work maintaining order in the north.”

I dropped a match onto the records of their petty corruption.

──Fwoosh!

Flames roared up.

The piles of documents became firewood, warming the frozen corridor once more.

“……As a Knight of the Empire, as an Imperial citizen, and as a fellow Aran, I wish to forgive you. Because first and foremost, I recognize the ‘merit’ you have accumulated over all these years.”

Their merits had been great enough that their faults seemed minor by comparison.

The agents would have understood what I meant.

There was no reason to cut down dozens of people useful to humanity simply because an Ezenheim named Borch had been among them.

“The Empire will continue to entrust the north to you.”

As they watched the records of their own disgrace burn to ash…….

I did not know which of them it was. I would have liked to praise whoever it was, maybe even give them an extra bonus. In any case…….

─Swish.

Someone I could not identify raised a hand first. Without a single shout, he simply brought the edge of his hand to his brow.

Following his lead.

─Swish. Swish. Swish.

Only the quiet swish of salutes cutting through the air settled over the lobby.

The fire’s lingering glow flickered across their stiff faces, and before long everyone in Georgen’s northern branch, including the Branch Chief, was saluting me.

“……For the Empire.”

I returned their salute.

***

Volska’s border cession clause was implemented.

Most people of Imperial descent in Genson, Volska, remained, but many Volskans left, and columns of refugees formed along the border.

Volska, however, did not accept them.

Some, no, a considerable number of them were rejected during the Volskan government’s repatriation screening.

Although they held Volskan citizenship, they were left in the snow beyond the border because they were Ezenheim or Merin.

“You think this makes any sense?”

At a café near a university in Prozen, students from some club slammed a newspaper down on the table.

[ Genson Border No-Man’s-Land, Countless People Shiver in the Cold……. ]

There were photographs of elderly people and children huddled together in a stable, with their bundles piled atop the snow. Reports like these had reached the Republic of Prozen as well.

“We should’ve just gone to war.”

“Those damned Imperial bastards.”

On the streets of Prozen National University, voices condemning the Empire mingled with other voices praising it.

“And you think we’d win if we went to war?”

“We would if the whole continent joined forces! If everyone united behind the same cause and fought to the bitter end!”

“…….”

Through the place where young people debated the rights and wrongs of the continent, one man walked.

─Thud. Thud.

Without expression. Without a word. EEvery now and then, his lips moved as though he were rehearsing some sort of ‘act’, while his hand toyed with something inside his coat.

A pistol.

……

“To our future, and the peace of the continent.”

Stanley, Highland’s ambassador to the Empire.

Laurent, Prozen’s ambassador to the Empire.

The two held a dinner at「Lilac Vita」with their respective families.

“You’ve truly been through a great deal, Ambassador Laurent.”

At Stanley’s words, Laurent raised his glass as well.

“You as well, Sir Stanley…….”

They were, for all intents and purposes, heroes who had distinguished themselves in the recent ‘Imperial Capital Accord’. They thought so themselves. So did their families. Even their home governments.

They had doggedly stuck around Maximilian’s estate, eventually obtained the information, and made sure it reached their heads of government before any rash words were spoken or military action was taken!

Ambassadors who had served as their Prime Ministers’ hands and feet and preserved peace in the Imperial capital. Diplomats in a time of crisis.

Stanley was preparing his memoirs, while Laurent was due for a promotion.

“Let us believe that we were the ones who preserved this peace.”

Lilac Vita. Even Imperial citizens had difficulty getting into the restaurant, and having come there at Maximilian’s invitation, the two men were practically bursting with pride.

“To peace!”

“To peace!”

Their glasses met.

Clink—

They simply laughed and enjoyed their dinner that night.

***

One day, as the weather gradually turned cold again and the trees grew bare.

A quiet funeral was held in the heart of the Empire. Few people attended the mass, but Chief Inspector Gewin willingly took a seat in the very front row.

“……Goodbye, Paul.”

Gewin looked at the heavy coffin, knowing that Paul lay inside.

‘Our Paul.’

‘We’d only been partners for three days or so, but you’d given me so much: a gift, a sense of purpose, and the will to carry on.’

“I’ll remember you forever…….”

Murmuring the words, he rose, laid down a flower, and was just about to turn away when.

“……What? You?”

He came face to face with someone entering.

“Oh…… Good to see you, Chief Inspector Gewin. I’m Ryan.”

The Revolutionary forces turncoat he had met on the North Express.

No, a defector.

It seemed he had been given the new name Ryan.

“Isn’t it dangerous for you to come to a place like this? Those Revolutionary forces bastards might be searching everywhere for you.”

“This much is a risk I have to take. Sergeant Paul is the reason I’m alive too.”

Thistle placed the flowers he had brought on Paul’s coffin.

Gewin gave him a careful once-over, taking in his clothes and overall appearance.

“Hey. Looks like you got a pretty big reward, huh?”

“Well…… I don’t intend to flaunt it.”

For someone who said that, his suit was awfully flashy. Looking closer, he even had a bodyguard stationed not far away.

“Ugh. Some of us bust our asses for a civil servant’s salary…… Huh?!”

Gewin’s eyes suddenly went wide.

“Sir Knight!”

Someone had just walked through the cathedral doors.

Knight Maximilian had just entered, his face seeming to glow as a radiant halo flared around him like an aura.

“Sir Knight! Our Paul…… Just when we were starting to get close, he had to go and die like this. I swear, the hatred I feel for those Revolutionary forces bastards…….”

At least this much was no lie.

It was because of the Revolutionary forces in the north! That was why promising young Paul had died so suddenly! So what if he had suffered from a chronic illness! He had spent days in that freezing detention center without proper sleep! Without even proper meals!

“…….”

Maximilian silently laid down flowers, straightened his clothes, then turned to Gewin.

“Chief Inspector Gewin.”

“Ah, you don’t have to be so formal with me. Just Gewin is fine. Haha.”

The sight of Gewin narrowing his eyes into a coy smile as though trying to act cute was rather hard to look at.

Instead, Maximilian gestured to an Operations Officer. The officer approached and handed something over.

“Take this.”

A suitcase was dropped into Gewin’s arms.

“Consider it a reward for taking such good care of Paul.”

A grin. A smile more beautiful than anyone else’s in the world.

Maximilian walked away, leaving behind a sight striking enough that even another man could have fallen for him.

“Wow…….”

Gewin could only stare after him in a daze.

“How much is in it?”

Ryan suddenly came over and asked, his face brimming with curiosity.

“What the hell, man? Get lost. I’m checking it by myself when I get home…….”

Gewin hugged the suitcase tightly to his chest and scampered away, patter-patter-patter-patter-.

~~~

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