Chapter 129: The Face of the Empire (2) Click. Hannah opened her bag and tucked a thick stack of Imperial Dollars deep into her coat.
The "bullets" totaled five million dollars—a sum she hadn't even dreamed of seeing in her entire life. With this much money, she could at least stay alive. What mattered more, however, was what came next.
"..."
This was the shabby office in Volska she had first rented. She had returned here on the logic that the best place to hide was right under the enemy's nose, but someone had already anticipated her visit.
[The eagle hunts the mouse. Even though the mouse is innocent.]
It was Leon's handwriting. He had left the message before departing.
Does he mean some high-ranking official is trying to frame me?
Hannah's expression darkened into a cold mask.
"Those bastards made off with the Gigantes goods."
Gigantes. According to information from a broker who had already been murdered, the value of the weapons they had sold off so far exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars.
It was a grave crime.
They had embezzled hundreds of millions in national taxes, and just as many people had shed blood because of it.
It was an act clearly against the interests of the Empire. Therefore, it was her duty to hunt them down and break them.
Dammit. That's why I became a knight in the first place. It was my childhood dream—to strike down the evils of the Empire.
However, suspicion alone wasn't enough. She needed to know exactly who was behind this and how the Gigantes weapons were being leaked—
"If I back down now, I'm dead."
A cornered rat bites the cat. No, in this case, some unknown cat had suddenly struck first. She had to bite back if she wanted even a sliver of a chance at survival.
She had no luxury or time to lament how things had ended up this way.
Perhaps, weakness itself was the sin.
"..."
Hannah stared intently at the terminal. It was an item she had taken from the dead weapon dealers. They were likely nothing more than the tail of the beast. They probably didn't even know exactly whose weapons they were selling.
Click.
She turned it on. She checked all the internal messages. There wasn't much in the way of evidence, but there was a suspicious name in the contacts: [CODE A].
She dialed the number.
Ring... Ring... Click.
The person on the other end picked up.
—...
There was silence, but an instinct made the skin at her temples prickle.
"You guys pocketed the Gigantes weapons, didn't you?"
—...
"Did you think I wouldn't find out?"
It was a ploy to provoke them and extract information.
"And you're pulling this kind of stunt against an active-duty knight? Didn't you see the Dream Road operation?"
—...
"If you get caught, every single one of you is getting executed. You know that?"
Still no answer.
"I asked if you knew, you son of a bitch."
— Young friend. Watch your tongue.
It was fluent Imperial. The tone was unmistakably that of an Imperial noble.
— When you are told to come in, you should come in. Why haven't you shown yourself?
"Would you come in if you were me? There's a gold mine right here, you prick. You traitorous bastard."
Hannah licked her lips.
She wasn't some oblivious idiot. If she had gone back as ordered, she would have been framed right then and there.
— The Knights must have certainly issued a return order. You are the one defying that order. The longer this insubordination continues, the more you become the traitor, don't you think?
"Fuck off! Dumbass."
— How foolish. Then again, what conversation can one have with the low-born?
"Do you even have a mother?"
Hannah was a commoner who had rolled around in the backwaters. She wasn't about to lose in a war of words.
— ...Utterly vulgar. I will give you one last chance. Return now. This is a realm a commoner like you cannot and should not interfere in. I will see to it that it ends with a simple dismissal.
His voice was nauseating.
However, he was also stalling for time—likely to track her location.
"Dismissal, my ass. I'd rather kill myself."
She had worked too hard to become a knight. She wouldn't let go of it even if she died.
"I can see your face. I bet you're balding, you loser!"
Hannah hung up immediately. She tossed the terminal onto the desk.
Right after, she climbed out the window and hid in the bushes, keeping a close eye on the entrance of the office building.
Screeeech.
As expected, in less than five minutes, several black vans approached silently. Men stepped out of the vehicles and entered the building.
They had taken the bait.
They raided the empty office, grabbed the dealer's terminal, and got back into their cars.
Vroooom!
The cars pulled away. Hannah moved then, tailing them. She ran toward wherever they were heading.
Vroooooom—
The cars accelerated, but a knight would not be left behind. Her body was that of an Imperial elite, pushed to the absolute limits of human physical capability.
Her cardiopulmonary endurance, reinforced by mana, allowed her to relentlessly pursue the speeding cars, while Maximilian's camouflage armor shifted colors to match the environment, perfectly erasing her presence.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
She left the city center and ran along the coastal road for a long time. Her breath caught in her throat, but she didn't stop.
Whoosh—
Finally, the sound of crashing waves and the salty scent of the sea hit her.
Near a coastal cliff, buildings that looked like several dilapidated factories cobbled together loomed in the mist.
"..."
This was it.
Hannah caught her breath and glared at the building.
"Haa... haa..."
Her heart hammered as if it were about to explode.
Should I go back now? The weak thought crossed her mind.
Can I do this alone? There's no one to help me, and there must be countless enemies inside.
She was afraid. She was terrified. She was tense.
But she had to do it.
"...For the Empire."
She was Hannah Usar—a commoner girl born with nothing in a rural village, who had harbored the grand and perhaps overambitious dream of becoming a 'knight,' and who had finally achieved it through desperate effort.
As a proper Sword and Watcher of the Empire, she had to excise the parasites eating away at the nation.
"I have to do this to live."
Hannah gripped her sword tightly.
To survive, she could never let go of the blade she had seized.
* * *
In a reception room engraved with the crest of the Imperial Household.
A certain noble slowly sank into an antique chair.
"A report from Volska. It seems the commoner knight intends to see things through to the end inside."
Creak. The man felt the texture of the high-quality velvet and let out a deep smile.
"Excellent. She's saving us the trouble."
He tapped his finger on the table.
"The preparations?"
"Everything is perfectly in place."
The adjutant handed over a manila envelope.
"From this moment on, Hannah Usar is a spy for the Revolutionary Group seeking to overthrow the Empire. A cancer who infiltrated the Knights while harboring twisted ideologies since childhood."
There was plenty of evidence. From testimonies that would come from her hometown to the evidence of Gigantes weapon smuggling and Revolutionary Group directives that would be found on her corpse.
"It will be good for the Knights as well."
Since the Knights needed achievements lately, they would throw in a whole bunch of other things too. There were many criminals they had kept tucked away for days like this.
Improving the transparency of the Knights, restoring their authority, and raising their status.
It was more than enough profit for the price of purging a single commoner.
"Forgive me for saying this, but..."
The adjutant hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"There is a bit of a personal grudge as well. During the 'Dream Road' operation, that knight interrogated my uncle."
"...A commoner? Interrogated your uncle?"
"Yes. She had the audacity to treat a noble like a criminal and insult him."
The man burst into a short laugh. It was filled with incredulous contempt.
"The world is coming to an end."
He crushed his cigar into the ashtray. The spark died out, crumbling into ash.
"At some point, the most important hierarchy in this country began to collapse."
The reason the Empire had ended up like this was because those who didn't know their place dared to climb up, and because they ignored the traditions of the Empire to act as they pleased.
As a high-born noble, he had a duty to set things right.
"Enmil. What do you think is the essence of the Empire?"
He asked softly. The adjutant merely blinked, seemingly unsure.
"The strong. The strong annex the weak, and the great swallow the lowly. Order is established by trampling the weak, and chaos is never tolerated."
His name was Julius Valentin von Arensburg. He was a direct descendant of a royal family that had merged with the Empire hundreds of years ago.
"It means we cannot stand by and watch a mere commoner prick a noble while pretending to be the Sword of the Empire."
* * *
Chiron had moved. His new residence was located on Klein-Schmidt Street in District 3 of the Imperial Capital, Arcadia.
It was only two blocks away from the Ebenholtz mansion. Maximilian's residence was visible at a glance. Maximilian had been steadily purchasing the surrounding land at high prices and expanding his mansion, turning it into something that was now almost a castle.
Chiron was a man who could smell power. Moving near the heir of Ebenholtz to close the physical distance was a calculated political move.
"...Fetch."
He was even raising a dog. When he threw a frisbee in the garden, an Aran Shepherd would bolt forward and snatch it out of the air.
It was of the highest pedigree.
"Good boy."
Woof woof!
The dog wagged its tail happily at the praise and the pat on the head. It seemed to be as smart as its high price tag suggested.
"Sir Knight. You have a visitor."
The butler approached and informed him.
"Who is it? I don't believe I have an appointment."
"Woof!"
"They say they are from a Direct Agency of the Imperial Palace."
"Woof."
Chiron's eyebrows twitched.
A Direct Agency. The shadows of the Imperial Palace, and a group recently recognized as a new axis of power.
"...I'll see them."
"Woof!"
When he entered the drawing room, two agents in neat suits greeted him.
"Sir Knight Chiron. We apologize for the intrusion. Coming so suddenly..."
"It's fine, so get to the point."
"Ah, yes."
An agent pulled out a thick envelope and placed it on the table.
"It's regarding the zero-year knight, Hannah Usar."
Chiron opened the envelope.
It was filled with various pieces of evidence. Letters showing Hannah's collusion with the Revolutionary Group, fake ledgers showing she had embezzled weapon smuggling funds, and written statements from associates claiming she had harbored anti-Imperialist thoughts since childhood.
"...Is this true?"
Chiron asked back, feigning surprise. The agent nodded, acting out a somber expression.
"Yes. Of course. We are quite distraught ourselves. To think a knight of the Sentinels would commit such a horrific act."
Then, he whispered in a suggestive voice.
"Please, take the credit for this yourself, Sir Chiron. We will help you handle this quietly so as not to tarnish the reputation of the Sentinels."
"..."
"You know how it is. A commoner with no roots like her is a ticking time bomb that was bound to cause trouble eventually. It's a relief we found out sooner rather than later."
Chiron toyed with the documents. He could read the situation in his head.
A few days ago, Hannah Usar had refused the return order from the higher-ups.
That was all Chiron knew for certain right now, but it likely involved some 'shameful secret' of the high and mighty.
"Hmm."
So they were trying to eliminate Hannah and offering him a bribe to cover up the incident.
"Zero-year, Hannah Usar..."
This commoner's talent was exceptional. She was someone who had set records at Empire Point.
Her skill alone might be equal to or even greater than his or Julian's at the same age, but in the end, without a backer, she was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard. Refusing a return order as a mere zero-year was overstepping far too much.
What could he gain by discarding her?
"The election for the Knight Commander is next year, isn't it?"
The agent murmured softly.
Winter would soon pass, and spring would arrive.
In the year his seniority increased by one more, everything would be decided.
"I might have to congratulate you in advance."
For some reason, Chiron found the way the Direct Agency agents smiled as they spoke...
Distasteful.
* * *
Maximilian Albrecht Ebenholtz.
That is my name.
All my agents work under that name, move for that name, and sometimes bleed in its stead.
"..."
I looked at Gale across from me. Even after entering my office, he hesitated for a long time before pulling out a top-secret investigation file and placing it on the desk.
"I wonder if it's right to ask you for help."
Gale spoke with a suspicious look on his face.
There were quite a few commoners in the Sentinel Knights. While their numbers had dwindled over the last five years due to intensifying class discrimination in the Empire, they were a third and fourth power that had maintained their lineage under the radar since Anton became the Vice Commander.
They lived lives thoroughly excluded from politics.
It wasn't that they weren't interested in politics; they closed their eyes and ears because they knew the moment they stepped into it, they would be cast out.
"What is a Senior Knight being so cautious about?"
"A commoner is just a commoner, after all."
However, no matter how much they tried to avoid politics, the rotten Empire would drag them into the mud.
...Or they would rush in themselves to grab a lifeline.
"Look at this."
Gale handed me the weapon smuggling records he had investigated in secret. I opened them and cross-referenced them with my own information. The blanks were filled in like interlocking gears.
"When I first bit onto this case, I thought it was just simple weapon smuggling."
Pressure must have poured down on him from the moment this operation began.
"Hannah Usar is in Volska right now."
"Yes. It's awkward to say this, but... she's refusing the return order and being stubborn."
Gale cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Could you perhaps bring her back now and settle it with something like a suspension?"
I fell into thought for a moment.
The most important things in an organization are 'ideology' and 'trust.'
I do not trust Gale. I am not naive enough to accept all the information he has handed over.
However, I do trust Leon. I know his Imperial noble side, his honesty, and the hatred and cruelty that lie beneath his gentle appearance.
In that regard—Hannah is a complete stranger to me.
Before my regression, she was just one of the many commoners who withered away without ever seeing their talent bloom.
"You know it too," Gale said quietly.
"You must have seen countless commoners around you try to climb the ladder, only to fall to their deaths."
How harsh the Empire is to those without a backer. How cold this country is to a commoner starting from the bottom.
From the very top, I have watched them fall to their deaths many times.
"To a commoner with nothing, talent is nothing but a curse."
It was an undeniable fact.
Because I am the one on the 'other side' of the commoners.
Even now, I am wary of Hannah's talent.
As the heir of a prestigious family, and as one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Empire, I wonder if her blade will one day be pointed at me.
I wonder if she will betray the Empire simply because she is a commoner, straying from my ideology, beliefs, and greater cause.
"Yes. I understand."
I nodded as I closed the file.
"You may go."
At any rate, thanks to them, my questions have been answered.
Now, only my decision remains on where and how to act.
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