The Reluctant Imperialist - The Utility of Law (5)
Imperial Central Court. Judge Klaus walked down the courthouse corridor. Dressed in his usual immaculate uniform, his boot heels clicked against the marble floor.
—Clack, clack.
He was an ordinary man. Or so he considered himself.
Born into a minor noble family of the Empire, he had followed the prescribed path to become a judge.
His life had no dramatic turns, no special glory. He hadn't desired such things. He had simply fulfilled his duties quietly within the confines of law and principle. He was the type of man called strong-willed, or perhaps, a blockhead.
Klaus opened the door to his chambers as he always did.
And there, he froze.
A strange man stood on the other side, looking out the window, clad in a knight’s formal uniform...
"...Who are you?"
A sense of caution tinged Klaus’s voice. The man slowly turned his head.
"Good day, Judge Klaus."
He introduced himself with a faint smile.
"I am Knight Maximilian of the Sentinels."
Maximilian. The knight in charge of the very case whose death sentence he had just overturned.
"I came because I wished to have a detailed conversation with you, Judge."
His voice was gentle, yet it carried a weight that brooked no refusal.
"Have a seat."
Klaus gestured toward the guest sofa.
"Yes."
"It would have been better if you had scheduled an appointment first."
"Haha. My apologies."
Maximilian sat. He first took out a document and placed it on the table.
"I have come to explain in detail, as it seems you have a misunderstanding regarding this case, Judge."
"A misunderstanding?"
"Yes. All three are indeed members of the Revolutionary Army. The physical evidence may be lacking, but circumstantially, they can be regarded as such."
Klaus's brow furrowed. As a judge, he had already delivered his verdict.
"Judge. Daniel provided a secret space where explosives and forbidden texts were stored, and he desperately tried to protect them during the interrogation. Would he have done so if he were not a member of the Revolutionary Army?"
"I viewed that assertion as an unreasonable assumption."
Maximilian tilted his head.
"An unreasonable assumption..."
"The two immigrants can't even read or write the Imperial language. To sentence them to death so hastily—"
"Their inability to read or write is the claim of the Revolutionary Army. It is well within the realm of an act they could feign."
"That, too, is merely your assertion. I find the evidence insufficient—"
"Judge."
Maximilian cut the judge's words short. He looked down and took a deep breath.
"What I wish to speak of concerns the duty of a knight."
"A knight's duty?"
"Yes. As a sword of the Empire, we eliminate subversive elements that harm the Empire. We act solely for the glory of the Empire."
Maximilian spoke of knighthood with a bitter smile.
"Your son probably knows this well."
In that instant, Klaus's expression hardened.
"Your son is a cadet at Empire Point, I hear. His grades are quite excellent. If he continues to apply himself for another two years, he might even be able to join our Sentinel Knight Order."
The smile on Maximilian's lips suddenly turned ice-cold.
"But, Judge, have you ever considered it? Who is by your son's side? And how he associates with them. And..."
Maximilian continued, his tone sinking lower and lower.
"...what sort of mischief he sometimes gets into."
Maximilian's pupils dilated. The golden eyes of an Ebenholz. Klaus averted his gaze, unaware he was doing so.
"...Are you threatening me right now?"
"No. I am simply informing you."
Maximilian leaned back against the sofa.
"Judge Klaus, you are a pure Imperial. An Aran who has lived in the Empire for a long time. Your son is the same. If that is the case, this is how I see it."
He continued in a tone laced with amusement.
"Even if your son possesses a few forbidden books, or frequently attends some slightly strange gatherings, it must be mere curiosity. It would have nothing to do with the Revolutionary Army. Of course. Since his father is a judge of the Empire, it's only natural he'd possess that degree of intellectual curiosity..."
Klaus stared at Maximilian. His own reflection was captured in those golden pupils.
"However, these... mixed-bloods."
Press. Maximilian pressed down on the documents with his finger.
"They cannot be trusted. The claim that they don't know the Imperial language, Daniel's claim that all the evidence is his alone—it is all difficult to believe."
"You should have taken those factors into consideration."
Klaus's lips would not part. The words rising within him were many, but the sudden image of his son's face seemed to press them all down.
"What I believe to be the certain circumstance of this case is that all three are members of the Revolutionary Army."
"...Merely to bolster your own achievements?"
Klaus finally expressed his own conviction.
"You would rather have three revolutionaries than one, for your own record."
He knew of the great noble house of Ebenholz. He knew of Jephestian. Jephestian was not a man obsessed with achievements like Maximilian.
"I have already told you."
But Maximilian sighed as if frustrated.
"This is not a matter of achievements, but of a knight's duty."
He rose from his seat.
"A knight's honor is as important as the judge's will."
Straightening his attire, he placed a photograph on the table.
It was Lucas, Klaus's son. He was captured in various locations, both inside and outside of Empire Point.
"I heard he is a son you had late in life. I hope he will one day join us as my successor."
Maximilian gave a slight bow.
"Then, I will take my leave."
He left just like that, but Klaus remained seated.
His words echoed in his mind.
My son and my duty.
Two scales tilted endlessly in his heart. A silent anguish deepened.
"..."
The backlight streaming through the window illuminated the judge's back.
I thought about the illusion called law. The laws of the Empire had, at some point, become warped. They were not equal for all, and they operated selectively for certain people. The Revolutionary Army had dug into precisely those flaws, but now I, too, had to use the law as a weapon, just like the other nobles.
However, the foundation of the Empire must not crumble in the process. While keeping the corrupt nobles in check, I had to excise only the cancerous cells that had infested humanity.
I was aiming at two enemies with a single blade.
It was a contradiction.
No, perhaps this entire world was a mass of contradictions.
To what lengths can we go to survive? What acts can we commit?
Beneath the paramount objective of survival, all other values become so meaningless.
"..."
I picked up the document I had received from the adjutant. It was a notice from the Imperial Central Court.
[Imperial Central Court]
[Notice of Change in Presiding Judicial Panel for the Case]
Presiding Judge Before Change: Klaus von Limperk
Presiding Judge After Change: Karl Grossmann
Reason for Change: Resignation of the presiding judge due to personal reasons.
It was a letter stating the judge had been replaced. Klaus hadn't just given up on this one case. He had relinquished the profession of a judge itself. It was probably for his son.
Klaus was a man who would not bend his will for anyone. As such, his neck would have been snapped by the Praetorian Guard someday. Before the regression, he might have died without my ever knowing his name.
Better to bow his head to me than to face such a future...
"...It is right."
I thought about my own righteousness. A gritty, sand-like bitterness lingered on my tongue.
From now on, I would have to kill countless people. It was impossible to surgically remove only the Izenheim.
The biggest problem was the Revolutionary Army.
Are they the enemy? For now, they are. But they, too, are ultimately a part of 'us.'
Our ultimate enemy is only Izenheim.
And yet, we stand on different paths. Parallel lines that can never meet. This is because a large part of the 'great cause' they embrace is natural rights—the idea that all minorities, including the Izenheim, are equal.
It is impossible to simply pluck out Izenheim from their ideology.
That is the very nature of a great cause.
A single value that must be protected, a value that can never be abandoned, for which any sacrifice can be made and no compromise is possible, upheld by countless beliefs.
"I cannot persuade them..."
I took out the second letter.
It was the verdict.
"And they cannot persuade me."
[In accordance with Article 112 of the Imperial Code, the defendants Daniel Mateo and two others are sentenced to death.]
The newly appointed judge had no objection to my sentence.
The three members of the Revolutionary Army, including Daniel, were sentenced to death, and they became my achievement.
Behind the Sentinel Knights' grounds was a wide mountain. Its altitude was not very high, but the density of magical power was thick, so it had long been considered a decent training ground.
High Knight Adria climbed to its summit. A man was sitting near the rocking boulder.
"...You were here."
Vice-Commander Anton. He seemed to be admiring the scenery. Adria caught her breath and stood beside him.
"Congratulations are in order."
"Congratulations?"
Anton asked, his hands clasped behind his back.
"The new knight caught members of the Revolutionary Army, didn't he? Three of them, at that."
At Adria's words, Anton gave a small laugh. Adria's eyebrows rose in response.
"I thought he wouldn't be an easy one."
"He is the heir to Ebenholz. One should not have expected him to be ordinary from the start."
Ordinary, ordinary, ordinary. Adria muttered the word to herself and twisted her lips into a smirk.
"...May I say more?"
Anton faced Adria. Her expression had, at some point, turned cold.
"He is far more than just 'not ordinary'."
Swoosh. A cool wind blew. The hems of their clothes fluttered with the fallen leaves.
"He beheaded a sixteen-year-old Empire Point cadet for the reason that he was not a pure Imperial, and he summarily executed an eleven-year-old noble murderer. That child was a victim before he was a perpetrator."
Maximilian had killed a child who had been abused by an old nobleman, a child who deserved at least a trial.
"Furthermore, one revolutionary and two possibly innocent immigrants have been sentenced to death. He even got a judge dismissed in the process."
Anton looked out at the distant scenery again. Below his gaze, the capital of the Empire spread out like a painting.
Arcadia, where countless subjects lived...
"Before that, he dealt with a Praetorian Guard with whom he had friction. A soldier who was called a prodigy in the Guard vanished overnight without a trace."
Rodrigues. Adria had seen him before. A stiff-necked Praetorian. He had a chance to succeed in the Guard, but Maximilian cut him down without mercy. All because the man had laid a claim on a house he wanted to buy.
"Maximilian is that kind of knight."
The man who had been assessed as weak at Empire Point had his leash come off at some point.
"What are your thoughts, Vice-Commander?"
Adria asked Anton. An emotionless smile spread across Anton's face.
He answered quietly.
"Truly, a man who resembles the Empire."
A man who resembles the Empire.
Adria mulled over his words. It seemed so accurate that a laugh she didn't understand escaped her.
"...Indeed."
Maximilian Albrecht von Ebenholz.
The assessment of him—a person of interest to the Knight Order, to the political world, and to the Revolutionary Army—was perfectly captured by Anton's words just now.
"Truly... a pure imperialist."