Of course, here is the translation of the web novel chapter.
An Unwilling Imperialist
The Utility of the Law
2025.09.29 Views 19,167 Likes 1,103
The Revolutionary Corps. I contemplated how to deal with them. But before that, I thought about where their ‘origin’ truly lay.
The Imperial Family had long tolerated the Revolutionary Corps. A balloon that inflates endlessly is bound to pop. Likewise, a society completely free of dissent cannot exist, and only by managing it appropriately can the system remain stable.
Yes.
It had to be manageable.
The nation had to be capable of managing it.
But when the Empire’s corruption crossed a threshold, it completely lost its ability to control the Revolutionary Corps. Izenheim exploited that opening, expanding the Corps to massive proportions.
If the Empire had been endlessly sharp, reigning as an eternal overseer, the revolution would never have come to pass.
Therefore, my enemy was Izenheim, but also the Empire's own inner decay.
…My thoughts were interrupted as I arrived at my destination.
District 17 of the Empire, the industrial city of Denstein. The heart of the Empire's magical engineering.
I recalled the name of a revolutionary I remembered and ordered Schatz to track him down.
"You've arrived."
As I stepped out of the car, Schatz appeared like a shadow.
"The officials will be here soon. I'll go in first. Follow me when I give the signal."
"Yes, sir."
[Alfren Paper Mill]
It was an ordinary paper mill. At least, on the surface.
“……”
I kept my face as hidden as possible. Under a newsboy cap pulled down low and a wool coat, I stepped inside. The factory interior was thick with the noise of machinery and heat. The workers moved without rest, engrossed in their labor.
I walked among them. Most paid me no mind.
"Excuse me… who are you?"
Just as I was about to reach the manager's office, a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties blocked my path.
He had an ordinary, good-natured face. But in that instant, a memory from the past resurfaced with vivid clarity.
'These goddamn maggots should have their heads cut off and displayed in the square!'
I am a human being before I am a regressor.
Inevitably, I'm bound to remember those I hold a personal grudge against first.
'Why is this vermin still alive?!'
This man was one of the most radical and extreme ideologues in the Revolutionary Corps. The memory of him spitting hatred while striking my cheek through the bars of a cage was still fresh.
'Ptooey! You're worse than pigs and dogs.'
This man is a revolutionary. A fanatical member who has already committed dozens of terrorist acts, large and small, and murdered civilians.
But he isn't one of Izenheim's.
No need to feel regret.
Thump.
The virus inside me reacted.
Thump.
Izenheim is here, somewhere.
"Are you Mr. Daniel?"
"Yes."
"May I have a moment of your time?"
I showed him my Sentinel identification. His eyes wavered.
"Don't make a scene. It could cause a commotion. Let's start with the workers."
I gestured toward the factory floor.
Daniel rang a bell, announcing the end of the workday to his employees.
"…Everyone! That's it for today, you can all go home!"
Daniel Mateo.
The middle-class inheritor of his father's paper mill, he was a well-educated, pure-blooded Imperial citizen who had been a devoted member of the Revolutionary Corps for years.
And by his side, was Izenheim.
In the manager's office, Daniel sat across his desk, facing the uninvited guest.
"Sir Knight, what brings you to such a humble place…?"
The knight took off his cap. Golden hair was revealed. Daniel, the revolutionary contact, knew his identity in that instant.
Maximilian von Ebenholz.
A nobleman reputed to have been weak during his Empire Point days, whose inferiority complex and sense of entitlement had supposedly driven him to join the Sentinels and pursue an overly aggressive path.
"Would you care for some coffee?"
Pour. Daniel tried to hide his anxiety as he poured a cup of coffee. The knight didn't even glance at it, his gaze fixed solely on Daniel.
“……”
The silence was suffocating. Sweat drenched his body. He tried to remain composed, but his fingers and toes twitched of their own accord.
Is this the pressure that comes from an Ebenholz, no matter how young and incompetent? The sheer weight of his presence as a nobleman was undeniable.
"You've been running this factory for quite some time."
The man finally spoke.
"Yes, I have."
He turned his gaze to a wall on one side of the office. Daniel instinctively followed his line of sight.
"We've received intelligence."
"Pardon?"
"Intelligence suggesting that seditious activities are taking place here… That sort of thing. What are your thoughts, Mr. Daniel?"
The knight asked, looking back at him. His tone was ordinary, his gestures calm.
"That's not true. My family has been making paper for generations…"
Daniel’s words trailed off. He suddenly followed the knight’s gaze again. The direction was strange.
He wasn't looking at him.
His eyes were fixed on the 'wall'.
Ssk.
Maximilian rose silently. Then he slowly approached it.
Tap, tap.
He tapped the wall with his finger. A dull, solid sound echoed. The preparations were certainly thorough.
"Sir… Knight?"
"Well made."
He drew the longsword from his back.
SWIIISH—!
The long blade sliced through the wall. Concrete tore like paper, revealing a space beyond. It was a long corridor. Daniel’s heart sank.
“……”
Maximilian stepped slowly inside. Soon, he reached a completely different place. A small, classroom-like area, furnished with desks and chairs.
"Hmm…"
The knight let out a soft sigh as he surveyed the interior. Daniel could do nothing but stare blankly at his back.
Books with no titles filled a shelf. He pulled one out and slowly read its contents.
"Democracy… a Republic…"
Maximilian gave a small laugh. They were clearly forbidden texts.
"…Eugenics does not exist?"
The knight tossed the book aside carelessly. Then he reached out and caressed the bookshelf, as if sensing something just beyond it.
Daniel, breathing heavily, slipped a hand into his back pocket.
Thump, thump.
Just as his heart was about to burst from his chest…
SHIIING!
The knight's sword flashed. The bookshelf was cut away, revealing a hidden doorknob.
In that instant, Daniel pulled out a pistol and fired without hesitation.
BANG!
The bullet struck Maximilian's cheek but ricocheted off as if hitting steel. Ting.
It was a shield of mana. A magical technique known as a Protective Aura.
A prepared knight is like a tank. An ordinary bullet cannot penetrate the shield enveloping his skin.
Fling.
Maximilian threw the door wide open.
"...There you are."
The corner of his mouth twisted. Curled up inside a room decorated like a bedroom were two women, holding their breath.
Thump.
His heart pounded. This meant Izenheim.
Maximilian readjusted his grip on his sword.
I must kill them.
They are the ones who must be killed.
“……”
The thought came, but he dismissed it.
I must endure.
Not only were they not ‘certain’ targets for summary execution, but there was also the issue of public opinion and the press.
The Ebenholz name wasn't invincible. If the heir was seen as a bloodthirsty maniac, it would become a vulnerability for the family, a flaw for political enemies to exploit. Moreover, it would give the Imperial Family a reason to keep them in check.
The only person who knows what a monster Izenheim is, for now, is me.
Today, I'll be satisfied with results.
Maximilian sheathed his sword at his waist. Instead, he signaled to Schatz and the officials waiting outside.
They entered in an instant, subduing Daniel and searching for evidence.
"Found it! A coded message!"
"There are explosives here too!"
As expected, the former prison guards were experts at turning a place inside out.
Maximilian had dismantled a small revolutionary cell. The seditious books were all confiscated as evidence, and three subversives were taken into the Knight's custody.
Julian watched the two people in the interrogation room through the one-way glass.
The interrogator was Knight Adria. The subject was the revolutionary, Daniel.
"Oh, Julian. There you are."
Just then, Kairon walked in.
"What's all this? A rookie already capturing revolutionaries?"
He chuckled and clapped a hand on Julian's shoulder.
"Seems like having you as his senior is making Maximilian grow up fast. At this rate, he'll be earning a Second Class medal soon."
Kairon was Julian's peer. They'd known each other since their Empire Point days. Julian wasn't obsessed with achievements, whereas Kairon's ambition was almost rabid, which made them a surprisingly good match.
"What's the situation?"
"Daniel, that man, confessed to being the revolutionary liaison. But he says the other two are not."
"Then?"
"Illegal immigrants from a foreign country."
"Pfft."
Kairon scoffed.
"A liaison… If he talks, he might live."
The Empire doesn't simply chop off heads just for being part of the Revolutionary Corps. The Royal Guard might, but the Knightly Order does not.
Of course, treason is the gravest crime in the Empire, so revolutionaries face a special tribunal. A trial where a knight serves as the prosecutor.
"It's funny, isn't it? Even the revolutionary bastards have their own aristocratic hierarchy."
Julian let Kairon's words go in one ear and out the other.
"The executives, they'll beg them to live, but they won't kill them. Too much information to extract, they say. They'll even go so far as to keep the ones who try to kill themselves alive."
It was rare for a revolutionary executive of any significant rank to be executed. The verdict might be death, but it would be preceded by fierce backroom deals and persuasion.
Julian nodded.
"A liaison would be part of a deal."
"And the knight in charge will be Maximilian, right?"
"Max is the one who caught him."
"...Ahem."
Kairon suddenly cleared his throat and looked sternly at Julian.
"Julian. No matter if he's your junior, you shouldn't use a person's name so casually in a professional setting."
"Right."
Creeak.
Just then, the door opened and Maximilian entered. Kairon's expression brightened.
"Knight Maximilian, congratulations."
Max gave a slight nod.
"Thank you."
"Did you plant your own intelligence source?"
"Yes, I did."
"Good. Excellent work, but… be careful."
Kairon gestured with his eyes toward Adria in the interrogation room.
"Don't let her steal your thunder. She's a scary woman."
Maximilian gazed intently at Adria inside the room. Kairon swallowed a laugh.
"So, since that guy is the liaison, have you planned a trial strategy yet?"
"No."
"You don't? Ah, right. This is your first time. It's very different from the mock trials at Empire Point. You'll probably need some hel—"
"No. That's not it."
Maximilian shook his head with a faint smile.
"What I want is…"
Julian, as if sensing what was coming, scratched his eyebrow.
"The execution of all of them."
His voice was low. The weight of his words made the air tense.
Kairon asked quietly,
"…All of them executed?"
"Yes."
He replied nonchalantly, as if he were merely greeting a neighbor.
"All three of them. I'm going to kill them."
Author's Note
I am always grateful to all the readers who take the time to read my humble story.