Chapter 17: Kill or Save (2) | Semi-Coercive Imperialist
There are also Autonomous Regions within the Empire. Among them, "Genen" is renowned as a vacation spot, a place where every imperial noble is expected to own at least one villa. But for that very reason, it also suffers most directly from the Empire's corruption.
"...."
I arrived at Saint Bridge in Genen. The only bridge connecting the Autonomous Region and the Empire, spanning the deep river.
"What a mess."
I looked at it from a distance, from inside the car.
──Repeal the unjust laws oppressing the Autonomous Region!
──Repeal the unjust laws!
Noisy shouts. Protesters filled both sides of the bridge.
Around this time of year, protests were frequent in Genen. That's because, prior to being annexed by the Empire, Genen had been a democracy, a nation without a class system.
──Independence advocates who threaten public order, get out!
A clash between the Independence faction advocating for Genen's active self-governance and the Imperial faction who want complete integration into the Empire.
If this conflict escalates to the extreme, it will lead to the historical movement known as the "Spring of Genen".
Their desperate struggle, knowing they can never truly overcome the Empire. Too many people will die, too many values will be destroyed.
"Fucking imperialists sucking on the Empire's asshole!"
"Bunch of flower-headed morons. Maybe when their heads get cracked open during protests, they'll finally come to their senses."
I silently observed them. I had no particular reason to intervene.
In such large-scale events, even I am nothing more than a baby whale among killer whales. For now, I merely scout. Looking for those Ezenheim bastards hiding here and inciting unrest.
They must be hiding, no doubt.
"I'll find them and kill them. Got it?"
I conveyed my hostility to the virus inside my body.
You're no longer one of them, you're part of me now.
Then it happened.
───KWAHHHHH!
Shit.
An explosion suddenly erupted. Screams tore through the air as a storm of debris surged. Wreckage and embers scattered all across the bridge.
Only then did I step out of the car. I walked toward the now-chaotic bridge.
KYAAAAAAH──! UAAAAAAAH──!
People screamed and ran in all directions, and I moved against the tide.
AAAAAAAH! AAGH, UGH──!
I moved my hand to the sword at my waist, just in case.
"Ku, kuhhh...."
Suddenly, I spotted someone at the far right end of the bridge, their ankle twisted. A young man. He had collapsed against the railing, and below him was the river.
Trtrtrtrtrk...
The heavily damaged bridge was on the verge of collapsing.
Yet the man looked not to his own safety but toward something else.
"No...!"
Where his gaze landed, three children. Around four or five years old, crying. Dangling precariously from the shattered edge of the bridge, they looked like they might fall at any moment.
"No─!"
The man reached out toward the children. I thought it was a useless gesture, but then something strange stirred beside him.
Bright yellow and pure white. Particles that seemed like entangled sparks.
My eyes widened.
I suddenly remembered something old man Edmon once said before the Regression.
'...In the beginning, we held out somewhat thanks to the Yaken race. They had the power to resist the Dimensional Devourers....'
Yaken race. Some among them are born with special powers. Abilities known as special abilities, or supernatural powers"
──KWAHHHHHHH!
In an instant, a second explosion erupted. A massive steel pillar of the bridge bent and collapsed toward the man.
I released my sword. Swish. The bandages scattered like flower petals, and the long sword shot up.
Swaaah──.
Flow.
Dozens of curved lines painted the air. Graceful. Even I was surprised by the fluid elegance, and the pillar entangled in that flow was neatly sliced into small pieces.
***
──30 minutes earlier.
"Repeal the unjust laws disrupting self-governance!"
"Yan Novak", who had joined today's scheduled protest, was from the lower class of Genen.
His family had farmed, shined shoes, and made pottery in Genen for generations, dating back to when it was an independent nation.
"Repeal──!"
The eldest of two sons and three daughters, Yan grew up in the slums on the outskirts of Genen. But he had never felt miserable about being poor. That was thanks to the harmony in his home.
"Repeal the unjust laws disrupting self-governance!"
When he was young, everyone was struggling, so it was actually easier to endure with a smile. Because they were together, they could spend those days laughing.
But as he got older, he gradually came to realize the reality.
'Hey you beggar son of a bitch. Stop acting up.'
'What the hell are you gonna do? Do you even have a hundred dollars?'
'Ah, this stinking bastard...'
From the day he entered an imperial school, Yan began to receive incomprehensible hatred. He didn't know why being in poverty, his social status, had to become a target for contempt. He had to endure without knowing.
'Should scum like that even be accepted here?'
'I don't know. My mom keeps complaining about it though...'
Even though he suffered all sorts of bullying and humiliation, Yan didn't give up. He never stopped trying. He worked three jobs a day while devoting himself to his studies.
However.
'Ugh, I'm telling you that beggar bastard stole it! That stinking bastard!'
Because of a certain incident, he was unjustly expelled.
That became the reason Yan threw himself into social activism. He could endure all the unfairness directed at himself, but if things were left unchanged forever, his younger siblings and countless other children would end up going through the same thing.
Genen's problems weren't just today's issue. They weren't only his issue either. These were problems that had festered for far too long.
Those in power colluded with the Empire as bourgeois, manipulating the legal system. They exploited the public under the guise of the Autonomous Region's policies. They built walls of class and wealth. And yet, they wanted to be called nobles.
"Abolish the unjust laws that exploit the workers──!"
Now just sixteen years old, Yan had become an activist. Society had made him this way.
Even so, Yan still held tightly to his hopes and beliefs. He read books that were thrown away like trash with reverence, and scraped together magical academic journals lying on the ground to study.
His dream was to become a wizard.
"You little bastard, who do you think you are-"
"─Guarantee the autonomy!"
There are many things that can't be accomplished through activism alone.
Since unrefined shouting is meaningless, and because he himself had to become a better person, he still dreams of becoming a wizard.
"Go home and study, you little shit!"
The more angrily adults shouted back at him, the louder Yan cried out in return. At that moment.
───KWAHHH!
A sudden explosion erupted. The screams and shouts of many people echoed in the air.
"Gah!"
Yan was caught in the shockwave and flung away. When he opened his eyes through the pain, his body had been slammed into the bridge's railing.
"...Hk!"
When he tried to move, severe chest pain struck. It felt like his ribs were broken, making it hard even to breathe.
"Khulurk."
Coughing up blood, he tried to raise himself.
"U... uwaaah──"
He heard crying from somewhere. Yan quickly turned his head. Three unknown children were clinging to a railing that looked like it could snap at any moment.
Yan's eyes widened.
Creeeaak──.
The railing was collapsing. The three children would fall. They would drown in the river.
"No...!"
The children's faces, swept by the ashen wind, overlapped with those of his siblings.
Yan reached out his hand.
This can't happen. It mustn't happen. Children, at the very least, the children must not be sacrificed to a world like this.
"No─!"
Yan called upon his mana. Though the magic he had learned over the shoulder had never succeeded even once before, this time he had to make it work.
As he reached out toward the children.
KWAHHHH!
At that moment, a second explosion erupted. A far louder blast shook everything around. One of the bridge's pillars snapped and came crashing down toward Yan.
"Ah...."
The steel pillar surged toward him. Time felt as if it had slowed, and his life flashed before his eyes. Yan swallowed his despair. His eyes naturally closed.
...However.
No matter how long he waited, his body didn't burst. His breath didn't stop.
Yan opened his eyes in a daze.
"Who...?"
There stood a knight holding a long sword. Blonde hair and golden eyes. A Sentinel uniform. The most elite knight order in the Empire, and at the same time, the most feared by the Independence faction.
"Is this really the time to be sitting still?"
The knight looked down at him and asked. His voice was as cold as if it could freeze eardrums.
"Ah!"
Yan belatedly turned his gaze toward the children.
Whooooosh─── A heavy gust of wind swept past the railing.
Crack! The railing the children were clinging to completely snapped.
There were no screams. They had already fainted.
"No!"
He reached out toward the falling children. The veins in his arms bulged. Mana surged visibly.
Zzzzt──!
A strange spark flared in the air near the children.
Bright yellow. Or white. Or perhaps a complete absence of color.
Mysterious mana particles wrapped around the children, and in the very next moment.
Yan found three children cradled against his chest.
"...Huh?"
Yan blinked in a daze. The sensation of the three children in his arms was unmistakable.
Then, a moment later, a pain like his skull was being crushed surged through him.
"Guhhhkkk─!"
"Spatial talent, I see."
The knight murmured suddenly. His accent was the epitome of noble diction.
"You're Yaken."
Yaken. Yan's heart sank. His bloodline had indeed descended from the Yaken race, but that alone was enough reason for discrimination.
"However, you should hide it. Until you become strong enough."
"...?"
But the knight's words were strange. Yan couldn't comprehend them at all, and could only stare at him blankly.
"Your name?"
He couldn't answer. His lips wouldn't move. The overwhelming presence of the knight bound his whole body.
"Don't make me ask twice."
Yan barely managed to force out a single syllable. His short name, for once, worked to his advantage.
"...Yan."
The knight gave a slight nod and turned away. He started walking somewhere. Yan stared blankly at his back.
WIIIIIIING──!
The wailing sirens snapped him out of it. Fssssh! Police stormed in with smoke grenades.
"Yan! Are you okay?!"
Before he knew it, a comrade had rushed over to him. Yan immediately handed over the unconscious children.
"Take care of these kids!"
"What-? Where'd they come from? Who are they?"
"I don't know either. Just take them!"
"Damn it, what about you?!"
"I'll manage somehow! Go!"
The bridge was destroyed anyway, there was no escaping.
"Shit. You better come back!"
"Just go already!"
His comrade ran off with the children, and Yan let out a sigh of relief as he watched them. A faint smile even crept onto his lips.
But only for a moment.
The police charged toward Yan.
***
Somewhere in Genen.
In a place so choked with smoke it was impossible to distinguish anything, I stood there. I brushed the dust off my knight uniform and walked quietly.
────Thump.
At some point, my heart began to beat.
That meant an Ezenheim was nearby.
───Thump.
Leaving the bridge, I headed into Genen's chaotic city streets.
──Thump.
Police beating anyone indiscriminately, ignoring friend or foe, and civilians screaming.
─Thump.
Passing through the chaos, I looked into the gap of a dark alley where nothing could be seen.
Thump!
I stepped into that place. Standing at the entrance, I looked inside.
"Whew. Glad everyone's safe."
"If we wait, backup will-...."
At the dead end, there were five people. Their voices fell silent. All of them turned to look at me simultaneously. Their expressions stiffened, seemingly recognizing the Sentinel uniform.
Next time, I should wear plain clothes. It provokes unnecessary caution.
"Don't come any closer!"
They raised their swords. One of them even drew a revolver.
But there's no need to kill them all. The blond man with blue eyes standing at the very back, he looked similar to an Imperial citizen, but my radar was reacting to him.
"We'll hold him off! Sage! Go first!"
Sage. The name rang faintly in my memory. A high-ranking member of the Genen Independence faction, part of the Revolutionary forces.
So you were one of them too.
Fweeeeeeeep─!
Suddenly, a group on hoverboards emerged from atop the wall. Revolutionaries wearing masks. Sage attempted to escape by jumping onto one of their hoverboards.
If he flies off, I won't be able to catch him.
So, before he flies.
I gripped my sword.
────Tick-tock.
The resonance of the soul.
Time briefly slowed. I rushed in through the motionless humans and swung my blade. The curved longsword cut down the hoverboards first.
Boards falling like fragments, and Ezenheim, "Sage."
I stopped right in front of the falling bastard.
"...."
Silently, I looked into his eyes. In his trembling pupils, I quietly whispered.
"It's you."
The bastard clenched his teeth and began to gather mana. A self-destruct suicide belt was fastened at his waist.
However, before it could activate, my sword had already been unleashed.