Chapter 29: The Effectiveness of the Law (5) | Semi-Coercive Imperialist
The Imperial Central Court. Judge Klaus was walking down the courthouse hallway. As always, he wore a neat official uniform, his shoe heels stepping on the marble floor.
──Thud. Thud.
He was an ordinary person. At least, that's how he saw himself.
Born into a small noble family of the Empire, he walked the predetermined path and became a judge.
There were no dramatic twists nor special glories in his life. He never desired such things either. He simply fulfilled his duties quietly within the boundaries of law and principle. A hardliner, or what some might call a stubborn type.
Klaus opened the door to his office as usual.
And then, he stopped in place.
There was a strange man over there. Wearing a knight's official uniform, staring out the window...
"...Who are you."
There was a trace of wariness in Klaus's voice. The man slowly turned his head.
"Greetings, Judge Klaus."
He introduced himself with a faint smile.
"I am Knight Maximilian of the Sentinel."
Maximilian. He was the knight in charge of the case whose death sentence Klaus had rejected.
"I came because I wanted to have a detailed conversation with you, Judge."
His voice was gentle, but it carried a weight that would not allow refusal.
"Have a seat."
Klaus gestured toward the reception sofa.
"Yes."
"It would've been better if you had made an appointment first."
"Ha ha. My apologies."
Maximilian sat down. He first took out a document and placed it on the table.
"I came here because I believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding this case, and I wanted to explain it in detail."
"Misunderstanding?"
"Yes. All three of them are indeed members of the Revolutionary forces. There may be insufficient physical evidence, but circumstantially, it can be reasonably concluded."
Klaus's brow furrowed. As a judge, he had already issued the order for reconsideration.
"Judge. Daniel provided a secret space where explosives and forbidden books were gathered, and he desperately defended them during interrogation. Would he have done that if they weren't part of the Revolutionary forces?"
"I saw that claim as an unreasonable assumption."
Maximilian tilted his head.
"Unreasonable assumption...."
"Those two immigrants can't even read or write Imperial. To sentence them to death so abruptly-"
"The claim that they can't read or write came from the Revolutionary force members. That's something easily faked."
"That too is merely your claim. I'm saying the evidence is insufficient-"
"Judge."
Maximilian cut off the judge's words. He leaned in and let out a deep breath.
"What I want to talk about is the duty of a knight."
"The duty of a knight?"
"Yes. As the sword of the Empire, to eliminate the impure elements that harm the Empire. To serve only the glory of the Empire."
Maximilian gave a bitter smile as he spoke about knighthood.
"Your son probably knows that well."
At that moment, Klaus's expression stiffened.
"Your son is a cadet at Empire Point. He has excellent grades. If he continues for just two more years, he might be able to join our Sentinel Knight Order."
The smile on Maximilian's lips suddenly froze cold.
"But, Judge, have you ever thought about who is beside your son? How he associates with them? And...."
Maximilian continued speaking. His tone gradually dropped to a lower register.
"What kind of misconduct he sometimes commits."
Maximilian's pupils opened wide. The golden eyes of Ebenholtz. Klaus instinctively avoided the gaze.
"...Are you threatening me right now?"
"No. I'm simply informing you."
Maximilian leaned back against the sofa.
"Judge Klaus, you are a pure Imperial citizen. An Aran who has lived in the Empire for a long time. Your son is the same. And so, I think this way."
He spoke with a hint of laughter.
"Even if your son owns a few forbidden books, or often attends some odd gatherings, it's just curiosity. He must have nothing to do with the Revolutionary forces. Of course. Since his father is a judge of the Empire, such intellectual curiosity is more than understandable...."
Klaus looked at Maximilian. His own reflection was visible in those golden irises.
"However, such Subspecies..."
Thud. Maximilian pressed down on the documents with his finger.
"Are fundamentally untrustworthy. The claim that they don't know the Imperial language, or Daniel's claim that all the evidence belongs solely to him, none of it is easy to believe."
"...."
"You should have taken those aspects into account."
Klaus's lips remained shut. Many words welled up inside him, but the sudden image of his son's face seemed to press them all down.
"What I see as clear in this case is that all three are members of the Revolutionary forces."
"...All just to earn a little credit?"
Klaus eventually voiced his stance.
"From your position, three members of the Revolutionary forces are better than just one, aren't they?"
He knew of the high noble family called Ebenholtz. He knew of Sebestian. Sebestian was not someone who obsessed over performance like Maximilian did.
"I already told you."
But Maximilian sighed in frustration.
"This isn't about performance or anything like that, it's about a knight's duty."
He rose from his seat.
"Just as your beliefs are important, so too is the honor of a knight."
As he straightened his uniform, he placed a single photo down.
Lukas. Klaus's son. Various photos showed his activities in and around Empire Point.
"I heard you had your son preciously in your later years. I do hope he joins us one day as my successor."
Maximilian offered a slight bow of his head.
"Well then, I'll take my leave."
With that, he left- but Klaus remained seated in silence.
The knight's words echoed in his mind.
My son and my duty.
The two scales tipped endlessly within his heart. A silent anguish grew deeper.
"...."
Backlight flowing through the window shone against the judge's back.
***
I thought about the illusion called the law. At some point, the laws of the Empire had bent. They were not equal to all, and they operated selectively for some. The Revolutionary forces exploited precisely that corruption, and now I too had no choice but to wield the law as a weapon like any other noble.
However, in that process, the foundation of the Empire could not be allowed to collapse. While keeping the rotting nobles in check, only the cancer cells that had invaded humanity must be cut out.
I was aiming at two enemies with a single sword.
It was a contradiction.
No, perhaps the entire world itself was a mass of contradictions.
How far can we go to survive? What kinds of acts can we commit?
Under the paramount goal of survival, all other values become meaningless.
"...."
I picked up a document handed to me by an administrative officer. It was a notice from the Imperial Central Court.
──[Imperial Central Court]──
[Notice of Change in Assigned Judge for Case]
Previous Presiding Judge: Klaus von Limperck
New Presiding Judge: Karl Grossman
Reason for Change: Resignation due to personal circumstances of the presiding judge.
───────────
It was a letter informing me that the judge had been replaced. Klaus had not merely given up on this case, he had resigned from the profession of judge altogether. It was likely for the sake of his son.
Klaus had been someone who wouldn't bend to anyone. That's why, eventually, the Imperial Guards probably would've broken his neck. In the previous timeline, he might have died without me ever knowing, without me even knowing his name.
Compared to that future, bowing his head to me might be the better outcome...
"...This is right."
I thought about what was right for me. A bitter, sandy taste spread at the tip of my tongue.
From now on, I would have to kill countless people. Because it was impossible to carve out only the Ezenheim precisely.
The biggest problem was the Revolutionary forces.
Are the Revolutionary forces the enemy? As of now, yes. But in the end, they are also part of 'us'.
Our true and ultimate enemy is the Ezenheim alone.
Even so, we stand on different paths. A parallel line that can never meet. The core of their "great cause" is natural human rights, the belief that all minority races, including the Ezenheim, are equal.
There is no way to tear just the Ezenheim away from them.
That is what makes it a great cause.
A single value that must be protected above all else, no matter the cost, and upheld by countless beliefs that cannot be compromised under any circumstance.
"I cannot persuade them..."
I took out the second letter.
It was a court ruling.
"And they cannot persuade me either."
[In accordance with Imperial Law Article 112, the defendants Daniel Mateo and two others are sentenced to death.]
The newly appointed judge had no objections to my sentence.
A death sentence was handed down to the three Revolutionary force members, including Daniel, and they became part of my record.
***
Behind the Sentinel Knight Order compound, there was a wide mountain. Its elevation wasn't particularly high, but the mana concentration was dense, and so it had long been considered a decent training ground.
High Knight Adria had reached the summit of that place. Near the balancing rock, a man was sitting.
"...So you were here."
Deputy Knight Commander Anton. He appeared to be admiring the view. Adria steadied her breath and stood beside him.
"It's a noteworthy occasion."
"Occasion?"
Anton asked back with his hands clasped behind his back.
"A new knight captured members of the Revolutionary forces. Three of them, at that."
At Adria's words, Anton gave a small smile. Adria raised her brows in turn.
"I didn't think he'd be someone easily dealt with."
"He's the heir to Ebenholtz. He was never going to be ordinary from the start."
Ordinary, ordinary, ordinary. Adria muttered the word softly, then twisted her lips into a slight smirk.
"...May I speak further?"
Anton turned to face her. By then, her expression had already hardened into something cold.
"It's far more than just not ordinary."
Whoosh─ a cold wind blew. Their garments fluttered alongside the falling leaves.
"He beheaded a sixteen-year-old cadet at Empire Point for not being a pure Imperial citizen, and summarily executed an eleven-year-old noble killer. That child was a victim before he was a perpetrator."
Maximilian had killed a child who had been abused by an old noble, a child who at least deserved a trial.
"And now, one Revolutionary force member, and perhaps two innocent immigrants, have been sentenced to death. Even going so far as to push a judge into resignation."
Anton looked out again into the distance. Below his gaze, the Empire's capital spread out like a painting.
Arcadia, where countless citizens of the Empire lived...
"Before that, he dealt with a member of the Imperial Guard who had clashed with him. A soldier once revered as sacred within the Guards vanished without a trace overnight."
Rodriguez. Adria had seen him once. A stiff-necked member of the Imperial Guard. He had a decent chance of success within the Guard, but Maximilian had cut him down without hesitation. Simply because the man had laid claim to the house Maximilian was planning to buy.
"That is the kind of knight Maximilian is."
Once evaluated as timid at Empire Point, he had, at some point, broken loose from his leash.
"What do you think of him, Deputy Knight Commander?"
Adria asked Anton. A faint, indifferent smile suddenly appeared on Anton's face.
He answered in a low voice.
"Truly, he is a man who resembles the Empire."
A man who resembles the Empire.
Adria repeated his words in her mind. It was so accurate that a faint smile unknowingly slipped from her lips.
"...Indeed."
Maximilian Albrecht von Ebenholtz.
The man who had become a high-alert figure not only within the Knight Order, but also in politics, and even among the Revolutionary forces, the assessment Anton just gave was precisely correct.
"Truly... a pure Imperialist."