Chapter 215 Shadows of the Empire
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”…And that’s the long and short of it-nya!” Ghibli-san chirped.
I listened to Ghibli-san’s report while picking at a rather lavish lunch. The whole inner circle was there, gathered in the dining hall.
”So, a new Order of Beastman Knights¹ is descending on the Kaibel capital…” Cleonora mused.
”The Purple Dragon Knights currently stationed there are Princess Listarte’s personal guard, aren’t they?” Aris asked.
”Why on earth would the Empire send their strongest Beastman Order on top of that…?” Liliarette wondered aloud.
Ghibli-san has ears like a hawk-or better, I suppose. She’d been using her incredible mobility and hearing to scout for intel in town, and she’d come back with a lead. According to her, another Beastman Knight Order was due to arrive in the Kaibel provincial capital any day now. She couldn’t sniff out their exact objective, but Cleonora and Liliarette looked like they already had the puzzle pieces fitted together.
”From the perspective of the Imperial Capital, Kaibel is the edge of the world,” Cleonora noted. “There are very few reasons to concentrate two separate Beastman Orders in a backwater like that.”
”Precisely,” Liliarette added. “It’s undoubtedly a move to keep the Magic Labyrinth King’s dominion in check… or perhaps a preliminary maneuver for a full-scale military intervention.”
”Wait, what…?” I muttered.
I’d had a nagging feeling, but hearing them put it into cold, hard words made it real.
”You have to understand,” Cleonora continued, “simply deploying a Knight Order itself incurs more than a fair amount of cost.”
”And unless it’s a meat-grinder of a front line, the Empire never sends multiple Beastman Orders to the same place,” Liliarette explained. “Even when they moved against the Kingdom, they only ever sent one at a time.”
The Egdia Empire was fighting on multiple fronts, but they didn’t view the Kingdom as a high-intensity zone. Early on, they hadn’t even bothered sending Beastmen at all. Things had changed, and a Beastman Order eventually arrived there, but never two. Never a concentrated force. And yet, here they were, piling up steel in Kaibel-a place that wasn’t even a front line.
”So, does that mean they’ve officially designated the Kaibel capital as the front line for their war with the Magic Labyrinth King?” Aris asked.
Cleonora gave a grim nod. In other words… the Empire had finally decided to go to war with me. The thought sent a jolt of dissonance through me.
”But why now? It’s so sudden… I haven’t even clashed with Listarte,” I said.
”Perhaps that is exactly the reason,” Liliarette said softly.
”The reason?” I asked.
”She has been dissecting our every word and gesture from the moment she arrived. She likely concluded that bringing us under the Imperial umbrella through diplomacy was impossible-or, more likely, she decided we were the type of opponents who would roll over the moment a blade was held to our throats.”
”……!”
Are you kidding me? She thought I was just some pushover she could bully into submission with a show of force?! That girl… we were just smiling and eating burgers together the other day! And all the while, behind that shimmering, polite face, she was looking down on me? Dismissing me as some weakling who’d bark on command if she threatened me?!
I’d forgotten it lately, since things had been going so smoothly… but she’s one of them. A high-born, silver-spoon princess who’s never known a day of real struggle in her life. She’s the legitimate heir to a superpower that claims the entire continent as its playground. Everyone kisses the ground she walks on. She must have been watching me-watching the “mask” I wear just to get through the day-and all she was doing was calculating the best way to break me.
Dammit…! I bet she’s been making people kneel since the day she was born. I bet she’s never even seen a world where people don’t obey her. Wealth, beauty, the divine right to do whatever she wants and be forgiven for it. Must be a hell of a life. People like her… they’ll never understand what it’s like to be suffocated by poverty. To live through days so lonely and hollow they feel like a void. No… she wouldn’t even deign to think about it!
I… I can’t… I won’t forgive this…!
A thick, oily blackness started to seep into my psyche, eroding my self-control. But then, Esrain tilted her head, breaking the tension.
”……Mnh. But… even for the strongest Knights, getting here is hard,” Esrain said.
”Esrain…” I whispered.
”…She’s right,” Cleonora agreed. “Even the White Lily Knights only made it this far because Grantula was clearing the path.”
Grantula had been doing a decent job of mopping up the local monsters. Plus, once the White Lily Knights had entered my Dominion, I’d gone out of my way to make sure none of them actually died. Besides, coming here from the Kaibel side means trekking through much denser forest than coming from the Kingdom side. Even the legendary Beastman Knights wouldn’t be able to make that trip without paying a blood tax to the woods.
”We don’t know exactly how they’ll use these two Orders yet,” Liliarette mused, “but I see four main possibilities.”
”Four?” I asked.
Liliarette held up her fingers one by one. “One: A brute-force breakthrough of the Demon Forest to seize this land. Two: Using Skygoon³s to ferry elite knights in small, surgical strikes. Three: Inviting Shimizu to the capital under a flag of truce, then springing a trap. And four… simply using the threat of their presence to force a ‘negotiation’ on their terms.”
I see. Because they were the “strongest,” I’d jumped straight to a bloody clash, but they had subtler ways to screw me over.
Cleonora nodded in agreement. “I’d say the first is the least likely.”
”The brute-force breakthrough?” Aris asked.
”Yes. Beastman Knights are the absolute elite. The Empire invests a fortune in every single one of them. They are the top tier of the Imperial military; they can’t afford to throw those lives away in a forest trek.”
Fair point. You don’t use masterwork blades to clear brush.
”If they want to take this place by force, the second option is the most probable,” Cleonora continued. “With Skygoons to build up a hidden strike force nearby.”
If Listarte made a few trips, she could certainly pull it off. Of course, with my
”Inviting the Magic Labyrinth King to town just to trap him sounds like their style, too…” Liliarette added.
”Indeed,” Cleonora said. “They wait for you to show your face, surround you with Beastmen, and then ‘negotiate.’ Which is just a polite word for extortion.”
Negotiation through superior firepower. A threat. God… it really is the condescension that gets me. The fact that they think they can just rattle the saber and I’ll roll over. It makes my blood boil. I don’t know the Empire’s full play yet, but it’s clear they think a couple of Knight Orders are more than enough to handle me. At this rate, my dream of being the “Feared Magic Labyrinth King” is a joke. If a superpower thinks they can just meddle whenever they want, I can kiss my “peaceful slow life” goodbye.
I needed more intel. I needed to know exactly why they sent that second Order. I had to find their heartbeat. As we were debating our next move, the dining hall doors swung open.
”Aha! My Lord, there you are! I have completed my scout of the eastern woods. Figaro has returned!”
There stood Figaro, encased in his full plate armor. Ami-chan-san looked at him, her eyes narrowing into a predatory cat-like grin.
”Pfft… hehe… Oh, I see. I see exactly what’s going on~” Ami-chan-san giggled.
”Ami-chan-san? What is it?” I asked.
”Oh, nothing~. I mean, sure, we need to keep digging for info… but I think I just came up with
”…It’s been a while since I heard a name like that,” I said.
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Summary:
The protagonists learn that the Egdia Empire is deploying a second elite Beastman Knight Order to the frontier. Cleonora and Liliarette deduce that the Empire views Shimizu’s dominion as a military threat or a target for forced submission. Insulted by the assumption that he will fold under pressure, Shimizu begins to spiral into old feelings of resentment. However, the arrival of Figaro and a new mischievous idea from Ami-chan-san shifts the focus toward a counter-strategy named ‘Plan XX’.
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Trivia:
- The Purple Dragon Knights are already present as guards for Princess Listarte.
- The Empire rarely ever deploys two Beastman Knight Orders to the same location.
- Grantula’s presence is the only reason the previous knights made it safely through the forest.
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Character Insight:
Shimizu shows significant emotional vulnerability; his ‘mask’ as a cool king slips, revealing a deeply rooted class-based anger. This suggests his motivation for maintaining the Dominion isn’t just survival, but a desire for respect and autonomy from those he perceives as ‘sheltered’.
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Behind the Scenes:
The mention of ‘eating burgers’ underscores the unusual blend of modern Earth culture and fantasy politics common in this series.
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TL Notes:
Notes:
• Ghibli – The 4th Unique Individual. A cat-like beast-eared maid with short yellowish-blonde hair. Height: 159cm. Bust: B-cup. Fighter class.
• Cleonora – The second princess. Have a yellow blonde hair. Usually styled as hairbun. D-cup.
• Listarte – Judiette’s younger half-sister. A fox beastman sorceress and the only Imperial citizen capable of riding the Skygoon. Have long dark hair. Wearing ornate Imperial princess robes with gold trim. A cup.
• Liliarette – The other Princess, who sacrificed her ability to walk and her sorcery talent to save her sister, Cleonora. She is imprisoned in the East Tower and is being used as a political and monetary pawn by Viorga. C-cup, true golden hair, waist-length hair, the fringe was a slightly blunt, hair on her left side was braided to the chest.
• Esrain – One of the four Great Gurus of the Emmeld Kingdom. She is the youngest among them and is considered to be at the peak of her magical power. She has beautiful white hair in a short cut and sleepy-looking eyes. Her height is 150cm with a D-cup bust size. She has a youthful, petite facial appearance.
• Grantula – A Unique Individual in the form of a giant mechanical spider. It has metallic parts and serves as the guardian of the Dominion’s periphery.
• Figaro – A non-physical Unique Individual. Appears as a flickering black flame or humanoid haze. Can occupy a suit of armor.
• Ami – A palm-sized fairy-like being from a world separate from both Earth and the isekai realm. She has light blue hair tied in a ponytail, mischievous blue eyes, and tiny wings that flutter behind her. Her outfit consists of a provocative high-cut leotard and a short jacket that looks like a miniskirt from the back, leaving her legs bare. Despite her playful appearance, she is actively searching for a contractor who can protect her from dangerous pursuers in exchange for the powers she offers.
• Vectra – A Unique Individual maid with white skin and white hair. Height 170cm, Bust Size D. Class: Duelist. Attribute: Darkness. Weapon: Star-Strike Battle Axe Volkein
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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