"You men over there."
Ignoring the two men left in a daze, I called out to a squad of soldiers kneeling a short distance away.
"Y-Yes, Sire!"
The man who seemed to be their captain shuffled forward on his knees with practiced ease to answer my summons.
Having revealed my identity as the emperor, the soldiers looked upon me with the same reverence and awe one might direct toward a divine being.
"Throw these two into the dungeon for now. And a few of you, come with Me."
"Sir! W-Where to, Your Majesty?"
"To Governor-General Olcott's mansion."
☆
With the soldiers in tow, I arrived at the estate of Olcott, the Governor-General of Ducel.
Even under the cover of night, the mansion's imposing grandeur was unmistakable.
Given the scale of such an estate, there were naturally gatekeepers on duty.
"Halt! Who goes there?!"
They barked the standard challenge without hesitation.
I didn't bother to answer.
Having already learned who I was, the soldiers I brought along took immediate action.
Without giving the gatekeepers a chance to speak, my men tackled them to the ground and swiftly neutralized them.
"Right this way, Sire."
"Mm."
The front gates swung open, and I stepped inside.
The commotion out front quickly reached the interior.
In the foyer just past the entrance, a crowd of servants had gathered alongside the man I had spotted on the river a few days earlier.
The very same man who had been tossing gold into the water.
The Governor-General of Ducel, Olcott himself.
"Who are you? Do you have any idea where you are, barging in like this?!"
"Insolence! You stand in the presence of His Majesty!"
"His Majesty, you say...?"
Olcott eyed me with blatant skepticism.
He probably didn't recognize me, which was only to be expected.
Olcott wasn't a governor-general I had appointed, and we had never met face-to-face.
Even for a governor-general, someone stationed in the provinces for years on end wouldn't necessarily be acquainted with an imperial prince—which was what I had been until recently.
So, I took matters into my own hands.
"Does this convince you?"
With those words, I released a fraction of my imperial aura to assert my identity.
Olcott and every servant in the room instantly turned pale and dropped to their knees on the spot.
"Forgive me! I was unaware Your Majesty had graced us in person—"
"I care nothing for pleasantries. More importantly... Olcott, do you understand your crimes?"
"—!"
Still prostrated with his head to the floor, Olcott flinched.
Yet that shock lasted only an instant before he quickly regained his composure.
"I am afraid I have no idea what Your Majesty is referring to."
"Still feigning ignorance, are we? It is far too late for that."
"I truly cannot fathom your meaning, Your Majesty. While I admit I failed to greet you upon your arrival, there was no official notice stating you had departed the capital. Since you are traveling incognito, I have committed no offense—"
"So you persist in your denial. Tell Me, what is a governor-general's annual stipend? Is it truly enough to scatter gold about so freely?"
"Goodness, whatever could you mean?"
Olcott brazenly played dumb.
Though rattled at first, it seemed he had steeled his nerves and settled into an unshakeable calm.
Now then, which piece of evidence should I shove in his face first—?
"E-Excuse me!"
"Hm?"
A youthful voice suddenly cut in.
Turning toward it, I spotted a young man among the servants staring intently at me.
Judging by his attire, he was at the very bottom of the household hierarchy—likely a slave or something of the sort.
There was a desperate look in his eyes, as if he had something urgent to say, but—
"Know your place! You are in His Majesty's presence!"
Olcott snapped, delivering the reprimand any master naturally would.
Such was the nature of social rank.
For a lowly servant or slave to interrupt while the emperor and a governor-general were speaking was utterly unheard of.
Striking him down on the spot for such insolence would have been well within rights.
However...
"Leave him be. You have something you wish to say to Me, do you not? Speak."
With permission from Me—the emperor—it was no longer an issue.
"..."
Sure enough, Olcott knitted his brows in tight frustration, but couldn't say a single word.
Watching his master fall silent, the young man gasped.
After a moment of sheer astonishment, he looked back at me.
"A-Are you really the Emperor?"
"Hm? I believe I just proved it to you, did I not?"
"N-No, it's not that! It's just hard to believe the Emperor would actually be here in a place like this..."
"I see."
"Really... the real thing..."
The young slave and I traded words that couldn't really be called substantive.
Watching this unfold, Olcott's expression soured, yet he remained unable to intervene.
I, the emperor, had granted him permission to speak and told him to proceed.
In an informal sense, that was equivalent to granting the young slave the right of direct appeal.
A petition authorized by the emperor himself.
To interrupt it would constitute an act of lèse-majesté.
That was why Olcott had no choice but to hold his tongue.
Meanwhile, whether he understood the gravity of the situation or not, the young slave finally seemed convinced that I was indeed the emperor standing before him.
"T-There's something I need Your Majesty to see."
"What is it?"
"This!"
The young man yanked open the front of his tunic.
Just as I wondered what he was doing, I noticed something sewn into the inner lining of the fabric.
He ripped the stitching open with a sharp tug.
Pulling out an envelope from within the garment, he held it up toward me with both hands.
"What is this?"
"It's proof of the Master's—of Olcott's bribes!"
"What?!"
Olcott was struck speechless.
An instant later, he lunged forward, clawing desperately to snatch the envelope away, but—
"Gwah!"
With a light flash of intimidation from Leviathan, Olcott collapsed to the floor, paralyzed with fear.
Having put Olcott in his place, I turned back to the young man.
"How did you come by this evidence?"
"M-My parents and little sister were killed because of Olcott."
"So you infiltrated his household for revenge."
"Yes! But once I got the evidence, there was no one I could trust to take it to. And..."
"And?"
"If I handed it over to the wrong person, it would just get covered up. So I kept it hidden all this time, waiting for the right moment."
"...Ho."
I was genuinely impressed.
"What is your name?"
"Huh? I-It's Phil Mohm."
"Phil, is it?"
I looked at Phil with unmistakable admiration in my eyes.
Disguising oneself as a slave to avenge one's family was hardly a new story.
Infiltrating a household and uncovering evidence wasn't extraordinarily difficult, either.
The truly hard part was keeping hold of that trump card the entire time, waiting until the exact moment it would deal a decisive blow.
Now I understood the point of his earlier, seemingly foolish questions confirming whether I was the emperor.
He had made absolute sure I was the Emperor of the Empire—the supreme authority—before playing his winning hand.
Phil Mohm.
This man was quite something.
"Show it to Me."
"H-Here, Sire."
I took the documents and leafed through them.
"Phil Mohm."
"Y-Yes, Sire!"
"Well done. As of this moment, you shall take over as governor-general."
"..."
The entire room froze in utter disbelief.
Naturally so.
However...
"What is the matter? Do you refuse?"
"N-No! Um... Thank you very much, Your Majesty!"
Phil bowed frantically.
Whether from sheer panic or a complete lack of formal education, his response disregarded every rule of court etiquette.
And that wasn't all.
―――――――――――― Name: Noah Ararat Emperor of the Empire Gender: Male Level: 17 + 1 / ∞ HP: C+B | Fire: E+S+S MP: D+C | Water: C+SS Strength: C+S | Wind: E+C Stamina: D+C | Earth: E+C Intelligence: D+B | Light: E+B Spirit: E+C | Darkness: E+B Speed: E+C Dexterity: E+C Luck: D+C ――――――――――――
In the corner of my vision, the plus value on my HP stat ticked upward.
Phil was a diamond in the rough, full of unpolished talent, I thought to myself.
☆
The following afternoon, at the "former" Olcott estate.
With Olcott dismissed from his post, I decided to use the mansion as my temporary palace for the time being.
Inside the study, I sat across from Zoe, whom I had summoned back.
"That is simply magnificent, Your Majesty!"
Having learned of last night's developments, Zoe's eyes sparkled with sheer delight.
"To recognize talent and promote him on the spot... Truly worthy of you, Sire."
"That instinct of his for seizing the decisive moment is a natural gift, a rare quality. I'd like to nurture it properly."
"With Your Majesty guiding him, he will surely thrive!"
"More importantly, how is the confiscation of their assets coming along?"
"Ah, yes."
Zoe quickly lowered her gaze to the ledger in her hands.
I had ordered the complete seizure of assets belonging to Olcott and the rest of the conspirators involved in the salt tax fraud.
The process had begun immediately, with Zoe overseeing the operation.
"Regarding Ashley's residence—um, the insolent young man's estate—there was a slight complication."
"What happened?"
"Human bones were unearthed in the garden, raising suspicions of murder..."
"...Heh."
I let out a soft laugh.
"Heh...? Um, Your Majesty?"
"A classic trick."
"Pardon?"
"When confiscating assets, soldiers are sent in to inventory and guard the property, right?"
"Y-Yes."
"Well, in most cases, they quietly pocket a few valuables on the side. A bit of petty graft, so to speak. And they frequently run into interference."
"Interference?"
"Indeed. Usually from the target's wives, concubines, and the like. People in their position tend to let their emotions run wild in times like this, wailing and screaming about how unfair it is, or asking why it had to happen to them."
"Ah..."
"And when they get out of hand and get in the way of the soldiers' 'pocket money,' the soldiers retaliate. In this case, they likely planted human bones to frame him for murder."
"I see... As expected of Your Majesty."
"Hm?"
Wasn't that "as expected" a little premature? I looked at Zoe, amused.
"We have already established that it was a false accusation. Judging by the ribs and pelvis, the unearthed remains are a mixture of male and female bones. Furthermore, when we poured water over the soil, it was obvious the ground had only recently been disturbed."
"I see."
So the investigators on-site had already figured it out.
"You really are incredible, Your Majesty. To deduce all of that before I even finished my report."
I chuckled quietly once more.
I was once the Imperial Prince Minister of Justice.
Having overseen countless asset seizures from convicted criminals, I knew every trick in the book.
That was all there was to it.
"Now then... a rough estimate is fine. How much are we looking at?"
"Um... ah!"
Zoe glanced down at the documents and gasped.
"What is it?"
"Well... they estimate it will easily exceed twenty million Rien."
"They certainly hoarded quite a fortune."
While secretly feeling a perverse sort of respect for their sheer greed, I muttered,
"Twenty million, is it...?"
The national treasury currently held less than five million.
To have twenty million added to the coffers all at once...
On top of that, we could look forward to the complete restoration of our salt tax revenues.
With this much wealth in hand, we could accomplish great things, I thought to myself.