Glory and Fury

Railway Military Police.

Central Headquarters. Conference Room.

Commander Arsen stood at the head of the table, flanked by every Railway Military Police member holding the rank of Third Officer or above.

Thirty people in total.

Excluding the regional branch commanders scattered across the empire, these were the Railway Military Police’s inner circle.

Still half familiar faces, even a hundred years later.

For long-lived races, a century of service was hardly unusual.

“……Hmm.”

“Mmmm.”

Still, every last one of them was glaring at me with undisguised hostility.

Understandable, given that I was seated beside Arsen — in the upper chair, no less — with my legs crossed.

Military organizations are exclusionary by nature. Even more so when they’re already on edge after a terrorist attack. An outsider walking in during a moment like this would set anyone’s teeth on edge.

Arsen spoke.

“I apologize for the sudden summons. Regarding the current situation, there is an urgent matter that——”

“Before that, I’d like to clarify something. Who exactly is that?”

A human man holding the rank of Third Officer raised his hand and cut in. He was staring openly at me as he spoke.

“I fail to understand why an outsider has been admitted to this executive meeting of the Railway Military Police.”

“If you want to know, you should introduce yourself first.”

“……Ah, this is Third Officer Dwight. He has served approximately forty years.”

Arsen stepped in and addressed me with deference.

The room went slack-jawed.

Their own commander was practically bowing and scraping to some stranger he’d apparently just met? Small wonder they looked baffled.

Not that I expected much of a performance from Arsen.

What matters is that I can direct the Railway Military Police with a nod of my head.

I shrugged and spoke.

“I’m Rigen Librata. My name has probably come up a few times in this room already. And I imagine you’ve all figured out by now that the one who actually resolved the railway terrorism wasn’t Orca — it was me.”

Dwight’s brow furrowed.

“You’re the youngest son of the Librata count’s house? Yes, I’ve heard plenty about you. But I don’t see what that has to do with attending this meeting……”

Crunch.

A sharp, ugly sound.

Arsen had gripped the edge of the table hard enough to crack it. The demon’s raw physical strength making itself known in the worst possible way.

He was staring Dwight down with a look that said he was one breath away from launching across the table.

A hair-trigger moment.

Everyone froze, unable to make heads or tails of the situation. I sighed.

“Hey. Calm down. We agreed not to do this, remember? Keep it up and I’m going home.”

“……S-sorry.”

Arsen released the tension from his body and exhaled slowly.

The room collectively wore expressions of utter disbelief.

A war hero. The commander of the Railway Military Police. Bending over backwards for some wet-behind-the-ears kid?

Still, nobody was going to guess he was looking at Sirik Karakas.

A general prostrating himself before a civilian looks absurd. But nobody thinks: ‘that civilian must be Yi Seong-gye reborn.’

Dwight cleared his throat and continued.

“……There seems to be some history between you two. Would you care to explain?”

“Sure. As of today, I’ve been granted authority equivalent to a special officer of the Railway Military Police, in the capacity of civilian collaborator. The position of special officer was abolished a while back, so let me explain what it means from here on out……”

“Special officer? Have you lost your……”

“Shut your mouth!”

Arsen shoved back from his chair and roared across the room.

Ice-cold silence.

I shot him a look. Arsen caught himself and hurriedly recited the lines we’d prepared.

“Th-this man is here to pull the Railway Military Police through the crisis we’re facing! That is why I extended a personal and formal invitation! No one will speak of him without proper respect!”

“……”

Dwight pressed his lips together and sat back down.

His expression made his feelings abundantly clear.

The rest of the room wasn’t much different.

I turned to Arsen.

“Can I speak now?”

“Of course!”

“Then sit down. You standing there is making everyone nervous.”

Once Arsen meekly returned to his seat, the room erupted into a fresh wave of stupefied looks.

I pressed the advantage.

“Effective immediately, I hold authority equivalent to a special officer of the Railway Military Police, serving as a civilian collaborator. A special officer has the power to dismiss any member holding the rank of Third Officer or below at their own discretion, and to deploy members of Second-Rank Officer grade or lower in combat operations. The only person with authority to remove me from this position is the commander himself. All actions will be processed through after-the-fact reporting.”

“……We understand that Commander Arsen must have given this considerable thought. But isn’t this an extraordinary amount of authority? The position of special officer was abolished precisely because His Majesty the Emperor deemed it excessive.”

A beastwoman seated at the far end of the table — a Second-Rank Officer, cat-eared — raised her hand to speak.

I nodded.

“I’ll grant that it’s a considerable amount of authority. But the situation demands it. A railway that had been safe for over a century was breached. Have you considered what that means for the empire’s citizens?”

“I understand what you’re saying, but——”

“The fact that Commander Arsen went out of his way to bring me in and grant me this level of authority should tell you how serious this is. Let me explain before you draw conclusions.”

All eyes landed on me.

I had addressed Arsen in casual speech while speaking respectfully to his subordinates — an apparent contradiction, but a deliberate one.

Politeness toward them signals that I’m above Arsen. Their new top. Let that settle in.

I laid out the situation.

“There are three major problems to address. First: a crew member cooperated with the terrorists. We need to determine whether this is an isolated case or part of a wider pattern within the railway staff. Every employee of the Railway Authority needs to be reviewed — their background, personal history, all of it. Has this been done?”

“Well, the Railway Authority employees number——”

“One hundred and seventy-one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-six. Every single one. No exceptions. We can’t afford another incident like this.”

I drove it home without softening the blow.

“Second: the bomb detonated on the railway. You’ve all investigated by now — it was an explosive charge of military grade. Manufactured and handled exclusively by the Imperial Military. Have you made contact with them?”

“I reached out to the military high command as a first step. Naturally, they deny any involvement. They’re insisting some rogue demon engineer crafted it independently.”

“Of course they’d say that. They’re scrambling internally right now, hunting for the leak — but they’ll never admit it to us.”

I deliberately used ‘us.’

We’re on the same side here.

“I’ll wedge myself into that gap and get hold of something they can’t walk back from. Incontrovertible evidence that the Imperial Military bears responsibility for this terrorism.”

“Is that actually achievable?”

“It is. Because this isn’t the first time an explosive has been used.”

The room stiffened.

I let my gaze move across the table.

“You’ve all heard about the trouble Marquis Crocell caused. A bomb was used then, too. An explosive charge.”

“Impossible……”

“That can’t be——”

The room erupted.

Small wonder — the fact that Marquis Crocell had used a bomb was known only to a handful of people.

I shook my head.

“I resolved that situation personally. But even if I produce the remnants of that bomb, the Imperial Military will refuse to accept responsibility.”

That much is obvious.

The Railway Military Police and the Imperial Military are sworn enemies. If your next-door nemesis shows up claiming your son burned his house down, does that get resolved on the spot? They’d deny everything, screaming until their throats gave out, even with physical evidence in front of them.

“Arguing it out will only drag us into a mud fight, and the longer it drags, the worse it looks for our side. So I’ll secure something they can’t dispute.”

“If you can actually do that……”

“Then we’d finally have a way to manage this.”

The tension in the room began to loosen, just slightly.

“And the third issue: we need to restore the glory of the Railway Military Police.”

“Pardon?”

“Our numbers are too thin. Railway staff headcount has shrunk as well. That’s the result of the Finance Ministry slashing the budget and cutting personnel — they dress it up with various justifications, but the reality is clear enough, isn’t it? They’ve decided we don’t matter.”

Every head in the room nodded, almost reflexively.

I kept my voice quiet.

A low voice lands harder sometimes.

“Who are we? We were guardians of the railways, appointed directly by His Majesty the Emperor. And what are we now? Line officers have become extortionists without discipline, and our own crew members have turned into terrorists. There are many reasons the organization has come apart at the seams — but at the end of the day, it comes down to money. The Finance Ministry stopped funding the railways.”

Nod. Nod.

Every face in the room carried the weight of accumulated grievance.

I said it quietly, but with conviction.

“This cannot stand. I want to see the Railway Military Police reclaim its glory. I want every officer in this corps to stand tall and be proud of what they do. And to make that possible — I’m going to get us a proper budget from the Finance Ministry.”

“……Do you actually think that’s possible?”

“Who said the railway was possible?”

I let the silence hold for a moment.

“Some of the people in this room were here when His Majesty the Emperor first established the Railway Military Police.”

Arsen nodded.

The non-human officers who had helped build the railways alongside me nodded in unison.

“The concept of a railway was alien to everyone. Even after people understood it, they didn’t believe it. This? Across the entire empire? Blasting through mountains, tunneling under earth, clearing forests? You expect that to work?”

“……”

Hands quietly clenched into fists around the table.

I raised my voice.

“Who did the impossible anyway? The people in this room did. Their predecessors did. You picked up shovels and leveled the ground without a word. You drove back beasts that stood in the way. You talked down villages that didn’t want to give up their land. Everyone said it couldn’t be done — and you did it regardless.”

“……”

“So what are you going to leave for the next generation? The legacy of a Railway Military Police that takes bribes from passengers, that couldn’t stop a single terrorist attack? Is that the inheritance you want to leave? Doesn’t that make your blood boil?”

The room stared.

I pressed on, putting force into every word.

“We have to go back to what we were. We can’t remain this small, cramped thing. We should be able to walk with our heads high. We should be able to shout — we are the Railway Military Police, the Emperor’s left arm — and mean every word of it!”

My voice rang through the conference room, alone in the silence.

A long pause.

Clap.

Someone began to applaud.

One by one, others joined in.

My words had found the ember that had been sitting cold inside them and lit it.

Then Dwight shot to his feet.

“……W-wait! Fine, nice speech. But what exactly are you proposing we do? What are you asking from us?”

“First thing — apologize to the dark elves.”

I said it evenly.

Dwight’s face twisted.

“What? You’re telling us to bow our heads and crawl to the dark elves?”

“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re supposed to be an officer, and after sitting through that entire briefing, that’s your takeaway?”

My tone went flat. Everyone who had been riding the wave of the moment flinched.

The emotional appeal is done. Time to establish authority.

I stood from my seat and spoke.

“You and the dark elves are both citizens of this empire. The dark elves came to us first with information and requested cooperation. We ignored them, and that’s why this escalated. And it was because the dark elves ran themselves ragged trying to stop it that the passengers came home safe — while dark elf agents died in their place.”

“But they acted without authorization——”

“Take off your insignia.”

I cut him off cleanly.

“People like you have no place in the Railway Military Police. Don’t bother coming in tomorrow.”

“What? What?!”

“As special officer, I have the authority to dismiss any Third Officer and below. You’re fired, effective today.”

“You’re out of your mind——”

Dwight ground his teeth and locked his stare on me.

I walked straight at him.

I reached out and seized the rank insignia pinned to Dwight’s chest. With one sharp pull——

Rrrrip!

——it tore free.

Then, right in front of him, I tore it to pieces.

“You son of a——!”

Dwight exploded and swung a fist. I stepped to the side, let it sail past, and hooked my foot behind his ankle.

He’d been expecting contact. He got none. The momentum carried him forward, and his own foot betrayed him.

In that split second, I brought my other hand into his side — light, measured, channeled through Telekinetic Fist.

Wham!

Dwight launched sideways and slammed into the wall, crumpling to the floor.

“Nghhhh……”

He lay there with a look of pure disbelief.

The fact that he — a senior officer — had been put down this easily.

And the visceral understanding that even if he got back up, he wouldn’t fare any better.

Dwight lay trembling, unable to decide what to do with himself. I’d already stopped caring.

“Arsen. Assign his replacement yourself. And select someone to personally deliver our thanks and apology to the dark elves.”

“Yes, sir!”

Arsen answered without hesitation.

With the room still in a daze, I turned and addressed them all.

“The way forward has been outlined. Keep it in mind. This meeting is adjourned.”

The session ended.

I stayed behind in the conference room and organized my thoughts.

Arsen settled into the seat beside me and spoke.

“Wouldn’t it have been simpler if I handled things myself? Now Your Majesty, you’ve only made enemies——”

“Keep your voice down. Someone might hear. Don’t call me that — just call me Rigen.”

“I could never presume to address you so informally.”

Arsen’s expression went serious.

I clicked my tongue.

“Then call me Lord Rigen.”

“Yes, sir. At any rate — won’t this make things difficult going forward? Dwight may have been a loudmouth, but if I’d been the one to cut him loose——”

“I made a pretty compelling speech, didn’t I? Half the room looked genuinely moved.”

“I was in tears, sir.”

I let out a quiet laugh.

An emperor needs to be a good fighter, a good politician, and a good speaker.

“But a moving speech only goes so far. Give it a little time and they’ll all remember that I’m an outsider. A parachute drop.”

“A parachute……?”

“Objectively speaking, that’s exactly how it looks. To anyone who doesn’t know the full story, it seems like you just took a shine to me and handed me a position.”

No matter how well I presented myself, there were limits to what a single address could accomplish.

The Railway Military Police wouldn’t simply accept my authority overnight.

I laid it out plainly.

“Firing Dwight will give the dissenters a rallying point. But having the opposition clustered in one place is actually easier to work with. One clean sweep, and it’s done.”

“Understood. If there’s anything you need going forward, just say the word.”

“For now — word will come in from all directions asking about me. Don’t try to hide it. That’ll only raise more suspicion. Just tell them I seemed capable and you decided to give me a shot. But under no circumstances do you breathe a word about Sirik.”

“Understood.”

“Oh — do you have a sword you’re not using?”

“Pardon?”

“I need a blade. If you’ve got a spare fifth-tier sword lying around, I’ll take it. Fifth tier is enough.”

Every fight until now, I’d had to calculate whether the weapon in my hand would survive the clash.

A sword built to withstand fifth-tier stress would have cost over five billion at the time it was forged, but Arsen was probably letting one gather dust at home.

At my current level, I wouldn’t have to worry about snapping a blade mid-fight.

Arsen blinked slowly and nodded.

“I do have one.”

“Bring it next time. I’ll be needing it. And for communications going forward, route everything through Second-Rank Officer Mirei. Attach her to me.”

“Understood! I will make certain she knows not to disappoint you, sir!”

Arsen answered with a full-throated roar.

“Hey. Don’t go putting strange ideas in the girl’s head. Don’t tell her she has to wait on me hand and foot, or that her job is to keep me happy at all costs.”

“……Is that not permitted?”

He was actually going to do it.

I pushed to my feet.

“Anyway, that’s that. I’m heading home.”

Arsen stood with me.

“Ah — what about the wedding, sir? If you’re in attendance, I imagine a generous gift would be in order? I’d be glad to contribute something myself.”

“What are you talking about? Who’s getting married?”

I turned to look at him. Arsen tilted his head.

“Oh — am I wrong? I’d heard there was a wedding. My mistake, perhaps.”

“Whose wedding?”

“His Majesty’s third daughter — the Third Princess — isn’t she getting married?”

“What? Miriel is celestial. She’s still a minor——”

The words died in my throat. My expression darkened.

The Karakas empire spans many races, each with different growth rates. Celestials take a long time to come of age.

And I’d ordered my children ranked by birth order.

Lisera, the Fourth Princess, is an adult by elven standards — but Miriel, the Third Princess, is still a child.

“……Wait. Are you telling me there’s some lunatic out there trying to court my underage daughter?”

“That’s what I heard……”

“Who?”

Arsen flinched at my stare.

“I — I only heard it secondhand.”

“Who is it, and where are they from.”

Even having dirt thrown in my eye once, this is something I cannot let pass.