Emperor's Bane

Chapter 455 A destined tragedy

finally.

Conrad told a joke, stroked his long hair, and took the wine glass and Nucadia from his brother.

Of course he knew what would happen in this world. It was a story that was so vulgar that only the most inferior third-rate writers would make up the story: he would have an unlucky brother who fell into this world that had long been In the world chosen by the gods, and played by countless tides of fate, he became the most tragic and ridiculous strong man in the galaxy.

In that never-ending nightmare, Midnight Ghost had already foreseen all this: just like he foresaw that the galaxy would burn, just like he foresaw the ending of every heir, just like he met Morgan and Guilliman today. The various agreement plans sketched out will cause such earth-shaking in the next 10,000 years.

He knew that Morgan and Guilliman would sign hundreds of documents today, they had signed as many documents in the past, and they would sign many more issues in the future: among the tens of millions of documents , although most of them are just step-by-step and unknown, there will still be some extremely special ones that will stir up shocking storms in the galaxy.

Some of them will become the pillars for the empire to survive, some will become the guarantee for the long-term stability of the galaxy, and some will be completely erased from the history books. Even Guilliman himself can only regret it. and trembled quietly to announce their presence.

Conrad sees all this clearly, because he dreams every night, because every dream he has brings him into chaos that he has almost never seen before: psychic powers and enchantments from the Spider Queen Items allow the midnight wanderer to avoid the pain of being tortured by illusions all the time, but the price is that when others can sleep peacefully, Conrad has to face countless dreams that are more terrifying than reality in his sleep. Purgatory.

Therefore, Midnight Ghost can see many futures, even more than the Emperor and the Palmist can speculate on the chess game. He can know what kind of butterfly effect every smallest difference will cause. He will know his What kind of limits will brothers show when facing an invincible enemy? He also knows how difficult it will be for his genetic father to get what he wants.

In other words: That's impossible.

There is of course a reason why Midnight Ghost chose to do this.

At the very least, in Conrad's view, the Emperor's grand ambitions, just like the name of his ship, were nothing more than a dream. He had never even seen the Emperor succeed in his dreams. The dawn of retreat.

Just like even if he knew that his red sand brother had fallen on Nucadia, and had most likely encountered the greatest tragedy in his life, entering the dim future: Conrad Also didn't tell anyone about it, not even Morgan.

Just like...

He will use them selectively.

None of them would happen, and reality would take a path he never imagined.

As he said before, his predictions were completely "chaos", just like a chaotically edited movie, piled up in his mind in disarray: not only did they have no logic to each other, but they also There are several or even dozens of completely different development paths for the same thing, and the dozens of futures before him are very likely to be wrong.

He finally settled on one point.

Conrad is not a cold-blooded beast who regards his brothers as playthings, nor does he have the increasingly corrupt and crazy mentality he had on Nostramo in the past: Conrad's silence is the result of careful consideration. It was the most painful but also the most correct choice he made after gradually understanding the truth about the so-called [prophetic ability] in his mind.

Even if someone asked specifically, he would never say anything.

However, even in the secret conversation between father and son on Holy Terra, Midnight Ghost never thought of telling his father this: just like although he saw countless things that will happen in the future in his dreams, see There were many possibilities for his brothers to make mistakes, but he didn't tell anyone involved.

After thinking carefully, the original body could only choose to respond with a wry smile: after all, the so-called prophecy is just an all-too-real movie played in his mind, but the development of reality is more complicated than any film and television work. It is even more illogical. It is ridiculous to want to interfere with things that happen in reality by foreseeing a few scattered fragments in advance.

……

Therefore, adhering to this principle, Konrad did not confide his failure to the Emperor, nor reveal anything about the Lord of the Red Sands: this principle sounds very stupid and heartless, but in fact, it is midnight After many times of thinking and even practice, Ghost had to choose the final method.

Even now, when Guilliman inadvertently handed the world of Nucadia into the hands of the Midnight Ghost, Conrad did not take this opportunity to tell his blood relatives that there was a brother in this world.

For example, when the prophetic visions involve Conrad himself, he will face them bravely: the prophecy tells Conrad where on the battlefield he will bleed, and before reaching the place of bloodshed, the Midnight Ghost Will fight like the bravest fighter.

And when the illusion involves others, especially when it involves those vital matters, Midnight Ghost will choose to be cautiously silent: he will only reveal those insignificant little things, and as for those big things, he will never interfere. the ideas in it.

His predictions are not omnipotent or even completely correct.

This choice is: he accepts his ability, and will try his best to witness and remember the future illusions that have been shown to him, but he will not choose to use these dream illusions to interfere with reality.

In the past few days, Midnight Ghost, with the encouragement of Morgan, bravely took his own steps to try to change the tragic future he foresaw: the results of some of the attempts were certainly gratifying, but the results of others were... The consequences were so severe that Conrad broke into a cold sweat.

This was his principle, and Conrad was thankful that the only Lord of Avalon who could make him waver from this principle had never forced him on this point.

You know, even the birth of a small thing often has thousands or even tens of thousands of logical chains behind it. An error in any one of them will make the development of the matter completely different: and how could he rely on the Midnight Ghost? From a broken fragment of reality, how can we deduce all the logical chains behind it?

Conrad even desperately discovered that in many cases, when he foresees the future of something, it is a butterfly effect on the matter: the moment he foresees the future of something, the future cannot be as he foresees. develop like that.

After realizing this, the Primarch finally understood the Emperor's contempt for the prophecy: so Midnight Ghost chose to agree with this contempt, so Midnight Ghost did not tell anyone about his Red Man. The matter of Brother Sand.

Before that, the original body had actually tried again and again to rescue this brother he had never met in his immersive prophetic fantasy: the results of these attempts made him finally decide to remain silent in reality.

Because after comparing the results of his various efforts, Conrad finally discovered that if he wanted to help the tragic brother, then the most important thing he should do was to remain silent and say nothing.

Ridiculous conclusion: But it is also a conclusion that has to be faced.

"..."

So, the Primarch chose to raise the corners of his mouth, took the drink from Guilliman, raised the cup, and told one of his jokes to the blood relatives in front of him amidst the pain and silence in his heart.

He told a joke, stroked his long hair, and took Nucadia from his brother. He told jokes about the average salary per capita of the entire Eighth Legion, giving him a different kind of happiness and optimism. It spread to the other two Primarchs present.

Yes, be happy.

Be optimistic.

In this dark galaxy that is doomed to absurdity and chaos, optimism is often the last thing they can do.

……

that's it.

The Primarch drank the glass of wine.

He ended up saying nothing.

------

"However, it is impossible for everyone to choose to keep his silence."

“There are always people who want to speak out.”

"Either for the beliefs in their hearts, or for the business in their heads, or simply because of stupidity, jealousy, or incomprehensible paranoia, they are eager to use all means to destroy those who in their view are Wrong thing."

"They don't care what price they will pay, what losses they will cause, or whether it will affect innocent people. They just think that the justice in their hearts trumps all truths in the world, and even trumps the interests and reality of others. The logic of development.” “What’s even more sad is that in reality there is no shortage of such people. Even among our brothers, there is no shortage of such people who blindly oppose useful ideas for the sake of wrong obsessions in their hearts. people."

"It's a shame, isn't it?"

【It is indeed a pity. 】

Morgan smiled and nodded in agreement with her Ultramar brothers.

[But I am more curious, my dear Robert, how could you criticize someone so openly? And that person is our brother: who is it? To be able to make the gentle Lord Macragge lose his temper like this. 】

"I'm not offended, Morgan, and it's not a criticism."

In front of the smiling Spider Queen, Guilliman, who had spoken fiercely just now, lowered his head in embarrassment and coughed a few times to cover up his embarrassment: but his tone became weaker unconsciously. .

"It's just...somewhat incomprehensible."

The Lord of Macragge frowned at first, then relaxed his eyes, raised his eyebrows, made a helpless posture, shook his head and sighed: But during this period, the hands of the original gene never stopped working. , still signing documents one after another at a very fast speed. Even in Morgan's view, this was an efficiency that she could not match.

In just the blink of an eye, the original body pulled out, signed, sorted and filed at least thirty documents in an orderly manner, and carefully reviewed each document and made appropriate corrections before approving it.

These thirty documents are the result of discussions between Guilliman and Morgan in the past four hours. They involve many fields such as military, people's livelihood, trade, diplomacy, and even literature and art. They are important in the Far Eastern Frontier and the Five Hundred Worlds. , there will be at least hundreds of imperial worlds that will usher in good opportunities for prosperity and development because of these signatures, so that famine and ignorance will completely disappear in these imperial worlds as the era of strife recedes.

There is no doubt that this is what the Lord of Macragge is most happy to see. He even calculated based on the data in his hand: If the Dawnbreakers and the Ultramarines can continue to maintain such a cooperative attitude, it will last at least eighty years. , then the Five Hundred Worlds and the Far Eastern Frontier will become the most prosperous areas in the human empire. Even in the core area of ​​the Sun Star Territory where Holy Terra is seated, the living standards, industrial capabilities, and development of literary creation of its people will probably It can only be [barely comparable] to the land governed by the two Primarchs.

When he deduced this, that unscrupulous smile appeared on Guilliman's face. He was obviously very happy, so happy that even the words he spoke became a little blind and impulsive, becoming careless. think.

So, when Morgan finished talking about these thirty important documents, he dug around in his psychic rift, and finally took out the two advanced editions of the "Psychic Scripture" that he had just finished writing. When referring to the book, the Lord of the Five Hundred Worlds happily took it, and at the same time, the sarcasm in his mouth towards some brothers echoed in the air unconsciously.

Guilliman did not name anyone, but both Morgan and Conrad knew who he was talking about: after all, the Wolf King of Fenris has semi-publicly declared his support for the Psionic Codex, although it has no influence on the Thousand Sons Legion and the Magnus's criticism was not at all weakened by this support.

[So, did something happen to Mortarion again? 】

"Don't you know?"

【I don’t care about his affairs. 】

Morgan's matter-of-fact tone only made Guilliman laugh.

"Well, let me tell you, just about a few months ago, Mortarion formally submitted his request to the War Council of Terra by signing a formal document: he would not allow any passage through the psychic saints. Mortal psykers trained by the Codex will join his expeditionary fleet, and if he finds anyone who violates the rules, he will directly use the rights of the Primarch to execute them."

【…】

Morgan raised a brow.

[What is he planning? 】

"……I don't know either."

Guilliman shook his head, but then coughed slightly again.

"But I heard that within the Death Guard Legion, it is not that there are no psykers at all: in addition to those indispensable navigators, the Fourteenth Legion itself has a think tank. Although it is not large, it is The various behaviors they displayed are almost the same as those of other legion think tanks who learned through the psionic scriptures."

[...How do you know this, Guilliman? 】

"...Oh, it's just a rumor."

The Primarch smiled awkwardly.

And Morgan narrowed his eyes.

After a long moment of silence, she smiled meaningfully.

[Unexpectedly, there would be so many rumors on Ultramar. Maybe one day, there will be rumors from Avalon, and they will be overheard on Macragge? 】

Guilliman immediately shook his head.

"No, absolutely not."

[…It’s best not. 】

The two Primarchs looked at each other in silence. After a while, they each showed a gentle smile and gave the other a step up. Morgan, on the other hand, was very interested and planned to ask her brother, who was unusually well-informed. Find out about some new [rumors].

[So, are there any recent rumors on Macragge? 】

"Um……"

Guilliman was somewhat silent, but the voice from Nostramo took over his words on his own initiative.

"Not now."

"But, there will be one soon."

Conrad smiled hoarsely and successfully attracted the attention of the two blood relatives. Facing these two looks of confusion or contemplation, Midnight Ghost just raised his wine glass without fear. It seemed that he was interested in that person. The future [Rumor] looks confident.

"A, huge, rumor."

Conrad emphasized every word, and he chuckled, making both Morgan and Guilliman feel like their scalps were numb. On the contrary, it was this Nostramo man who was so leisurely looking towards his two A brother raised his glass.

"Cheers, you two."

------

"Congratulations... you two."

(End of this chapter)