40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 173 34. The Patient Healed With Himself

Robert Guilliman stood up slowly, which was not easy for him now.He supported the handrail of the assistive walker with both hands, and his arms trembled so much that it made people worry that he would fall down in the next second.

But he didn't.

He straightened his body little by little, under the faded blond hair, the pair of haggard blue eyes seemed calm, and the first sentence he spoke could barely be regarded as a joke.

"I'm now concerned that Dr. Jairzinho will be invited to many unnecessary medical discussions in the future."

Conrad Koz raised the corners of his mouth, smiled and shook his head: "Unless you publicize the fact that you have been injured, he will still only be the medical officer of our army, not someone with superb medical skills who can even cure Robert." Guilliman's men."

Guilliman chuckled too.Angron, who was standing aside, folded his hands, glanced at them with disapproving eyes and shook his head.

"I strongly urge you to go for another medical diagnosis, brother."

Angron spoke in a deep voice.

"You woke up and were even able to walk, but that doesn't mean you're fine. Many gladiators I know died in their sleep after a great battle. We celebrated them and they were at the banquet. We acted as if nothing had happened, but the next day, all we got was a body.”

"You have a point, Angron, but now I"

Guilliman paused for a moment, then began to move himself little by little.

He pressed the button with his finger, which unlocked the lock button of the walker itself, and its training wheels began to work. Guilliman pushed it, and it walked a certain distance before stopping again.

"...pretty sure I'm all right."

"Are you sure?" Angron frowned. "With all due respect, brother, but you are just a patient now, and it is impossible for a patient to know what is going on with his body."

Guilliman didn't answer the question, but just shook his head.He bent down, picked up an office datapad from his desk, and placed it on the middle partition of the walker.Then, there was another few minutes of silence.

Robert Guilliman swiped the data pad without saying a word, watching the post-battle loss statistics of various Ultramarines.

He was very silent, and this silence made Conrad Koz feel a kind of familiarity-so he patted Angron's shoulder, and when the latter turned his head, he shook his head slightly .

After ten minutes or so, Robert Guilliman let out a slow breath.He lowered his head, raised his right hand, and slowly swept away the hair on his forehead that blocked his vision.

The once handsome face was now only frighteningly haggard.

The cheeks are retracted, the shape of the cheekbones and jaw can be seen at a glance, and the eyes are as deep as if embedded in the eye sockets. Although they are still bright like gems, they also create a stronger contrast.There was no extra flesh on his face, just skin, tightly attached to the bones.

"How are you guys doing?" He asked softly, his voice hoarse, but he didn't seem weak.

"Three thousand, six hundred and seventy six people." Conrad Coates replied with a smile. "Midnight Blade had 670 and 670 victims."

"Midnight Blade?"

"Ah, I decided to give the Legion a new name. It would be too strange to call it by number all the time, wouldn't it?"

Robert Guilliman nodded silently, taking his eyes off Conrad Curze's face.

His younger brother, who was still considered young, was smiling without any warmth at all. He was smiling, but his eyes looked like he was undergoing an amputation without anesthesia.

Macragge's subject had experienced this feeling many times, and each time, he was in great pain, so he didn't intend to ask more.

He looked at Angron, and the Nucerian grinned, with sharp canine teeth and a simple smile, but his tone was terrifyingly firm: "War hounds have no dead."

"." Guilliman nodded wordlessly.

He can roughly guess what Angron did on Harkosus II, and he will not question Angron because of this—anything, as long as it involves aliens, it is impossible to be good .

There is an eternal bloody war between them and humans. Throughout the entire galaxy, there is almost no alien race that has not harmed humans.In those dark years, they committed a blood debt that has exceeded the category of crime.

Crimes can still be pardoned, they cannot.

"What about you, Robert?" Conrad Coates asked.

At this moment, he was already leaning on a bookcase naturally and leisurely, and was carelessly tapping on the side of the bookcase with his right hand.He didn't show any sorrow for the huge sacrifice number of 670, as if he didn't care at all.

"The casualties are still being counted," Guilliman said. "The number of victims that have been identified so far is 320. The situation of the auxiliary army is slightly better. This can be considered a blessing in misfortune."

He closed his eyes and fell into thought.It seems to be thinking, and it seems to be wandering in the corner of memory.

Conrad Curz and Angron did not speak, the former was still tapping the side of the bookcase rhythmically, while the latter came to the porthole and observed Harkosus III through the orbit.

A few minutes later, Angron broke the silence: "There is no living thing on Harkosus II."

With his back turned to his brothers, the Nucerian spoke in an extremely calm voice, thick cables swaying behind his head: "So, what about Harkosus [-] and [-]?"

"There are no more living things on No. [-]." Conrad Koz replied quietly. "My legion is inspecting the Harkosus civilians at the bottom of the Nightfall's cabin. I haven't figured out how to deal with them yet."

Guilliman keenly caught the word 'processing', opened his eyes, lowered his head and issued a new command on the data pad.

After finishing this, he raised his head and said, "The same is true for No. [-], but I plan to do it more thoroughly. The entire underground of Harkosus No. [-]... almost has traces of pollution from that kind of thing." , so I will destroy it with orbital bombing after the search for survivors is over."

"Then it's the same with Number Two," said Angron. "I know that the empire has a huge colonial fleet on standby, but everything that happened on the planet Harkosus II should be completely destroyed in my opinion."

Conrad Curz nodded thoughtfully, and instead of answering the question immediately, he brought up another matter instead.

"Robert, have you recovered many planets?"

"Yes."

"In other words, you have been participating in this great expedition for a while."

Curz lowered his head, crossed his hands, stopped tapping on the bookcase, and started tapping his left arm with his right index finger.Metal collides, rubs against each other, clangs like sharp knives unsheathed.

"So, what do you think it is?"

Robert Guilliman raised his head and began to stare at the two portraits on the wall.

Unlike his office on Macragge, these two portraits were hung directly above the bookcase, not obtrusive, and could even be said to be natural.

The one on the left is a portrait of Conor Guilliman.The consul was wearing the consul uniform of his era, standing on the top of the mountain and riding a horse looking down at Macragge.The city is thriving, and Conor Guilliman's profile looks like he's meditating.

The one on the right is a portrait of the emperor, dressed in golden armor, holding a sharp blade and swinging a sword.Thousands of troops rushed out from behind his golden armor like shadows, declaring war on a storm that was approaching not far away.

"...everyone has a different answer to this, Conrad." Robert Guilliman said in a low voice. "Take Ferrus as an example. For him, the Great Crusade can be divided into the following five steps. Embark, arrive at the destination, fight, win, and embark."

"It goes round and round and round and round. But Ferrus is not tired of it. He has a considerable enthusiasm for war, which comes from his identification with our father's ideals. Therefore, he is willing to do a little during the Great Crusade. Sentient weapons."

"I'm different. I've tried this before. I can't accept leaving devastated and crying civilians to leave after the war is won. Moreover, if too cruel methods are used, the recovered world will not be good to us. Too much recognition, the result is often rebellion. And counter-rebellion.”

Robert Guilliman suddenly smiled wryly. His excessive thinness made this smile look shocking and extremely frightening.

"The empire's attitude towards rebellion is very serious, there is no second chance. If the rebel planet does not surrender immediately after the arrival of the imperial fleet, then most of the people will be executed, and the rest will be reduced to slaves and slaves." slave labor."

"I've been through this, so I don't think my Legion can simply go across the galaxy and fight war after war. Every time we retake a world, we will stay there until they are self-sufficient and have a defense system. "

"We will help them, like leaving a team of consultants to help them establish trade routes. The sense of identity is very important, I even wrote a book about it, the fourth shelf of the bookshelf behind you, the first book is it As for what the Great Crusade is."

Lord Macragge closed his mouth with a complicated expression, and stopped talking. His expression was enough to answer the question.

An idealist will suffer so much only when he is doing the right thing. Idealists are so ridiculous. They will suffer because they cannot realize their ideals, but they will suffer even more because they are walking on this road.

Because they understand the price of being right.

Conrad Curz raised the corners of his mouth calmly, still smiling, but this smile was a hundred times better than before.

"The Great Crusade is a process of recovering lost land, and this war against Harkosus requires at least one planet to be preserved. Otherwise, what lost land did we recover? Broken asteroids? I will check it later Let those civilians go back to live on Harkosus [-], if they are not contaminated"

Angron frowned: "Are you sure, brother?"

"I'm sure." The Midnight Lord nodded slowly, with a half-smile expression appearing on his face. "The situation on Harkosus [-] is complicated, Angron. It was once contaminated by those things, but the pollution has completely disappeared."

"Then the Ultramarines will stay and continue our tradition," said Robert Guilliman. "Until the Empire sends someone to take over here, my First Chapter and I will stay here."

Conrad Coates grinned.He walked to the door and opened it, revealing Marius Gage, battered and still in his armor, to his brothers.Guilliman pursed his lips with a complicated expression, but did not speak.

Gage glanced at Konrad Coze gratefully, but the latter smiled and shook his head, pulling Angron away, not even forgetting to close the door.

His hearing is always good, and he used to listen to someone's voice anxiously through the heavy door.

The door slowly closed, and Marius Gage looked at his Primarch, remaining completely silent, saying nothing.Guilliman looked at his Chapter Master, also silent, but not because he didn't know what to say.

In fact, on the contrary, he had so much to say that he remained silent.In the end, it was Gage who spoke up.

"...we almost thought we lost you."

Guilliman shook his head.

"Blame them," he said softly. "They don't try too hard."

Gage grinned.Robert Guilliman is like this. He can always relieve the pressure with an ingenious sentence at certain moments and make everyone smile-he is very good at this, which is inseparable from his status as a politician.

Gage is amused, and the smile grows into something almost unstoppable.

"I swore long ago that I would protect you, Primarch," Marius Gage said in a low voice. "And today, I made another vow."

"I swear I'm going to bring you back. I've said this to countless people while I was underground. They trusted my word because they trusted you, and they had nothing to fear and I thought I had nothing to fear until I saw You appeared in the clearing with a ray of light, I almost thought you were dead."

"But I didn't, Gage. Like I said, it was their lack of effort," Guilliman replied softly.

He looked up at one of the two portraits again, and he stopped talking, and neither did Gage.

The tacit understanding between them is needless to say, and the master of the First Chapter has already understood the unspoken apology of his Primarch.Just as Guilliman understood Marius Gage's distorted pain hidden beneath his calm exterior.

"But." After a long time, Guilliman spoke again, and his eyes became sharp in an instant, which was not the eyes a patient should have.

He beckoned to Gage, beckoning him to come. "...This incident also gave me a lot of new ideas, come and discuss with me, Marius."

Without hesitation, Gage walked over, as in the past, as always.

　After the update is complete, it is also 7k today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)