40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 224 49. A Deserter ([-])

Leon El'Jonson fell into a rare deep meditation, which was rare for him.

In the past, no matter what the problem was, it could not really bother him.He has read many books, including history, art, and philosophy. The books contain not only knowledge, but also problems.

These questions that have troubled countless people for countless years are nothing to him, not even riddles. He doesn't need to solve them, the answers will appear in his mind.

It was different now. Now, he was thinking from the bottom of his heart.He could have been more attentive, but he had to channel some of his energy into suppressing his anger.

Coswayen stood beside him, staring straight ahead, unmoved by anything.He did not belong to any wing, any order or order.He wanders among them, familiar with and mastering all secret knowledge and organizational structures in the name and command of the Lion.

In a sense, he is almost equivalent to a part of Leon El'Jonson's will.

Now, he was staring at Luther.

Luther frowned, not knowing how things would develop next.

Because the inquiry has ended.

It lasted for eleven hours and 23 minutes. All the officers and knights, whether they were Terrans or Calibans, reviewed the oaths they had sworn in front of the lion in the audience hall.

They revealed to the recorder in detail the things that should be carefully buried, and the lion himself wielded the shovel to reveal the truth buried in the tomb.

But there were no bones in the tomb.

The deceased - Trinver Raton, a sergeant from the 439th Armored Division of the Empire.He should have been lying in one of these millions of tombs. He should have gained today what he had lost.
But he didn't, because he was not in these tombs at all.

Leon El'Jonson opened his eyes and found Conrad Curze staring at him.He turned to look back, but didn't know how to interpret Coze's expression at this moment.

The lion clenched his right hand and found Luther in the quiet audience hall.

"What's going on?" Xiong Shi asked, his tone so matter-of-fact that he didn't realize what was hidden in this sentence.

Coz raised his eyebrows and turned to look at Khalil. The latter did not answer, but the corners of his mouth curved downward in a secret way.

Luther pursed his lips as usual and shook his head: "I don't know, Leon."

"You don't know?" The lion narrowed his eyes. "You are the Grand Master of the Knights and my steward. These things should be destroyed by your hands after they are completed. How could you know nothing about it, Luther?"

Yeah, I shouldn't know everything, but—

Luther lowered his head in silence.

"—I do know nothing about Sergeant Trinver," he repeated. "I know other things, such as those in the 398th Regiment and the lieutenant colonel."

"I remember them, as any victim should be remembered, that's what you said, Leon. I didn't let it die in my heart, we all did."

"But how could you not know this?" asked the lion.His tone was calm, but his expression was confused.

A few seconds later, Luther felt his hair stand on end because Leon had begun to pace around the long table.

"Look, Luther—"

He raised his hand and pointed at Conrad Coates and Khalil Lohars who were standing on the other side of the long table.The two pale men watched them in silence.

"-My brother came with orders from Terra, which means that the Emperor also knows about this. Of course he will agree with our attitude towards the victims, but he will agree with us erasing the victims Honor? No, he wouldn't. If he did, he wouldn't be the Emperor."

The lion walked up to Luther, lowered his head, and looked at him.

"At the same time, this also means that this matter cannot be false." Leon El'Jonson said calmly.

"It's not the dark clouds that hang over our heads, made up of people's gossip. It's a real black spot on our white blouses and collars. Can I ignore this? Is it okay, Luther?"

Luther was silent for a moment and then raised his head.

"I beg you to give me a moment," he said. "I will let the truth come out."

"No," said the lion. "That's not necessary, Luther."

"I beg you," Luther almost begged - he knew what Leon El'Jonson was thinking, and he couldn't let it escape his lips and echo in the audience hall aboard the Indomitable Truth.

Luther left Caliban long ago to join the Legion, and was one of the driving forces behind what it became today.The honors of many people are condensed here, including his.

And what the Lions will do next may make everyone lose their desire for honor.

However, he knew what the lion was thinking, so how could the lion not know what he was thinking?

"No, no, Luther." The king of knights said in a cold voice. "This matter must be announced without delay. I believe you, so if you don't even know about this matter, then there is only one reason."

He turned and snarled at Coswayne. "Go and bring all the officers who participated in that battle and ask them to wait for me in the main hall!"

His gaze was extremely dangerous, as if someone was holding a sword across his neck.He raised his hand and threw the sharp sword at his waist.It has a gorgeous scabbard, which is integrated with his armor.

They can all mean something.

"You can draw your sword if necessary!"

"As you order, Primarch."

The knight who did not belong to any wing reached out and took the sword, placed it on his armor belt, and answered his king firmly.

"I will draw my sword if necessary."
-
The Lion left the Audience Hall, saying that he needed some time alone.He happened to have time to do it.After all, it was not easy to gather all the officers who had participated in that battle, and Coswayne needed to spend a lot of energy finding them all.

Even with optimistic estimates, the whole thing would take at least two hours to complete.Now, there are only three people left in the audience hall, but there is only one person who is in a daze.

Luther.

He raised his head and stared at the stained glass window high above, his expression full of bitterness.

Once Leon El'Jonson's will is determined, it will never be shaken by any external force. The Lions have proven this countless times.Luther once again thought of those green eyes that were the color of the deepest part of Caliban's forest, and sighed softly.

In spite of himself, he also thought of his wife and daughter.He doesn't want to remember, but humans cannot rely on their own will to prevent the emergence of memories.

Finona.
He recited his wife's name silently, and then thought of his daughter whom he had not yet had time to name, and his heart stopped involuntarily.His wife suffered a dystocia during the birth of their daughters, and Caliban's doctors failed to save them.

Luther tried lashing out, but he was so heartbroken that he couldn't stand.He couldn't blame the doctor who shouldn't be blamed, nor could he scold the injustice of fate.

Half a year later, he discovered Leon El'Jonson in the forest.He was not found alone, there were several companions.The atmosphere was tense because they had entered the depths of the forest to track a giant beast.

And Leon El'Jonson didn't look like a human being at all at that time.

He was naked, covered in blood and dirt, and his golden hair was as thick as sideburns.Thinking of this, Luther couldn't help but smile.

Perhaps it was because of this that he blurted out in the stalemate atmosphere and called Leon 'Leon'.

He called him a lion.

And Leon does behave like a lion.

Many years have passed, and to this day, Luther can no longer understand the relationship between him and Leon.

He has the right to call the lion his son, and if he does, the lion will definitely not refuse.But he didn't.He can also call the lion his commander, comrade-in-arms, and brother.
But he still didn't.He just called him Leon, just like before.

"What should I do?" Luther murmured, turning his head and looking at the other two, his eyes almost painful. "He will bleed the Legion. What should I do, two of you?"

"What do you want to do?" Conrad Coates asked. "In my opinion, it is not unusual for this matter to develop into the current situation, Grand Master Luther. No Primarch can allow such a thing to happen in the Legion, let alone Leon."

He paused for a moment, his dark eyes shining, giving Luther the strength to continue listening.

"I don't know him well, but his honor-oriented character doesn't require careful observation."

"He'll hold them accountable," Luther replied bitterly. "With his character, there's no way he's going to stay calm right now. He's going to hold everybody accountable, is he going to get the truth? I don't know. But I know another thing."

"What happened today will definitely become some kind of stain. Leon will spread it. At that time, where will the cohesion of the Legion go?"

Kurtz shook his head and stopped talking.So Luther turned to another giant. Khalil Lohars looked at him, crossed his arms, and tapped his fingers on his arms.

"One puzzle, followed by another," Khalil said slowly. "We originally came here to remind and redress the injustice of the victims, but we didn't expect that the First Legion actually had only one unjust, false, and wrongly convicted case in these years."

"You have only created one deserter, Lord Luther, and it seems that this deserter does not exist at all. This whole thing sounds like a weird and terrible joke. But the joke must be funny enough, otherwise it will not be called a deserter." It’s a joke.”

Luther's heart began to beat fast. He had seen something from Khalil's expression.

"We will not let it come to that, Lord Luther," Khalil said. "In the final analysis, this news was brought by the Eighth Legion. Terra's original intention was to remind you, not to let your friendship be washed away by anger and shame."

Luther's heart trembled - a few seconds later, he nodded heavily, and at the same time, he secretly made a decision.

Forgive me, Leon.he said secretly.But if things really come to that point, it is better to sacrifice a few people than to sacrifice the many.

　update completed.

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(End of this chapter)