There Was a Reason the Emperor Sat on the Toilet

There were no exaggerated phenomena like those in the Warp, but amid cries of alarm, a mass of golden flames appeared beside them.

The flames only had the appearance of burning. They harmed no one and gave off no heat, merely spreading silently and climbing over everyone except the Transmigrators.

Soon, the phantom flames that looked as though they were scorching them faded away, leaving only faint traces in the warriors' eyes—flecks of tiny golden light.

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Such a phenomenon naturally sent the many believers into fervent prayer.

The Sisters in particular had witnessed two miracles in the span of a few short hours—things they might not have seen even before their deaths. Every one of them devoutly sang hymns and recorded the experience in writing.

"Good work, Ramesses."

Arthur let out a breath of relief and did not hold back his praise.

In the era before the Great Rift opened, making the Emperor manifest was no easy task.

"..."

Yet Ramesses, who had clearly done something good, showed no happiness at all. Instead, he looked as though something disgusting had sickened him.

"Sorry."

Ramesses assumed a posture of confession before the three of them.

"I acted on my own."

"..."

Romulus blinked.

Hadn't he just heard that line?

"What exactly happened?"

Arthur was just as confused.

Since they had already gone digging for gold in the Warp's shit before, the glorious task of studying the Warp had naturally fallen upon Ramesses.

That was why none of them understood why Ramesses, despite having rendered such a service, wore the expression of someone begging forgiveness.

"I'm guilty. I was an idiot."

Ramesses had successfully completed his attempt and saved the future of a great many people, yet he was in an extremely bad mood.

Looking at the souls everyone had transferred into his care for collective use, which had already dropped by a huge amount, he felt as though he had been freeloaded off!

"Remember how we had a Safe House in the Warp when we first arrived?"

He asked the question out of nowhere.

"I remember."

Arthur nodded. He even remembered there being a roll of toilet paper inside.

"We created that thing when we arrived because of our instinctive rejection of the Warp. At its core, it's a mental barrier in the Warp, with a certain degree of concealment. Of course, Warp creatures couldn't see us to begin with, so it was actually useless."

Ramesses began explaining the principles behind the Safe House.

"Then the Emperor may have identified us as some kind of special Warp entities born under humanity's influence, while this thing was a domain where our true bodies existed..."

"Forget that for now—you know that being noticed by the Emperor isn't necessarily a good thing, right?"

"Understood."

Arthur nodded.

He had read plenty of novels published by Games Workshop. Besides reading translations from the Translation Court, he also struggled through the English editions himself, so he naturally knew one of Chaos's favorite pastimes.

It was specifically corrupting humans with unwavering faith in the Emperor—a vile sort of pleasure in forcing good people into depravity.

The hardest-hit groups were naturally the Sisters of Battle and Astartes who had drawn the Emperor's attention.

Many heretical Demons took pride in having a fallen Sister under their command, or enjoyed capturing Loyalist Space Marines to sacrifice to the Chaos Gods. It pleased their masters and earned them more powerful blessings.

So in the Warhammer World, praying to the God-Emperor and receiving no answer was the best possible answer. If he really answered you, then either you were about to die, or who knew what kind of monster was responding.

In a sense, if the Emperor noticed you while you were alive, the risk of the Chaos Gods noticing you also rose in a straight line.

While alive, you might be tortured by all manner of Chaos champions. After death, you might even get to experience being torn apart by five horses in the Warp.

And in many cases, even the Emperor could not protect those people.

There were simply too many of them. Even the Emperor could not keep track of them all.

"And our Safe House can isolate these people. For example, if they die, the Chaos Gods won't be able to sense them for a short while, letting the Emperor calmly take them out of the Safe House?"

Arthur roughly understood what Ramesses meant.

"Mm."

Ramesses nodded.

"So the Emperor used psychic images to tell me to expand the Safe House's range until it was large enough to cover a hundred people."

"Actually, he wanted it even larger. But as I said before, anything involving the Warp or complex matter costs a great deal to create, so I stopped as soon as I expanded it a bit and felt something was off."

"And then—"

Romulus, who handled the accounts, turned green.

Ramesses pointed at the Astra Militarum troops and Sisters who had been marked.

"Then he marked everyone and left. He didn't say a thing. Even the Demons near my Warp psychic projection were scared off and ran away."

The four of them immediately fell into deathly silence.

"The Emperor's move here..."

"It's like we paid to expand a warehouse in the Warp so the Emperor could store his money there, and then he stuffed the money inside and left without even paying rent. On top of that, he took away our means of making a living, while getting all the reputation for himself?!"

Romulus looked back at the group that had fallen into religious fervor.

"Oh, right. He also marked all these people, basically forcing us either to expand the Safe House or control how many of them died. Otherwise, we would just have to watch them die?"

Everyone nodded.

Though it was mixed with a little subjective emotion, that was more or less what it meant.

And Ramesses, who had communicated with the Emperor through psychic power, knew even more clearly that this was exactly what the Emperor meant.

Because it did not matter to him if the gamble failed. Compared to the future of all humanity, he could afford to lose a few thousand lives.

"How many souls did it cost?"

Ramesses marked the shared data he had constantly kept open in red.

"No—"

Romulus let out a piercing shriek.

"No, how could the Emperor do this?"

At the very least, he could have shown some goodwill. Even making his attitude clear would have been fine.

Did he think they were tools, using them and then leaving?

"At least give us some feedback! Even a grunt would count as treating us like people. Back in the Warp, he at least observed us through the Sisters, right? Could he really not understand the attitude we showed?"

Everyone was a little angry.

It was not that they felt cheated because saving people had cost them something. It was the Emperor's attitude.

It felt very much like, protect them or don't, I've marked them and issued the task, so I'm leaving now. Figure it out yourselves—a posture that made it seem as though he had them completely figured out.

"Maybe it's because he understands us too well."

As the oldest among the group, Ramesses had relatively broad life experience for personal reasons. He also understood exactly what kind of people his freshly graduated college friends were.

Setting aside the boost in bearing they had gained before the Imperium's citizens thanks to their imposing appearances, the three standing before him radiated an air that clashed completely with their surroundings.

Mm, a kind of pure stupidity?

No, it could not be called stupidity.

It should be called kindness.

The kindness of people who had grown up surrounded by the love of healthy families, had only just stepped into society, and still held beautiful hopes for others and for the world.