Governor

Chapter 40: Governor

Zhou Yun walked out of the hotel on Street Number Nine, Residential Sector Eighteen, District Nine.

Yesterday, he and Lena had silently tracked the old woman named Nama Karl.

Zhou Yun had even changed his appearance several times, pretending to brush past her.

This allowed him to observe Nama Karl more closely.

The mathematician and actuary had dark, sallow skin and slightly sunken eyes, characteristic of people from the South Asian subcontinent of Terra.

Her eyes held no madness, nor the usual haziness of old age; instead, they possessed a peculiar liveliness.

It was as if countless numbers were arranged and rotating in a spiral within her pupils, converging to form her irises.

Beyond this, Zhou Yun found no other unusual signs.

She showed no psychic reaction, spoke clearly and rationally, and engaged in no blasphemous acts.

She merely lowered her head from time to time, rapidly calculating in the notebook she held, seemingly working on something.

Zhou Yun cautiously glanced at the contents.

Indeed, it was densely packed with mathematical formulas, function graphs, and derivations.

Zhou Yun, having a university education in his past life, could barely understand a fraction of it, but he found nothing amiss.

As for Lena, she was even more clueless.

She had only learned some basic mathematics from Nama Karl in her childhood.

While she could manage the finances for her gang in the Lower Hive, any real mathematical problem left her bewildered.

Lena still hadn't memorized the number "387,420,489."

Zhou Yun felt something was off about that number, but he couldn't pinpoint what.

Neither of them found any signs of Nama Karl being corrupted, so they could only stay for the time being.

Zhou Yun stood on the street outside the hotel and glanced at a small church not far away.

According to Lena, this small church was built with funds raised by the residents of District Nine.

It housed statues of the Emperor and Sanguinius, as well as a handful of scarlet sand brought from Baal, considered a holy relic.

The reason Zhou Yun insisted on staying at this hotel, even though it was several blocks away from Nama Karl, was this church.

If there were any signs of Tzeentch's corruption, perhaps this small church in District Nine could offer some resistance.

Another reason was that Zhou Yun had arranged to meet Governor Augustus Flax at this church.

Zhou Yun entered the church.

There were no lights inside; only candlelight burned fiercely beneath two tall stone statues, casting a dim, orange-yellow glow over the church.

One statue depicted the Emperor, holding a flaming blade and gazing into the distance.

The other was an Angel, wielding a power spear and thrusting it at a snake coiled on the ground.

Consecrated speakers played sacred hymns, and incense blessed with holy oil filled the church with a faint aroma.

Inside the church, some people sat on chairs, heads bowed in prayer.

A priest of the Ecclesiarchy, with his head devoutly bowed, spoke softly to Zhou Yun:

"Son of man, do you wish to confess your sins to the Emperor?"

"Son of man, do you seek the mercy of Sanguinius?"

If I want Sanguinius's mercy, why not find the guy in the white light in my peripheral vision?

Whether it was his imagination or not, Zhou Yun felt the figure in the white light had become brighter since he entered the church.

"I'm looking for the Governor," Zhou Yun said, ignoring the priest's sermon and getting straight to the point.

The priest nodded slightly, gesturing for Zhou Yun to head upstairs.

"Son of man, no matter how great worldly authority may be, it is but a fraction of the Emperor's radiance," the priest said to Zhou Yun as he ascended.

"Son of man, no amount of worldly wealth can outshine the brightness of an angel's feather."

"I wholeheartedly agree with that," Zhou Yun replied, nodding.

It's so bright it's almost blinding me.

Zhou Yun glanced at the winged figure in the white light at the corner of his eye; it was growing brighter.

It was as if this church allowed it to manifest more fully into the material universe.

Hearing Zhou Yun's heartfelt agreement, the priest's gaze towards him became much warmer.

He pointed out the room where the Governor was.

Zhou Yun nodded his thanks, pushed open the small door of a confessional room on the second floor, and stepped inside.

A gaunt, listless old man with dark circles under his eyes and cloudy pupils sat in a corner of the confessional, flipping through the Scripture of the Word.

Governor Asphodel, the current head of House Flax, Augustus Flax.

Zhou Yun narrowed his eyes slightly.

This Governor was actually speaking to him face-to-face.

Augustus Flax was an extremely cautious man, rarely exposing himself to danger.

Zhou Yun sat down opposite him.

"So you're a devout follower of the Imperium after all," Zhou Yun said with a hint of mockery in his tone.

Augustus Flax closed the book in his hands and set it aside.

"Faith in the Emperor can bring my heart some peace."

Augustus Flax casually deflected Zhou Yun's mockery.

He looked at Zhou Yun, every muscle in his face working in a subtle way, adopting an scrutinizing yet polite posture as he regarded Zhou Yun.

Training. Zhou Yun sensed traces of training on him.

It must have been years of training.

The nobles of the Imperium enjoyed privileges, but they were not merely useless parasites; their lives were hardly easy or pleasant.

In reality, they were more often exhausted and weary. Many Imperial nobles and even Governors had died from overwork in their posts.

The privileges granted by the Emperor were not without corresponding responsibilities.

From birth, nobles received extremely rigorous training.

Their every day, every moment, every action, and every expression was meticulously planned.

They had to spend day after day learning the knowledge required to govern a planet, learning piety and combat, learning etiquette and social graces.

Let alone exhaustion, they weren't even allowed to show fatigue.

Such days would repeat, until they were forged into individuals capable of bearing the privileges and responsibilities bestowed by the Emperor.

Governors were especially so. Managing an entire vast planet with only a human brain was a task that almost challenged the limits of human physiology.

The Augustus Flax before him was a scoundrel; as Governor, he had abandoned all his duties in the Lower Hive.

But this did not mean he was useless. The training of the past still had its effect on him.

"What are you and that illegal psyker trying to do in the Upper Hive?"

Augustus Flax stared at Zhou Yun and said:

"What are you following Nama Karl, that actuary, for?"

Zhou Yun was not surprised.

While tracking Nama Karl, he had discovered that someone else was also tracking them.

As expected, it was a spy under the Governor's command.

"I suspect she is a heretic, corrupted by Chaos."

Zhou Yun narrowed his eyes, a smile on his lips, and said:

"Are you interested in lending me a detachment of PDF? I'll help you eliminate this trouble."

I'm a bit stuck with writer's block, so the next chapter might be a bit late.