Perturabo's Little Secret

"That's impossible!"

Mortarion vehemently denied it.

He turned his head and glanced at the remaining ingredients he had used to prepare the poisoned wine, which were still clutched in his hand.

Could it be that I picked up the wrong one, resulting in the poisoned wine that wasn't actually poisoned?

Mortarion looked suspiciously at the last bit of residue he had prepared earlier in his hand.

Take a bite.

He dipped some of the powder in his mouth and put it in his mouth.

Hiss.

A sharp pain and a corrosive sensation emanated from his body. Even as Primarch, he couldn't help but feel extremely uncomfortable under the corrosive effects of this potent poison.

The purity is too high.

—But strangely enough, that guy named Kasgar was fine!

Not only were they unharmed, they also mocked him, saying that Mortarion's poisoned wine wasn't strong enough, and that even the food made by the Sons of the Emperor, the Second Captain, couldn't compare!

This is an insult to the Death Guard and the Barbarus tradition (which it claims to be)!

That's what Mortarion was going to say.

But it seems that even when Mortarion used all his strength, Kasgar was indeed completely unharmed.

Lively and energetic.

Mortarion's prized poisoned wine trial was used by him as a way to freeload!

"Alright. You win, Kasgar."

"But what I really want to know is, what exactly gives you such a strong resistance?"

Mortarion had naturally heard of this Emperor's Children, Space Marine, as he was a powerful figure who had fought countless battles across various legions without ever being defeated.

But he had never heard of him having such a high level of skill in making poisons.

If a Space Marine could become immune to toxins through training, what if he could also master such a powerful ability?

Not only will the Death Guard be more resolute and unyielding in the future, but the quality of their biological weapons will also be greatly enhanced!

"If possible, please tell me exactly how she did it, and what exactly is in her recipe?!"

Mortarion shouted urgently to Kasgar with an excited expression.

Actually...

Actually, she cooked it herself on a whim.

Kasgar hesitated whether to tell Mortarion this shocking truth.

But the other person's eager and hopeful eyes seemed to be urging him on.

"Are you kidding me!"

"—That's absolutely impossible!"

Several more roars of Mortarion echoed in Perturabo's ears.

The sound was so loud that he could hear it clearly even from a great distance.

"I can't believe this is real?"

It really was a sudden inspiration.

No one knows how Aqua Duna, the Second Captain of the Sons of the Emperor, cooks, nor does anyone know where she obtained this magical power from.

In short, she didn't need any synthetic toxins or compounds; she just needed to prepare those ingredients in this way and that.

A powerful poison far exceeding Mortarion Poison Wine—that's what we'll do.

Very convenient.

Sometimes they even look no different from ordinary food, which is very deceptive.

And strangely enough, none of them are fatal.

Even an ordinary person, after eating Aqua Duna's snacks, will experience almost the same painful experience as Space Marine.

The kind of situation where you can neither live nor die.

It won't kill you, it's just pure torture.

It will only bring unparalleled pain and a fantastical feeling from another world.

It sounds like witchcraft, but it's exactly what Mortarion has always dreamed of.

In fact, only those Space Marine who are favored by Mortarion are qualified to undergo the trial of poison within the Death Guard.

In the Emperor's Children Legion, everyone wants to try a bite of Aqua Duna's cooking!

The Sons of the Emperor is far more resilient than the Death Guard!

Kasgar is exceptionally resilient!

"No!!!"

Mortarion, whose worldview had completely collapsed today, let out a wail that was unimaginable to ordinary people.

"Sigh, actually I'm not very familiar with them."

Perturabo averted his gaze, trying his best not to look at the fools who were making a fool of themselves.

He watched the crowd dancing around the campfire, silently observing without thinking about anything.

The happiness of ordinary people is so simple and direct.

Even though they now eat worse than the livestock on Olympia, they still dance happily around the fire in front of them.

As for how long Perturabo can enjoy this leisurely time?

He remembered when he first met the Emperor, the latter promised him a world where he could freely use his talents.

But this world needs Great Crusade to open it up.

Therefore, as the Iron Emperor, the Iron Lord of Iron Within, Iron Without, Perturabo had to face the most formidable enemies in the war and strive for them for countless years to come.

Even during the downtime of Warp travel, he had to plan the training content for the Iron Warriors and the logistics and equipment for the Legion in order to prepare for the tough battles to come.

They couldn't even get a moment's rest.

He had been enduring this tedious and boring journey.

Even though his relationships with other Primarch were strained, even though his offspring displeased him, even though the Iron Warriors suffered defeats against formidable opponents, Perturabo felt no fear.

What he feared was that the war seemed to have no end in sight.

The Great Crusade is gradually entering its final stage. Lost worlds and Primarch in the galaxy are being rediscovered and excavated one after another, and everything is progressing in accordance with everyone's dreams.

But what about beyond the Milky Way? Beyond the Milky Way are even more vast and distant star regions, and beyond this world are even larger worlds. Even if the current Astronomican cannot cover them and we can only jump blindly, who knows if new technologies will be developed in the future to improve the Astronomican?

Moreover, if other Warp nodes within the galaxy were to discover new Xenos threats from the Great Crusade, wouldn't Perturabo be dragged into the battlefield again?

Once the Great Crusade is over, he can become an architect and philosopher as he has always dreamed of, bidding farewell to the battlefield that always fills him with rage.

But when will this Great Crusade end?

Or rather

Is it really going to never end, just as he imagined?

Are you alright?

Perturabo's thoughts were interrupted by another voice beside him.

She is Averinia, Corvus Corax's sister, and also one of the workers' leaders on the planet Lycaeus.

When Corvus Corax needs to infiltrate the planet for various reasons, the workers across the entire planet will follow her orders.

"What do you want from me?"

Perturabo's tone was indifferent. The battle was over, and soon they would bring Corvus Corax to meet the Emperor. This planet would then become the Primarch's homeworld and the Legion's recruitment ground during the subsequent terraforming.

What happened next had little to do with Perturabo. After completing the mission of welcoming back Corvus Corax, he would be sent by the Emperor to a new battlefield to face powerful enemies that other legions and the Missionaries could not handle.

It's always like this, like Sisyphus constantly pushing a ball higher and higher.

Perturabo must imagine himself as happy.

"It's like this. The main planet of Kiavahr is now out of control." Perhaps seeing Perturabo's still sour face, Averinia said somewhat timidly, "The laser cannons on our fortresses—"

I understand.

Perturabo understood as soon as she opened her mouth.

Is it not enough that surface-to-air weapons are enough to help them defend the area? Do they want even more advanced weapons that can directly take over Kiavahr?

He knew it!

He should have known this before he even helped build for other people!

After taking his fortress, these people will surely continue to make demands under all sorts of nice-sounding pretexts, requests, pleas, or threats, to satisfy Perturabo's pathetic lust for power!

He had long been accustomed to such insatiable fools at Olympia.

Next, they will definitely demand even more powerful weapons from Perturabo in order to conquer more people.

Thus, they gained even more supreme power.

First Lycaeus, then Kiavahr, and then they will definitely want to unify this entire star system; human greed can never be satisfied.

Just like his glittering father, after Great Crusade and recovering almost all of humanity's lost territories, he continued to explore them to deeper and farther places.

They were sending him to an even more brutal and ruthless battlefield, so that he would serve them forever.

They're all the same kind of people!

Perturabo's fierce gaze swept over the tense and helpless mortals before him.

Ha! He saw through these people's true colors long ago. Their previous expressions of goodwill and displays of their own suffering were all deliberate performances, all fake!

It's ridiculous that he's trying to gain Perturabo's sympathy!

Thank goodness, thank goodness.

They hadn't revealed their full strength during the celebrations, nor had they deployed their Combined Fleet to the skies above Lycaeus.

Otherwise, how would these people view him and his invincible Expeditionary Fleet?

"No, no, no, that's not what we meant."

She appeared somewhat nervous under Perturabo's barrage of accusations, shaking her hands in front of her chest in a gesture of refusal.

"We just wanted to ask if you still need these laser cannons so we can help you dismantle them and send them to your ship."

"Take it off and send it to my ship?"

"That's right." Averinia nodded. "After all, you made these yourself, and you own them, if you need them."

"Why would I need it? Or are you the ones who don't want laser cannon weapons at all?"

"Want to."

Averinia is honest.

This weapon, capable of tearing an enemy fleet to shreds in an instant, is something almost everyone dreams of.

"But these are your things, and we need your permission to keep them."

"Oh, that's unexpected."

Could it be some kind of tactic of taking a step back to gain favor in order to get more?

"Or do you think that laser cannons are only ineffective against air targets and that you need other weapons that can enhance your landing on Kiavahr?"

"No."

Averinia bowed deeply to Perturabo again. "We discussed this not long ago, and we will rely on our own strength to liberate Kiavahr."

"Oh?"

Perturabo looked at the other person suspiciously.

"When we had torn the enemy's fleet to pieces, the workers of our Lycaeus held a joint meeting with Corvus Corax."

"We discussed whether we should retain these laser cannons or dismantle them for future use in attacks on Kiavahr."

But the workers ended up deciding to abandon this weapon from outer space.

These weapons are powerful and formidable. No amount of Kiavahr technology can withstand their firepower.

But none of these are what they want.

"This is not the power we possess. After you leave, without Corvus Corax, we will be plunged into an endless abyss of conflict."

The laser cannon can shatter anything that stands in its way. Occupying the laser cannon turret is equivalent to possessing everything on Lycaeus.

It is a blessing, and also a curse that everyone will vie for.

Ultimately, the workers who seize control of the weapons will use them to enslave the rest of the population to continue working for them, and everything will just fall into a tragic cycle without any improvement whatsoever.

"If we become obsessed with destroying our enemies and forget the original purpose of the Lycaeus uprising, we will face more tragic fratricide in the future."

If they think they can unite and conquer Kiavahr before considering this issue...

That was simply a change from the Kiavahr enslaving the Lycaeus enslaving the Kiavahr Lycaeus; apart from the change in the roles of enslavers, nothing else changed.

"In that case, we will only repeat the mistakes of those Kiavahr, and the struggle will forever remain a cycle of power struggles."

"We need to rely on our own strength to liberate Kiavahr little by little."

As she spoke, her eyes revealed confidence and determination.

"At that time, we decided to officially rename this planet, namely [Lycaeus], as [Salvation Star]."

This is to commemorate the contributions of Corvus Corax and his fellow countrymen, including Perturabo, to this planet, and also to remind everyone on Salvation Star that this planet was created for salvation, not another new form of enslavement.

"If possible, could you please tell me if there are any other books or materials on mechanical construction?"

"Perhaps we don't understand it now, but in the future, there will definitely be some smart people among us who will be able to comprehend it and lead us to the light."

Even if Corvus Corax can't understand it, it doesn't matter. Among the generations of Lycaeus workers, there will always be someone who can.

"I believe it."

"Corvus Corax taught you very well."

Perturabo listened to the other party's speech and remained silent for a long time before finally saying this.

He believed that these were the words Corvus Corax had taught them.

In Perturabo's memory, he recalled that Corvus Corax had never liked to see humans being enslaved by other creatures.

Such intelligence is clearly Primarch only a superhuman like the Primarch could possess.

"Thank you for your blessing, Perturabo."

"But in fact, we are the teachers of Corvus Corax."

Averinia smiled victoriously.

"Hmph, maybe."

Perturabo stared at the other person for a moment, then slowly said, "You remind me of someone."

"She is very similar to you, but also very different."

"Oh? Who is she? Can you tell us your story with her?"

As if they had caught a whiff of some exciting gossip, the moment Perturabo uttered those words, almost all the workers who had been chatting amongst themselves turned their attention to Perturabo.

"She"

"Never mind, forget I said that!"

Perturabo shouted angrily.

It's like the left brain elbowing the right brain, negating the mistaken idea of wanting to vent.

After a not-so-short silence, Perturabo sighed and called for Corvus Corax to gather in the center of the bonfire party.

The battle is over, and Lycaeus has been freed.

Now, it's time to return together to the true homeland of Corvus Corax.

Under Fulgrim's command, Combined Fleet of the three Primarch Legions covered the not-so-wide near-Earth orbit of Lycaeus.

Ships

The sky was filled with countless ships!

After they covered everything on Lycaeus, a massive, dense swarm of small landing craft descended onto the planet's surface.

Countless giants in magnificent purple-gold armor, holding ornate weapons and banners they couldn't understand, stood in neat rows, forming two extremely eye-catching formations, leaving all the workers dumbfounded.

Following them were armored warriors with yellow and black stripes on their shoulder armor, and armored warriors in olive green and bone white. They all stood aside, quietly watching the focus of everyone's attention— Corvus Corax.

"Welcome home, Corvus Corax brothers."

With a smile, Fulgrim stood directly in front of all the armored soldiers, accompanied by Perturabo and Mortarion behind him, and extended an invitation to Corvus Corax.

Although these role-playing scripts are old-fashioned, they always seem to bring unexpected and satisfying results.

"What do you mean?"

"Your memory is correct, my brother."

The three Primarch present expressed curiosity and envy that Corvus Corax still remembered spending time in the basement of the Imperial Palace.

As for the Primarch had lost his memory, he was even more unhappy.

In Perturabo's last memory, the only thing he remembered was climbing up and looking up at the ugly, Eye of Terror in the sky.

He had no idea how he landed on the planet's surface or how he defeated other the Beast according to the local legends.

"Actually, I could roughly guess why you came."

Corvus Corax isn't stupid.

When Perturabo can create a bunch of automated production lines by hand and arm fortresses to the point of instantly annihilating the Kiavahr fleet, it's simply impossible for a mechanic in a small merchant's fleet to be at that level.

Although he didn't have a deep understanding of other human-inhabited places in the universe, he still had common sense.

It's all just an act anyway.

He Corvus Corax along with them for a bit, while also secretly investigating the personalities and qualities of his future siblings.

While the Primarch were pretending to investigate Corvus Corax was conversely investigating the three Primarch.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

"That makes things much easier."

Seeing that Corvus Corax wasn't offended by their deception, Fulgrim smiled and said, "Then all we need to do next is discuss how to take over."

"These are all..."

"My God, that person... that person is completely mechanical! There's no flesh left!"

"Such a huge machine! How can we..."

Wow! That's amazing!

After the various forces of the Combined Fleet landed, this planet, which had just been renamed "Salvation Star," quickly became a noisy and bustling stage.

Imperium officials, Imperial Truth Proclaimers, and members of the Adeptus Mechanicus from the United Expeditionary Fleet began the transformation of the entire planet.

The construction of measures, including filling the atmosphere, restoring the earth's surface, introducing ecological cycles, building heavy equipment and houses, began under the tireless efforts of the Adeptus Mechanicus members.

Normally, this place should have been developed into a large-scale Hive City.

But this time, it seems that Corvus Corax has gained more initiative: with the insistence of Fulgrim and Kasgar, the Salvation Star has gained more autonomy, even more autonomy than other Primarch homeworlds (except for Guilliman and his Five Hundred Worlds).

According to Kasgar, doing so would only put the Salvation Star back in the same situation as before he was saved.

Although it could lead to a dramatic improvement in its production facilities, for the workers on the Salvation Star, building Hive City had no other purpose than increasing the population.

The workers' living conditions have not improved in the slightest, and may even have deteriorated.

Since they have the ability and the will to govern themselves, and the Primarch Corvus Corax supports it, then let them govern themselves.

After all, it's the Primarch's home planet, so even the Adeptus Mechanicus has to give it some face.

(Most importantly, there are mines in Lycaeus.)

"Brothers and sisters, and friends from Kasgar, I thank you for your reasoned defense of me."

After the negotiations concluded, Corvus Corax spoke gratefully to his Primarch brothers and sisters.

Those are Mortarion, Fulgrim, and Kasgar.

Apart from Perturabo, who was still busy with construction and working with his Iron Warriors, the rest of the Primarch were here.

And there's also Kasgar.

After their reasoned arguments, the conditions that Salvation Star ultimately obtained were very generous—ore for technology, and all the machine technology brought by the Adeptus Mechanicus would be repaid with the minerals produced on Salvation Star.

Only Macragge can obtain similar conditions.

"It's nothing, it's just what we should do after staying on this Salvation Star for so long."

"But Corvus Corax, we'd like to ask you for a favor. It's not a big deal, but only you can do it."

As he spoke, Kasgar smiled.

Laughing heartily, but with ill intent?

That night.

"What do you mean by infiltrating the Iron Blood using stealth capabilities?"

The Corvus Corax navigated carefully in this flagship, which had no windows.

Although there were quite a few Iron Warriors coming and going, even when they brushed past each other, they didn't seem to notice that Corvus Corax was right next to them.

A strange request.

Just as they were about to return to port, Kasgar and two Primarch approached him, asking him to use his abilities to infiltrate the Iron Blood.

Corvus Corax initially wanted to refuse.

After all, Perturabo had built such good turrets and fortresses for him, helping them defeat the Kiavahr. How could Corvus Corax repay kindness with enmity?

But I heard that this group found Perturabo's private cabin, which definitely contains his thoughts from his difficult period.

This is absolutely crucial for helping him resolve his mental illness!

Yes, this is also to help him resolve his mental illness.

Corvus Corax was persuaded by them.

The Perturabo people aren't particularly bad, but they are certainly quite twisted.

It's as if the left and right hemispheres of the brain are constantly fighting each other.

After dodging countless Iron Warriors, Corvus Corax arrived at this gate reinforced with heavy iron locks and a password.

That being said, but

His invisibility technique can indeed evade people, but what about the combination lock?

You can't exactly pick the lock and go in in front of everyone, can you?

Even if Psychic Power invisibility is incredibly powerful, it's impossible to maintain it under such conspicuous circumstances.

Fortunately, just as he was thinking, Perturabo's heavy footsteps came from behind him.

He was all alone at this moment, without even his trident by his side.

Only a few Iron Circle Automated Mecha followed behind him.

After checking around and finding no one, he carefully began connecting the data stream pipeline to the multiple combination locks.

After some time, the heavy door finally revealed a small crack.

Perturabo looked around again before slipping inside.

What follows must absolutely not be seen by any human being.

However, what he didn't know was that the next moment, Corvus Corax also secretly sneaked into the secret room with him.

This is

Corvus Corax looked around at the shadowy surroundings, where it seemed that the walls were covered with someone's face. It was a woman, Corvus Corax didn't recognize.

Whether it's painting or sculpture, they all seem to depict her various postures.

What he didn't know was that these were actually masterpieces painted and sculpted by Perturabo himself.

There also seemed to be some humanoid robots made of lifelike machinery. They, no, they all looked the same.

"I'm back, Kalliphen."

He sat down and called out softly.

"The people here don't really understand me, but I think I've found someone who's a lot like you, Kalliphen."

"That guy named Kasgar dared to insult you, and I couldn't help but attack him. I wonder what Fulgrim will think of me after that."

"Kalliphen, I'm so sorry."

"But if even you don't understand me, I will kill you too!"

Perturabo suddenly underwent a drastic change in personality.

Kill you kill you kill you kill you kill you kill you kill you kill you kill you!

Wow.

There are also yanderes.

Corvus Corax, who also has an older sister, was deeply shocked.

"Who? Who's here?"

Although Perturabo couldn't see, the intuition of being watched made him feel extremely guilty.

There's someone in this room!

But that feeling seemed to dissipate quickly.

That's all?

Was it just his imagination?

They ran away.

In a moment of crisis, Corvus Corax even gained the power of teleportation.

He fled the place faster than the Khan who had seen Horus go mad.