Then, He Closed His Eyes (II)

Pride of the Emperor.

Sexdu, a Space Marine of the Third Legion, was packing up his personal quarters.

Strangely enough, even within the absolute safety of his private room, he still wore the Third Legion's purple-and-gold power armor from head to toe.

He had not taken it off for even a moment.

"My lord!"

"You should go rest first. Leave these trivial matters to me!"

Seeing this, the mortal servant who had just returned from cleaning hurried over to dissuade him.

"Ah, right. My friend, this is for you."

Sexdu did not stop. As if suddenly remembering something, he took out a letter and handed it to the mortal servant with a smile.

"My lord, this... I can't accept this! It's far too valuable!"

"Take it. Consider it a small token of my personal gratitude."

"My friend, thank you. Ever since I met you, you've always done an excellent job."

"My lord, I—!"

After comforting the mortal servant, who had burst into tears, Sexdu sent him away and continued sorting through his belongings.

There was far more clutter than he had imagined.

A treasured blade seized during the last war, medals earned through brave combat, canned food and letters sent from home...

Home.

Yes, it had been a very long time since he had truly returned home.

Sexdu's thoughts drifted back to the past.

He had been born into an aristocratic warlord family in Old Europa.

His family had wisely chosen to pledge allegiance to the Emperor during Terra's age of conflict. He and his siblings had also entered the Emperor's reserve army at a very young age to undergo augmentation surgery.

Speaking of siblings, Sexdu searched through the clutter and lifted an old photograph buried beneath it.

There were three people in the photograph.

Two wore the purple power armor of Space Marines, while the other wore the golden armor of an Adeptus Custodes.

The one on the left, also a Space Marine of the Third Legion, was Sexdu's Elder Brother.

He had possessed exceptional command skills, leading his troops from victory to victory, and had been appointed captain of the Third Legion's 16th Company.

As for the one on the right, she was his brightest and most promising Little Sister.

Her outstanding potential had caught the Emperor's eye, and she became one of the exceedingly rare female Adeptus Custodes in the Custodian Guard.

In the center of the photograph was him, Sexdu. An utterly ordinary Space Marine.

Sexdu stared at the old photograph, momentarily lost in thought.

What happened afterward?

Afterward, they died. All of them died.

Everyone except Sexdu.

At the time, the Emperor had been accepting a surrender ceremony on Proxima Centauri when an extremely serious rebellion suddenly erupted.

The rebels wounded the Emperor with a vortex weapon from the age of Old Night. Fortunately, the Adeptus Custodes and the Third Legion Space Marines serving as guards at the time defended him with their lives, allowing the Emperor to escape the danger.

His two siblings, however, had not been so fortunate.

They remained on that planet forever.

And became the Golden Double-Headed Eagle Emblem upon his armor.

The Emperor had said that this was an honor granted only to the Adeptus Custodes and the Third Legion.

They wore the double-headed eagle symbolizing the Imperium upon their armor to commemorate their heroic deeds on Proxima Centauri.

The Third Legion would forever be the model for all Space Marines.

A model.

What a beautiful and noble word.

Yet compared to such an honor, he would rather have his brother and sister return.

Sexdu sighed softly and tucked the old photograph into another letter in his hand.

Once he had cleared out the room, Sexdu packed all his remaining personal belongings into a small suitcase.

Closing the door, Sexdu crossed the smooth marble floor with heavy steps. Accompanied by the rattle of the suitcase wheels, he walked through the silent halls of the ship.

He found the person he had been looking for.

"Remembrancer."

"I've vacated my quarters. After I'm gone, please give this suitcase and this letter to my family."

"What are you doing, Sexdu?"

The other man looked somewhat surprised.

"You're going to meet your own Primarch, not fight some Apocalypse War!"

"I know, Scribe."

"But still..." As Sexdu spoke, he pointed at his helmet. "You know my current condition."

"Oh, right. Right."

With a sigh, he accepted the letter from the other man.

"Safe travels, Sexdu."

Watching his lonely figure depart, the scribe quietly offered his blessing and slipped the letter into his pocket.

Sexdu and this mortal scribe were good friends.

Though he also knew that this man was far from a good person.

The Third Legion's recruits were all descendants of Terran technological warlords like himself, and quite a few were even hostages from the major warlord families.

Faced with an army like this, it seemed that neither the Emperor nor Malcador had ever truly trusted them.

This scribe was one of those sent to watch them.

Sexdu could feel the mortal's eagle-like gaze constantly scrutinizing everything about the Third Legion.

Yet they were still friends.

Where had he gotten to?

Oh, right—the Proxima Centauri Uprising.

People often said the Third Legion was the unluckiest Legion, that getting close to them would bring bad luck.

Sexdu wanted badly to refute that claim.

But it seemed the other side had the stronger case.

After the Proxima Centauri Uprising, the Third Legion had lost sixty or seventy percent of its strength and suffered devastating losses. Yet at the critical moment when they desperately needed reinforcements, another disaster struck—

The warship carrying the Third Legion's Gene-seed suddenly vanished during Warp transit, without a trace.

No one knew where that transport ship and its Gene-seed had gone.

But without Gene-seed, genetic augmentation surgery could not be performed; without genetic augmentation surgery, the Third Legion could not produce new Space Marine recruits.

Having lost a vast quantity of Gene-seed and still not recovered their Primarch, the Third Legion's replenishment had been agonizingly slow ever since. Compared to its prime, fewer than one in ten remained.

All they could do was place their hopes on the extremely limited Gene-seed reserves stored at the Lunar Laboratory.

They hoped that this final sliver of hope would lead the Third Legion back to its former glory.

"Hey!"

Sexdu's recollections were suddenly interrupted.

"Sexdu! You're moping around here again!"

It was a purple figure clad head to toe in Expeditionary Power Armor. From the decorations on the armor and the tone of voice, Sexdu recognized her identity.

Yulia, a Space Marine of the Third Legion and Sexdu's fellow company member.

An idiot.

She chattered in his ear every day, endlessly noisy.

Yet when she was absent, it always felt as though something was missing.

Yes, she.

Yulia was a female Space Marine.

It sounded rather shocking, but female Space Marines did exist in a small number of Legions.

That was thanks to the Primarchs' gender.

It was said that only those few Legions whose Primarchs were female had any possibility of producing female Space Marines.

Naturally, among them was the Third Legion, which everyone cared about most.

After all, those compatible with the Third Legion's Gene-seed and able to complete the augmentation were all exceptionally handsome men and beautiful women.

And then there was the Grave Wardens Legion, which no one wanted to mention.

No one cared whether those madmen had women among them.

If they did, they would only be madwomen.

When female Space Marines first appeared, some people on Terra had raised doubts.

What if Space Marines reproduced among themselves and gave birth to a new human race?

But subsequent research showed that, just as the Adeptus Custodes could not produce little Custodes, Space Marines possessed a natural reproductive barrier and could not produce little Space Marines.

Yet the doubts had never truly been dispelled.

Who knew whether some mad Apothecary might alter the organs of Space Marines so they could reproduce with one another?

One of that scribe's key duties was to watch whether they crossed that "red line."

"Come on, Sexdu!"

"Look at these buildings! Aren't they gorgeous?"

Yulia eagerly leaned closer to Sexdu, showing him photo after photo sent back by the previous batch of landing photographers.

"Have you heard? Chemos was still a dead world a few decades ago, but now it's been built into a beautiful technological city! That's all thanks to the Primarch's political skill and governance!"

"Our Primarch—she's seriously incredible!"

"And did you know—?"

"The Primarch has a mortal husband!"

"She got married! A long time ago!"

Oh?

That piqued Sexdu's interest.

This was the first time they had encountered a married Primarch.

What did the Emperor say?

Yulia suddenly drew out her words, leaning mysteriously in front of him as she whispered.

"She even—argued with the Emperor over it right there on the spot!"