Shock.
That was the only word in the mind of Gavril Loken, who had just been promoted to captain of the Lunar Wolves' Tenth Company.
A remarkably talented recruit, he had caught the eye of the Tenth Company's captain not long after joining the Lunar Wolves. He had served as the man's adjutant on the battlefield and repeatedly distinguished himself.
Until the Dalit Xenos purge not long ago, when the former captain of the Tenth Company had died gloriously in battle.
And he, Gavril Loken, this newly appointed adjutant, had taken his place.
He was extremely nervous.
Today was his first day in office, and also one of the rare days when Lord Horus, the Primarch, had summoned all the company captains for a meeting.
Before this, Loken had only glimpsed the visage of that godlike Primarch from afar.
On the battlefield, his banners heralded celebration, and his battle cry was the unstoppable howl of a wolf.
The Shepherd of Wolves had always been a ferocious giant wolf.
Yet today, he had the good fortune to join the other captains in witnessing this invincible god's approachable, humble, and genial side.
What he saw today truly shattered his fixed impression of Lord Horus.
Loken thought to himself.
—Then he saw the projector begin to play.
The good news was that his fixed impression of Horus had been shattered.
The bad news was that it had shattered a little too thoroughly.
The projection shifted. After displaying a line of High Gothic subtitles of unknown meaning—Centaur gold ring—a magnificent theater suddenly appeared before them.
A theater?
A play?
Centaur. Gold ring?
What did that mean?
The captains exchanged bewildered looks.
As participants in the first Great Learning of the Lunar Wolves, they had expected an exquisite breakdown and explanation of tactics from Primarch Fulgrim herself, or perhaps Kasgar.
Using the vast amount of information that could be carried through Holographic Projection, they would gradually learn the Sons of the Emperor's principles and training methods for Guerilla Warfare, followed by practical demonstrations.
Weren't learning materials supposed to be like that?
Then why did this projection seem to be a play?
The Holographic Projection flickered, and the theater's viewpoint rapidly widened.
Near the semicircular marble stage framed by intricate carved stonework, a vivid scarlet carpet stretched out. Lamps behind red curtains on either side illuminated the gleaming golden decorations of the theater dome.
Bright and splendid, magnificent and lavish.
A theater decorated with the utmost extravagance.
But what did that have to do with commanding a Legion in battle?
"Could it be that Lady Fulgrim... picked up the wrong storage device?"
Torgaddon muttered quietly.
Loken, beside him, actually agreed with that explanation.
Still, thankfully, what had been mixed up was only a recording of a theater performance. If it had been some other kind of recording...
That would have been truly terrifying.
Awkward as it was, the footage continued.
The recording was exactly as its title suggested.
As both performer and playwright, Fulgrim recounted in this resplendent theater hall the story of how she and Kasgar had spent thirty years together on Chemos, exchanging Centaur gold rings.
It did not have even the slightest connection to Guerilla Warfare.
Yet for some reason, Horus neither stopped it nor commented on it.
He merely leaned quietly against the conference table, watching Fulgrim's performance with complete absorption.
Even his expressions rose and fell with the emotions of the characters in the play.
Horus looked utterly enthralled.
He really liked this.
Watching the Primarch whom the Lunar Wolves regarded as a supreme god, a profoundly irreverent thought suddenly surfaced in Gavril Loken's mind.
No, no, no, no.
No!
He immediately rejected it.
As the Shepherd of Wolves of the Lunar Wolves, his goal was the glorious future in which the Emperor united the galaxy!
The Great Crusade was humanity's unprecedented grand undertaking, destined to endure through the ages!
As the Emperor's most loyal son, Lord Horus, the Shepherd of Wolves, naturally sought to spread the Imperial Truth throughout the galaxy and liberate the lost brethren still oppressed by xenos across the worlds. That was his lifelong goal!
Lord Horus was great!
He was a perfect being who had long cast aside such base interests!
How could he possibly be interested in such a boring, vulgar love story!?
He would never be like Fulgrim, that vain peacock, endlessly going on about some "Centaur gold ring"!
Absolutely!
It had to be so!
Yet Lord Horus did not stop the playback as Loken had expected.
He watched with great seriousness.
All the way until the performance ended.
".Fulgrim!"
"You! Forever↑, are↓ my—Centaur↑ constellation↓!"
Fulgrim's acting ability seemed to have been improving all along.
Compared to the solo performance she had given on Chemos before, the performance in this recording seemed even more passionate.
If the previous one had merely been enough to make one's toes claw through Ceramite Armor—
This time, even master-crafted armor could be clawed through along with it!
"No matter where↑ you gallop↓ in the future! I shall↑ remain by your↓ side—!"
"This↑ is our 'promise'↓!"
Accompanied by her emotionally charged, rising and falling recitation, the scarlet curtain finally descended.
The end.
The spiritual assault upon all the Lunar Wolves' company captains finally came to an end at that moment.
Captain Loken's Great Learning of the Lunar Wolves score was not particularly ideal.
He could not really understand it.
But he was deeply shocked.
Staring at the final subtitle—It is love! The power of love allows us to save this world—Loken struggled to free his mind from its previous state of Chaos.
"It's over?"
Horus looked at the finished projection before him, deep in thought.
He even seemed somewhat reluctant for it to end.
"That truly was an exceptionally wonderful performance," Horus said. "It seems my sister is also a highly infectious performing artist."
He really liked the play.
It reminded him of certain things from his own life.
But seeing the expressions on his company captains' faces, he did not quite dare show it.
"Still, it does indeed seem to have nothing to do with command tactics."
"Captains, do you have any thoughts on this?"
He tossed the ball to his subordinate captains.
"I still think Lady Fulgrim most likely used the wrong recording."
Torgaddon voiced what most of the puzzled captains present were thinking.
"I don't like this thing. We are Space Marines. We are not interested in this kind of love story."
Abaddon frowned, his eyes full of disdain.
(Actually, he liked it too.)
"And you? Captain Loken of the Tenth Company, what do you think?"
Horus gave an honest, loyal smile and looked at the rather bewildered new captain.
"I'm not very sure."
"But perhaps Lady Fulgrim wanted to tell us that even the Auxilia on Chemos can possess such combat strength because of... uh, the power of love?"
Loken's mouth was going dry as he spoke.
He was only an ordinary Space Marine. Reading comprehension was not his strong suit.
His words drew another burst of laughter from the captains.
"The power of love..."
Horus murmured with a smile.
"Centaur, gold ring..."
The paper airplane of childhood had finally flown back into my hands~
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