The Emperor's Plan to Persecute the Primarchs Was His Own Doing (Bonus Update, Please Follow)

The Emperor's joyful ten-billion-point subsidy program came to an end. Mordred came away with a trio of mastercrafted items, Vulkan got a forging hammer, and even Rambo, who had been slacking off, received a collar from the Emperor that could project a shield.

His extravagant generosity made Mordred suspect for a while that Old Man Huang was coveting his dog. But the Emperor merely said it was a reward for Rambo's delicious dinner.

Getting things for free made people happy. After all, Rambo was the dog he had grown up with. Seeing the dog happy, Mordred said no more. But he soon stopped being happy himself, because the Emperor had assigned him a thankless task.

"I don't understand! What do you mean, you want me to search for your lost Primarchs? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to focus my energy on the military!"

The Emperor really wasn't lying this time. He was genuinely too busy. According to the human calendar, it was currently 835, M30. Since the end of the Unification Wars, the Great Crusade had lasted only thirty-five years.

During those thirty-five years, the Imperial fleet had only just finished its initial exploration of the Sol Sector. The other four sectors had barely been touched, and they were full of savage aliens and Pocket Imperiums.

On a flat map, the Sol Sector might seem tiny compared to the others. But the galaxy was three-dimensional. It simply couldn't be judged by a flat map, and the closer one got to Terra, the more bizarre things became.

The Imperial forces were currently divided into three main groups, commanded by the Emperor, Horus, and Ferrus respectively, conducting large-scale military operations.

Since only seven Primarchs had publicly returned to the Imperium, most of the Legions had no Primarch leading them. Aside from Mordred eating and waiting to die, Fulgrim was studying under Horus, Vulkan had just returned, and the only one who could truly be said to have independent authority was Roboute Guilliman.

But Roboute Guilliman was serving on the front lines in the Emperor's place. Seen that way, the Second Legion looked especially conspicuous.

In the eyes of his brothers, Mordred was already showing signs of becoming a transport commander. At a time when frontline supplies were being consumed at astronomical rates, no idiot would send a supply convoy to the front to fight.

"So you're sending me to find the other Primarchs because I've been too good at being a transport commander?"

"Yes." The Emperor nodded helplessly.

During their earlier exchange of insults, Mordred had indeed been right. Compared with the other Primarchs—even including the Emperor—almost none of them were good at farming. The only two who excelled at it, Yi Shangtou and the Brain-Dead Fan, had yet to be found.

Every Expeditionary Force fought until its ammunition and provisions were exhausted, only choosing to rest when it was truly close to collapse, waiting for another round of supplies from the rear.

The most infuriating part was that, because of the nature of Warp Voyages, one could never know when the next shipment would arrive or how much it would contain. It was enough to drive any frontline commander insane.

It was like working hard every day and eating according to schedule, only to wait until payday and have your boss suddenly tell you that your wages would be randomly determined and paid at an unspecified time.

Anyone would have a mental breakdown under those circumstances.

But after Serene World officially became a shipping hub, the cargo ships escorted by Atlas might be fewer in number, yet they always arrived on time. Ferrus, who was especially skilled at calculations, grew rapidly more favorably disposed toward Mordred.

Whenever the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force rested, what they most hoped to see was that group of oversized cousins. Their arrival meant the relief supplies had finally come. It was a guaranteed safety net.

Hearing this, Mordred felt rather conflicted. No wonder the Emperor eventually went all-in on the Webway. With transportation this inefficient, anyone would be driven mad.

"Sigh, what you said does make sense. But if I'm really that important, couldn't you send the runt instead?"

The "runt" Mordred was referring to was none other than Alpharius, who could compete with Guilliman for the record of suffering the most humiliating defeats. But the Emperor immediately shook his head and spoke under Vulkan's expression of confusion, as if Second Brother and Father were exchanging riddles again.

"Because you're the only one who knows the danger behind all this, and the only one who knows my entire plan. No matter how you look at it, you're the heir I trust most. After considering it carefully, I've decided that you're the only one suited for this task.

"Don't you want them to acknowledge our ideals?"

To be fair, that direct approach greatly increased Mordred's favorability toward the Emperor. The corners of his mouth rose uncontrollably like the muzzle of a Bolter, and in the end he let out a boisterous laugh.

"Hahahaha! Harkon, you really are a delightful fellow!"

"Don't worry! My child-rearing methods are definitely better than yours. I'll have someone beat the good brother half to death first. Even if he still refuses to obey, I can turn him into a son who excels in virtue, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor.

"Just thinking about legitimately pinning a Primarch to the ground and tormenting him gets me so excited I could raise a flag!"

The Emperor laughed as well. He told Mordred to do whatever he wanted. Once he found any trace of a Primarch, Mordred could choose anything from his treasury. As for the physical education, Mordred could handle it himself. After all, it was rather difficult for a Primarch to die.

That was Mordred. Though he refused to admit it, he was essentially a tsundere, with a stubborn streak besides. He responded to kindness, not force.

As long as something that interested him dangled in front of him, he would take a taste to see how salty it was—even if it was a bowl of Nurgle's Soup.

Only Vulkan, who had been quietly lurking in the background, seemed to notice something strange. He vaguely remembered Second Brother acting the same way when he had asked Father for a weapon. Why didn't the two of them just say what they meant?

Good thing I'm not such a fussy person, or I'd have embarrassed myself.

The four-year-old Lord of Fire began his own journey of enlightenment. He even felt that he ought to write a diary to record the feelings in his heart that had nowhere else to go.

Free time was always fleeting. With the arrival of the Eighteenth Legion's ships, Vulkan officially returned to the Imperium and renamed the Legion the Salamanders.

But the Emperor did not immediately have Vulkan return to his Legion, nor did he make him report to Horus like the other Primarchs. Instead, he decided to keep his black uncle by his side and personally instruct him.

Mordred could tell that the Emperor genuinely loved the big, dark-skinned Vulkan. Such treatment would have made a certain unnamed Wetware green with envy.

Before leaving, Mordred called Vulkan to his own Exemplar. Under the pretext of using him as a comparison subject to solve Atlas's Gene-Seed defect, he drew a huge tube of blood from him.

Through the porthole, Vulkan watched the Abomination Exemplar plunge into the Mandeville Point and sighed reluctantly.

"Father, did you send my brother to search for your other lost heirs because he was truly indispensable? I have a feeling that the brothers Second Brother finds in the future are going to suffer terribly!"

Without Mordred's contamination, the Emperor had once again become that expressionless giant. But toward his eighteenth son, whom he valued, he still patiently explained.

"It isn't that he's indispensable. I simply don't want to watch him eat, drink, and wait to die while wasting food. As for your concern that the others will suffer terribly, that won't happen. After all, I can monitor his every move at any time now."

"Look, my secret agent is online!"