Being a Parent Who Doesn't Spoil the Fun

Azmodai is right, Mordred is indeed old, his mindset is still stuck ten thousand years in the past, completely out of touch with the present empire.

As the Great Rift unfolded, the Imperium of Man was torn in two, and Alfred, where Mordred and his companions were located, happened to be in the Imperium Nihilus.

This is why Azmodai's investigation team is stuck in this star system; it's not that they don't want to leave, but that they can't.

The Milky Way is not a simple plane, but a giant rugby ball, with a z-axis in addition to the x-axis and y-axis.

If we include Warp Voyage, you also need to consider the abstract element of time. Otherwise, if you plunge headlong into Warp Voyage and arrive 300 years in the past, wouldn't that be ridiculous?

In order to travel across the stars, humanity must find a reference point, and that reference point is the Astronomican of Holy Terra. This is why the center of all the star charts of the Empire is Holy Terra.

However, with the formation of the Great Rift, the already unstable Warp Voyage became even more abstract. Navigators would strain their third eye to find the Astronomican's location and could only navigate by experience.

As we all know, when something that demands extremely high precision requires experience to balance, it means it's unreliable.

Large fleets are better off, as their high-powered Auspex have a chance to make mistakes, but for a small boat, it's all down to luck.

Azmodai could take Mordred to the Stone Fortress, but he dared not. It was a small matter if something happened to him, but if he lost the Lion King, that would be a much bigger problem.

It's more practical to call in reinforcements than to gamble on luck.

As Chapter inquisitor, Azmodai's vehicle is a Lunar-class Cruiser called the Oath of Loyalty. Don't underestimate this cruiser; it's a steel behemoth with a length of 5 kilometers, and can be considered by the Tau as their lifelong enemy.

It possesses considerable shipborne firepower, an exceptionally thick Void Shield array, and even six-tube torpedo launchers, with a crew capacity starting at 100,000.

What's even more remarkable is that this ship is cheap and durable. It belongs to a model that the Empire still has a large number of blueprints for after tens of thousands of years, making it comparable to the Roboute Guilliman of warships.

There were just too few Space Marine; there was only one company, less than 300 men.

"Father, 300 people is quite a lot. It's only because we Dark Angels are First Founding that we're able to Scion Chapter 300 people, which would be a third of the entire Chapter's personnel limit."

Oh! You're getting proud of yourself now?

"That's right, that's right, how dare you speak to your father like that? Aren't you being Fealty?"

The speaker was none other than Lazarus, the Captain of the Dark Angels.

In fact, when Mordred arrived on the Oath of Loyalty, Lazarus was extremely wary of Mordred and even tested her with the Inner Circle ring code.

After all, when Zhuang Sen returned to the Legion, the veterans were still sniping him from behind. How could they possibly trust a creature dressed as a young female knight, who was suspected to Primarch?

But within two days, Lazarus had completely succumbed and become a staunch Dog's Leg, breathing furiously on anyone who dared to speak ill of Mordred, to the point of being almost pathological.

As for why Mordred knew so much about the First Legion's secrets, that's because it's the Second Legion's secret.

After all, the Khan had contributed to the establishment of the First Legion's Inner Circle back then. If Mordred hadn't returned early, the Khan might have become Grand Master by now.

The Lion King was found by Mordred. In order to control the legion, Mordred did not give him any bad advice. Many of the codes were made up by Mordred and Zhuang Sen together.

"Lazarus, how many times have I told you? There are no traitors within the Legion, only loyal subjects! You are all my proudest offspring."

"Father!"

"Good boy!"

Watching Lazarus, with his fleshy face and four golden nails in his head, whimpering and enjoying Mordred's head pats, the group of Dark Angels beside them were practically green with envy.

As an observer, Jeanne suddenly felt something shatter, something completely different from the Death Angel her mother had told her about.

Aren't Death Angel supposed to be a group of ruthless killers who eat children alive all the time and feel restless if they don't kill someone every day? How Could turn out like this!

The thought that Mordred wasn't their father at all, but a big liar, made Jeanne feel that her future was bleak. If the lie was exposed, she would be finished.

What do you mean by "it's all over"? What are you panicking about? Although I'm not Zhuang Sen, I'm Zhuang Sen's second brother, which makes me their Second Uncle.

I think you're just bored. Since you have time to daydream, you might as well get up and do some practice problems. Have you finished the test paper I sent you yesterday?

"Without!"

"Then why don't you get back to doing your homework? How can you sleep at your age? You won't affect my academic standing, but you will cause my educational standing to plummet."

"Father, are you talking to the owner of this body again? Or...?" Lazarus made a throat-slitting gesture and looked at the blonde girl in front of him.

This wasn't the first time "Lion King" had talked to himself; Mordred had no intention of hiding it, after all, he really didn't trust Jeanne, that little fool.

Instead of hiding it, it's better to take preventative measures in advance, which can also make all your unreasonable actions seem reasonable.

Mordred waved for Lazarus to come closer, rubbed his head, and then slapped him across the face.

"Kid, I think you need a good talking to. This is my personal disciple, and you know perfectly well that I share a body with her, yet you still want to cause trouble. Do you have a problem with me?"

"No, Father, I was just thinking of you." Lazarus felt a little aggrieved, but more than that, he was filled with fear.

After spending these past few days together, not only him, but almost all the Dark Angels felt a lack of security.

It may sound unbelievable, but it's true. After that mysterious rebellion, the Dark Angels, who already had many secrets, became suspicious and easily angered by the slightest disturbance.

In a vicious cycle that has lasted for tens of thousands of years, the first lesson the Dark Angels learned was not to kill Xenos, but to guard against friendly forces; you never know how many small groups exist within the legion.

Although it wasn't Zhuang Sen, since Atlas could infiltrate every legion, Mordred, as the Gene-Lord, certainly could too. In fact, with his extraordinary charisma, disguising himself as the Primarch wouldn't be a problem.

Seeing Lazarus become so anxious and uneasy just because of a single sentence she had uttered, Mordred couldn't help but sigh.

"Sigh~ This is a one-time exception, but as punishment, give me a foot massage!"

Upon hearing this, all the Dark Angels looked at Lazarus differently, filled with regret, wondering why they had rewarded him.

"Your Highness, would you like me to give you a shoulder massage?" Azmodai asked Mordred with a longing look on his face.

"That's kind of you, then come over!"

Seeing that Azmodai was so shameless in order to win the prince's favor, the other Canned One began their own performance.

Soon, Mordred was getting a full range of services, including foot massage, leg pounding, and shoulder rubbing, and there were even a few guys grilling skewers for her.

With nothing to do and no one daring to let the Primarch roam freely, Mordred summoned all the Dark Angels to kill time, eating and drinking while using them to learn about the current state of the Empire.

The Primarch are incredibly lethal to Space Marine; even if Mordred is just a meal replacement, a meal replacement still relieves hunger.

Especially after discovering that their original host wasn't as difficult to get along with as the records suggested, the little Canned One completely let loose.

The greatest distance is aspiration; people only see what they want to see.

The Dark Angels can sense a faint connection within the Gene-Seed, which is the most important anti-counterfeiting mark. They can also respond fluently to Mordred's Inner Circle code words and even Prairie Walker in a one-to-one replica.

You wouldn't say Mordred's disguise was particularly clever, but who doesn't want an approachable, witty, protective, and supportive parent?

The only thing that made it a little hard for these little Canned One to break down was that the adults always liked to gossip about him, but this only proved that Mordred was the Lion King. After all, no one but the Lion King could possibly know so many little secrets.

While eating meat skewers and drinking orange juice, Mordred patted Azmodai beside her and asked the group of small Canned One gathered in a circle:

"You mean you're trapped here because you went on a support mission, and the target was a group of blue-skinned aliens who called themselves Titanium?"

"Yes, sir, these blue-skinned Xenos are extremely despicable, completely different from the Xenos we've encountered before. They even use a mind weapon called the Supreme Good Path to bewitch humans."

"The Supreme Good Path?" Mordred asked, puzzled.

"That's right!"

To prove his point, Azmodai placed an observation report in Mordred's hands, detailing the intelligence uncovered by the Dark Angels spies.

Even more abstractly, the Dark Angels solemnly listed the humans who betrayed the Empire, especially the current situation of these traitors.

Well, Mordred felt quite mocked after watching it. It's not that these Tau are particularly strong; they're just at the level of an average Xenos race. But they made the Empire look like a clown.

The Tau weren't discovered recently; the Empire discovered these blue-skinned Xenos as early as 6,000 years ago. At that time Tau were still a primitive tribe, so they didn't take them seriously.

But these Tau actually thrived, transforming themselves from a group of hairy, blood-drinking primitives into Xenos race that now spans multiple star sectors in just 6,000 years.

Then the abstract thing happened: the Empire hadn't discovered these blue-skinned Tau, but it found something suspicious in the Imperial Tithe.

The reason for this discovery was even more abstract: it was simply because the Imperial Tithe was collected on time. The Department of the Interior decided to increase the tax, and then discovered that even after the tax increase, the tax was still collected on time.

Then the Department of the Interior saw the human traitors working alongside the Tau.

Upon discovering that someone dared to collude with the Xenos, the Empire was in a state of extreme alarm. However, their first action was not to exterminate the Tau, but to carry out Great Purge of the human world bordering the Tau, issuing mass Exterminatus.

However, this is not the most abstract aspect. This move by the Empire directly drove the humans of those worlds into rebellion, and they were even defeated when they tried to exterminate the Tau.

If you ask why they never fought, well, that's because the Empire had its own internal affairs. When it Damocles Crusade, it was still fighting amongst itself. Every single one of them was considered lucky if they didn't stab their own allies in the back.

If it weren't for the Tyranid attack, they might have been overtaken.

"This is incredible! It's so incredible that I can't even tell which side is the enemy. They've completely lost all sense of shame."

While Mordred was questioning the meaning of life because of the Empire's wretched state, looking at Azrael's Star-whisper Transmission in her hand, she felt as if the sky had fallen.

"Oh no, what am I going to do? What if Father finds out that I was the one who blew up Caliban..."

Ugh (;Д`), Azmodai, you tricked me!