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Gorgias wore his Scout Armor, a Bolter Pistol and Combat Knife hanging at his waist, and a pack strapped to his back.

He walked along the mountain path, heading toward the home he remembered. As he drew closer, he caught the wet, salty sea breeze, and the surroundings grew more familiar. He recalled herding sheep on these slopes as a child, when his days were split between going out to fish with his father and helping his mother drive the sheep out to graze.

He had raised the sheep fat and plump, and the ewe even gave birth to two lambs. Later, when his eldest brother married, his father sold the sheep, and a sister-in-law who didn't much like him moved in.

He was young then and couldn't understand why she disliked him when he'd done nothing to offend her. It wasn't until he became a sailor that the captain told him: she was afraid he'd claim a share of the family property.

But none of that mattered now. He was an Astartes. From now on, he would follow the Forged Steel Lord to fight among the void and the stars. The fisherman's meager plot of land had nothing more to do with him.

Finally, as he neared his hometown fishing village, he spotted the familiar houses. A few kids, seven or eight years old, were squatting at the village entrance playing a game—it was actually Knuckle Game, one he'd often played as a child. Back then, he always lost to the local bully. But a few years later, that bully drowned in an accident.

The children noticed Gorgias too. Seeing this enormous giant, they were so startled they abandoned even their sheep-bone dice.

The five kids scrambled to their feet and ran into the village, shouting as they went.

"Giant's coming! Giant's coming! The giant's here to eat people!"

Gorgias could only force a bitter smile. He walked silently toward his home and stopped at the door. Looking at the small house built of stone and lime mortar, its outer walls had peeled away until they were barely standing.

The sheep pen beside the house was empty too, and had been for some time.

He crossed the yard and walked straight through the doorway, nearly hitting his head on the lintel. In his memory, the door frame hadn't been this low.

A slightly plump middle-aged woman saw a giant carrying a sword walk through the door and dropped the wooden basin in her hands in fright.

Gorgias looked at the familiar face and said, out of habit:

"Sister-in-law."

Hearing that address, the woman recognized him:

"Gorgias!? Didn't the captain say you were missing!"

Gorgias bent his back a little to avoid hitting the salted fish hanging from the rafters, nodded, and said:

"It's me. I wasn't missing. By the way, how are my parents?"

Gorgias's parents were fine. His eldest brother and sister-in-law took good care of them. But his parents were getting older, and their bodies ached all over with one ailment or another. His father's gout flared up from time to time. Still, they were poor fishermen—whose family wasn't like this?

When Gorgias saw his parents, they were both astonished by his transformation. But he simply took a stack of silver coins and paper money from his pack and handed it to them, saying:

"These are banknotes—money. They'll be introduced to this area soon. I know a lot of this is hard to understand. Just know that I've joined the military."

"I'll arrange for money to be sent back every year. If one year the money stops, it means I'm dead."

That evening, after his eldest brother came home, the family sat around the table for dinner. Fish and seaweed soup—a simple, unadorned meal. The food Gorgias had eaten since he was a child.

On the other side, in the dining room of the queen dowager's chambers within the palace of Lasidream City-State.

Alexios dipped the last piece of whole-wheat bread into the remaining black broth, put it in his mouth, and swallowed. Beside him, his younger brother Lycurgus was peeling an orange.

Then the queen dowager spoke:

"Alexios, was the meal to your taste?"

Alexios looked up at his mother. The two brothers had been away from home for six years, and their mother looked much older than they remembered:

"Of course, Mother Queen. The food from home is delicious. Have you been well all these years?"

The former queen smiled and said:

"Your uncle is the new king now. He takes good care of me. Rest assured, I'm doing well. And since this is private, just call me Mother."

"How many days will you be staying this time?"

Lycurgus answered first:

"Not even two or three days. The Forged Steel Lord wants us back soon to familiarize ourselves with our weapons and train. Next month, we leave this planet, enter the void, and fight among the stars."

Their mother nodded, a hint of disappointment in her eyes:

"After dinner, go bathe in the bathroom. A bath after a journey washes away dust and bad luck. Aphrodite's foam will protect your bodies."

After the meal, Alexios and Lycurgus soaked thoroughly in their mother's private bath. They specifically instructed the servants to heat the water to eighty or ninety degrees, a request the servants had strongly resisted.

Alexios wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out of the bath feeling comfortable, only to find his mother waiting at the door holding clothes. When she saw Alexios, the clothes slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. She walked straight up to her son and stared at his body.

She reached out and gently touched the scars covering her eldest son's body:

"How did you get so many wounds? Does it hurt?"

She knew it was a stupid question. Of course so many wounds hurt.

Alexios just shook his head and said:

"Not too bad. They gave me anesthesia for the first surgeries, but not for the later ones. By then, I could endure it."

His mother leaned in to look at the wounds. Some of the healed areas still looked fresh. The scars spread from his chest to his back, covering almost his entire front and back. She asked:

"What caused these wounds?"

Alexios said casually:

"That's from the Black Carapace implantation. The Apothecary made us stand still. He used a scalpel to peel back our skin, placed the Black Carapace inside, and then sewed the skin back on."

The queen was horrified. Peeling skin back like skinning a sheep—it felt as if the knife were cutting into her own flesh.

The queen covered her mouth and asked cautiously:

"What does it feel like?"

Alexios scratched his head:

"Nothing much. When the Black Carapace stuck to my skin, I felt something burrow into my muscles—a bit itchy."

His mother suddenly hugged her son tightly, tears streaming down her face.

At that moment, Lycurgus walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him. Seeing his mother crying while holding their eldest brother, he looked utterly confused.

"Brother, what's this?"

But the queen quickly stopped crying. She pulled both sons close to her, and they instinctively knelt on one knee to match her height.

The queen cupped her sons' faces and said:

"My sons, we are Lasidream people. We leave our tears only for our enemies. I don't understand the void and stars you speak of—I only know you're going to war."

With that, the queen kissed each of her sons on the cheek:

"Remember, come back with glory and spoils."