King Huron's Personnel Management

"You won!"

[As I write this, I hope readers will remember our domain name: Taiwan Novel Network, a vast sea of books, ₮₩₭₳₦.₵Ø₥ is yours to choose from.]

From the stands, Huron rose, his gaze lowered, not looking down at the victorious Slayer.

Or rather, the World Eater.

A veteran of ten thousand years.

"You know the rules. Don't beat around the bush, just say what you want."

One of Huron's major methods for selecting useful individuals was through arena combat. He generally didn't force people into the arena; participants were usually volunteers.

This volunteering stemmed from a desire for certain things.

Status, power, wealth, or something else entirely. Anything could be claimed, because at least within the Maelstrom, the Lord of the Maelstrom's word was law.

"A crate of Bolters, and a crate of Bolter shells," the World Eater said, his tone filled with impatience and ferocity.

"That's it?"

"No, there's more."

After venting his bloodlust, the World Eater seemed to be tormented again by the Daemon's nail in his head.

"And then... hmm..." He scratched his chest plate through his armor with his chainsword. "And then I want to join the Fierce Angels... hmm... that's all."

In the arena, everyone, including Huron, looked at Lu Jin.

A World Eater, a veteran who participated in the Horus Heresy ten thousand years ago and followed Angron in the Battle for Terra, was highly sought after in the Maelstrom.

Lu Jin, who was contemplating how to deal with Vengar, showed no reaction, merely thinking the World Eater was a Khorne agent at first glance.

"It seems he is unwilling," Huron said, withdrawing his gaze and looking back at the World Eater. "Bring another."

"Hmm..." The World Eater let out a deeply suppressed, ferocious hum. "He can't refuse... hmm... the Slayer helped him, so he must help the Slayer. If the Slayer dies, he must help me."

"I am willing to help you in other ways. For example, if you need manpower for any operations, I will help... you," Lu Jin said. "But joining the Fierce Angels is impossible."

"Son of Angron, you must be reasonable," Huron said. "Although you likely can't be reasonable. There's only one person who can still be reasonable after getting a Daemon's nail..."

"I am not the Son of Angron... not... hmm, not," the World Eater shook his head, but he didn't insist on joining the Fierce Angels. Instead, he made another demand: "Find me a place in another warband, a position where I can kill people freely."

Huron nodded.

Lu Jin rose from the spectator stands, about to turn and leave, when Huron suddenly called out to him: "Stay in the arena for a while, and then we'll go visit Aels together."

"I have other matters to attend to," Lu Jin said.

"..." Huron suddenly fell silent. After a few seconds, he asked, "Are you brewing something up?"

To anyone, the Black Heart King was a suspicious man, and his suspicion often made others uneasy.

"My crew, killed by that bastard Vengar, will have their funeral tonight. According to tradition, I must organize and participate."

"Then you don't need to go back. I just delivered a large shipment of weapons and ammunition to you as a reward for the Botulism eradication campaign. Your crew will be busy. The funeral can't possibly be held now."

"..."

Lu Jin frowned and sat back down.

He had a vague premonition that Aels had already returned to normal and was looking for his Chapter Master, and would then reveal his true experiences.

But Lu Jin couldn't show his urgency. After sitting down, he brought up a topic: "Vengar is a high-ranking subordinate of yours. Aren't you worried he'll oppose you because of today's events?"

"Isn't he already opposing me?" Huron retorted. "There are plenty of people like him. It doesn't matter."

Lu Jin nodded in silence.

At that moment, he suddenly heard the Navigator, Onaas, transmit to him via psionics.

"Vengar... for some reason, he went to find Aels, and he's on his way."

"And Aels is undergoing memory recovery training with the help of a Red Corsair Apothecary."

Without Lu Jin's reminder or instruction, the intelligent Navigator Onaas knew she should keep an eye on these two with her psionics.

Onaas even thought about reporting to Lu Jin, then using her psionics to observe Lu Jin's condition. She realized Lu Jin was being held up by Huron and guessed that Lu Jin might intend to kill Aels before his memories fully recovered. Therefore, she now wanted to help Lu Jin convey some orders.

"Has Kao returned to normal?" Lu Jin silently thought.

"After killing some Xenos, he has."

"Have him take ten men, plus Xenos, and find a way to infiltrate Vengar's ship and steal a set of Terminator armor."

"Yes, I'll relay the message now."

"..."

Seeing Lu Jin fall silent, Huron thought that as a new Chapter Master, Lu Jin must not have received the power education from an old friend and didn't even know how to manage his chapter.

If Lu Jin were a natural-born leader, he would realize that the World Eater demanding to join the Fierce Angels was a treasure, more important than the supplies he and his entire chapter were rushing to collect.

Therefore, Huron intended to give Lu Jin a bit of power education.

"People like Vengar, I know they only show me respect when they face me. In private, they call me by my name, and even his subordinates have directly offered him strategies to assassinate me and seize power in the Red Corsairs."

"But he is still useful to me."

Huron spoke softly.

"There is a method for understanding and employing people."

"For fools, you must control them with things that are ethereal, like certain principles, goals that are almost impossible to achieve, or similar things. You have to make them feel like they are right."

"For fools who think they are smart, you must make them feel smart, and lure and control them with things as inexhaustible as mud and sand, things they would have obtained anyway, such as the most obvious benefits, or other similar things, in short, things that are very cheap and they could have obtained originally."

Hearing this, Lu Jin waited for Onaas to send him another psionic message, while casually asking, "And what about truly smart people?"

"There are no smart people, only mortals. I don't mean those weak, unaugmented people, but mortals, including even myself, an Astartes."

"They probably don't have anything they truly want to pursue. They live according to their instincts for a while, and then slowly they will know what they want and pursue it. They might choose one between the ethereal and the substantial, or they might want both, but the key is that because they don't pursue anything desperately, they instead become variables that need to be contended for."

"So, you should understand why I think Vengar is a usable person."

Huron gazed at Lu Jin, waiting for him to digest what he had taught him.

As someone who had been appointed in a time of crisis, if Lu Jin never knew these things that should have been passed down by the Chapter Master, his usefulness would be even less than Vengar's.

"I understand," Lu Jin nodded. "Compared to someone like me, Vengar is very controllable, so you're not afraid of offending him. After all, a 'sweet carrot' and you'll be united again."

Huron nodded.

Onaas had already notified Kao.

When she re-established psionic contact, Huron suddenly added, "Take Kao from your Chapter, for example. He's a fool. I estimate that since he was born, he's believed he should fight for the desiccated corpse on the Golden Throne, which is why he once advised my old friend, Chapter Master Ninos, not to come to the Maelstrom."

This evaluation of Kao was also "recorded" by Onaas and transmitted into Kao's ears.

"Bullshit."

Kao had already donned his power armor and was leading his battle-brothers towards a relic within the warship.

"When the Inquisitor started investigating us, I suggested that the Chapter Master kill the Inquisitor, and then the entire Chapter would no longer fight for the Golden Throne, but for the traditional creed. Ninos wasn't the Chapter Master then."

"Because this is a very simple and clear question: when the Golden Throne itself abandons us, we must realize why we are fighting, otherwise we will become those heretics hiding in the Warp rifts, becoming puppets of another master. Just as Huron is a puppet of Chaos's great enemy."

Huron, of course, couldn't hear these two refutations. He was just giving an example.

To tell Lu Jin: what kind of person appears to be what type, and then adopt corresponding methods of manipulation.

"Among the Legion Relics, besides the ancient artifact that can repel Greenskins, there is also a device used ten thousand years ago during the Great Crusade to teleport boarding parties."

"The technology of this ancient device has been lost, but it can still operate."

Onaas reported to Lu Jin, using her psionics to sense the situation on Vengar's flagship.

The Space Marines were ready. No one knew why they were stealing Terminator armor, but they knew very clearly that this was something that had to be done and was correct, because Lu Jin cared about everyone, including them. He was a natural Fierce Angel, in line with the Chapter's creed.

"Thank you for teaching me this," Lu Jin did not correct Huron's misjudgment of Kao.

"This is a favor, remember it," Huron said. "Also, what kind of person do you think you are?"

Lu Jin had no intention of guessing this. He just wanted to leave and get things done, but he didn't want Huron to notice anything amiss.

"I'm probably an unusual person, both ordinary and extraordinary," Lu Jin still answered.

"Indeed. You are an anomaly," Huron nodded repeatedly, then asked, "Do you think it's easy to control you?"

"..." Lu Jin shook his head.

"Both as easy as flipping your hand and as difficult as defying the heavens," Huron said in a deep voice.

Then, his tone lightened, "But luckily, you don't have to think about how to make a person named Lu Jin useful to you, so it won't be difficult for you, a novice Chapter Master."

Kao and the others had already been teleported to Vengar's flagship.

Silently.

Xenos believed in a bloody slaughter, but Kao believed in a stealth mission. Silence was best.

"Because you..."

Huron was about to say something when Amanius suddenly arrived in the arena. He walked past several empty high-tier seats and whispered a few words to his Chapter Master.

"Accept that Black Stone Fortress," Huron said, not hiding it from Lu Jin's presence.

"So, we are going to agree to Abaddon and support him in his new crusade?"

"No, Amanius, of course not. Abaddon wants to get something for nothing. This thing called a Black Stone Fortress that he's giving us will definitely be taken back by him due to the tense war situation. We just need to receive it and keep it temporarily. In the future, we'll just return it to them."

Hearing this, Lu Jin realized that the Thirteenth Black Crusade had begun.

The Black Stone Fortress was a weapon manufactured by an unknown race. Abaddon had indeed given one to Huron, and in the end, as Huron had predicted, it was taken away by him when the Red Corsairs supported Abaddon due to the tense war.

After the Black Crusade ended, the Warp rift would tear apart the galaxy, and then Guilliman would be resurrected...

These major events that affected the future of the galaxy were still too far away for Lu Jin. What he needed to consider now was how to get the Fierce Angels Chapter away from Huron, and then, according to Ninos's dying wish, seek help from Bena to clarify matters.

As for what to do afterward...

Lu Jin thought of his warhammer and battle axe. He felt that he should choose a true Astartes as Chapter Master, and then enter the Warp himself to free the souls he knew in the warhammer from Khorne's confinement—to utterly perish rather than wander eternally like lost souls in the plains of skulls.

As for how someone who didn't understand psionics like himself could free those souls...

Kill daemons until he could contend with Khorne.

"You go back first. I have to receive Abaddon's envoy. When Aels has fully recovered, I'll bring him to see you, and by the way, see what weapons your Fierce Angels are missing."

Huron suddenly spoke, pulling Lu Jin out of his thoughts.

Lu Jin turned and left without hesitation.