Chapter 772

One by one, everyone left, until only Sanguinius and Guilliman remained in the room.

The Archangel spoke first.

Sanguinius smiled and said, "I know you have something you want to say to me, Robert, so say it—this kind of secrecy really isn't your style."

Guilliman did not speak right away. Instead, he looked at that gentle smile and pressed his lips together.

I truly hope you can keep smiling like that in a little while, Sanguinius.

Then Guilliman drew on his eloquence as a statesman and spent ten minutes laying out, in full and with perfect clarity, the origin, development, and end of the Lamenters Chapter for Sanguinius. He hid nothing, and even produced the relevant Inquisition documents he had traced back to their source.

In the course of that account, Guilliman was fortunate enough to see, with absolute clarity, exactly how the smile on Sanguinius's face disappeared.

By the time he finished, the Archangel's expression had become one of utter indifference. Then came silence—for roughly ten minutes, he did not say a single word. His expression was calm, his eyes stared straight ahead, yet his gaze had no focus and nowhere to land, as though he were staring at some illusory phantasm.

"...Where are they now?"

What a happy problem to have.

Phobos Lileo looked at the documents before him, sighed, and rose to his feet. He had not left his room today, spending the entire time dealing with these files. They concerned the rebuilding of the Chapter, the recruitment worlds, the registration of that Behemoth-class warship, and so on. Hidden behind all these tedious procedures was a hopeful future.

After a full seventeen hours of careful review and handling of all related matters, he was finally able to free himself from the paperwork.

Dressed in civilian clothes,