172. Round Table Talk (Part 3, Ultramarines [2], 4k)

The Glyph Array's account of the Ultramarines was not long. Its information for this section came from a scholar named Samuel Joe.

As someone who lived in the forty-first millennium, the latter clearly had no way to investigate the history of ten thousand years ago with only a few records. Even so, he had still offered several conjectures—fairly reliable conjectures.

"Humanity has countless enemies across the galaxy. It would not be an exaggeration to say the whole world is our enemy. Worse still, most of those enemies were once our own kind. Yes, there was more than one traitor Primarch. I was shocked by my deductions and discoveries. After all, up to now, my research has concerned only Roboute Guilliman."

"At first, I was unwilling to believe it. Until I remembered the title given to him in that ancient text—the First of Rebels. That was it. He may have been the first to betray us, or perhaps the one among all the traitors who inflicted the deepest wounds on the Empire. But in any case, there must have been others who slid with him into that abyss of corruption."

"From this, I could not help but form an even worse conjecture. Was Roboute Guilliman a traitor from the very beginning? Was he, from the start, a nail Chaos had driven into the heart of the Empire? Were his deeds, his shining facade, his exemplary Legion, in truth all a performance for others to see?"

"I do not know the answer. May those who come after me come to understand the truth from the windblown sands of history. I am now one hundred and twelve years old. This is already the limit of my lifespan."

"Although several people have hinted to me, in veiled terms, that they could fund more advanced