I Understand Your Resolve

His words resonated with many of the warriors.

More and more voices joined in. "The Chapter Master is right! The Codex has indeed held us back in many battles!"

"To cling to dogma, we have paid far too many unnecessary sacrifices!"

"The Primarch has returned. His will is our new direction! If we defy the Primarch now, are we not also defying the spirit of the Codex?"

However, some Chaplains and veteran sergeants led by Landros still stood stubbornly where they were, their faces full of pain and struggle.

Landros rasped, "Chapter Master... we... we cannot accept this... We cannot simply abandon the beliefs we have upheld our entire lives!"

"Forgive our foolishness!"

Seeing that words alone could not entirely quell the internal resistance,

Calgar had no choice but to truthfully report the matter to Guilliman, who was planning the expedition.

"Father, that is the situation."

"Chaplain Landros and some of the brothers... they... they are unwilling to accept the new orders," Calgar said uneasily.

Guilliman looked up from the star map, one brow lifting slightly. "Oh? They do not want to listen to their father?"

"Yes." Calgar nodded. "They are kneeling in the square outside your hall right now, claiming that they cannot abandon what they once stood for."

To Calgar's surprise, Guilliman not only did not get angry, but burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha, good! Good!"

"They can still have thoughts of their own. They can still defy my will. That means their minds have not been completely fossilized by that damned book!"

"They can still think for themselves. That is a good thing!"

"Huh? Father, you... you are not angry?"

Calgar froze. Even he was somewhat irritated by those stubborn fools.

"What is there to be angry about?"

Guilliman looked as though it were only natural. "Is it not normal for children to grow up and develop thoughts of their own? What parents need to do is educate them."

"Educate... them?" Calgar was somewhat confused.

"That is right—educate and guide them." Guilliman smiled and gave an example. "Psychological counseling, heart-to-heart talks, that sort of thing. Help them untie the knots in their hearts."

"I see! Father, you are going to speak with them personally?!"

Calgar suddenly understood, but then an inexplicable jealousy rose within him—he had never even received the privilege of a private heart-to-heart talk with his genetic father!

"Of course. I definitely need to have a proper 'exchange' with them."

Guilliman confirmed Calgar's guess, but then his tone shifted, and a smile that sent a chill down Calgar's spine appeared on his face.

"However, son, the emotional communication and heart-to-heart talks I just mentioned are usually a mother's job."

As he spoke, he began undoing a clasp at the waist of his power armor and pulled out something made of high-strength composite material, exceptionally tough... a weaponized strap?

Or rather, it looked more like a specially made "belt."

"On Old Terra, fathers in an ancient civilized nation had a sacred and effective educational ritual."

Guilliman weighed the belt in his hand.

Then he folded it, gripped both ends tightly, and pulled hard!

Crack!

Guilliman nodded in satisfaction. Getting whipped by that thing would definitely be quite an experience.

His smile became even more "kind."

"It allows children to swiftly understand the mountain-like weight of a father's love."

Calgar looked at the belt gleaming coldly, then at Guilliman's fists, each as large as a casserole, and his towering frame. A chill ran through his entire body.

What kind of 'persuasion' was this?! This was nothing like the heart-to-heart talk he had imagined!

"I... I see..." Calgar's voice was somewhat dry. "Father, you have also mastered such a... 'sacred' ritual?"

"Of course!"

Guilliman laughed heartily and rolled his wrist.

"Not only have I mastered it, back on Terra... ah, I mean, long ago, I personally experienced it many times! The results were outstanding!"

With a grand wave of his hand, he carried that "belt" of resilient alloy and strode toward the hall exit like a dragon and tiger.

"Come, son!"

"Your father will let those brothers of yours personally experience this fatherly love, delayed by ten thousand years!"

Calgar followed close behind.

When he looked again at the brothers kneeling in the square—the ones who had once made him somewhat angry—

there was now only the deepest sympathy in his eyes, along with a trace of... gloating?

May the Emperor... no, may Father's 'education' bring them back from their misguided path...

Silently, he made the Aquila.

Steady, powerful footsteps rang across the square, each one seeming to strike directly against the hearts of Landros and the others.

Landros raised his head, which had been bowed in pain. Through tear-blurred eyes, he saw that incomparably towering figure walking toward him.

Unlike the murderous, war-god bearing he wore on the battlefield,

Guilliman now bore a gentle smile.

Under the light of Macragge's sun, those azure eyes were like the purest ocean, carrying a soothing warmth.

Sunlight outlined his mighty body in gold, sacred and majestic.

This was his genetic father...

Landros could clearly feel the gene-seed within him burning and trembling. It was resonance and awe born from the deepest reaches of his bloodline.

An indescribable, almost instinctive Loyalty surged from the depths of his heart, nearly drowning him.

Yet his centuries-long adherence to the Astartes Codex was like a heavy set of shackles, filling him with incomparable pain and torment.

"I heard."

Guilliman spoke gently, his voice like a spring breeze sweeping over the square.

"You do not wish to obey my current orders. You still wish to continue following the Astartes Codex, is that correct?"

"No! It is absolutely not that we do not wish to obey your orders!"

Landros and the others hurriedly explained, their voices filled with panic. "It is only that... we cannot abandon the Codex!"

"Father, we absolutely never intended to betray you!"

"Our Loyalty to you is witnessed by the Astronomican!"

Guilliman pressed his hands downward in a calming gesture, signaling that they need not be agitated. "I understand. I understand how you feel."

"I believe that my children are all good children willing to listen to me. It is only that this Astartes Codex has influenced you for far too long, and too deeply."

His tone was full of understanding. "I understand your resolve."

After all, I wrote this Codex with my own hands back then.

"If blame must be assigned, then it can only rest with me, not with my children."

"Genetic Father..."

Landros choked up at once, feeling that he truly was the worst.

Their father had actually taken the fault upon himself rather than blame them in the slightest!

What incredible tolerance and greatness!

And yet he had still stubbornly defied his father's decision...

He felt like such a failure, unworthy of being an Ultramarines Chaplain.