Public Trial (Part 1)

The Emperor watched all of this quietly.

From the moment Huron entered the banquet hall, He observed every single part of the process.

Seeing that Battle Sister covered all over in written prayers, He recalled the "Last Church", a regular church He burned down with His own hands at the end of the Unification Wars on Terra.

He had hoped to use this to sever religion's obstruction to human civilization, allowing everyone to understand the world rationally. Yet He was now being worshipped as a "god", and this very cult had even become the "Ecclesiarchy" of the Imperium of Man.

Seeing that Battle Sister turned into food as a sacrificial offering, He remembered the various barbarian tribes and Black Qidan warlords He had eliminated during the Unification Wars on Terra.

Various barbarian tribes generally believed that devouring enemies could grant their strength and courage. On the wasteland of Terra, this custom was very common, and it was also the most benighted, savage state He wished to eradicate.

As for the Black Qidan warlords, they were extremely fond of sacrificing to deities with human blood, and were keen on making various religious ritual implements using human blood, human bones, and human skin. Among them, the one most loathed by Him was sacrificing to deities through cannibalism.

He had wiped them out and tried to lead humanity out of benightedness, abandoning this bloody, savage, antisocial behavior, and turning instead to interacting through mutual help.

As a result, the nobles of the Imperium of Man now openly treated humans as sacrifices and as ingredients, having even reached the point of taking it for granted.

As if the Imperium of Man had turned into an oversized version of the Black Qidan warlords and barbarian tribes.

Even with the Emperor's arrogant disposition, seeing all this made Him somewhat unable to hold it together, and even gave rise to a trace of regret.

If He hadn't stopped the Astartes from participating in politics and governance back then, if He had let the Astartes monitor and manage this pack of vermin, would the Imperium of Man not have reached today's state?

Yet this trace of regret was quickly dismissed, for He knew that letting these superhumans manage mortals would only result in changing to a different way of being perverted.

However...

The Emperor looked at Huron, who was obsessed yet not entirely insane.

With that unknown force as an auxiliary, perhaps this soul from another world could change all of this, changing this ignorant and cruel state of the Imperium of Man.

Unconsciously, the Emperor's evaluation of Huron and the system rose slightly once again.

At the same time, He dragged the evaluation of the vermin nobles of the Imperium of Man down to the absolute lowest point, putting them on the same level as the Warp Chaos Gods.

Meanwhile, good news came over the Chapter's communications channel.

"Vella Family raid successful, family members resisted fiercely, 389 dead, 122 captured, family head Klaus Vella killed on the spot."

"Mercer Family raid successful, family members attempted to flee, 113 dead, 344 captured, family head Silas Mercer killed on the spot."

"Salome Family raid successful, most family members chose to surrender, 89 dead, 455 captured, family head Marcus Salome also captured."

Thanks to the suddenness of the operation and the powerful breakthrough capability of the Terminators, several Spire high nobles had no time to react at all.

The small Void Shields capable of shrouding the family fortresses didn't even have time to activate before the Terminators charged into the interior of the fortresses alongside regular Astartes, swiftly suppressing all possible resistance.

"Well done, lock up and imprison the captives, awaiting subsequent trial."

Though it was strange why the Salome Family, whose rhetoric in the messages was the most radical and who attempted to retaliate against the Astral Claws, surrendered the fastest instead, Huron couldn't be bothered to ponder what these people were thinking.

Given the actions of these nobles, there was no need to even use the unannounced Badab Codex to try them; just the Imperial Regulations promulgated by the Council of High Lords of Terra, alongside the Imperial Law promulgated since the Great Crusade era and added to, deleted from, and modified ever since, were enough to make these people suffer a fate worse than death.

Even if Imperial Law and Imperial Regulations were overly lengthy and complex, with no one capable of fully mastering them, leading to various regions deleting and modifying them according to their own understanding.

At the very least, "cannibalism" was a universal standard of heresy, a major matter that weighed a thousand catties even if it didn't register two ounces on the scales.

Yet even though several main high noble families had been raided and controlled, the remaining large and minor nobles, titular nobility holding titles like sir or knight, and various factory owners, merchants, etc., affiliated with the noble families, were still resisting fiercely.

Consequently, the blockade of the entire hive city lasted for a full week and more before coming to an end.

Once the blockade was lifted, the hive citizens were notified of a major event: the public trial of the nobles.

The Central Plaza of Palatos Hive was the temporarily erected tribunal.

This place was originally the exclusive parade ground of the nobles, its ground paved with expensive black granite shipped from other planets, every slab polished as smooth as mirrors.

Statues of the successive patriarchs of all the high noble families originally stood around the plaza, but all of these statues had now been dismantled, replaced by extra-large holographic projection screens and live-streaming equipment.

It was nine o'clock in the morning, and sunlight shone down upon the plaza, causing most of the audience off stage to feel an unprecedented warmth, yet failing to make Marcus Salome feel a shred of warmth.

He was kneeling at the center of the tribunal at this moment, looking at the audience beneath the stage, most of whom were underhivers, feeling a heartfelt disgust toward their various actions that failed to conform to rules of etiquette.

How are these people qualified to enter the sacred Central Plaza, it's simply a desecration of the God-Emperor! Marcus felt contempt and humiliation from the bottom of his heart.

That was only because the Emperor was currently incapable of giving him a powerful slap across the face, otherwise he would probably have been spun around like a top by now.

Beside him, Odinson wore ceremonial Power Armour, covered entirely in sashes and ornate decorations.

He looked at the audience beneath the stage.

The Central Plaza was incomparably massive, capable of accommodating millions of people simultaneously, but compared to the population of Palatos Hive, this number could only be described as a drop in the bucket.

Fortunately, network broadcasts could be used; through emergency construction, the underhive had laid down quite a few network channels in advance to ensure coverage reaching ninety-nine percent of the hive citizens.

In other words, at this very moment, tens of billions of people or even more might be watching this live broadcast.

"Good morning, people of Badab, I am Odinson," he introduced himself to everyone. "Most of you probably haven't heard of me. I was once a member of the Chapter Auxiliary, and am now an Astartes Space Marine, commonly known as the "God-Emperor's Angels"."

He continued: "As the acting Planetary Governor authorized and commissioned by Governor Huron, I hereby represent the Astral Claws Chapter to try the Palatos nobles who have committed all manner of crimes, and in the name of the Astral Claws and the Emperor, sentence them as heretics."

He looked at the audience beneath the stage, most of whom were blank with incomprehension. Aside from a small minority of Auxiliary personnel who had received general education, most underhive audiences didn't know what this meant, because it was far too distant from their previous lives.

Odinson felt no surprise, instead continuing his pronouncement: "The first prisoner on trial is the patriarch of the Salome Family, Marcus Salome. You might not have heard of this name or this family, but the Starch Guild under his family's banner monopolizes nearly ninety percent of the hive's food supply."

At this, the audience beneath the stage reacted; the Starch Guild was a name familiar to all hive citizens, and quite a few people even held favorable views of it.

After all, if not for the Starch Guild, they wouldn't even have a place to buy food. They could only risk trying dangerous mutant creatures, or... engaging in cannibalism.