Powerful in Their Own Right

Lin En had always considered himself a well-raised kid with impeccable manners. He had hardly ever lost his composure. But at that moment, he finally understood what it meant to be so worried he wanted to tear his hair out.

Back then, the Emperor had asked Lin En which Chapter he wanted.

Anyone else would have thought long and hard about that question.

The Ultramarines had numbers, unmatched logistics, and Guilliman at their back. They were hands down the most secure Chapter in the entire Imperium. The Dark Angels were mysterious and powerful. The Lion King's flying-head punch could hit twice as hard, and the Inner Circle's technological secrets ran so deep that Lin En's Machine Spirit Resonance might even turn up two genuine artificial intelligences. The Blood Angels were the founding Chapter of his idols: handsome, deadly, and dependable. Living the good life under Dante sounded pretty sweet...

Hell, he could at least have picked an ordinary Successor Chapter.

But what had he said instead?

"I want the Lamenters, the Flesh Tearers, and the Blood Knights."

Lin En laughed.

He had amused even himself.

Ha.

It was as if he had gone looking for trouble.

The Emperor had come this close to asking him outright whether he was sure and wanted to think it over.

Lin En had insisted on taking charge of the Lamenters, which meant taking charge of the mess they had made, too.

The Emperor was not going to play favorites by pretending treason had never happened.

That made this different from the Flesh Tearers and the Blood Knights.

The Flesh Tearers and the Blood Knights had succumbed to their genetic flaws while fighting the Imperium's enemies. The crucial point was that they had been on the battlefield, fighting enemies of the Imperium.

Strictly speaking, the