Please, I Don't Want to Work Hard Anymore!

Chapter 5 5. Please let me latch onto a strong backer, I don't want to work hard anymore!

Heller Pass, Hades' home.

The second night after escaping.

Hades sat on the ground, speechless, a bandage carefully wrapped around his left arm. He held a small stick, staring blankly at the horse meat roasting over the fire in the center of the room.

Don't ask him why there was a fire in the middle of the house. Just look at the mud wall by the door, half of which had collapsed, turning his small mud hut into a semi-open-air mansion!

After Hades escaped the Pale Laugher's pursuit, those bizarre creatures, enraged, smashed down half of his house.

The good news was that the roof over the kang was still intact, so it was still livable.

At this moment, Calas Typhon was sitting on the other side of the fire, staring at the roasting horse meat with glowing eyes.

Mortarion, on the other hand, stood at the doorway with a wood-chopping knife in hand, like a sentinel.

This lord believed that his foster father would come after them and kill them all, so since they returned, Mortarion had basically been standing guard at the door.

Hades had tried to dissuade him, but it was useless. Old Mortarion had been stubborn since he was a kid.

The villagers, who had just experienced the Pale Laugher's attack, became even more frightened when they saw Mortarion guarding the door.

(But his worries were indeed justified. If Hades hadn't read the script, he would be as vigilant as Mortarion right now.)

He looked speechlessly at Mortarion standing guard at the door, then continued to stare blankly into space.

Calas Typhon, as a hybrid of alien and human, was usually unwelcome by the villagers. He often wandered around various villages, just looking for something to eat.

And Mortarion was just an ignorant youth who had been abducted.

In short, these two big brothers had nowhere to go at the moment.

Out of selfish motives, Hades brought them both to his home.

He poked the roasted meat with a wooden stick. It looked about done on this side, so he flipped it over to continue roasting.

Back then, they had been speeding along in the truck, and then, near the valley, Hades had successfully wrecked the vehicle. The truck suddenly skidded.

If Mortarion hadn't pulled him, Typhon would have been thrown out of the truck bed.

Thank you, Mortarion.

"Damn it! You trying to murder me?!"

Typhon cursed and complained, terrified, his legs trembling as he climbed out after the truck came to a stop.

(Only much later would Hades belatedly realize that this was the work of an Untouchable physique.)

After that, they walked back to the village, encountering some low-level monsters along the way. They got up, and then Mortarion mowed them down with a Musou.

So refreshing.

Hades thought silently.

Back in the village, the villagers' cries deeply stirred the three returning men. After the Pale Laugher's attack, the slavers had come to scavenge again—though they didn't capture many people.

The villagers cried as they bid farewell to the dead, while those who had successfully escaped cried as they reunited.

Originally, Mortarion and his group, as the greatest contributors to their escape, should have been welcomed and loved by the villagers.

But all they received was fear and rejection.

The villagers gathered together, whispering, afraid that the High Mountain Lord would come down to take revenge. Some even suggested killing Mortarion and Typhon and sending them back to the High Mountain Lord.

Hades rolled his eyes inwardly. Although there was nothing wrong with the villagers' thinking, their double standards were off the charts. They only mentioned killing Mortarion and Typhon, and didn't mention sending out their own relatives who had just escaped.

After all, they had all escaped. Why only send out those they weren't familiar with?

Besides, Mortarion, you're a Primarch! People are afraid of you. It makes you look so weak...

Hades thought silently again. He decided to attribute this to the world's obsession with looks.

Logically speaking, no Primarch is ugly, but in reality, the twenty-one Primarchs have different levels of affinity with people. Some Primarchs, such as Sanguinius and Fulgrim, have charisma levels that are off the charts. A single smile can make strangers pick them up as babies and raise them.

But Mortarion, uh... his charisma level is reversed. In fact, if you look closely, Mortarion is also a Primarch who looks like a marble sculpture, and he's also very handsome. But his aura is too scary. He's tall and thin, like a stick, with a pale face, deep-set eyes, and a hoarse voice. At first glance, everyone basically thinks Death has come.

The first reaction of people who see Mortarion is to hide, rather than to fawn over him like they would when they see Sanguinius or Fulgrim.

So in this matter, the villagers tacitly prepared to vote out Mortarion, who looked like a monster of death.

Even though he was a hunter who had gone Musou, not a werewolf.

Sigh, this world that judges by appearances.

But there were still grateful villagers. The families of the escaped villagers sent them some straw and food.

On their first night back in the village, Hades first simply spread the straw on the bed, and then simply cooked some porridge with the donated grain.

After running for their lives, the three of them were very tired. Hades only ate a few mouthfuls of porridge before he was too sleepy to keep his eyes open. Although the wound on his left arm had already started to fester, he just bandaged it carelessly and fell asleep on the bed.

With those two big shots standing guard, he didn't have to worry about enemies at all.

That night was one of the few times Hades had fallen asleep completely unguarded.

In his dream, he was still painting stinky canned little chess pieces, cursing that the proxy buyer had raised the price again.

When he woke up, he found his left arm had been carefully re-bandaged, and Typhon was lying next to him, sleeping like a log.

He quietly wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. He definitely wasn't this embarrassing when he was asleep... definitely not...

He tried to stretch, but his whole body ached, and he almost cramped halfway, so he stopped.

He slowly ambled to the doorway and saw Mortarion standing like a tall, thin stick, gazing at the distant mountains.

He stood motionless, and only when he sensed Hades approaching did he slowly blink, glancing at Hades almost imperceptibly.

But apart from his eyes, Mortarion remained as still as a statue.

Hades muttered to himself, This guy is the ceiling I can currently reach. In fact, apart from the Emperor and the Warp ■■■, I might not be able to get close to anyone higher than Mortarion—

I have to latch onto him! Big shot, take me with you!!!

If you suddenly traveled to the past and a rogue was standing in front of you, needing you to do him a small favor—and then you realized it was Liu Bang before he became successful, as long as you didn't have any deep-seated hatred, you'd definitely sell everything you own to help him out.

As long as he ascends the throne in the future and remembers that you once helped him, and generously throws you a bone, wouldn't you also rise to prominence, become a small feudal landlord, and coast through life? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Although some might say that's too spineless, and a real man should write his own script and conquer the world!

But Hades wanted to ask, Dude, everyone dreams of being the richest person in the world, but let's be realistic. Can't we just get a civil service job first?

We don't have the skills for this right now, so why take on something so difficult?

Going solo is tiring and dangerous, and you could easily get killed. It's better to follow behind a big shot, cheering him on, picking up scraps, and living a comfortable life. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Besides, he's in the world of Warhammer now, where the fate of humanity is quite tragic.

Even the most Dragon-iest of Dragon Lords—the Emperor—has to kneel. What's a little transmigrator like him doing getting involved?

What ability does he have to presumptuously say he can save this world?

Just not getting crushed by this world is a victory!

And he doesn't want to shout "Long live the Emperor" and become fuel for humanity. Humanity doesn't need one more of him, and it won't miss one less. The Imperium of Man has been sustainably collapsing for ten thousand years in the original story, and it's still clinging on as one of the largest factions in the galaxy.

Besides, he was a slacker to begin with. Did he suddenly have to turn over a new leaf just because he changed worlds?

In his old world, he finally leveled up to become a senior white-collar worker, saved up for a small apartment, bought some figurines, and lived a peaceful life.

Just when he was preparing to coast through the rest of his life—

He inexplicably came to this world.

Ughhhhh!!! God damn it!!!

If he had to enter Warhammer, why not Terra, Mars, Macragge, Chogoris... anything would be better than Barbarus!

At the very least, couldn't he have become a happy Ork?!

His starting point is only a tiny bit better than the bottom of a hive city...

And... why did he have to run into Mortarion?! This guy has a ton of inner monologues and is a well-known contrarian and arrogant person in 40k. His twisted personality makes him impossible to communicate with.

Out of the twenty-one Primarchs, Konrad Curze, Mortarion, Perturabo, and Angron are the ones you absolutely don't want to encounter!

No, Hades, you can do it. Think about the Mortarion in the setting who hasn't met the Emperor yet. At that time, at least the descriptions of Mortarion portrayed him as fairly normal, except for being a bit gloomy. His actions could even be described as truly righteous.

In fact, judging from Mortarion's experience in the resistance on Barbarus, Mortarion was also a brave, resourceful, and charismatic leader who loved his people.

So, where did things go wrong?

Hades was already tired of complaining after transmigrating here.

In short, reality is cruel, and what he can do is simple: improve his ability to survive, grind Mortarion's favor, and wait for the Emperor to come looking for Mortarion, then become an Astartes first to extend his lifespan.

As for what comes after, that's something to think about later.

And now, white-collar worker, use your skills to suck up to your boss!

Honestly, I'm a Death Guard fan, otherwise I wouldn't have written this. (The Ultramarines of Macragge, the Space Wolves of Fenris, the Blood Angels of Baal... any of those starts would be more exciting and easier to write than the Death Guard of Barbarus.)

It's just that Mortarion's personality is definitely one of the weirdest. You definitely can't say that positive evaluations of him outweigh the negative ones.

I'm trying my best to capture his personality (but I definitely can't write that flavor).