Raise His Favorability 6 Times!

Heller Pass, outside Hades's shabby house.

The morning of the second day after their escape.

Hades stood at the door, wondering how to start a conversation without being misunderstood.

With Mortarion's strange personality, one wrong sentence and he would hold a grudge for ten years.

It reminded Hades of his former deadbeat boss. That guy's train of thought was so bizarre that he could hear Hades insulting him in a simple "The printer is out of paper."

Why were other transmigrators fighting monsters and leveling up, while he had to learn how to chat?

No helping it. When you lived under someone else's roof, you had to bow your head.

Hades's little classroom on conversation was now in session~

He knew Mortarion definitely wanted to talk about something. He just had to ask a few simple questions, then let the other man talk to himself.

"Will those lords come down here?"

"They will... those bastards. Their pathetic, pitiful lives depend entirely on their so-called authority."

"And now, the livestock from the bottom rung—the trash in their eyes—has trampled on their dignity. They won't let this go."

Mortarion gritted his teeth. He looked like he wanted to grab a blade and chop off those lords' heads right now.

"Are you planning to face them alone?"

"..."

"The fury of oppression burns in every slave's heart..."

"...If I am given time, I will awaken the flames of rebellion in everyone's hearts, overthrow these tyrants. Victory belongs to humanity."

Hades shrugged.

"You will have time."

But... when you finally faced your foster father, there would be very little time left.

"Not necessarily." Mortarion stared intently beyond the mountains. "My foster father may come for revenge now, but I am not certain. He is cunning and will not act rashly."

In truth, if Mortarion's alien foster father, Nac'Lare, really chose to seek revenge immediately, this little village would instantly be blasted to pieces by overwhelming artillery fire.

Mortarion knew his foster father well. He never took risks. When fighting other lords, unless he wanted to toy with Mortarion and throw him onto the battlefield, Nac'Lare would usually first bombard the enemy with saturation fire, then use Witchcraft to drive hordes of puppets against them and wear them down.

He rarely took the field himself, even though Nac'Lare was the strongest witch on the planet.

"So you're waiting for him now? You're afraid he'll attack the village?"

"...Yes."

"I am waiting for his revenge. I betrayed him, not you."

"If he wants revenge, he should come for me, not you."

Uh... was there any chance, Hades thought awkwardly, that as slaves about to be harvested, they had also blown up his truck and run away?

"But we escaped too, didn't we?"

Mortarion lowered his head and glanced at Hades again.

It couldn't be helped. Mortarion was too tall, and Hades was too short.

"He would not care about those at the bottom..."

But he was very likely to massacre these villagers in front of Mortarion just to strike at him and toy with him.

Perhaps he should leave this place.

But what if he left, and his foster father attacked the village afterward?

.

Hades looked at him somewhat speechlessly, feeling like he had been mocked. True enough—would a human remember how many little buns he had eaten?

Of course, he knew Mortarion's concerns were reasonable. If he had not read the script, he would have been afraid of the lords attacking too.

But they would not.

Come to think of it, this place was actually suspicious. It was as though someone had deliberately arranged for Mortarion to experience human life. Not to mention that in the original story, the one who went to save Mortarion was the Psyker Typhon.

Actually... all of this was very likely...

Stop!

Hades forcibly slammed on the brakes. He could not think any deeper about it. He did not want to be noticed.

Better end the conversation. It looked like Mortarion was going to stand here for days, and Hades had no intention of persuading him otherwise.

"Um... was it you or Typhon who rewrapped the bandage on my left arm?"

"I did. Your left arm had become infected. Without bandaging it, it might have needed to be amputated."

"Ah, thanks. Haha."

"Don't be so serious. Since we escaped, let's have something good tonight to celebrate!"

Hades had wanted to pat his good brother on the back and raise his favorability or something, then tragically realized that he only came up to the man's waist.

And he himself was a seven-year-old brat.

Damn it, you're tall, so you're amazing!

I'm going to grow taller!

Hades secretly thought that he would grow to two-point-one meters, then undergo Astartes surgery and reach three meters.

But honestly, Mortarion ranked among the top three Primarchs in height. Even if Hades reached three meters, he would still be a shorty in Mortarion's eyes.

Was this the cruel reality of Warhammer?

Hades awkwardly stopped the hand that had instinctively wanted to pat him, then rubbed his hands together in embarrassment.

"Then I'll get going. I'll find something to eat. You keep watch."

On their way back, he had seen a fresh horse carcass lying in the field. It was probably one that had run out after the Pale Laugher attacked the stables.

It had looked freshly dead at the time. After one night, if he just cut it up, it was still edible!

Farming and cooking passive activated!

If he got there too late, it would be gone. Thinking this, Hades briefly said goodbye to Mortarion, grabbed a dagger, and ran off in a flash.

Mortarion stood where he was, staring blankly at Hades's retreating back.

What did "thank you" mean?

And why did he care so much about eating?

That night, he would find out firsthand.

Hades watched the two men wolfing down horse-meat skewers by the fire and thought, This is only the beginning. If the seasonings were more complete, I could show off my ultimate cooking skills!

From the moment he started skewering the meat and lighting the fire, Typhon had been circling around him. After asking "Are you really going to let me eat some?" at least a dozen times, the man finally stopped circling, plopped down beside Hades, and stared motionlessly at the grilling skewers.

Uh, he was a little like the big golden retriever Hades had once kept. Whenever Hades cooked, it would wag its tail wildly and circle around him.

Mortarion, standing at the door, had long since become restless when he smelled the aroma of grilled meat. Yet he still held his ground. He was a warrior, a weapon, and he had to remain ready at all times.

Then Hades persuaded him back with—

"It has only just entered evening. If the lords are going to attack, they usually choose the early hours before dawn. Why not eat something now and conserve your strength?"

The right choice. Mortarion took another skewer and thought silently.

He had never known eating could be such an interesting thing. Most of what he had eaten in the past had been the corpses of enemies he killed. Sometimes, his foster father would throw him some hard, moldy bread.

But when he tasted the crisp outside, tender inside, fragrant grilled meat, Mortarion finally understood why Hades cared so much about "eating."

In the future, he needed to find ways to make Hades cook more often.

After eating his fifty-second incredibly delicious skewer, Mortarion firmly resolved to do so.

.

As for Hades?

Watching Mortarion across from him silently gorge himself with shining eyes, he could not help but sigh.

Big brother, eat less. You've already eaten more than half a horse's worth of meat.

Could creatures like Primarchs really ever get full?

For a long time afterward, Hades remained doubtful about the answer to that question.

But for now... of course...

Grab them! If you don't, all the skewers will be gone!

By the end, Hades stared brightly at Mortarion.

"Mortarion, lead us in an uprising against them, will you? I think you can pull it off."

Compared to the later Primarchs, who began to be deified, the early portrayals mostly showed their very human side.

Actually, aside from the male lead, all the other characters were perfectly serious. Really.