Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

"Of course she didn't lie."

"She doesn't have to lie."

"..."

"In other words, in most cases, she disdains lying: she prefers to play with the sequence of truth and incompleteness, which is a more sophisticated and despicable language art. She uses this negative art to Think of it as your regular philosophy of action.”

"She will follow this philosophy as if she were following the rules, using wise words to seek material benefits for herself, or just psychological pleasure: we can also say that the very act of following the rules is what Morgan uses to entertain himself a way.”

"She is a person who loves to entertain herself to death: since her sense of crisis gradually disappeared with her return to the Empire and Legion, she has become a character who actively seeks fun, a person who likes to trip up others and take pleasure in it. asshole."

"Only when words don't work, or when her interests and mood suffer sudden losses, causing the disguise of instinct to collapse, will my blood relative be angry and use her violent methods: and Even of all the Primarchs I've ever met, Morgan's violence was some of the most horrific."

"She is more powerful than the other primarchs, but more cruel than Magnus. Even if my bloodthirsty brothers try their best, they can only cause a wave of destruction in one world, and Morgan only needs to In an instant, they can cause a catastrophe more terrible than theirs.”

"She can cause the most horrific depravity among the original bodies, but the greed deep in her soul prevents him from seeing destruction as a supreme enjoyment: I have to say, father, you have indeed created a very wonderful one. work."

"You delicately stuffed this violent power into a silver-white cage and allowed it to limit itself. This way you can contain the huge power that should be out of control without wasting too much of your own precious energy. "

"It is truly an imperial miracle to want and want at the same time."

Conrad sighed sincerely, just like a believer praising the great deeds of the gods, but no one responded to his sincerity: in this high-altitude room, there was only silence that was colder and more pressing than the air.

"Even though I have always been with my blood relatives, and I have been observing, learning and imitating her all the time, it still took me a long time to see through the mystery of your question about Morgan: this mystery It has benefited me greatly, Father.”

"But at the same time, it also raised a new question in me."

Midnight Ghost grinned, and tapped his equally sharp teeth with his slender fingers. Then he lowered his arm, picked up a grape that had fallen to his feet, and stuffed it into his mouth until When he swallowed the last drop of juice, the slightly unclear Nostramo accent uttered his question.

"Can you answer me, father?"

"In the Empire, some people always say that each Primarch and their Astartes Legion are complementary to each other. They are two sides of the same coin, and they are projections of each other: what does a Legion look like? That's often what their originals were like, and vice versa."

"And I think the best refutation of this theory is my ambitious brother from Ultramar: after all, everyone knows that the Thirteenth Legion was known as the A gathering of warriors from the Sons of War, but my brother Guilliman did not behave... calmly enough in his dealings with me."

"I just want to visit his mother, but he is actually impatient: If one day I can really see Ms. Euton, I must have a good chat with the old man in front of Guilliman. In this matter, tell her that her son is bullying his brother outside."

"Ahem, that's too far."

"So, I have reason to suspect that Guilliman's current shrewdness and ability and civil servant demeanor are actually the result of his acquired education. He is not naturally a person suitable for handling documents. Maybe you do intend to shape him into a powerful person. A man of calculation ability, but your initial conception of him will definitely not be this kind of lord of nations.”

"But on the other hand, I have to admit that roles like Guilliman and the Ultramarines will always be indispensable in the Great Crusade and in the long years to come. That is to say, when you first When we were creating our brothers, we must have created similar characters specifically, and there may have been more than one.”

"so……"

"..."

"That guy is actually Morgan, right?"

"In your original plan, was Morgan your Guilliman?"

"..."

"Won't you answer me, father? I suppose this is not a serious question?"

+...+

+ Of course I can answer your question, Conrad. +

+ But first... +

+...+

+Get off my desk! +

"..."

"I don't want to~"

Midnight Ghost grinned and laughed unscrupulously. His sharp nails hooked the lower edge of the fruit plate on the table. With a slight upward force, he threw the entire fruit plate into his other hand. By the way, He also sprinkled those fresh dewdrops on the precious gauze white robe of the Lord of Humanity.

+...+

The emperor watched all this silently. He was not angry, but a little helplessness appeared in his eyes. The conqueror of the galaxy did not wear his armor at this time, but chose to sit in normal clothes. On the stone chair, I held my face in one hand and held a brand new photo in the other.

Perhaps because of his clothes, his skin looked a little paler than usual.

Conrad liked this pallor, and he also liked the helplessness in the emperor's words now.

+ I have prepared a seat for Q, my son Conrad, right opposite me. You can see it when you just come in: only when you sit on it, I think there can be a game between the two of us. Appropriate talks. +

"But I don't want to have a so-called meeting with you. Father, what can you tell me that I don't know? I just came to you to ask a few questions. Well, I'll tell you this by the way. Grab some food here."

"The fruits you have here taste good, but it's a pity that you didn't order bread for me to go with my meal."

As he spoke, Conrad stuffed those various hazelnuts into his mouth, and his originally dry cheeks became bulging in an instant, like a hateful-looking, greedy hamster.

+...+

But the Lord of Mankind just kept a sad silence. Unexpectedly, he did not continue to defend or argue. He just leaned on his chair a little tiredly and looked at Midnight, who was squatting on his table and eating in a swagger. Ghost compared it with the photo in his hand again, and his silent emotion dissipated in a soft sigh.

And that photo happened to record everything that happened in front of the Palace of Terra: Conrad in the photo looked thinner. He was slightly to the right in the middle of the photo, being forcibly hugged by Leman Russ next to him. He stood still, and a reluctant smile was forced out of his pale face. Although his long and narrow face looked a little distorted, it was more eye-catching than the cheerful midnight ghost next to the emperor at the moment. Peace of mind.

He was obviously no longer a Nostramo child, but why did he look like this in front of him?

At this moment, the Lord of Mankind was confused, but this confusion was harmless: after all, when this photo was carefully handed over to the hands of the Emperor by a Custodian, the ruler of the Empire, the Primarchs As the father of genes, his mood is destined not to be too bad.

Before Conrad arrived, he had been staring at this photo in silence for half an hour: the emperor had not stared at anything for such a long time. After all, in this simple photo, it seemed that A part of the Emperor's original intention in shaping the Primarch that could never be achieved.

At the beginning of the Great Crusade, this part of his original intention was the first thing he threw away and the thing that made him feel most heartbroken and missed. But the Lord of Mankind knew that he would never have these, just like this scene in the photo. You won't really find it in front of his eyes.

Such thoughts naturally ran through the emperor's mind, which made the speed of his hand caressing the photo become a little sluggish: Conrad noticed this, and the rebellious aura in him became much restrained. .

"Honestly, Father."

Midnight Ghost chewed a pear stuck in his mouth and spat the seeds on the edge of the round table closest to the Emperor, forming a brown-black hill.

"I thought that you would compensate Jonson and the Dark Angels with an honor. After all, Morgan's proposal was reasonable, but I'm afraid even Morgan himself would not have thought that you actually gave the Dark Angels such an obvious honor and allowed them to That evidence was left behind.”

"I mean: If someone accidentally leaked this photo, wouldn't you worry that your other sons would be jealous because of the content in the photo? For example, a pastor who is in the spotlight Wolf God?"

The inquiry from the midnight ghost finally made the Lord of Humanity reluctantly look away from the photo. He looked at Conrad, and his pupils still showed the kind of absolute confidence and hatred that should be taken for granted. Pride.

+You should not doubt your brother's level of secrecy, nor your brother Horus's heart, Conrad: Horus knows, he has better. +

"better one?"

Conrad pulled the pear handle out of his mouth.

"Have you also taken a photo with him? Right at the entrance to Terra Palace?"

+...+

"Look, no, then why do you believe he has a better one?"

"In other words, how can you be sure that in our hearts, what is better, what is what we need, and what is harmless to us: you are You cannot define what is in our minds, and you cannot read minds, nor do you know the art of foreseeing the future like Sanguinius and I do."

+ But I am your creator. +

The Lord of Humanity carefully put away the photo in his hand, and placed it inside his robe, close to his heart: This action was seen by the Midnight Ghost, so Conrad also slowed down subconsciously. He adjusted his own rhythm, and even his movements of chewing fruit became gentle.

+ You are my creation, and I naturally know what you need: because your understanding of the world and your determination of self-responsibility come from the desires in your hearts, and I put your desires in your souls. , so, I know exactly what you need. +

"Oh, desperate speech."

Conrad sighed without any fluctuation.

"But, actually you don't know."

Midnight Ghost curled his lips, and he threw a half-eaten piece of fruit into his hand against the wall in anger. Then it bounced off and fell accurately into the trash can in the corner.

"If you really knew, then why did you give the power that was completely hidden in the shadows to No. 19 instead of me?"

"You can give us both the same power, give it fairly, even if the power you give me comes at a price, I will not refute this wrong statement you made like I do now."

Conrad's anger rose, his brows furrowed, the corners of his mouth cracked, revealing sharp teeth, and ugly ripples appeared on his pale and wrinkled skin, which made his dilated eyeballs appear extra large, and he looked like It is like a crazy beast, showing its anger and doubts towards the Lord of Humanity.

But this did not affect the decisiveness of the emperor's words at all.

+Because you don't need it. +

+ No judge needs to rely on being able to hide in the shadows to be respected by people and to formulate rules and regulations: because hiding itself means a kind of escape, which means not being able to face what you have created with your own hands, and If the judge himself does not dare to face all the consequences it brings, then his judgment will be destined to be nothing more than an empty talk that deceives himself and others.

"..."

"I can't tell you anything, father, and I'm too lazy to tell you more."

Just for a moment. The extreme madness on Midnight Ghost's face subsided, as if they had never appeared before. He withdrew his claws in disgust, crossed his legs, and sat on the table next to the emperor. He hooked his ankle with his fingers, tilted his head back, and swayed regularly, like a roly-poly without a center of gravity.

He was silent for a long time, but still seemed a little unwilling.

"Then why did you give that ability to No. 19? Based on that brother who is so similar to me?"

+Because the 19th...+

"Cracks, father."

Konrad looked toward the ceiling, not at the Emperor.

"His name is Clarks."

+ It doesn’t matter what his name is. My son Conrad’s name is just a code name. What really matters is self-understanding and the position he chooses for himself in this world. +

+ Just like the ability to completely hide in the shadows, it has never been taught to you to escape or hide, but to take the initiative: its original intention is to better isolate you from things, so that you can You can observe what is happening in front of you from a more objective and ruthless perspective and make your own judgments. +

+This is the real usage hidden in the shadows. +

"Then why can't I?"

+ Because you are the judge, and your brother is the shadow: the shadow is just a shadow produced by light. His task is to faithfully imitate and record the appearance of light, so he does not need more empathy and opportunities to appear. . +

+ But you are different, my son Conrad: you are the judge. The judge cannot hide in the shadows. The judge must stand among those who are judged. He must be able to feel what is in their hearts. Ideas must be able to understand what led them to make the choices they did. +

+ You don’t have to accept their respective ideas, and you don’t have to agree with their final actions, but you must know it, but you must feel the same way, otherwise, you will never be able to make any fair judgment. +

"..."

"Then maybe I don't want to, maybe I don't want to be a judge."

"How did you know that I would become the Inquisitor, Father: just as Guilliman went from Warson to Archon of Macragge, just as Leman Russ went from General of Terra to Fenris. Like the barbarian king, when you were creating us, how confident were you that you could fully control our future?"

+I really don’t have confidence. +

The emperor answered fluently. He was neither anxious nor cryptic. Instead, he reached out and grabbed a fruit on the table, slowly rubbed the dewdrops on the surface with his fingers, and then put it in his hand to play with.

+Also, I don’t need to have such confidence. +

+ Counting your brothers, I have created a total of twenty Primarchs, who will also command twenty legions. And among these twenty Primarchs and twenty Legions of Astartes, I can I guarantee you that none of them will be an absolute necessity. +

+ Losing any one of you will cause some distress to me, but it will not be a devastating blow: you have to know how huge the cause I have created is. In the face of such a cause, the existence of an individual It is insignificant. No matter how unparalleled your talents as Primarchs are in your corresponding professions, your personal talents are still not enough to create absoluteness in the face of the torrent needed by the entire galaxy. Influenced. +

+Don’t think too low of anyone, and don’t think too highly of yourself. +

+ Before that, at least before we met for the first time, you had been making this mistake, Conrad: you were standing on a tall abandoned building, with only gargoyles for company, and you couldn’t see clearly on the ground. What exactly happened, you can only make a vague judgment through the blurry light and shadow. +

"..."

Conrad was still silent. He withdrew his gaze and looked at the emperor again. The slender neck made a creaking sound: Now, Midnight Ghost only felt a little strange. He was very sure that he had been looking forward to these words from the emperor's mouth. They might not make him like it, but they were definitely Some of the answers he had been waiting for.

It was only when these words finally came out of the emperor's mouth that Midnight Ghost suddenly realized that he did not actually want to hear these things as he expected.

After all, he already knew every sentence in it a long time ago and knew their correctness. He didn't even need Morgan to force it into his mind. As early as Nostramo, he knew I have figured out some of the truths of what the Emperor said.

Although he still didn't like these words.

but……

"..."

The Emperor, his genetic father, seemed less omnipotent than he thought: at the very least, the Lord of Mankind could not persuade the Midnight Haunter with words.

"..."

He's discovering this.

The Emperor is not omnipotent.

"..."

So that’s it.

When Conrad suddenly figured out all this in an instant, Midnight Ghost felt that his soul seemed to be relieved a lot: and it was not until this moment that he realized that there seemed to be some kind of smile on his face, A smile that comes from his heart and cannot be felt by complex brain thinking.

That's a real smile.

…

It was a smile that made him sick.

How could a smile like this appear on the face of Midnight Ghost?

Conrad spurned himself, but he did not stop the smile on his face, and continued to throw out a new sentence to his great genetic father with this face that he felt could make the emperor feel uncomfortable. question.

Unlike before, this question is downright malicious.

"No one is absolutely important?"

+ Of course. +

"..."

"Even Sanguinius?"

+...+

Conrad could guarantee that when he saw that serious expression fully emerge on the emperor's face for the first time, he smiled really happily: for a moment, he could even understand why Morgan would Enjoy playing with other people's emotions.

The pain and embarrassment of others are a sure recipe for joy.

However, the Emperor didn't seem to think so.

In fact, his expression was a little more serious than Conrad imagined.

+You seem to have malicious intentions towards one of your brothers? +

"No, father, you are wrong."

Midnight Ghost shook his head solemnly.

"I am not malicious towards my Sanguinius brothers. I am very equal and have malicious intentions toward each of my brothers. Sanguinius is just unfortunate enough to be chosen by me. After all, he is now far away from me." Our straight-line distance is less than three thousand meters."

"Moreover. The opponent he is facing right now is much more terrifying than the half-hearted person you are facing right now: you should not let Morgan meet him alone, father."

"That would be so unfair to Sanguinius."

+...+

+I know. +

There was a hint of helplessness in the dark golden pupils of the Lord of Humanity. It was obvious that he was an imperial king with powerful hands and eyes. Morgan's performance in front of the angels and those obvious provocations did not escape the Emperor's ears: in the Palace of Terra, he had too many ways to know what Morgan and Sanguinius were doing at this time. Talk about something.

+In fact, at this moment, your sister is... +

"Big talk?"

+... almost. +

+ She creates unnecessary panic in your brother's heart and instigates the relationship between me and Sanguinius. I don't know what material benefits this has for her. Maybe it's like you said. That way, she was just looking for my pleasure without any purpose. +

"ah……"

"This is something she can do."

Conrad nodded in agreement, and then looked at his genetic father.

"Then, won't you stop it?"

+ There's no reason for me to wipe your blood relative's ass, Conrad, if I have to deal with it every time she has some fun, then I won't have to do anything else during the entire Great Crusade. +

"But she is wiping your ass, my dear father."

"Moreover, the largest pile of non-recyclable items you threw to Morgan is right in front of you now."

+...+

+You have indeed changed a lot. +

"Do you think it's good or bad?"

+...+

"It can't get any worse."

The Emperor sighed, helplessly.

+ Your sister is indeed very capable. She helped me solve some problems and her performance in the face of some difficulties was far beyond my imagination. But despite this, she is still an unqualified daughter and a naughty child. Aside from satisfying her own evil heart, I can't think of any reason why she could incite such terror in front of Sanguinius. +

+Shouldn't she find a way to calm Sanguinius's panic, instead of adding fuel to Sanguinius's anxious state of mind like now? +

"Of course she has thought of a solution, father. Even I can think of a solution. It is impossible for Morgan to not think of the problem: but here, I have to appeal on her behalf."

Conrad spun on the table. He changed his sitting position and sat upright in front of the emperor like a cat. Then he coughed to make his voice sound hoarse.

"Morgan and I both know, father, and even you know."

Conrad's voice was low and a chuckle escaped his hoarse voice.

"The best way to calm down Sanguinius's anxiety is you: Sanguinius is less than three thousand meters away from you now, and you only need to spare less than five minutes of your precious thirty thousand years of life. When you have enough time, rush to him, slap him to the ground, and then tell him, your dad, I don’t care about your legions being thirsty for blood."

“Isn’t this done?

"After all, even if Morgan talks nonsense in front of Sanguinius, swears, and uses his own legion and the entire Far Eastern Frontier as a guarantee, how can he compare to the less than five minutes you spent on Sanguinius?" What did you say in front of me?"

"The source of his fear is you."

"Why don't you do this?

+...+

"Is there no time?"

"impossible."

"You have time to chat with me, this oversized piece of non-recyclable stuff, in meaningless nonsense. It's impossible not to have those five minutes."

"Or……"

Conrad tilted his head and blinked his eyes mockingly.

"In your heart, Sanguinius is actually not that important: after all, a mutant that exceeds your original plan and a legion that does not have much significance may be involved in the future transaction that may not be escapable. Is it a very good bargaining chip?”

"Subjectively, maybe you're not trying to trade them."

"But leave a handle, let the Archangel have a weakness that can be corrupted, and use this eye-catching Primarch as some kind of bait to hang up those guys who are betting against you in the subspace: This seems to be What can the Lord of Mankind do?”

+...+

"Won't you answer me, father?"

"Or……"

+Conrad. +

The Lord of Humanity's fingertips slightly lost control on the table, causing a corner of this precious table to be pulled off directly, and it fell to the ground with a crackling sound.

+ Let’s talk about your legion. +

"..."

"As you wish, Father."

Conrad was stunned for a moment.

Then he smiled brightly.

——————

At this moment, the emperor seemed to see one of his own daughters.

His thoughtful cotton jacket.

…

The cotton jacket that suffocated him.