Emperor's Bane

Chapter 628 Children's Crusade

【Crusaders?】

[Luo Jia's side? What has he done again? ]

The Supreme Queen of Avalon took off the crown on her head with some annoyance, and threw this priceless treasure aside, leaving Virgo and the Primarch Guards in a panic: while she was busy tearing her sweaty hair off the sticky back of her neck, she frowned and listened to the major and minor events that had taken place in and outside the Far East border during the dozen or so months when she was offline.

Although it was just listening, it was still not an easy job: especially when the Primarch had just gotten rid of the vast sea of ​​logistical documents on the Ullanor front, and had to non-stop guide his fleet through the turbulent Warp waterways, and then had to act as a flesh-and-blood statue for a full fourteen hours in a bustling welcome ceremony under the eager gaze of thousands of subjects on the Far Eastern frontier who had already prepared themselves.

I didn't even have time to drink water.

At this point, Morgan felt that the fact that she had not slapped the blind communications officer who came up to her immediately after the ceremony and didn't even give her a fifteen-minute break into a Catachan meatball sauce was already a typical manifestation of her kind-hearted nature.

Well, I guess that's how the rumors that don't quite fit her image came about...

The Spider Queen was not angry, because logically speaking, there was nothing wrong with the mortal's actions. On the contrary, he was doing his job conscientiously. Although he was dissatisfied in his heart, Morgan could not act outwardly to undermine the rules he had set himself.

Thinking of this, the Spider Queen glanced vaguely at the mortal standing in front of her holding a thick stack of documents. From just the outline of his eyebrows and nose, Morgan connected this guy, who was less than 30 years old, with one of the first batch of old subordinates she promoted when she just established the Far East frontier. Then she remembered another distant elder of this reckless guy, who seemed to have been selected by the Dawnbreaker Legion twelve years ago.

As for that old ghost?

She had personally presented him with the medal at his discharge ceremony twenty months ago.

Then, the Primarch spent another four seconds to deduce the entire family represented by the surname of the guy in front of him: including hundreds of lives and medals, as well as the current status of all of them, which ones were the heroes who had been praised by her, and which ones were serving hard labor on the punishment world?

Of course, if the family is particularly lucky, their surname will also be recorded in the list of soldiers of the Dawnbreaker Legion: even those large families with a large population and five or even six blood relatives often only have one or two such honors.

The Spider Queen knew all of this.

Because it is tens of thousands of such families, cliques and societies that constitute the middle and upper ruling class of the entire Far Eastern frontier: their founders are often the first imperial governors who surrendered to Morgan, mortal generals who rose with the Dawnbreaker Legion, or monster-level bureaucrats who stood out in the numerous political tasks and power struggles. Everyone has a medal awarded by Morgan himself on his chest, and everyone has completed important planetary-level tasks.

Looking down, it is the descendants of these heroes who truly fill these political groups and support the operation of the entire Avalon: including but not limited to blood relatives, students, confidants who have inherited influence, or allies who have mutual leverage and trust. Even if there are often geniuses outside the system who squeeze into this class through exams and merits, they will be quickly accepted by one of the groups.

The best ones can even be members of multiple political groups at the same time.

Among this group of powerful eunuchs who actually maintain the daily operation of Greater Avalon, they are all different in appearance, personality, background, political ideals and values. However, they have only two things in common: outstanding personal ability and a high degree of loyalty to Morgan and the entire Far East frontier.

No one would be foolish enough to recruit a time bomb that did not meet these two conditions. Although the Lord of Avalon has gradually adopted an indulgent attitude towards these old subordinates who have accompanied her in building the empire over the years, there are too many unlucky people who have had their medals torn off by her personally, and whose entire families were sent to the punishment world, or even directly invited to the concentration camp of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for tea, to count.

Within the line of indulgence that does not exceed her control and complete one-size-fits-all punishment, the Spider Queen has carved out a private plot for the group of heroes that has gradually solidified in her hands, allowing them to maintain their vitality and motivation for longer and not quickly degenerate into termites.

After all, at critical moments, these old guys still have to give full play to their remaining energy: the personal ethics of these people may be questionable, but the Far Eastern Frontier is the common hard work of all of them and their greatest child. No one will betray this collective will: as for the intricate power network they have established: in general, it is still beneficial to Morgan's Avalon.

At least this invisible network has already brought the entire Far Eastern frontier under its control in the administrative field. Even the most remote planets can be subject to basic control. They are not like their colleagues in Holy Terra, who are ruling in vain a semi-paralyzed system that basically runs on inertia. The only reason it has not collapsed is entirely due to the legendary administrative processing capabilities of the Seal Holder.

Morgan couldn't understand how Malcador, a mere mortal, could manage the entire empire and at the same time find a certain amount of time every day to stroll around the Terra Palace to relax. The Primarch himself thought he couldn't do it, so Morgan delegated more potential to his own descendants and bureaucratic network.

The Primarch himself, like a real black widow spider, sits at the center of the power network of the entire Far East frontier, holding the source of violence and order in both hands. With just a frown or a smile, he can subvert dozens or even hundreds of powerful so-called political families among mortals.

Even the most savvy mortals can only regard satisfying the Spider Queen's personal preferences and missions as their highest goal. Through various merits and favors, they place the youngest and most outstanding offspring in their family on the Spider Woman's throne, the Aurora, and give them all kinds of exaggerated titles to demonstrate that their group has not lost the favor of the Queen of Avalon.

And if a young talent from a family was demoted from the cabin of the Aurora without any reason, it would be enough to be a thunder before the arrival of divine punishment: Morgan has absolute control over her flagship, and no one except herself has the power to mobilize any member of the battleship, not even Lana.

When this happens, the Primarch or the Ministry of Internal Affairs don't even need to say anything, the other families, even those friends who are as close as family on weekdays, will be eager to tear these unfortunates into pieces: Avalon's bureaucrats have never united to fight against the arrogance of the Primarch. Instead, they prefer to step on the heads of their colleagues and stand closer to the Queen of Avalon.

Even just one small step closer will mean huge rewards.

No matter which offspring of the descendants was fortunate enough to be chosen as the new blood of the Dawnbreakers, or the Spider Queen's top-level life-extending surgery, which was unique in the entire galaxy, and the appeal of the Primarch himself, were enough to make the High Lords of Avalon show humility that their Terran counterparts had never had before.

You can also say: it is fear.

After all, the High Lords of Holy Terra only had to worry about potential rebellion from the nineteen Primarchs and Legions, whereas the eunuchs of Avalon had their entire families' lives literally held in Morgan's hands, so they had a lot more to consider.

Because of this, when the mortal assistant standing in front of Morgan found that the Primarch showed obvious displeasure on his face because of his report, he began to sweat coldly. The young man only remembered a question now: Why did this kind of reporting work, which theoretically even the Dawnbreakers would fight for, fall on his shoulders so inexplicably?

Now recalling it, when Lord Rana took the document from him in the shadow of the Primarch's speech and patted him on the shoulder, handing him the honor of facing the Primarch, the look on the Dawnbreaker's face was quite amusing...

Damn, I got cheated.

【…】

The Primarch took two deep breaths, seizing the moment to enjoy the peace and quiet. She glanced at the trembling mortal assistant officer, then left him behind and spent more than a minute finding a place on the balcony where she could rest: under the silk awning, she could enjoy the prosperous beauty of the garden world. The sound of Virgo preparing tea and snacks came from downstairs.

【come over. 】

After feeling a little calmer, the Primarch waved to her assistant.

【Continue reading.】

Morgan could clearly feel that the mortal in front of him breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes, my lord."

Two seconds later, clear information like running water flowed into the Primarch's ears. Excluding some reckless young people, the mortal assistants who were able to have a seat on the Aurora were obviously excellent people: even this unlucky guy who was caught by the Chief of the Guards to take the blame, the sound of him reciting the manuscript could still make the Primarch feel enjoyable.

As for the content, it is not certain.

A minute later, Morgan understood what had happened: In short, an armed conflict broke out between the Word Bearers and the Salamanders on the front line of Ullanor. Although Horus mediated and no bloodshed occurred between the two sides, a new rift had obviously appeared between the two legions, which gave the Wolf God a headache. Fortunately, she escaped quickly...

As for what the Word Bearers Legion had done to anger the Salamanders, it was actually not complicated: before the Ullanor Expedition, Lorgar and his Word Bearers warriors destroyed a federal pocket empire composed of humans and aliens in the name of holy war, killed all non-human races, and captured those mortals who were unwilling to immediately submit to the Emperor and the Empire.

For the Great Crusade, such things were never news. Even in the chaotic Era of Conflict, there were still cases of human civilization and alien civilization living in peace. The mortal residents of these cross-species federations often found it difficult to understand why their fellow Terrans would wield the butcher knife against their alien compatriots, and the Empire obviously had no intention of explaining more.

The Word Bearers organized these sinful mortals into the Penitent Legion, who were ordered to launch suicidal attacks on greenskin positions during the Ullanor Crusade in order to atone for their sins against the Emperor and the Imperium: the other Legions turned a blind eye to this behavior until a few Salamanders who happened to pass by discovered the truth among the Penitent Legion, which made them furious.

That is, the selection criteria of the Redemption Army are obviously too crude. The only thing they rely on when recruiting soldiers is a wheel offered by the White Scars Legion out of friendship: anyone who is taller than this will be recruited as a warrior and thrown into a suicidal battle with no return, no matter how old he is.

Six-year-old Redemption Army?

No big deal.

At least that's what the Word Bearers thought.

In response to the Salamanders' questioning, the Word Bearers Mortal Auxiliary Army officer in charge of the matter righteously called these redeemers the Civilian Crusaders and the Children's Crusaders. When they saw how these genuine Crusaders treated the Redeemers who had been defeated from the front line, even though they knew the sins they had committed, the Salamanders' warriors still raised their guns and stopped the bullets from being fired at the deserters of the Children's Crusaders.

Although the parties involved were only a few private soldiers of the Salamanders Legion and mortal officers of the Word Bearers, the incident soon became a vortex that involved the two Primarchs, and even Horus was unable to give a fair judgment: after having to delay for a few days, the Crusader officer involved swallowed a bullet given by Lorgar himself with a fanatical attitude, and the Children's Crusade was openly promised to be completely banned.

After this, as for the fate of these children who were demoted to redemptionists and other [Civilian Crusaders], even the Salamanders could not take care of it: after all, the entire Ullanor Expedition had not yet ended completely. Even if the king of the Orc Empire was destroyed by the human expeditionary force, half of the territory of the entire Ullanor Empire was still firmly in the hands of the greenskins. It would take at least a year to wipe out this remaining force.

In the face of war, even fire lizards cannot care about the lives of mortals.

What's more, these humans who resisted the Emperor's rule were indeed guilty: when the Word Bearers produced such evidence, even Vulkan himself had to shut his mouth. He could certainly accuse Lorgar of his fanaticism and ruthlessness, but he could not deny that behind these ruthless acts, the conquest efficiency of the Word Bearers Legion had left the Salamander Legion far behind.

In fact, ever since the Word Bearers Legion made the Holy War its sole goal and reorganized its mortal auxiliaries into Crusaders, their combat efficiency has surpassed that of the vast majority of their brother forces: although bloody rumors such as these always linger around the Seventeenth Legion's holy war cause, both the Emperor and the High Lords of Holy Terra tacitly turned a blind eye to the innocent blood when faced with thousands of worlds that were quickly recovered.

What can Morgan say about this?

The only thing she could do was to be thankful that all the responsibilities of her and her Dawnbreaker Legion for the Ullanor Crusade would only last until the moment when the Orc Emperor Urger was killed: when the other Primarchs were still deeply involved in the war and troubles in the north of the galaxy, the Spider Queen had already led the main force of her legion back to her old nest in the east of the galaxy.

She left behind Davout and three companies, as well as a few able mortal auxiliaries, trusting that her children could handle themselves.

As for the Word Bearers...

Let them be.

Morgan rubbed his temple.

[After all, ruthlessness and massacres have never been a problem for the Empire, only incompetence and meaningless massacres are the problem: now no one can blame the Word Bearers for what they did, because their crusaders are indeed shedding their own blood and harvesting more worlds for the Empire and the Emperor. ]

[As for whether the means were rough? ]

[No one will care. Even Vulcan can't take care of everyone...]

[It won't last long. There's no hope for the relationship between the Salamanders and the Word Bearers.]

【Anything else?】

"Well, Mr. Conrad's visit..."

【I know this. 】

"That leaves only one."

【explain?】

"According to the report of the Supreme Garrison Commander of the Avalon Galaxy, the Avalon Galaxy and several neighboring galaxies have frequently suffered some kind of tentative alien invasion in recent months. Although there have been no casualties so far, the military deployment has been messed up..."

[Invasion?]

"Yes... it's the Eldar."

[Elves... Which kind of spirits? ]

"This, every kind, my lord: every kind of Eldar has it."

"Also: The leader of this Eldar invasion force calls himself Eldarad-Ulthvi."

"And the other one calls himself..."

"Uh...how do you pronounce this word..."

"It should be called: Xigaoqi?"

【…】

【who? 】

【Who are you talking about? 】

(End of this chapter)