40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 371 100. The Burning of Five Hundred Worlds (4, [-]k)

This was the first time Perturabo ascended Macragge's walls.

The shadows cast by the high-rise buildings and the magnificent palace of Robert Guilliman obscured him. The Iron Lord's armor was still mottled. He had not had time to repair it. The sun was already setting when he landed, and now the sky is even more dark. Not a single star was visible.

According to speculation, this is because of the subspace storm summoned by the Word Bearers, who smeared the stars with the blood of innocent people and turned them into extreme darkness. This kind of thing will destroy many people's simple understanding of the truth of the empire.
And this is probably their purpose.

Extremely nasty.

Perturabo thought with disgust, and suppressed his emotions, preventing disgust from developing into hatred - he had a theory, which was deduced based on facts. This theory cannot be truly proven yet, but it is completely It was enough to temporarily extinguish the cold fire in his chest.

He couldn't allow himself to simply hate everything.

At least, not until he met Conrad Coates.

At this moment, there is still smoke outside the city, and the airborne pod and shuttle are being recovered.Transport vehicles and airships entered the city one after another through the wide-open city gate. The maintenance team was busy repairing the areas damaged by the airborne pods in this ancient and progressive city.
They are busy, because not only do they have to face this kind of work that may last all night, but they also have to drive away the civilians who are watching the excitement.

No matter how much progress they make, the Macraggeans will probably not be immune to this problem.It is human nature to like to observe, otherwise what would we do with our eyes and our ability to empathize?

Perturabo thought, spreading his thoughts, taking in all this calmly without comment.He began to walk back and forth along the ancient city wall, and he could figure out the age of this wall just by looking at it with the naked eye.

It has been exposed to wind, sun and rain for at least 600 years, but the Macragge people still let it stand here, and the stone bricks building the city wall have even shown a strange light white color.

The Olympian closed his eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the smell of burning and the pungent smell of the fire extinguisher it was opposing.

He is familiar with this fire extinguishing agent. It is a powerful chemical that can even suppress the burning of promethium flames to a certain extent if the dosage is increased.

Thinking of this, Perturabo twitched the corner of his mouth for no reason.

The smile was not an expression he was familiar with, let alone a wry smile, a self-deprecating smile that was completely insulated from him.But he does have complicated emotions in his heart, that's for sure
I'm just thinking nonsense and wasting my time.

He simply opened his eyes.

"It's not a good idea to approach me from behind, Lady Jotun," the Primarch warned lightly. "I'm at war, and you trying to get close to me quietly like this will only get you some not-so-good results."

The little Macragge looked up at him.

"Approving anger is an act of incompetence," she said. "I believe you won't do this, sir?"

"That depends on how angry I am." Perturabo narrowed his eyes. "But, what about you? Did you leave Robert Guilliman's palace specifically just to anger me? This was never a wise move."

"Of course not, respected Primarch." Jotun bowed slightly to show his humility, but received an answer that was completely opposite to what she expected.

Although she had heard about Perturabo's character and witnessed it with her own eyes, who could have imagined that the Lord of Steel would say the following words?

"Don't call me that," Perturabo said coldly. "I hate this prefix, and besides, you don't really respect me."

"how you said that?"

Perturabo looked at her, and the corners of his mouth curved downwards, quite mockingly.In a sense, his expression was probably an answer.

Some people practice the art of speaking all their lives, be cautious in their words and deeds, and face every conversation with a pious attitude, just to be like a spring breeze to everyone.

Others choose to be crude, simple, and direct in their approach to the world, and everyone else in it.

For them, one is one, two is two, and success is always greater than failure.

"Would you respect a loser?" Perturabo asked sincerely. "A loser who watched his brother die but couldn't do anything about it?"

"You should not say these words to me, Lord Perturabo, and it is not the truth." Jotun replied cautiously, and walked slowly to the edge of the city wall with his cane.

She was wearing a thick coat, and her white hair was blowing in the burning night wind.Not far away, a group of children could be heard playing loudly. Children must always be like this.

They are still in a state of ignorance for the time being. In their world, the meteors streaking across the sky today are probably just some beautiful dandelions created by imagination, scattered in the wind, nothing more.

War does not exist in their world, nor should it exist.

"I know," said Perturabo. "But I need to vent. According to the conclusion drawn by the evaluation calculation, among all the people at the moment, you are the most suitable candidate."

"Can't Lord Vulkan bear your occasional emotional breakdown?"

"He is too kind, and his pain is only a lot more than mine. I will not increase his pressure at this time. The sorrowful dragon is also a dragon. On the battlefield, it can still burn its enemies with fire. But Distraught is another concept.”

Perturabo answered calmly, and looked away, looking up at the defensive barrier of Macragge City. The light blue energy shield presented an alternative dreamy texture in the night sky.

Looking at this scene, he suddenly understood why Macragge had so many poems praising the night sky.If the warp storm had not obscured the stars, the night sky at this moment would probably be so beautiful that one would be unable to look away.
What a pity, what a pity.

“Your speech was amazing.”

"You too."

"grown ups?"

"Robert Guilliman's way of talking that makes compliments sound very harsh turns out to be something he learned from you." Perturabo looked at her with a hint of irony and raised his chin. "Amazing, ma'am."

"Is this how you view him?" Yudun frowned.

"Otherwise? Robert Guilliman, Lord of Five Hundred Worlds, Great King of Space—!"

Perturabo laughed, opened his hands, and even sang.He looked at Yudun with an extremely provocative look.

"You are a mother who is both tolerant and strict. I can tell this at a glance, so I understand your special filter for him. Robert Guilliman is probably perfect in your mind, right? I'm sorry, madam, in our He is not like that here." "He is a proud arrogant maniac. He is polite to everyone on the surface, but he can always inadvertently reveal his unique Macragian pride in the smallest details. On the throne, you Do you know how many times I wanted to grab him by the collar and tell him to stop talking to me like that?”

It was obvious that Yudun was shocked by this storm of accusations. She was a little confused, a little angry, and a little overwhelmed - but all these emotions disappeared in just a few seconds.

In the night wind, her expression returned to calmness, and she even still had the energy to sigh.

Looking at her, looking at those eyes that were very similar to Guilliman's, Perturabo knew in his heart that his plan had failed.

"Sir, your method may be very clever, but it won't work here." The white-haired lady smiled and tapped the floor tiles with her cane. "Robert Guilliman has deliberately behaved stupidly on countless occasions so that I could give him a beating."

"For example, when his father just passed away, he was deliberately drunk and yelled at me. He wanted me to yell at him so that he could legitimately wake up from his grief."

"At that time, Macragge was in critical condition, rocked by the death of a king and the scandal of his assassination. He understood what kind of Robert Guilliman the city needed, but he couldn't get over that hurdle, as if he had lost his father. How treacherous it is to seize power immediately after death. You are so much like him, my lord."

"No," said Perturabo. "not at all."

"Really? But don't you both like to use data to speak? And the command method that is famous in the galaxy? He and you both seem to like to use data, analysis and multi-threaded command to make war like a seminar. "

"I am much more extreme than he is," Perturabo told her. "I don't have more than five fingers of people in my army coming to me with advice, and I'm not going to turn war into a game like he did."

"game?"

"Yes, Yugi. I know what he is doing. We have cooperated several times. I can see some of his habits and his hidden tactical intentions from those battles side by side."

Perturabo waved his right hand in amusement and began to show off his son in front of a mother.

"He always leaves the really difficult things to solve by himself, and then selects the simpler ones from the remaining problems, and then hands them over to his team of staff, even step by step. What is he doing? Playing and developing Games? I won't do that. War is no joke."

"But you-" Euton resisted the urge to sigh. "—It's changed, hasn't it?"

"what."

"grown ups?"

"What?" asked Perturabo roughly.

"Were you laughing just now?"

"Yes." The original body nodded indifferently. "Sneer, ridicule, sarcasm - I am indeed smiling, but there is no good intention in this smile. Don't misunderstand me, Yudun. You will not understand the price paid behind this change."

"Usually, when people say 'Don't misunderstand me', they do it so that they don't want to be regarded as a bad person, but you don't want to be regarded as a good person. It's really strange." Yudun muttered. "What a powerful mind."

"What did you say?" asked Perturabo sharply.

"Nothing, sir, you have good hearing."

"I'm warning you, that's the last time you-"

"-What am I?" Youdun looked at him provocatively and raised his chin. "I didn't say anything. You know it yourself."

Perturabo stared at her. After this oppressive gaze for more than three seconds, he suddenly looked away.

"How many servo technicians are there in Macragge's orbital defense system? Where are the ground weapon launch platforms?" He asked, his posture became focused, and even his voice became quiet.

Yudun answered his question as if he had expected it, and also entered the state quickly.She answered everything in detail and even provided supplementary information. She was worthy of the name of housekeeper.

She spit out numbers one after another without any pause, obviously already familiar with these things.After she finished speaking, Perturabo spoke, looking extremely patient, completely different from him just now.
"Terrible defensive power." The Lord of Steel commented. "I don't think anyone can take Macragge in a frontal assault. But you're ignoring one thing."

He narrowed his eyes.

"If Rogal Dorn were here—" he said coldly. "—Even he would agree with me that the strongest fortresses are often breached from within, Housekeeper, do you understand?"

Yudun nodded seriously, how could she not understand?Some things can be answered from the stories and proverbs of previous generations. This is exactly the meaning of history.

"The Word Bearers happen to be very good at this kind of thing, or rather, the evil force that drove them here is very good at this kind of thing. You think you are fully prepared for the coming of war, but they are not This war will be fought using the methods you are familiar with."

"So, in your opinion?" Youton looked at him inquiringly, wanting to get a follow-up answer.Unexpectedly, the Lord of Steel did not continue speaking, but shook his head at her.

"Leave this to the professionals, Ms. Euton," he said. "Call your Heroes, and all the senior officers - and I mean all, the Ultramarines, the Iron Warriors, the Salamanders, the Death Guard. I want every officer with command to be present. This is going to happen." Don’t be careless, do you have a suitable venue to do this?”

"Of course, my lord." The housekeeper replied quickly, raised his cane and shook his finger. "There is a room in the palace that meets your requirements."

"in addition."

"What, my lord?"

"Is there such a flower locally in Macragge? It's lavender, five centimeters long and about three centimeters wide, with purple petals."

Yudun was stunned for a moment. She didn't understand why Perturabo would ask such a question.However, this did not prevent her from answering.

"I think so, my lord."

"Very well, please send one to me. One is enough."

The Lord of Steel nodded slightly, walked past her, and stepped into the deep darkness.The armor is mottled and shining with silver light.And his own voice floated in the darkness, like a whisper in the night wind.

　There is still 7k, so today’s total is [-]. Don’t stay up late and wait, pay attention to rest.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)