How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 386 A New Version of Sigismund
A fact that is not difficult to infer is that it is obviously impossible to maintain a seemingly harmonious and friendly relationship with someone like Rog Dorn for a long time.

At least Robert Guilliman thought that this was impossible.

It wasn't that there was really any conflict of principle between them, and things hadn't developed to the point where they had to pick out the champions from their own regiments to fight it out in a duel. But after the reunion dinner, before even three hours had passed, the atmosphere between the two primarchs had already become tense because of the quarrel.

In general, the Imperial Regent's wish of "it would be nice if a brother could come back to help" was probably only half fulfilled: somehow, in the past one or two years, his brothers who had either died or disappeared in the past ten thousand years did appear in front of him one after another like mushrooms after rain, but they did come back, but they could only provide some help except for help...

This overly emotional evaluation is still a bit biased. Guilliman silently corrected himself in between thoughts. At least Ferrus did help to quell the war in the Nachmond Corridor and repel the invasion of the Black Legion; Corvus and Conrad... In short, Corvus kept an eye on Conrad and prevented him and his bat boy from causing any trouble - considering Corvus's own condition, this is already a blessing in disguise, he really shouldn't ask for more. As for Rogge in front of him, he just needs some time to sort out the current situation of the empire, or in other words, to accept reality.

Guilliman himself had experienced firsthand how the Empire had become what it is today, and how 10,000 years had passed in the blink of an eye. Therefore, he knew that even a Primarch would feel great and heavy pain when faced with such a dramatic change, and even refused to compare the ignorant and backward regime in front of him with the "Empire" in their eyes 10,000 years ago. Even though Guilliman was a very flexible and slick experienced politician in terms of practical application, he also made great efforts to accept all this. For Rogal Dorn, who was as stubborn as a rock, it would obviously take him longer. Guilliman did not mind accompanying his brother through the most difficult time.

But one thing is one thing. He really didn't mind being pointed at unconsciously by Dorn, who was trying to adjust himself but still couldn't think straight. However, this didn't mean that he wouldn't get angry when he was pointed at.

After the return of the Macragge's Glory and the first round of publicity ceremonies, Guilliman mentioned to Dorn during a chat that he thought a large-scale celebration and military parade should be held to celebrate Dorn's return, as the people of the Empire needed such "good things" as encouragement and comfort in the current precarious state. Dorn agreed in principle, but as they talked, they had a disagreement on details such as the scale of the event and the preparation period: Guilliman thought it should be a grand event, while Dorn thought a simple gesture would be enough - there were so many messes in the Empire that had not been cleaned up, so how could they spend energy and resources on these impractical things?

From this topic on, their disagreements and quarrels never stopped. Although the quarrels between the two Primarchs did not involve any principled issues, their voices that were unconsciously raised in anger still made the attendants and followers tremble. They quarreled intermittently from the celebration to the waste caused by the Empire's redundancy - so far, it was probably Dorn's one-sided complaint. Then, Dorn followed this topic and scolded the Imperial Ministry of the Interior, so Guilliman took out his Logistics Court as a disclaimer, and then began to scold the Ministry of the Interior with Dorn. But this only reminded Dorn of how many reforms Guilliman had made to the Imperium after his awakening: the Seventh Primarch took the opportunity to criticize Guilliman and Cawl's Primaris Plan, believing that the Primaris Space Marines had modified the Emperor's perfect design and that this would inevitably pose a hidden danger in the future; he accused Guilliman of still focusing on his own Five Hundred Worlds, and failing to seriously strengthen the defenses of Terra, even though the Imperium had in fact been divided into two; he accused Guilliman of having his Indomitable Crusade give hope to the dark world of the Imperium, but the actual result achieved was nothing more than a perfunctory job by a paperhanger, which looked gorgeous but was essentially useless; finally, Dorn cursed back at the Codex Astartes from the perspective of the Empire's stretched military strength, saying that he should not have agreed to Guilliman's idea of ​​splitting the Legion ten thousand years ago, even at the risk of fighting another round of civil war.

They kept arguing about these things over and over again for more than a day. Or rather, Dorn vented his anger to Guilliman unilaterally for more than a day. Guilliman certainly couldn't help but get angry after hearing these words, but he still tried to control his temper and tried his best not to escalate the situation. Although during this period, their thunderous roars and overly sharp questions often made the surrounding servants - whether mortals or Astartes - tremble, but for the two parties, the anger they showed was indeed a bit exaggerated.

During this process, the anger in their hearts was far less than the sadness and pain.

Guilliman knew why Dorn made all these unrealistic accusations, and he also knew that once he calmed down, he would realize that although his accusations made sense at first glance, there was no way to make better improvements after careful consideration. Guilliman's patchwork on the Empire certainly did not fundamentally solve the problem, but if Dorn were to do these things, he would probably not even be able to do a good job as a perfunctory paperhanger. This dispute was closer to a simple "desperate venting" than "a heated exchange of opinions to find a solution to the problem."

As a Primarch, there was no way to tell his descendants about these things - under the current conditions, they had done their best to maintain the status quo. The position of the Astartes in the Empire made it impossible and should not take on more political responsibilities. They would be mentally drowned by their father's anger and pain. But another Primarch could take on this negative emotion. For Dorn, after ten thousand years of wasted time and suffering, he unconsciously seized this emotional outlet in front of Guilliman and poured it out.

The Primarch of the Imperial Fists was only tough and stubborn, not a heart of stone, nor an indestructible body. After Guilliman spent about half a day realizing that he was acting as a "pressure relief valve", he was able to detach part of himself from his emotions and look at this round of disputes more objectively.

For the sake of his brother, and perhaps also to find an outlet for his pent-up emotions, the Imperial Regent pushed aside all his schedules for the next two days and prepared to spend all his time with his brother. They spent a lot of time arguing about various political and military matters, minor details, or unrealistic and "useless" topics. Almost every part of the empire, big or small, was touched upon in their arguments.

Whenever Guilliman felt that a fight was about to break out, he would restrain himself and call a halt in time, separate from his brothers, calm his head, and reset the "discord" to a lower intensity. During this time, he would read some briefings from various parties to change his mind, and he believed that Dorn would also use similar things to cool himself down during this time.

Guilliman used this fragmented time to learn about the current situation of the clone of Fulgrim in the underground fortress, and learned that the Emperor's Children's Akuldona and Iron Hands' Gabriel Santo also appeared on the same train as this "one and a half" Primarch - both names he had remembered ten thousand years ago. In the interval between the arguments, he also read the briefing sent by Fujimaru Ritsuka, "I'm not sure if you received it from Hastings, anyway, I'll send you another copy." He did know some things, but there were still other things that made him have a lot of questions. After issuing the order to "bring the meeting with Chaldea to the front", Guilliman decided to reward himself by approving several post-war livelihood infrastructure projects to change his mood. As a result, at this time, Digris came to the side of the Ultramarines Primarch with a piece of intelligence that happened inside the Hera Fortress, overcoming the many obstacles of "don't bother us with things that are not very urgent":
The Black Templars Chapter requested an honor duel with the Ultramarines Chapter. Guilliman, who had just heard about this, hadn't reacted yet, but Digris had already begun to confess and reflect: the whole thing was caused by the Librarian who, in order to prevent Lord Dorn from making an irreversible and important decision such as overthrowing the entire Inquisition before Lord Guilliman's ship returned to the port, triggering a series of chain reactions in the Empire, hit the Black Templars Expeditionary Marshal with a psychic club.

Guilliman had just realized who wanted to duel with honor with the Ultramarines Chapter, but when he heard this, he felt that he could not react.

Of course, as a Primarch characterized by multi-threaded thinking, he actually reacted completely. He sat there, holding his breath, listening to Digris's completely rational, objective, and non-biased narrative method to explain the cause and effect of the whole incident, and said that it was because of the verbal agreement made before that "Wait until Lord Guilliman returns to the port to deal with this issue." Now, the Glory of Macragge has been in the port for more than two days, and the Black Templars, led by Marshal Deramos, who believe that the honor of their chapter has been damaged, have begun to... uh... gather again.

"Assemble" is, of course, a very neutral euphemism. Based on his experience of meeting the contemporary Grand Marshal of the Black Templars, Helbrecht, and his impression of Sigismund ten thousand years ago, Guilliman is very sure that a more accurate word to describe the current situation should be "force the palace". The psychic stun that Chief Librarian Digris wielded against Marshal Delamos should be understood as an emergency response under the circumstances at the time. Guilliman can understand this. After all, if he were in the other place, he would probably have no other way to deal with it except "having a big quarrel with Dorn in person". But this also means that the matter between the Celestial Lions and the Inquisition has been elevated to a problem between the Black Templars and the Ultramarines by this emergency stun. If these two chapters, which have a wide range of influence in various fields of the Empire, turn against each other, the result may not be much better than Dorn's decision to overthrow the Inquisition.

“So, what is the honor duel?” Guilliman asked. “Is there any room for reversal?”

Diglis showed a strange expression after this question: "... Let me report, sir, in my humble opinion... it may be okay not to turn the world."

At the time when the conflict between the Black Templars and the Ultramarines was about to break out, Sigismund happened to pass by nearby. No one knew where he came from or what he was going to do. After skipping some questions, exclamations, and even more exclamations, the Black Knight listened to the statements made by both sides on the same incident with displeasure, and probably sorted out a version that was closer to the facts in his mind, and then turned to the crowd on the Black Templar side.

"Where is Marshal Deramos?" he asked. The marshal who was called stepped out of the line, and then was caught off guard by Sigismund's solid punch on the face, and flew back four or five meters. Sigismund shook his hands, looking nonchalant, and commented:
“It’s shameful. But we’ll talk about your matter later. And Lord, you’d better keep your head down.” He briefly reprimanded the Black Templars, setting the tone for the incident, and then turned to the Ultramarines. “Since the honor of the Black Templars has indeed been tarnished by this incident, I request an honor duel with the Ultramarines to wash away this shame.”

It was not uncommon for honor duels to be used as a means of settling disputes among the Astartes Chapters, and the Ultramarines, led by Digris, had naturally anticipated such a proposal. However, considering the name of the person who made this request, they could not help but say a few more words after a brief discussion: "Then according to tradition, we will specify the time and place of the duel, and ask to know in advance the candidates that the Black Templars are going to send."

"I," Sigismund replied calmly, "will represent the Black Templars as the Emperor's Champion. Any questions?"

Of course there were problems. But at this moment, Digris quickly realized that the problems caused by having an honor duel with a resurrected legend who had died for 10,000 years (and then losing) were obviously much fewer than the problems caused by the chapter having an honor duel with a living person (regardless of winning or losing). So, the Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines made a prompt decision, took all the problems back, accepted the honor duel, and then while his brothers were getting ready, he ran to the Primarch in shame to apologize for his arbitrary behavior.

After hearing the whole story, Guilliman was indeed at a loss for a few microseconds. He felt that Digris had handled the situation correctly, and there was nothing wrong with accepting it. The main reason for his confusion was that it was Sigismund who had proposed this matter. His impression of the Black Knight was still stuck in 10,000 years ago, and he felt that he was irritable and capricious. This character often caused Sigismund to cause all kinds of disasters in diplomatic occasions, and although he had once attended the Primarch's guard, he really didn't seem like someone who could come up with a suggestion that would make the ongoing conflict land smoothly.

With a subtle concern in mind, Guilliman stood up from his large chair and said to Digris:
"Go, have a look."

(End of this chapter)