Hawks from the Land of Light are calling me a dove and an undercover agent in the chat group.

Psykers and Navigators are the most vulnerable to warp attacks, which could lead to their defection or loss of control and killing of their own people. Their potential danger forces the Imperium to disregard their lives and act solely out of self-interest, which is the most unavoidable choice.

The reason for establishing a state religion is that the distance between the subspace and the physical universe is decreasing day by day. If people are not armed with faith, the number of people who defect to the underworld will be thousands or even tens of thousands of times greater than it is now. This is a last resort.

The same applies to the Inquisition. Without the Inquisition, many traitors and demons would successfully infiltrate the Empire, causing far more damage than without these radical inquisitors.

The Highlord system was indeed corrupt, so corrupt that countless administrative problems and injustices had arisen. However, without the Primarchs to help with administrative matters, it was the best system the Empire could manage.

All these necessary evils are because the Empire has no other choice but to do so. Therefore, even though these practices have led to the brutal killing of countless innocent people on countless planets, they must not be changed. These are the very foundation upon which the Empire survives.

Yes, Ultraman isn't some sanctimonious hypocrite who can't distinguish right from wrong and only demands others to do good. Once they knew what the Empire was going through, they would understand that these were all things they had no choice but to do, there was no other way.

If the empire hadn't done this, it wouldn't have survived until Ultraman discovered it; it would have died thousands of years earlier. While Ultraman would certainly feel extremely dissatisfied and angry about this, he could still understand the human empire's actions.

Ultraman would never take action against humanity or the Empire because of this; at most, he would break his neutrality and directly intervene to quickly dismantle and reorganize these situations.

If that's all there is to it, then neither humanity nor the Empire needs to worry.

But the premise is that [the human empire only falls into these categories].

But is that really the case?

The answer is no.

The empire does indeed face numerous predicaments, thus necessitating the implementation of many necessary evils, which are understandable and true. But what about the rest?

Mindlessly collecting tithes from all planets, corpse starch, cherubim, low-level hive cities, aristocratic system, and extreme massacres of almost every race within sight, regardless of whether they are good or evil...

Which of these can be linked to necessary evil?

Take the Empire's hostility towards all Xenomorphs, for example. You could argue that this is because many Xenomorphs took advantage of the chaos during the Dark Ages to kill and invade humans. But if we go back further, what did humans do to most Xenomorphs during the Golden Age?

The Emperor could guarantee that if humans and the Xenomorphs of the Golden Age were switched places, he would immediately turn against them while humanity was weakened.

Because it is an absolutely just revenge.

Humans in the Golden Age were so cruel to themselves, treating each other like less than human, let alone aliens.

Ultimately, humanity's extreme hatred and extermination of almost all other alien species is absolutely unforgivable, because it is wrong in itself, and the excuses are untenable.

Because at least for those harmless and kind aliens, you should let them go. This isn't Ultraman's morality; it's the moral compass of any normal person.

Whether they will be corrupted by chaos and become enemies of humanity is another matter entirely.

After all, if you're going to let a loan slip away like this, thinking that letting a harmless alien go will make that alien become a major enemy of humanity, then why don't you just kill all life, including humans? That would be healthy, and there would be no risk of anyone being contaminated by chaos.

The Milky Way is vast, and the Chaos Gods aren't interested in just anyone. For many cosmic races that haven't even left their planets, the long span of time from their birth to their natural extinction is too much for the Chaos Gods to bear, and even the Great Demons wouldn't bother to give them a second glance.

Therefore, based on this point alone, Ultraman would have enough reason to directly annihilate the human empire with an eleven-shot attack—although they wouldn't actually do such a thing, they would definitely be that angry.

Not to mention anything else.

For example, the tithe, which levies one-tenth of all resources on the planet, was a harsh tax rate set by the Emperor during the Great Crusade because he needed to quickly collect a large amount of resources to build the network.

At the time, he thought that if all the planets suffered, once the network was successfully built, humanity would be safe, Terra would no longer need so many resources, and then the tax rate could be lowered. Tax rates like 21% or 31% could be negotiated.

Therefore, once the network breaks down and the Great Rebellion ends, he can lower the tax rate, since he no longer needs those resources to rebuild the network.

The empire doesn't actually need that many resources, even in this 40th century. If we don't say 80%, at least 60% of all the taxes paid by the empire each year are wasted meaninglessly.

In order to gather these resources that are either destroyed on the spot or completely wasted, at least hundreds of millions of ordinary people starve to death every year, not counting those who become beggars and vagrants because of the tithe.

This situation is related to the aristocratic system and corpse starch.

Despite the empire having a massive surplus of resources, corpse starch appeared and was used extensively. Meanwhile, the warehouses of noble mansions on almost every planet contained enough food to feed the entire planet's inhabitants.

With such an abundance of resources, why did the empire still drive countless people to their deaths? Was this a necessary evil?

The emperor asked himself honestly, "No, it really isn't."

If it were a situation of "resource surplus but lack of transportation," he could still fool himself. Unfortunately, that's not the case. As long as the nobles on each planet bring out their own food, no one will starve to death. There's no need for transportation at all, and it has nothing to do with the subspace.

The root of this problem lies with him, with Emperor Neos.

It was his tithe that led to all of this.

Many planets before the Great Expedition were actually doing quite well.

Even on those rotten planets, where there are nobles who are typical vampires who drain the lower classes dry, far fewer people starve to death compared to when the empire was incorporated into the country. The lives of the lower classes are still much better than before the empire incorporated them.

Regardless of whether these planets were originally good or bad, after being incorporated into the Great Expeditionary Empire, their situations were all the same.

It either goes from good to bad, or from bad to even worse.

The root cause lies in the tithe imposed by Emperor Neos, which has caused immense suffering to all the planets. Even the nobles have to starve and work more people to death in order to ensure that the tax is paid. They wouldn't have been so vicious otherwise.

This is why Horus's rebellion was met with such overwhelming support; many planets were truly suffering terribly and on the verge of extinction.

The Emperor had to admit that, although in his view, the tithe was worth it no matter how many people died for the sake of the Network Project, after the Network collapsed, it became the most brutal exploitation by the most brutal emperor of the most brutal empire in history, and it was a meaningless exploitation.

But from the moment the Net shattered, from the time Emperor Neos ascended the Golden Throne until this dark forty-first millennium, he remained unmoved and made no changes.

He originally had the opportunity to change things.

Between his ascension to the Golden Throne and the resurgence of the Greenskins, which once again posed a threat to the Empire, there was a gap of a full thousand years. During this thousand years, the Empire had loyal Primarchs active for over a hundred years, who could communicate directly with Emperor Neos and hear his words.

At that time, it wouldn't have been difficult for him to change the tithe system simply by speaking up, using his name and the Primarch's reputation.

At the latest, during the War of the Beasts in Season 2, he could also order Vokhan to do this.

He had so many opportunities to make a difference, but he didn't; he did nothing.

This emperor was indeed suffering the torment of the Golden Throne, indeed confronting the Chaos Gods in spirit, indeed guarding against the countless beings within the Net Path.

Yes, it's a demon.

But he is Emperor Neos, the most powerful man in human history, without exception, and he still has some energy left to think about and do this.

But he didn't.

This is not because he has any limitations that prevent him from doing it, nor because it is something that the empire cannot change, nor because humanity needs tithes.

It's simply because he didn't do it, because he didn't want to do it, it's that simple.

Since the Great Rebellion, his focus has been on the Warp, so he has been indifferent to all the sacrifices in reality, even though he knows they are meaningless and avoidable.

This has nothing to do with necessary evil.

"I……"

Neos stammered.

His mind went blank, and his whole body trembled.

"When did I become this kind of person?"

He had told Macardo and Olpeson countless times that he hated tyrants the most, but unknowingly, he himself had become a tyrant who surpassed all tyrants throughout history.

This is not the bewitching or concealment of the Chaos Gods; the Chaos Gods cannot influence him. It is purely because Emperor Neos himself disregarded human lives and was too lazy to amend the tithe.

I once aspired to lead humanity to rise and enable people to live a good life. I also supported communism during the 2nd era. But when did I become this kind of person?

He loves all humanity, but he doesn't love any specific individual. However, that doesn't mean he should ignore the deaths and sacrifices that could have been avoided, especially since these innocent sacrifices were caused by his own actions.

His experience as a ruler changed him, but he was unaware of it and still thought he was the same person he used to be.

【I am Batman】: "Don't shush, no matter what secrets you're hiding, Shinji has already uncovered them."

【I am Batman】: "Your darkness and gloom cannot hide. Show your evil, Neos."

【Eternal Yellow Weasel】: "I————"

The emperor's head was buzzing.

At first, he was just worried that after Shinji Ikari exposed the Cherubim, Kassadin would develop a preconceived aversion to the human empire.

Although you'll know once you come here, and you'll feel disgusted once you know, the order in which you do it is very important.

If Kassa had first seen the difficulties and pitiful state of the human empire, his compassion would have been greater, and even if he later saw the dark side, his power to bring about retribution would have been less.

If the dark side of the Cherubim is known first, the purge will be more intense, overpowering any mercy.

So he wanted to stop Shinji Ikari from revealing the Cherubim and other such things. In order to prevent Shinji Ikari from revealing these things, he quickly went through all the dark sides of the Empire in his mind.

He wanted to find out the "necessary evils" within them, the parts that Shinji Ikari could understand and could only understand, in order to persuade Shinji to stand on his side and keep the matter of the Cherubim a secret from the rest of the group.

But once he started thinking about this, he couldn't even persuade Shinji Ikari; he was already on the verge of giving up.

What terrible things have I done that made me forget my original intentions?

From the Great Rebellion until now, the tithe could have been changed to one-twentieth or one-thirtieth of the original tax for a full ten thousand years. Yet, he watched helplessly as countless people starved and died from exhaustion because of the empire's fixed tithe!

All the mistakes and errors he made in all other places over the past ten thousand years, and the number of imperial citizens he killed, did not amount to even one hundred millionth of the number of humans who starved to death because of this incident!

Yes, he didn't love any particular human being, but when Emperor Neos did a quick mental calculation of the number of humans who had been driven to their deaths by his inaction over the past ten thousand years in terms of tithes, and realized just how enormous that number was, he truly broke down in a long-forgotten state.

Because this number is already so large, approaching a very large proportion of the concept of "humanity" itself. This is the number of the concept of "humanity" that he loves, all of whom he has watched suffer and die meaninglessly!

What's even more infuriating is that this is just one part of the many meaningless dark aspects of the empire over the past ten thousand years.

I haven't thought about the others in detail yet. If I were to examine the other dark aspects carefully, they might not be much better than tithes.

[I don't want to pilot Unit-01]: "What do you mean, 'you'? You think staying silent will work? Screw you, you yellow weasel! You tolerate cherubim like that? Are you even human?"

【Eternal Yellow Weasel】: "I am human, I am human, but I am not human, I am really not human, I am so inhuman, oh my god, why am I so inhuman?! Aa ...

[Eternal Yellow Weasel]: "I'm out of my element!"

【Eternal Yellow Weasel】: "Why is this happening? How did I become this kind of person? Haven't I just gone from being righteous to being evil? No, evil is so good to the people, I can't even compare to evil, why is this happening!"

【Eternal Yellow Weasel】: "I clearly wanted to be a good person!!"

He broke down, vented his frustrations, and it even carried a hint of self-reproach.

The weasel's tirade

The unusual behavior stunned Shinji Ikari, who was still accusing the instigator. No, I barely managed to hold back my temper when I saw the Cherubim, so why is the instigator breaking down here?

Bruce, far away in the ninja world, had a flash of insight and quickly guessed the truth. It was probably that the weasel had discovered that it was even worse than it had thought, and was having trouble accepting its true self.

As for whether they're good or evil, don't worry about it. They're either characters from some fantasy work or people from the Warhammer universe.

But he showed no pity for the weasel.

On the contrary, the fact that the weasel reacted so violently proved that the heinous acts it committed were perhaps far more serious than Bruce Wayne had previously thought, serious enough to make this dark man suddenly reflect on his actions.

That's outrageous!

[Coward]: "What's going on?"