"So that's it? They're just… letting it go?" Bruce blurted out when he learned the Thousand Sons' final punishment.
Horus really was something else. The matter was this sensitive, yet he still shared the full details with the Night Lords—even the entire conversation with the Terra delegation.
That was a brother worth keeping.
If you treat me like one of your own, then what more can I say?
"And what else were you expecting?" Curze asked, sipping her black tea as she reread the report.
As far as she was concerned, most of the back-and-forth in it was meaningless. The only thing that interested her was one point alone—
The Emperor's attitude toward the incident.
That was all that mattered.
Everything else? Let the world drown for all she cared. Even Malcador could be ignored.
The Emperor's stance decided everything.
"No matter what, the Thousand Sons did rebel, didn't they?" Bruce still found it hard to believe. "They fought an internal war and even mobilized a Titan without authorization. Even if we don't pursue the matter, the Mechanicum and the Titan Legion are just swallowing this?"
The Thousand Sons had caused a disaster of this scale, and yet in the end, their punishment amounted to little more than restricted movement. Their honors and treatment, by and large, were still intact.
Magnus had been stripped of his title as lord of the Fifteenth Legion, with Horus taking over in his place. Prospero, meanwhile, was placed directly under the administration of Terra, governed by the Emperor and Chancellor Malcador.
And beyond that, Magnus was forbidden to leave Prospero without the Emperor's permission. To ensure the sentence could be carried out, the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence would also be stationed on the Thousand Sons' homeworld.
On paper, those punishments looked humiliating.
But in practice… that was about it.
It was hard to call it anything other than nothing much happened.
The Thousand Sons had simply traded one Legion master for another—Horus, no less, a Warmaster with experience managing multiple Legions. Depending on how one looked at it, that might even turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Under Magnus, no matter how wise or brilliant he was, the Thousand Sons were never going to become a major force in the Great Crusade. Under Horus, though? That was another story entirely.
Maybe not everyone would live lavishly, but merit, honors, and campaign credit? Those would come in droves.
"Heh. Do you have some strange misunderstanding about the grease-monkeys and the Titan cults?" Curze asked in a mocking tone, after finishing the Emperor's annotations and finally setting the report down.
Her mood had improved to the point that she even felt like giving Bruce a proper parent-child lecture.
"Meaning?" Bruce immediately went on alert when he heard that teasing note in her voice.
Was this a test from Father?
"Don't be nervous. I'm not correcting your thinking. I'm just going to teach you a few things."
"Whether you choose to accept them is up to you."
She set her teacup aside and leaned back.
"You come from another world. You know a lot about ours. That's an advantage, yes. But your knowledge keeps drifting in very odd directions."
"That is the curse of knowledge."
"For example—why do you think the Mechanicum and the Titan Legions can pass judgment on the Fifteenth Legion, or on my brother Magnus?"
"Do they have that authority? Or that power?"
Bruce fell silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head, looking at Curze like a student begging for the answer.
Then tell me.
Let me hear it.
Maybe I'll learn something useful.
Curze looked at him, helpless and indulgent, like a mother humoring a child.
This kid was good in every way—except that now and then he could be a little stupid.
Still, that was fine.
That was what she was here for.
He was just a child, after all. What could he understand? From implantation surgery to becoming an Astartes, he probably hadn't even lived long enough to match the years she'd spent gnawing on rats to survive.
"Don't use forty-thousand-year thinking to force thirty-thousand-year logic into shape. Do you understand that, newblood?"
"The Mechanicum, the Titan cults—all of them are, fundamentally, just tools of the Emperor. We Primarchs and the Astartes are the warriors who use those tools."
"They may have knowledge and equipment, but they do not have force. So no matter how loudly they bark, their fists will never be bigger than ours."
"More importantly, our goal has always been to carry out the Great Crusade. The Thousand Sons may advance slowly, but they are still one of the Emperor's twenty Legions, invested with his expectations. The Mechanicum and the Titan cults, by contrast, are auxiliaries."
She let out a derisive breath.
"Though after this incident, I'll admit I've learned something about them too. Their hunger for power is rather impressive. To think they'd all join hands to apply pressure."
Her expression was one of naked contempt. She had never respected the Mechanicum or the Terran Council to begin with, but this business had disgusted her even more.
Even so, the Emperor's decision had made one thing abundantly clear:
He had no intention of surrendering authority over the Astartes to anyone.
"So what if the Mechanicum decides not to supply equipment?" Bruce asked. "Or drags its feet on purpose? You can't conquer or annihilate worlds with infantry alone."
"There you go again. Classic forty-thousand-year thinking," Curze sighed. "Do you think Magnus's psychic phone call only mattered because it would have shattered the Webway and forced mankind back into dependence on the Warp?"
"The greater loss was the death of the researchers working with Father on the Webway. They were the real treasure."
"With them alive, what room would there be for the Mechanicum to strut around?"
She continued calmly.
"The reason the Imperium of forty thousand years has to indulge the Mechanicum—why it tolerates them becoming a quasi-independent military state, even letting them trample Imperial interests—is simple. They became irreplaceable."
"That dependency gave them leverage."
"But if Terra's own scientists had survived—if Magnus's psychic call hadn't gotten them all killed—then the future of the Imperium would have been very different. Any one of those research teams could have hand-built Standard Template technology from the Dark Age."
"At that point, what would the Mechanicum still be? A factory, at best. And as the Imperium expanded and more forge worlds were reclaimed, that factory could be anywhere. It wouldn't have to be them."
"You don't want to work? Fine. Someone else will. There are plenty of forge worlds and plenty of workers willing to hammer away for the Emperor. We don't need a monopoly by a pack of oil-drunk machine priests."
Bruce stared at her.
"So by changing the outcome of the Webway Project… we changed not just the fate of the Imperium, but the fate of the Mechanicum too?"
It still felt unreal.
He had never imagined the butterfly effect could work like that.
"Yes, Bruce. You did very well. Exceptionally well."
Curze looked at him with unmistakable satisfaction.
All those hateful prophecies had already begun to unravel—not just the ones concerning her, but the ones hanging over the Imperium that the Emperor cherished so much. If things continued like this, humanity might genuinely walk toward a future no one had ever imagined.
"So understand this, newblood. As long as the Legions continue to develop and the Great Crusade continues, these problems can all be solved."
"And those things you call 'god-machines'? Within a Legion war order, they are just another kind of deployable unit. We even have Titan Legions sworn to the Night Lords."
"And besides, the Mechanicum has factions and infighting of its own. They were never going to become any kind of unified threat. Scholars are always like that—they can't even agree internally before they start collapsing into chaos on their own."
Bruce was clearly having his worldview restructured in real time. Curze sighed again.
"You, as the lord of a Legion, should never think in terms of fear or hesitation. So what if it's the Mechanicum? So what if it's the Terran Council? So what if it's the Warmaster's command?"
"The Night Lords are your strongest backing. Always."
She leaned forward slightly.
"We stand above every force in the Imperium except Terra itself. Think about Ultramar and you'll understand. If the Eighth Legion had five hundred worlds like that, do you think anyone would dare criticize us?"
If the Mechanicum in M41 was a military state beyond central control, then the Legions in M30 were feudal powers in everything but name—high in status, vast in strength, and rich in authority.
And there was only so much pie to go around.
If the nobility of Terra and the Mechanicum both wanted a bigger seat at the table, then naturally they had to carve their share out of the Astartes' portion.
Magnus's blunder had simply handed them the knife.
Bruce sat there for a while, digesting all of that.
"So… we're the real great evil, then?"
"It's not so easy to get used to, is it?" Curze said with a faint smirk. "What, you think because you can bully the Mechanicum into line whenever you want, that somehow makes the world upside down?"
"It's not upside down."
"It's just reality."
Then she went on, more serious now.
"The common soldiers are the eldest sons of the household. They followed Father south and north in war long before we did, and even now they are still the backbone of the Imperium's military strength."
"The Astartes are the second sons—trusted, cultivated, burdened with the most difficult duties."
"The Mechanicum is the adopted son. Clever, useful, loyal to Father perhaps—but never truly loyal to the household that is mankind. That is why they must be beaten back into line from time to time."
"And the nobles of Terra?"
At that, Curze's mouth twisted into open disdain.
"They are the spoiled youngest child. They can do nothing, produce nothing, yet still think everything should belong to them. Fat and pampered, never having understood that rights and duties are meant to be paired."
She ended with a flat declaration.
"If the day ever comes, I will personally teach those little beasts that there are some things they are absolutely not allowed to touch."
"Father may indulge them."
"We don't."
Bruce thought that over, then shifted topics.
"If the Thousand Sons are stable for now, shouldn't we head back first? I really think it's time we started developing the Eighth Legion's military industry."
Ever since he had seen, firsthand, how a Titan could vaporize a target, the memory had stuck with him. The Night Lords needed that kind of firepower too.
Not just borrowed machines.
They needed the capacity to build, maintain, and field such things themselves.
Even the Zenith Hound had only been a relic, half-dead and barely operational, and yet once the Thousand Sons got it moving, it had inflicted catastrophic losses on two Legions.
If that thing had been in full working condition, backed by a proper Titan Legion, Bruce didn't even want to imagine the butcher's bill.
"Not yet," Curze said, waving the idea off.
"The Thousand Sons still owe us."
"No matter what, Magnus has to pay that debt back. And he'll be compensating us for the losses we took in the landing."
Bruce blinked.
"With what?"
He honestly couldn't think of anything the Thousand Sons possessed that Curze would want.
Surely not books and art objects for the Red Keep?
That would be a very domestic turn of events.
Curze looked at him, and then spoke a term that had no business existing in this era.
"Grey Knights."
Bruce froze.
Curze's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The Eighth Legion lacks one thing above all others—a force specialized in dealing with Chaos and daemons."
"And that strength…"
"…is going to matter a great deal in the layout to come."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
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Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
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The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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