Warhammer 40k: Lust of Light.

Chapter 9 You are not loyal
  Salicina Nkowedu, a young ruler.

He is the governor of Neixing, and this planet exists as a large hub in this star region.

One of Naixing's two airports is built on the back of Naixing's satellite, and the other is in space and consists of mechanical mountains with life.

During the 30th millennium, the rule of the Empire was quite chaotic, and the Emperor, the Lord of Mankind, was busy with the Great Crusade.

He didn't do a very good job of making peace with the outside world first.

Every time a planet is conquered, the empire will not interfere too much, and will even retain the political power of this world.

As long as these worlds do the following things, no matter how cruel their rule is, the empire under the leadership of the Emperor will not care.

Believe in the Imperial Truth.

Abnormalities and heresies will not be tolerated.

Pay a tithe to the empire.

The empire has the right to decide what role your world is based on the strategic map.

This turned many planets into hub stars, many planets into agricultural worlds, and more worlds into hives.

This also made Rasta dislike the Emperor.

Life is so cruel that for an ordinary person there is no difference between living in the empire and living in hell.

People at different levels have different views on this.

The civilians of the hive city will be very busy, busy with electricity bills, food, and medical expenses for their families. Only when the Astra Militarum comes to the world to recuperate temporarily, the workers who are lucky enough to be the city that hosts the Astra Militarum are lucky enough to take a break and pay homage to the warriors of the Empire. .

The empire has a strict hierarchy. Astra Militarum and civilians are two classes, even if the former is used as a consumable for a shorter period of time than the latter.

They looked eagerly in the crowd, bustling with people, and saw the army with standard weapons and handsome uniforms walking through the streets with all kinds of heavy weapons, as if they still had the scorched earth atmosphere of the previous world.

Out of such envy, many children succeeded one another and became members of the Astra Militarum.

There are not many civilians in agricultural worlds that are suitable for transformation into plains where the entire planet is, while there are not many civilians in other agricultural worlds that are not suitable for transformation into plains, and the civilians there are miserable.

Only 10% of what they plant belongs to them. They will be reprimanded by the nobles of the empire as being disloyal to the empire and dishonest to the emperor because they are unable to work due to illness, fatigue, or any natural or man-made disaster.

In order to ensure this cruel class rule, those who could not farm would be fed to the dogs by the nobles after or even before their death.

The most disgusting thing is that these nobles will let all the family members of the deceased and the dying come together to watch this "funeral".

The empire's high-pressure rule is mostly like this, using generations of cruelty to make the newly born feel "normal" and that they should be born this way.

Even if someone awakens their consciousness, they will still be unable to fight against the empire due to their own weakness.

This is also why some people choose to throw themselves into the arms of the evil god of subspace in exchange for power.

Living in the Empire, as a civilian, you have only two choices.

Believe in the emperor, and use your faith to persist in living in suffering.

Fall to the evil god and let him turn you into an inhuman thing with his full anger, and then die under the decomposition force field of the chainsword.

The Emperor doesn't care, and therefore, the rulers of the worlds he rules care less.

Salic is such a person. He does not feel anything wrong with the suffering of civilians. At the same time, he is also a loyalist of the Empire and a staunch supporter of the Emperor.

"Lord Governor, today is September 9th. Your schedule today is to receive an emperor's envoy and go to another sub-sector within this sector, where there is a world called Liting..."

In the morning, Salic's housekeeper was holding the new order issued by the empire and was in a daze. He did not say the next words.

"What are you going there for? Do you want them to pay sacred taxes to support the war, or do you go there to clean up heretics?"

Salic was quite gentle with the housekeeper.

The main reason was that his father died early and the housekeeper had performed his father's responsibilities. However, after his mother also died, the housekeeper could perform less than half of his father's responsibilities.

At that time, Salic was still a child less than seven years old. The housekeeper felt guilty for some reason and raised Salic as his own son, eliminating all political enemies for him.

Salic has no feelings for his parents, so he mostly turns a blind eye to the insults the housekeeper adds to him. Anyway, Nai Xing is his world, who dares to chew his tongue and start reincarnation on the spot?
  Moreover, his family's situation is already normal and even good among the entire Naixing rulers and noble class.

All in all, the Naixing aristocratic circle is very chaotic.

"No, I may be out of sight. I saw that the order copied by the Astropath was...

There is a world called Liting. With the approval of the Emperor, the Empire and Lord Malcador, it will declare its independence. As the emperor's envoy, you will go there to declare the absolute friendship between the Empire and Liting. "

The housekeeper looked over and over again, his eyes widened and he didn't understand what was going on.

Salic snatched the document written in Gothic from the butler's hand and repeatedly confirmed the authenticity of it.

At this moment, his shock was even greater than when he witnessed the butler performing his duties.

The Empire's Great Crusade was aimed at shining the entire galaxy under the Emperor's glory, and now the Emperor personally issued an order to declare the independence of a world?

Salic found the Empire's Aquila logo under the ninth word on the ninth line of the document, which was the final layer of security.

"Damn it..."

When he raised his head and sighed, he didn't notice that the Eagle Ceremony logo moved.

"See if you want to set off immediately to convey the emperor's message..."

The housekeeper had a deep psychological shadow towards Malcador, who dressed like a prisoner or an ascetic. His methods were vigorous and he had killed many imperial dignitaries whose status far exceeded that of the Governor of Naixing.

"Let me see..." Salic began to think that as a ruler, he was not a complete fool.

But this incident had a great impact on him. He has been imitating the emperor's behavior. He always believed that every world should belong to the emperor. He asked every human on the planet to praise the emperor every day. He even He felt that the ordinary double eagle ceremony was not enough to express his loyalty to the empire.

He had to change some details of the Sky Eagle Ceremony he performed in private in front of the mirror - the repeated changes over the years made the Sky Eagle Ceremony very different from the original one.

But he felt inexplicably satisfied.

"But Lord Governor, the order requires that immediately..."

"Shut up, don't disturb my thinking. If it weren't for the fact that you have been working for me for so many years, you interrupting my meditation on loyalty to the empire would be enough for me to hack you to death right now!"

Salic glared at the housekeeper fiercely, then walked to the bathroom on his own.

The housekeeper cursed behind him: If you weren't my son, do you think I would have found out that while helping you keep the hereditary governorship, I also killed all eight of your brothers and sisters, and finally gave all my power to you?

Salic quickly sobered up with the water from the Garden World. He finally got over the shock. The emperor was right. He should honestly express the empire's friendship with Li Ting.

But when he looked up, his face was reflected in the mirror, as well as the modified double-headed eagle logo on the wall behind him.

"Are you really willing?"

I don't know if it was an illusion, but he started mumbling to himself in the mirror.

"No, I am not willing to do so, but this is the emperor's order, and he will not be wrong..."

"You are not loyal! If you are loyal, you should fight for everything for the emperor!"

"No one is more loyal than I, Salichna Nkwedu, who prays to the Emperor nine times a day!"

"No, you are not loyal. Words are meaningless. You should put your loyalty into actions."

"What actions can I take? It seems like I am conveying friendship to the empire as a representative. In fact, I am just a tool to convey messages. Everyone knows this."

"No, the operating space of this friendship agreement can be very large! Very large! Isn't it enough to reach friendship verbally? Slavery and rule will not end like this. Each world in the empire has a high degree of autonomy. Give them verbal friendship. It’s not difficult.”

"Wait, I can't think about it..."

"Are you a stupid pig? You still need to think about it, think about it! Think about it! In an ordinary hive world, how much internal defense strength would there be without rebellion?

Even if there is an Astra Militarum stationed there, do the Astra Militarum obey the messengers conveying orders to the Emperor, or the governor of that planet?

Don’t you know the ruler’s instinct to use force to coerce? "

This was not the first time Salic had quarreled with "himself", so he thought this kind of thing was normal.

Even in the past, such quarrels allowed him to profit from different choices and emerge as the winner every time.

Now, he felt that this quarrel was also useful, and that he could not fail because of the advice of "himself" in the mirror.

His dependence on "himself" has become as indispensable as breathing.

Is it possible that "myself" in the mirror has helped me so many times, just to play with myself just to give myself a failure?
  Every inevitable failure he had in the past would be transformed by a quarrel with "self" and become a success.

There's no reason it should go wrong this time.

He finally made up his mind.

The reminder of "him" in the mirror.

"Wait, don't forget to prepare a gift."

"Where is the gift?"

"It was the purple box that you put in your personal vault when you were sleepwalking last night. Have you forgotten?"

"I have not forgotten! I have always been prepared for the most knowledgeable and wise emperor!"

Salic countered "himself" and walked out the door.

He cursed as he walked.

After he left, there was still his reflection in the mirror.

Next to his reflection, the two-headed eagle came to life.

"He painted me really ugly."

Said one head of the two-headed bird.

"He can draw me an uglier one in the future."

The other head of the two-headed bird added.

And Salic's reflection chuckled quietly.

"In return for your provocative plot, I hope you like it, Lust."

The reflection gave up a plaything it had grown tired of playing with.

Salic's successful changes have become the norm, making him feel uninteresting.

"I really look forward to your expression when you open the gift box."

　After writing this chapter, I even dropped nine collections

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)