Chapter 351: The Tyrant Star
House Visscher's connections to the Imperium were simply too deep. For their patriarch, Ovid, the arrival of the Imperial Regent was a sign that Guilliman was trying to mediate the conflict between them and Lucan. Of the three families, he was the one who least wanted a direct confrontation with the Imperium.
But the other two families did not think so. House Cassini believed that if they united with the other Navigator houses, they could gain the upper hand and secure even more benefits without making any concessions. So what if he was the Imperial Regent? He still needed them.
Although House Ortelius was not as openly aggressive as House Cassini, the meaning they conveyed, both overtly and covertly, was almost identical. They did not agree with House Visscher's opinion, but they also did not want to be the ones to stick their necks out. Although they possessed great wealth, the dwindling of their family members meant they could not afford any losses.
"Our bickering is meaningless," Ovid of House Visscher finally said. "Do you two really think you can ignore the Regent's request? If we refuse, we are just giving them an excuse to attack us. Do you know how many people the Regent has killed on Terra? You have all seen his crusade. He shows no mercy, even to Sector Lords! If we have a direct conflict, are you not afraid that the assassins of the Officio Assassinorum will target us?"
Ovid's words silenced the other two.
"Ovid, since you disagree with my opinion, then you propose a viable plan," Clyde of House Cassini shot back. "You have seen the decisiveness of the Mongorte Dynasty. If we agree to that meeting, what if they ignore Guilliman and just kill us? With his current status and achievements in the Imperium, do you think Lord Guilliman would truly punish him for killing us? He is now the true ruler of the Koronus Expanse and the Calixis Sector. The Navy, the Inquisition, the Cult of the Holy Machine, the Astra Militarum, and the Astartes... have you ever seen any single Imperial power that possessed all these forces at once?
"And the speed at which he accumulates wealth is terrifying! I assume you have all seen his trading platform? In just a few short years, the wealth accumulated by the Mongorte Dynasty has already surpassed the total accumulated by our Navigator houses over thousands of years. His Dynasty and the members of his alliance are like a pack of hungry wolves, entering every industry, using money, materials, and force to seize the market. A large portion of those profits originally belonged to us. Do you really think that High Lord will willingly spit them out? The wealth and resources of this world are finite. For every bite he takes, we get one less. I imagine all of you have already started selling off family assets, even dipping into the heirlooms you would never have touched before, just to maintain the normal operation and lifestyle of your entire family!"
Clyde's words were merciless. If Visscher and Ortelius could still live off their old wealth, then a new house like his could not afford it at all. House Cassini was already beginning to have problems maintaining its normal operations.
"But war is, in the end, not the answer, Clyde," Ovid argued. "Was the death of your private army not enough to prove this? The disparity in our strength is too great. And in the end, our existence depends on the Imperium. Perhaps we can go to other sectors and open up new partnerships, abandoning our interests in the Expanse and the Calixis Sector." Ovid laid out his worst-case scenario.
His words made Clyde sink back into his seat. Just as it seemed Clyde was about to be persuaded by Ovid, the patriarch of House Ortelius, Pacini, spoke, causing both of them to look at him.
"Gentlemen, let us not indulge in these unrealistic fantasies," Pacini said. "The Mongorte Dynasty has certainly mastered a technology we do not know of. Their long-range travel can already be done without the warp. They are absolutely not training their own Navigators or have mastered some fast and safe route. Do you really believe the nonsense they use as an excuse for the public?! The existence of the Mongorte Dynasty will only lead to our extinction!"
"Pacini, stop with your grandstanding," Clyde snapped. "If you can, you find a suitable solution for us!"
"Of course there is one," Pacini replied smoothly. "Our three houses, tied together, are indeed not enough. Even with all the Navigator houses in the Expanse and the Calixis Sector, it's impossible to eliminate the Mongorte Dynasty with just this strength. But... we can borrow some outside power."
His words made Ovid and Clyde look at him, curious as to what this "outside power" was.
"Speak, Pacini. Stop being so mysterious."
"Do you two remember... House D'Kaeth?"
Hearing the name "D'Kaeth," the expressions of the other two men changed.
"Pacini! What are you implying? Do you have a connection with House D'Kaeth?!" Ovid stood up and questioned him directly.
House D'Kaeth had once been a major Navigator house active in the Koronus Expanse. They had arrived with the Angevin Crusade that had settled the Calixis Sector. However, due to a large-scale conflict they had instigated with another Navigator house, the Living Saint of the Imperium, Drusus, had stripped them of all their property and status. They were exiled to a remote, uninhabited sector. And over a long period of resentment, they had begun to secretly oppose the Imperium, supporting various rebellious activities, and even sending their Navigators to serve on ships that opposed the Imperium.
This house had long since been branded as traitors and heretics by the Imperium and had been cast out of the Imperial Navigator system. Ovid and Clyde both knew of this house, but their long period of dormancy had made people almost forget them.
"Are you suggesting we cooperate with them?! If the Inquisition finds out..."
"No, no, no. Not a connection," Pacini corrected him. "You can think of them as a tool. Besides, how often does the Inquisition itself use the power of Chaos? We can attend the meeting proposed by the Regent. That Lucan will certainly be there. Our agents and spies have been searching for him all this time but have found nothing. And now, isn't he just delivering himself to our doorstep?"
The other two understood his meaning.
"You want to use House D'Kaeth to kill Lucan Mongorte?! That's impossible," Ovid immediately rejected the suggestion. "At such a meeting, whether it succeeds or not, as long as a move is made, Guilliman will place the greatest suspicion on us."
"In normal times, that might be true. But suspicion is, in the end, just suspicion. Clyde, you yourself said that if Lucan were to kill us, he would not necessarily be punished by Guilliman. The same applies to us. If we kill Lucan, Guilliman will no longer be able to use this technology, and then we will once again be his only choice.
"And besides," Pacini added, a sly look in his eyes, "the suspicion will not necessarily fall on us. What if I told you that House D'Kaeth can predict the next appearance of the Tyrant Star?"
"The Tyrant Star?!"
"That's right. By using the chaos caused by the Tyrant Star, we can completely shift the blame onto this star of calamity. It was the star that drew House D'Kaeth here and brought the chaos. What does that have to do with us?! This star has existed for who knows how many millennia, and no one has ever known where it comes from."
"But the appearance of the Tyrant Star is completely unpredictable! How could D'Kaeth possibly know?! Do you know how many resources the Inquisition has invested in the problem of this star's origin?"
"Isn't that even better?" Pacini's voice was smooth as silk. "The more mysterious it is, the more it clears our suspicion. The wonder of this universe is that we can always discover things we did not know, is it not? Perhaps House D'Kaeth learned some secrets on an unknown planet?"
As he finished speaking, under Pacini's ornate robes, a bird's-foot-shaped mark on his back began to glow with an eerie light, though no one saw it.
The Tyrant Star, as the most mysterious astronomical phenomenon in the entire Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse, brought disaster and even destruction with every appearance. Even some of the most powerful people in the Calixis Sector had formed a secret society to try and uncover the truth of the Tyrant Star, but after so many years, they still had nothing.
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