Chapter 155: We're Serious!
The Cathedral of the Holy Word, one of the landmark buildings of the Optus system, stood tall and majestic in the center of the star system. It was the garrison of the St. Aethelsuith sect. This sect was dedicated to spreading the Emperor's voice into the void, blessing the humans who dedicated themselves to the Emperor and the void, and accompanying them on their journey to the savage lands that had not yet been touched by the Emperor's light.
Karna stood in the wide plaza outside the sanctum. The space was vast, a place built for charity and parades. And now, it had been converted into a rescue site.
A long queue nearly filled the plaza. Ceremonial cheers were endless. Servo-skulls, plastered with holy sigils, flew everywhere, constantly sprinkling holy water on the people in the long line.
The line was long. Besides the Imperial nobles, parish staff, and ordinary Imperial citizens, there were also countless pilgrims. These pilgrims might have arrived in the Optus system several years ago, but the pilgrimage was an endless one. These devout believers often had to rely on the occasional charity of the Ecclesiarchy, and after working for several years in the mining guilds, they would finally get a chance to visit the cathedral.
And today, they were lucky.
Under the layered scrutiny of the church militia, countless believers stretched their necks, wanting to catch a glimpse of the face of the saint who was surrounded by the Sisters and the Blood Angels. Upon noticing the tall and magnificent Angel, their breathing quickened, their fingers tightly clutching the holy emblems on their chests, as if this could bring them closer to the Emperor's grace.
[One day the Emperor commanded Sanguinius: "Sanguinius, if you truly obey my commands, take your kinsman to the mountains of Baal and offer their death to me."
Sanguinius did not understand why the Emperor would do this. He did not want to give up his kinsman.
But Sanguinius was loyal to the Emperor. He made up his mind to do exactly as the Emperor had instructed.
Just as he, according to the Emperor's command, had brought Karna to the mountain top and was preparing to kill his kinsman.
The Emperor said: "Sanguinius, I understand your heart. You are willing to offer even your own life for me. You truly believe in me to this extent. Now, put your brother down."
Karna was brought down. Sanguinius looked up and saw a foul creature, its sharp horns caught in the rocks, unable to move.
Sanguinius then slew the foul creature and offered it on the altar, in place of Karna.]
"Our lives are all given by the Emperor. Only by resisting the foul can we show our gratitude," a PDF trooper said piously as he stepped down.
"..."
You people who spread religion, how have you not changed your tune in forty thousand years?
Karna had already heard countless versions of the story about himself. Most of the time, he felt helpless in the face of such illogical and false lies, but he could do nothing about it.
Because this was proselytizing. The truth of the story was not important. Whether it could make people agree, whether it could raise a sufficiently glorious banner, whether it could make people accept the ideas it was trying to convey—that was the most important thing.
And if not for the strong requests of Dante, Sarpedon, and the others, in the story, Sanguinius would have been his father.
Speaking of which, wasn't Jesus just another of the Emperor's aliases? Also betrayed by his disciples. The sense of déjà vu was overwhelming.
'Sigh~'
You three get to have fun fighting, working, and researching. And I'm left here to deal with all this.
His face still held a perfect smile. Karna monitored the order in the support area, sighing silently in his heart.
It was one thing to be the Angel when there was nothing to do, and to have to fight when there was. Now, after the battle, he still had to accompany the Sisters of the Ecclesiarchy to the local sanctum, like some kind of pop idol on a press tour. He felt he had given a lot to be a good-looking vase.
The sons of the Angel, on the other hand, were quite happy to be accompanied by the Great Angel. These Astartes, with the blood of Sanguinius flowing in their veins, were a natural honor guard. Just standing there without doing anything was more effective than training the Ultramarines for several months. They had put a lot of effort into creating the works of art that told the stories of Sanguinius and Karna, with an unprecedented enthusiasm, as if it were not an artistic creation, but a part of a grand epic.
As for the promotional activities they were currently engaged in, it could be simply understood as church charity. This was a common way for the Ecclesiarchy to expand its faith. The Ecclesiarchy would also hold similar activities on the planets they participated in governing, providing free food and baptism for the pilgrims and lower-class laborers. A few lucky ones could even enter the glittering cathedral and live there as a volunteer.
It was just that because of the productivity, and the fact that the Astartes could participate in the organization of the population, the number of people the crusade fleet could benefit was much greater.
Karna's gaze fell on the miners.
The knees of their overalls were worn through, revealing the bruised and hardened skin underneath.
The strap of their mining lamp had carved a deep brown furrow in their necks, like a stiff, dead snake.
Karna's gaze hardened—many of their eyes were covered with a gray film. It was the dust from a special mineral on the planet Optus, which had formed an ever-unmelting snow on the surface of their eyeballs.
The crusade fleet had collected many types of medicine along the way and could distribute them to these lower-class groups. But even if they were all cured now, in less than five years, they would be back to their current state.
The transmigrators knew very well that before they could correct the underlying logic of this world, everything they did would not last.
After they left, when the people of the parish found that the transmigrators were no longer watching this place, everything might return to the way it was, or even worse.
But it was better than doing nothing.
Karna sighed softly, turned his head slightly, and his gaze passed over the crowd, landing on the bishops. Their robes swayed gently in the breeze, the golden embroidery shining in the sunlight. At their side were two Invictarus Suzerains, recording various data.
This kind of large-scale population gathering data was also very important. Romulus was also working on a similar model. He had to pass the data on to him.
Karna's fingertips gently tapped on the table. He glanced at the data terminal, his gaze sweeping over the dense crowd in the plaza, secretly assessing the scale and efficiency of this gathering.
Excluding the hive worlds, the Imperium's mobilization capability at the planetary level was still quite reliable. The quality of the Administratum officials and the Ecclesiarchy members was not bad and had considerable reference value.
However, limited by communication problems, as soon as it involved the governance of multiple planets, it would start to rot.
Leaving aside whether the Sector Governor would suddenly have a whim and try to make an effort, studying messages from the past, present, and future and starting to issue orders, making the sector environment a mess... just the fact that the Adeptus Arbites would collect taxes at random times, in random locations, and in random amounts was enough to make the various planets suffer.
Many prosperous planets, just because the Arbites' tax collection ship had come for a visit, had fallen into an abyss from which they could never climb out.
As for why everyone was concerned with governance, wasn't an Astartes's recruitment world specially exempt from taxes?
Karna's gaze once again fell on those bishops. Their faces still wore a pious and solemn expression, as if they were completely unaware of all this.
Could you exempt one or even several sectors?
No matter how incompetent the High Lords were, they wouldn't turn a blind eye to such a challenge to their bottom line, to such a division of territory.
The transmigrators currently did not want to have a conflict with the Imperium. In the next two hundred and fifty years, there would be one major event after another. Even the vastness of the Imperium would be stretched thin at that time. If they started a civil war now, the various factions would just be amused.
So they had to conduct on-site investigations of these planets, collect data, create models, and study contingency plans... so that when they governed a sector in the future, they would have more references and wouldn't make a fool of themselves or mess things up.
They weren't the type to just say, "Hey, I have an idea," and then go for it.
Karna controlled his posture, seriously recalling the training Arabella had given him, striving to let every person witness his glory.
This matter of them creating a new human empire—
They were all very serious about it!
(End of Chapter)