To be honest, as a knight house heir, Zeke had been quite bored lately.
Besides constantly training his spear formation troops, he spent the rest of his time researching technology.
From the moment he became a knight until now, he had yet to sit in his own knight titan, which left him with some regret.
The world of Warhammer, in his personal opinion, seemed acceptable, mainly because he hadn't truly appeared on a battlefield.
Also, as the high king's heir, no one would restrain him.
The most troublesome part was having to chant the family chronicle and Imperial prayers every morning.
These things were indeed boring, but his family was quite humane; his afternoons were free for him to arrange as he pleased, which led Zeke to make some serious misjudgments about the Warhammer world.
Peaceful and stable days can indeed erode one's ambition; he suddenly felt that the Warhammer world was also very safe, until a month later.
On this day, he was still very bored, researching new technologies in his small research lab, preparing to further strengthen some things for himself.
And to continue extracting some usable armed forces from the STC template under current technological conditions.
Just as his research reached a critical juncture, someone from his personal guard walked in.
"Sir, the family has sent someone. His Majesty the high king requests you return to the family. There's a war!"
Sir, it's a holiday—
War. These two words struck Zeke like a heavy hammer, leaving him stunned for a moment.
He had lived too many stable days recently, so much so that Zeke had forgotten that the Warhammer world was a world full of war.
Especially since for a knight, war essentially meant a holiday.
His excellent aristocratic elite education gave him ample resistance to this matter.
At the same time, the knight house's constant education made him quickly change from his initial daze to excitement upon hearing those two words.
War. How much preparation had he made for these two words? How much of his family's resources had he spent preparing his spear formation troops? Were they finally going to be put to use now?
"Order my spear formation troops to prepare. Everyone assemble and return to the family with me now. All training for today is immediately canceled."
His good education allowed Zeke to issue his command, and then he stood up and followed his guards out of there.
He didn't need to worry about the army's assembly; after all, he had talented people among his subordinates, and his entire spear formation troops were naturally managed by their respective regimental commanders.
As for his personal guard, which was almost indistinguishable from the Astartes, they also had their company commanders and the like responsible for their respective companies.
For him, there was nothing to worry about, so after issuing the command, Zeke boarded the family's shuttle and returned to the family estate.
And as soon as he arrived at the family members' quarters, he already felt an atmosphere entirely different from usual.
It was the feeling of a major war approaching.
Almost everyone in the family was busy, and on his way back, he had already seen over 60 Barons return to the family estate.
Also returned were their Retinue knights, the meaning of which was self-evident.
The Yaeger House was a Thousand Titan Family, possessing thousands of knight titans, but even such a powerful family only had about 80 Barons.
Zeke had already seen 60 people upon his return, which was almost equivalent to all the knights of the entire family having returned.
What kind of enemy required the family to summon so many knights back? So many knight Barons returning, combined with their subordinate knights, meant that in this battle, the family was about to deploy thousands of knight titans.
In fact, if the entire family were to go all out, if he wasn't mistaken, the number of knight titans deployed by the family would reach 2000.
What kind of enemy required the deployment of 2000 knight titans for battle?
This was already equivalent to the scale of a knight war.
In his 18 years of life, he had never seen the family reach this point.
He inexplicably had a very bad premonition.
"Sir."
"Sir."
Zeke's appearance caused those around him to bow to him, and although Zeke was anxious to find his father and understand the situation, he still politely nodded in acknowledgment.
However, after nodding, Zeke's pace quickened. Although he still maintained his elegance, his speed was no longer comparable to before.
Seeing their heir quicken his steps, the other attendants did not continue to bow to him but instead accelerated their preparations for everything.
Zeke, familiar with the route, quickly turned left and right and soon arrived at his father's Royal Court. At this time, all 80 knight Barons who had arrived at the family were already inside the Royal Court.
From another perspective, this corroborated Zeke's thought: the family actually needed to mobilize all its knights.
What kind of battle was it?
What kind of battle required the family to mobilize so many knights? Zeke's curiosity grew stronger and stronger.
The moment Zeke appeared, his father noticed him, and their conversation with the Barons immediately ended.
The Barons naturally understood that with Zeke's arrival, their high king would undoubtedly need to speak with him first. They all bowed and then departed.
As they passed Zeke, they also bowed to him.
He was undoubtedly a qualified heir of the Yaeger House; his existence would ensure that the family would not decline due to the incompetence of an heir.
These knight Barons, they were obligated to bow to him.
Of course, the moment Zeke saw his father, his heart settled down.
So, when these Barons bowed to Zeke, he also returned their greetings in a very proper manner.
After exchanging bows and greetings with several Barons and their departure, Zeke finally quickened his pace, no longer caring about etiquette, and swiftly approached his father.
Grisha watched Zeke's quickening steps and his disregard for aristocratic etiquette, yet showed no reaction, instead maintaining his frown.
Only when Zeke arrived before him did he speak with a look of guilt.
"Son, I'm very sorry. You've just become a knight and shouldn't participate in a battle of this level, but the Empire needs us. As the future high king and the high king's heir, you cannot be absent from this battle."
Grisha looked at Zeke with a face full of guilt. It was clear he felt very remorseful. He felt that his son shouldn't participate in such a high-intensity battle, at least not for his first battle as a knight.
However, compared to his father's guilt, Zeke felt it was nothing. He had his own reliance.
At this moment, his greatest reliance was not his spear formation troops, but the dark energy shield.
After numerous experiments, the effectiveness of the dark energy shield had been confirmed by him; at least, even the strongest knight within the family couldn't overcome this shield.
Even the so-called chaos corruption was useless in front of the dark energy shield.
In short, he wasn't afraid of engaging chaos forces because they couldn't do anything to him.
"Father, I am not afraid of battle. Please tell me who our enemy is."
Zeke's resolute words rang out. As a top-tier noble trained to be the heir of a knight house, he would not show fear towards an enemy; such an emotion was meaningless.
Facing his son, who was full of vigor and even looked exactly like he once did, Grisha smiled.
"Our enemy is Abaddon, the Dark Lord. This evil, blasphemous heretic has launched 12 attacks, and this is the 13th Black Crusade."
"According to intelligence, a large number of spacecraft have warped out of the Warp near the Cadia system. This should be a precursor to the impending chaos invasion."
The 13th Black Crusade... Zeke was stunned.