Chapter 121: A Day in the Life of a High-Class Nanny
The Archmagos departed, deeply troubled.
Halfway through its journey through space, just as it was crossing the asteroid belt, the transport's thruster array suddenly went silent, like an extinguished candle. As several escort frigates closed in, high-powered scanning instruments monitored every inch of the transport's hull. After the STC was carefully unloaded, several streams of scorching plasma consumed the transport ship, leaving not even slag behind.
On the bridge of his own ship, the Archmagos, still undergoing examination in a vacuum-sealed isolation chamber, looked at the scan results, which read [All Clear]. The worry on his face deepened.
Arthur, having teleported back to the Dawnlight, watched the Archmagos's operation with some surprise. After reporting the mission's progress, he decided to head for the bridge.
On the way, a junior Inquisitor passed him like a sleepwalker. She looked down, saying nothing, her worries like lead in her eyes, a look of profound anxiety on her face.
"Aglaia."
Arthur's voice made the Inquisitor stop abruptly, the hem of her black Inquisitorial robes swinging with a metallic ripple from the inertia.
Arthur looked at the Inquisitor. The transmigrators' built-in scanning ability recorded her external appearance, and then, through his own knowledge base, quickly displayed the individual's hormone levels and a psychological analysis of her mental state.
There was unwashed sacred oil in the crevices of her fingernails—the traces left by pressing a quill pen while writing reports for days on end.
"You look troubled," he stated.
"Lord Arthur." Aglaia composed herself. She didn't mind being caught in a moment of weakness. Only on the Dawnlight could she safely vent her emotions and begin to think again.
"Pierdra must be dragged into its sun due to the Chaos corruption. I am agonizing over this because I have no data on the corruption of Pierdra, and my brief interaction with my former mentor cannot be mentioned." She told the knight of her troubles honestly. When she raised her eyelids, Arthur saw the fine, broken blood vessels at the edge of her irises, like cracks made by an invisible chain.
The Archmagos's request was a bit too absurd. Of course, as the top of her class of Throne Agents, Aglaia had her means. She could coordinate the various parties to get their stories straight, she could use her connections to lock down the shipping lanes around Pierdra, and she could even arrange for non-essential personnel to have their memories wiped.
But what about the data?
No matter how excellent her past record was, this was the only time she had directly faced a large-scale Chaos corruption. She really didn't know the specific data. The publicly available materials in the Inquisition's archives would never teach this. Her initial report had never considered the fall of Pierdra. At most, it had helped the Archmagos cover up the issue of the Abominable Intelligence. She had been busy cutting ties with the old man. Now that he was dead, she was supposed to go back and review the extent of the Chaos corruption on Pierdra...
Aglaia felt as if the entire universe was tormenting her.
It was simple. She didn't dare to make things up. Giving false intelligence could easily result in an Officio Assassinorum agent randomly spawning in a corner of her room. But she didn't dare not to make things up. Without a sufficient and logical reason, she could easily be executed by the Ordo Excorium, which specialized in investigating the loss of planets, for wasting Imperial assets.
And she couldn't even mention her face-to-face meeting with her old mentor. She was busy cutting ties. The best way to handle it was to pretend she had never even been on the planet, and had intercepted the Chaos corruption in a decisive and logical manner.
And she couldn't even eliminate the person who had created the problem, the Archmagos. She was trapped in this painful, infinite loop.
"Hmm." Arthur nodded in understanding.
"..." Aglaia respectfully saluted her guarantor. She was already having thoughts of taking the Archmagos with her in a self-detonation.
RUSTLE~
Just as she placed a hand on her chest, a file made of thick parchment fell into her arms. "Here is the data. You can use it as a reference."
Arthur had been investigating everywhere since he had first arrived on Pierdra. Every stage of the Chaos's spread had been recorded. If Ramesses hadn't reacted quickly and had him jam the ritual, the entire planet of Pierdra would have been dragged into the Warp when the rift expanded. Theoretically, without them, Pierdra would have indeed disappeared without a trace, along with that splinter of the Hive Fleet.
"..."
Aglaia instinctively used her psychic powers to block her surroundings. After confirming there were no prying eyes, she activated a stealth field and then opened a scroll.
It was a detailed activity log of the Chaos cults in the hive city at the time of their landing.
"?"
"Read it when you're alone," Arthur said with a wave of his hand, then departed.
"Thank you, my Lord!" Aglaia saluted solemnly. She had never imagined that a single, sincere reply could result in such unexpected help. She quickly went to her small room on the Dawnlight to write her report.
Arthur hadn't gone two steps before he ran into Dantioch, who was staring at the parish school. The man, who was steel both inside and out, had once again welded that iron mask from ten thousand years ago onto his face. The wrinkles between his eyes were as deep as knife-cuts, and even his footsteps carried a hesitant weight.
'Is he blaming himself?'
Arthur could see what the Warsmith was thinking at a glance. It was nothing more than the belief that his actions ten thousand years ago had led to the current disaster.
Ten thousand years ago, due to the Warp storms stirred up by the Chaos Gods, the light of the Astronomican from Terra had been blocked. Dantioch had then lit the Pharos beacon, guiding the loyalists who were still in the Ultima Segmentum. Later, to fight against the traitors' offensive, Dantioch had been forced to overload the Pharos. The uncontrolled psychic beacon had, to a certain extent, attracted the arrival of the Tyranid Hive Fleet.
Arthur was surprised. This was something they had only learned about in the "GW Black Library." How did Dantioch know? Dantioch had also recently been paying attention to these xenos that the transmigrators were so concerned about. Perhaps he had found some connection. No wonder this Warsmith had been analyzing technology like a madman recently.
To be honest, Arthur felt that the big pot of the Tyranid Hive Fleet didn't need to be placed on Dantioch's head. The Hive Fleet's travel speed was so slow, and the Milky Way was the only large galaxy nearby. Their arrival was only a matter of time. And according to Cawl's genetic identification, the original genetic sequence of these Tyranid swarms could be traced back to the dangerous creatures of Fenris and its many death worlds, basically confirming that the Hive Fleet had arrived in the galaxy ten thousand years ago.
Mental self-flagellation was not a good thing.
Asking Romulus for another data package, which included the detailed data from the Archmagos's genetic testing of the Tyranids, including the parts that listed some of the original native creatures of the galaxy, Arthur stuffed it into Dantioch's hands and then went on his way.
The Archmagos's expertise in biology was quite trustworthy.
After wandering around the ship for a bit and secretly returning a few mischievous children to their parents, Arthur pushed open the doors to the reception room at the top of the bridge.
(End of Chapter)