Chapter 1: Konrad
At the Nostramo Wayne aventurine mining center, Wayne watched as the workers toiled in the amber dust. The refined adamantium barriers hummed faintly, containing the toxic fumes that rose from the deep ore veins below.
Wayne was a transmigrator, an unlucky one at that.
He had arrived in this world years ago with nothing and built himself into something more. Now he was no mere crime lord or kingpin. He was a Noble. He ruled his territory with both pen and sword, a philosophy carved into his core: Reason and force. Not ideology. Not the seductive madness that consumed everyone who stayed on Nostramo too long. Never surrender his free will to delusion or desperation.
The Wayne Consortium commanded a vast network of subordinates. Unlike the world he came from, no one here needed to pretend to be civilized. On Nostramo, power was law, and very few could command absolute loyalty.
With his accumulated experiences and the rarest gift, 21st-century common sense, Wayne had maneuvered himself into controlling the planet's outbound trade. He was the most powerful aristocratic capitalist in the region. Essentially, the entire planet answered to him in some capacity.
Today was just like any other day. Wayne was in his office watching the workers when the barrier shrieked.
A meteorite broke through the refined adamantium shield, its surface still glowing with entry heat. It penetrated the high-rise buildings of the factory and fell into Wayne's refined adamantium vein with a bone-deep impact that rattled his teeth.
Wayne frowned. 'So it came.'
As a transmigrator and someone who understood this universe, he knew what kind of existence he would face. He had arrived in the Warhammer 40K universe and become a ruthless noble who exploited the workers on the home planet of Konrad, the most cruel and ruthless but justice-seeking Primarch.
Now, the place where the Primarch's pod had landed was actually the Wayne Group's factory. Wayne himself had not expected this.
He watched the workers flee in all directions and didn't think of caring about them. They would still come back to work tomorrow anyway. These people had no way to control their own destiny. They never would, as long as the system remained unchanged.
Wayne walked toward the deep crater left by the meteorite impact. He descended carefully and looked at a gestation capsule, which slowly opened to reveal a child. The pod's inner surfaces still steamed with warmth, fresh, impossibly fresh.
He reached out and held the child in his arms, looking into the child's dark pupils and innocent eyes.
'Is this the Primarch?'
He was not as powerful as Wayne had imagined. Now he was just a baby, an ignorant child.
Wayne smiled at this. He had never thought it would be so easy to obtain a Primarch. Perhaps he could guide him to rule this planet. But perhaps it was the hope for the future of mankind, or as Wayne knew, this baby boy would become the nightmare that betrayed the Emperor of Mankind.
He pondered how he should deal with this being. After all, he was just a baby now, and a weapon in his hand could easily kill him.
When the Primarchs were young, they were at their weakest. Even Angron had been close to his teenage years when he was slaughtering the Eldar. Local civilians nearly hunted down Fulgrim as an infant. Lorgar had no memory of his own childhood at all.
Wayne understood he could kill Konrad to eliminate future troubles. His existence would threaten Wayne's rule. But if this happened, humanity would have one less Primarch in the future, and in this dark universe, every Primarch was crucial.
Wayne had been given an opportunity to change the future. He would not waste it.
He would cultivate this child into a true messenger of justice. He would prevent the Konrad tragedy from happening again. He would make him the hope of this world, not a victim of Nostramo's corruption.
A single spark can start a prairie fire. Perhaps this Primarch could bring about a brand new future.
He lifted the baby's chin, and the Primarch smiled foolishly.
"No matter what the future holds, I plan to adopt you. Konrad, don't you think it's a good name?"
"Yes, sir."
A secretary appeared with a group of people. She was Adelaide, Wayne's full-time secretary and butler. She had been with him for years, one of the few truly loyal people in this world.
She watched her master holding a child, a child who clearly was something from beyond this planet—an unknown creation.
"Master Wayne, what are you going to do with this one?"
"He is my son."
"Son?" Adelaide's voice carried skepticism. "Master Wayne, he holds no blood relationship with you."
"Does that matter?"
Wayne walked out of the pit step by step, holding Konrad. "After all, he is a godsend."
The moment Adelaide saw Konrad, she realized the being before her was no ordinary creature. This was perfection, a perfect genetic creation, the most perfect embodiment of humanity.
Wayne held him and glanced at Adelaide. "The child needs milk."
"Of course, sir."
Adelaide took Wayne's men and began searching for the best milk powder available. She and her team contacted every major and minor merchant group that dealt in such products, carefully testing over a hundred samples before selecting the safest, most nutritious option worthy of a Primarch.
After all, he was now Wayne's chosen successor.
...
The baby's dark eyes looked at Wayne, full of curiosity. He stared at the man in front of him, while Wayne lowered his head and looked at the baby boy, not knowing what to do.
Even though he had lived two lives as a human, Wayne had no experience raising children, let alone raising a Primarch. His heart, tempered by Nostramo's cruelty, was unusually panicked at this moment.
"Silly boy, you're really adorable."
Wayne stretched out his finger as if teasing a child. "This is one."
Konrad opened his eyes wide, looked at Wayne's finger, and giggled foolishly.
No matter how great the Primarch would be in the future, right now, he was just a child. Especially Konrad, he could have become the justice of the human empire, a hero who fought against darkness and cruelty. But this world would pollute him just like how it polluted everyone.
Wayne looked at the Primarch.
Could he educate him well?
Maybe the opportunity was right in front of him, and he should—NO, he must, seize it. To save a Primarch. To bring a better future to this world. To bring back hope and light on this planet.
Wayne brought Konrad to the highest point in the world. He fed the Primarch with a bottle and looked at the endless darkness of the city in front of him. Muddy smog coiled through the spires; the air tasted of ash and industry.
The vast majority of people in this world were laborers living in abject poverty. They had no future and lived in desperation. Just like the areas under Wayne's rule, they received salaries barely enough to survive and spent what they earned on Wayne Group's products. No matter how much they made, it eventually returned to Wayne's hands.
In this way, the wealth of the nobles continued to grow. They became richer and more armed, ensuring the common people could not resist them. They wantonly tortured those who dared to oppose the status quo or simply brutally executed them, hanging them from high towers as warnings.
Wayne was not that depraved. As a transmigrator, he was not crazy enough to treat them cruelly. He took a more humane approach than other nobles. He would not lose himself in Nostramo's murdering madness. He would not surrender his free will to ideology or desperation.
There were no heroes and no order here.
Wayne sat on a sofa worth enough to feed a family for a hundred years. Any piece of jewelry around him was priceless. He looked at the baby in his arms.
"Will you save this world? Or will you sink into it like me?"
The Primarch looked at Wayne with innocent eyes, full of curiosity about the world, but Wayne just smiled indifferently.
What was he thinking?
He could provide Konrad with a peaceful living environment now, but as a mortal, his two lives combined would only bring him to sixty years old. Compared to the Primarch's natural wisdom, he was far behind.
But his biggest advantage over Konrad was that he was rich.
"Adelaide, you will be responsible for ordering a batch of books, parenting books, law and politics texts, and then buying a piece of land to build a library."
"How large, sir?"
"A library large enough to hold more than a million books and with a capacity of 50,000 people. This is my first gift to Konrad."
"Understood."
Wayne spent an astronomical amount of money. Just buying books from other worlds, sending them through the unstable subspace, and building the library in this region cost more than most nobles earned in a lifetime.
But Wayne didn't care. It was just his income for a few days. This was merely his first step.
After all, educating a Primarch well required far more than this.
"Just buy whatever you need, Adelaine. Spare no expense."
Wayne picked up the purified water and drank it. "After all, educating children is not something you can be careless about."
[End of Chapter]
NOTE:-
Hey everyone, good day to you all!
So this is ANOTHER Warhammer 40K fic, and finally I'll be expanding my archive to include more stories set across both the 40K era and the 30K Great Crusade era.
We're making good progress, and as I said, I want to build up a proper library of all the best 40k fanfics I can get my hands on - and I'm doing exactly that. While I'm working on curating this collection, you can expect other genres too: anime fanfics, movie adaptations, all that good stuff.
Anyway, hope you're doing well. Take care of your health, seriously - trust me on this one, I know how important it is. The Emperor protects, but you still gotta look after yourselves, battle-brothers.
Peace out, and FOR THE EMPEROR!
Oh, and don't forget - PLEASE tell me your thoughts! I'm dying for feedback and comments. Let me know what you think of these stories!
May the God-Emperor watch over you all.