Warhammer Divine Throne

”Eh? Mr. Laine, are you abandoning me?” Amelia’s face turned pale.

”Not at all. Helunhilde is just one or two hours away from here, and it takes around fifteen minutes on a Pegasus. You can focus on your studies there during weekdays and return here on weekends,” Laine smiled, shaking his head, ”I think at your age, it’s unnecessary to spend time as a maid. It’s better to follow Miss Surya and read some books; it will benefit your future life.”

”...” Amelia was tempted.

The girl had not received a proper education due to some accidents that forced her to interrupt her studies. In her heart, Amelia was still quite willing to study: ”Then please promise me, Mr. Laine, I will always be your maid.”

”I understand, I understand, rest assured, this will always be your home,” Laine gave his promise. The young maid would report to the lady knight in three days, then enter the academy as recommended by the lady knight.

After sending Amelia off, the baron stood alone in front of the window, gazing at his domain.

Today’s events had made him realize that in Brittania, under this classical serfdom and noble political system, both productivity and war potential were extremely low.

The serfs lacked hope; apart from war, they essentially couldn’t rise in status, farming wasn’t for themselves, so they often formed this viewpoint: they would do whatever the master knight asked but would never exert more than six or seven parts of effort.

Laine was already considered quite fair. His tax rate was like that of Duke Winford, a seventeen percent tax, so the serfs in his domain were relatively diligent and hardworking. It’s really hard to imagine the state of serfs in other duke domains.

He didn’t have the power to challenge this system, which had persisted for hundreds of years. He just entered this country; he needed to establish his footing first.

After building up the infrastructure and stabilizing the domain environment, Laine could write to Teresa and Veronica, inviting them to come and help him. He wasn’t sure if Teresa would be willing, but he believed Veronica would come to assist him, as he had an agreement with her... Having been without female company for several months, Laine found himself missing the witch.

The baron sat in the office of the Wine Castle, processing various public affairs.

The summer knightly war was on the horizon. According to tradition, Midsummer is the time for the Knight Kingdom to recruit soldiers. Laine’s domain was seriously lacking in troops; this wasn’t ancient Celestial Dynasty where fake enlistments were a practice—this was Laine’s own domain. He had to ensure sufficient troops to guarantee the domain’s safety.

His domain had approximately over a thousand households, along with a few recent migrating free people, making the population around eight thousand. Therefore, Laine planned to recruit an army of three hundred men.

The afternoon sunlight streamed through the window onto Laine, the baron diligently handling various affairs. Much like his brother Kiliman, Laine’s internal affairs ability was similarly outstanding, the Genetic Primarch could multitask efficiently.

”Knock, knock, knock~”

”Come in!”

”Master! Here are the afternoon refreshments.” The dark elf Ollica brought in the tea and milk, her long black hair tied with a white scarf, and her black and white maid outfit gave her a ”three-dimensional” appearance. Her long legs were adorned with white stockings and black leather boots.

”Ollica? Come over here, sit beside me.” Laine gestured to the dark elf maid to sit next to him, and Ollica compliantly sat beside Laine: ”Master?”

”I need to consult you on something...” Laine informed Ollica of the matter concerning Mogiana, then frowned, ”What situation could lead a Holy Sanctuary tier Divine Chosen Spellcaster to be constantly troubled by a dark prophecy?”

The dark elf, before her soul was injured, was also a powerful caster, capable of offering Laine significant advice.

”There are only two situations. The first is when someone stronger than her has cursed her, and the second is if she attempted to predict her own future and saw her downfall,” the dark elf pondered for a moment, then offered her speculation to Laine, ”Mogiana is the Lady of the Lake’s first Divine Chosen; even if cursed, the Lady wouldn’t ignore it. The only possibility is that Mogiana prophesied her own future.”

”Future...?” Laine immediately recalled his mission.

The Moment of Destruction, where all things wither.

Thinking of this, it struck Laine as odd, given that the Lake Fairy’s first Divine Chosen Lake God Witch could predict the Moment of Destruction, why couldn’t the Lake Fairy predict it?

No, it was precisely because she was a Deity that she couldn’t predict it. When the scale of the prophecy increases, the price to pay increases as well; thus, the Lake Fairy couldn’t predict the future of the entire world, nor her own future, and nearly exhausted her divine power just to predict the Knight Kingdom’s future.

So, does the Lake Fairy know about Mogiana’s state?

It seems Laine should privately find an opportunity to ask; these opportunities are plenty, as the Lake Fairy often visits Laine to see what her Champion is up to, with frequent one-on-one exchanges, finding such an opportunity won’t be difficult.

In the state of diligent work, time flew quickly.

One day in late May, Brittania, deep within Charon Forest, inside a mine.

Four golden armored Emperor Guards vigilantly guarded all movements nearby, watching out for any signs from the outside world; any creature that appeared within their vision was instantly killed.

And inside the damp, profound mine, the Emperor and Laine were standing opposite each other; the Master of Humans radiated golden light, with infinite power continuously transferring into Laine’s body, any regular Spiritualist receiving such an infusion would explode instantly.

Yet Laine was unharmed. On the contrary, the Genetic Primarch painstakingly controlled his spiritual energy, transforming the vast golden energy through the Grey Knight Primarch into the purest Subspace Energy.

The father and son were in the process of reshaping a Fallen Primarch’s flesh!

This lengthy process had already consumed several days; today, the Emperor and Laine would complete the transformation of the Fallen Primarch.

The demonized Fallen Primarch had already lost its actual physical body, becoming a form of energy. What Laine needed to do was reverse this process, bringing his brother back through this transformation, putting his soul and mind back to their pre-fallen state.

During this process, Laine could feel countless emotions.

Madness, bloodlust, corruption, sorrow, hatred, and that deep-seated resentment.

The ceremony concluded, and a bald man around two meters forty in height lay on the stone slab.

”It’s done, in a moment, Angerong will wake,” the Emperor said calmly.

”He seems to hate you, father,” Laine said softly, ”I can feel his emotions; he feels you treated him unfairly, you’ve stained him with unredeemable disgrace.”

”...When I found him, I realized he was already a severely flawed Primarch,” the Master of Humans’ face was as cold as eternal ice, ”An already highly corrupted and fallen Primarch.”

”What do you mean by that?” Laine felt puzzled.

”...When I discovered Angerong on that planet, I realized he was no longer truly my son,” the Emperor knotted his brows, contemplating whether to tell Laine. Seeing his beloved son’s keen gaze, he decided to speak the truth, ”In our encounter, I noticed his changes; his teeth were completely replaced by metal, his brain was wired with cables, and his entire brain was implanted with a heinous device, ’Butcher’s Nail.’”

”Butcher’s Nail?”