Chapter 59: Tomorrow, No Tools, Gather at the Square

That night, Anda went to bed.

Father and son each slept soundly, while Malum alone ran outside, doing laps around the entire city of Unu.

The sheer gravity of being baptized personally by the Emperor was almost too much for him to bear. Malum could not help but recall the days when he had slaughtered his way through a corrupted Forge World.

Right now, he truly wanted to strip off this power armor and rely solely on his bare fists to crush those powerful daemons.

However, he had heard whispers within the Empire of a burning legion.

As an Astartes who had been thoroughly drenched and soaked by His Majesty in person, he wondered if he could count himself among them.

Sigh, how wonderful it would be if senior Titus were here instead. He certainly wouldn't babble on like himself, and he would surely be much more favored by His Majesty.

Wait, perhaps it was precisely because of his incessant chatter that Archmagos Cawl had chosen him in the first place?

Malum found it difficult to comprehend the minds of the greats, so he set a goal for himself instead.

In accordance with His Majesty's vision, once the war to end all wars was concluded, he would return to Macragge and open a bar.

By the next day, Malum—having run all night without breaking a single drop of sweat—dutifully returned to the courtyard and prepared breakfast.

Then, he resumed following His Majesty to work.

How amusing, this was a first-time experience for him. As for Aaron, he was still busy learning carpentry.

Before His Majesty's motorcycle was finished, Aaron intended to craft a slightly larger wooden trinket with his own hands to give to Jaghatai.

He was coming of age soon, and finding a local carpenter in the city to learn the trade was simple enough; paving the way with His Majesty's coin sufficed.

Malum only offered a parting reminder:

"Aaron, carpentry is unlike metal casting. You must be careful not to smash your own hand when hammering in nails."

Aaron's own biological father would certainly never have thought to give such a warning.

Fortunately, the Pharaoh had not established any clock-in time-card system, primarily because anyone daring to be late generally ended up as crocodile food.

Under Anda's deliberate concealment, very few people paid attention to the strange antics of these two colleagues.

Anlywin, the man blessed by Vashtorr himself, was the only one capable of recognizing the pair. Yet at this hour, Anlywin usually hid himself deep within the war engine, communicating day and night with the deity to make it even more perfect.

Such repetitive labor continued rapidly for half a month, until the living furnace finally went completely dark, and the pitch-black painted chariot lay dormant in the subterranean space, awaiting its awakening.

"Master, today's work seems rather sparse."

Malum observed his surroundings, attuned to the slightest changes.

Only Anda gave a yawn:

"You actually went ahead and did the work? Though it's a gift for Jaghatai, as long as it meets the standard, that's enough."

Malum shook his head helplessly, then said, "And another thing, how can you just let Aaron go off alone to learn carpentry from a city artisan? I know how to do all of that as well."

Anda rubbed his face and chuckled:

"No, no, no. The moment you start teaching and open your mouth, I can barely stand it. To use his metaphor, Aaron doesn't need to go take a dump in a cesspit that's about to overflow. You lot, who always have to watch out for things splashing up from the cesspit—no, you lot who are already *in* the cesspit yourselves—don't need to force him into anything. As long as he lives happily, that's enough."

Malum gingerly corrected him: "Master, in the future, you will be with us."

Anda's face lengthened, and he said with utmost seriousness:

"That is the future me. Eat, drink, and be merry for today. I sometimes suspect that the reason my future self became so unhinged was precisely because he foresaw the twisted future in the past; and the more he tried to prevent it from happening, the deeper he spiraled into corruption."

"That's why I proactively disconnected from my future self for a little while. Ahahahahaha!"

Anda suddenly burst into laughter, then explained: "That's why during these past few days of forging this war engine, nothing weird popped out."

Now it was Malum's turn to go mad. Though his facial expression remained entirely unchanged, the soul within his shell was driven nearly to the brink of insanity.

Ah, indeed. He finally understood Aaron.

Once His Majesty began displaying anthropomorphic behaviors for a period of time, it meant that for a long time hereafter, He would not be acting like a human at all.

He wondered if Archmagos Cawl had already lost his mind by now.

Thud! Thud!

At that moment, someone beat a gong and shouted loudly:

"All personnel assemble! Tomorrow is the day the great Pharaoh, the Horus walking upon the earth, descends upon Unu!"

"When Ra, the great sun, travels to the very zenith of the firmament, the Pharaoh shall personally unveil and name the war engine!"

Several servants of the Temple of Unu hurried over, escorting a priest in their midst.

The priest disdained to converse with the artisans, merely tossing out casual instructions before stepping into the interior of the cooling furnace to interrogate Anlywin.

Subsequently, the temple servants left behind a herald who proclaimed in a loud voice:

"All work is completed. Tonight, everyone shall uniformly bathe and pray at the temple."

"Tomorrow at dawn, put on your ceremonial attire, bring no tools whatsoever, and assemble in the temple square."

Malum guarded Anda’s side and asked in a low voice:

"Master, it sounds like there's a ceremony being held tomorrow. We will be able to see the Pharaoh in person. If we can confirm whether he has been corrupted by daemons, we can strike immediately."

Anda smiled faintly: "A ceremony? Listen to the words he used. If he were speaking to guards, it would be: 'No armor, no weapons, assemble on the parade ground.' Well, did you notice anything unusual?"

Malum wore a solemn expression and answered earnestly: "According to ancient Terran customs, does this usually mean it's time to collect rewards?"

The smile on Anda's face did not linger long before it was shattered by Malum's reply.

"Forget it, forget it. There's no talking to you. You Ultramarines should just go become ethics teachers in the future."

He began to secretly suspect whether something was wrong with him—whether he was being overly paranoid or simply had a dark psychology.

In truth, there were still beautiful lives to be lived in this world.

Yet, this was likely also Guilliman's curse; that boy always believed he could build the entire Empire into the image of Macragge.

The key-node recorder on Malum's body was still capturing the Emperor of Mankind's most sensitive fluctuations, yet at this moment, even Malum himself had no idea what His Majesty was thinking.

According to previous projections, this was the precursor indicating that His Majesty's humanity-return curve was about to swing back toward the baseline.

He asked one last question: "Master, if we don't go home tonight, what about Aaron?"

Anda frowned: "He's a grown man; is he going to starve to death? Tonight we can finally get a good rest, so let's focus on enjoying ourselves."

By nightfall, the priest who had entered the furnace core still had not emerged, but the pre-arranged banquet had already commenced. After eating and drinking their fill, they reveled in the temple's bathhouse.

Egyptian bathhouses were somewhat different from those in Greece and Rome; the Egyptians liked to build walls around the bathhouse featuring only arched doorways without actual partitions, pierced with numerous open windows for ventilation.

Unlike northern bathhouses, which were entirely indoor affairs.

Anda brought the well-behaved Malum to tour the bathhouse and found a quiet spot to soak in the water.

Clearly, Macragge also had a tradition of bathhouses, but Malum always felt that coming here alongside His Majesty was like being led astray into mischief by an improper elder, making him feel quite restrained.

To avoid awkwardness, he took the initiative to say: "Master, I understand. You mean that there will be danger after we assemble tomorrow. It is very likely that the artisans who participated in the crafting will be sacrificed as well."

Only then did Anda smile: "That's it. Your degree of sensitivity and denseness is exactly the same as your father's. I'm starting to wonder if Lion had the urge to draw his sword when he first told him about initiating the contingency plan for the collapse of the Empire."

Malum: "Huh? What did you say, Master?"