"Before we begin, I hope you don't apologize." Sevita said.

He was clearly prepared, and he said it straightforwardly, precisely, and quickly. He succeeded in blocking the first sentence that Carlil was about to utter, and also bought himself the opportunity to say the next sentence.

"I understand it's important to you, but I just don't want to hear you apologize, instructor."

"We didn't go to great lengths to pull your old bones out of the abyss, not to hear you apologize in person. You still have a lot to do, and the first thing you want to do is see for yourself the empire in 10,000 years, and I'm all for that. ”

Sevita said with great seriousness that his height was now approaching three meters, which was an anomaly tall even in Astarte. It was clear that there was more to him than meets the eye, and Carlil had a lot to say about it.

He understood that Sevita's body was being subtly altered by psionic powers, and that this change would not stop until he died.

He tilted his head and stared at the first reserve ten thousand years ago, and now the first eldest son, and for a moment, he was in a trance.

For a long time, Carlil simply held his glass and remained silent. He couldn't find the words to speak, and he didn't want to refute Sevita's words.

Seeing the empire for himself was an attractive idea, and if he woke up alone, maybe he would. But he wasn't alone, not since a long time ago.

He has to take on some responsibility.

"I'm not going to apologize." Met Sevita's gaze, Carlil spoke. "At least not this time."

He got a smile that was a mixture of wonder and shock and joy.

"Don't be too presumptuous, First Reserve."

Carlil warned in the familiar tone of an instructor, and he slipped the empty glass into Sevita's hand with a smirk.

"But, then again, don't you want to go back to Nostramo first?"

"If our great instructor, who never listens to anyone's advice, wants to go his own way and visit other places than his homeland—"

Sevita reached out and took the glass, bowing pompously.

"—I'm still happy to help."

"I don't have a hometown." Carlil said. "Nostramo doesn't count, it's Conrad Coetze's home, not mine. My destination is in subspace, Yago, but don't forget that. ”

"In other words, you're going to go back to subspace?"

Sevita looked up in surprise, then erased the emotion and put on a serious face that I didn't know if it was sincere.

"Well, my lord, I'm willing to do the dog's job. We'll rush into the subspace after you, and while it's no different from looking for death, every day of our lives is quite suitable for death, don't you think? ”

"I think the skills of yin and yang weirdness have improved in the past 10,000 years."

"Oh, just a little fur." Sevita said with a smile. "I just have to imitate the officials I've met, and that's what they say."

"You've seen a lot of officials?"

"I've seen a lot, but I've seen not much." Sevita said that he gave a completely contradictory sentence. Carlil, however, fully understood the metaphor, bowed slightly, and raised his hand for Sevita to continue.

The First Reserve sighed and couldn't help but complain: "This is not a good story, you really have nothing to do." ”

"It's true that I don't have anything to do right now, but we're in Fenris right now. The land of ice, mead and stories, so I'd like to hear you tell you a little bit about your own legends, is there anything wrong with that? ”

"You're not from Fenris, why are you asking me to do as the locals do?"

Carlil kept that smiling expression, but his eyes were fixed on Sevita's eyes without blinking. The staring lasted a minute before it ended, and the First Reserve slowly spoke, seemingly reluctantly.

"Well, there was a time. In short, there was a military affairs examiner named Kellai, who, along with tens of thousands of other colleagues, roamed the galaxy and was responsible for investigating the specifics of the third-tier tax world. ”

"Their work requires that they have to be reviewed every 10 years to see if the worlds on the list need to raise or lower their tax standards. So, without me having to explain, you can guess that it's not a good job. ”

"Judge Keclay was only one hundred and twelve years old at the time, but he had already undergone three life-extension surgeries and more than ten life-sustaining parts replacements. He had a team of 300 people with him, all of whom were elite soldiers drawn from the army. ”

"They were directly transferred by the Ministry of War to protect the lives of Kellai. Those who do what they do are prone to all kinds of unexpected dangers, so they must have enough security forces to guard them. ”

"He met me on his ship for the simple reason that a wild world he was going to examine had been invaded by demons, the natives were left without a single local, and the Governor's family had been cursed by the wizards of the cultists during the war of resistance, and a famous family was a thing of the past."

"The world is no longer capable of paying tithes, and in fact, the rest of them can't even survive in this world. Chaos pollution is enough to change everything, not to mention that this is a wild world. ”

"According to the rules, Kellay could declare this world a dead world right now, but he decided to ask us first, a group of incompetent people who were late to the party, so I met him on his ship. He asked me a question. ”

"What's the problem?" Carlil asked softly.

"He asked me if the local governor was doing his duty. I told him the full story, and then he said he needed to investigate and collect evidence. ”

Sevita's face showed an uncontrollable sneer, and Carlil almost heard his unspoken ridicule: Investigation and forensics? Instructor, can you believe it? He asked me for evidence.

So I asked him what kind of evidence he needed. He told me that he needed any evidence of any resistance – and direct evidence – of the Governor Alfauxeny's family. ”

"I asked him why, and the bastard told me that my testimony was not enough to seek forgiveness for the surviving Salernam people in this matter and not to be beaten into slavery."

"I should have been angry, but I realized he was right, the laws of the empire were very rigid, at least at that time."

"So I have to admit that he had the courage to tell me in front of me that he needed to go back to the slaughterhouse and photograph the remains of the loyalists as evidence."

"Do you agree?" Carlil asked again.

Behind them, some quiet wolves were slowly approaching, and neither he nor Sevita were aware of it, but neither of them could say anything to stop it. Fenris loves stories, anything goes.

It's just a matter of following the locals.

"I don't have the right to refuse." Sevita replied with a sneer. "The Governor's soul is roaring in my ears, tell me to hurry up and take this inquisitor to his family's domain, finish the picture, and leave Salernham with the rest"

So I took him to the surface, and there was no one else, just the two of us. Judge Kellay finally showed a little fear at this point, and though only a little, I did smell it. He kept his right hand on the grip of the plasma pistol as he walked behind me, but made it to the end with great composure. ”

"The Governor's family domain is a palace that has been passed down from generation to generation, and it should have been magnificent, but at that time there was blood and corpses everywhere, and the atrocities of the demonic mongrels made it look like hell."

"And so, we entered the main hall and found the bodies of the governor and his wife, and Kellay took a picture, and we walked out of the palace."

Sevita turned and handed the glass that belonged to Carlil to a wolf, who poured it full of wine, but Sevita was still not enough, and snatched the stone pot from which he poured.

He handed the glass back to Carlil, and he tilted his head and began to drink directly from the jug.

The wolves were silent, silently waiting for him to continue. These seemingly brutal barbarians always treat stories with a level of respect that is not at all in line with their usual behavior, even if it is a bloody claw, they can wait until the end of the story before speaking.

Sevita drank the honey in the pot completely, and then shook her head with a smile: "Then, that's how the fucking misfortune happened. ”

"It's only eleven hours of day in Salernam, and it's only taken us a little while before it's completely dark, and I can smell demons."

He winked playfully at Carlil.

"Attention, it's not a dead demon."

Carlil didn't laugh, so did the wolves, they listened, that's all.

"Anyway, some of them came back, and I thought we were going to kill them all, but I was too stupid to think they would come back. So things took a turn for the worse, and I started fighting alongside Kellai. ”

"Still, as a mortal, he fights like a madman. He really should have gone to join the army, not be some kind of censor in the office, which completely buried his ability. ”

"I was relieved for a while, at least I knew that the person I was fighting with was not a coward. I cut off half of the palace gate and rushed to the front, using it as an assault shield for the time being. He was following me for cover, and the plasma hit was fairly accurate. ”

"We made it all the way to where the shuttle landed, and it was already destroyed. My communications network is also affected by the forces of Chaos, and I can't reach anyone in orbit. ”

Sevita paused for a moment with a wicked amusement, and shrugged his shoulders in front of everyone's eyes.

"Yes, it's a desperate situation, no matter how it is for anyone."

So I told Kellay that he should start saying his last words to me. The Censor looked at me in a very interesting way, leaning into our shuttle and asking me, if we all die here, what does it matter if we say our last words or not? ”

"I told him that for a child of the night, death was just the beginning. He heard this, and although he did not understand, he fell into deep thought. ”

A few minutes later, he sent me several proposals for reform of the tax law using his built-in data processing servo. He said that these were his last words, and I stored them in a server in my armor and began to run away with him. ”

"Demons are everywhere, it's obviously a trap, but it shouldn't be aimed at me, otherwise their number could have multiplied several times. We fought and fled, and it wasn't until forty-five minutes later that there was a fire in the sky. ”

"And at that time, there were still five minutes before the death of Inquisitor Kelly. He was so badly injured that all the surgically implanted mechanical elements fell out of his stomach. ”

I asked him if he had anything else to say, but he didn't say anything other than complaining about his work. I watched him die, and then waited for backup. ”

"I returned to his ship with his remains, and finally with his ship and his men, to the fortress near Broken Terra. For political reasons, I announce that the Midnight Blade will take over the matter. ”

"Then, there was the three-year reform of the government, during which both the regent of St. Giles and Machado the palm of the seal were involved, as well as countless officials of all kinds."

"In short, it took us three years to reform the tax law and add a whole new law, which we called the Kellay Law, using those recommendations as the basis for the Kellay recommendations."

"It saved the people of Salernam from slavery, and in the years that followed, more people were freed from suffering and allowed to continue to thrive in their homeland. From that point of view, that kelly should be quite happy. ”

He paused, let out a cloudy breath, and ended his story. A wild wolf approached him from behind and respectfully brought a new flask.

"Please drink." He said solemnly in Fenris, then looked around and raised his arms to his brothers.

"Let's drink this wheel for the merciful Kellai!"

He roared, and was the first to raise his head, raising the bone horned wine glass in his hand, and began to gulp down the honey. The pitch-black liquid rushed down their throats, and those who drank quickly were the first to howl, one after the other, like a never-ending interlude.

Carlil didn't join the queue, but finished his glass.

He looked at Yago Sevitaleon, and in this way silently ripped the last bit of the veil of the First Reserve from the man. With a smile, he walked up to him, stood on tiptoe and patted his chest.

"Well done, Yago." Carlil said heartily. "No one can do it better than you."

Yago Sevitaleon looked at him with sorrow, and there was no pride on his face, only a numbness like a cripple.

"Too many people, Carlil." He muttered softly. "I've sent away too many of them."

(End of chapter)