"...If you don't know, then why did he mention you? More importantly...why did those people appear in front of you? If he appeared in front of me because he was Fallen Angel, then why did the other person appear in front of you? I don’t believe that you don’t know anything, Captain Soshyan.”
Azrael is worthy of being the guardian of the truth. His quick thinking is really the top five people Soshyan has encountered so far, and he immediately grasped the core of the problem.
This pushed Soshyan to the edge of the cliff.
Of course, he could also insist that he didn't know. He was sure that Azrael had no concrete evidence, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen this private meeting.
But if he does this, it will undoubtedly push his relationship with the other party, and the relationship between the two war groups, to a very bad point.
Soshyan's current external purpose is to have as many friends as possible, because as time goes by, he realizes that the secrets of the Legion are difficult to seal forever, and there will always be a day when the truth is revealed, and at that time he will have to need There is a lot of external support, whether it is material or public opinion.
He himself also privately summarized the entire process of the Huron Rebellion. He realized that an important reason for the Huron Rebellion was that his relationship with the bureaucrats of the surrounding systems and the Mechanicus was very tense. However, the Empire was still very cautious when dealing with him at first. And cautious, the reason is that he has made a large number of allied battle groups.
Although Soshyan has no idea of rebellion, he must consider that if he deals with the high lords of Terra in the future, he still has the big tree of the Imperial Fist to lean on, but once the matter is exposed, this big tree will not necessarily cover him up. By myself.
On the contrary, the Dark Angels seem to be a good partner, not only because of the identity of the other founding group, but also because they are not close to Terra, and they even have many records of fighting against the Tribunal and the High Lords Council. , and its control over the sub-groups is also tighter, and its potential power makes all the bureaucracies in the empire reconsider any ideas it has.
But the question is, what to say?
"...Actually, we have encountered fallen angels before."
After thinking hard for a long time, Soshyan decided to tell some old stories, hoping to fool him.
Hearing what he said, Azrael immediately became energetic and took another step forward to ask.
"When? Where?"
Soshyan waved his hand quickly.
"Brother, don't get excited, listen to me slowly."
Then, he recounted the incident of encountering the fallen angels during the attack on the Eye of Hell and the incident of finding a fallen angel beacon. The whole process did not take long, because Soshyan did not actually see those people with his own eyes. These were all The report he saw afterwards.
In fact, he just said this in the hope that Azriel's focus would shift from those black-armored men to the fallen angels, so that more dangerous topics would not be touched upon.
"It turned out to be like this..."
After hearing what he said, Azrael frowned. He suddenly remembered that Asmodai had sent an interrogation priest to ask the Astral Knight for questioning.
Then the interrogating priest asked nothing.
Seeing the other party's expression, Soshyan knew that Azriel must have thought of what the interrogation priest had asked before, so he explained.
"At that time, I didn't know much about your group's situation, so I hid it out of caution. I hope I won't be offended."
Azrael looked at Soshyan and shook his head.
"No, it's not because of this. I'm just curious, why do they appear in the Eye of Hell?"
"I don't know that either."
"They helped the Red Pirates."
"It seems so."
"But that beacon seems to imply that they also helped you?"
"this--"
Azrael took a few steps back and forth, as if to clarify all the doubts and details inside, but for a while he could not come to any conclusion.
But the conversation didn't end there.
"Is that all?"
"And that's all."
"Brother Soshyan."
Azrael's title suddenly changed. He stood in front of Soshyan, looked directly into his eyes, and said word by word:
"For those people, I think you still hide it."
"How could it be...I do-"
"No, the incident with the Eyes of Hell cannot explain why they appear in front of you. I am now certain that those who appear in front of you are definitely not those rebellious people. They are another group of people."
"this--"
"I have been browsing your regiment's combat history and combat readiness these past few years. In fact, this surprised me, because when you were forced to leave your home planet, you only had one ship and two dozen recruits left. But look at it now. Astral knights, so many warriors, so many battleships, so many weapons and equipment, your armory is even comparable to that of a giant stone... This is almost a miracle, no! It is a miracle! Even if you let Even if I come, I can't do this, let alone thirty years, even one hundred or two hundred years, it will be very difficult."
Azriel took a step forward, and their breastplates almost collided.
"Brother, do you believe in miracles?"
"No."
"That's it. This means that someone must be helping you. Could it be the Imperial Fists? I guess not. They have long been in ruins after the Beast War, and it is impossible to provide you with such great assistance."
"What if I said we were lucky?"
"ha!"
Azrael smiled and took a step back.
Soshyan lowered his head and thought for a while. When he looked at the Guardian of Truth again, his eyes were no longer as evasive as before.
He said very calmly:
"We all have our own secrets, brother, and technically our secrets may be darker and deeper than yours."
"Sorry, I have no intention of prying into your secrets. I just want to know who those people are."
"I really don't know the details. The only thing I know is... they are an organization hidden behind the history of the empire. They have existed for a very long time and can control some power departments and institutions of the empire behind the scenes. As for them What to do, why to approach us, I really don’t know.”
The Azrean man crossed his arms and leaned against a container, seeming to be thinking about something.
After about three minutes of silence, he suddenly said:
"Knights Errant, I have seen this organization in the archives."
Soshiyang's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Oh? Is it convenient for me to come and listen?"
"The archival records are very sketchy. It probably means that this organization was founded in the early days of the Great Rebellion. It was founded by the Mark Bearer who was still alive at the time. It absorbed many loyalists from the rebel legions and was only responsible to the Mark Bearer. It was very active during the era of the Great Rebellion. After the rebellion ended, he disappeared and has not been seen since.”
"Handprinter...Makado."
Somehow, Soshyan felt that many things around him were related to the imperial prime minister, which made him slightly uneasy.
And he vaguely remembered someone telling him to be careful about the person holding the seal.
"But this is just my personal guess. After all, ten thousand years have passed. Many members of the organization have died in the great rebellion, and the person holding the seal has long passed away. They cannot still exist without a leader."
"But at least it's an idea."
"It seems that the problems within the empire are no less threatening than the threats from outside."
"Oh? Brother Azrael, do you think they are a threat?"
Azriel sighed softly and shook his head.
"I'm not sure, but...if any secret is fermented for ten thousand years, no matter what the original intention is, it will deteriorate in the end. I know this very well."
