Alexander couldn't help but shrug as he looked at the young girl who claimed to be a vessel for the imperial will.
He pointed outside the door and said:
"Outside, my good sister, Leina, she also thinks she's been chosen by the Emperor, that old man."
"Have you two considered having a chat?"
Alexander had come to terms with it.
Facing the various chosen ones from Ashford's Lower Nest and Bottom Nest, he didn't even have the heart to discern truth from falsehood anymore.
A vessel for the imperial will?
Fine, fine, if you say you are, then you are. You could say the Emperor birthed you from his ass and I'd believe it.
"She is a tool of that one," Joan said softly, lowering her head. "I am too. Everyone can be."
"It's just that our uses are different, and our responsibilities are different."
"Is that so?"
Alexander glanced at Sanguinius at the corner of his eye:
"What a coincidence! Actually, I'm chosen by the Archangel."
Listening to Alexander's words, Joan blinked her misty, deer-like eyes in confusion.
She looked Alexander up and down with bewilderment, then shrunk her neck and said, "Real? Or fake?"
".." Alexander couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his eye.
Wait, I said Joan was chosen by the Emperor and you didn't object.
But when I say I'm chosen by the Archangel, you hit me with 'Really? Or fake?'
Although Alexander himself had always been skeptical of Sanguinius.
"No, I didn't mean to doubt you."
Noticing Alexander's gaze, Joan quickly said, her tone somewhat flustered:
"It's just...it's just that the Archangel has already sacrificed himself, a complete sacrifice..."
Joan's voice grew softer and softer as she spoke. She and Alexander stared at each other.
After a long moment of silence, Reyna finally whispered:
"Could it be a scheme of the Lord of Change? Karlos or Magnus in disguise?"
Alexander: ".."
Sanguinius: ".."
Why did what Reyna said sound so familiar to Alexander?
"She seems to have said everything you wanted to say," Sanguinius said faintly.
Looking at Sanguinius at the corner of his eye, and then at Joan in front of him.
"Do you think she's a vessel for the imperial will?"
Alexander asked Sanguinius in his mind:
"She suspects you're a dog of the Lord of Change, huh."
"I don't know, how would I know if she's a vessel for the Emperor?" Sanguinius shook his head.
He put on an expression that said, 'How would I understand these things?'
This made Alexander frown slightly:
"Can't you talk to the Emperor? You claim to be an Archangel, after all."
"What are you thinking? If Primarchs could talk directly to the Emperor, things wouldn't be this troublesome."
Sanguinius shook his head and said:
"I do occasionally receive messages from him across the torrents of the Warp."
"But these messages are often contradictory and chaotic."
"He sometimes calls me his most excellent son, and sometimes calls me Tool Number Nine."
"Sometimes he praises me for making a great sacrifice, and sometimes he condemns me as a ghost in the Warp."
"Several times, he even accused me of starting the rebellion. I suspect he can see more than one timeline now."
Sanguinius sighed:
"And I don't have the freedom you think I do. The range of my will's projection is limited."
"Without the Blood Angels as a relay, I can barely manifest in the star systems near Baal."
"The entities in the Warp also deliberately separate me from Him."
"The Emperor and I can almost only communicate by throwing message in a bottle into the Warp... and I rarely get replies to the psychic message in a bottle I throw out."
The Archangel and the Emperor can only communicate via message in a bottle...
If this guy in front of him was really the Archangel, and what he said was true, then things were truly messed up.
"So the Emperor, he's got senile dementia?" Alexander blinked and asked.
"Who knows what's wrong with my dad. You know... our family has been missing a reliable psychiatrist for ten thousand years."
The words of Sanguinius were full of resentment.
Alexander nodded sympathetically.
If this winged figure of Sanguinius was truly the Archangel, then almost everyone in his family, except for a few, would need psychological counseling, including himself.
"All in all, I can't figure out his state either."
Sanguinius admitted:
"I also can't determine whether this little girl in front of me is truly his vessel."
"So you hurry to Baal and get things going for me. I'll go to Terra to check on the Emperor's condition..."
Alexander chose to directly ignore the words of Sanguinius.
"Can you receive messages from the Emperor?" Alexander looked at Joan and asked.
If Sanguinius couldn't receive them, but this little girl could, things would be very interesting.
That way, Alexander could at least confirm that at least one of them was fake.
"..Occasionally." Joan said softly.
Occasionally... which meant her communication with the Emperor wasn't so smooth either.
Alexander rubbed his chin.
He decided to temporarily follow Joan's line of thought.
"Does the Emperor, that old man, have any instructions? Does he need me to unclog his golden toilet?"
"..Are you always so blasphemous?" Joan shrunk her neck in fear.
Her deer-like eyes looked at Alexander with a hint of fear.
A moment later, she seemed to pluck up her courage and said, "Can you take me to the Bottom Nest?"
The Bottom Nest, always the Bottom Nest. Why did everyone want to go to the Bottom Nest?
Alexander frowned tightly.
"Augustus hired you to investigate the Hellworm in the Bottom Nest."
"Reyna wants you to find the lost Warp Engine in the Bottom Nest."
Joan counted on her fingers and said softly:
"I hope you can take me to the Bottom Nest with you."
This little girl seemed to be exercising her precognitive abilities, knowing even about the governor and Alexander to go to the Bottom Nest.
"..If you go to the Bottom Nest now, you can collect three salaries at once..."
Joan winked at Alexander and said:
"As long as you take me to the Bottom Nest, all the money I've stolen these past few years is yours."
So you've been stealing with the hot machine for this, huh?
Alexander looked at the young girl in front of him, who used her precognitive abilities with such mastery.
Three salaries for one trip to the Bottom Nest, huh?
Alexander had already planned to go to the Bottom Nest, just waiting for Leina to find more information from that navigation archive.
After all, the exact location of the Warp Engine was still a mystery.
"I can take you to find that Warp Engine."
Joan looked at Alexander with her wet, deer-like eyes and said:
"I can also help you find the approximate activity locations of the genestealer."
So capable?
".." Alexander frowned tightly, his internal Warp alarm blaring.
Seemingly noticing that her words had instead aroused Alexander's vigilance,
Joan quickly said: "He taught me a sentence, saying that if I say it, you'll take me..."
"What?" Alexander raised an eyebrow.
Joan took a deep breath and said, awkwardly but clearly:
"Doraemon, please help Emperor Nobita !"
Alexander blinked gently, because Joan even used English.