40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 32 32. About the blade, about the mine (1)

Standing on the edge of the building where the shelter was located, feeling the cold wind blowing against his face, Khalil narrowed his eyes and shook his head slowly.

Sound sleep is a rare thing. he thinks.

Last night, he experienced this feeling again rarely. There were no dreams or anything else waiting for him in the darkness, just a peaceful melancholy.

He had six hours of peaceful sleep. He could have asked for more, but he refused.

There is always business to do. Furthermore, craving for enjoyment makes people lazy.

"We need to wait, Ghost."

Facing the oncoming sour and smelly cold wind, Khalil squinted his eyes and said this.

"What happened last night will soon be known to all the nobles."

"This kind of thing can't be hidden for too long, not to mention those families who have interests in each other. Even those nobles who are completely shrinking in their own world and only focusing on enjoyment should find something wrong after a while."

"They may react as I expected and start competing with each other for the vacated seats and rights. Of course, they may not. But either way, we will have to wait for a while."

Khalil paused and sighed.

"After all, this period is the eve of the Great Purge."

Ghost thought for a moment, then nodded, but put forward a different opinion.

"Why don't we kill the other nobles too, Khalil? We know where they are, and we know how to find them."

Khalil raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, and then smiled slightly, with some genuine happiness in his smile.

"Okay, Ghost - let me ask you a few questions, how about it?" He said softly.

Ghost nodded silently.

“You see a gang member robbing someone, what do you do?”

"Kill him." Ghost said without hesitation. "He must have done it more than once."

"Correct answer. So, second question, you saw a group of gang members robbing, what would you do?"

"Kill them all." Ghost frowned. "The gangs deserved to die."

"Correct answer. The third question, Ghost - you saw a group of teenagers trying to join a gang committing the first robbery in their lives. What are you going to do this time?"

The ghost was silent.

And Khalil continues.

"They were hungry and half-clothed. Several gang members watched their actions from a distance and even loudly urged them to kill someone quickly. What are you going to do?"

Ghost continued to be silent, but the index finger of his right hand trembled, and his expression became more serious. This is very rare and something Khalil is happy to see.

This means that Ghost is starting to think about these difficult questions.

"How, do you have an answer, Ghost?" he asked patiently.

".No." Ghost replied in a low voice. "I don't have an answer."

"Well, let me tell you what might happen next."

Khalil lowered his head and looked down at the dirty streets that gradually became chaotic as time passed. He narrowed his eyes and his voice became softer.

"Kill those gang members and the teenagers will scatter. But that doesn't mean they will give up. They will continue, join the next gang, or return to the gang's headquarters to report what happened."

“And then, if you’re lucky, you might get to meet a few of them.”

"Then you're going to have to kill them - because they're in a gang."

"If you choose to stop young people from committing crimes, they will ignore you. Some will be bold enough to continue doing what they are going to do, and others will turn to gang members for help."

"Only a few people will feel guilty about it, but they won't do anything. After that, the gang members who are being asked for help will walk across the street."

Khalil turned his head and looked at the ghost. There was something in his expression that Ghost couldn't understand at this moment, and his eyes were full of heaviness.

".So, in the end, you still have to kill them."

Khalil shook his head: "This is what's possible, Ghost. I'm done."

"."

Silence - then, the ghost asked in a difficult voice: "Why?"

"Because they have to."

Khalil replied softly. "They have seen what their parents look like with their own eyes. Ghost, you have seen it too, haven't you?"

"The workers in the shantytowns, and those in the mines on the edge of the city, with dirty faces, skinny bones, and full of diseases."

"After working day and night, and being squeezed out of all their value, the factory kicks them away. Next, they will cough up black dust and blood on rotten wooden beds on the street until they die."

"Who wants to live like this?"

"But..." Ghost asked hesitantly and frustrated. "Do I have to join a gang?"

"if not?"

Khalil couldn't help but burst out laughing.

He is no longer as pessimistic as he used to be, but he still has a deep hatred for the current state of the world. This laughter escaped in the cold wind, and it did not appear to be joyful, but instead seemed to be a kind of broken sadness.

"They don't have a choice, Ghost."

Khalil said softly. "Between looking like a human being and living like a pig or dog, they chose the former. We can't criticize this harshly, but we can't forgive them on behalf of those who died in vain."

Yes.

Ghosts know this very well - they cannot forgive on behalf of the dead. No one has this qualification except the deceased himself.

"Therefore, killing is never the best solution to the problem. Even if you kill all the nobles, there will still be gangs."

"And gangs will become new nobles sooner or later. This is a cycle, Ghost. What we have to do is not to join this cycle with killing, but to break it."

"break in?"

"Yes, break." Khalil nodded.

Ghost blinked and then mentioned something they had talked about a long time ago: "So, Khalil, you found that way?"

"I saw the beginnings of it."

Khalil replied gently. "But I don't know how to explain it to you, Ghost. My expression skills are not very good. I can only try my best to describe it to you."

He raised his right hand and spread his palm.

"It's like a flame that has just been ignited. But in this world full of special fuel, it will soon burn the entire world."

Khalil clenched his right hand violently.

"At that time, maybe I won't need to explain this method to you anymore."

Ghost nodded silently, while keeping every word firmly in mind. Some of these words he understood, some had a partial understanding, and some did not understand at all. But his instinct is telling him that you should write it down.

"Besides, since we don't need to work today."

Khalil smiled slightly: "Don't you want a knife of your own?"

The ghost's eyes suddenly lit up.

——

Nostramo is a world rich in adamantine.

In fact, it would even be unfair if you used the prefix rich to describe it. The truth is that Nostramo's crust contains huge amounts of natural gold.

Huge amount.

Therefore, we can say that it is a world wrapped in fine gold.

Of course, like everything else on Nostramo, adamantine was firmly in the hands of the nobles.

They would be used by nobles to trade with the surrounding world, which was an extremely reliable source of income. Nobles would use the gold to amass wealth and exchange it for anything they wanted.

Of course they don't care how many people's blood is stained on these ores.

Jumping, falling, and finally landing, the action is the same as before. Khalil had been through this many times, and this time, something was subtly wrong.

He frowned.

In the past, Khalil was used to making unloading movements and preparations before landing. This time, he did the same.

However, just now, after he landed, his muscles and knees seemed to tell him, you don't have to do this.

You don’t have to be so cautious. They use gentle counter-shock to tell their owners that you are completely different.

what happened?

Everything was normal on the way back to the shelter last night, so why did such a change happen after just one sleep?

Is it some kind of side effect of resurrection that I don't understand? Or is the enhancement from that power not lost?

Is it permanent?

As Khalil thought about it, his brows couldn't help but wrinkle more and more tightly - this feeling of not being able to fully control his body made him very disgusted.

"What's the matter, Khalil?" behind him, the ghost asked.

"."

Khalil didn't answer, just slowly widened his eyes.

He discovered something.

The sense of threat - the sense of threat stemming from the instinct of life that would arise as long as the ghost was behind him disappeared.

"Khalil?"

".I'm fine."

Khalil spoke in a low voice, forcing himself to forget about it for the time being. He raised his hand and pointed to the other end of the ruins: "Remember that mine, Ghost?"

Crouching on the edge of the dilapidated house, Ghost nodded.

Of course he remembered that it was in that mine that he met Khalil.

They were now on the northwest edge of Quintus. The edge of the hive city is a little better than the wilderness outside the city, but only a little better.

There was no electricity, the houses were in disrepair, and no one came here except the miners. The miners don't even live here, they just pass by. They will choose to set up simple tents near the mines as a resting place.

After all, the houses on the edge of the city are very dangerous, so dangerous that there aren't even many rats - most of the rats live in the mines.

You won't want to know why.

"It was abandoned."

Khalil stood up straight and raised his feet to cross a hole that appeared on the top of the house. The surroundings were full of darkness, except for the vague light shining at the entrance to the abandoned mine not far away.

"But, there seems to be someone there." Ghost said in a low voice.

"Of course there are people there."

Khalil replied calmly. "The mines will be abandoned. The gangs and mine owners responsible for transporting the goods can walk away, but the miners cannot."

"But, the mine is abandoned?" Ghost said confused.

"The miners are also abandoned." Kalil turned his head and said.

"."

Ghost pursed his lips, not knowing what to say. Khalil shook his head comfortingly, very gently.

"No need to say anything," he said softly. "How about meeting them? If you're lucky, you might even meet a few people who know you."

The ghost's eyes widened.

First of all, thank you for your support. Thank you very much. I never dreamed of being on the new book list.

Then, please allow me to recommend two Warhammer fanfics.

The first one is Reading Black Library. Some readers may have read this ancient work on a friend's site, but the author moved it to the starting point. This is a book about the originals and Malcador coming to read the Black Library series. I caught the author while surfing in the group yesterday. Now he has not only opened two other new books but also has to type 6k words every day. Jie Jie Jie Jie.

(By the way, this author’s other two books are also on this site)

The second book is The Emperor's Children: Nirvana's Purple Phoenix.

The title is catchy enough, isn't it? The author's writing is solid and his translation accent is strong. Although he is a seedling like me, there are already some interesting signs, so I won't spoil it. If you are interested, please go and take a look.