"Alright, I've told you the direction to solve the problem, so why are you still sitting there?" Swain asked, a little confused.
Logically speaking, with the solution to the FTL travel conundrum, all that remained was to let time take its course. The Emperor should be very satisfied with this harvest.
"The problem of FTL travel has been solved," the Emperor said, looking at Swain with anticipation, "Has the problem of inter-stellar domain travel also been solved in the future?"
Good heavens, he's treating me like a search engine, isn't he?
"You're probably dreaming. Being able to solve one problem is already the galaxy favoring the human race enough. It's the humans themselves who aren't up to par. As for the problem of inter-stellar domain communication, that really hasn't been solved in the short term. Or there's the issue of information leakage, which I don't recommend using." Swain thought carefully and realized there might actually be a temporary alternative.
"Tell me about it. It might not be usable, and even if it is, we have to consider the cost. Perhaps it could even lead to other insights," the Emperor said. He hadn't expected there to be a solution, and this harvest far exceeded his expectations.
"Corax is truly my lucky star." The Emperor's inner satisfaction with his 19th son grew, and the matter of the power whip he had used to trick him earlier had long been thrown to the back of his mind.
"Pharos." Swain uttered the name of a strange device.
"Are you talking about the Necrons' Pharos that eventually attracted the Tyranids?" The Emperor frowned after searching for the name.
Pharos was a large communication node of the Necrons. With the Necrons' communication technology, solving inter-stellar domain communication was indeed not a problem.
But just as Swain said, there was a possibility of information exposure. This would mean exposing all of a nation's important communications without reservation to the Necrons, even though this race would only gradually awaken ten thousand years later.
Most importantly, it was during the Great Heresy that Guilliman activated Pharos, which then attracted the Tyranids that would later sweep across the entire galaxy.
One can only say this is very Warhammer. To solve the current problem, one can only pay a more painful price in the future. It's just that the cost of Pharos is indeed too great, to the point where the entire galaxy can hardly bear it.
"Useless Astronomican, always flickering out!" Swain internally complained about the Astronomican built by the Emperor.
The Astronomican, a magnificent structure through which the Emperor declared war on countless xenos in the galaxy. It brightly announced to the entire galaxy, "I am here, come and fight me if you dare. What's with the Dark Forest theory? Not only do I not play it, I will uproot the entire forest for you."
Swain felt this was very inspiring, very powerful, very Waaagh! It would be even more perfect if all Imperial ships within the galaxy didn't go blind when this thing went out.
Yes, the Astronomican had an incredibly important function: to provide coordinates for ships traveling through the Warp across the galaxy, letting them know where they were, just as how exciting it was for lost ships navigating the ancient seas to see the guiding light of a lighthouse.
The drawback was that if the Astronomican went out, everyone in the Imperium would know that something monumental had happened, that the Emperor was in trouble. The Astronomican was closely linked to the Emperor; only the Emperor's psychic power could possess such immense strength to penetrate through layers of mist, allowing the Navigators of the Imperium of Man to observe the Astronomican's light.
"No, the Necrons are only dormant, not completely dead. This would be like stripping the Imperium bare and handing it over to the Necrons." The Emperor shook his head, rejecting this method.
"For now, let's just make do with Astropathic communication," Swain also disagreed with using that thing.
"What are your thoughts on religion?" Now it was the Emperor's turn to be the question-asker.
"You'll get a clearer answer if you ask your future self about this. Anyway, I've decided: left hand, 'Imperial Truth,' right hand, 'Book of Saintly Words,'" Swain said straightforwardly to the Emperor.
The "Imperial Truth" advocated science and rationality. The Emperor intended to use the "Imperial Truth" to weaken the Four Gods of the Warp, but ideals were full, reality was bony.
When the Great Heresy broke out, even Horus, who was merely blessed by the Four Gods, gravely wounded the Emperor, forcing him onto the Golden Throne. Where was the "Imperial Truth's" weakening effect on them? If that was the case, why would Swain still believe in this stuff? He might as well fast-forward to version 2.0. Considering the Emperor had always promoted this, he still had to give him some face.
His main point was flexibility.
"As for the matter of religion, use it if you want, don't if you don't. Anyway, the Ecclesiarchy will eventually appear, whether you're standing or sitting; it's just a matter of time." Swain finished speaking and said no more on the matter. Some things, he couldn't just state the pros and cons; the Emperor had to decide them himself, and he was too lazy to worry about it.
"Is there anything else? If not, I'm leaving. If you like this room, then it's yours. It's perfectly fine to keep it exactly as it is." Swain said, ready to bolt. He had a premonition that if he didn't run now, this incredibly flexible fellow in front of him would find trouble for him.
As for whether studying the Battle Moon would break the Emperor's previous prohibition on researching xenos technology, Swain didn't care about any of that.
As long as the Emperor willed it, even Orks could be categorized as abhumans. It was just a word from him. Paint over other xenos technology in the various Legions, brand it with the Imperial Aquila, and it became loyal human technology. These were all unspoken secrets.
"Huh? Open the door! Open the door!!!" Swain, who had already reached the door, looked at the room engulfed in gold and desperately hammered the golden psychic shield with his hands. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, the psychic shield remained unmoving.
Ah!!!!
"Speak up if you have something to say, or fart if you have to, don't play deaf and mute!" Swain furiously returned to his sofa and threw himself heavily into it, yelling at the Emperor.
"Help me find some of the lost Primarchs. We need to speed up; I'm too slow on my own," the Emperor said.
"Oh, if you're talking about that, I'm all ears! I want to establish my own Second Imperium." The first thing that came to Swain's mind was that ambitious Second Imperium. The members of the Second Imperium, when it was established, were incredibly diverse.
Emperor, Regent, Lord Protector, Assassin... and a charred human figure.
"Second Imperium?" The Emperor frowned.
"It doesn't matter. Power isn't a very important thing to me." The Emperor's brow relaxed after sifting through his memories. Existence was reasonable; whatever the original intentions of those few Primarchs, it hadn't happened yet, had it?