Chapter 2: Gift
Wayne stood atop his residential tower, and below was the city sprawling beneath him in eternal shadow. He held little Konrad at his side, and the two silently gazed out at the broken world below.
Konrad heard it: cries, begging, death, atrocities, children's wails carried through the darkness, just outside Wayne's residential territory border.
'So close,' Little Konrad thought, so close unspeakable was happening, and he could do nothing; it was a constant reminder of the atrocities that unfolded in Nostramo's depths. Yet his father Wayne, beside him, remained still, unmoved by the cries. Konrad knew his father felt emotions; he felt sympathy, but he never showed it in front of anyone, and that worried him.
Six months old. That was Konrad's age, just six months, and already, Konrad looked like a four-year-old boy, even better than any 4 year old boy.
Primarchs grew according to their own logic, not Wayne's expectations. He had anticipated Konrad's rapid development, but nothing had prepared him for this pace. The child outgrew his estimates in both mind and body with each passing week.
Wayne smiled as he watched the half-grown child, then casually lifted him higher in his arms. Soon enough, he wouldn't be able to enjoy this warmth anymore.
"Father." Konrad cutely struggled against his grip, irritation flashing across his little dark eyes. "Stop it," he cutely said with the most serious expression he could make.
Wayne sighed. had his son already become too old for this? Was he going through a rebellious phase so early? 'Sigh~, how quickly time passes, six months ago you were in my palm, and now...you are already reaching my waist.'
"Haaah~" Wayne gently lowered himself and set the Primarch down on the marble floor. He looked at Konrad and spoke.
"Konrad, I have arranged a noble gathering for you; almost everyone you would engage in business with when you grew up is here. This is a brilliant opportunity for you to establish yourself in the noble society of Nostramo. So, why are you not interested?"
Disgust flickered across the boy's face. He knew exactly what those gatherings meant, the decadent sons and daughters of the fallen houses, dressed in ostentatious finery like preening, pretentious peacocks.
By nightfall, they would indulge in vice or turn their cruelty downward, hunting the lower-class residents for sport. Konrad had never shown them anything but contempt.
"You know why I don't like them. I've never liked those nobles. They have no humanity, they are pretentious, self-entitled, delusional, sadistic bastards, not human beings you spend your time with."
Wayne looked at his little boy, looked at that pure expression of disgust, not even anger, no, just disgust borne by a child. He stayed silent, considering his words.
Wayne only wanted to see the child he'd raised grow up to be a man who could be proud of himself, his deeds, his name. He had feared that Nostramo would corrupt Konrad as it corrupted everything else, including him, that the boy would become like the rest of them, another aristocratic predator lost in his own twisted ideals.
Now, watching him, Wayne could see that it hadn't happened. The world's poison hadn't taken hold. Though the time was short, he could never be more careful, not on this godforsaken planet.
As a father of a miracle, he needed to understand what truly burned in his son's heart.
Wayne put his hand on Konrad's shoulder, holding firmly yet gently, and brought him closer, and spoke like a mentor testing his heir.
"Look, Konrad...This city is yours; the city's people are yours; everything here is yours. The people down there are merely slaves...Why feel sympathy for slaves?"
The boy didn't answer immediately. He looked up at Wayne, silent, considering. Then sympathy flickered in those dark eyes. Wayne saw his son's faith literally manifest in his eyes, a Primarch's instinct made manifest.
"No. People are people, we are humans, humans should not be slaves."
Wayne smiled slightly. There it was. The Primarch's core nature laid bare: no innate cruelty or contempt toward the weak, yet an instinctive drive to resist tyranny, a passion that burned in his eyes with all the faith of a child.
His son wanted to change this broken world. His son wanted to bring a new order, a new era, a peaceful world. Wayne wanted the same, once He had also burned with that desire.
If Konrad possessed the same resolve to defy this world's nature to stand up against him at such a young age, then as a primarch, he also possessed the resolve to save this world.
Nostramo had forgotten mercy and justice a thousand years ago; now, perhaps, only children born in this pit of despair had any innocence, any purity.
He'd dreamed of giving the little Primarch a better world, something like what Roboute lived under. But to survive on Nostramo, to become a noble here, required becoming more ruthless than ordinary people.
Mercy was the beginning of tragedy...he'd learned that lesson well, watching his parents die for their kindness, and himself changing into this cruel filth of a human...
"Haaah~~" Wayne took a deep breath. Ever since Konrad came, he had been living too much in the past.
"You want to save this world? So, you want to be the saviour, the liberator, the bringer of a new dawn, Hmm?" Wayne asked, his tone calm.
Little Konrad looked at his father's eyes, a little taken aback by such a firm question from his usual gentle father. "I just...I just want to save everyone out there, those innocent people dont deserve to live under such unfairness, such cruelty. I seek no glory, Father, I just want to...save those who can't save themselves."
Wayne spoke, "My son, the innocent people here you wish to save have long forgotten what kindness, kinship, and mercy mean. This civilization has abandoned the concept of any society. How will you save it?"
The young Primarch answered without hesitation. "With Power, like you. Through tyranny and fear?"
"That's not saving. That's enslavement. No difference than what it is now."
"But they will live in a good world, a better world, they will have food, clothes, a home, a family, the society would be a society with law and order, it would be far better than what it is now."
"What about you? " Wayne asked, standing up, "Son, you can be infinitely stronger than me, in wealth, influence, power, you will go way beyond what I will ever go in 10 lifetimes, Konrad."
"Listen, Son, if anyone can bring true liberation to this forsaken world, it's you, true liberation, not some trynnaical fake order. No, a real world, real society, ruling this world or building a galactic empire would be effortless for you."
Wayne paused. He walked toward the edge of the high tower, drawing Konrad with him. They sat together on the railing, looking out at the city of eternal night.
"Surpass me, son."
"Surpass?" Konrad frowned. "What's the difference from being stronger than you?"
"Being stronger than me is merely walking my path further. But to surpass me, that means proving there's another way. That you can do what I couldn't. Transform a civilization. Change human hearts. Bring back law and mercy. Turn this cesspit into something worth saving." Wayne turned to face his son. "That's the hardest part. That's what surpassing means."
"I can." Konrad's voice carried absolute conviction. "I will bring it back."
Wayne turned as Adelaine approached with the meal. He gestured at the spread she carried. "Enough heavy talk, before that annoying party, let's eat something good. If you're young and didn't grow up properly, how can you save this world? You'll need strength for what comes next, and I have a gift prepared for you."
"What gift?" Konrad asked.
"You'll know soon."
Wayne knew his son, this boy who looked barely past childhood yet carried the weight of a Primarch's mind.
Konrad had heard the stories, the whispers about what Wayne truly was, how he'd clawed his way from nothing using gang wars and blood, how he maintained his youth through expensive life-extension treatments. How he'd spent forty years reclaiming everything he'd lost after his parents were murdered.
His butler had been with him longer than almost anyone. An orphan he'd taken in, raised himself.
She'd served him for seventeen years with a loyalty that was rare anywhere, rarer still on Nostramo. Her eyes, Konrad saw, held more than professional duty, a desire that his father also saw, but Wayne had never asked her to speak it aloud.
Some things were better left unspoken, and better felt between them like this.
Wayne sat at the table and cut into his steak. "Have the books arrived?" He paused to sip expensive wine. "Or will they in a few days?"
"What books?" Konrad asked. "Aren't you buying weapons?"
Wayne's knife stopped. He looked at his son. "Weapons? No. It's your textbooks."
"Huh?"
"You see, I didn't get much formal education or any for that matter. I climbed through the gang wars, fought my way up here, a violent life I lived with no peace of mind." Wayne cut another piece of meat.
"You, my son, shouldn't repeat my past. You should have the right to learn."
"What kind of books are there?" Konrad asked, trying to speak around a chunk of meat far too big for his tiny mouth. His cheeks puffed as he chewed, oil and bits of meat smearing across his lips.
Adelaine reached for a clean corner of the napkin and gently wiped the grease and crumbs from around his mouth, careful not to interrupt his enthusiastic eating.
"All kinds. The first shipment will include 500 volumes, with more to follow. I'm building you a Library, Konrad. Everything in it. And you'll have the freedom to use it however you see fit. Isn't that what you want? To prove there are other paths?"
Konrad's defiant nature emerged. "I will. I'll prove there are other ways."
"Good. Eat your food first, then we'll talk."
"You too, you haven't eaten yours either."
Wayne looked at the stubborn Primarch before him, then picked up his vegetables and ate. Konrad imitated him, eating his own meal.
Adelaine sat in the middle, Wayne's left and Konrads' right, watching the two, one large and one small, eat in companionable silence.
This father and son were more like friends than father and son. Wayne had always taught Konrad to speak freely, to hide nothing from him. A son should not conceal his thoughts from his father, and Wayne had sworn he would never treat the boy with unnecessary strictness.
He'd given Konrad kindness and trust, raising him as a true father should, offering the best he could provide.
After the meal finished, Adelaine stepped forward with a report. "Master Wayne, here's what you requested."
Wayne nodded and took the holopad. He saw the message confirming the Library infrastructure was complete, the building, the outside grounds, everything he'd commissioned was done as per his expectations.
He set it aside and turned to Konrad. "My first gift to you is your own personal Library. Everything in it, including the land, belongs to you."
It was priceless, a personal fiefdom, given freely.
"I don't want it," Konrad said.
"Hmm? Wayne looked at Konrad in confusion, "But you just did,"
Konrad said stubbornly, "I want you to share it with everyone, unless you share the Library with others. Share it with everyone in the city."
Wayne and Adelaine tilted their heads, genuinely confused. Konrad was just moments ago talking so maturely, and now he was making such a genuinely stupid request.
Wayne and Adelaine looked at each other, saying the same thing to each other through their eyes. 'He is still a child.'
Wayne nodded slowly. This was Konrad's first real step toward changing this world. The six-month-old Primarch was even innocent in ways ordinary children could never be.
But he would need to see more of Nostramo's tragedies to understand honestly. He would need to witness what people did to each other, to know human nature in all its darkness and light.
Only experience would bring him clarity and wisdom. Only then would he be able to truly save this planet.
"As you wish. Execute Konrad's idea, Adelaine. Arrange more security. I don't want anything to happen to him."
"Yes, sir."
[End of Chapter]
AUTHOR'S NOTE
So my dear battle-brothers and sisters, how is it? Are you enjoying the ride so far?
If you are, then do me a solid and add this fanfic to your collection! Bookmark it, follow it, whatever the cogitators allow - just keep it on your radar because there's MOREEEE coming your way. Trust me, we're just getting started with this crusade.
And seriously, keep yourself healthy, okay? The Emperor protects, but even the mightiest Space Marine needs rest and proper sustenance. Don't burn yourself out binge-reading these chronicles at 3 AM... though I totally understand if you do.
Stay strong, stay loyal.
FOR THE EMPEROR!