My Life as A Death Guard (Warhammer 30K Male MC)

Hades stood at the entrance of the shuttle, watching the children undergo their boarding inspections.

They were allowed to bring one or two personal belongings with them.

After two rounds of selection, a little over two thousand had passed the trials.

The total number of applicants for this Death Guard recruitment had been over 2.3 million.

During the recently concluded second round of selection, most successful groups had small factions form early on. These groups used force to prevent looting.

Of course, there were also cases where some children, who had initially stopped looting, later succumbed to hunger and became looters themselves.

In rooms where no one attempted to stop this change, the entire group was eliminated. There was no reason to let them continue suffering.

Some rooms, where conflicts had been rare, saw participants voluntarily withdraw.

A few rare rooms had no conflict at all from beginning to end.

However, in most rooms, chaos took over in the later stages.

Unqualified.

Any child who had actively looted or encouraged others to do so was disqualified.

Conversely, those who had intervened (despite not being directly involved), or had willingly shared their food—even if they withdrew later—were deemed qualified.

The disqualified children would have their memories of the trials erased and be given a week's worth of rations before being sent home.

"...Soil?"

Morag's voice pulled Hades from his thoughts.

Hades turned his gaze to the child in question—ah, it was Antaeus.

Of course, he remembered the boy who had climbed to the mountaintop. His room had been one of the very few where not a single person withdrew during the second round.

The boy was holding a small glass vial filled with... dirt.

Hades was intrigued.

"What are you bringing?"

"Soil, sir," Antaeus answered honestly.

"Why?"

Hades asked.

"I… I heard that once you become a Death Guard, it's very difficult to return to Barbarus."

"So I took some soil from my family's field."

Hades blinked. He reached out and picked up the vial.

Inside, the dark soil of Barbarus shifted slightly.

Hades covered it in a thin layer of Black Domain.

The minuscule traces of psychic energy vanished.

"Alright."

Hades handed the vial back to Antaeus.

"You can bring it with you."

Then, he folded his arms and resumed observing the remaining children as they boarded.

By the time most had entered, Mortarion arrived, having just finished arranging Barbarus' next colonization plan.

Mortarion studied the children, each carrying some small personal item, and seemed deep in thought.

"…We should've let the first ones bring something too."

The first generation of Death Guards had brought nothing personal with them.

Mortarion felt that perhaps they, too, should have been allowed to carry a piece of their past.

Hades shrugged.

"Most of them didn't have anything to bring."

He thought back to his own bare room—aside from essentials, he had nothing of sentimental value.

Imperial gear was much more useful anyway.

"No."

Mortarion said,

"They need to retain their memories of Barbarus."

His scythe, his censer… they constantly reminded him of where he came from.

"Our past struggles shape us, and the Death Guard should remember every hardship."

"Suffering—we pass through it. It wears us down, makes us stronger, and teaches us why we live."

Hades blinked.

"I've already forgotten most of the battles I fought on Barbarus."

"Then maybe you should keep a memento too."

"What would I take? My old eating bowl?"

Hades joked.

"Perhaps something else."

Slowly, Mortarion lifted one of the censers hanging from his armor, releasing a thick cloud of toxic vapor.

He unscrewed the censer and pulled out—

A broken stone.

"What's this?"

Hades stared at the half-stone. It felt eerily familiar.

Mortarion rolled his eyes.

"You really are forgetful."

"Here."

Hades took it. Just a broken rock. The other half was missing.

He activated his Black Domain to sense it—

Holy shit?!

Memories surged back.

This was from the battle where he first awakened to the Black Domain?!

The Xenos Overlord, Lazar!

"You kept this?!" Hades blurted out.

"It's proof that, aside from me, the Death Guard killed their first Xenos Overlord. Why wouldn't I keep it?"

"Besides this, I still have the skull of the first Xenos Overlord, the rib of the first warlord the Southern Rebellion took down together…"

Mortarion said matter-of-factly.

His personal collection was already filled with small trophies commemorating the Death Guard's victories on Barbarus.

And soon, he was sure it would be filled with relics from other war campaigns across the galaxy.

At the moment, he had already secured the skull of the highest ruler of Galaspar in his vault.

Hades gave Mortarion a strange look.

Suddenly, he remembered—though the Endurance had no decorations, Mortarion had ordered every Death Guard battle to be engraved onto the ship's prow.

The Galaspar Campaign was now carved in High Gothic on the Endurance's hull.

—Right. And this was the same Mortarion who stubbornly wielded the scythe of his Xenos foster father.

With mixed emotions, Hades casually tossed the half-stone into his armor's storage compartment.

Come to think of it, a lot of Primarchs seemed to have this habit.

The Imperial Fists had their embroidered tapestry of achievements.

The Blood Angels had their artistic tributes to various campaigns.

Most Primarchs personally collected artifacts symbolizing past battles.

But Mortarion's… had a certain rustic charm to it.

Skulls and rocks, of all things.

"So, how's the migration plan going?"

Hades decided to steer the conversation away and asked.

"Almost done."

Mortarion replied.

"In about one Barbarus standard year, it should be mostly complete."

"There aren't that many people left on Barbarus anyway."

He spoke slowly.

Ever since the Blackstone experiments confirmed the planet's unnatural warp presence, they had decided to relocate most of Barbarus's population to the Ring.

Most of them had already left voluntarily.

That made his job easier—but the fact still disappointed the Primarch.

He had thought that people would choose to stay and temper themselves in hardship.

Meanwhile, Hades was deep in thought.

Once the Death Guard found a solution to Barbarus's environmental issues, real surface construction could finally begin.

He needed to figure out a way…

Perhaps he could experiment with a low-powered Blackstone obelisk.

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