The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Seeing Roqiim, Soshyan was genuinely annoyed. After all, anyone would be irritated at being disturbed at a time like that. Fortunately, Roqiim, after entering, first apologized, saying he shouldn't have listened to Isvin's nonsense and bothered Soshyan in the middle of the night. Then, he explained that he had his reasons, and poured out all his grievances about being 'enslaved' by Veronica's pet cat.

“Heh, so that's what all the commotion was that night.”

Soshyan was quite surprised. He didn't expect this brainy cat to be so powerful. Roqiim had fought against Chaos Space Marines and even a Daemon Prince without suffering any losses, yet he was being manipulated like this.

“What, can't even handle a cat?”

Roqiim scratched his head.

“I just don't know its origins and was afraid of accidentally hurting it.”

“What, are you implying that I'm sheltering it and letting it cause you trouble?”

“No, no, no——”

Soshyan crossed his hands over his abdomen, leaned back in his large office chair, and said in an annoyed tone:

“Veronica will be going to the Brakato system with me, and she'll take her cat with her. You won't have any trouble for the time being.”

“The Emperor be praised!”

Roqiim immediately raised his hands and cheered happily.

“Is that all? Don't cause any more trouble while I'm gone. Honestly do your job. I know Ustad can't control you, so you have to control yourself. Don't you have your own little business in the hive? If there's nothing going on in the Chapter, go take care of your own things. The galaxy is a mess right now, and danger is everywhere. You won't always be so lucky.”

Soshyan's words were quite earnest. Roqiim might not necessarily be his helper, but he was one of the few people he could truly call a friend.

Roqiim nodded vigorously.

“I understand.”

Seeing the other party's shifty eyes, Soshyan knew that he had probably spoken in vain, but that was Roqiim's personality. He didn't know if it was a strength or a weakness.

“Oh, right, Chapter Master.”

Seeing Roqiim suddenly lean his head forward with a cheeky expression, Soshyan knew that he was definitely up to no good, and immediately interrupted him:

“Don't say it. Get out if there's nothing else.”

“Hey, brother, I'm just curious, why twins aren't, you wouldn't be planning to have another kid, would you?”

Soshyan didn't answer him, just stared at him coldly.

A few seconds later, Roqiim jumped up from the chair.

“I forgot I have my ant beef in the pressure cooker. I'll go take care of it now, Chapter Master, goodbye!”

Just as Roqiim was about to walk out the door, Soshyan suddenly stopped him.

“Wait a moment.”

Then, a servo-skull flew out from the shrine on the wall. It wobbled over to a bookshelf, and after scanning it, the bookshelf door opened. The servo-skull's lower jaw extended a mechanical arm, grabbed a parchment scroll with writing on it, and returned to Soshyan, placing the parchment down.

“Chapter Master, what's the matter?”

Roqiim turned around, cautiously looking at the other party.

Soshyan picked up the pen next to him and quickly wrote a line on the parchment scroll. Then, he took out two different-sized encrypted seals from a hidden compartment that rose from the desk and stamped them on it.

“I've been thinking, to prevent you from causing trouble for Ustad later, you shouldn't stay in the Chapter either.”

“Hey, hey, hey! I was wrong, I was wrong! Brother, you——”

Roqiim thought Soshyan was going to kick him out, and quickly walked over, clasping his hands together and bowing to beg for mercy, but Soshyan raised his head and glared at him.

“I'm finding something for you to do!”

As he said this, he threw the parchment scroll to Roqiim, who frantically caught it and looked at it——

“'Hereby appoint Roqiim Prime, Senior Attendant of the Astral Knights, as the Highest Administrative Officer of the North-A14 Administrative District of Naisen Five' !?”

Roqiim put down the letter of appointment, looking at Soshyan in astonishment.

“Chapter Master, this is——”

“Don't you always complain that your position is too low? This time I'm giving you a high-level position. This administrative district is a famous city on Naisen Five. In the past, it used to be a huge swamp, and because it was inhabited by a large number of amphibious beasts called 'dog-crocodiles', it was initially called Crocodile Town. Because its complex terrain and relatively abundant water resources were very suitable for growing certain illegal plants prohibited by the Department of Justice, it quickly attracted a group of illegal drug manufacturers to settle here, and they continued to expand this industry, eventually forming the chaotic place with a population of over 500,000 that it is today, also known as Crocodile City.”

“Crocodile City? Sounds a bit interesting.”

“In this place, which is full of all kinds of crimes, the Department of Justice has repeatedly raided it, but the drug lords here have formed a close chain of interests with the upper echelons of Naisen Five. The so-called raids are only superficial. The mayor there is usually held in rotation by representatives of various major forces. Although there are also administrative institutions belonging to the Governor's Office and they pay taxes, the main source of economic income has always been the continuous supply of large amounts of contraband drugs to the surrounding hive cities and towns. I originally wanted to order the direct eradication of that place, but considering that there are tens of thousands of people living there after all, and more importantly, in the last hundred years or so, it seems that some forces have gradually monopolized the illegal drug market there, and most of the drug lords have a mysterious 'big boss' above them. The Department of Justice has been investigating for decades, and even used psychic interrogation methods, but they haven't been able to find out who this mysterious 'big boss' is. The nobles also want to protect their illegal interests and cover up this matter.”

As he said this, Soshyan smiled slightly.

“Don't you always say that you have great abilities? Then this time I'll give you this task: to promote the various reforms I've issued in this Crocodile City, and to eliminate the illegal drug manufacturing industry in Crocodile City, and to find out the mastermind behind the scenes, as well as those nobles and bureaucrats who are colluding with him.”

“Ah?”

Roqiim immediately looked embarrassed, and scratched his neck with his hand.

“Chapter Master, cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents. You're basically asking me to fight with hundreds of thousands of drug lords, not to mention a bunch of nobles and stuff. By the way, what's the environment like there?”

“Actually, it's not bad. The climate is pleasant, the people are simple, and it can even be said to be one of the few places on Naisen Five that still maintains the original ecological environment of the planet. It's also one of the few flat cities, and commerce is quite developed, like the gambling industry, the pornography industry, and so on.”

“Then, then that sounds pretty good!”

Roqiim rubbed his hands excitedly like a fly seeing food.

“Chapter Master, you, you really want me to be the mayor?”

“Doesn't it say so? Did you think what I wrote was farting?”

“Uh, I mean, just, just go like that?”

Soshyan raised an eyebrow.

“What, do you want me to send a company to escort you? Or give you a tank battalion? Or give you a regiment? Just go to the kitchen and pick out eighteen cooks and bring your animal friends, that's enough. You're not even afraid of a Daemon Prince, where's that spirit of yours that says you can roam the galaxy and all the ghosts and monsters should get out of your way? Be confident, these little pests definitely won't be able to stop you.”

The Record of Old Roqiim as an Official will be presented in the form of bonus chapters and will not appear in the main text.