Chapter 532: The Origin of the Big Yōkai
The cave was full of three-eyed mutants coming and going, each going about their daily practice, which really meant meditating and controlling Warp energy.
At heart, a Navigator was a psyker, and one with a very high affinity for the Warp.
With proper teaching handed down to them, Navigators kept their Warp powers stable and didn't go haywire the way Silentium did.
Of course, staring into the Warp for long periods inevitably brought some corruption.
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer led Kian into a stone chamber, laid out tea and cakes, and carefully set them in front of Kian himself.
Kian glanced at him and suddenly slapped the stone table.
"HOW DARE YOU!!"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer jumped so hard he nearly dropped his teacup.
In that moment, he remembered everything the old texts said about how brutal Inquisitors were.
He asked shakily, "M... my lord, have I somehow been remiss?"
Kian said nothing for a long time. Finally he squeezed out: "I haven't figured out what to nitpick yet."
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer was speechless, but the old monk slapped the stone table and shouted:
"The Inquisitor can't find anything wrong with you! That's the biggest problem of all!"
Kian's eyes lit up. Oh, you can think about it that way?
"Yes, yes, exactly! I can't find a problem, and that's your biggest problem!
"Explain! Why aren't trash cans allowed to have trash in them? Why aren't people allowed to sleep on the beds? Why can't you use the bathroom after lights out?!"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer was quick on his feet and answered at once:
"We are loyal to the Imperium and to the Emperor. Day and night we long for the Imperium's heavenly host to return!"
Kian demanded again, "Explain! Why do blankets have to be folded into perfect tofu blocks? Why aren't we allowed to turn on the AC when it's boiling hot? Why is there never any hot water in the school water heater?!"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer answered, "Our house has 243 members in all. Eighty-seven of them are young, strong, and entirely free of Warp taint.
"They've studied the art of navigation since childhood and can bring a warship out of the most violent Warp storms!"
Kian demanded again, "Explain! Why can't hair be longer than a finger's width? Why can you only top up a hundred on your cafeteria card at a time? Why can't you bring snacks in your schoolbag?!"
"All of our Navigator house's old texts are kept in our library, including Warp rites for cursing people to death. As long as my lord lets our young people board warships and navigate for them, and fulfil their life's purpose, I will pledge our whole house's loyalty to you, my lord!"
Kian immediately stood up and warmly clasped the Three-Eyed Sorcerer's hands, his eyes misty.
"Damn, you're a loyal subject! A truly, truly loyal subject! When the Imperial army shows up (the Emperor's, that is), there'll be rewards galore for you!"
And so the two sides completed their handshake with remarkable efficiency, and Kian gained the loyalty of a Navigator house.
For these Navigators, the whole meaning of life was guiding warships into and out of the Warp.
But because of the Great Forgetting and the planet's disappearance, this world's Navigator house hadn't sent a single young member out among the stars to guide a warship in more than three hundred years.
The young Navigators of the Three-Eyed Sorcerer's house were each emptier than the last. Many of them would end up like their elders, dying of old age without ever setting foot on a warship or fulfilling their life's calling.
But then Kian had come, the Imperium might return, and the Three-Eyed Sorcerer's house could finally take up its calling again and guide warships into and out of the Warp!
It was a match made in heaven, both sides running toward each other.
After that, the conversation was far friendlier. Kian took a sip of tea and asked:
"As a Navigator house, do you know where this planet is located?"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer nodded, dipped a finger in his tea, and wrote a string of numbers on the stone table.
"My lord, these numbers are our planet's position. But this is where it was more than three hundred and eighty years ago.
"Where our planet is now, or whether it's even still in realspace, is hard to say."
Kian memorized the string of numbers, then pressed him about what exactly was going on with the planet now.
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer said:
"Right now our planet is shrouded in a thick Warp fog. The fog is so thick we can't even see the light of the Astronomican on Terra!"
The Astronomican was the beacon the Emperor had lit with his psychic power on Terra, which was to say, Earth.
It worked like the searchlight on a seaside lighthouse, letting ships at sea know where the shore was.
As long as a Navigator could see the Astronomican's light, he could fix his position and guide a warship the right way.
But now the Three-Eyed Sorcerer was saying their planet was wrapped in such thick fog that they couldn't even see the Astronomican. That was very strange indeed.
Kian thought for a while, then went on:
"Do you know what the Big Yōkai actually are? Are they Warp daemons?"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer nodded, then shook his head.
"Over the last three hundred years, our ancestors studied the Big Yōkai.
"They found that every autumn and winter, the Big Yōkai crawl out of every corner from out of nowhere and eat people.
"But in spring and summer, they vanish without a trace. Even when the daimyō send soldiers into the mountains to search, they can't find the caves where the Big Yōkai hide. It's as if they simply appear in this world out of thin air.
"Our ancestors once captured a Big Yōkai and imprisoned it, to see what would happen to it when spring and summer came."
Kian's interest was piqued.
"What happened?"
The Three-Eyed Sorcerer sighed.
"It melted. As soon as spring came, the Big Yōkai's body melted away on its own and left behind the skeleton of an ordinary human.
"As it melted, the Big Yōkai gave off a kind of..."
He weighed his words.
"A kind of grudge. A human grudge, desperately hungry and terrified!"
He fell silent, and Kian sank into thought as well.
After a long while, the old monk sitting beside Kian said:
"Our Ecclesiarchy has its own theory about where the Big Yōkai come from. The most widely held view is that the Big Yōkai are demons formed when the resentment of commoners who starved to death gathers Warp energy to itself.
"These demons come out to eat people in autumn and winter because, throughout the Eastrise Dynasty's history, the great famines and mass deaths have mostly come in autumn and winter.
"And the Big Yōkai vanish on their own in spring and summer because that's the busy farming season, and the Big Yōkai, being the souls of farmers, want to go home and farm.
"Let the common folk farm, and all their resentment goes away.
"So when early spring comes and everything comes back to life, the Big Yōkai's souls instinctively think they can go home and farm, and they fade away and stop eating people..."
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