Recorder: Astartes Saraphin Corvain Dark Angels Legion · Master of the Inner Chamber Security Level: High Command Only (Not Submitted)

  When the return data arrived, the Lion did not speak.

  I noticed this, because everyone present was waiting for him to speak. The tactical officer, the Inner Circle attendants, even those Chapter Masters who are usually indifferent to everything—they all stopped.

  Only I did not.

  Because I was looking at the data.

  That was no ordinary battlefield return. The resolution level was forcibly compressed by some higher-order logic, as if the data itself "did not wish" to be fully unfolded. The lead-grey fleet in the image showed no hostility, but made no gestures of goodwill either.

  They just—existed.

  Then, that identification code appeared.

  XVIII-N-01

  Just for an instant, but it was enough.

  My breathing deviated at that moment. Not because of fear, but because of confirmation. Something existing only in ancient eras, existing only deep in our genetic memory, was proven to be still alive.

  The Eighteenth.

  I need no database assistance. I need not consult the Codex. I don't even need to recall. That number is the answer itself.

  I subconsciously turned my head to look at the figure standing before the command dais.

  The Lion still did not move.

  But I saw his hand.

  That hand, once steady as a rock in countless battles, was now pressing on the edge of the terminal, the force precise and restrained. The armor servos gave no warning, the bones did not shift, but I knew—that was not a rexed posture.

  That was an extremely suppressed restraint.

  I suddenly understood why that fleet chose to stop.

  Not because of distance. Not because of tactics.

  But because— They have been seen.

  For such an existence, that is enough.

  I did not ask. Nor did I confirm with the Lion.

  Because I knew, if he turned his head now, it would not be the transmission of an order, but the moment a piece of history is allowed to continue existing.

  The only thing I did was issue an extremely short instruction to the Inner Chamber vox channel:

  "Raise record security level. Delete all unnecessary observation copies. This is not something for us to understand."

  I stood back at his fnk.

  As we always have.

  【Words Not in the Record】 Some things, Are seen. But not acknowledged.

  Some existences, Need no permission from history.