How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 299: Fabrication.jpg
The Chief Think Tank asked with a mixture of nervousness, uneasiness, and several other negative emotions: "I have to ask you how you realized this."

"That's not hard to guess. There are only a few reasons to avoid having a deep conversation with someone who is important to you—"

"That's not what I meant." Mephiston was choked by the fact that the other party had grasped the point incorrectly at the first time. This interruption did not relieve his emotions in any sense. "How did you find out that I was 'carrying something'?"

At this moment, he combined some previously known information and made some wrong associations: "Could it be that the person in the church has discovered——"

"——He didn't tell me this, but I believe he must have known about it for a long time." Fujimaru Ritsuka promptly cut off the other party's path that was causing his thoughts to slide all the way to the abyss. "In a sense, after completing the transformation surgery, each of you will at least have a slight resonance with the soul of Sanguinius under the influence of the base contract. Moreover, the one in the church can also be seen as being called by the blood of the Blood Angels. Most of the things that happened to you are unlikely to be hidden from him. From his point of view, your problem must be obvious. But since Sanguinius has already set a good example, your problem doesn't seem so strange."

Mephiston had to pause and digest this for a few seconds. There was too much information revealed in it for the Chief Think Tank to study in depth, but he chose to ask the question he was most concerned about first: "So, how did you know?"

Having once again failed miserably in his attempt to "change the subject", Fujimaru Ritsuka had no choice but to provide some facts in the most general form possible: "Actually, my inspiration is very low. I didn't discover this myself. I just have some other... um, 'auxiliary means of observation'."

This "auxiliary observation method" that secretly delivered little secrets to Fujimaru Ritsuka can now be generally located "under the table". Sometimes the Master of Chaldea would also wonder if his shadow was regarded as a portal to another dimension by the Count of Monte Cristo. But it seems that for this Avenger, something that Mephiston restrained with his own will almost had the two words "same kind" written on his face.

The Chief Librarian felt uneasy and desperate about this answer. It was never a good experience to have a major secret that was not only related to himself but also to the entire chapter exposed, even if the throne envoy who exposed this fact did not seem to have any intention of taking any action against the chapter. But at this moment, his reason told him that his feelings and opinions on this matter were not so important. Now Mephiston was still able to think calmly and ask questions step by step: "When did you discover this? And to what extent do you know about it?"

"I was told about this when we first met in front of the gate of the Arax Angel Fortress." Fujimaru Ritsuka's answer made Mephiston a little overwhelmed, because he had no way to understand Fujimaru Ritsuka's logic based on the information he already had. "I fully understand that every outstanding think tank may have one or two unique skills, and these skills sometimes do not seem very safe. I also believe that your warband must know about your situation to a certain extent. Since you are still the chief think tank, it would be very rude for me, a complete outsider, to question this in public."

Mephiston realized that: first, the Imperial Saint should not have intended to investigate this in detail; second, she seemed to have directly observed the outcome of the incident in some form, which led her to subtly misunderstand the actual situation.

He was unsure whether he should tell the whole story. Judging from the other party's attitude, it was obvious that just skipping the topic was an option. Fujimaru Ritsuka had not delved into his "dark little problem" before, so it was highly likely that she would not dwell on it in the future. As she said, even if she had done a great favor to all the angel descendants, she was still an outsider to the Blood Angels Chapter after all. It was more appropriate to leave a certain degree of blank between the two sides in advance, but a small part of Mephiston's heart still tried to convince himself that perhaps he should ask the other party what she "saw" in him.

The Blood Angels' Chief Librarian still had doubts about the series of illusions he had seen before, and he was well aware that the abnormal destructive power he was carrying was likely to lead to some destructive consequences. Even after he crossed his Rubicon, the power of the "Black Angel" attached to him (let's call it that) had been effectively controlled, and his body and mind, which had been fully strengthened by the Great Sage Cawl, had become a new solid cage, firmly locking the violent energy in his soul in his body, and allowing him to use it at will when needed, but Mephiston still had lingering fears about the days before that when he had to fight the killing and madness in his soul day and night, and even locked himself in the psychic prison in the deepest part of the Alchemical Sphere.

He thought he needed to know what made him special, but this question was not as urgent and necessary as before - at least it was not worth asking Mephiston to risk dragging the entire regiment into the water. These two conflicting ideas fought in his mind, and the direct manifestation was "Mephiston was silent for two seconds." Fujimaru Ritsuka might have misunderstood something in these two seconds, because she then added:
"I don't know what you're thinking, but you don't have to worry too much. Although the manifestation is a bit... extreme, I can easily see that this technique does not contain any heresy in essence. If you choose a difficult person to perform necromancy, the result will indeed make it seem like you are walking on a tightrope all the time. This is-"

"Wait a minute." Mephiston realized that some answers were within his grasp, and he couldn't bear to let them slip away. "Are you saying that what happened to me could be considered a 'necromancy'?"

This time it was Fujimaru Ritsuka's turn to be interrupted. He was silent for two seconds with a blank look on his face: "...You mean this is not...uh...the result of you executing the spell with your own will, right?"

Mephiston was not interested in details, choosing to emphasize the facts that were relevant only to him: "So, you do think this is a kind of 'necromancy'."

Thinking about it carefully, this result makes sense. In his illusion at the junction of life and death, he did have such a memory of "the black angel possessing him and merging with him", but he was not sure whether it was actually what happened or a metaphor or general image of reality. In addition, this is a bit too different from Mephiston's original understanding of "séance". "That's right, and you really need to have a good talk with Sanguinius about this matter. You should know without me mentioning that if you use yourself as a carrier to perform a séance, your mind is more likely to be affected by the spirit that descends into reality through your own body." Fujimaru Ritsuka warned seriously, "I know from the files of the Inquisition that the name you used before the Second Armageddon War was not 'Mephiston' - if you suddenly decided to change your name because you gained other powers through the séance, I have to say that this is really a bad move."

Any educated psyker would know the importance of a name, but Mephiston still retorted: "Callistarius was already dead at that time. From the moment I rose from the ruins of the battlefield, I realized that I was someone else: another person named 'Mephiston'."

"If you retain the name 'Callistarius' in form - never mind, it's been so long, and there's no point in reviewing this now." Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed, frowned, and began to think about something. He obviously swallowed the words he hadn't said before asking, "Do you have a clear idea of ​​what spirit you have been possessed by, or what has forcibly possessed you?"

Mephiston glanced at Sigismund who was silent on the side without leaving a trace, weighed the pros and cons for a while, and then spoke: "I think it is very likely the embodiment of my chapter's curse."

After reading the records of the conversation between the Chapter Master and the Imperial Saint at the banquet, the Chief Think Tank was sure that neither the Red Thirst nor the Black Rage was a secret to Fujimaru Ritsuka. As he expected, the latter sighed and gave a rather optimistic prediction: "I had a rough guess. If this is the case, then the good news is that I think as Sanguinius gradually integrates his soul, the black part of the Angel Bloodline Curse should be alleviated; but there is also bad news, the spirit attached to you and Sanguinius will probably gradually weaken."

If this power that did not belong to him and even made him tremble with fear for countless days and nights would be weakened, then Mephiston certainly had nothing to be reluctant about. Even if the final result was that he had to step down from the position of think tank director and go back to being an ordinary editor, he would be very willing. But Sanguino...?
"What does this have to do with the living saint?" he couldn't help but ask.

"First, let me correct a wording. Sanguinius should have never been a 'human' from the beginning to the end. I am sure that he is a complete Warp creature, an entity pieced together by the regrets of Sanguinius' own death, the unfulfilled instructions to his descendants, the long-term beliefs and anecdotes passed down by word of mouth of the Chapter, and the strong hopes of some deceased angel descendants. To be precise, he does not have any definite 'prototype'. He is a completely imaginary creature formed by the Blood Angels' belief in 'angelic virtues' for thousands of years." Fujimaru Ritsuka said, "Secondly, I think the one in you should be essentially the same as him, just reverse the concept. In short, the connection between this and our topic is that in the process of Sanguinius recasting his broken soul, he needs some 'glue' to fill in the parts that he cannot find back, and these two are undoubtedly a convenient resource for him in the sense of mysticism - of course, I can't be 100% sure whether he will use this 'resource'."

She paused, picked up the cup again, and gave Mephiston some time to think and prove. But before she successfully put down the cup, the Chief Librarian's next question caught up with her: "You mean that in the process of Lord Sanguinius reshaping himself, he will inevitably be alienated by some external influences."

"That's roughly how it can be understood." Fujimaru Ritsuka said to the cup, his voice having a little more echo because of it, "It is indeed inevitable that he will have 'some impurities mixed in', but it won't be as serious as 'alienation'."

This brought the final point of the problem back to philosophy, but Mephiston decided not to think about it carefully. The chief think tank sighed, and after a brief silence, he changed the topic and asked some specific implementation details. After Fujimaru Ritsuka answered the relevant questions as much as possible, this stumbling banquet finally came to an end.

When being led out of the Think Tank Sanctuary by the blind servant, Fujimaru Ritsuka's journey was obviously much shorter than when he came in. Sigismund became even more annoyed after realizing this fact belatedly, but Fujimaru Ritsuka was a little distracted, and his mind was obviously no longer on this matter:

"I always feel like I forgot something." After saying goodbye to the servant, she complained to the black knight beside her, "But I really don't remember what I forgot."
-
"I always feel that we have been abandoned by the whole world." Facing the "Prototype No. 1" anchored in a wilderness, Akurdona said, "Do you want to try praying to Om Messiah? Maybe it will work?"

In the past, Gabriel Santo, who believed in the truth of the Empire, would have scolded him and told him to stop making such meaningless suggestions. But now, on his face covered with a lot of mechanical transformation, the few remaining flesh and blood actually showed a thoughtful expression:

"But this thing is not entirely made of Imperial technology." In desperation, the captain of the first company of the Cursed Iron Hands, who believed in the truth of the Empire, actually began to rigorously argue his colleague's unreasonable suggestion, "Do you think her machine soul will believe in Om Messiah?"

(End of this chapter)