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

Chapter 322 Chaldean Tradition

After leaving the Shadow Hammer, Fujimaru Ritsuka did not go far, because her next scheduled trip was at the airport on the main star of Baal:
The Destroyer Claw from the Iron Hands Chapter, as the advance team to support the construction of the Chaldea Lighthouse, finally entered the port today.

Of course, theoretically speaking, this matter had nothing to do with Fujimaru Ritsuka himself. It was not like the resurrected Tenth Primarch was coming in person (the news had not yet reached here), and the Imperial Saint himself was required to greet him. The local officials of Bar and the Blood Angels Chapter would naturally be able to arrange all the miscellaneous matters including the Chapter's contact, material exchange, entry and stationing, etc. After these were completed, she would come up to discuss the engineering issues, and there would be nothing wrong with her etiquette.

But she still chose to use the unconventional method of wartime teleportation, and under the disapproving but helpless gazes of the Blood Angels Librarians in charge of security, she put on an inconspicuous dark cloak and immediately blended in (yes, blended in) with the people in charge of contact at the airport. Because Debit and Enkidu would also arrive with this ship.

Of course, everyone can see that when Fujimaru Ritsuka put this matter on his schedule, it was obviously more of a personal interest than a public one, but everyone turned a blind eye and pretended not to see it. Considering Fujimaru Ritsuka's status, even if she had some more excessive demands, it would not be intolerable, not to mention the occasional paid (but then again, although the emperor did give her money, did she have a salary?) slacking off.

In short, with the help of someone who knew the situation, Fujimaru Ritsuka finally managed to "sneak into" the handover site of the two startup groups at the airport. After meeting the above conditions, it was not difficult to find Debit: perhaps because his catastrophic coordination was still working normally, even in the airport where people were coming and going for related matters, he still stood out among ordinary people - specifically, within a three-meter radius around Debit, a vacuum zone that no one had set foot on was formed for some reason.

This area made him stand out among the crowd, but it didn't actually have the power to "stop others from getting close." Without thinking about the cause of this vacuum zone, Fujimaru Ritsuka happily trotted over, ignoring the slightly surprised and complicated looks of the people around him. When he was close enough to the other person, he happily lifted his hood a little so that the other person could see his face: "Debit!"

The person who was attacked so suddenly showed a little surprise for a moment: "Fujimaru? Did you come here alone?"

"No, the spirit form of Arjuna is nearby, and Edmund is also in the shadow." Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed falsely, "After something happened, no matter where I go, they will insist on following me."

After all, she was the one who asked for her own death, so she had no complaints about the result. While saying this, she was also looking at Debbie, who had not seen each other for some time: in terms of demeanor and appearance, this person had not changed much, but his hair had inevitably grown to a length that was a bit in the way over time, and was tied up behind his head with something that Fujimaru Ritsuka could not recognize as a hair tie.

In addition, he had some small things that were obviously from the Empire. The most conspicuous one was a wearable exoskeleton on his right hand. Judging from the mounted equipment, its functions should be more inclined towards non-combat fields such as environmental detection and data collection. Others included a single-molecule combat knife hanging on his belt, a precision laser pistol, and a tactical waist bag that must have contained some dangerous goods.

But what first aroused Fujimaru Ritsuka's curiosity was not any of the above equipment:
"What's that string?" She pointed to the inside of Debbie's open coat, where a small piece of metal chain was hanging down due to gravity and exposed.

In her impression (although she didn't have much impression of this Master of Group A, with whom she had little contact), Debit was not someone who particularly cared about his image, and naturally would not wear any accessories for no reason. Fujimaru Ritsuka asked this question out of curiosity, and the latter had no need to hide this issue, so he generously lifted the hem of that side of his clothes, naturally showing the half-hanging, slightly rusty metal chain.

One end of the chain was sewn to the lining of Debit's coat - the workmanship didn't look very good, it was probably sewn by himself - and the other end was hidden in the pocket on the lining of his clothes. Debit used his other hand to pull the chain that slipped out due to the angle, and lifted the heavy object attached to the other end out of the inner pocket, holding it in his hand to show it to Fujimaru Ritsuka:
It was a chain of Celestial Army ID tags, and they were obviously collected from a battlefield of considerable intensity. The chain was longer than Fujimaru Ritsuka had originally thought, and it held twelve dog tags—some were obviously deformed by physical impact, some still had traces of melting from high temperatures, some were rusted and shattered, and one even had a hole that was obviously burned by a laser gun. The writing on most of the metal tags was blurred for some reason, and it seemed that there was no record of the soldier's name. Combining the recognizable letters on all the dog tags, Fujimaru Ritsuka barely recognized the organization to which their original owners belonged: the 32nd Siege Regiment of the Krieg Death Legion.

Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't know much about this Astra Militarum Corps, but she didn't need much knowledge to ask Debbie this confirming question: "Battle souvenirs? You have some connection with this Corps?"

Debbie didn't show any emotional reaction, but just nodded: "I assisted some troops sent by this regiment to achieve a tactical goal. You know, I can't remember too much, but they are all respectable warriors."

"That's an understatement." Another dissatisfied voice floated in, and the unprepared Fujimaru Ritsuka was startled. She finally reacted. The voice came directly from the contract telepathy channel in her mind, "He led fifty or so Kriegs to secretly dig through half of the enemy's fortifications and rushed directly to the Chaos Altar. He also fought with the Word Bearers wizards with swords, and finally blew up an important psychic node on the battlefield. This is a major event that deserves a whole page in the history of war!"

"Ionid Hill!" Recognizing the voice, Fujimaru Ritsuka nervously tugged at his cloak, grumbling through gritted teeth, "I followed Odysseus's advice and secretly left you in the real universe, not for you to scare me like this!"

Debbie still had no emotional reaction, but carefully put the dog tags back into the inner pocket of his coat. He couldn't hear the words that Fujimaru Ritsuka could only hear because of the contract, but from the other party's gritted teeth and squeezed out the name "Ionid Hill", it was not difficult for him to understand what had happened during this period.

"When nothing serious happens, he is indeed annoying." This evaluation of Debbie is said sincerely, "But once an unexpected situation occurs, Captain Hill is indeed very reliable."

"If possible, I would like to choose only Odysseus." Fujimaru Ritsuka said with emotion and disdain, "Unless Hill comes to help me supervise the current immigration resettlement case tomorrow."

Theoretically, the Cursed Ultramarine should have started to complain loudly in the voice channel after saying this, but unfortunately, Debbie, who was not in the line, could not hear it. In his perception, Fujimaru Ritsuka just quickly threw away this episode and asked, "Where's Xiaoen?"

There was a sense of caution in these words. When the two Chaldean Masters transferred the contract authority, they had made a plan for the worst case scenario. In addition, the purpose of this matter was to increase the combat power of Ferrus, whose existence in the real universe had not yet stabilized, so that the God-made weapons could face the fallen primarchs. Therefore, whether Enkidu's spiritual base had been destroyed in the battle, or his corresponding spiritual data as a heroic spirit had been usurped by Slaanesh, it was an acceptable result for Fujimaru Ritsuka.

But "acceptable" does not mean "willing to accept". Fortunately, the answers Debit gave were not the worst ones: "He was contaminated by chaos due to close contact with the Demon Prince, but at this stage, he can still be contained by the stasis field. I thought if I return the contract to you, you might have a solution, so I brought him here like this." "It's good that he's still alive." Fujimaru Ritsuka was obviously relieved: "Is the situation critical?"

"Although the corruption has not been completely stopped by the stasis field, the progress is quite steady." Debit replied, "Even if the cause and effect are only cut off physically, it can indeed effectively delay the corruption. Enkidu himself insisted on staying in the entity compiled by the ether to resist. You still have plenty of time to think of a safe countermeasure."

"Then I think that in this 'plenty of time', the first thing we should do is to let you settle down." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had basically settled down, tugged at Debbie's clothes and dragged him towards the elevator of the airport. "Have a good meal, take a shower, sleep, and do a physical examination. Tezcatlipoca has been on my ship doing something, and you have to meet him and have a chat... Oh, and Captain Hill, come over too. Didn't we agree that I would give you a Book of Traitors and you would go back to Macragge? Why are you here again? We need to clarify this issue between the two of us."

"I can hear that you're planning to let the two of us settle down so we can start working." Hill complained in a nonchalant manner in his voice, "I don't object to this, but your attitude towards the two of us is too different, isn't it?"

"Yeah, why?" Fujimaru Ritsuka closed his mouth and only refuted in a sinister tone, "Why don't you ask Odysseus?"

Deppet was oblivious to the communication between the spiritual Cursed Astartes and Fujimaru Ritsuka. He was only concerned with following the latter and reporting his itinerary information to the Claw of Destruction. Although he had a somewhat delicate position on the ship and thus a considerable amount of autonomy, he should not disappear on the spot without saying a word.

Thanks to the Iron Hands Astartes placing Debit among the mortal officers today, and these people, due to various rumors, did not have the courage to ask about his affairs, the two masters of Chaldea successfully left the crowd caused by the ship docking. Also due to the tacit consent of those in the know, Fujimaru Ritsuka led Debit quietly to the VIP channel and got into a small elevator leading to the ground.

Although it is called a "small elevator", the interior space of this vehicle, which is used exclusively by dignitaries, is equivalent to the living room of a presidential suite. Even if we don't mention the elegant wallpaper decoration and the amazing chandelier hanging from the ceiling, it also includes sofas, coffee tables, exquisite stoves for making tea, bookshelves and wine cabinets, and even several sculptures, paintings and other works of art that are only for viewing. When the operating servitor received the order to let the elevator start moving downward, and the car hardly had any vibration, Debbie thought for the first time (in this universe) that the progress of science and technology can indeed be applied to human enjoyment.

It had been a long time since he had felt such quiet and smooth movement in the vertical direction.

Just when Debbie was a little dazed, Fujimaru Ritsuka's voice rang out again: "Have you notified everyone you need to? Before we land, there are some things I'd like to ask for your opinion on. Captain Hill, you don't have to leave. You already know about this."

Fujimaru Ritsuka's first two sentences seemed a bit strange, but as a magician, Debito naturally understood what she meant by asking. He finally sent a message to the Destruction Claw, "There is something to discuss in secret, the signal may be temporarily blocked, and it is expected that the connection may be lost within three hours", and then signaled to the other party that he was ready.

So, Fujimaru Ritsuka approached the coffee table in the center of the room, and pulled out a magic gift that looked like a small celestial globe from under her cloak, and placed it on the table. She didn't seem to do anything special, but the orbital rings of an unknown galaxy system on it began to operate in a complicated manner without anyone providing power for them, and a wonderful atmosphere permeated the entire space in the cabin.

Debbie stared at the dress for a few seconds, and when he spoke again, there was a hint of obvious doubt in his tone: "Did you make it yourself?"

He saw that this was a magic costume based on the principle of celestial magic. It internalized the concept of the surrounding environment as "a planet" to cut off communication and prying from the outside world (other worlds). The principle was not difficult, especially for the Chaldea Bureau under the Celestial Department, it was even considered "basic knowledge". Kirshtalia Vodem could perform more sophisticated magic of the same kind with just a snap of his fingers. But considering that the person who took it out was Fujimaru Ritsuka, an ordinary person who had only come into contact with the concept of "magic" for the first time since he was sixteen, it was already commendable that this costume, which was not made very well, could be used.

"Basically." Fujimaru Ritsuka complained casually, curling himself up on the sofa. "I followed the public information left by Chaldea, but I got stuck after one or two steps. Asclepius scolded me three times for this, saying something like 'I'm a doctor, why should I do this for you'... I'm getting off topic. Did Mr. Ferrus tell you what I was going to do with all this construction here?"

Following the trend, Debit also sat on the sofa opposite to Fujimaru Ritsuka. He adjusted his posture uneasily because of the overly soft touch, then nodded and shook his head: "The explanation I got is that you are about to build the second Astronomical Torch for the Empire on Baal Prime. But since you asked this question, it means that your real purpose is more than that. Right?"

"Yes and no." Fujimaru Ritsuka took out a tablet computer from under her cloak - a Chaldean style, which might be familiar to her and Depp in the entire universe - and pushed it along the coffee table to the other party. "The 'Second Star Torch' should only be a basic function of the building complex I hope to build. But how to combine the other functions I hope to build, or whether I should combine them at this stage... Although I made relevant plans at the planning stage, to be honest, as a half-baked magician, I have no idea."

Debbie glanced at the tablet on the coffee table, but didn't reach out to pick it up immediately. "Do you want me to provide an argument for the feasibility of the relevant plan? Or do you just want to consult my opinion on the technology?"

"Hmm..." Fujimaru Ritsuka drew out the words and closed her eyes to think for a few seconds. During these few seconds of contemplation, her expression did not change much except for pretending to be serious, so it was difficult for others to tell whether she was really thinking about this question or just pretending. But after a few seconds, she responded in a very serious and even murderous tone:
"The latter," she said with certainty. "Even if you decide to put a gun to my head and force me to stop after reading the business plan, I will never stop."

Debit raised his eyes from the tablet and looked into Fujimaru Ritsuka's eyes. There was still no specific emotion in his eyes, only a kind of precise evaluation and scrutiny, and it was precisely because of this that it made people feel cold.

"Let me make it clear first, I am different from Director Malisbury." Fujimaru Ritsuka met his gaze without fear, "I will not commit suicide in front of you, but if the situation is really bad and it has to be a matter of life and death, I will choose to kill you to save my own life."

(End of this chapter)