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

Chapter 331 When Your Enemy Is Just So Stupid That (Omitted)
Just like any other time before, the Blood Angels Chapter Master's orders were smoothly implemented and executed. But just like many times before, this alone could not solve all the problems that lay ahead of them.

Arax Angel Fortress is always in a state of wartime response. The next morning, the Third Company, which Joscelius was approved to temporarily join, had already set off. But on the same day, Archbishop Trolipo's ship issued a notice to the Blood Angels, which was theoretically on the same level as the State Church in the Empire, and sent a copy of the relevant documents to Chaldea, sternly expressing its disapproval of the investigation results of the Archbishop's death.

In terms of legal basis and administrative procedures, there is really nothing to dispute about this disposal. According to the guiding ideology of the Codex Astartes, each Space Marine Chapter should be regarded as an independent, equal military organization with a certain degree of self-determination - even a founding group like the Blood Angels. In the case of a sub-region archbishop of the State Church, or the death of the person involved in the case, the State Church does have the right to question the investigation results that they cannot accept.

As for Chaldea, according to the official records of the Empire, the Chaldea Bureau is an outposted branch of the Astronomican Court. As we all know, the Astronomican Court has not had any affairs that need to be handled by outposted branches for thousands of years. Therefore, there are no laws or precedents to refer to regarding "how to treat such a team". Considering that the Space Marines are obviously a tougher military organization, and Chaldea seems to be just an engineering department that came here to build, it seems that there is nothing wrong with putting the latter at the back.

——In actual operation, the two departments that received this notice felt that the state religion was really being reckless this time, and was even very suspicious.

First, as a branch of the Ecclesiarchy in the Baal Sector, these people dared to question the conclusions made by the Blood Angels in the name of the Chapter. You know, in the vast area around the Baal System, and perhaps even beyond the entire Baal Sector, the mainstream Ecclesiarchy worships Sanguinius and the Emperor side by side. Just like the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar tend to put Guilliman and the Emperor side by side. The Blood Angels Astartes, although not as frequently intervening in the affairs of mortals as their azure cousins ​​are accustomed to, are also widely loved as the blood of Sanguinius who still remain in the world. Even the legendary figures in the Chapter, such as Dante or Mephiston, will be worshipped as religious idols in the branches of the Ecclesiarchy - some such pilgrims appear from time to time around Baal.

If the Archbishop's crew ultimately chose not to accept the conclusions of the Blood Angels, it could be seen as the Ecclesiarchy's temporary abandonment of a less important part of their faith for political maneuvers (which, admittedly, was quite common, though rarely so blatantly so), then their choice to treat Chaldea, an organization led by an Imperial saint with a Custodian of the Guard and apparently sanctioned by the Throne, with little regard for Chaldea, a group that was by definition an official religious organization dedicated to the worship of the Emperor, with little regard for Chaldea, was a very mortal act.

Even if these people add Chaldea to the title of the statement and then copy the corresponding organization, it can make their actions better explained than they actually did.

Since no one wanted to believe that the entourage brought by Archbishop Trolipo had come to the conclusion of such a nearly suicidal solution after internal selection and compromise, after receiving this notice, both the Blood Angels and Chaldea were obviously hampered in their efficiency in responding.

Of course, this trivial matter was not brought to Dante's attention in the end, as the respected Lord Commander already had too many things to worry about. The first to respond to this notice was the Chaldean side: they proposed a face-to-face three-party meeting on the surface of Baal Prime to thoroughly clarify the whole matter.

This is an unconventional way of handling things, but it seems very reasonable for Chaldea. Although they have not been in contact with each other for a long time, the Blood Angels have roughly figured out the basic behavioral logic of Chaldea's current leaders: Fujimaru Ritsuka always tends to strengthen communication as much as possible and solve problems in a non-bloody way, even if in some things (such as the current problem), bloodshed is obviously a simpler and more convenient option - the subordinates of the state religion actually adopted a solution that was somewhat rebellious to religion when handling official events. Even if it was strictly speaking just a marginal move, for the Empire, if a more neurotic Inquisitor (and any qualified Inquisitor would hardly be more neurotic than Fujimaru Ritsuka himself) was in charge of the overall situation, this level of suspicion would be enough to cause a department to be bloodbathed.

At least that's what Lord Inquisitor Selina Maran thought, because that's what she would do if she were in that position.

The Grey Knights' verification work on psychic power seemed to have hit a bottleneck, or perhaps they had obtained some unacceptable results after the experiment. Malan didn't know the details, and didn't ask much. She just felt that starting with Brother Captain Stern, some Grey Knights showed unusual confusion and anxiety, and decided to extend the time they spent on these tasks. Malan couldn't help with this part, so she naturally chose to return to the main mission of this trip to Baal - as an outsider and witness, she now appeared at the negotiation table of the tripartite meeting with Hastings.

In fact, she just made a reasonable request to Hastings, saying that she wanted to communicate with Chaldea face to face on a certain day, and then she was inexplicably placed at the edge of the table as a so-called "witness". In response, Hastings said: Don't ask me, I don't know, I have been doing nothing under your nose for the past two days, and you have checked the content of every communication I sent out. Do I look like I know any inside information?
Thanks to the steady character of the person involved, Maran was able to remain calm. She didn't know why Chaldea chose this place as the negotiation site - a barren land with nothing. The red light of the star Barro fell straight down during the day, scorching the red sand on the ground. The environment was obviously not pleasant. But she still came.

The Dark Angels built a temporary building here, modeled after a field command, for negotiation. For the Astartes, this level of severe weather had no effect on them, but for the mortals from the State Church and the Inquisition, a roof that could at least block solar radiation was very important. However, the heat radiation rising from the ground made its impact on the temperature seem a drop in the bucket.

The only thing to be thankful for is that this harsh environment has dispelled the desire of all parties to put on a grand display. In addition to the various vehicles and entourages from all sides, the State Church sent a missionary who seemed to be very eloquent; the Blood Angels' participant was a sergeant from the Sixth Company, which may represent the overall passive and neutral attitude of the Chapter. After all, the whole thing, except for what happened in Baal, had nothing to do with them from beginning to end; and the Chaldean side showed its usual "thriftiness". In addition to the woman who served as the representative of the conversation, the entourage only had one imperial guard. But -

"I'm sure this isn't Fujimaru Ritsuka." Although they had only met once through the communication video, Maran still asked Hastings in a low voice with such certainty, "I haven't heard of such a person on the Storm Edge before. Who is this?"

It is no wonder that Malan’s first reaction was “This is a character”, because when anyone sees this woman walking in front of the imperial guards, the first impression they have is: beautiful.

She was tall and curvy, with only eyeliner in a special pattern that might be related to religion. She wore her long seaweed-like hair in a peacock blue and dark green color, and wore a simple white dress with a few gold ornaments of simple workmanship but solid materials. For a person with fair and tender skin, well-maintained, and obviously pampered, her decorations were too mediocre. But this did not mean that she was reluctant to use external objects to decorate her appearance - anyone who saw her in person would realize at that moment that such beauty did not need to be "decorated" by vulgar external objects. Rather, any ornaments would only become a ridiculous foil under her face that was so beautiful that it would shame the moon and the flowers.

"I don't know." Hastings managed to calm down before whispering to Maran. As a qualified judge, the stunning beauty of the visitor was astonishing and would immediately make people think of the Lord of Pleasure's conspiracy, but what delayed his reaction was the guard who followed closely behind the person without complaint.

Marlan turned around and gave Hastings a suspicious look: "Didn't you claim that you have found out the details of all the living people on that ship?" "All the living people." Hastings refuted very strictly, "For example, the guard, we usually call him Kranos. But you have to know that Storm's Edge is often not operated by living people."

I've never heard you say this before. Maran frowned and wanted to refute, but the woman from Chaldea had already successfully taken her position in just two or three sentences:
"The noble Saint of the Empire has more important things to do today and has no time to deal with such trivial matters." The woman said with an arrogant attitude that could be called rude, but it was a manner that complemented her own striking and domineering beauty. "Therefore, she ordered me, Cleopatra VII, to come and listen to your complaints. You ugly and rough men, just be grateful!"
-
“…That’s not the case!” A day ago, after coming out of the summoning circle, the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty, who understood the current situation through the explanation of Fujimaru Ritsuka, loved his father deeply, and was passed down through the ages as the Queen of Egypt. In fact, she was the empress who was able to make the already weak Egypt, with Alexandria as its center, revitalize the economy, and mediate as an independent country under the shadow of the huge Rome for 22 years. Cleopatra, an empress with strategy, angrily preached to her master who was really useless in some aspects, “Although what happened between Lord Caesar and I makes me seem unqualified to say this, politics can’t be turned around by love alone!”

"Of course I know--"

Fujimaru Ritsuka tried to defend himself weakly, but before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the enraged Cleopatra: "No! You may know, but you don't realize it at all!"

Then, she silently muttered something like "demeanor, appearance" and took a deep breath, spending a few seconds to convince herself that "this is not the Master's fault." After calming down, she spoke again:
"Listen, I don't mean to accuse you of having a problem with your attitude towards others. After all, as the last master of Chaldea, it was with that attitude that you united so many outstanding people in history and made them unify under the goal of 'restoring human principles'. Whether from the above results or from the perspective of universal moral concepts, your attitude of 'treating everyone equally' is not wrong." She said, "But politics, especially in an authoritarian political system with a strict hierarchy ruled by a single emperor, is obviously contrary to the law of power operation."

“…Even though that’s the case—”

"——Scenario application question." Cleopatra ignored the other party's defense and started the pop test. "Tomorrow you will have a friendly meeting with an official of the empire in an informal setting. The relevant procedures and the list of attendants have been sent to you. In addition to this official himself, will you remember the names of other attendants?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka looked quite bewildered and confused, but still answered obediently: "Yes, after all, we have to say hello when we meet--"

"Wrong!" Cleopatra interrupted the Master's answer quite harshly, "This is the correct way to deal with the situation where 'friends going out together said in advance that they would bring other unknown friends with them', but it is not the correct way for a country's dignitaries to deal with it in diplomatic occasions! Memorizing the information of the attendants and other unimportant things is--" She waved her hand naturally, indicating the guards who were quietly acting as wallflowers by the wall, "--what these golden guards around you should do! It's even more wrong for you to greet the attendants in person! It's like when you made an appointment with me to go shopping, you said hello to my bag at the same time as you said hello to me! It has no meaning except to make you look like a weirdo with a mental disorder!"

The expression on Fujimaru Ritsuka's face became even more confused: "But that's a living person, not a real bag..."

"From the perspective of class differences, there is no difference! People of noble status and people of lowly status cannot be compared! The so-called power class of the feudal empire is like this. In the common sense of the public, the common people and the nobles are completely two different creatures. The lowly are not even worthy of carrying shoes for the nobles, and even the dirty eyes of the lower class will be regarded as a symbol of uncleanness by the upper class!"

Regardless of whether Cleopatra believed this argument from the bottom of her heart, she still showed a very matter-of-fact emotion when she said these words, as if it was a well-known axiom that the sun on Terra would rise in the east and set in the west. This self-righteous attitude further aggravated Fujimaru Ritsuka's confusion. She turned her head to look at the imperial guards by the wall, and was even more confused to find that this person's face actually had a look of "Finally someone said this, I'm so touched", so she had to look away and lower her head to reflect on herself.

Ten seconds later, she put forward her own conclusion to Cleopatra: "But this is obviously wrong, right? People are people, right? Everyone is essentially the same, and everyone has things they can do and things they can't do, so we have to help each other and live together?"

The moment she heard this, Cleopatra showed a rather shocked expression. But before her expression turned to "this child is incorrigible", she changed her perspective in a split second. After spending the same ten seconds, this skilled female feudal monarch showed a gentle and approving smile again:

"You are right." She agreed under the incredulous gazes of the imperial guards. "Forget what I just said. As the master of Chaldea, it is normal for you to form such a view. Just keep it like this. Leave the political matters that you are not good at to handle to me."

This might be a sign that the alarm has been lifted. So Fujimaru Ritsuka asked hopefully, "So...?"

"So come with me to the spa right now!" Cleopatra jumped to this conclusion, "What's wrong with your dry and rough skin? As my master, how can you be so careless about your image management?!"

(End of this chapter)