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

Chapter 333: The secret knowledge of the outside world is common knowledge within Chaldea
After the red ground gradually cooled down and the loose gravel turned into pitch-black Baal rock, this nominal meeting, in fact a unilateral demonstration by Chaldea, finally came to an official end.

The Blood Angels did not raise any objections to this. After Cleopatra stood up and hinted that "it's almost over", they exchanged a few words and left. From the perspective of the Chapter, Chaldea had already demonstrated its sincerity through the miracle of the Cathedral of the Holy Blood shortly after landing - and even this sincerity was gradually increasing with the passage of time through the hands of Corbro and Mephiston. The Blood Angels should not accept such a great favor for nothing. In return, before an event that could shake these achievements occurs, both sides will stand closely on the same front. In view of this, although Chaldea's previous overly tepid political methods are an obvious flaw, they are still within the tolerance range of the Blood Angels. The Angels will not express dissatisfaction with this, but if Chaldea can find a way to make up for the flaws, they will naturally be happy to see it happen.

As the main target of the demonstration at this meeting, the reaction of the state religion was obviously not so decent. The three heavy punches that Cleopatra had thrown from the three angles of political power, religious legitimacy, and military strength had obviously made these mortals dizzy and confused. After the leader was completely confused, they became a mob that only knew how to cry and hurt themselves in the spot. Cleopatra didn't even bother to look at these idiots whose morale had completely collapsed and who couldn't even run away. She casually waved her hand and walked past them, and left the temporary venue with the imperial guards.

Also leaving was the fourth party in this "three-party" meeting. Inquisitor Marlan had enough political literacy to understand the meaning of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys from the three punches against the state religion, but she was still an experienced Lord Inquisitor who had seen more big scenes than these poor believers and priests who were easily frightened because of their lack of experience. She had seen the scene when the extermination order was launched, and had seen the surface of an entire planet being burned into glass, or directly destroyed by the core of the earth and blown to pieces by the bipolar cyclone torpedo. The disappearance of a few small hills was indeed a shock to her, but it didn't really scare her.

After taking a few seconds to recover and making some simple investigations to make sure that she could not explain the phenomenon in front of her, Marlan decided to let go of the question and follow Cleopatra's footsteps. Hastings followed her closely - just followed, without doing anything or saying anything.

The most obvious possibility is that Hastings is also observing. Because although this woman is from Chaldea, she is not in the database of the Chaldean ship judge. This thought flashed through the mind of Judge Marlan for a moment, but was let go because it was not the main contradiction at the moment:

"Ms. Cleopatra." She tried to call the other person from behind, and the other person did stop for her.

Despite this, Cleopatra just turned around and kept her half-smiley expression at the meeting without saying anything. She just raised her eyebrows and lazily showed an attitude of "What's the matter?"

This was undoubtedly a kind of contempt, but - perhaps because of some reason she hadn't found yet, or perhaps simply because of her too beautiful appearance (the Inquisitor was very reluctant to admit that she would be affected by this reason), Maran didn't get too angry about it, but instead felt that it was natural. She could clearly realize that this was not normal, and she kept it in the memory implant in her brain. At the same time, she instinctively took a deep breath, letting the hot, dusty and choking air on the surface of Baal pull her consciousness back to reality:
"I have something I want to ask you. I wonder—"

"-Well, let's talk about it here." Cleopatra interrupted Maran nonchalantly, making it clear that she had no intention of having a long conversation.

If it were any other Lord Inquisitor, he would have been angry in some form after being treated like this. But the golden giant who was still at the edge of her vision just calmed Maran's emotions with his presence. She let out a light breath, dropped all unimportant topics, and went straight to the point: "I would like to ask about the position and attitude of the Chaldean Bureau."

——There were a lot of questions that needed to be confirmed with Chaldea, but Maran knew that if the answers to these questions were given by the other party, she would never believe them. She had to rely on herself, or perhaps borrow the power of some Grey Knights, to unravel these questions, but only for political questions, even if everyone knew they were untrustworthy, she had to get answers from the other party - because as long as the other party stated their position and attitude, even if "the final right of interpretation belongs to Chaldea", they had to at least follow the answers they gave for the sake of face.

In any case, as long as the other party answered, the situation would be more or less favorable to Malan, or at least it would provide some direction for her next countermeasures. But obviously, Cleopatra also realized this:
"I heard that you inquisitors only believe the truth you personally investigated or the truth you obtained through torture by your subordinates." She said. This is obviously a one-sided stereotype, but there is always a reason why stereotypes become stereotypes. At least Marlan and Hastings can't refute this sentence, "Why don't you choose to use your own eyes and ears to find the answer to this question?"

Malan instinctively glanced at Hastings beside him. This was different from what was agreed upon. In the latter's words, and even in Malan's own profile, Chaldea led by Fujimaru Ritsuka was an easy-to-bully image that answered whatever was asked. At least that was the case when it was not excessive, otherwise the fate would be similar to that of Inquisitor Wilczak.

Inquisitor Wilczak's ending calmed Maran down. She retracted her gaze and told Cleopatra frankly: "As you said, I have already got an answer from Inquisitor Hastings. But it was not obtained through torture, so I don't believe it, so I want to verify it from you."

This time, Hastings turned his head and stared at Judge Maran angrily. His face almost clearly said "I didn't say that!" The sentence, perhaps the people present understood this, or perhaps not, but in any case, no one responded to this question.

"If I give you the answer you want, will you believe it?" Cleopatra asked back.

"Who would take a political statement seriously?" Playing dumb on this question would only backfire, so Malan decided to answer honestly, "But a guard is following you, so I assume that a 'political statement' coming from your mouth will have corresponding weight."

Cleopatra seemed very satisfied with this honesty. She finally turned around and faced Malan with due courtesy, and adjusted her attitude: "I do prefer to talk to smart people, and it is easier to communicate. I hope you won't do something stupid too soon, otherwise it will take a long time to wait for the next smart person to come."

This was a compliment, a threat, and a statement of attitude, which was similar to the "political declaration" that Malan expected. This made the Lord Inquisitor frown nervously, but Cleopatra did not care about this:
"I did hear from Li Xiang that there is currently an ordinary-looking judge on board who is in charge of intelligence work." She suddenly changed the subject to Hastings, and then ignored the latter's wonderful expression and continued to talk on her own. "Li Xiang has a high opinion of his work ability, so he should not be misunderstood in this regard. My answer is probably no different from his: Chaldea is here to solve problems, and only wants to do its own job well, and has no intention of preventing others from doing their own work. We will not do unnecessary things, provided that no one stretches their hands too far - that is to say, in the case you are currently in charge of, you can investigate it to your heart's content, but in other matters, it is better to curb your curiosity."

Although the wording was different, it was true that what Cleopatra said was essentially the same as what Hastings said. That was why, combined with Cleopatra's response on behalf of the Chaldeans at today's meeting, Maran felt that these words were not credible:
"Even if Chaldea has changed its leader now?" "Why do you have this illusion?" Cleopatra raised an eyebrow again - this time it was obviously because of anger, "Don't say stupid things right after I just praised you for your intelligence! Remember this, at any time, the only person who can control all the resources of Chaldea is Fujimaru Ritsuka!"

The air around her was slightly distorted, and there seemed to be a huge golden snake swimming in the air nearby like a mirage, hissing threateningly as Cleopatra became angry.

This was a reaction that Maran had not expected, but she was not frightened by this anger, even though it clearly contained some psychic threats that non-psychics could feel. However, she did not have time to continue the conversation in the direction she wanted, because Hastings interrupted in time:
"Cleopatra VII," he said suddenly. "I have read this name in the library of Chaldea."

The change of topic seemed to have slightly dispelled Pharaoh's anger, or perhaps it just shifted her anger to another direction. After saying this, Cleopatra finally let her eyes fall on Hastings, and asked in a gloomy tone: "Oh? Where did you read it? Don't say it was from the Shakespeare collection bookshelf. Although that guy is indeed talented, he is also obviously a master at making rumors. If you mention "Antony and Cleopatra" now, I might really kill someone, right?"

"No, I read it from Caesar's biography." Fujimaru Ritsuka drew a list of books for Caelia. As a teacher, Hastings had of course read all of them. "It said that in order to compete with your brother for the throne, as the weaker party in the local royal family, you even offered yourself to Caesar to seek support when he came, and finally borrowed the other side's military force to successfully ascend the throne."

The Inquisitor from Ultramar did not say much, but after these words were spoken, even the silent guards beside him looked strange. Although Malan could not fully understand the implication of this sentence due to a certain lack of prior information, she could easily understand from this brief story that Cleopatra was obviously an ambitious person and did not mind giving up something for it.

Strictly speaking, Hastings' words were even more offensive than Marlan's straightforward questioning, but Cleopatra calmed down and admitted frankly: "That's right. I don't deny my previous goals and the means I used to achieve them, nor do I deny that your concerns are indeed reasonable. If I want to do it, it would be very simple to undermine Fujimaru Ritsuka. But anyone who knows how to judge the situation and recognizes his own position will naturally know that he should never do this. I think I am quite smart."

"...Would you like to hear more?" Although Cleopatra's argument was not based on her own feelings that could not be confirmed, but on the cold power relationship, which made it sound more credible, Maran, as the Lord's Judge, was suspicious and incurable. No matter what, she would at least let the other party explain clearly before she would give up.

"It's very simple. In the empire, I don't even need to explain too much." Cleopatra smiled, "Whoever Lord Caesar chooses is the final winner. Between me and my brother, Lord Caesar chose me, so I became the Pharaoh. And this time, Lord Caesar chose Ritsuka. So - regardless of whether I will betray or not, even if I really do so, I will definitely lose in the end."

This seemed to be a convincing enough answer for Hastings and the guards. The atmosphere was relaxing in a way that Maran could not understand, and she even suspected for a moment that she was the only illiterate person present.

"What's going on?" She turned around and asked Hastings, who first brought up the topic, "Who is this 'Caesar'?"

"To put it simply, it's the Caesar who 'crossed the Rubicon'." Hastings replied, "Don't tell me you don't know this allusion. Cawl and his disciples are almost keen to tell this story over and over again in every Astartes Chapter they support, and even call the Primaris enhancement surgery the 'Rubicon Operation'."

Of course, Maran knew this story, at least after Belisarius Cawl had promoted it in the name of the Primaris Surgery. But she couldn't help but frown, because after connecting it with the previous conversation, there was an obvious contradiction:

"But that was the king of ancient Terra," she pointed out, "who existed even before the beginning of human history. He couldn't possibly be alive today."

"He is an immortal. Caesar is not the only name he has used in his long life." Hastings responded calmly. He was now very good at pretending to be calm, just like the patience of a mature hunter. "Now he is still among us, and everyone in the empire knows him."

"What?" Maran, unaware of Hastings's sinister intentions, asked without any defense, and then she got the answer she wanted:

"The Emperor," Hastings answered. "We now call Him 'The Emperor.'"

(End of this chapter)