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

Chapter 357: Unity, Progress, Seriousness and Liveliness
It took Mephiston and Fujimaru Ritsuka one hour, thirty-five minutes and forty-six seconds to cross the Ring of Sloth. The counter on the Orthnaus Spiritual Exoskeleton showed this, but the parties involved had very different opinions on this:
"I feel like a century has passed," Fujimaru Ritsuka complained blatantly. "I feel this way every time I take a Japanese history class. During class, the teacher makes everyone sleepy but unable to sleep, and when the bell rings, everyone wakes up reflexively. Each Japanese history class lasts a century, so at least a century has just passed."

During this journey that felt much longer than an hour and a half, Mephiston had gradually adapted to some of Fujimaru Ritsuka's language habits. He therefore read that this was just an exaggerated rhetorical device, and replied: "When I was in school, if I dared to fall asleep in class, the teacher's whip would be swung at me immediately."

"...I won't go on to ask you if you've been beaten before. Let's see what we're going to face next."

In Mephiston's view, he was just expressing a very common thing, but for some reason, Fujimaru Ritsuka showed a little bit of emotion on this topic, which could even be called guilt, and chose to skip the relevant derivatives. After changing from Calistarius to Mephiston, the interpretation and consideration of subtle emotions in the past had slipped through his fingers like sand, and it was even worse after the Primaris surgery. Therefore, the think tank did not conduct a deeper investigation on this, but simply recorded this reaction and began to pay attention to the situation at hand.

Although it was not his original intention, during the previous casual chat, Mephiston had indeed gathered enough information to model the personality of Fujimaru Ritsuka. It might be a bit offensive to go into more depth, but on this issue, he was indeed driven by his own damn curiosity.

According to the records, the ring of vanity is located outside the ring of sloth. To the naked eye, it seems to be just a peaceful forest with a somewhat fantastical color, but the trees, flowers, and thorns in it are rustling with the gentle breeze. When the victim enters it, these voices will whisper in their ears, constantly reminding and praising their advantages, strengths, and the glorious achievements they have made in the past. If the travelers who try to pass through this forest are confused by these voices, stop and indulge in their past glory, the seemingly harmless plants will entangle their legs, pierce their flesh, suck their blood and soul - just like the skeleton that has been intertwined with the thorn vines not far away: painful, withered, but still alive in a sense.

"I think we are playing in easy mode." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who almost ruined the entire "Trial of Slaanesh" with his unconscious consciousness, commented, "Just like Rod's wife didn't know that if she turned around she would turn into a pillar of salt, and Orpheus didn't realize that if he turned around his wife would die again, normally the result of this punishment mechanism shouldn't be visible to everyone, right?"

"It's possible that Sally didn't care," Mephiston commented. "The corruption of vanity gradually seeps into the victim's soul. Even if the subjective consciousness is on guard, it will be useless. The subconscious will still be poisoned by these thoughts."

Fujimaru Ritsuka raised his head with an eyebrow raised, looked into the think tank's eyes, and asked seriously: "Then I will ask a straightforward and very offensive question: Mr. Mephiston, do you think you are a vain person?"

"Under normal circumstances, I would certainly give a negative answer. But in this case? I'm not sure." The Blood Angel replied, "Sometimes these corruptions can dig out weaknesses deep in our hearts that we don't even know about. Sometimes, with just a tiny thought, they can use the power of corruption to expand it infinitely to a destructive level. This is the abomination of Chaos."

He paused, but chose to ask: "Then let me ask a straightforward and offensive question: What about you?"

After hearing this question, Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled a little proudly: "Can't you see? I'm super vain. I'm the kind of delicate girl who has been on the battlefield for so long without a single scar on my body. When I return to a safe base, the first thing I do is to take a bath and apply a facial mask."

Mephiston was speechless for a moment: "Please don't joke."

"I'm not kidding, I really am." Fujimaru Ritsuka shrugged happily, humming a song as he stepped onto the forest path. "Since none of us claim to be 'I'm not vain', I think this level has a high safety factor for us."

"how do I say this?"

"As the old saying goes: Those who are good at swimming drown, and those who are good at riding fall."

"I've never heard of it, but that's the truth."

They walked through the maze-like trails, and the moist mist in the forest emitted a hazy glow, reflecting the travelers' past achievements. Logically speaking, people walking in this circle should hazily recall their glorious moments in the mist, but because of the cognitive filter provided by Fujimaru Ritsuka, what Mephiston saw in the mist obviously had nothing to do with him.

The War of the Evil Dragons, the City of Seven Hills, the Endless Sea, the Foggy City of London, the North American Continent, the Round Table Domain, the Warcraft Front… The Think Tank did not understand when and where these fragments he saw took place, and sometimes he could not even figure out what was happening specifically. However, the relevant definitions still jumped into his mind naturally as he glanced at them. They were unfamiliar, but it was as if he had already known them.

"——Good news, I can now be sure that I don't feel vain at all." Fujimaru Ritsuka gritted his teeth, "Bad news, this is because I am trying my best to restrain the idea of ​​kicking you out of empathy. Mr. Mephiston, can you please respect the girl's privacy?"

"I'm sorry." Mephiston didn't quite understand this reaction, but he went along with it. "For me, analyzing the information presented to me is an instinctive reaction. If you need me--"

"——I thought about it and decided that it's not necessary." Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly rejected it, "I don't really want to use the memories of the Garden of Disappointment to fight against the curse of this ring."

She took two quick steps forward with a huff, and could not help but add, "I have not told the Emperor these things in detail! At most, he has read the records stored on the Storm's Edge! The ones related to the singularity are still the versions revised by Da Vinci and Sherlock Holmes!"

"Why?" After experiencing the "small talk" in the Ring of Sloth, where Fujimaru Ritsuka was exhausted and collapsed, Mephiston would no longer be surprised just because the term "Emperor" was casually mentioned by this girl as a normal chat partner. "I didn't see it too clearly, but I can also be sure that you have indeed experienced some glorious victories and should be praised or rewarded--" "--I didn't do it for these!" Fujimaru Ritsuka's voice was tinged with some resentment, and Mephiston couldn't tell who these emotions were directed at. "I was just forced to do it because no one else could do it at the time! What's more, these crappy things have nothing to do with the Emperor. Even if I really want to ask for a reward, it's not his turn! Besides, his taste is that gold is big and beautiful..."

"So, who or what do you want as a reward?" The breeze in the ring asked the traveler in his ear.

Beyond the trees, a tranquil lake reflected the beautiful pink-purple sky. The path in the forest led them to the lakeside—many former challengers, or rather, the remains of challengers, still stood on the shore of the lake, surrounded by thorns, looking painfully at the lake, and became a permanent landscape in the realm of Slaanesh.

Fujimaru Ritsuka's cognitive filter had caused the entire "test" of Slaanesh to collapse, but Mephiston was grateful for it. With the reminders of the surrounding landmarks, he naturally discovered that this extra voice had bad intentions, and that there must be something wrong under the lake, so he consciously controlled his sight. But, as a mortal, could Fujimaru Ritsuka -

——She can't. The next second, Mephiston was sure of this. When he walked out of the woods and saw the view ahead, Fujimaru Ritsuka had already started to look at the lake in the same way that normal humans would. But then again, the test of the six rings of Slaanesh might have been completely broken when they started playing together, because the Librarian could certainly walk up and pick up Fujimaru Ritsuka who was immersed in whatever was under the lake.

It was a pity that he didn't have this opportunity. Fujimaru Ritsuka did look at the lake and stared at the scene for two seconds, but after that, she turned back to Mephiston as if nothing had happened, pointed at the reflection in the lake and praised, "If this is also a banshee, then it is much better than the mirrors in the Hall of Distorted Mirrors."

"how?"

"It has figured out what I really want." Fujimaru Ritsuka's tone was quite gratified, but he stretched out Hecate's staff and stirred up the water in front of him without hesitation. "Fufu is of course a mascot, so of course a wisteria rack should be built on the outer wall of the store! The aesthetics of the Slaanesh demons are really reliable within a certain range, and this layout is really something to learn! Okay, let's go - do you think we should find a different way nearby to go back to the forest, or walk around the lake carefully?"

"...Excuse me." Mephiston began to realize that something was wrong with the action of "Fujimaru Ritsuka personally destroyed the future he really wanted", and said in a dry voice, "What did you see in the lake?"

"I opened a bakery on the corner with the person I love." Fujimaru Ritsuka answered without hesitation, with a somewhat puzzled expression.

This scene was simple and concrete, and Mephiston was forced to stop himself from saying, "You just broke it up like that." From a general sense of value, a small shop is certainly not worth a sneer to the imperial saint and can be abandoned at will. But the paradox lies here: if it is really so worthless and can be abandoned at will, how can it be called the "future that the person involved really wants"?

The think tank's logic was really confusing on this issue. At this moment, he even tried to extract clues from the simple information of "bakery", and began to analyze like an extreme warrior what kind of social environment could support a small bakery opened on a street corner and managed by two people to continue to operate peacefully. But before he came to some useless conclusions from his useless thinking, the waves on the lake behind Fujimaru Ritsuka began to ripple again:
A Slaanesh demon with horns on its head, delicate features, and crab-claw-like hands emerged from the water. As Fujimaru Ritsuka turned around reflexively, the psychic lightning in Mephiston's hand was already crackling. The little girl, who was obviously weaker in combat, kept facing the direction of the lake and took two steps back, away from the water. Then, the blue flash of the think tank's psychic energy and the sound of the surging electricity occupied almost all of her senses.

But after this round of attacks subsided, the lust demon did not die. At the critical moment, it nimbly jumped out of the water, revealing its scaly, fish-tail-like lower body, and stranded itself completely on the dry shore. It crawled on the ground, maintaining this posture that was almost at the mercy of others, trying to prop up its upper body, with a solemn determination of "If I hear the truth in the morning, I am willing to die in the evening":

"--Wait a minute! I won't attack you, but I have to ask!" The Lifeless One said this, and then locked his eyes accurately on Fujimaru Ritsuka who was almost shrinking into the shadow behind the think tank, "Why--why can you give up so easily? You have obviously admitted it! That's what you really want! It's the desire in your deepest fantasy!"

"Don't talk to them."

Vitalus has been held in Mephiston's hand, waiting to drink blood, but Fujimaru Ritsuka - she obviously has some rebellious nature.

"Well... you also said that it was my 'deepest fantasy desire', right?" It's hard to say whether he is a saint or not, but anyway, the imperial saint with such a title patted Mephiston's gauntlet, signaling him to be patient, while still answering the devil's question, "Since it is a 'dream in fantasy', then of course it should be something that you can't pursue no matter how hard you try, right? How can it appear in front of you all of a sudden?"

"......?" The arrangement of the facial features on the demonic and delicate face of the Slaanesh Devil was different from that of humans. But no matter who it was, one could still easily read the surprise and confusion on its face:

"Then you choose to break it with your own hands? Doesn't this make you painful?"

"Of course I can't say that there is no fluctuation, but I think that suffering because of one's own wishes is of course a natural part of longing." Fujimaru Ritsuka said, "There is the pain of giving up before there is the joy of getting, and only after tasting the bitterness of failure can one feel the sweetness of success. Simply adding sugar will only make the baked cake bitter, and adding a little salt to the ingredients will highlight the sweetness of the finished product. For me, now is not the harvest season, and I can't stop, so even if it hurts I have to break the illusion. You are Sally's servant, you should understand this better than me, right?"

(End of this chapter)