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

Chapter 371 This fills you with determination
After a brief silence, the clone suddenly spoke: "I have made up my mind."

Akurdona, who didn't have any good ideas himself, was also happy to change the subject so that he could pretend nothing had happened and move down the wire from the edge of death, so he followed suit: "What determination?"

The clone looked up and said with a determined look, "I need to talk to Dawn about this."

Akurdona felt that there was nothing wrong with this decision logically, but in fact, his eyes went dark the moment he heard that short sentence: "Sir, please think twice!"

Logically, when a person faces a problem that he cannot solve, it is an impeccable strategy for him to decide to seek help from another person who is reliable enough; logically, the clone chose to do so rather than face it alone, perhaps because he has broken the embodiment of the "perfection" obsession in himself, which is also good; logically, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists is indeed quite insightful, and he always goes straight to the core when observing the problem - but all of the above does not mean that, in the current situation, Rogal Dorn is a very good person to talk to.

Akurdona couldn't say anything specific about this issue, but he instinctively realized that the decision made by the clone would most likely lead to a result that he didn't really want to see.

"I've made up my mind." But the clone seemed very determined. "The situation has already come to this. How much worse can it get?"

"I don't think the situation is that bad yet." Akuldona said confidently, "You know... uh... Lord Dorn's character..."

"More direct," the clone nonchalantly continued the sentence that Akurdona had hesitated to finish. "Sadly but fortunately, Fulgrim obviously knew what kind of person his brother was, so now, of course, I can roughly infer the way he speaks."

"...Sir, although you may have deliberately used relatively euphemistic words, I still think I must remind you," Akuldona said with a worried tone, "Lord Dorn's character is far more direct than the word 'comparative' can describe. Let's not talk about the distant past, just look at the current Sons of the Phoenix Chapter."

Akuldona tried to use this to argue that Dorn did not consider the listener's mood and the derivative consequences when he spoke, and the Primarch of the Imperial Fists would only express his truest and most correct attitude without any concealment. The clone was not unaware of this, but he still did not change his mind: "I know what the situation might turn out to be, but do you have a better idea?"

"Perhaps we can talk to a credible think tank..."

"But Akuldona," the clone's face was very sad, "there is no 'trusted think tank' nearby."

Indeed, it is. Even in the glory days of the Great Crusade, when the Emperor's Children, as a legion, aspired to become "the perfect benchmark of the Astartes Legion", they had no think tank. At the beginning, the Emperor's Children were the only legion that was allowed to use the Imperial double-headed eagle symbol on their armor. They were the perfect executors of the Emperor's will and the embodiment of the Imperial Truth in the violent institutions. The legion abandoned psionic power from the beginning - ironically, perhaps because of this, no one in the legion without a think tank could realize that corruption and depravity would quietly grow on the body of the Primarch with a seemingly ordinary trophy sword.

Then again, from the clone's perspective, the standard of "trustworthy" is actually very vague. In a broad sense, the current head of the Ultramarines' think tank, who is in charge of managing the major and minor events in Hera Fortress and Macragge, is obviously a "trustworthy think tank" without a doubt. But the problem is that if he knows about this, everyone knows about it, then it is equivalent to Guilliman knowing it. Unlike Dorn, who he has met, fought, and talked with in person, the clone is not very sure whether he should trust the Imperial Regent - Fulgrim's memory of his brother (stereotyped and boring) is a one-sided impression caused by arrogance, and based on the news that the clone has seen and heard in recent days to kill time, he feels that Guilliman is a skilled politician who is shrewd and therefore very unpredictable. Even though in Fulgrim's impression, Guilliman valued his family very much, the clone still didn't dare to bet that a pragmatic politician, after struggling to support the mess of the current empire, would have some sincerity towards him, an artificial life form that had occupied his own place and clearly posed a risk of pollution.

For him now, Dorn, who was too straightforward, was indeed the best person to ask for help. Of course, he didn't know how Dorn would view this issue. He might choose to help him, or he might choose to use force to try to "scrap" him directly - just like Fabius Bayer did to the thousands of defective products he had produced in the past and would produce in the future. But for the clone, both results were acceptable. Because at least, Dorn would not be like Bayer, who would quietly sell him to something else after realizing that he could not meet his needs.

No one likes to be treated like an object. Even though a clone may not be a "person" in the strict sense, since he has a similar mind to a human, then of course he is the same.

Akuldona could not comprehend the complex thoughts in the clone's mind, but he could finally recognize that the other party was very determined on this issue. He realized that he might not be able to prevent the next series of events from happening, but he still wanted to make a final struggle: "Okay, you want to talk to Lord Dorn about this issue. But can you make sure you don't get angry during the whole process?"

The clone couldn't answer this question. Although he had talked with Dorn many times, so far, the two sides had not had any disagreements. However, with the idea that "if Fulgrim can do it, I should be able to do it too", the clone took a deep breath after briefly reviewing his memories:

"I'll try my best, Akuldona. I'll try my best." Rather than making a promise to the other party, the clone was more like persuading himself, "I will tell myself again and again that he actually has no ill intentions, but... he is a little too direct."

Akurdona gave this a suspicious look.
-
Master Guilliman will be back in seven days. Only this belief can support Digris at present and enable him to complete all his work in the fortress.

When he changed positions with Calgar and took over all management work, the Chief Librarian was still very confident. He remembered what it was like when Calgar handed Macragge over to him, and thought that when he needed to hand over the command to someone else, he could still keep the planet prosperous and busy and orderly - but unfortunately, everyone knows what happened later.

The current situation has obviously exceeded the Chief Librarian's expectations: after the first four (at least nominally) Dornish Chapters, the fifth Chapter - the Celestial Lions Chapter - also appeared near the Mandeville Point of the system. The lonely cruiser was almost drowned in the torrent of countless ships that traveled to and from the Five Hundred Worlds every day, but without any psychic perception and inference, Digris could guess that if the last remnants of this Chapter were allowed to land and meet their Primarch, someone would definitely be in trouble. Digris didn't know the specific situation, but he had heard some rumors: the reason why the Celestial Lions Chapter had become so large that it could hardly gather even a hundred Astartes was due to the Inquisition.

Logically speaking, he should treat the Celestial Lions the same way as he treated the previous Dornish Chapters - although the reason why the previous Chapters were able to crash into the special fast channel of Macragge Starport was because of their overly straightforward communication bombing. However, perhaps because the current Chapter is too small and the reconstruction work is not going very smoothly (or, it is not going very smoothly), the Celestial Lions' Chapter flagship (or, the only remaining battle barge of the Chapter) has been very quiet since entering the system, and seems to be actively trying to avoid anything that is not in the process. This provides Digris with another very tempting choice: pretend that he didn't notice them coming, and let them slowly queue up in the military system's port entrance channel as they are now, in short, delay the period before the Regent returns.

Rogal Dorn had already caused an "emergency" with the Sons of Phoenix, and this was far from an incident that Digris could handle satisfactorily with his status and ability. After carrying out some basically ineffective activities, Akuldona also found the only way out in despair, and had to use the same "delay" strategy as him. Digris could certainly pull the Celestial Lions out of the queue and put them at the front, just like he did with the Black Templars, the Rebukers, and the Hammer of Dorn (and the Sons of Phoenix at the beginning) - and then there was a high probability that he would have to face the wrath of the rock again when the Primarch met his offspring a few days later.

Of course, the one who should be worried about this is the Inquisition, not Digris or the Ultramarines. But you have to know that even Lord Guilliman, who has revived from the stasis field, has not made any major changes to this organization so far. For Digris, the character trait of the Primarch of the Imperial Fists, that seeing is better than hearing, has been fully demonstrated during this period of time. Therefore, he feels that if this Lord gets angry because of the experience of the Celestial Lions, the whole thing will become very bad - the kind of bad that is completely beyond his control and even handling.

He hesitated whether to write this matter into the daily newspaper and ask his Primarch for instructions, because he did have a premonition of some very bad theories from this matter - for example, Lord Dorne decided to completely overthrow the Inquisition in anger. But in reality, the nature of this matter was really no different from the previous few Dorne sub-groups that rushed in without caring about anything. It was a trivial matter that he could decide on his own, and he really shouldn't bother the Primarch about it... Wait a minute, considering that the Inquisition still needs to play its own unique role in this war-torn galaxy, maybe this is not a trivial matter...?
Although the Glory of Macragge has not returned to her loyal Macragge, they are still able to communicate within a day through astropathic communication in the Imperial Holy Land in the Ultramar Sector. Just when Digris was gradually inclined to delay the issue of the Celestial Lions for a day or so, or to consult the Primarch before considering it, and was ready to contact the astropath after spending a few minutes writing the daily report, the astropath contacted him first:
"My Lord, we have received astropathic messages from the other side of the Great Rift again." In the telepathic communication, the astropath's tone revealed a strange satisfaction amidst exhaustion. "Lady Fujimaru Ritsuka said that she will secretly come to visit Macragge on the Storm's Edge in about a Terran week."

This news was neither good nor bad. To Digris, it just made him a little confused about "what is she doing here?" But considering that the Imperial Regent would also return to Macragge at about that time, the Chief Librarian thought that perhaps this Imperial Saint had received some kind of command from the Emperor. In order to be on the safe side, he habitually asked back: "Did the astrologer indicate her purpose for coming here?"

"No, sir. I am ashamed that with our current capabilities, we are unable to receive too much detailed meaning from an astronomical language that needs to cross a large rift."

"I see. Thank you for your service." This answer made Digris a little disappointed, but it was understandable. He should not be too harsh on these mortal psychics who also worked hard for the empire. After confirming that the astropath had no other important matters to report, the chief think tank cut off the psychic communication and decided to add this information to today's daily report. However, he had just picked up the quill and let the pen tip fall on the parchment when he heard another round of hurried footsteps outside his temporary office area as the lord of the fortress, and it was obviously coming towards him.

Diglis sighed, but had to put the pen back into the ink bottle. He didn't remember who he had an appointment with during this time, and he was sure that this was the time he always set aside in his schedule for meditation. Everyone knew it. Of course, in recent days, this time was rarely used for meditation. Instead, it was used to deal with various emergencies and the paperwork that came with it. But unfortunately, plans can't keep up with changes. Obviously, today, he probably won't even have this little time to be alone.

The visitor was an Ultramarines think tank record officer. Before the person's figure actually appeared in front of Digris along the corridor, the chief think tank had already realized this through his psychic senses. At the same time, he also remembered that the record officer's recent mission was to be placed in the underground of Hera Fortress, following Gabriel Santo, the captain of the first company of the Legion during the Great Crusade of the Cursed Iron Hands, to adjust and iterate the "spirit communicator".

"What happened?" A subtle bad premonition came to Digris's mind. He didn't know whether psychic power was involved, but it still prompted him to ask before the other party opened his mouth.

The relatively young Primaris warrior paused for a moment because of the Librarian's overly keen perception, but in the next second, he adjusted his attitude and reorganized his words: "It's not related to the mission you assigned to me. It's about the person we are temporarily placing underground."

"how?"

"Not long ago, that person expressed his wish to talk to Lord Dorn and entrusted Lord Akuldona to pass on the message. Lord Dorn agreed and went to the basement of the fortress alone twenty minutes ago."

The bad feeling in Diglis' heart became stronger.

"And then?" He couldn't help but be a little cautious in his attitude when asking the question, as if this could prevent him from hearing results he didn't want.

"Then." The Primaris Archivist's expressionless face seemed to show a hint of helplessness. "No one was allowed to get close, so no one knows exactly what they talked about. I'm sure their conversation was very bad - Lord Dorne and that person had a fight."

Digris let out a long, tired breath from his chest, almost exhaling all the air in his three lungs.

He was sure that the content of his daily report today would be very exciting.

(End of this chapter)