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

Chapter 378 Once you have been a canned mother...

While the entire Hera Fortress was busy preparing to welcome the true Lord of the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar and Regent of the Empire, Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had no idea what was happening in the audience hall, was still heartlessly laughing at Akultona, who was put in solitary confinement for saying something wrong, in the basement of the fortress.

"That's hilarious. What do you mean by 'he may be Fulgrim but he is definitely not Fulgrim'? You have the brain of a Space Marine, Akuldona. Your ability to express yourself in words should not be so poor."

Considering that what Ritsuka Fujimaru did in Parmenio was no secret among the Ultramarines, her relationship with the Bound Astartes had become common knowledge in the think tank led by Digris. Based on this, when she said she wanted to visit Akultona, who was temporarily imprisoned by Dorn, she was not stopped even though Digris was busy.

Of course, meeting with the clone was not something that any think tank could decide. Even though Fujimaru Ritsuka was known as the "Imperial Saint", she could not meet directly with Fabius Bile's amazing creation before obtaining approval from Digris or Guilliman. Fortunately, Fujimaru Ritsuka was not impatient about this issue - wouldn't it be easy to get an approval when she reported to the Imperial Regent in two days? Therefore, she had no complaints about the Ultramarines' current decision to refuse her access to the clone's house arrest location.

"Although I understand what you mean, Lord Dorn will definitely think you are talking nonsense." Fujimaru Ritsuka commented in a very affirmative tone, "Having said that, I'm afraid no one in the entire empire can understand what you are saying except me - this is not a problem of comprehension. If you want to understand what you are saying, you need some practical experience."

But Akuldona's attention was obviously not on the so-called "practical experience". He relied on the fact that he had become familiar with Fujimaru Ritsuka during the time when she had to run around in the Torch and the Webway, and he teased her without any scruples: "'Lord Dorne'? This is the first time I hear you call me so politely."

"Simulation and reality should be separated. In reality, we just met today and we are not familiar with each other." Fujimaru Ritsuka crossed his arms. "For a person of high status and power and meeting for the first time, this is normal social etiquette."

“But what about Master Guilliman?” Akuldonar pointed out the blind spot. “You address him by name. So does Master Corax.”

"Oh, Second Captain." Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled sarcastically, with a definite threat in his tone, "I suddenly realize that the small dark room you are in now is really a special small dark room."

Akurdona shuddered suddenly. Inexplicably, he felt that he might lose something soon.

"After I gave Sigismund a leave of absence, it was not easy to find a personal guard of similar standard, considering that most of the guards were left in Bar. I was thinking that since you are currently free, I wonder if you can spare some time -"

Before Fujimaru Ritsuka finished his threatening words, Akurdona, who had never wanted to stay in solitary confinement here from the beginning, slid to his knees without the opponent exerting any strength:

"--I'm sorry, I said the wrong thing. Please be magnanimous and just pretend you didn't hear it!" The two-meter-tall Astarte bowed his head to admit his mistake, but the picture still looked like the person in question was looking down at the whorl of Fujimaru Ritsuka's hair. "I really don't want to be locked up here! I still have things to do!"
-
"Is this what you think you have to do?" At the door of the Phoenix Sons' station, Fujimaru Ritsuka almost wrapped her entire upper body tightly in a warm shawl. Now, she was glaring at Akuldona, who was only wearing a thin training suit that seemed to have no warmth function at all. It was unclear whether this anger came from the other party not doing his job or simply jealous of the Astartes' ability to resist cold.

Macragge is mountainous, and Hera Fortress is located on the highest mountain range on the planet. Even if this planet is considered to have a very suitable climate for human habitation by the Imperial standards, only those who have experienced it know how cold the wind in the mountains is.

Facing Fujimaru Ritsuka's questioning, Akurdona, who had briefly explained the whole story on the way, replied as a matter of course: "Then I can't just leave them alone, can I?"

"That makes sense. But what you mean by 'can't leave them alone' actually means 'run in and beat up all the famous swordsmen in the entire regiment'. No matter how you look at it, this is very wrong, right?" Fujimaru Ritsuka complained mercilessly, "Mr. Ferrus is still slowly moving towards Baal - even if he suddenly decides not to move and flashes to Hera's Fortress all at once, he has no reason to help the Sons of the Phoenix, and he won't suddenly appear and beat you up."

Akuldona looked at everything except Fujimaru Ritsuka. Even with his emotional intelligence, he could roughly understand that the other party's accusation of his behavior might cause damage to the honor of the Phoenix Son. But for the sake of his face, which had long been gone in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka, he still said stubbornly: "That's good, I don't really want to be beaten..."

"I will beat you up." Fujimaru Ritsuka said sinisterly, "You haven't made any progress in all these years - although I can't beat you, I can let you experience again what it means to be not very aggressive but extremely insulting!"

Akuldona was indeed threatened by this soft threat, because Fujimaru Ritsuka had already proved that she, who didn't care about her own face, could really do it. If a fight really came to a head, no matter what rules were used, whether he won or lost, Akuldona would definitely be embarrassed. So, the only thing he could do was to shut up with hatred, lower his head and walk through the increasingly scarce mortal servants of the Phoenix Sons, and move towards the open-air duel cage on the edge of the training ground with ease.

In the process, he had to be led by the indignant voice behind him and was forced to slow down his pace ("You don't realize that the height of these steps set for Space Marines is difficult for me to climb!" "Then I carry you?" "It's not an emergency march, I have my own feet! Thank you!"). In the end, because of this inevitable delay, he was blocked by the Phoenix Son Legion Champion Lidatore Kuwen halfway.

"Brother Akurdona!" The young man tried his best to pretend to be calm, but even Akurdona could see the obvious joy on his face. Fujimaru Ritsuka even read a kind of relief from him, "We thought you wouldn't come back!" Akurdona himself didn't think much about it, but just snorted awkwardly. Fujimaru Ritsuka was very considerate and pretended not to notice the problem with the visitor's attitude, and continued to sneer at the first son: "If someone hadn't bailed him out of the confinement room, he really couldn't come back even if he wanted to."

The person being mocked looked away awkwardly, and the joy gradually disappeared from the face of the Primaris warrior who came over, which made Fujimaru Ritsuka understand what the other party was thinking. "Don't think too much, it's purely his own fault. He lied to Lord Dorne and ended up being locked up. It's not a big deal. Even if no one protects him, he will be released when the Primarch calms down."

"Oh..." Perhaps from his own experience and Akultuna's erratic gaze, he realized that the evasive version of the truth described by Fujimaru Ritsuka was very likely to happen, so Kuven temporarily dispelled some of his doubts. Then, he realized that the little girl who followed Akultuna and interrupted him without any scruples, in terms of her appearance, did not fit in with the current location and environment.

"May I know your name?" Although this was a very young mortal, from the matter-of-fact manner in which she spoke and the fact that Akuldona did not refute, Kuven judged that this unfamiliar face must be either rich or noble. Considering the current awkward status of the Chapter itself, Kuven unconsciously chose words that sounded more respectful when asking the question.

"Fujimaru Ritsuka." The little girl reluctantly stretched out her hands from under her warm shawl and pointed at herself. "Temporary employer." She added, and then pointed at Akurdona, "Temporary bodyguard. Probably a week or two. After he was pulled out of the confinement room, he said he wanted to come, so we came."

After saying these words, Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly retracted his hand. These were simple, low-Gothic sentences that were clearly expressed, and Kuven easily understood everything, but he couldn't figure out what was going on: regardless of why a mortal girl inexplicably earned an Astartes as her bodyguard - this is the opposite, isn't it? How can an employer follow a bodyguard's actions?
In the half second that he was stuck trying to sort out this logic, Akurdona had already spoken for him: "This is the sword champion of the Sons of Phoenix Chapter, Lidatore Kuven. He is very talented, but he just lacks the right guidance. He learns very quickly, and I think he has a promising future."

"Thank you. This is very helpful to me." Fujimaru Ritsuka snorted in dissatisfaction. Anyone could tell that her words were meant in a sarcastic way. "Not to mention why you introduced yourself for others, the way you introduced yourself really made me doubt whether you can only remember who a person is through their talent in swordsmanship."

"That's not the case." Akurdona began to speak the truth again - this time he was obviously speaking on purpose. "After all, if that were the case, I don't think it would be possible for me to remember you."

Kuwen stood there, watching blankly as Fujimaru Ritsuka pulled out a cushion from under his shawl that was obviously too big to hide, and held up this light cotton-skin down filling - which was probably of no actual attack power to mortals - and started beating Akuldona. The latter was not angry at this clear offense, but laughed out loud. This scene was somewhat surreal for Kuwen, who had lived in a war group environment with clear superiors and subordinates for a long time.

He stood there in bewilderment for a while, not knowing how to react, until this short farce ended after a dozen seconds. The emotional indifference brought to him by the Primaris surgery was activated by the event that challenged his common sense, and it did not completely cover up the sharp characteristics of his gene seed that clearly did not belong to the Dornish bloodline. Kuven, who had just witnessed this scene for the first time, felt quite embarrassed for some reason, but the other two who had just performed this scene in person were calm and at ease, as if they were used to it.

"Anyway, do what you should do." Fujimaru Tatsuka retracted her hand with a huff and stuffed the cushion back under her shawl. The bulk that was obviously impossible to cover up disappeared inexplicably under the shawl just as it appeared out of thin air. "I feel it's too cold outside. I'm going to stay in the kitchen. It will definitely be much warmer there than other places if we light a fire."

After saying that, she didn't wait for others to refute (mainly Kuwen, after all, who entertains guests by stuffing them into the kitchen), she jumped up the stairs and disappeared quickly. The Phoenix Son Champion did want to stop her, but it seemed that he was distracted for a moment, and Fujimaru Ritsuka disappeared from his sight. He looked around, wanting to catch a mortal servant nearby to entrust the other party with this matter, but unfortunately, after what had happened before, the huge number of pilgrims who had followed the war group had basically all disappeared in various ways, and the number of mortal servants had also shrunk greatly for similar reasons. He didn't notice it when he wasn't paying attention, but now, Kuwen looked around and suddenly found that the war group's residence seemed very deserted.

"Don't worry about her." Akurdona saw Kuven's uneasiness and confusion, and comforted him calmly, raising his hand and patting him on the back: "She doesn't care much about etiquette in her heart - she has been scolded for this in the past."

"But this is definitely not right." Kuwen said stubbornly. The battles and conquests experienced by the Phoenix Sons Chapter had no glory after the Primarch's denial. If even the art of hospitality could not be fully practiced -

"I know what you're thinking, but I didn't involve her just for you to entertain her." Akultona said cunningly, "Just pretend you didn't see Fujimaru Ritsuka. I came here on my own."

"What? What's going on?" Kuwen was completely confused. "Who is she? What is she doing here?"

"You don't need to know too much, or you'll get beaten." Akuldona gestured the size and shape of the cushion in the air. "You just need to know that if Lord Dorn doesn't change his mind, she might be the one who can help your regiment. Oh, when she realizes what's going on tonight, she'll definitely be angry with me again. When you laugh at me then, just don't laugh too obviously."

As the firstborn was talking, he turned to the next topic without warning:
"Well, enough chit-chat, go to the duel cage and pick up your swords - I want to see if you have any achievements in the few days I've been away."

(End of this chapter)