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

Chapter 9 Astro Torch
"I never thought I would see such a scene again." Ferrus Manus sighed as he stood outside the palace hall. "A palace that is still intact... This is simply a miracle."

One of the creators of the miracle, Fujimaru Ritsuka, simply sat on the steps not far away, looking a little uneasy.

"Maybe so." She said.

Out of sight, the complex continued to grow in size.Nearby is just the same luxurious living area as the main hall they just left, with a variety of matching exquisite works of art emerging in the right places; then there are the ceremonial places, the imperial dining room and the audience hall that are slightly further away. , large conference halls and office areas; further away are various laboratories, logistics distribution centers, art exhibition halls and ecological gardens; and in places that ordinary people cannot see, there are secret treasure houses and cells quietly appearing... Every single The buildings are as grand and luxurious as palaces. Even in the most inconspicuous corners, they contain the highest level of beauty and wisdom among human beings, and they are just an insignificant part of the entire building complex.

The Emperor's Palace is undoubtedly a feat of human engineering, the largest single building or complex of buildings ever constructed on Earth, or Terra.Needless to say, such a size is enough to make this building famous in history, but the greatness of the palace does not stop there: it is the residence of the greatest individual in mankind, so it must be consistent with this greatness in every aspect match.Enormity in scale was only the most inconspicuous component of a grandeur befitting an Emperor.The most exquisite works of art in all mankind are just tickets that are qualified to be placed in the room as decoration. Among them, the sculptures and murals created to praise the Great Crusade are all made by top masters, not to mention the emperor. The sophisticated and efficient technological equipment designed and built by the emperor's supreme wisdom, and even the terrifying creations handed down from the dark technological age...

Fujimaru Ritsuka closed her eyes, but she was the caster who initiated this magic, and she was the observer who drew out this concept.Even if she didn't want to, all the information about this royal palace that had been extracted from history still rushed into her mind like a flood.

Just judging the building objectively, she couldn't say anything bad about it, but what she saw was not just the building itself.

Even in the 30th millennium of human history, when it was more rational and more vigorous than now, when everything seemed to be going well, people would easily burst out into a kind of religious fanaticism for the Emperor.She didn't want to count how many craftsmen's bones and blood were buried under such a large-scale project, she didn't want to count how many amazing and talented artists had driven herself crazy over an inconspicuous detail in the palace, and she didn't want to discover the truth. How many conspiracies and machinations were carried out in this splendid place just for the arguably useless purpose of "getting closer to the emperor" - but even if she only extracted a moment in the palace, those things were still from her It flows through my mind clearly, just like when you open a book, you can't help but catch a glimpse of the content on other pages.

She doesn't like it here, or in other words, she doesn't like the subtext of the stars admiring the moon revealed in these buildings, and she doesn't like being the center of attention.

She should be used to it, but she can't.Even though she had joined the Empire as a Nostramo in the illusion, adapted to its system, led the legion in a highly visible position, and spent more than a hundred years, she could still only pretend to be herself. Get used to it.

Of course she couldn't get used to it.Her spirituality had stagnated long before she arrived in the Empire.No matter how much time passes, she will always be the same Fujimaru Ritsuka facing the end.

——From the current point of view, this is a good thing.At least she had room to think so optimistically.

"In subspace, the concept of space itself is very vague, so it can accommodate more than just a palace." She sat on the steps, grabbed her knees, leaned up and looked up at the golden sky, and said, "If the Emperor If the Emperor wishes, as long as he continues to add ether to this creation, it will be able to expand on its own. Judging from the Emperor's total psychic energy, it will be easy to complete the concept of this 'imperial palace' into the 'entire planet'... But it’s better not to build the Hollow Mountains.”

Ferrus Manus lowered his head in confusion: "Why is this?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka took advantage of the situation and moved his gaze from the sky to Ferus: "To put it simply, the Hollow Mountain Range is the Star Torch Generator, and the location we are currently in is the 'Star Torch Generator' in subspace. Inside'. You can't freeze the refrigerator within itself, as this would create a serious paradox - even the best outcome would be for the Star Torch to blow itself up along with Terra, forming a huge sub-sphere in its place. Space rift. I didn’t think about the worse, I think it’s beyond my imagination.”

"...This is too dangerous. Is there no way to avoid or remedy it?"

"Yes, I asked the emperor from the beginning if he wanted to pull a Himalayan mountain range from another point in time - which is the name of the Hollow Mountain Range in the second millennium - to pull a mountain range without a star and sew it in the Hollow Mountain Range. place, but he refused." Fujimaru Ritsuka lowered his head and sighed, "What he means is that if there is any emergency, human beings also need a means that can defeat all odds. After I reminded him of this, he thought it was good, It can be added to his backup plan.”

After hearing this, Ferus Manus thought for a moment, stopped questioning, and simply sat down on the steps: "I see, father has his own considerations."

"I hope so." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who lacked some "necessary" respect and blind faith in the Emperor in all senses, commented not very hopeful - although the Emperor himself seemed to like her attitude quite a bit.

Ferus Manus obviously complained about this, but before he had time to put his inner thoughts into words, Fujimaru Ritsuka had already started a new topic: "Speaking of which, you know the Storm Frontier ( How is Storm Border doing now? I don't want to find my ship cut into parts as soon as I emerge from the warp."

Bringing up work to change the subject doesn't always work, but for Fujimaru Ritsuka, it was enough that it worked this time.Ferrus Manus was clearly more interested in talking about a small ship loaded with lost technology than he was in discussing whether to show more respect to the Emperor.He almost immediately forgot the unpleasantness he had felt a few seconds ago, and said enthusiastically: "Your ship is not big, so it can be hidden in the hangar in the palace in reality. The Imperial Guard is in charge of her."

It was said that "the Imperial Army was in charge," but Fujimaru Ritsuka dared to bet anyone that Ferus must have secretly studied the ship in some way.At least the over-understanding he showed when explaining the progress and details of the renovation was far beyond what he claimed to be able to achieve by "peeping behind the curtain when passing by."

Of course, for Ferus, who was active around the 30th millennium of his life, he could see through the technology of the second millennium of mankind as one plus one equals two, but the part related to magic was another matter. .There are differences in the "mysterious" underlying operating logic between the two different worlds. Many of the spells or structures contained in the Stormbound were even confusing to the Emperor, a master of psychic powers, after seeing them - but these According to the Emperor's knowledge, things that are "completely useless" can still function normally... This can only be explained in the end as psychic powers are magical, and even the Emperor cannot exhaust all the mysteries of the world.After all, Fujimaru Ritsuka's creation magic of "giving the concept of an object to the ether and letting the energy take shape on its own" sounded outrageous to the emperor.If you think about it carefully from the perspective of psychic energy, it is all about unsolved mysteries from beginning to end.Although the Emperor had also used psychic energy to create a scepter out of thin air not long ago, these two seemingly similar phenomena were completely different in the logic of their occurrence.

In addition, the system of magic is more systematic and logical than that of psionic energy. At least unlike psionic energy, magic will symbolically follow the laws of physics when it operates.Such a thing can naturally attract the attention of the Primarch of the Iron Hands, who has done almost nothing else but fight for 1 years.The topic was quickly changed by Ferus, "Because there are too many structures with unexplained principles in the ship, and not too much time has passed in the real world, so currently only some 'imperial common' equipment has been installed on the Storm Frontier." It turned to the exploration of the functional testing and operating principles of the Triton engine.Therefore, Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly ran out of words - she had indeed used the refrigerator for a long time, but she did not know how to refrigerate it.

What about those people who know how to refrigeration?
It took three takes for Ferus Manus to finally realize that Fujimaru Ritsuka was not in a high mood because no one answered the call for too long.He has never been very patient with using roundabout techniques in language, so he asked straight to the point: "Is there any problem?"

"No." The girl retracted her legs back to the steps and hugged her knees. "I just suddenly felt a little emotional. This ship was not originally mine... I suddenly missed the original captain and crew, and then I felt a little bit sad. The sadness of 'One general's success leads to the death of thousands of bones'."

She stretched out a hand and made some meaningless shapes in mid-air: "Look, after a great victory with heavy casualties, most of the time only the name of the battle commander will be widely sung, but the commander may even be in the battle. He only stayed at the headquarters during the whole process and did not kill a single enemy. What really made the battle successful were the unknown soldiers who died on the battlefield, but except for the legion itself or the dedicated narrator, no one would even care whether they really existed Pass."

"...Does this have anything to do with our topic?"

"What allowed me to come to the Empire on this ship was entirely due to the efforts of her original captain and her crew. I did nothing, I was just a hitchhiker. But she became my ship in the end, because on board I am the only living person." Fujimaru Ritsuka explained briefly, but then felt that he was a bit stupid for explaining this matter seriously.She sighed and simply stood up from where she was, looking straight at the fierce and cold face of Ferus who was sitting on the side: "Forget it, just think of it as an innocent moan caused by an adolescent girl's idle thoughts. ,do not take it personally."

Ferus opened his mouth with a "really baffled" expression, but before he could speak, he was interrupted by a rush of footsteps behind him.Conrad Coates carried the scepter that looked like it was made of gold and blew it over like a gust of wind. He threw it in as if it was some unlucky thing in his hand and turned to face him. Fujimaru Ritsuka's arms.

He didn't say anything, but everyone could see that he wanted to curse badly.

"What's wrong?" Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was hit by the scepter and staggered, asked first.

Konrad Curze paused for a moment, as if he was trying hard to swallow back some words that did not match the noble status of the original body, and then he spoke: "He thinks that your mission requires an extra chapter. He said to let me recruit troops. .”

These words seemed to poke some kind of switch in Ferrus Manus, causing his originally calm mood to explode - this is subspace, so this kind of "explosion" is What could be observed in a practical sense even made Fujimaru Ritsuka instinctively reach out and press her skirt.

His trust in the emperor prevented him from saying anything too harsh in the end, but this sentence, which was barely regarded as advice, was squeezed out from between his teeth: "Second chances are very rare, you'd better not let them down. .”

Conrad Coates showed a very obvious and deliberate expression of disgust towards his brother.But before he could actually say something to provoke another conflict, Fujimaru Ritsuka asked:
"So, you're upset because you don't want to be drafted?"

"Your Excellency is clear." The pitch-black bat even saluted jokingly when answering her.

When dealing with Fujimaru Ritsuka, Konrad Curze's attitude was not so sharp - especially compared to his attitude towards Ferus a few seconds ago, it was like heaven and earth.This obviously gave the Primarch of the Iron Hands more to say, but in the next moment, he immediately understood where this temperature difference came from:
"Then it's all over if we don't recruit." Fujimaru Ritsuka said in a matter-of-fact manner, "He feels that the need to recruit troops is because he needs a battle group outside the establishment. As long as we have such a military force in our hands, we can Once you complete your mission, he won’t care whether you recruit troops or not.”

Konrad Coates thought for a moment and said: "What you said makes sense, but the question is, where should this extra-organized war group come from?"

To his surprise and to Ferrus's expectation, Fujimaru Ritsuka seemed very confident.

"I have an idea about this."

(End of this chapter)