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

Within minutes of the order arriving, they were transported to the Macragge's Glory via the warp, and underwent layers of strict and cautious inspections, and were finally allowed to walk in this magnificent Queen of Glory-class battleship under surveillance.

During this period, Somni tried his best to remain quiet and indifferent like a guard, but this did not mean that the people around him were also quiet and indifferent. At least, the captain of the Dark Angel Raven Wing who came with him had more than one round of arguments with the inspection personnel around him because of the color of his armor.

Not to mention, Jago Sevitarion clearly had no intention of stopping when it came to his ultramarine-painted cousin.

Overall, the Lion's Mane is of course a force loyal to the Empire, but if you break it down, it is actually carrying three different groups - the Chaldean Bureau under the Astronomican, the Dark Angels, and the Night Lords. After receiving the summons, Somni decided to send one representative from each side, considering that the Regent might want to hear the full picture of the incident from different perspectives.

He himself of course represented the Chaldean Bureau; on the Dark Angels side, the person in charge was taken to the surface of the planet by Ritsuka Fujimaru, so they internally elected the Ravenwing Captain, who had the highest military rank in an unclear sense; and when it came to the Night Lords, the most representative was undoubtedly the Primarch Konrad Curze, but considering the various impacts that might be caused on religion, politics, and security after he appeared in the public eye, Somni still chose to take the Captain of the First Company aboard the Macragge's Glory.

But he really didn't expect that Sevatar's fighting ability was so strong in every sense.

By definition, he was still a prisoner of the Lion's Mane, so before leaving, he was only allowed to wear a simple robe with the Night Lords' mark, and wore black stone handcuffs on his hands to suppress psychic power. Somni originally hoped to restrict Sevatar's actions in this way, so as to reduce his threat in various senses (at least in appearance), so that both sides could exercise restraint in their contact with the Ultramarines - unfortunately, it now seems that the opposite has happened.

Sevatar, wearing the Black Stone handcuffs, did look a little more listless than usual, but his poor physical condition had obviously brought him an equally bad mood, as evidenced by the fact that he soon began to verbally attack everything around him equally.

During the half-hour inspection, he first mocked the Ravenwing captain beside him: "Are your helmets all welded to your power armor? To be honest, I have never seen what Lanmarok looks like in such a long time on the ship."

He expanded on this idea, and then turned to the cousins ​​around him who were very unfriendly to him and the legion symbol on his body, mocking the overly gorgeous and cumbersome carvings on their armor and said: "Does the holy book also require you to do this? Is the lord who wrote it too lenient?"

In this round of debate, he even let a stray bullet hit Somni, who was unable to complete the monitoring process because the relevant personnel were extremely confused during the process. He said: "It is very likely that there is nothing inside that golden armor." Somni thought about it and replied to him: "Indeed." This successfully choked him.

But he didn't stay quiet for a few minutes. When they barely passed the initial test and came to the corridor to go to the next checkpoint, Sevatar opened his mouth again. Before he could really say something that would make the already angry Ultramarines around him even more angry, Somni quickly tripped him with the shaft of the halberd in his hand.

"Everything you do now will be recorded." Somni said calmly in the face of the other party's angry glare, "Someone will come to judge your current behavior."

He wanted to use this to warn Sevatar to be more restrained, but unexpectedly, the latter burst into laughter as if he heard a funny joke: "Do you think I will be scared by this? You have a machine brain, you don't even know how to make someone feel threatened or scared! Any mortal can do better than you in this regard!"

The Ultramarines around him became even angrier for some reason that Somni could not understand, but he himself did not care about it at all - Sevatar was telling the truth, he really did not understand.

"I agree with you," he replied calmly. "I will collect sample data and formulate a new strategy in the future. But for now, please keep quiet. This will be more conducive to our subsequent communication."

Sevatar punched the cotton again and cursed in Nostramo, muttering something like "unreasonable" in a low voice, and continued to move forward while cursing all the way.

After another hour of hardship for everyone, they finally passed various repeated inspections and arrived at the solemn, luxurious and elegant grand door of the audience hall. The Ever-Victorious Army standing in front of the door made way for Somni and his three companions to enter, while the Ultramarines who had been accompanying them on this journey were left outside.

This audience room was very spacious, and could easily accommodate a team of more than a hundred people to discuss or wait here. It was not difficult to imagine a scene of a bustling crowd, but now, it seemed empty and lonely. In the huge space, there were only the Imperial Regent Robert Guilliman himself, the Director of the Think Tank Varo Digris, the Tribune of the Guards Maldova Coken, and a small group of people he thought were necessary to be here.

Summoning in such a majestic scene may also be a part of the psychological warfare as a prelude to negotiation. One party emphasizes authority itself, which will make it easier for them to take the initiative in the subsequent conversation. Somni can objectively understand the psychological principle of this behavior, but subjectively he cannot empathize with it. The Ravenwing Captain behind him, and even Sevatar, who just showed fearlessness, showed a little body language of feeling pressure in such a space, or in front of a Primarch, but this had no effect on Somni.

"Stop right there, don't go any further." The first words that rang out in the hall came from the tribune Coken. His heavy, blazingly angry voice echoed between the marble walls, with a slight majestic echo, "Who are you? Why are you pretending to be a guard?"

Whether it was the numerous inconclusive monitoring before, or Koken's familiarity with his colleagues as a member of the Ten Thousand, it was easy for him to understand the fact that "Somni is not a guard of the royal guard" in an instant, and it was reasonable for him to question this first. Somni knew this, but he still felt that the tribune was a little too angry.

"I am indeed not a member of the Custodes." He began, agreeing with the other party's point of view. "My official name is Imperator Somnium (Emperor's Dream). For reasons of efficiency, convenience, and to avoid ambiguity in daily situations, it is often referred to as Somni. I am here on behalf of the Chaldean Bureau under the Astronomican Hall."

While saying this, he also sent the Emperor's Vision's ship identification code to everyone present, as well as lengthy documents and electronic seals from the Throne Room and the Astronomican Hall to authenticate and prove it. However, this "ship that sank in battle ten thousand years ago turned into a guard of war and appeared before our eyes" was too far-fetched, and Tribune Coken obviously could not accept this statement for a while. He wanted to say something more, but Robert Guilliman raised a hand to stop him.

"This is a very... strange statement." The Ultramarines Primarch said so. Somni was completely unable to judge his true thoughts from his speaking attitude and facial expressions, but at least he chose to put the matter aside for the time being. "For us, this is a completely unfamiliar field. Perhaps my think tank director will consult this matter in detail in a more appropriate setting."

——He must have read the discussion in those lengthy official documents of the Empire, just in these few seconds. Somni was sure based on his reaction. Those discussions were vague and obscure, but for a Primarch, perhaps these few seconds were enough for him to read through them through the servo system on the power armor and extract the central idea that "this is the product of a psionic ritual."

"At least for the current emergency of war, we just need to confirm his loyalty to the Empire." The Imperial Regent said to the people gathered around him, and then turned to Somni, "We can trust your loyalty, right?"

This question made him a little angry, but Somni also understood Robert Guilliman's cautious attitude towards unknown psychic products, so he remained calm and prepared to speak. But in the moment before he succeeded in speaking, Koken's voice rang again:

"I don't trust it," he said, even refusing to use personal pronouns in his sentences. "It may come from some unknown—"

"Watch your words, Tribune. You are speaking to one of the Emperor's flagships. Please be respectful." Somni's voice also became angry. "If you are so angry, why not put down your weapons and go to the logistics department to drink a few more cups of tea - if my current chief officer was here, she would definitely advise you to do so."

This sentence suddenly made the atmosphere on the scene freeze, leaving only Sevatar's giggles echoing in the empty hall. Coken didn't make any sound, but everyone could see that he was so angry that he was about to explode. In order to keep the conversation going before the tribune really exploded, Robert Guilliman had to change the topic:

"I noticed that you have dark angels with black paint, and a Night Lord prisoner." He simply recounted the situation in front of him, "I need to know the meaning of this."

"Yes, my lord. But there is no profound meaning in keeping the black paint, we are just keeping it the same." The Ravenwing Captain replied loudly, without the common restraint of the Astartes of this era when meeting the Primarch, but showed a strong confidence in his own legion. "We have been lost in the warp for 10,000 years. Before that, we were fighting against the Night Lords in the Salamas sector under the leadership of the Primarch. After returning to reality, we have not met any of our legion brothers in the current Empire. We just heard that they changed their paint at some point in the past."

He emphasized the word "Legion" when he spoke. This obviously made the Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines a little angry, but the Primarch himself just responded with a chuckle that seemed to be a little relieved. He didn't care about this harmless provocation, but temporarily let go of this part of the question and turned his gaze to Sevatar: "I believe it was a difficult journey, and I feel sorry for your experience. I also believe that this person is the prisoner you captured in the glorious battle before the voyage?"

The Dark Angel hesitated for a moment, but he finally admitted it shamelessly: "Yes, this is the Captain of the Night Lords, Yago Sevitarion."

"I have heard of this name." Robert Guilliman's eyes seemed to be looking at Sevatar, and also seemed to be looking at something far away. "I have heard of your duel with Sigismund, the most outstanding heir of Dorne. It's a pity that we have never seen it."

"Yes, it's a pity, sir." Sevatar chuckled, "You see, in the good old days, your model troops and us street rats really didn't have much to do with each other, right?"

He might have wanted to provoke him, but Robouti Guilliman was clearly not buying it. The Primarch continued to question the Dark Angel without being affected at all: "I am somewhat puzzled as to why he is here. We usually do not allow prisoners to influence our subsequent agenda."

"But what if that 'prisoner' is very important?" Sevatar's joking voice answered him, "What if a prisoner is so important that even showing up would cause great risks, and we have to find a spokesperson he can trust?"

The Primarch of the Ultramarines narrowed his ice-blue eyes dangerously: "Iago Severtarion, I order you to speak clearly."

"Okay, the matter itself is actually very clear." Sevatar smiled with a contemptuous attitude, "First of all, I am not a prisoner of the Dark Angels. The one who really controls me and my fellow brothers is the Chaldean Bureau - to be honest, at least the food is many times better than on your ship."

He teased the Ravenwing captain beside him, earning an angry glare from the latter, until the primarch's majestic voice came from the high platform at the end of the hall: "Speak to the point."

"Well, then we have to talk about why the Chaldean Bureau is willing to 'take in' us 'Chaos Warbands', and that is where the answer you want lies, sir."

Sevata, who had already learned some imperial history from Fujimaru Ritsuka, including a lot of "secrets", smiled maliciously because the current situation echoed a certain period of history in a dramatic way:

"The first prisoner of the Chaldean Bureau who belonged to the Night Lords' legion was Konrad Curze. Now, our Primarch is undoubtedly also on the Lion's Mane."

Robert Guilliman's eyes widened in surprise, and he stood up from his seat:

"--This is impossible!" he exclaimed.

Mi (six o'clock)

Guda, who later watched the dashcam (?): You said that the tribune should lay down his weapons and drink tea, which is a bit insulting to the imperial guards. You might as well threaten him that he will not be able to board the Emperor's Dream in the future.

Somni: It makes sense when you think about it, so let’s do it.

Kirken:? ? ? ?

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 84 Don't Let the Space Marines Choose Their Clothes

After getting up the next morning, Fujimaru Ritsuka felt dizzy for about ten minutes - in her dream last night, she spent half the night arguing with the emperor.

The memory of this lucid dream did not disappear quickly after waking up. Various intelligence about this war was running through her mind. The vague omen of the subspace and the actual movement of troops in the material universe gave rise to thousands of possible future situations. Fujimaru Ritsuka packed them all up and threw them behind her mind without any care, and got up to wash up.

After taking care of her personal hygiene in crude conditions, the Emperor's chosen Envoy to the Throne resumed her day's activities: First, she immediately discovered that Lanmarok herself had returned to the residence of the Battle Sisters, and had brought back from somewhere a set of clothes suitable for "that girl's" size, including shoes and socks.

"...I was planning to ask Sister Iolanthe if she could find her a set of clothes today." Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the Fire Wing Grand Master who always seemed very unkind like any of his legion brothers in the past, "Lan Malok, I didn't know you were so considerate."

Lanmarok, on the other hand, seemed very reluctant, as if the comment of “considerate” was an insult to him: “I’m not. I just don’t want to be forced to increase my workload because of her overly simple protection.”

"Okay." Pretending that this was indeed the case, Fujimaru Ritsuka took the ready-made clothes piled beside him without even unpacking them, and tried his best not to think about how he found these things in the warehouse of the clothing store that was abandoned due to the war. "Any news from the track?"

"The Lion's Mane sent a message one hour and fifty-four minutes ago, and has successfully contacted the Imperial Regent. The Ultramarines Primarch hopes to have time to talk with you at a lengthy time after we win several important battles on the surface of Parmenio and completely retake the continent of Kyraton."

"I don't know whether he wants to have a long talk with me or with Conrad." Fujimaru Ritsuka snorted noncommittally, "But anyway, he will have to talk to me for a long time in the end, whether it is about this war or something else related to the Empire."

"You seem to have a problem with him."

"Actually, no, but he is an honest man." The girl said something nonchalantly, saying that it would be best if others didn't figure out who the "he" in the sentence was referring to. "Bullying honest people is the most fun, but you can't bully them too hard, otherwise you'll feel bad."

Lanmalok wanted to say something, but he quickly recalled a fifteen-minute video file that was popular on the Lion's Mane less than a week ago, and he closed his mouth in time, watching the other party return to the heavy curtains of the temporary infirmary with all the replacement clothes.

-

When Fujimaru Ritsuka arrived, the girl was already awake and sitting on the bed with her knees hugged, the quilt only covering her feet. When she heard footsteps, she turned around and timidly looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka who was crawling through the curtains with a lot of bags and small things. The latter smiled at her without any gloom: "Good morning."

"...Good morning." She said in a daze, looking at the colorful packaging of ready-made clothes.

"Omit all unimportant past relationships, you have to change clothes now." Fujimaru Ritsuka pointed to the thin white dress stained with blood on her body. The marks on it have turned into reddish brown after drying, " Maybe you could before, but now, you can't just run around in this. You don't even have shoes on."

As he spoke, Fujimaru Ritsuka dragged a chair over to the side, sat on it and began to unpack various ready-made clothing. The girl suddenly realized something, as if she had finally realized it now, and said in confusion: "...but no one has ever thought of this before."

"Simple clothing and bare feet symbolize religious asceticism. This image of a saint is very appropriate." Fujimaru Ritsuka said as he was dismantling it, "But I don't care about those messed up things. I only know that if the Emperor doesn't give you spiritual energy, you might catch a cold wearing only a skirt, and it would be difficult to even walk without shoes."

"…I'm not sure." The girl hesitated. "I can't hear his voice anymore. Has he left?"

"No, 'he' has always been here, but we have found a way to temporarily cut off the connection between you and 'him'." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "It's a good thing to be closely connected with 'him', but you haven't learned how to control the power that naturally flows from the connection. If you are not separated, you may suffer irreversible damage in a week. But this is temporary. After you learn how to regulate it, we will remove the restrictions - I really shouldn't have blindly trusted the vision of the Space Marines. What on earth did Lanmalok pick here!"

After unpacking for a long time, the result was… how should I put it, it was clothes, the size was right, but the material was mostly rough and thick fabric, and the style only considered practicality such as wear resistance and windproof, so it was ugly. In addition, it was natural but also very troubling that, from the material point of view, the only thing in this pile that could be worn next to the skin was socks.

...Thanks for remembering that mortals are supposed to wear socks before putting on their roughly lined boots.

Fujimaru Ritsuka stared fiercely at a coat, two different styles of inner wear and a pair of pants spread out on the bed, as if she was strongly offended by these dead things. This scene made the girl sitting on the bed couldn't help laughing.

"It's OK, I can bear it," she said. "I know resources are tight right now, and these things are more than enough."

The girl knelt up from the bed, put on her socks, then pinched the lining of her pants and gave up regretfully. She didn't even touch the two hard and prickly inner garments, slid her legs off the bed and put on her boots, without changing out of the bloodstained white skirt, she used it as an inner garment and wrapped herself in an ugly thick coat.

"This is all I need," she announced, and Fujimaru Ritsuka scanned her body with a wary gaze.

"The main thing is the shoes. If they don't fit, you must tell me." The latter emphasized, "Try walking today. If you feel uncomfortable, don't bear it. I will find a way to get a better fit. In the future, we may often be close to the battlefield. If the shoes don't fit, it will be fatal."

The girl nodded in confusion, and then seemed to remember something and asked, "Where will I go in the future?"

"You follow me," Fujimaru Ritsuka replied. "Nominally, I am the Inquisitor and you are the Inquisitor Acolyte. In reality, these class privileges and other things are random and I don't care. I will do my best to teach you the working methods and skills that you should have as the 'Emperor's Chosen'. After you have learned everything, maybe one day in the future, you will become my successor."

The girl looked very confused: "But 'he' said I would die..."

"I will die, too. Everyone will die. That's nonsense." Fujimaru Ritsuka said nonchalantly, "Anyway, if you follow me, I will definitely make sure that your death will not be in the near future."

Then, she grabbed the girl's hand and said, "Okay, let's go get ready, have a quick breakfast, and then start today's work. I know you're still confused, but the situation is urgent. There's no way we can start doing practical tasks on the first day of our internship—"

The girl was pulled out from behind the curtain with a confused look on her face, followed Fujimaru Ritsuka through the corridor between the beds, ran all the way to the outside of the medical area, and met Lan Malok who was waiting there again. Maybe because this was her first time seeing the dark angel, the girl seemed a little restrained when facing Lan Malok's black armor, but was pulled by Fujimaru Ritsuka and had to get closer to him.

"We're back. Today we plan to go to the Tyros Cathedral in the city center and set up a psychic node there. How long it will take depends on the damage to the cathedral itself, but we shouldn't stay there for more than three hours. Then we'll teleport back to the Storm's Edge to see if the Regent is available for a 'long talk'. I just hope Captain Aphrodite won't blame us for leaving him on the ground."

Fujimaru Ritsuka arranged the schedule in a very natural manner, then turned around and patted the girl who was getting more and more nervous because of the parts that could be understood and those that could not be understood as she gradually showed the schedule: "Don't worry, you are just an intern at the moment, basically you can just watch from the side. Oh, by the way——"

She turned back to Lan Malok's direction and introduced: "This person's name is 'Kelia'."

With a little pride, Fujimaru Ritsuka said the girl's original name, which she and the emperor had argued with for most of the night before they agreed to keep it.The moment she said these three simple syllables, even Lan Malok, who did not understand psychic powers at all, seemed to feel a wave of warmth filling his limbs in an instant.

——It would be too pitiful for a young girl who was only fifteen years old, forced to leave her parents, sever all her previous interpersonal relationships, and was placed in the position of a "saint" to give up even her original name.

Perhaps the people of the Empire would not think so, but Fujimaru Ritsuka firmly believed so.

And so, after a quarrel that had taken half the night and was unknown to all but the parties involved, the name now came under the protection of the Emperor.

Meow (no more).

The little girl's name is Kaelia... (Fuzzy memory, space seal)

Don't say I'm short! 7k today!

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 85 Stage Equipment and Stage Work

"Deus ex machina?" Kellya chewed on the unfamiliar High Gothic phrase.

As a child living in Greater Ultramar, she also had a compulsory course in High Gothic in grammar school. She was still learning and could not say that she had completely mastered the language, but even so, she clearly felt that Fujimaru Ritsuka's pronunciation was obviously different from what she learned in school, and the order of these three short words was also a bit weird in grammar.

"This is a Latin phrase that originated in ancient Greece," explained Fujimaru Ritsuka. "At that time, humans had just built a civilization on Terra, and the performance form of 'drama' was very popular in ancient Greece. At that time, when the conflict in the plot was deadlocked, the playwright would design a powerful god to suddenly appear on the stage and solve the problem in order to clean up the mess. The actor who played the role of this 'god' would be carried onto the stage by a mechanical device when the plot reached this point, instead of appearing normally from behind the scenes. Therefore, people later called this kind of plot 'the god coming out of the machine' - this phrase has nothing to do with the Mechanicus."

Kelly digested this explanation. Because of her preference for the various elements in this passage, she skipped the questions "What is ancient Greece" and "What is Latin" and asked directly: "But wouldn't this make the turn of the whole play seem too abrupt?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded in agreement, and added: "Some people also think that this abrupt turn only creates false comfort for the audience and should not be advocated. But my point of view is that false comfort is also comfort - what's more, we are not acting in a drama, but really living in this world. As long as we can get a happy ending, then even if the deus ex machina and the twists are abrupt, what's the problem?"

"…It seems to be true, but I don't understand," Kellya walked slowly among the rubble on the church square, "What does this have to do with our work?"

"To put it simply, the Chaldean Bureau is the department responsible for the 'Deus Ex Machina'. This is the first job position we need to clarify. We can certainly jump to the center of the battlefield, borrow the Emperor's psychic power to achieve fruitful results, and become an unquestionable important role in a battle - but we usually don't do that, because the success or failure of a battle often does not affect the entire campaign, at least on a galaxy scale."

Fujimaru Ritsuka said:

"Our task is to observe carefully, unravel the mystery, and while helping the characters on stage, find the real key point that has a profound impact on the overall situation, and then 'deus ex machina' there to make the whole story a 'happy ending'."

"...I don't know. I may not be able to do it." After a brief thought, Kellya said dejectedly, "This sounds a lot like what the heroes of the empire would do in fairy tales. I don't think I can do it well."

"You just don't know how to do it yet. I will teach you as much as I can." Fujimaru Ritsuka shrugged, "But this is my first time as a teacher, and I don't know if I can do it well."

Under Kaelia's somewhat surprised gaze, Fujimaru Ritsuka stopped where he was and looked at the facade of the Tyros Cathedral, which had been destroyed but still towered into the sky. The huge brass Aquila statue on top of the church was covered in dust due to the war, but it still stood high on the tower, overlooking everything on the ground.

They were accompanied by Lanmalok and Sister Iolanthe, who were in charge of security, but for different reasons, neither of them joined the conversation between the two girls.

Until Fujimaru Ritsuka turned to the direction of Sister Iolanthe: "I noticed that most of the buildings in Tyros are tower-style."

"Yes!" The nun puffed out her chest as if she had won a great honor while answering. "The people of Parmenio believe that tall buildings can bring them closer to the God-Emperor spiritually. But even before the bombing began, no building in the entire city was taller than the residence of the God-Emperor here."

"I see. Thank you, Sister Iolanthe. This is pretty much what I guessed." Fujimaru Ritsuka said this, forcing himself not to pay too much attention to the senior nun who was once again silently falling into over-excitement, and began to look around the ruins around the square.

This area had obviously experienced more than one round of fierce bombing. They had passed several precarious tower wreckages on the way here, but there were almost no normal buildings around. Obviously, after surrendering to Chaos, the enemies who knew how to skillfully use the power of the warp also understood that "the church is the residence of the gods on earth" was not completely empty talk. As a place where faiths gathered, a church had to be completely wiped off the map.

But the Plague Warriors obviously did not do this particularly well. Among the ruins, the Gothic facade of the church, the only one that still towered into the sky, silently demonstrated this. Perhaps it was because the orbital support of the Regent came in time, or perhaps it was because the church itself was of high quality, or perhaps it was the blessing of the Emperor of God. In short, the enemy left before the place was completely flattened, and did not send aircraft back for a long time afterwards.

Regardless of whether they thought the main structure of the church had collapsed and were therefore negligent, or were unable to carry out another round of bombing for some other reason, the fact left Fujimaru Ritsuka with... "an opportunity" at this moment.