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

"Mr. Corvos has apparently already..." Fujimaru Ritsuka obviously had a definite answer to the Imperial Regent's unfinished words, but her eyes darted around at the other members of the Psychic Council, unsure whether she should continue.

"Go on, I need to know."

"This involves some secrets in a laboratory ten thousand years ago..." Fujimaru Ritsuka thought for a moment and used some indirect hints here, "As someone who has had the rare honor of seeing the relevant design drawings, I know, but I'm not sure if I should say it here."

For Guilliman and Digris, who had previously met with her (and Curze) on the Lion's Mane for about three hours, the keyword "design drawings" mentioned by Fujimaru Ritsuka in the topic related to the "Primarch" naturally implied that it contained some of the most top-level secrets related to the structure of the Primarch itself. There were only a handful of people in the entire galaxy who had the right or the ability to know the relevant knowledge, and this was indeed not an issue that could be discussed in public - even the members of the Psionic Council could be considered Guilliman's confidants to some extent.

"...I see." Guilliman reluctantly dropped the subject for the time being. "I will set aside some time in the near future to consult you on this issue."

"Compared to the changes in his appearance, perhaps we should be more concerned about his current mental state." Fujimaru Ritsuka placed the feather that had inexplicably appeared in her hand on the table with a little uneasiness, put her two free hands together, then clasped them and placed them on her thighs. "It is impossible for ten thousand years to leave no trace on a person, not to mention that it was ten thousand years in the subspace."

"But we couldn't find him."

"It's not that there is no way..." Fujimaru Ritsuka stared at the pure black "Crow Feather" in front of him for a while, then raised his head and said to Guilliman, "But... I am more worried about other things now."

Guilliman was a little angry. "Is there anything more important than recovering a loyal Primarch who may be lost in the Warp?"

"I think Mr. Corvus himself would have some issues with the word 'lost' but--" Fujimaru Ritsuka, who wanted to say a few more witty words to ease the atmosphere, succumbed to the glare of the Imperial Regent, "Well... I'm worried about the one I brought."

The two topics seemed unrelated, and it took Guilliman a moment to remember that she was referring to Konrad Curze.

The brief thought had no visible effect on his reaction. In the eyes of others, the Imperial Regent immediately and fluently replied: "He is imprisoned in orbit. Everything is normal."

"I can't say for sure." Fujimaru Ritsuka said worriedly, "It's abnormal that he was locked up obediently. But this is not what I'm more worried about at the moment. In the warp, the ground and orbit of Parmenio may not be far apart. Even if everything is normal now, we can't guarantee that everything will be normal next time - do you understand what I mean?"

Guilliman briefly fell into deep thought: From what happened just now, it seems that Corax has the ability to interfere with reality from behind the veil to a certain extent - although the strength remains to be verified, at least everyone has seen the crow. If Corax finds Curze who is temporarily imprisoned in Galatan Star Fortress...

To be honest, Guilliman didn't know what would happen, but he was sure that if no one intervened, this situation would not end peacefully, and the damage would be incalculable.

"Adjourn for now." After a brief moment of deliberation, even for a Primarch, he gave the order without hesitation. "I must return to orbit immediately. Digris, Fujimaru Ritsuka, you must come with me."

Miu (no more)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 142 is very uncomfortable. I don’t know what to call this chapter

Ritsuka Fujimaru's evaluation of the Imperial Military Transportation is: very extreme.

This is not a palindrome of "Ultramarines are extreme". The process of reaching Galatan Star Fortress in the far orbit from the surface of Parmenio in half an hour is completely equivalent to some kind of extremely uncomfortable extreme sports for her. Fujimaru Ritsuka is not sure whether she feels very nauseous now because of the shuttle journey from the surface to Macragge's Glory, or because of the warp transmission from Macragge's Glory to Galatan Star Fortress - but anyway, she feels like she is about to vomit.

Considering that they would have to pass by a large group of unknown bats and then face a mentally unstable Primarch, Fujimaru Ritsuka thought it was a bit early for Caria and did not bring her up with him. The person who helped push her wheelchair became Arjuna, and the members of this team, in addition to herself, Arjuna, the director of the think tank Varo Digris, and Robert Guilliman, who was not sure whether to describe it as menacing or worried, also added the captain of the Nova Marines Badan Dovaro and a small group of guards.

This unusually heavyweight lineup did not improve their experience on this journey. There was nothing wrong with the facilities of Galatan Star Fortress itself, but the things locked up inside - when more than 5,000 Night Lords had to be detained in one area, no matter who wanted to pass through this area, the experience was definitely not good.

Galatan Star Fortress is an excellent war engine that has survived from the Great Crusade. It is a city that can walk in the void, but it is not a prison specifically for holding prisoners. Although the leader of the Nova Marines, Badan Dovaro, successfully kept all the prisoners under custody, it was only a temporary measure after all. In other details, such as how to isolate prisoners from each other or prevent them from shouting at anyone passing by in the corridor, the handling was somewhat unsatisfactory.

In fact, no Night Lord has yet attempted to escape, which is a miracle considering the current detention conditions at Galatan Fortress.

"I'm sorry, sir." Chapter Master Dovaro was a little embarrassed about this, but this was the limit of what he could handle at the moment. With the division of the Codex, the Nova Marines alone could not easily guard prisoners five times the number of the Codex. The Grey Knights and Death Watch, who were also temporarily stationed on the Star Fortress, and even some mortal soldiers and officers, started to coordinate for this matter. However, the complex communication, scheduling, and placement of the process meant that this matter would not be handled perfectly in just a few days.

"I understand, Badan." The Imperial Regent replied amid the noise of complaints, insults, and even personal attacks in Low Gothic, High Gothic, and even distorted Nostramo. "I ask you to hold on for another half a month. Once those people from the Mechanicus have finished their work, we will have extra ships to divert these prisoners."

This could be saying that the Empire is urgently repairing the ships damaged in the conflict with the Plague Fleet, or it could be saying that the Mechanicus is cleaning up and evaluating the junk brought in by the Night Lords - Fujimaru Ritsuka has no intention of exploring the details until someone is willing to take care of this mess. She just feels that the Night Lords around her are annoying because they are not only howling randomly but also banging on the door panels.

Just when she decided to say something about it, her wheelchair swayed slightly without attracting any attention. Arjuna, who had guessed what she was thinking from her expression, quietly reminded her: "Pay attention to your manners, Master. It is not your job to teach these people a lesson, and you do not need to lower yourself to achieve your goals in this way."

"I think I won the argument." Fujimaru Ritsuka whispered back with a hint of regret in his tone, "and I really want to laugh at the Nostramo pronunciation of some of them."

Ten thousand years ago, since the destruction of the planet Nostramo by the artillery fire ordered by Konrad Curze, Nostramo has become a dead language. Except for the warbands of the Night Lords who chose to pass down this language as part of the legion culture, and even linked it with power and status, so the Nightborne know a little bit, ten thousand years later, there are only a handful of people in the entire empire who can speak this language, let alone read and write it.

——As a master of Nostraman swearing who was trained by being forced to practice in the illusion, Fujimaru Ritsuka only felt that these young people who had almost no language environment, were completely half-baked, had no understanding of the complex and poetic metaphors that the language should have, and could not even distinguish between /t/, /ts/ and /tz/ in pronunciation, were really no match.

But this sentence also caught the attention of the Imperial Regent. As soon as the words fell, Robert Guilliman's disapproving gaze immediately fell on Fujimaru Ritsuka's head, and the latter had to shrink in his wheelchair and stop talking, and change the subject:

"By the way, how many people should these Night Lords have when they come?" She raised her voice a little to show that she was speaking to everyone present. "If they really brought a fleet as predicted, there must be more than these people on board."

Badan Dovaro turned and glared at her, as if he was about to reprimand her with something like "Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask", but before he could actually say anything, Guilliman had already answered the question:

"If we only count the Renegade Space Marines, it's between 49,000 and 55,000." They were gradually approaching the end of this corridor, getting closer and closer to the special cell where Conrad Curze was imprisoned. "The scene is very chaotic, and we don't have much time and resources to make this number more accurate."

"...I understand." After learning this number, Fujimaru Ritsuka also began to show a worried look, "This is worse than I expected..."

"Your prediction?" Guilliman asked.

"I thought it was 25,000 to 30,000." After weighing the pros and cons in his mind and finally choosing to ignore the unhappy look of the Nova Warriors Chapter Leader, Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "I first knew the result and had some guesses about the process, so it shouldn't be difficult to work backwards. But this number is still beyond my imagination."

No wonder Conrad became autistic again.She sighed and thought to herself.

The noisy voices of the Night Lords gradually faded away as the group moved forward. They began to walk down a spiral staircase. Here, Fujimaru Ritsuka's wheelchair activated the anti-gravity mode, and Guilliman was obviously concerned about another point: "You have 'guesses about the process'?"

"There is no doubt that Konrad used his own essence and the psychic connection between the Primarch and the Gene-Child without restraint in this matter." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "Except for the 'unrestrained' part, this was a countermeasure we planned from the very beginning. But I really didn't expect him to be so...'unrestrained'."

Guilliman recalled the many phenomena mentioned in the report that did appear on the Night Lords' ships but could not be reasonably explained by science, and suppressed his uneasiness: "Your explanation makes this matter look more like some kind of evil in the Warp."

"But, the essence of the Primarch is basically equivalent to that of a lesser god in the Warp. This is certain, especially since it's Konrad." Fujimaru Ritsuka ignored all the looks from everyone around him and spoke nonchalantly about confidential matters. "Given his mental state, it's only natural that the scene he created after activating his essence would look chaotic and terrifying."

The Imperial Regent reminded helplessly: "You have to be careful. This is not a fact that should be mentioned lightly."

"I considered the situation. We are the only ones here now." Fujimaru Ritsuka said confidently, "You, I, Director of the Digris Think Tank, and the Imperial Guards obviously know this already. Arjuna doesn't count. Captain Dovaro needs to know what he is currently guarding. To be specific, Conrad is being held here because he has not thought of escaping yet. By the way, do you feel that the further down we go, the colder the temperature gets?"

This was a change that no one else noticed. This temperature change had no effect on the Primarch, the Custodes, the Astartes, or the Servants, so it went unnoticed. But when they decided to check the temperature, they did find that the perceived temperature here was two degrees Celsius lower than above.

"The constant temperature system in the star fortress is not faulty." Within a second, Captain Dovaro asked the power armor to query with his own authority. He was very sure, "The temperature control system in this area has increased its power output, but the temperature still dropped."

"This is a psychic phenomenon." The think tank director's eyes lit up with a faint blue light, "I can feel the fluctuations of the subspace."

Fujimaru Ritsuka's expression suddenly became very tangled. The temperature was still dropping, and the rate was getting faster and faster. So she looked down worriedly and sighed:

“…He knows I’m coming.”

Meow (leopard, but six o'clock)

It's hard to write. It's very uncomfortable. The next chapter may also be very uncomfortable to read, but the leopard has already died (the seal can't do it——)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 143 How could a Primarch become autistic and turn into a slime?

The wheelchair with anti-gravity mode turned on was carrying Fujimaru Ritsuka and floating downwards first. Soon, the air exhaled from her mouth and nose was blown into a cloud of white mist by the sudden drop in temperature.

+I did come to see you, Conrad. But I don't really want to have to go back to bed for some other messed up reason before I can see you. +

She tried to send a message to the other party through the connection of the contract, but received no effective response. The temperature seemed to drop slower, but it also seemed not to have dropped. The constant temperature system once again increased its operating power. Fujimaru Ritsuka could hear the sound of warm air blowing out of the nearby air duct.

She floated all the way to the bottom of the road, even leaving behind Arjuna who was supposed to push her. Guarding the door of Conrad Curze's cell were, somewhat unexpectedly, two Grey Knights who were ready to face a formidable enemy. She used her unintelligent fingers to control the wheelchair to stop crookedly, wanting to ask them to "open the door of the cell" - but as soon as she opened her mouth, she sneezed hard.

At that moment, Fujimaru Ritsuka was desperate: It's over, this time Asclepius will hold me down and force me to drink hot ginger water! The God of Medicine really likes this folk remedy learned from the Chinese hero!

Just as she instinctively covered her face because of a sneeze, other people who were unlikely to be left far behind almost simultaneously arrived in front of the door controlled by complex machinery and psychic spells. The Imperial Regent ordered in a majestic voice to open the cell and interrogate the prisoners, but before he finished speaking, a female voice suddenly rose and became shrill and interrupted him:

"Conrad Co—"

Before Fujimaru Ritsuka could even shout out the name of the person who started it all, he was "grabbed" by the ankle by an inexplicable darkness and dragged off the wheelchair. In an instant, his entire body was swallowed up by the same darkness.

The psychic protection here was arranged by the Grey Knights. Even if it was a temporary measure, it should have been tight enough. However, the empty wheelchair, which was still floating and spinning alone in the air because of the activation of the anti-gravity mode, clearly reminded everyone: this might be a protective barrier that could trap the Great Demon, but for a Primarch who understood his own nature, it was still not good enough.

"...She's fine." Two seconds later, Arjuna suddenly spoke, "My Master told me through telepathy that she is fine now, but was dragged into his prison by the Primarch of the Night Lords. He seemed to want to talk to my Master alone."

In a different scenario or method, Guilliman might still agree to carry out this "one-on-one talk" to a limited extent. But now, he just had a sullen face and once again ordered the Grey Knights stationed here: "Open the door!"

-

"It's so cold!" Fujimaru Ritsuka yelled in dissatisfaction, stumbling into the obviously unused bed in the room, and rudely pulled a corner of a large, flat blanket and wrapped it around himself.

The air was cold, and the blanket was naturally cold too. Fujimaru Ritsuka was still shivering in the blanket, but she believed that this would not last long. After Curze fulfilled his wish and stopped making trouble, the cooling phenomenon caused by excessive absorption of the power of the subspace slowly subsided. The hard-working constant temperature system should soon be able to return the temperature in the room to normal levels - wait a minute, take a closer look, the treatment of this "cell" is quite good.

After the still trembling Fujimaru Ritsuka briefly informed Arjuna of his current situation through telepathy, he began to look around the furnishings in the room. There was a bed, a desk, a chair, and even a small sofa and a small coffee table. All of these were of the size of the Primarch, in typical Macragge style, leaving no doubt that Guilliman had taken them out from his own warehouse and placed them here.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that Conrad Coates did not appreciate the brotherly care. The most pitiful thing in the room was the small fabric sofa, which should have originally had a beautiful outer lining with a bright blue background, but now it was so tattered that even Fujimaru Ritsuka could not recognize the specific print on it.

Without the restraint of the seat cushion, the springs freely extended their spiral tips from above, and the white fillings had obviously flown around before, but now, they just lay quietly on the ground with the sofa itself as the center, like a thin layer of snow, motionless.

The remaining furniture was also damaged to varying degrees by Curze's sharp claws—not the pair of lightning claws on the nightmare cloak, but his own nails. The whole room looked as if it had been ravaged by some large cat. The only thing that had barely escaped was probably the bed. At least the blankets and other things on it were still in good order.

And the reason why Fujimaru Ritsuka could see the entire room so clearly was thanks to Koz himself not blocking her view - specifically, he was now "about half not in this room."

"Although subspace entities are very idealistic, I don't think being in a bad mood will have such a side effect." Ritsuka Fujimaru, who was sitting on the edge of the bed wrapped in a blanket, lowered his head and said to the ground under his feet, "My evaluation is that you are beginning to grasp the key points, but you just don't want to use them in the right place."

Considering that the furniture in the room was of the original size, it was normal for her to sit on the edge of the bed with her feet dangling in the air. What was unusual was that on the ground near her dangling feet, a mass of viscous fluid that was so black that the details were almost completely unclear was hesitantly hovering.

——Conrad Curze, who had really begun to grasp the key points and learned how to keep a large part of himself stuck in the subspace, and the other small part of himself in the essential form, without being bound by the necessary form in the real universe, slowly "grew" out of the small ball of black fluid.

This seemed to be the first time that Fujimaru Ritsuka had seen him construct his own body in the real universe from scratch according to the preset. Logically speaking, when Curze finally figured out what the concept of "spiritual base" from the other world was, Fujimaru Ritsuka should have applauded and praised this Primarch whose mental age was no more than five years old. But seeing him appear with a face that was so depressed that it couldn't be more depressed, Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't say this praise.

On the one hand, the atmosphere of such praise now seems a bit sarcastic; on the other hand, Koz, how should I put it, has something wrong with his brain.

"I screwed up." Coze said without thinking, as if he assumed that Fujimaru Ritsuka fully understood the whole process, with a sad and frustrated tone. "I thought this matter was simple, and I thought I knew what I should do. I knew the loss might be greater than expected, but I still did it on my own. But in the process of this matter, I found that there were too many things I didn't understand, and the matter itself quickly got out of my control."

If someone else were to come, they might soften their hearts after hearing the confession and repentance of a Primarch. People who don't know the truth would say things like "You have tried your best" or "Think of this as a bad start, but it is still a start" to comfort him - but Fujimaru Ritsuka doesn't do that.

"Yeah, you screwed up. You screwed up really badly. I never thought you could mess things up like this." The little girl wrapped in a blanket said viciously, "There were more than 50,000 people and only 5,000 were left. Don't you have any concept of 'brakes' at all?"

——For Conrad Coates, if he himself feels that he has done something wrong, then at this time, comforting him will have the opposite effect. At this time, it is better to scold him directly according to his wishes, and then propose a solution to the problem, which will make him more receptive.

"..."

The Primarch seemed to want to argue, but he didn't say a word in the end. It seemed that at least this time, he himself realized that his sophistry was untenable. This made Fujimaru Ritsuka feel a little relieved, but she didn't show it, but just pretended to be angry and patted the bed beside her:

"You sit down and talk. I don't want to raise my head so high - my neck will be cold," she said, and at the same time she curled herself up in the blanket.

While waiting for Koz to sit down on the same side of the bed, Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't help but sigh:

I hope this "psychological treatment" goes well.

Miu (Leopard)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 144: Indirect Topic Easily Goes Off Track

"Let me be brutal: the matter is a foregone conclusion. It's useless for you to regret it now. Those who died are dead. I won't help you make excuses to justify this matter."

Fujimaru Ritsuka said this while wrapped in a blanket. Koz, who was sitting next to her, looked listless and a little absent-minded.

But he was obviously listening, because his response to that was pretty quick: “I don’t think I need that. They’ve both committed unspeakable crimes in their lives, and from an objective standpoint, I don’t think they deserve to live.”

"But what standard are you using to judge?" Fujimaru Ritsuka, who could tell at a glance that this person was being stubborn, pressed on relentlessly, "If you yourself agree with this standard for judging, then why do you obviously regret it now? If you think they really deserve to die, then why do you call the outcome of this matter a 'screw up'?"

After the intensity of the psychic phenomenon weakened, the temperature quickly rose due to the constant temperature system inside the Galatan Star Fortress. Fujimaru Ritsuka felt that she had just warmed up the blanket, and the temperature around her quickly became pleasant.

Curze opened his mouth, obviously wanting to say something, but in the end he said nothing. This topic was too difficult for him to talk about, but it was too hard to say it. If he were to judge by himself, it would seem very weak to confide it to someone he trusted, but wouldn't it be another kind of cowardice to pretend that the problem didn't exist?

He fought with himself for more than two seconds, which was almost a century for the Primarch's thinking speed. And Fujimaru Ritsuka just looked up at him wrapped in a blanket, which clearly implied that if Curze didn't respond at all, she would not let this topic go on.

So, after a century of Kurtz's life, he spoke with great difficulty - he did not directly ask the question he wanted to ask, but tried every means to ask it from a roundabout angle: "Have you never encountered similar problems before? For example, you have to kill some people you don't actually want to kill... or something like that?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka blinked and answered almost without pausing, "Of course, after all, I rarely 'want to kill someone'."

She said this in a lighthearted way, but in fact, she was instinctively trying to hide a lot of heavier things under this blurred focus. When this topic was mentioned, her first reaction was "don't make the atmosphere too serious", but she thought again and realized that she seemed to be promoting a topic that "should be very serious".

After realizing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka had to spend another second to reorganize his thoughts, and then he opened his mouth and decided to add some details to his previous light-hearted answer: "It's like the trolley problem, an ethical problem that was famous and played out in our time. Basically, 'Five innocent people are tied to the trolley tracks, and an out-of-control trolley is coming towards them and is about to crush them to death. Standing on the side of the road, you can choose to switch the gate and let the trolley go to another track, but if you do this, the staff working on the other track will die.' This is the premise, and then asks whether I should switch the gate here. As long as I am still doing things like 'saving the world', no matter what, I will have to make this choice."

"Then what will you choose?" The topic itself has deviated from what Coz originally expected. This is the consequence he must bear for not speaking directly but choosing to be indirect. But at the same time, he really wants to know how Fujimaru Ritsuka will deal with this question she asked herself. "We all know that you will of course choose the option that causes less harm. But how can you convince yourself that this behavior is correct in this 'lose-lose' situation?"

"Don't ask such fruitless questions. In this dilemma, there is no completely correct 'moral behavior'." Fujimaru Ritsuka commented, "As long as you make a choice, it means that someone will die because of your choice - including the choice of 'doing nothing' at the gate. After thinking through this, the rest of the problem is easy to solve: since you will become a sinner no matter what you do, at least from a utilitarian point of view, choose the option that will cause the least damage."

This was a question that Coze had never thought about before. In his concept, giving up one person and saving five people was obviously a more efficient, more reasonable, and therefore more correct choice. When he asked the question, he knew very well that Fujimaru Ritsuka, who attached great importance to "individual life", would also choose to give up the minority in order to save the majority, but he did not expect that although the other party made the choice he thought, he denied the correctness of this behavior.

"This idea may be a little difficult for you to understand. After all, you were born as a 'judge'." Fujimaru Ritsuka commented, "When the Emperor gave you the knowledge and judgment necessary to execute judgments, he also gave you the corresponding power. If you regard yourself as an entire court rather than a single individual when exercising this power, then your 'judgment' itself is undoubtedly a legitimate act endorsed by the huge political system of the Empire. Of course, this is just an abstract metaphor in concept. It doesn't mean anything in reality. You are too utilitarian in the process of execution...ah, ah, what am I talking about? I don't even understand it myself!"

Between anger and embarrassment, Fujimaru Ritsuka buried himself completely under the blanket.

This was a question she had thought about in her dream. She was seriously trying to find out the crux of Conrad Curze's failure to perform his duties as a "judge". But at that time, she had the thinking ability of a Primarch, and she did find a conclusion that she thought was correct. If she were to try to deduce it again in an orderly manner now, then this complex question that mixed ethics, law, philosophy, and even social sciences such as psychology would be too difficult for her to sort out with her average brain.

"In short, the conclusion I want to express is: it is completely impossible to complete all your goals with a clean hand!" The girl's voice came out muffled from the blanket, "Do you think the title of 'Sin Drinker' is just 'sipping the sins of others'? Of course, it also includes all the crimes I will commit for my goals! Careless thinking, reckless actions, unnecessary casualties, these things caused by my orders must of course be borne by me! Of course, the same goes for you!"

"…But this is difficult." Coze said in a daze, "This is the first time I've discovered that it's so difficult to face the results of my own judgment."

"The right thing is often difficult." Fujimaru Ritsuka emerged from the blanket again. "I'm glad that at least this time you didn't choose the 'easier' option without saying a word, but instead came to complain to me about how difficult this thing is. But I will only remind you that you are the Primarch. Whether you like it or not, you are the genetic father of the remaining 5,400-plus Night Lords. It is your responsibility to continue to guide them, teach them the right way to deal with the world, and provide them with a choice to become better - at least if I were in your position, I would do so."

"But what about the descendants who died because of my fault?" Koz finally mustered up the courage to ask this question that barely touched on the question he wanted to ask the most, "What should I do with them?"

"Remember them. Remember everything, and then take it as a warning, and don't create similar successors." Fujimaru Ritsuka's response was cold, "It's up to you whether you want to commemorate them or spit on them, but remember that they are dead, and you still have other living descendants. Whether good or bad, the past is a foregone conclusion. The dead are gone, and only the living can interact with the world. They may be the sins you should bear, but they should not be the shackles that prevent you from moving forward."

This was a rather ruthless and therefore quite straightforward answer. Coze obviously accepted this statement, but he was still hesitating about something. Fujimaru Ritsuka was willing to wait for him to gather enough courage to ask the question he had been reluctant to ask, but unfortunately, the person outside the door was unwilling to do so.