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

It wasn't that she had any missions that needed to be completed right now. Since a small group of imperial guards joined the Storm's Edge, the work left for Fujimaru Ritsuka herself had been greatly reduced - although there was a lot more work related to coordinating interpersonal relationships or departmental relations, overall, she did have more free time.

The attitudes and speeches of the imperial guards sometimes do raise one's blood pressure, but in terms of external communication, the emotional intelligence of living "humans" is much better than that of the Somni who are a little too "object-like". Moreover, when they appear in front of people as the emperor's guards and claws, they are much more credible than the underage girl in the eyes of Fujimaru Ritsuka, an imperial man (in terms of physical age, she is indeed underage) .

For example, after these golden giants passed by the only remaining Blood Angels on the battlefield, the twelve surviving soldiers did not even show the slightest doubt or objection, and obediently accepted all the arrangements made by the Storm's Edge.

The "Voices of the Emperor" widely known in the Empire can indeed solve most of the work for Fujimaru Ritsuka, but there are still some matters on the Storm's Edge that she must do - those related to magic.

She had not forgotten what Sanguinor had said to her on the battlefield. After confirming that the subspace shadow caused by the hive had subsided and that all kinds of psychic spells could be cast normally, she was ready to start the relevant "investigation".

In a metaphysical way.

Each of the Custodes is versatile and well-educated, and is capable of performing a variety of routine tasks outside of combat, including cooking and washing dishes; but they are limited by the plans made by the Emperor when he first created them, and these superhumans who are almost isolated from the Warp are helpless in most issues related to psychic power: they may be able to remain unshakable under the corruption of Chaos, but they are unable to cast even the simplest spells: this is something that the Emperor has already determined in their underlying design.

In addition, the "think tanks" in this team are either "battle brothers with psychic talents" who the Dark Angels barely managed to survive from the ban on Nicaea during the Great Crusade, or they have been following the Dark Angels openly and honestly for more than half a year. Savita who was taking classes next to Kaelia.Throwing these people onto the battlefield to fight may be reliable enough, but when it comes to the need for divination and prophecy, it ultimately depends on Fujimaru Ritsuka himself and Judge Hastings.

By the way, although Fujimaru Ritsuka's "divination" had a high accuracy rate, the vast majority of it was due to that bit of Conrad Curze's essence that Merlin somehow inherited from her - and a small part of it came from the contractual relationship between her and the Midnight Haunter.

Or maybe the two are reversed. After all, the overly realistic prophetic illusions that often troubled Curze would sometimes leak into Fujimaru Ritsuka's dreams through the contractual connection between them.

This is why, when she did card divination, she used the traditional Nostramo cards instead of the Emperor Tarot which was more popular in the Imperial camp.

Fujimaru Ritsuka ran back to her room, closed the door skillfully, took out the divination tools, and sat at the table to calm herself down for a few minutes. After she felt ready, she shuffled the cards smoothly, drew the cards, and interpreted the cards - and then, she didn't get any conclusion.

Although in the metaphysics of divination, "no conclusion" itself also means a conclusion, Fujimaru Ritsuka still fell into deep thought: This is just the first step. She just wants to roughly divine the current relative position of Akultona and her. In theory, she should be able to interpret a very vague direction and a very vague distance information from the images represented by the cards.

However, during this divination, she did not draw out a card that could interpret the meaning of "distance". Instead, the three suit cards in the deck that could interpret the meaning of "direction" all appeared in a contradictory form as she drew the cards repeatedly. The fourth card that followed represented "inverted, uncertain".

There is no doubt that the divination failed.

In this kind of occult ritual, "asking the same question repeatedly" is a taboo, so after a brief thought, although she had no hope, Fujimaru Ritsuka decided to change to divination about the current relative position of Captain Gary Bo Santo and her, and then reshuffled the cards. She and the former Captain of the Iron Hands were only acquaintances, and there was not much "fate" involved. Theoretically, the success rate of divination was lower than that of Akurdona's question - As expected, Fujimaru Ritsuka failed again this time.

The first two of the four cards interpreted the meanings of "far" and "near" respectively, while the last two showed her the images of "chaotic, unknowable" and "incomprehensible".

Fujimaru Ritsuka fell into deep thought.

Then, she decided to divine the location of the elder Rilanor and shuffled the cards again. She didn't have a deep connection with this elder, but this time, the four cards seemed to work very normally: the approximate direction indicated by the first two cards overlapped with the direction of Holy Terra, or the Astronomican, the third card indicated that the distance was "far", and the fourth card's supplementary description symbolized "difficulties and obstacles", probably referring to the need to pass through the Great Rift to reach that location - this fully proved that her own divination skills or this subspace that had just been liberated from the shadow of the hive were all fine.

That means the only ones with problems are Akuldona and Gary Bo Santo.

It seems that their "disappearance" is indeed true.

Then, Fujimaru Ritsuka ruled out the possibility that "they are conducting imaginary submarines." In the process of deceiving the veil through self-conversion between the real and imaginary domains, divination is indeed unable to lock them. But first of all, this project does not need and should not last too long; secondly, even if the Imperial version of the imaginary submarine made by the Cursed Iron Hands really takes a lot of time on this project, the divination card should not be such an error.

In this case, the cards should have told her directly: what you are looking for does not exist in the world.

For a moment, Fujimaru Ritsuka wanted to get up and find the Inquisitor Hastings who was good at the Emperor Tarot to see if using another method of divination could get a different answer. But then she gave up the idea because the news that "Akuldona and Garybo Santo were missing" was relayed to her by Sanguino.

This means that the "prophecies" of the Emperor himself, and most likely the angels, could not come to a definite conclusion on this matter. And as a divination method that borrowed the wisdom of the Emperor through the carrier of the real universe, the Emperor Tarot naturally could not tell her more.

After another brief thought, Fujimaru Ritsuka decided to try to divine "Akuldona's status". After deciding what kind of card array to use this time, she started to reshuffle the cards again - but this time, when she habitually shuffled the cards in the arch bridge style, those cards that looked only slightly larger than playing cards flew out from between her fingers disobediently.

The Midnight Lord-certified King of Kings, Fujimaru Ritsuka, shuffled the cards and they flew away. If this happened on an ordinary card table, it would undoubtedly be a joke. But unfortunately, this low-probability event did not happen on the card table, but on the divination table.

Are the accidents that happen on the divination table real accidents, or are they inevitable due to the watchful eyes or interference of some existence?

After all the cards fell, only the "Martyr" card fell in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka in a proper reversed position. It implies great danger, difficulties that are difficult to overcome even at the cost of one's life, reckless sacrifice, and a bad ending.

This could be a coincidence, or it could be a warning - considering her current position in the warp, and the fact that she is being watched by both the Emperor and Tzeentch, it is more likely that this is a warning from the Emperor. : Tzeentch always prefers to use this to lay out a conspiracy rather than a clear warning.

Fujimaru Ritsuka took a deep breath and decided to stop. She picked up all the cards, sorted them out and put them away again, then stood up from the table and prepared to go to the lounge where the emperor statue was placed.

——Her "stop" only refers to stopping the divination. After all, asking for help without reason is what the Master of Chaldea is best at. Even the Emperor himself cannot see the future clearly on this issue, but as one of the most powerful psychics in the universe, Fujimaru Ritsuka believes that he can verify and confirm some of her conjectures immediately.

For example: Akuldona and Gary Santo got a parameter wrong during the imaginary diving test and are now trapped in some difficult-to-detect pocket dimension.

Meow (peaceful)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 228 I Just Want to Know How They Died

Ritsuka Fujimaru silently dragged out a few cushions from the cabinet under the small coffee table in the lounge.

These were Japanese-style cushions from the past, used to cushion the knees of people who had to sit on the ground when there were not enough seats around the coffee table. Of course, on the Storm Edge now, the only one who could remember to put them to practical use was Fujimaru Ritsuka.

She fiddled around in front of the low cabinet, picked out a cushion that she thought was of moderate hardness and softness, spread it in front of the statue of "The Emperor's Advent to Nostramo" sculpted by Conrad Curze, and knelt on it.

After she sat down, she thought about whether she should at least take a cup of tea and put it next to her. But before she had time to think about this issue and decide whether to put it into action, the sculpture in front of her was already lit up with a dim golden light.

Since the statue "made by his son's own hands" was built, the Emperor has been storing a little bit of his psychic energy here - of course, a "little bit" according to the Emperor's standards. This "little bit" of psychic energy can not only naturally provide protection and chaos disinfection for the entire ship Stormbound in daily life, but can also be used instantly when the Emperor deems it necessary, for example, to vibrate the air with psychic energy and communicate with other people present.

But this usually requires Fujimaru Ritsuka to first attract the Emperor's attention in various ways in front of the statue. After all, he has the entire galaxy to take care of. Even if the location of this "anchor" is important in various senses, he can't keep an eye on the Storm's Edge all the time. However, this time, Fujimaru Ritsuka had just sat down in front of the statue, and the Emperor used this vision to indicate that he was watching.

...To be honest, it's a bit scary. Fujimaru Ritsuka tensed up and raised his head.

When she looked up, she realized that her sudden decision to kneel down in front of the statue was not appropriate: at this height, even if she sat upright with her back straight, she would have to look up hard to see the face of the emperor statue.

I always feel like I'm going to get scolded next. The little girl, who felt like she hadn't done anything worthy of criticism recently, complained in her heart.

The actual plot did not develop in this way. The sound of the Emperor vibrating the air with his psychic energy was indeed majestic, and it sounded very different from the "tired old father" last time, but when facing Fujimaru Ritsuka, his attitude was still calm:

"I am aware of your divination." The statue with golden light ripples said, "But in this matter alone, you should not go deeper."

Fujimaru Ritsuka waited for two seconds, and when he realized that the Emperor had no intention of continuing, he spread his hands and said, "Again? Is this another one of those 'I know something you shouldn't know, so just be obedient' stories?"

The golden light that had not yet dissipated showed that the Emperor's will was still there, but he did not respond to this sentence. Obviously, the person randomly picked by Fujimaru Ritsuka this time was a person with a speech impediment in the Emperor.

After realizing this, the latter sighed in frustration:

"Alright. Anyway, I know very well that once you make a decision, no matter what others say, it's useless. After all, this is your country, and the two missing Cursed Soldiers are, in a sense, an extension of your will. You are free to do whatever you want with them, or to make any arrangements based on this. However, whether as the contractor and provider of Sigurd's spiritual base data, or as a logistics officer who is familiar with Akuldona and Garybo Santo, I think I am qualified to ask for as much information sharing as possible."

The emperor still didn't say anything, which made Fujimaru Ritsuka a little angry:

"At least I have to know if they are still alive now?"

"They are still alive." The Emperor answered this question very straightforwardly, "But this is all I can tell you."

"What exactly is going on?" Fujimaru Ritsuka finally stood up from the mat, otherwise she felt that her momentum was too weak. "The news brought by Sanguinor was too brief, but he was busy appearing everywhere, so it was natural that he didn't know the specific process of the incident. But I even heard him say that the Emperor's son was cursed-"

"--Your main task is not to consider these things." The Emperor said in a rather inhumane manner, "Reaching Baal as soon as possible and selecting a site for the lighthouse is your primary task. Compared to this, a mere two warriors of the Bound Legion--"

"--But they are 'people'!" The underage girl took full advantage of her sharp voice and easily made her shout louder than the emperor's deep and majestic voice. "Any country is made up of 'people'! I can't accept that they just disappeared without a clear reason!"

"…'Sacrifice is the cornerstone of the empire'——"

"——Then it should at least be a 'meaningful' sacrifice, right? What 'life is the Emperor's currency, use it wisely'——I don't see where this 'usage' is appropriate. As a 'board member' who is working hard to build 'Humanity', I think I have the qualifications to monitor the flow of important funds!"

These two important captains, who were already very famous during the Great Crusade, were indeed qualified to be counted as "important funds" in the Emperor's currency.

The Emperor was silent for a moment, then sighed with his psychic power: "You are the spokesperson I personally chose, don't act like a child-"

"——But is there a possibility that I am indeed a 'child'? At least that's the case in the eyes of people of this generation." Fujimaru Ritsuka did not hesitate to use her age advantage that was always frozen in place. "In short, I have already stated the reasons why I insist on knowing the truth. If you want to reject me, you'd better come up with a similar reason. Even if you make one up for me, I will think that you care about this matter——"

——The exasperated Emperor used his psychic power to stop Fujimaru Ritsuka from continuing. When the impotent and furious little girl jumped at his statue, he sighed again:

"I can't tell you." The face of the statue, which should have been made of marble, showed a tired expression in an unexpectedly vivid way. "I didn't expect that this matter would be known to you in this form - this should have been something that only existed 'outside of fate'."

Having broken free from the Emperor's apparently half-hearted psychic restraints, Fujimaru Ritsuka was in a bad mood: "What kind of messed-up experiments are you doing again? Do these two people who became your 'experimental subjects' for no apparent reason have the right to informed consent? Besides, if you try to drive them out of their destiny, then isn't it natural for me, who is also half out of their destiny, to know about this?"

The Emperor paused, then repeated: "Your main task right now is not to consider these things. The Baal system is the next stop on your voyage."

This attitude that obviously didn't want her to get involved made Fujimaru Ritsuka angry for a moment - but there was nothing she could do. Although she always seemed to be quarreling with the Emperor on various occasions since she was in the Astronomican, tracing back to the source, it was just a matter of mentality: if the Emperor made a decision, nothing in the entire universe could force him to change his mind.

The golden light on the statue quickly dissipated, and Fujimaru Ritsuka took advantage of the last bit of time to shout to the Emperor:

"But you should at least let those suspicious Emperor's children know that you have plans for their Second Captain!" She wasn't sure if the other party could hear her, and this move might be closer to venting anger. "And the Cursed Iron Hands! Remember to tell them where the First Captain is! And Sanguinius——"

never mind.She suddenly lost her temper mid-sentence.After all, the final result of every communication between the Emperor and his son... was hardly "perfect".

I might as well talk to Sanguinius myself, thought Fujimaru Ritsuka indignantly.

Meow (six o'clock)

(Forgot the timed whistle)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 229: Straight Male Coworkers Only Talk to You About Work

Although she wanted to "talk to the angel directly", Fujimaru Ritsuka herself knew that she was currently unable to immediately determine whether Sanguinius was in a state where he could communicate normally or was sleeping, across half the galaxy. This was the first problem; the second problem was whether Sanguinius was currently capable of projecting his will onto a suitable carrier, like the Emperor, across half the galaxy.

But after they arrive in Baal, perhaps they will be able to find solutions to these two problems: among all the Primarchs, if Sanguinius dares to say that the "fate" between him and his home planet ranks second, I'm afraid no one will admit that he is the first.

Anyway, we should go to Barr first. Fujimaru Ritsuka once again clarified this simple goal.

Since this goal was indeed too simple and there was no special task for her to do, Fujimaru Ritsuka just put the mat back into the cabinet and decided not to take it out again in a similar situation. During this process, she weighed several things that she should do next, and finally chose to go to the summoning room to try to connect with Ferrus Manus and remotely comfort the Primarch who had just personally freed her from a complex fate that was difficult to define.

She wasn't sure if it was appropriate for her to contact the other party through the Chaldea contract now, but in Fujimaru Ritsuka's eyes, this was a question of "how do you know if you don't contact them first?"

So, she naturally went into the summoning room with her tablet and started to "make some contact." When she came out of the summoning room again, it was already three hours later.

Things had not turned out the way she had imagined: Ferrus Manus had shown no visible fluctuations in his emotional response, and had single-handedly turned this contact into an unquestionable working seminar - just as if he had not previously killed his best friend from ten thousand years ago who had fallen into evil.

But as Fujimaru Ritsuka said to Sanguino before, she felt that this matter was "very personal". Although she now considered herself and Ferrus Manus to be co-workers in the next workstation, and there were many tasks that needed to be overlapped and parallel in actual work, and they could be considered to have a "good relationship" at this level, she was not familiar enough to tell him everything: she didn't want to mention Matthew's story to him, so it was natural for him not to talk to her about Fulgrim.

During these three hours, Fulgrim probably accounted for less than one percent of the conversation. Ferrus spoke of him in a very businesslike manner, without any emotion, in the form of reporting the latest military information. Then, his topic turned to the Lord of Pleasure and the Lord of Change, to the Warp that had become chaotic again for some reason, to his return to the court and the reform of the regiment organization.

Fujimaru Ritsuka understood the meaning of the song and bypassed Fulgrim, only asking him whether he encountered any difficulties or problems in the fusion of spiritual bases. She also talked in advance about how to deal with the "Book of False Ministers" after it was no longer needed. She also said that she would arrive in Baal in a week at most and would start selecting a site for the Chaldea Lighthouse. She also announced that if there were no problems with the drawings, she would officially start work after the site selection was completed.

During this period, she had been observing Ferrus' mental state through the contract without leaving any trace. This kind of observation was very rough and inaccurate, closer to "carefully observing the other person's expression" in a face-to-face situation, so it was not considered rude. She did not find any signs of worry in the process - considering that Ferrus was not a very good at hiding his thoughts among the Primarchs, Fujimaru Ritsuka tentatively judged that this incident did not cause any uncontrollable impact on him.

It would be impolite to study this further, so Fujimaru Ritsuka decided to stop here and spend the rest of the time on the overall planning of the architectural design plan. Two and a half hours passed in a flash, and her tablet was filled with a lot of messy notes that only she could understand. It was hard to say that she fully understood what she wrote - by the end, she was really just short of shouting to the outside of the door, "Sigismund, come and save me."

"I feel like a half-crazy think tank writing prophecies," she complained to Ferrus. "I am being manipulated by some powerful warp creature, writing words, symbols and formulas on a carrier that I don't understand myself. These words are full of all kinds of hints and metaphors. And these things will indeed work at some point in the future."

“These are sciences.” Ferrus’s unsatisfactory emotions were transmitted to her through the contract. “They are logical and obviously easier to understand.”

"I'm an ordinary person who was born in 2000 and has never undergone any mechanical transformation. I think your expectations of my knowledge and understanding are a bit too high." Fujimaru Ritsuka snorted and retorted, "Now I'm lucky enough to be able to copy down what you said intact - the time in the illusion doesn't count, because the brain I used at that time was Conrad's."

To be honest, if it weren't for that experience, she probably wouldn't have understood more than 80% of the terms Ferrus said and the conventional physical theories in this universe.

"I'll sort out these notes, and then let someone who can really understand these things worry about them." Fujimaru Ritsuka was sifting through his handwritten memo, and while his memory was still fresh, he marked the order of what he had scribbled down. "By the way, has Captain Santo contacted you recently?"

"No, what happened to him?" Ferrus, who had no contact with the Cursed Legion recently, was a little confused.

"Nothing. But he is working on a project to replicate an imaginary submarine using Imperial technology." Fujimaru Ritsuka said calmly, "I just happened to encounter a lone Hive Tentacle recently. The Stormbound had a slight deviation in stability when sailing in the warp shadow created by the Tyranids. I was thinking whether I should send him a copy of this data after successfully finding the cause of the error."

Ferrus' answer was of course "yes". They discussed the effect of the Hive Shadow on the energy of the Warp, and Fujimaru Ritsuka provided a fresh experience: summoning was completely unusable, but the summoned Heroic Spirits were not affected, but it was difficult to connect to the Warp or the Emperor to directly obtain etheric energy replenishment, and the magic power stored in the body could still be used.

Under the shadow of the hive, the spirit-based exoskeleton can also be used, but it is limited to extracting and simulating data from the spirit-based portrait of Chaldea. Although Ferrus has already mastered the technology of hand-rubbing Ortnaus modification, he does not have such a thing as a spirit-based portrait after all, so this "usability" is meaningless to him.

After another half an hour of talking about these things, the conversation was finally over. Fujimaru Ritsuka came out of the summoning room dizzy with his tablet in his arms, and vaguely realized that it was almost time for dinner.

Anyway, she was indeed very hungry after three hours of intense mental work.

...However, since Captain Santo has not contacted Mr. Ferrus recently, it is likely that no matter what he intended to do when he set out, he obviously did not think that this trip was important enough to report to his Primarch. He may think that this is just an ordinary support operation, or a quick trip, or a normal...

"Why are you standing here in a daze instead of going to the cafeteria to eat?"

Asclepius' voice pulled Fujimaru Ritsuka out of her thoughts. The girl turned to the Heroic Spirit with a blank look that clearly showed a numbness from overusing her brain, and the God of Medicine sighed at her clearly:

"You just don't know how to write the word 'rest', do you?"

"I'll have plenty of time to sleep tomorrow when everyone starts their subspace voyage," Fujimaru Ritsuka reflexively retorted, "You left the infirmary and came here on your own initiative. Do you have something to say?"

Asclepius was about to speak, but stopped talking. However, facing this patient who refused to change his ways, he held back and only said the purpose of his visit: "I need to receive a Holy Grail."

Fujimaru Ritsuka maintained a blank look as he looked Asclepius up and down. In the process, he inevitably glanced at the Holy Blood Priest following behind him. Without even thinking, he said something that would have killed him if Amakusa Tokishiro had heard it:

"Is one enough?" she asked rhetorically.

Meow (peaceful)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 230: Unfortunately, the Holy Grail has been retired

In the past, the "Holy Grail" undoubtedly occupied a very important position when compared horizontally among all the resources that could be collected within Chaldea.

But in this world, especially in this Chaldea with the Emperor's support, the importance of the Holy Grail itself has obviously declined sharply - this is why, after the times have changed, Fujimaru Ritsuka can easily ask the question "Is one enough?"

Although this problem is also due to the lack of corresponding foundation, which has greatly weakened the function of the Holy Grail itself as a "wish-making machine", but in the 42nd millennium of mankind, the Empire has realized that things of the Holy Grail's level are actually not rare in the vast galaxy.

Moreover, in essence, the Holy Grail is nothing more than a "massive collection of non-attribute magical resources". In the original Chaldea, its importance is mainly reflected in its versatility. Although this "massive" is not wrong from the perspective of a "mortal" like Fujimaru Ritsuka, in the empire at this moment... this kind of thing is mainly afraid of comparison.

Although it is called "massive", in fact, Fujimaru Ritsuka had already tested it when he tried to reconstruct Konrad Curze's body: the resource throughput of the Holy Grail, which is a very high-standard magic furnace in the concept of magicians, is simply impossible to support a body of the original body to operate at full power. In other words, the so-called "generator" collected by Ferrus in the Mimir Treasury can easily provide more energy per unit time than a single Holy Grail.

Based on this, and given that Fujimaru Ritsuka has the authority to directly call upon the Emperor's psychic energy, the Holy Grails in the Storm's Edge have obviously become useless. Even after reshaping the Primarch's "material" body, constructing Somne's humanoid spiritual base, and then stabilizing Ferrus Manus's ethereal shell, the other magic materials with clear functions in Chaldea's inventory have been used up, and the number of Holy Grails has not been touched at all.

In this situation where there is little need to utilize the "massive" magical resources contained in the Holy Grail to enhance the spiritual foundations of the heroic spirits under his command, Fujimaru Ritsuka positioned this "material" that has become tasteless and a pity to throw away as a backup battery that may only be used at some point in the future.

For example, when the battlefield situation does not even allow her to set up the state religion altar on the spot, and she cannot contact the Emperor, but summoning can work, she can take out a Holy Grail to summon several cursed soldiers she has known before... Unfortunately, Fujimaru Ritsuka has no imagination in magic, and in her hands, the application occasions of the Holy Grail inexplicably become so narrow.