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

The memory evoked by this scene made the First Captain of the Night Lords almost curse on the spot.

Meow meow meow...

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 241 Warm again

To Sevatar's unspeakable regret, the small "accident" that occurred on Kaelia due to the feathers falling off from the Raven Guard Primarch neither affected Chaldea's subsequent operations nor This led Fujimaru Ritsuka to make the decision to "recycle and redistribute this sacred object." They just conducted a simple test on it and confirmed that it was generally harmless, and then let the problem go. However, Kaelia chose to take off the reliquary and keep it safely in her room on the Storm Frontier. .

This simplistic treatment decision may only be temporary. After all, at present, the more urgent problem is obviously Baal, who is really close to "imminent" in terms of distance, and the Blood Angels Chapter Monastery.

And the grand "landing plan" that will be put into use soon.

Fujimaru Ritsuka was well-informed in her previous life. In the process of saving the world in the past, she not only saw all kinds of kings in history and the wealth they possessed, but she even personally scooped up the treasure trove of gems in King Gilgamesh's treasure. Even if the hero doesn't talk about his bravery in the past and only talks about the present, objectively speaking, Fujimaru Ritsuka, who currently has the emperor personally ordering the capital injection, can be considered a rich man. But if the background is placed in the 42nd millennium of mankind, and the dimension is expanded to include the entire empire, her previous "well-informed" and "rich" meanings are somewhat imitating.

After all, the size difference is there. No matter how rich a king on Earth was 2,000 years ago, he could not be richer than the emperor who owned an empire covering countless planets. For example, rubies. In Fujimaru Ritsuka's concept, this mineral that can be used as a magic catalyst is already a sky-high price when it is the size of a pigeon egg. Even if she secretly embezzled the property of the Hero King, she had to weigh the pros and cons and struggle with herself when deciding to use it. But rubies of this size, which are only used as beautiful but useless decorations, are everywhere on the power armor of the Blood Angels.

By the way, Lapis Lazuli is also produced in the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar. During the idle time when Fujimaru Ritsuka was waiting for the Emperor's Dream to be disinfected in Parmenio, he once casually mentioned to the locals that he had a lapis lazuli bracelet during a chat. The next day, she received three sets of twelve pieces of fine gold jewelry. Each piece was inlaid with high-quality blue lapis lazuli, which had almost no color difference from the armor coating of the Ultramarines.

She spent a lot of effort to return these things to where they came from, but Vasilian, who was watching the whole process at that time, said: Just take it if you take it. These things are not much in total. money.

Fujimaru Ritsuka really couldn't believe the concept of "not having much money" in the Imperial Army. Sometimes she even wonders whether the Imperial Army has a correct understanding of concepts such as "price" or "cost" that are closely related to money.

Fortunately, most of the parts of this landing plan have nothing to do with the Throne Coin, and Fujimaru Ritsuka can safely let them toss around after cutting off most of the projects that are "too expensive" in terms of labor. Anyway, it’s hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. In the vast universe with no village or store, all they can use are the resources on the Emperor’s Dream - in a sense, this is completely a virtual currency that can be fabricated out of thin air. As long as Somni Thinking that this can be done, Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't have any big objections.

If the Custodes hadn't planned to dress her up like a Christmas tree, she wouldn't have had even this slight objection.

"You look particularly radiant today." Even Sigismund commented after seeing the dressed-up Fujimaru Ritsuka.

The word "radiant" is certainly a compliment when used by others. But this word slipped out of the mouth of Sigismund, the son of Dorne, so one couldn't help but begin to suspect that this meant something: the gold threads used for decoration on this set of robes cut by the Imperial Guards There are too many shiny things such as silver threads, pearls and gems, which has caused Ritsuka Fujimaru to have... to put it mildly, the light reflectivity is a bit high.

Theoretically, the background color of this dress should be black. At least when Somni pulled the fabric, the black fabric was used the most. But in reality, everyone’s first reaction when seeing this dress will be that it is golden. Otherwise, the dense embroidery has occupied a larger area on the fabric than the background color of the fabric. . During the production process, the Imperial Guards seemed to have some sense of competition in this dress, or perhaps the visit kimono that Fujimaru Ritsuka casually proposed while struggling gave them inspiration. Except for the Imperial Sky Eagle that is bound to exist on the chest, these people almost moved the entire Terra Palace to her huge skirt and train in the form of miniature embroidery.

As an ancient person, it was hard for Fujimaru Ritsuka to imagine that embroidery with such precision was produced within three days. But in contrast, because of the large number of gold threads, the weight of this suit is also very considerable.

"... After all, there is only one hour left before the ceremony starts. It's too late to regret it, so I'll just take it as a compliment." The person involved was heartbroken, with the attitude of "Today I will be the conspicuous leader of this empire." Determination, so replied.

By the way, when it comes to the choice of dress style, it was Fujimaru Ritsuka's side who finally bowed her head. She resolutely refused the Adeptus Custodes' attempts to build a house over her head at the expense of allowing things like exaggerated bustles and intricate lace ruffles to appear on her body. She really didn't understand why a lady of this era could carry five kilograms on her head and decorate her head, and at the same time attend a three-hour banquet with great demeanor. She could even attend the banquet. Dance on. Have their cervical vertebrae been replaced with iron for this?

At this point, her struggle was successful, but not entirely successful. Currently, she still wears a golden laurel wreath with a net weight of one kilogram on her head, and a translucent veil with gold embroidery hanging underneath. Not only does it block her view, but the material is so practical that she complains endlessly. . She did protest, "I'm just a mortal who doesn't understand psychic powers, so why don't I use gold-plated ones?" But unfortunately, the protest was ineffective. The Imperial Guards don't know why in this regard, they just have some strange obsessions.

The only thing that made Fujimaru Ritsuka slightly more satisfied was that the makeup under the veil was painted by herself. Although it is an exaggerated stage makeup that is so thick that the eyeliner can almost fly to the temples, the eye shadow and sequined lipstick make it look like a child has just been eaten, at least it is still a stage makeup that she thinks is "still lookable".

"It's fifty-seven minutes and forty-three seconds." Sigismund corrected a few details as usual before defending himself, "And I really thought I was praising him. Is there any misunderstanding? "

"This requires specific analysis of specific issues." Fujimaru Ritsuka also replied as usual, "The current situation is: theoretically you can't see me at all, I have been completely submerged in this pile of complicated and heavy decorations. Even if I can be sure that your praise is sincere based on my understanding of your usual style, it is difficult for me to believe that the object of your praise is me, rather than this set of clothes outside."

Her last words were somewhat gnashed in her tone, which seemed to activate Sigismund's few emotional quotients, and after a bit of self-game, he finally gave up further explanation out of his desire to survive.

Fortunately, Fujimaru Ritsuka's anger was not directed at Sigismund, but at this dress. She quickly turned the topic back to this direction, spreading her hands in black lace gloves and complaining: "I doubt if my hands will slip when I hold the scepter later, or if my gloves will be caught by the dark carvings on the scepter when I need to put it down."

The problem was a little too new for Sigismund. He had absolutely no experience to offer - he had never worn lace gloves. The poor black knight was stuck in place for two seconds before he vaguely figured out that Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't expect him to solve the problem when he said this to him, but just grabbed someone nearby to complain. He didn't know how to deal with this situation better, so in the end he had to move his neck, which was as stiff as a bearing that he forgot to oil, nodded awkwardly, and hoped that Fujimaru Ritsuka could read it by himself from his well-maintained helmet. to express desired feelings.

The Emperor's Champion was saved by Kaelia, who came to the preparation room with the Scepter of the Aquila. The hurried appearance of the little girl succeeded in drawing Fujimaru Ritsuka's attention away from Sigismund. Today, Kaelia will be standing outside the parade as the attendant of Fujimaru Ritsuka, so she also got a new set of clothes "suitable for the occasion". Due to time constraints, her current task is to help Fujimaru Ritsuka, who is preparing to dress up, to run errands, so she is still wearing regular clothes. But Fujimaru Ritsuka had already seen that set of attendant uniforms once during a previous fitting. In her opinion, the clothes, whose main color was also black, were at least sixty-six percent like a nun's uniform in terms of tailoring.

To be honest, after being imprisoned in the gorgeous clothes she was wearing, Fujimaru Ritsuka was even a little envious of Kaelia's nun clothes. Although the suit was a little too plain, at least it was easy to move around and there was nothing physically suffocating.

The outfit she was wearing now was even heavier than the Ortenaus exoskeleton, and she wore a pair of thick soles that were at least thirty centimeters high. Wearing this pair of things that should be called "stilts" rather than "shoes", she couldn't even walk well. She only regretted that she had not learned more skills in high heels from Cleopatra. The only good thing is that when she wears this suit, she only has to walk about 30 meters (including steps). At other times, she is not standing on the top of the turret of the Cronus anti-gravity tank (for ceremonial purposes). Smiling and waving, pretending that they are part of the float decoration, they stand in front of the podium and recite a speech from memory.

——Yes, "while wearing this suit." After completing all the procedures today, Fujimaru Ritsuka needs to change three sets of clothes in total!

Fujimaru Ritsuka took the Sky Eagle Scepter handed over by Kailia with the sadness and indignation of "I need to change three sets of clothes", and quickly realized that the lace gloves produced by the imperial army would not be easily broken by scratching them casually. . This discovery made her a little happier, but it still had a strong sense of "joy in hardship".

Thinking about it carefully, she had to thank the Emperor for giving her an Eagle Scepter that had to rest on the bottom when holding it. The existence of this scepter greatly limited the space for the Imperial Guards to play on the skirt of her dress, because she had to personally stand the scepter beside her during the parade. If the Emperor had had a sudden thought and given her an eagle feather fan as identification, the bustle of her skirt would now be at least three meters in diameter, and anyone who wanted to hand something to her would have to connect it to a long pole. .

Maybe Kaelia read something from the bitter and resentful expression on Fujimaru Ritsuka's face under the veil, or maybe she read something directly from Fujimaru Ritsuka's surface thinking because of her talent. After handing over the scepter, she couldn't help but ask: "Sister, is there any problem next?"

"It's too late to say there is a problem now." Fujimaru Ritsuka made a face under the veil on the premise of not wearing makeup. "There will always be times in life when you force yourself to do something you hate but must do. But you , you will have to stand behind me for four or five hours after the parade is over, do you want to take advantage of this time to rest for a while?"

"At that time, I will just stand." Kaelia didn't show much concern. "I can survive the four or five hours of marathon in the simulation room. Isn't it better to just stand with the scepter than the Hastings Trial?" The officer’s training mission is much simpler.”

"But it's boring, and the mental pressure is different." Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed, "One thing to say, instead of wasting time on these parades, dances, dinners, and the like, I would rather go to the simulation room and be beaten by Sigis Mondstadt plays all day long. If I'm lucky, maybe I can get a little sense of achievement."

Sigismund didn't know whether he should respond to this sentence, so he simply poked aside and pretended not to hear, and became a ruthless process broadcasting machine: "Madam, in view of your strong request to leave a margin in the moving time, we It’s almost time to head to the hangar.”

The Emperor's Dream is huge. Really big. It was so big that it would take Twelve minutes for Fujimaru Ritsuka to move from the current preparation room to the hangar, even by riding on the anti-gravity floating saucer. After that, she had to settle herself and her floor-length skirt on top of the turret that had been transformed into a ceremonial personnel carrier. After doing these things, it was almost time for the ceremony to begin.

Incidentally, Custodes squads will walk around the anti-grav tanks during the parade as part of the ceremonial guard. Once an unplanned serious safety incident occurs, Sigismund, as the last line of defense, hides in the internal space of the Kronos tank and adapts accordingly.

After going over the entire ceremony process in his mind, Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded to Sigismund with a determination as if he was going to the execution ground: "Let's go."

Meow meow meow...

Blood Angels Ruby: Actually, we don't know if Baal's ruby ​​is the same as Earth's ruby, but they are both red. I couldn't tell the difference between ruby ​​and red spinel when I went to a gem counter, so I just treated them as the same (arbitrarily). I think the blood drop in Baal's ruby ​​may be some special crystal structure, which may not exist in every gem. Anyway, GW doesn't need to be so clear (what kind of logic is this), so just be casual.

By the way, the Blood Angels pictures gave me the impression that any angel with a little military rank would like to make the blood droplet of the chapter mark on their shoulder or chest armor into ruby. Judging by the proportions, that thing is bigger than my head. I don't know if it is natural or synthetic. If it is natural, then the Baal formation is really a gathering of heroes, so terrifying.

Lapis Lazuli of Ultramar: It is not a real setting, but a meme. It is a meme about ultramarine and ultramarine. Natural ultramarine pigment is made by grinding lapis lazuli into powder and then separating the colors, so it is not my fault that GW came up with this meme first!

Visiting kimono: A social dress-like kimono for women that appeared during the Meiji period, which is similar to Western social dresses and is worn on solemn and formal occasions. The characteristic of this kimono is that when the whole dress is unfolded and hung up, the pattern on it can be seen as a whole continuous painting.

Why black fabric was chosen for the dress: Asian faces look small, and the imperial guards are trying to make Guda look like an adult.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 242 The Ceremony Begins

The arrival of Ritsuka Fujimaru, the emperor's personal choice and envoy of the throne (a long list of other titles below), to Baal Samsung. In fact, after they jumped out of Mandeville Point, they had already caused an uproar in the galaxy.

Without him, the Emperor's Dream would have been too eye-catching. From various dimensions such as specifications, decoration, firepower, identification code, equipped technology, and its own meaning, it is too eye-catching. Even though Vasilian had already contacted the Blood Angels Chapter Monastery through intra-system communication when the Lion's Mane arrived, and immediately publicized this fact after a simple preliminary discussion, the Emperor's Dream The actual appearance still caused chaos visible to the naked eye in the traffic scheduling within the galaxy.

The Imperial Guards don't pay attention to these trivial matters. These are the problems that the internal affairs officials of the empire are grabbing their remaining hair and screaming to solve, and they are only responsible for objectively adding trouble to these people. Let’s not talk about anything else, even if we only talk about the most realistic part: an ocean-going ship that is even larger than the Glory Queen-class battleship needs to queue up at the airport of Baal Prime to dock and carry out the ceremonial guard, which brings a massive amount of scheduling and The paperwork has kept the mortal clerks at the Baal Department of Transportation busy for three days.

What's more, the impact of this incident is not just as simple as "a huge battleship needs to enter the port." The resulting chaos will naturally make it known to everyone. Although in order to carry out the next work, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Chaldea did need to make their presence known on Baal, the fact that this happened so early in an unofficial way really made her I felt a little caught off guard.

To put it more clearly, she did not expect at the beginning that the landing ceremony, or ceremony, or whatever the person in charge of recording would give it a nicer name when she arrived in Baal would be so "lively" ".

Actors preparing to go on stage often cannot see the full picture of a normal performance. Therefore, when the honor guard tank Fujimaru Ritsuka was riding in landed on the Baal ground and slowly entered the room surrounded by the Imperial Army squad, the flight show that opened the ceremony was only visible in the sky. A thin trail of clouds was left on the sky, and the Dark Angel's vigorous 90-man phalanx martial arts drill had also ended.

According to the plan, there will be ten temporarily adjusted servo skulls floating above the surrounding crowd, moving forward with the Kronos tank, and during this period, Fujimaru Ritsuka's long series of titles will be loudly repeated. During the planning stage, due to insufficient inventory, she reduced the broadcast phalanx that was originally supposed to have 100 pieces to 10 pieces. But when it came to actual operation, she suddenly discovered that the original requirements of the Imperial Army did make sense in reality: Now she couldn't hear the servoskulls.

The sound of those high-power loudspeakers was almost completely drowned out by the cheers of the spectators on both sides of the road.

Fujimaru Ritsuka was stunned for a moment by such a deafening sound. Fortunately, at this stage, all she really had to do was stand there holding the Eagle Scepter, remain elegant, dignified, smile, and wave around, so this moment of stupefaction did not have any visible impact.

The crowd gathered nearby was much larger than she had originally imagined. She originally thought that she was used to seeing huge crowds of people in places such as Tokyo's morning and evening rush hours and large exhibitions, but when she saw the scene around her, she saw a straight and wide main road with no obstructions, and the scene of crowds of people even... As it stretched to the end of her horizon, she was still genuinely shocked by the sheer violence of this quantity.

At first, she wondered if this was some kind of face-saving project, but after seeing that the commissioners of the Ministry of Justice who were trying to maintain order were even mixed with the monks of the Blood Angels Chapter (or, conversely, because the Astartes in the crowd were always easier to spot), this idea was half dispelled. Perhaps the local government would get some civilians to show their support for the "visit" of the central government personnel for various reasons, but anyone with a little bit of intelligence would not make the scene to such a scale that it was basically impossible for nothing to happen.

But this did not make her stylized smile any more natural, because it was obvious that what drove these civilians to come here was a strong religious fanaticism. Fujimaru Ritsuka was not used to this kind of scene, but this "unadaptation" did not prevent her from quickly realizing that the cheers that were mixed around her, so deafening that she could not hear the content at all, were not for "Fujimaru Ritsuka" , but to dedicate it to a "religious symbol representing the Emperor."

The person involved has no doubt that even on such an occasion, if the thing placed by the Imperial Guard in the center of the ceremonial guard to refer to the emperor is a statue, a painting, or even a dog in rich clothes, these people can do this without any qualms. Keep cheering.

This can be seen from the fact that after her figure was completely exposed to everyone's eyes, some Blood Angels' actions were slow due to surprise, but the voices of mortals were not affected at all. These crowds of people who gathered quickly in maybe only a day or two were not so much the well-informed or slightly powerful civilians on Bar, but rather pilgrims who were swayed by religious fanaticism.

The more powerful ones will receive invitations to the social dinner after the parade through the communication and arrangements between the Custodes and the Blood Angels, so there is no need to crowd here.

As close as Fujimaru Ritsuka could see, there was a clear tendency of the crowd to cross the safety line and move towards the honor guard; there were also people beating their chests and feet, tearing their clothes, and wailing loudly in excitement; and even more One even took out a knife and cut out the shape of the national religion's symbol on his face on the spot to show his loyalty and devotion. This made people wonder, "Is this really okay with the Blood Angels nearby?" This kind of fanatical atmosphere that does not distinguish between men and women makes Fujimaru Titsuka feel a little suffocated - as a non-religious person in a broad sense, she is unlikely to be moved by this.

Fortunately, Fujimaru Ritsuka's acting skills have been honed in various situations. Even though she felt a little uncomfortable with such a large number of enthusiastic people in her heart, she still looked elegant, dignified and full of joy from every angle. She gestured around with the calm attitude that a religious symbol should have, quietly waiting for the next step in the plan:

The roar of engines sounded again on the channel that had been cleared today and was used exclusively for ceremonies. An Orion attack transport craft rowed along the straight avenue on the ground from a low altitude. The temporarily transformed warehouse unfolded, and what fell from it were not guns, missiles, or soldiers symbolizing death, but overwhelming petals.

The Imperial Guards headed by Vasilian wanted to show off, so these instead of the ribbons and confetti commonly used during festivals fell from the air. They were massive real flower petals that were in short supply in many imperial worlds, including Baal.

As for the question of "where do all these petals come from", Fujimaru Ritsuka is not 100% clear. She is only responsible for providing Somni with seeds of various flowers. Storm Edge also functions as the last ark for the survival of a race, so of course it is equipped with a seed bank for the needs of ecological regeneration and civilization survival, which stores the seeds of all plants known to humans around 2000 AD. As for how the cultivation device on the Emperor's Dream can turn a small amount of seeds into an overwhelming rain of petals in a few days... This question may have to be asked to the Emperor, and even if he explains it, the listeners may not understand it.

In this slightly crazy festival atmosphere, the Kronos anti-gravity tank surrounded by the Imperial Guards on the ground finally began to move forward slowly in the rain of petals.

-

At Arax Angel Fortress, Dante, the leader of the Blood Angel Chapter, was frowning under his golden armor mask, staring at the parade screen in front of him that was relayed by the Servo Skull.

His personal position in the political and military sense made him have to think more about this matter, and the "Imperial Saint" who originally only existed in the words of the Imperial Army, but now finally came out after being called out for thousands of times, The figure did successfully answer some of the questions that had arisen in his mind in the past two days.

To be fair, the man standing on the Kronos tank was indeed wrapped tightly in layers of fine clothes, with almost no skin visible. Maybe if it were someone else, he could only simply tell that the person was a woman based on the style of the dress in this situation, but Dante has seen too many people in his service life of more than 1,500 years: Men, women, civilians, soldiers, good guys, bad guys, mortals, Astartes. These subjectively long and tedious experiences have indeed become a valuable asset for him objectively. The huge data gathered in his brain formed a mysterious and mysterious world for him unconsciously. intuition:

Even though vision can provide very little detailed information, and the approximate height and body shape can only be used as an inaccurate reference for the age of the person involved in the vast empire, he can still rely on this paragraph of petals flying from time to time in front of the camera. From the past images, it can be judged that this girl is not very old, maybe she is an adult, or even younger.

In this case, the thing that worries him the most so far - the process from the Emperor's Dream entering the Baal system to the actual start of the landing ceremony is too rushed from any point of view - is Here’s an explanation that doesn’t sound like too much of a headache: From experience, young people are always more impulsive, reckless, and quick-tempered. Especially when one is as young as this "Imperial Saint" and holds a high position, the sense of omnipotence brought by excess power can easily give such a person the illusion of being "omnipotent".

Three Terran standard days were indeed too long for a ceremony of this scale.

Due to the vast territory of the empire, it must rely on subspace for transportation and communication. Issues involving vast areas in the empire often show a strange state of "urgent and slow": even urgent military situations, such as The Chapter received requests for help from other galaxies, and the ships had to leave immediately. However, in the treacherous subspace of the dark side of the Empire, the soldiers might feel drifting during this voyage that should only be a week or a month. It's been a year - things are indeed urgent, but the constraints in reality often prevent us from acting with real urgency.

Even the warships of the Blood Angel Chapter will encounter this situation if they can get into Sanguinor's navigation from time to time. Then inter-galactic broadcast communications, imperial government and commercial-related ships, and nobles' private armed ships will all encounter this situation. Boats, etc., will only encounter more problems during navigation, not less.

This resulted in "three days". On the dark side of the empire, basically no information could be transmitted from within the galaxy.

Fortunately, Baal itself has become the administrative and military hub of the dark side of the Empire under the orders of Robert Guilliman, so there are often many Astartes Chapter Mothers from various sectors, significantly more in number than the average. The military and political officials needed by the star are gathered in the galaxy, and the circulation of personnel and materials is much more frequent than before the Great Rift opened. I don’t know if the people who made this decision that made the schedule very hasty had this in mind from the beginning, but it did make the outrageous order to put together a grand event within "three days" some workability. : At least he only needs to ask his blood slaves to send invitations in his name within the galaxy, and he can gather the number of people that should be present at a social party that meets the specifications.

But that's not to say he doesn't have other things to worry about. As the Chapter Leader, what he actually needs to be busy with is: after learning the news, contact the person in charge of this ceremony, the Forbidden Army Warden Vasilian; and make sure that all the requests made by the other party are feasible (if there are any unfeasible parts, Then make it feasible, at least that's what Vasilian requested) After that, provide the corresponding venue and arrange manpower to raise and assist the corresponding matters. Dante spent more than ten hours completing all these negotiations and coordination work, so that the next things could continue to operate normally without him being needed, so he left with peace of mind - and then held an emergency group meeting.

He had indeed known for a long time that there would be such a person arriving in Baal with an important mission, and he also knew that by calculating the time, he would arrive almost recently, and he had been dreamed into by Sanguileno recently, and in a... In a way that seemed unreal, in an atmosphere like chatting with old friends, I was told in a circumstantial way that "you don't need to be too nervous about what will happen next." However, the experience accumulated over a long period of time still makes Dante unable to be optimistic about what may happen next. Too little information and too hasty time also prevent the chapter meeting from making a decisive conclusion that can be consistently applied.

After the Great Rift unfolded, it became practically difficult for the Holy Empire and the Dark Side to communicate with each other. The astrological message that was sent from Ultramar, passed through the Great Rift, and was finally received by the astropaths on Baal, informing that "an agent of the Emperor will come to you with an important mission." Although after passing through the Great Rift, the meaning inevitably became brief and fragmented, it still originated from a miraculous psychic ritual. Even Mephiston couldn't figure out how this was done.

Information and intelligence on both sides of the empire can often only be physically exchanged by passing ships through a handful of relatively stable fixed routes. This low efficiency resulted in that even though the Blood Angels Chapter began to try to collect relevant intelligence after receiving the Star Language, due to the previously mentioned "hurry and slow" status of the Empire, they did not know much about the relevant events. The portion is still very small.

The most irritating thing is that if I ask Vasilian the question "What are your specific tasks after coming to Bar?", he will only be answered with sentences like "You will know soon", which is not soft. Push back hard.

The Custodes may not realize how important this issue is to the Blood Angels. To these Emperor's Guards, this death world is nothing more than a Chapter Astartes homeworld, with at most some "Foundation Order", "Primarch Homeworld", "Autonomy" labels on it, and other There is no essential difference among the thousands of imperial worlds. But for the Blood Angels, Baal and her two moons are the home, spirit, faith and belief of all of them——

Dante took a deep breath and shook off these divergent associations, forcing himself to focus on the present and not worrying too much about things that had not happened yet. But when it comes to focusing on the present, there are some things that are not quite right that force him to continue to frown and think under the mask:

Is his memory inevitably failing with age - are any of the Dark Angels sub-groups painted in pure black? Are their Chapter emblems so similar to their parent Chapter's?

Meow meow meow...

Why is the DA phalanx an awkward number of ninety? Because after Parmenio, they were left with only ninety-one people.

Don't worry about the remaining one being excluded. The one who is not in the phalanx is Lanmarok. He (claims that he) needs to take care of the bat cubs who were thrown into space and did not come down when the other Astartes are not here, and preside over the overall situation on the Lion's Mane, where only mortals are left. This is also a very important task! (?)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 243 The more I think about it, the more confused I become. It’s better not to think about it.

Realizing that his thinking was inconclusive, Dante chose to listen to other people's opinions: "I wonder what our reliable chief think tank thinks about this."

"Which part are you referring to, Lord Dante?" Mephiston, who seemed to be concentrating with his eyes closed, answered quickly. He obviously did not watch any of the images relayed by the servo skull, but the slightly shining psychic headband on his forehead showed that he did not do anything during this period.

There is a physical distance between where Mephiston is now and the airport exit plaza where the ceremony is taking place. But for the director of the Blood Angels Think Tank who uses psychic powers, this physical distance is completely negligible.

He's watching the scene. And his observation angle is obviously more detailed than the data that the servo skull can send back.

"First let's talk about the question we are all most concerned about." Dante asked. "Are there any tricks of the enemy of Chaos mixed in these scenes?"

"I don't think so." Mephiston concluded quickly, although his explanation of the conclusion was still a bit unsettling. "Although there are many things in this parade that puzzle me, I think the only The evil gods in the Duya space cannot have any influence here."

"So, what exactly is it about the procession that confuses you?" Dante decided to listen carefully to the answer to the question. After all, they just needed to be there on time to greet the procession when it arrived at the outermost gate of the Chapter's monastery. At this moment, they have plenty of time.

Ten thousand years ago, when the Baal Prime Spaceport was first constructed, the purpose of this facility's existence was to serve the Blood Angels, who were still legions at the time, and the Arax Angel Fortress. Ten thousand years later, even though almost all the facilities on the planet's surface had been destroyed by the surging Tyranids, after that, the architectural pattern re-established by the Blood Angels on the ruins, It is not very different from the original design thousands of years ago. The outermost gate of the chapter monastery and the exit of the airport on the ground are connected to each other by a straight and wide avenue without obstruction. This road is only five kilometers long, but according to prior arrangements, Cronuo for ceremonial purposes Tanks and their corresponding phalanxes spend three Terran standard hours on this almost negligible stretch of road.

"...It's a bit too much." There was an unusual hesitation in Mephiston's tone, "It's hard for me to express in specific words those subtle things that make me feel wrong, but...it doesn't make sense logically. : Why is the person standing on the float still alive? Or, does she really exist in the material universe in a state of 'alive' in the usual sense of our language?"

This wording, which sounded a bit hairy, made Dante have to ask: "Can you tell me more about this part?"

"I don't understand, maybe that's why she is called the 'Imperial Saint'." Mephiston opened his eyes, turned his face in the direction of the chapter leader, and spoke seriously, "Simply put, there is something hidden in her soul. Shining with the light of the Star Torch. If she wanted to demonstrate this power, all psykers present would be permanently blinded. This is why I said, 'Only the Warp Evil God cannot have an impact here' . Those monsters and monsters will never be able to approach such a sacred power."

"It sounds like 'a mortal girl brought the light of the Astronomican to the dark side of the Empire, so she was called the Imperial Saint'. It makes sense logically?"

"This is unreasonable. It doesn't make sense in terms of material and spiritual energy." Mephiston said stubbornly, "Why is she still alive? Why can she even hide such great power in her soul so that people will not be harmed in the first place?" Discovered at once? She should have been burned clean long ago."

"Perhaps this is one of the reasons why she is called the 'Imperial Saint'." Dante thought this was nothing, "The empire is too vast, and occasionally we do encounter one or two that break what we previously thought were 'absolutes' 'A special case of experience. Before you, didn't the Chapter also believe that no one could truly overcome the curse of the Black Fury on their own?"

I don’t know which part of this passage played a decisive role, but in short, Mephiston nodded after a brief thought, indicating that he accepted this statement.

Perhaps the chief think tank wanted to continue speaking, but during the period of his thinking, Holy Blood Priest Cobulo just interrupted: "Lord Dante, can we temporarily shift our focus back to where everyone can see it?" Those parts? I believe that among the people present, our chief think tank is not the only one who feels that something is wrong."

"Cobro, I also saw those Dark Angels, at least that's what their chapter marks indicate." Dante replied, "For some reasons that are well known in this room, I don't think we will be directly It would be a good idea to go up and ask anyone in that group 'why these Astartes power armor is painted black'."

The grand ceremony is still going on. Taking a step back, at least for today, the Holy Blood Angel, as the host (albeit forced), makes everyone look good - turning a blind eye to some things that seem obviously wrong. Closing one's eyes is also a commonly used strategy at such times.

"Chapter Master Seth has left Baal, so I guess it's my turn to be the naysayer this time?" Cobulo said in a joking tone, "Just a reminder, we'll have to do this later. The suspicious-looking Astartes are entering the fortress."

"Most of the equipment they carry are sacred objects with a long history." Mephiston suddenly pointed out.

Kobro understood that the chief think tank wanted to point out that "they must have received official funding from the empire to be able to install such excellent equipment on such a scale." However, he did not intend to accept this: "Then explain these The people are wealthy and suspicious Astartes.”

"I know, so they won't enter the truly important facilities." Dante intervened to interrupt an argument that hadn't really started, and assured him, "I can probably guess what you're worried about, but none of the things you're worried about have happened yet. Considering that these people have recovered half of the Chapter's lost company in the Skelos System, at least don't show your doubts too obviously during the ceremony."

"But in the end, only twelve people returned to Baal." Cobulo reluctantly made a stab at it, and then finally died down.