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

Chapter 383 The Imperial Regent Must Have an Involvement with the Eldar Aliens
When Ritsuka Fujimaru returned to the Storm Edge, she didn't expect that the first person she would meet on the ship would be Amit.

The first Flesh Tearers Chapter Captain, wearing Relic Terminator Power Armor, brought a chair from some room and sat down on the pitiful seat which was totally mismatched in size compared to his body including the armor. He openly blocked the middle of the corridor, clearly blocking the way of Fujimaru Ritsuka himself.

Based on the principle that "Amit is the biggest danger when there is no danger around", Fujimaru Ritsuka nervously lowered his shoulders, ready to run away at any time: "What's wrong? I should have said that Akultona and I are going to do something and will be back later."

"I thought you were going to solve some 'cloned problems'." Amit said something disrespectful in the most straightforward tone, "Until I realized who the wooden boards that Enkidu moved out of the warehouse at your request were gifts for."

Fujimaru Ritsuka felt that his collection was being insulted: "What 'wooden board'? That's a replica of the wood carving of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji made in 2016*! Even if you, as a descendant of Saint Gilles, can't understand the artistry of it, you should at least understand that it is still an antique even now, right?"

"Of course I know this." Amit said sinisterly, "I think you are really wasting it."

The master's ability to balance things made Fujimaru Ritsuka realize the crux of the problem in an instant, and then he laughed out loud with both anger and amusement: "What are you being sarcastic about, Amit? Do you want me to count with you what I have given to the archangel? A complete set of original scripts of Shakespeare's 20 plays, costumes, makeup and theater troupes; opera scores of Mozart and Verdi; seeds of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir and soilless culture medium formula; I even took the authentic "Mona Lisa" from Uncle Machado and gave it to him. These are the ones I can think of right away because the process was very laborious. There are also a lot of other things that are not so laborious. Do you want me to continue?"

Amit, who was hit in the center of the bull's eye, showed a little embarrassment in his body language, but he still insisted verbally: "Those things are not on the Red Tear now."

"Just tell me whether you have seen them or not." Fujimaru Ritsuka crossed his arms defensively. "Anyway, you must have played a role in that illusion, right?"

"So what?" Amit stood up from the precarious-looking chair and said angrily, "I never liked you anyway."

He thought this sentence would arouse the other party's anger to some extent, but the little girl in the middle of the corridor nodded calmly: "It's normal. After all, even the emperor can't make everyone like him."

This response gave Amit a suffocating feeling, as if he had thrown a punch in the air and was unable to follow up. He wanted to say something to complain back, but before that, Fujimaru Ritsuka had already taken the initiative to move closer to him, observing his scarred face from bottom to top, and asked provocatively: "Are you blocking the corridor because of this?"

"...Of course not." Amit said unhappily, and quickly but carefully pinned the little girl who had inadvertently walked into his control, "During the time you were away, something did happen."
-
After receiving the spiritual examination of Asclepius, Santo sat on the bed in the infirmary of Storm's Edge, waiting for the details in the results to be processed. After examining the structure, craftsmanship and materials of the bed itself, the captain of the Iron Hands during the Great Crusade thought that the load-bearing capacity of this thing was not very trustworthy, so he did not put on his armor immediately after the inspection, even though it was just a thought for him now. He just naked his upper body without caring, exposing a little bit of his uneven skin due to scars, and the cold metallic biochemical modification parts that occupied more than 70% of his body. Almost unconsciously, he glared at the patient who was locked in another bed* with two eyes (one mechanical eye and one intact).

He was a mortal, an adult male of about thirty years old, with brown hair and eyes, wearing a linen robe with the emblem of the Ultramarines. He should have received a proper education and knew that when encountering an accident beyond his control, hysterical shouting would not solve any problem. He was also used to being in the same room with Astartes in his previous life, but there was a difference between the Astartes of the Iron Hands and the Astartes of the Ultramarines. Under Santo's angry gaze, the man who had nowhere to escape was obviously cramped and nervous, and beads of sweat slid down from his tense brows, but he could still barely maintain a decent demeanor.

Santo didn't care what his name was. Neither did Asclepius, but the issues they were more concerned about obviously did not overlap. This mortal looked like a Chapter servant working in the Hera Fortress, and that was indeed the case. After the servo skull obtained from Macragge's Glory in the Storm's Edge was connected to the network communication within the fortress, it could even call up this person's number and identification code from the Ultramarines' system - but this did not explain why this unrelated and unauthorized person appeared in this remote hangar that should have been controlled by Digris in advance, in front of the door of the Storm's Edge.

Santo thought that there must be some mistakes on the Ultramarines' side. The reason why he hadn't rushed out to question them like an erupting volcano was that he, like Asclepius, believed that this mistake occurred in the blind spot of the Ultramarines' current defense measures, and that he would not get an immediate answer by directly asking questions. Of course, he still believed that this fully reflected the poor supervision of his azure cousin in security defense, but he didn't want to alert the enemy before he figured out the whole cause and effect of the matter.

The whole thing went like this: Santo showed up at the Storm's Edge at the appointed time. He found the dazed servant at the tightly closed door of the submarine. His heart was alarmed and he stepped forward to ask questions. However, this mortal who obviously did not have his own mind turned around and sang the following words in an aria-like manner in a rather complicated and difficult accent that went against the laws of human organ production:

"Please tell the daughter of destiny who is about to ignite the Sky Eagle that the Morning Star is tied with thousands of threads; the boat woven with words and questions invites her, and the new death and resurrection are watching her!"

Santo realized that the accent clearly belonged to the Eldar. But before he could get angry, the man who was responsible for delivering the message collapsed in front of him with convulsions - or to be more precise, he died suddenly from a cerebral infarction caused by some kind of psychic energy. Santo was quite sure of this, but after he carried the body and was allowed to enter the ship by the machine spirit of the Storm Edge and came to the infirmary, he soon realized that the unfamiliar medical officer next to Fujimaru Ritsuka obviously had a different understanding of the "best time for rescue" than ordinary people.

In short, at the cost of the memory of the past two days, this mortal's soul failed to completely leave his body. Now he is leaning on the hospital bed, his vital signs are intact, but there are only a few sequelae caused by slight brain hypoxia, which is not serious under the current medical level and will soon return to normal.

Asclepius was more concerned about the issue of whether the two days of memory lost by the patient after waking up was due to organic damage caused by lack of oxygen, or was deliberately blocked or erased by a skilled psychic - for him, the former might still be possible to recover, but for the latter there was no way.

The atmosphere in the infirmary was quiet and depressing for two hours in pure work and necessary conversation, until Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had arrived late, was brought to the door by Amit: "What happened?"

After understanding the whole story, a very annoyed expression immediately appeared on her face: "The Eldar are so annoying! How did they know I was here and not in Baal! On the Blood Angels side, no more than twenty people knew I was gone!"

"It must be the negligence of the Ultramarines!" Santo stood up and said unhappily, "They should be held responsible for this!"

The battle group servant on one side obviously had some different opinions on this, but as the culprit of the problem, he dared not speak out. Standing quietly on the side with a sullen look on his face was the greatest resistance he could make.

It's hard to say whether Fujimaru Ritsuka noticed this, but while she was thinking about it, she did say something for Digris who arranged all this: "It's not 'negligence'. After all, there is no such thing as a thousand-day defense against thieves. You really can't defend yourself when the Eldar want to sneak up on you. But this is indeed a problem that should be thrown to the Ultramarines to deal with."

This sentence choked back the complaint that Santo was about to make. How to characterize the matter can be discussed slowly later, and the responsibilities that have been clearly divided are real. The captain of the first company of Iron Hands was very satisfied with this.

In this satisfied state, he silently watched Fujimaru Ritsuka continue to push forward the progress of all the work so far with one order after another: she asked Arjuna to contact the Psionic Council of the Imperial Regent and ask them to send someone to take the poor Chapter Servant back and discuss the issue of the Eldar face to face; she sent Amit to the cafeteria to order food for her; then, she asked Asklepios for the spiritual base report that Santo had just checked, and asked if he needed some other "technical support"; the latter denied it and turned the topic back to the Chapter Servant. After a brief discussion, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Asklepios both believed that they would not find anything useful by continuing to delve into the "lost two days of memory" of this poor man, so it would be better to talk about it when meeting with the Eldar - "Wait a minute." Santo was a little confused, "Did I miss something? Why did you suddenly decide to meet with the Eldar?"

"Oh, the riddle from the Eldar goes like this." Amid the contemptuous gaze of the God-era magician, the modern magician habitually began to explain the meaning of the aria to all the Muggles present, "The Death Army wants to invite me to talk in person. Oh my god, I can finally use the word 'please' before 'I' when translating a sentence spoken by the Eldar."

"I was originally wondering, Master, how could you have such a negative feeling towards an entire intelligent human-like race?" Asclepius commented in amazement, "But now I think I understand a little bit."

It was obvious that Fujimaru Ritsuka wanted to say something, but when he opened his mouth, he remembered that there was an outsider being tortured in the infirmary, so he changed the subject in a sullen manner: "Let's talk about these bad things behind closed doors later. Captain Santo, come with me to the summoning room to make some fine-tuning. Although your left foot stepping on the right foot mode of the present world is basically successful, there are still some details that can be optimized. But let's put this aside for a while, I'll take a general look and then have a meal, and I have to contact Bal later. He said that there are too many things here, so I may be back late. The details of this organization will be discussed in detail after we capture Akurdona in the middle of the night, examine him, and summarize your problems. His matter is not completely finished yet, I have to go and deal with it again."

Santo said "tsk" in dissatisfaction with the last part of this sentence. Although he had been struggling with the efficiency optimization of mechanical equipment during this period, he still had some knowledge of what Akurdona was doing. In his opinion, this was a good opportunity to practice "survival of the fittest" in the Phoenix Sons, but Akurdona made things so messy...

"Speaking of this, Captain Santo." Fujimaru Ritsuka seemed to have suddenly remembered something and changed the subject quite abruptly. "I remember that you had a good relationship with Solomon Dmitri*?"

Santo didn't know why the other party suddenly brought up this matter, but subtly, he had a bad feeling at this moment.
-
At midnight in Macragge, just as she had promised before, Ritsuka Fujimaru once again arrived at the temporary base of the Sons of Phoenix under the escort (or rather, escort) of Santo, who was once again wearing a full set of equipment.

Although the visit was not formal, the process was somewhat clear: the Phoenix Sons' warband servants respectfully led the guests to the reception room. The guests did not have to wait for long. Later, Chapter Master Thun appeared with the Chapter Champion and Chief Librarian, accompanied by Akuldona.

A very subtle point is that when everyone in the room was dressed in neat and formal clothes, only Akuldona was still wearing a plain and simple training suit. Captain Thun was worried about this, but Akuldona said that it would be fine. He was partly right, because after confirming his existence, Fujimaru Ritsuka looked away without hesitation; but he was not completely right, because the Iron Hand standing behind Fujimaru Ritsuka was staring at Akuldona, and the negative emotion of "I'm unhappy" almost overflowed from the helmet eyepiece, which theoretically could not express any emotional color.

Akurdona originally thought that this was due to his attire. But he thought that Santo would understand that his power armor form was not suitable for display under the current circumstances. At the same time, he did not think it was appropriate for him to change himself into a formal dress like the one he wore when attending social banquets in the legion in public. Therefore, when facing Santo's sharp gaze, he first chose to smile, hoping to calm the other party's anger in this silent way.

But after a few seconds, he realized something was wrong. Santo's anger didn't seem to be directed at him, but at the other Primaris Astartes in the room. Chapter Master Thun seemed to realize this, but he didn't know whether to express or protest, and he held his breath before the conversation began.

After discovering this problem, the smile on Akurdona's face quickly disappeared. However, when he was about to switch to combat mode and start a silent eye battle with Santo, Fujimaru Ritsuka spoke first:

"Since I cannot reveal my identity, I suggest that we do not need to exchange pleasantries, Chapter Master Toone." The person in question spoke in a calm and easygoing tone, as if he had not nearly fought with the angry Toone in the evening. "And let's all be clear, this is partly my problem, not because I have any dissatisfaction with the Sons of Phoenix Chapter."

This time, Tuen nodded obediently and looked a little ashamed. He also noticed that when the unknown little girl spoke, the two firstborns who were silently fighting on the other side tacitly turned away their hostile eyes from each other, one looking at the sky and the other looking at the ground, as if they were putting their dispute aside for the time being.

"I don't want to make the atmosphere sound too much like a lecture. After all, we are just casual acquaintances, and I am not your direct superior. Pointing out the seriousness of the current problems of the Sons of Phoenix Chapter is already my way of speaking to you. As for the rest... I can only give you one sentence, 'It is the greatest virtue to admit one's mistakes and correct them.' It is not terrible to make mistakes, as all primarchs make mistakes. What is terrible is to realize that you have made a mistake and then never get up from it, without the courage to correct it."

As to whether this statement was a good thing or a bad thing, Captain Thun still needed to spend some time brainstorming on this issue. But he did notice uncontrollably that when the other party made this statement, the Iron Hand behind him, whose armor was considered too luxurious among the holy relics, looked very reluctant.

Obviously, this commander-level figure disagreed with this, but when the girl next to him said this, he did not interrupt or refute it directly. To Thun, this scene looked quite fantastic, but considering that the person in charge on the other side did not airdrop a chapter leader to the chapter, he thought it was a good idea to admit the matter this way.

"Finally, regarding Lord Dorn's statement that 'you are not his descendants.'" Fujimaru Ritsuka placed his hands on the table with a relaxed expression, but the several Sons of the Phoenix present had already silently tensed up their nerves after hearing this topic. "Actually, Akuldona could tell you, but he's a little too stupid in this regard and doesn't know how to say it tactfully."

"You don't have to comfort us." Toone tried to squeeze out these bitter words from his chest, "We once thought we were the descendants of Lord Dorne. Naturally, we know his temperament."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded. "Yes, you have some superficial understanding of this through the study of historical documents. You know that he is upright, honest, and never lies, so every word he says is of great weight. But you don't realize that since these words already have great weight, they really shouldn't be over-interpreted. When he said that you're not his descendants,' he only meant the fact that your bloodline has nothing to do with him. He thought that he shouldn't enjoy your praise and worship as a nominal father, but he didn't think that you did anything wrong or brought shame to him - at least that was the case when he turned away from you and left the table."

Tuen wanted to get angry again, but he didn't dare. He still didn't know who this little girl was, but the information revealed in the words of the person involved had already made his guess go in a direction he would never dare to think of.

"Finally, since you are 'not the descendants of Lord Dorne', whose bloodline did your gene seed inherit? Regarding this question, I have prepared two answers for you."

Fujimaru Ritsuka pushed the edge of the table with both hands, leaned back, and tried to lean on the back of the chair. This action should have shown her a lively and cute appearance that matched her age, but at that moment, it made Toon feel a little numb. Then, he realized that this didn't seem to be his illusion alone, because Akurdona also moved his shoulders uncomfortably.

"Truth or a lie," Fujimaru Ritsuka raised his head and stared into the eyes of Captain Toon, "Which one do you want to hear?"

(End of this chapter)