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

Chapter 393 Yes, I am also the God of Smoke Mirror

"Sure." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied casually, "But are you sure you want to discuss this matter at the negotiation table?"

Adarad's heart suddenly became alert because of this sentence. He tried his best to glance at Guilliman who was sitting on the fishing platform, but the Primarch's face did not show any recognizable micro-expression. He turned back to look at Fujimaru Ritsuka who was calm and composed. He was not sure what this little human girl was thinking, so he couldn't help but secretly glance at the Primarch's expression again - of course, he still didn't read any useful information.

This sentence implies a very simple truth: what you can't get on the battlefield, you can't get at the negotiation table. Even if you really come to an agreement, you won't feel at ease unless you can hold these things firmly in your hands and immediately run away.

The Eldar Prophet highly suspected that this was said by Fujimaru Ritsuka at Guilliman's instruction, but before he could use this speculation to organize his next words, Fujimaru Ritsuka continued her statement:
"In fact, I think your request is justified, Prophet Eldar. There is nothing wrong with a life's empathy for other lives that are about to perish. Any sentient creature will naturally want to continue itself, and the same is true for civilization. But what kind of fire do you want to leave behind?" She asked sincerely, "If you just want a small number of your selected people to take books and records, and survive the inevitable crisis in the shelters they have built, and survive in this state, then I can personally agree to this without going through the Empire. But have you thought about what will happen next? How can you survive and pass on culture with a smaller population? Is there still a possibility of breaking the blockade and developing outward? What kind of future will the Eldar get from this?"

She paused, then asked the ultimate question to Aidalad: "Has your race ever thought about this kind of thing before?"

——After the Fall of the Eldar, they were already deeply troubled by these problems. They should have been constantly thinking and trying and failing on the corresponding issues, but whether or not someone in the Eldar did so, they did not come up with an answer in such a long time, even longer than the Empire. At least, they did not come up with an executable, realistic and effective answer.

As far as the prophet knew, no Eldar, including Eldar himself, could still dream of restoring his race to its heyday. His race had in fact lost its future, and the best result Eldar hoped for while running around was to try to keep his race alive in the vast universe and struggle for a while longer.

Therefore, even if it was Aidalad, he didn't have the face to respond and could only avoid the question: "But have you ever thought about what kind of future you will lead your race to?"

"A hopeful future." Fujimaru Ritsuka answered without hesitation or guilt, "A future where the shackles are removed to a limited extent, and humanity regains the possibility of breaking free from the shackles."

This self-righteous attitude made Eldalard feel a little exhausted. He didn't care much about the monkey's life or death, but he disagreed with this obviously optimistic and unrealistic idea: "Considering the average understanding ability of your race, forgive me for being frank: you don't know what the consequences of your actions will be - maybe you think you know, but the results of those deductions are undoubtedly one-sided and inaccurate. You want to establish a new god for mankind so that the Emperor can rise from the Golden Throne. Do you know what kind of ripples the new god's ascension to the throne will blow in the highest heaven? How can there be any race in this galaxy that can remain unscathed? Courage is indeed an excellent quality, but excessive and foolish courage can only be called arrogance."

He thought his negotiating partner would be angry about this, but Fujimaru Ritsuka laughed.

"No, prophet, you are the one who doesn't know what will happen." She said, "Let me tell you where this plan will lead to: when the so-called 'new god' ascends to the throne, everything that depends on the subspace will be cut off from the material universe. The thoughts and emotions that originally belonged to intelligent creatures will belong completely to them in the new era, rather than feeding some gods that they have never needed. Admittedly, this huge change will cause a great impact. Humans who also have the potential of psychic creatures will inevitably suffer a lot. Psychics among them may go crazy or even die in large numbers. Even without mentioning these, all races that rely entirely on entering the subspace for superluminal travel will lose most of their interstellar transportation methods, and astropathic broadcasts will no longer be able to work. The disintegration of the human empire is inevitable. But I believe that after getting rid of the interference of the four gods, humans will always find new means to deal with this change, such as curvature engines, quantum entanglement technology, etc. The future of mankind will not be completely cut off because of this, but the sea chart will return to an unknown state. Perhaps for hundreds of years, perhaps thousands of years, human ships will always shuttle through the vast sea of ​​stars. Maybe there will be a new unified country belonging to all mankind, or maybe there won’t be one. Maybe humans will still fight each other for interests and greed, exploitation and oppression, disputes and hatred, and the flames of war burning the galaxy will never disappear. But this is the future that I cannot predict now and is left for future generations to explore. "

Even though everyone allowed to be here was well-trained and well-versed in etiquette, after Fujimaru Ritsuka finished speaking, a small but not inconsiderable wave of panic and anger still surged in the room. Not to mention the Eldar prophet who barely stood still, and the two followers behind him who looked at each other quietly. Many of the human warriors also moved slightly and uneasily after hearing this, and brought about an equally subtle sound of armor knocking against each other - perhaps in the channel inside the armor that was muted to the outside, they had already started a very intense and sharp discussion. Still, apart from Akuldona and Santo, who had already heard about this and remained calm, the only ones who could barely keep calm were the Custodians. Even Guilliman himself unconsciously raised his hand to cover the lower half of his face, so as not to let the expression that was difficult to control for a while reveal his thoughts.

"How naive, how arrogant, how stupid." Aidalad shook his head, his tone close to disappointment, but slightly different. "Even if all your predictions in this passage are accurate, what you have done is still to push your race to the edge of the cliff without being able to see the way forward clearly."

"That's right." Fujimaru Ritsuka said calmly, "But a very obvious fact is that my race is made up of countless living people. In front of the cliff, there will definitely be people who jump off out of ignorance or despair, and there will definitely be people who think of going around it or building a bridge from above."

"You can't guarantee that everything will develop as you predict." Aidalad said coldly. He didn't think that humans, a stupid and blind race, could survive such a crisis.

"So I'm doing things." Fujimaru Ritsuka explained patiently, "I do everything that can make things develop according to this plan. After me, there will be other people who realize that it is their turn to do everything that can keep humanity going. If the Emperor must stand up, let him stand up; if the gods come to hinder, then remove the obstacles; if the empire will eventually break, let it break; if fate becomes a shackle, then cut the shackles. Human history has been interrupted several times, and facts have been alienated into unreliable legends through word of mouth, but in the universe there will always be new humans writing new history, new heroes creating new stories - as long as humans still have desires, still want to survive, and still intend to pursue a better life, this is what will inevitably happen."

Aidalad was surprised by the firm attitude and blind optimism in the other party's tone. He didn't even need to use psychic power to clearly read from Fujimaru Ritsuka's words that she believed it. This belief and willingness to go through fire and water for it may be commendable, but Aidalad did not intend to take such wild words seriously. In his opinion, this was just a youthful slogan issued by a young and energetic member of a young and energetic race. Considering the unrealistic goals, it was impossible to withstand the destruction and test of cruel reality. But he was unwilling to spend more words to convince the other party - this was obviously not something that could be expressed clearly in two or three sentences. Moreover, Aidalad did not think that he had the responsibility to help a non-eldar race that was about to go to a dead end.

Guilliman obviously had something to say, but because there were outsiders present, he didn't say it for the time being. Eldalad sighed and brought the conversation, which had strayed too far from the topic, back to his original purpose: "So, you are still unwilling to give the Eldar a way out." "'The Eldar's way out' is not something I need to consider, Prophet Eldalad." Fujimaru Ritsuka corrected, "I have already stated in previous conversations that I do not think your idea of ​​'leaving a fire' for your own race is wrong. In fact, I can even make a guarantee here and now on behalf of Chaldea that Chaldea can accept Eldar refugees that do not exceed the carrying capacity of the Storm's Edge for humanitarian reasons. If you insist on 'talking' this issue out at the negotiation table, then this is the best result you can get. This is the promise I can make as 'Fujimaru Ritsuka' - I believe you also know that I am an outsider and Chaldea is an outside organization, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. There is no historical burden between us and the Eldar, but at the same time, we have no political influence in the Empire. This is the limit of what I can do."

"You could have done more." Eldalad pointed out a fact that seemed obvious to everyone. "The Lord of Mankind gave you the title of 'Saint' and the authority to choose. You are not without influence in the empire."

"You got one thing wrong, prophet. The various favors that the Emperor bestowed upon me were not given to 'me', but to 'someone who can execute the plans He wants on His behalf in the material universe.'" said Fujimaru Ritsuka. "Of course, I can't confidently say that I have never abused this power solely for my personal interests, but before each 'abuse', I at least made sure that my actions would not have any impact on the plans that I must ultimately achieve. As I said at the beginning, I look at everything from the perspective of humanity and with humanity's interests as the priority, Prophet Aidalad. In matters that do not involve bottom-line issues, I am indeed happy to spend resources on 'good deeds without reward' - but if the bottom line is involved, it's another matter. So I'll ask you one last time: what kind of fire do you want to leave for the Eldar?"

Aidalad fell silent. He had not made it clear what kind of guarantee he wanted from the other party during the entire conversation, but he was sure that Fujimaru Ritsuka knew exactly what his ultimate goal was and did not give any response he hoped for. In fact, what he wanted was very simple, nothing more than to make humans stop this terrible plan. He did not get any constructive results from the conversation, but at least, it allowed him to get a feel for the true intentions of the person in charge of this plan.

"It seems that we can't reach an agreement." Aidalad concluded regretfully, "I thought we could resolve this issue in a more peaceful atmosphere."

"You are being too wishful," said Fujimaru Ritsuka. "I thought that the Eldar, as a race with a longer history than humans, should know better than us that when the survival strategy of one race is an obstacle to the survival of another race, no matter how much you whitewash it or delay the development of the situation, it will eventually turn into a life-and-death competition for survival."

Idala didn't like this statement: "This is just a one-sided perception constructed by your race because of its barbaric nature."

"Then I guess that during the heyday of a civilization like yours, no other race in the galaxy would have disappeared into the dust of history because of the rise of the Eldar Empire." Fujimaru Ritsuka sneered, "No creature can live on the ground. As long as we exist, we must be plundering, both for individuals and for civilizations composed of individuals, whether it's humans or the Eldar. The means may be different, but the essence is the same."

This sentence brought a brief silence, and then Aidalad avoided the topic again: "It seems that it is just a waste of time and energy to talk about it. You will not be convinced by me, just as I will not be convinced by you."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded. "I will not stop my plan, just as you will certainly find a way to stop it. Considering that you were able to accurately grasp my sudden visit to Macragge, when you decide to go to war in the future, I think you will know where to send your troops if you want to capture the thief and the leader."

Adalard laughed twice, and he didn't dislike the other party's frank attitude: "I have to admit that I may have underestimated you. I thought you would order me to be killed here to avoid future troubles."

He didn't sound nervous at all when he said this, and he was clearly confident that "even if the situation develops like this, I can still escape safely." Fujimaru Ritsuka also responded to the other party's teasing in a very natural manner: "On the one hand, when two armies are fighting, they don't kill the messengers. This most basic war etiquette should be common among all intelligent races. On the other hand, I also believe that every race has the natural right to seize their own future."

"You have defined this as a war," Eldalad pointed out.

"That's right. I have no hesitation in defining this matter." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "I have experienced many wars of similar nature, and I have won every time. In this process, I have severed a lot of history, destroyed a lot of civilizations, and killed a lot of possibilities for the future that I think mankind should have. If you are determined to lead the Eldar to block this plan, then your race and civilization will be no different from the many defeated enemies mentioned above to me."

"But I don't need to do that." The prophet didn't care - or he pretended not to care about what Fujimaru Ritsuka had just said. "Your plan is impossible to succeed. This has nothing to do with your personal efforts. Isn't there anyone in your race who would oppose your plan that is obviously too destructive?"

"New life is born from death. I don't expect everyone to understand this, nor do I expect everyone who understands this to agree, and I don't expect everyone who agrees to be willing to gamble with me." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "But just as I will allow your race to wage war against me for its right to survive, I will also allow my own people to do the same to me. When they refute me, impeach me, or even intend to kill me, I will also remind them:
"I made this decision and implemented this plan as a 'representative of mankind.' Opponents are of course free to express that they 'don't want to be represented,' but if anyone succeeds in 'denying' this plan, it would be equivalent to him making a decision 'on behalf of mankind' to 'deny this future.'

"If someone really succeeds, I might wish him the best - I hope he won't be crushed by the terrible pressure when he realizes what kind of weight he is carrying."

(End of this chapter)