Warhammer: Starting with Industrial Revolution

Father Lucizer listened to Dani's words and remained silent for a moment.

But just before Dani was about to lose her patience, his voice slowly drifted over.

"Please follow me, Your Honor."

After speaking, he turned around expressionlessly, ignoring everyone present, and walked straight out of the mine.

Dani frowned, but ultimately followed without saying a word.

After leaving the mine and departing from the mining area, we arrived at the sanctuary of the Mechanical Church in the center of the mine.

Father Lucizer silently handed a neatly bound stack of documents to Dani, who took them, walked to a table, and began to look through them quietly by herself.

Neither of them spoke throughout the entire conversation.

Absolute silence reigned in the sanctuary, broken only by the rustling of pages turning, echoing endlessly in the enclosed space.

Luo Ning stood to the side, able to hear his own heartbeat growing louder and louder.

But at this crucial moment, his ability to vaguely sense the thoughts of others, which he usually possessed, completely failed.

The silence lasted for about half an hour. Dani raised her head and looked at Ronin with a scrutinizing gaze, but she did not speak. Instead, she turned to look at Father Lucizer.

"Your Excellency, so the Mechanical Church's assessment of this ore vein is that it's just ordinary industrial-grade corundum?"

Her voice was very low, carrying a strong sense of interrogation.

Father Lucize nodded calmly, his tone remaining steady and even.

"As the judge sees, this is a very ordinary vein of chromium. The 'Mineral Grade Identification Bible' you hold in your hand is the best proof of that."

"Then why is the protection level completely different from other mines, and why is it so well hidden?" Dani continued to press, her questions sharp and leaving him no room to think.

Father Lucizer remained expressionless as he slowly replied, "This is a necessary measure to cooperate with the Governor's Office and reduce injuries to ordinary workers. The products from this mine are unstable and highly prone to explosion, so it must be under closed management."

"Then why is the texture of the mineral layers inside the mine completely different from all the industrial-grade chromium veins I've ever seen on any other planet?" Dani's questions came one after another, not intending to give him any breathing room at all.

"As a layman, I cannot easily explain this to you at the moment," Lucizer's answer remained calm, not even giving Dani any room to ask further questions. He continued, "If the Inquisitor has any objections to the Mechanicus's assessment, they can report it to the higher authorities according to Imperial regulations and apply for a reassessment by the Sector General."

"I want to go inside that closed ore refining plant and take a look." Dani gritted her teeth, refusing to back down but instead pushing forward.

To her surprise, Father Lucizer coldly replied, "This is the sacred domain of the God of Machines, and no one but a baptized priest may enter. Disturbing the machine spirits will bring irreversible consequences, Your Honor, you cannot bear that responsibility."

Hearing Lucizer's words, even Dani was instantly speechless.

The other party completely shut down all her doubts with the doctrines and rules of the Cult of the Machine God, leaving no loopholes to be found.

The two stared at each other across the table. No matter how sharp and piercing Dani's gaze was, Father Lucizer's expression remained unchanged, as if the person standing in front of her was not a living person at all.

Half a minute later, Dani sighed helplessly and put away the documents in her hand: "Thank you for your hard work, Father. We'll take our leave now."

"Take care, I have important business to attend to, so I won't see you off."

He maintained his robotic, cold demeanor, ignoring Dani's reactions, and continued walking deeper into the sanctuary.

Dani watched the figure slowly disappear into the shadows, her cheeks puffed out in anger, and she couldn't utter a word for a long time.

"Noxton, you go out first and stand guard at the door. I have something to ask Lord Rhonin privately." Dani spoke slowly, her voice still icy, carrying the unquestionable authority of an inquisitor.

Without a moment's hesitation, her adjutant immediately saluted, turned and jogged away from the sanctuary, closing the heavy door behind him.

Once she was sure no one else was around, Dani instantly dropped her judge's airs, grabbed Ronin's shoulder, and, in a low voice, gritted her teeth and said in his ear, "I'm furious! Tell me! Did you all conspire beforehand?!"

"I'm innocent, darling! This place is completely legal and compliant! Although it looks different from ordinary mines, it really is just industrial-grade chromium!" Luo Ning raised his hands with a wry smile, explaining with an innocent look.

But Dani clearly didn't believe her at all. She shook Ronin's shoulder forcefully: "Stop talking nonsense! I've seen at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, mines, and not a single industrial-grade chromium mine has walls with that kind of dark, dense texture!"

Luo Ning smiled, but still patted her head, trying to calm Dani down.

"Although you may not believe it, I did discuss this matter with the people of the Mechanical Church." Ronin put away his joking tone and explained half-jokingly, "The ore from this vein is indeed of higher quality than ordinary industrial-grade chromium, but after being examined by the Mechanical Church, it still does not meet the military-grade standard, so we just took advantage of a small loophole in the rules."

"Higher? I think the ore here doesn't even need much refining and can be used directly as military-grade fuel." Dani released Ronin's shoulder with a disgruntled expression, but didn't ask any further questions.

Luo Ning smiled but didn't reply.

It's not that simple. To mitigate risks, the titanium they export is always diluted to civilian-grade levels, which is sufficient for the daily use of this nest city.

However, if Victor were willing, the ore here could be easily refined into military-grade Tier 3 chromium.

That is a strategic resource that can be used directly as the main fuel for Imperial destroyers and cruisers.

The iron in the briefcase that Victor gave to the medical nun last time was the highest concentration he could refine, classified as military grade II.

However, he wouldn't be foolish enough to reveal all this inside information to Dani.

In moments like dancing on a knife's edge, a half-truth is the most believable.

Dani stared intently into Ronin's eyes, as if trying to find even the slightest hint of hypocrisy in them.

But what she didn't know was that at the same time, Rhonin was slowly activating Slaanesh's power, subtly making Dani more likely to believe him.

"Alright." In the end, Dani gave up asking further questions and changed the subject, "I took a trip to the Lower Nest District yesterday and found something worthwhile."

"Oh? Why didn't Your Honor ask me to come with you?" Luo Ning asked knowingly.

Dani's gaze instantly turned to him with a hint of disdain: "Stop pretending. You've had the troops keeping a close eye on me the whole time, and you probably even have informants in the lower lair area. You know my every move, don't you?"

Luo Ning chuckled, realizing he had indeed underestimated this genuine Imperial Inquisitor, and quickly changed the subject, asking, "What was this gain you were talking about?"

Dani looked at his expression and clearly didn't intend to continue arguing with him about it. Instead, she took out a folded piece of paper from her pocket.

She looked at Luo Ning with a sly smile: "I only found this in my uniform pocket after I got back to the ship yesterday. Obviously, the other party was very clever; they didn't even notice when they put this in my pocket."