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

Guda: No no no, it still can't be done. Don't take what I said seriously. I'll think about how to tell you...

Koz: Or I'd better kill someone.

Guda: No! ! ! ! ! ! ! ——

8. Be careful to trigger the passive effect of green tea

Sevatar: So, father, you should have taken your dearest son with you at that time.

Guda (reflexively): Are you uncomfortable living somewhere on the Storm's Edge?

Sevatar: No, that's not what I meant. It's nice here, but if I had gone with my genetic father...

Sevatar: (Realizing that he shouldn't have said this)

COZZ (threateningly) So...

Sevatar: That's not what I meant!!!!

-

9. Why don't you promote another dormitory head?

Guda: You regret it now, but it's not realistic to drag Sevitarion over. Besides, it was you who decided not to take him in the first place.

Curze: (muttering in disgruntled Nostramon)

Black Jeanne (French Disdain.jpg): No way, is there really a Primarch who can't even manage 5,000 soldiers? In the illusion, our Ritsuka managed a legion of 120,000 people in an orderly manner, and also managed more than 400,000 mortal auxiliary troops.

Koz: Shut up.

Guda: Forget about Alter. Conrad didn't want things to turn out like this.

Guda: Besides, it is impossible for one person to directly manage 120,000 people. Qualified management is necessary anyway. Otherwise, Conrad, you can first study whether you can promote a few such people to help you manage.

Sevatar: Does this mean that I will have another Shen to bully in the future?

Guda: Wait a minute, who is bullying who?

Sevatar:?

Guda:?

Koz:?

Black Zhen: (laughing)

-

10. The head of the Fantasy Dormitory manages more than just four dormitories.

Guda: You should have the corresponding records, right? Shen is my aide-de-camp, flagship steward, chief ceremonial officer, chief lord governor of the Nightbat Council, and chairman of the Supervisory Committee of the Legendary Chanters (Ortenaus Warriors); and you are just a lord of the Black Armor Guard.

Sevatar: "Just a" Lord of the Black Armor Guards.

Guda: By the way, considering that you are also one of the legendary chanters, theoretically you are under his management.

Koz: Wait a minute, Shen can handle so many jobs at the same time? Why didn't I realize it before?

Guda:.

Guda: Is it possible that he also needs to learn? Have you taught him?

Koz: .

-

11. Grow up quickly, Sevastopol

Sevasta: But I don’t remember any story of being “bullied” at all.

Sevatar: Even in the records of the fantasy world, Shen has never beaten me in the octagon.

Guda: (Awkward but polite smile)

Sevastopol: (Belatedly realizing that victory and defeat in life are not only in the octagon)

Sevatar: (He began to recall some of the scenes in the illusion where he had long conversations with Shen, and realized that most of the time he was dismissed by Shen like a child)

Sevatar: Well, everyone, if it's all right, I'll be leaving first.

Sevatar (turns and leaves): Sigismund!!! I have something to ask you!!!

-

(Finish)

-

The picture and the text are irrelevant. It's just that some of the side quests have been omitted from the outline. It's better to be thorough.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 319: Projection Engraved in the Records

Ionid Hill was lurking about the Doomclaw.

The good news is that after the last battles on Vigilante, with the tacit endorsement of the Tenth Primarch Ferrus Manus himself, the Iron Hands have basically gotten used to the presence of an Ultramarines who has been dead for about 10,000 years on their ship; but the bad news that followed was that the Iron Librarians had apparently also begun to get used to the idea of ​​such a Cursed Astartes wandering around the ship in the form of a spirit, and in order to prepare for this, they had made some "preventive measures" in various confidential areas of the ship.

This directly led to a significant reduction in Hill's explorable range on the ship. In addition, as the only Ultramarines on the Destruction Claw, he was naturally outside the chain of command, so he had to be alone and idle for a long time. All these factors combined inevitably pointed to the final result:

Ionid Hill, by being so boring, becomes downright annoying.

The bad news was that almost everyone on the ship - from the Iron Hands Astartes to the Chapter Servants - had been annoyed by him at least once; the good news was that by the end of this voyage, Hill had found the person on the entire ship who was most suitable for him to harass:

Debbie Zem Void. Someone who is also outside the ship's command chain and routine work, it is rumored that he has also worked in the Chaldean Bureau. For some reason, he is in a relatively delicate position on the Destruction Claw. Most importantly, this person has obvious memory impairment for some unknown reason: every 24 hours, his memory will be formatted and cleared, and only 5 minutes of memory can be accurately retained as long-term memory.

This means that if you bother him once today, he will forget about it tomorrow, and you can bother him again. This is relatively sustainable.

Fortunately, this memory impairment did not cause significant difficulties for Debit to carry out some work that required continuity. Although only he knew the specific coping measures and planning skills required to counter the memory loss once every 5 hours with a storage capacity of 24 minutes, he was able to complete some quite time-consuming research projects on his own.

For example, the one in his hand right now... a "star disk" drawn with the main star of Baal as the center benchmark.

Hill didn't understand the mystical things. Even though his own way of existence should be classified as "mystical" and a piece of data that didn't belong to him was inserted into his spiritual foundation composed of ether, he still didn't understand these things. The complex runes and spells, abstract graphic symbols, and the names of gods and holy numbers with stories and metaphors really made him sleepy. Compared with the above, the astrolabe was a kind of spell or divination tool that was easier for him to understand to a certain extent - because he knew a little about astronomy.

This "more or less understanding" allowed him to roughly understand how Debbie used calculations and projections to convert the data in three-dimensional space into two-dimensional space, and finally sketched it on a large enough parchment. And because he only "more or less understood", the part of this work other than the description of the position relationship of the stars (that is, most of this work) was strange and novel enough for Hill to have enough patience to watch it quietly for a long time.

But it was unlikely that he would remain silent and quiet until all the work was done. It wasn't that Hill was not good at waiting, or that he had no patience - if this was complete silence that had to be maintained in order to achieve a certain strategic goal, then he would be happy to complete it without compromise, but there was no soil for such a situation on the Destruction Claw, right?

So he chose to appear from thin air when he was really bored and asked a question, or rather, stated a fact that he had finally determined through continuous observation: "I found that what you are good at is very different from what Fujimaru Ritsuka is good at."

This might seem like an attempt to pry into secrets, but considering that the day before, after Hill asked, "What is the astrolabe used for?", he was forced to listen to a three-hour mysticism course that he actually couldn't understand - firstly, Debbie was not very good at hiding his shortcomings, and secondly, this question might be relatively "safe" and not involve the so-called "academic significance", so it probably wouldn't cause him too much torture.

Debbie looked up expressionlessly and glanced at Hill—just to confirm who was speaking—then lowered his gaze again and returned to the star map he was making. He answered without any emotion, "Even if they come from the same organization, it is normal for each member to have different abilities under the premise of complementarity."

Hill agreed with this, after all, no one with a normal mind would require a company to be composed entirely of the same type of soldiers. But he did not immediately agree with this, because Debbie obviously had something else to say:

"Besides - I'm not denying her ability. In fact, if we use 'completing the designation of the Grand Master of the Chaldea Bureau' as the evaluation standard, Fujimaru Ritsuka's overall quality is undoubtedly the highest among the 48 masters of the current term, including me - but as a magician, she is indeed a complete 'layman'. The knowledge structure she possesses is completely based on serving the actual problems that exist in reality and must be solved. Of course, it is different from an 'academic school' like me who initially studied for research."

To Hill, this topic was obviously much more interesting than the boring occult lecture that lasted three Terra hours. Therefore, he asked a follow-up question at the right time to further advance the topic: "Oh? With the ability of Fujimaru Ritsuka, he is still just an 'outsider'?"

Debbie looked up at him again, but unfortunately, Hill was wearing a helmet, so he probably couldn't see anything.

"Don't get me wrong." He pointed out the position of another star with a hint of warning, "Descriptions like 'amateur' or 'newbie', even if they are objective facts, are not sufficient conditions for 'poor ability' in a world where magic is irrational and only relies on talent and opportunity. In Fujimaru's case, you can say that she is extremely biased in one subject, or that her basic knowledge is not solid, but if you underestimate her ability to adapt and operate, then you are doomed."

"As one of the direct beneficiaries of the Imperial Saint Summoning Technique, I certainly don't mean that." Hill said righteously. After all, he had seen the scene in the Star Torch where Fujimaru Ritsuka was chasing Akuldona with a cushion, and he recognized the hidden value behind this scene besides the Emperor's Children Legion champion letting her win. "I just want to ask, among you 'magicians', what level is she at?"

Debit put down his pen and fell into deep thought. After a few seconds, he gave an answer: "It's about the level of 'Seal Designation'."

As long as Fujimaru Ritsuka is provided with enough magic power, she can summon a large number of realm record belts (servants) at will. This kind of talent is indeed rare, and it is almost impossible to replicate by means of learning and inheritance, but its practical value is actually questionable. Although some specific servants can become important reference materials for magic, or sacrifices for large rituals, it is difficult to really use the control methods that modern magicians can use to make them complete a certain task (which may be against the will of the person concerned).

Normally, the Clock Tower would judge that Fujimaru Ritsuka's speciality in magic research is not very valuable. But they cannot turn a blind eye to it, because no one would be willing to let a remote control of a nuclear bomb wander around so casually. If there is no one with enough weight to guarantee her, Fujimaru Ritsuka's final fate in the Clock Tower will definitely be to be sealed and designated - just like Debit himself, if the inheritance department monarch Brisi-san did not guarantee him and cover up his speciality in the Clock Tower, he would probably have been made into a living specimen when he was ten years old (born).

He didn't explain in detail how to perform the "sealing designation" operation. Fortunately, Hill didn't ask any more questions, but just interpreted it as a special term for some strange honorary title. "So she is indeed a very powerful magician?"

"She's a very capable person. But as a magician, her current level is probably between second-rate and third-rate at best." Debbie didn't understand what the other party was trying to prove, but he corrected her, "In terms of talent alone, she is mediocre. No matter how hard she studies, she can only barely reach the level of 'everyone can do it' in magic."

For a moment, Hill looked as if he was shocked. "Wait a minute, her technique of materializing the Cursed Legion in the real universe, is it something that anyone can do among magicians?"

"In theory, it's not difficult." Debit said without looking up. "Even if you are not from the spirit summoning department, a magician will be exposed to the knowledge of 'summoning spirits' in family education or general basic courses. As long as the three conditions of 'being able to identify the corresponding object through some means', 'providing enough materials and energy for the other party to manifest', and 'the spirit itself or its superiors agree' are met, anyone can do it by spending time to arrange the corresponding rituals. The most difference is the degree of completion. I have to admit that Fujimaru is indeed experienced in this area."

Hill didn't know anything about the occult, but he instinctively felt that something was wrong: "From what you said, summoning a demon doesn't sound difficult."

"It's not difficult." Debit raised his head this time. "In fact, for me, summoning demons is easier than summoning Heroic Servants or Cursed Legions. Do you need me to demonstrate it?"

"Well, let's just forget about this." Hill paused, "But didn't you also summon a 'Heroic Servant'? The one called 'Enkidu'?"

Hill had only heard of this person. It was said that he had controlled the demon prince Fulgrim in a previous battle, but had to be locked in a stasis field because of the stubborn Slaanesh pollution. The scary thing is that even if he was locked in a stasis field that physically cut off the cause and effect, the Slaanesh pollution did not stop completely. According to the prediction and calculation of the Iron Think Tank, after another six Terran years, they might have to face a Slaanesh Enkidu - Debit said that he was emotionally stable and said: Fujimaru Ritsuka will solve this problem.

"I didn't summon him. I just 'borrowed' him temporarily from Fujimaru." Debit replied calmly. "Let's not talk about whether the heroes of 'Humanity' will respond to the call of an existence like me. It's almost impossible to summon 'that' Enkidu in this universe without the 'Spiritual Base Portrait Atlas' of Chaldea."

Hill frowned in confusion. "We are all spirits in essence. What difference does it make?"

"You have been inserted with a record of Odysseus," Debbie asked, "don't you see any difference between you two?"

Hill was silent for a while, then asked tentatively: "It does feel thinner, but isn't that a special change made with the consent of both parties in order to weave our spirits together?"

This time it was Debbie's turn to pause for a few seconds: "...Is this what it feels like from a first-person perspective...?"

He did not pause on this question for too long, and soon changed the topic and gave a further explanation: "You, the 'Bound Legion', are essentially souls that return to the Emperor's Throne after death. Whether in the Warp, the Webway, or in this way, you enter reality as entities woven by the ether. You all fight as your 'complete selves'. But the 'Heroic Servants' are not like this. They are basically just a piece of data record cut off from their 'body' on the Throne of Heroes. To put it cruelly, they are more in line with the definition of 'consumables' than you are - but those who try to enslave Servants with this attitude will probably die miserably."

Hill thought about it briefly and chose to pick out the part that interested him first and asked, "What is 'Heroic Throne'? In your world, are there any real prototypes for the related legends?"

"No. It's just a customary name that's easy to understand and describe." Debit ruthlessly shattered all of Hill's romantic fantasies about heroic legends. "In our world, the so-called 'Heroic Throne' is nothing more than a database that the world itself naturally stores in order to deal with crises. Just like the 'Heroic Spirit' or 'Servant' itself is probably not a real person who existed in history, but a piece of data called a 'Realm Record'. In this universe, the only way to connect to that database is through Chaldea's 'Spiritual Base Portrait Atlas' - you can think of it as a special magic book."

He did not go into further explanation, but continued to focus on the work at hand - because for Ionid Hill, this little information was enough to keep him quiet for a while.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 320 Who will examine whom?

There are many worlds in the vast territory of the Empire, and Selina Maran has personally overlooked many of them in various ways. She dare not say that she has seen most of the planets within the country, but she can certainly say that in her implant-enhanced memory, no other airport in the Empire can bring back her memories of Holy Terra like this one on Baal Prime.

- Don't get me wrong, this is not to say that the scene that Malan can see from the bridge observation window is similar to the sky above Holy Terra. This so-called "touching the scene and evoking emotions" is more of a subjective feeling of homesickness due to the current situation, because Malan has indeed not returned to her birthplace Terra for a long, long time. In fact, because of the nature of her work and the chaotic time flow in the current galaxy, she herself can't tell exactly how long this "long, long time" is.

For example, more than a hundred years have passed since the events in the Holy Land of the Empire began, ever since the Great Rift opened and the resurrected Thirteenth Primarch Robouti Guilliman launched the Indomitus Crusade. But to Baal and the vast majority of worlds in the dark side of the Empire, the opening of the Great Rift was still a "new thing" just a few decades ago.

Back to the present: The fact is that the time spent waiting for approval to enter the port over Baal did remind Maran of the patient waiting she had to go through every time she returned to Holy Terra.

As a death world, Baal Star-Star was not qualified to carry so many people, even though it was once the home planet of a loyal primarch and a religious holy place where a founding group of Astartes sat for 10,000 years. But now, with the Great Rift dividing the Empire in two, as the dark side hub appointed by the Imperial Regent Robert Guilliman, Baal's further rise in political, religious and military status has naturally produced a population siphoning effect on the surrounding areas. In addition, Lord Commander Dante also ordered the Blood Angels to search for and eliminate the threat of the Hive in the surrounding star regions, and to temporarily extradite the war refugees who had to be relocated from the local area to Baal for unified redistribution. All these various reasons together eventually led to the unprecedented prosperity of the Baal Main Star Port in tens of thousands of years.

It also caused unprecedented congestion problems in thousands of years.

When processing the port entry formalities for his ship, the Fortitude and Power, Marlan learned from his clerical specialist that the Blood Angels and the local internal affairs department of Barr had obviously made efforts to solve this problem, but with little success. At least when queuing over Holy Terra, although the waiting time was still long, the experience accumulated over ten thousand years as the administrative center of the empire had enabled the Terra Customs to handle any emergency in an orderly manner, and to accurately calculate the scheduled inspection time of each ship to the Terra time. But in Barr, their internal affairs staff had obviously not mastered this technology to perfection.

The Fortitude and Power was a black ship of the Inquisition under the command of the Lord Inquisitor of the Holy Hammer Order, so even in non-wartime, it had the privilege of being exempted from most inspections and entering the fast lane. Even so, Marlan's ship still waited for several Terra days in the temporary berthing area before it received the tugboat guiding the berth and the official permission to enter the port, and at the same time obtained the channel breakdown form of the sound array network on the main star of Baal (which was almost always under wartime control).

"Next, to be on the safe side, I would like to contact Judge Sibylla Hastings first." Marlan on the bridge asked the people around him in a consulting manner, "Captain Stern, I heard that you once worked with my colleague for a short time. What do you think of him?"

"In my memory, Sibylla Hastings was an astute and cautious psyker of the School of Prophecy." Avian Stern, a Grey Knight captain-brother, dressed in heavy grey Terminator battle armor and surrounded by the glimmer of psionic energy from the runes engraved on the armor, said fluently:

"We once worked together on a cult cleansing operation, and the Lord of Change was clearly behind the chaos. If you ask me for my opinion, I would give him a very high score: Inquisitor Hastings's attainments in reading the Emperor's Tarot are impressive, and he also has the appropriate on-the-spot judgment and command capabilities to see through the schemes of the Chaos enemy.

"I must admit that if my team had not received the help of the prophecy and wisdom of Inquisitor Hastings, the whole thing would certainly not have ended in such a relatively peaceful way. His loyalty to the Empire and hatred for Chaos are impeccable. But I must also remind you, Inquisitor Lord Maran, even so, he is still a mortal, and the story I narrated has been going on for at least forty years. No one can guarantee whether anything has happened in the past forty years."

Malan sighed slightly. She knew what the other party really wanted to express behind these sentences. Although she did not have the attitude of "preparing for the worst" from the beginning, she did not have any sufficient reasons to refute the other party.

Perhaps in the eyes of all Astartes, mortals are more fragile than them both physically and mentally, and are more easily corrupted when exposed to Chaos. But if we were to say which chapter among all Astartes has the heaviest stereotype on this issue, if the Grey Knights consider themselves second, I'm afraid no chapter would dare to claim first place.

What is even more disturbing is that this "stereotype" of the Grey Knights is an objective fact built up from a large number of actual cases.

This objective fact in the eyes of the Grey Knights has led to a series of complex problems, some of which have been initially resolved today, while others have not - this is not the focus of the current issue. The point is that Captain Stern has implicitly raised the possibility that "after more than forty years, Inquisitor Hastings may have gone astray because of his over-persistent pursuit of the Chaos enemy", and although Maran does not want this conjecture to be confirmed, he has to admit that from an objective point of view, this is not completely impossible.

"Look at it from a positive perspective," Inquisitor Malan advised, "at least after this 'accident' happened, he was the first to contact the Inquisition."

"I understand your desire to handle this incident smoothly. I also understand the various concerns you may have as an official representative of the Inquisition after reading the relevant briefing." The captain monk said in a calm and cold tone, "And this is why I led the Shaper brothers to appear on this ship."

As a captain monk of the Third Brotherhood (Company) of the Grey Knights, the Shaper Guardians, Stern currently leads a small half company of two Terminator combat teams stationed on the Fortitude Power. Officially, they are here as representatives of a third-party organization, acting as witnesses to mediate the conflict between a Lord Inquisitor of the Tribunal and the Chaldean Bureau under the Astronomican. But this number of people is obviously too much for a political mission - needless to say, there are many explosive problems behind this personnel arrangement.

Although the Torch Court has long lived in a small piece of land in Holy Terra, for some reason a subordinate organization suddenly emerged in Baal, and the leader of this subordinate organization has such a high authority to sign. This sounds suspicious to everyone - but what if it is true? No one can guarantee whether there will be any catastrophic consequences if this matter is not handled properly: even if the Imperial Regent continues to use his superhuman brain to handle all matters, the fragile political structure of the current Empire, which has lasted for 10,000 years, is still somewhat unable to withstand such internal friction.

"Thank you for your understanding." Malan's tone was calm, but she still had a bit of worry that she couldn't hide. "And, I must ask you, no matter when and where you find any clues, please consult with me before taking any action, okay? This is really a very sensitive issue politically."

The Grey Knights were obviously not interested in politics, but they still knew that the overall situation was important. After getting the approval of Captain Stern, Maran ordered her communicator to contact the Shadow Hammer on the sound array channel. The good news was that after just over ten minutes, they received a definite response. The person in charge of the work on the Inquisition's black ship was willing to communicate with them immediately; the bad news was that the identity of this "person in charge" was somewhat beyond Maran and others' expectations:

After the image transmission was successfully connected, what was displayed on the full-system projection screen of the bridge of the Fortitude and Power was a royal guard wearing a golden helmet and golden armor, holding a long-handled axe, and wearing a robe of honor.

"Good day, everyone from the Inquisition and the Grey Knights. You can call me Vasilian the Watcher of the Custodians. I am here on behalf of the will of the throne." The Custodian was clearly not in a good mood, and even the most basic greetings were omitted during the communication. "As the captain of the guard of Fujimaru Ritsuka, who has the titles of 'Emperor's Chosen, Envoy of the Throne, Son of Hope, Star of the Long Night, Drinker of Sin, Grand Mentor, Imperial Saint' and dozens of other honorary titles, I have taken over the investigation and aftermath of this incident a Terra standard month ago."

Although Vasilyan, who had been appeased by Fujimaru Ritsuka over the past month, had regained his composure, he still could not guarantee that he would not vent his anger on others. He was actually secretly complaining that the Inquisition was too slow, but unfortunately, the person he was talking to did not realize this - whether it was Marlan as a mortal or Stern as a Grey Knight, they were all so shocked by the same thing at that moment that they had no time to worry about the implications of the words:

Where did this guard who claimed to represent the "will of the throne" come from? I didn't hear in the briefing that the throne court also intervened in this matter?

Ultimately, this problem can be attributed to the fact that information from the dark side of the Empire is even less smooth than before the Great Rift opened.