Although, because of the existence of the Emperor statue, this lounge on the Storm Frontier is undoubtedly the most "religious" space even in the entire ship, including the Lion's Mane, for the Imperials, this "religious atmosphere" is only better than nothing.

This feeling is clearly present from the statue itself. It is clear to anyone with a modicum of artistic aesthetics that the person who carved it, although he demanded a high degree of respect for his work, and did embody a certain reverence in the process of making it, was not the same as that of any craftsman who was allowed to make a statue of an emperor.

Even though religion and art in empires often complement each other, the statue of the emperor in the lounge is far more artistic than religious. To put it more bluntly, in this case, the emperor is indeed showing his might, and is indeed saving his subjects from darkness. However, if one obliquely examines the author's ambiguous expressions, the viewer will find it increasingly difficult to determine whether the work is a celebration of the power of the Emperor or contains some hints that would be heretical even if they are uttered.

And then there's the shrine itself. The shrine on which the statue is placed can easily be seen by anyone as it was added later, as it clearly only completes the main frame, and there is still a lot of room for further improvement in the details.

Inquisitor Hastings knew why: the statue had been placed there in a normal place, and only Sigismund on the ship thought it was not possible, so he would intermittently work on the shrine when he had both leisure and materials. But even an Imperial Champion, on a ship that seemed heterodox from every point of view, apparently did not consider it a high priority to demonstrate imperial prestige—at least not at the level that it should be ranked first.

At least the day before, it was the time when the son of Dorne was captured by Rika Fujimaru to begin the final verification of the construction of the Chaldean lighthouse. His construction and carving of the shrine was once again put on hold.

As for the Praetorian Army, who were equally capable of doing this, and were obviously more effective in numbers than Sigismund alone. Why they didn't take over this part of the work, or why they didn't remove the frame of this "half-finished" and replace it with their own work, Inquisitor Hastings didn't know, and didn't want to know.

At least that's what his prophetic subspace intuition persuaded him. As he was equally intuitively aware that the question should indeed be less important, he restrained his desire to get to the bottom of it, in the spirit of the principle that more is better than less when he was in the enemy camp.

- In the Empire, who has the higher authority of the Throne Envoy or the Imperial Guard? From a legal point of view, there may be a theoretical answer to this question. But in practice, in the final analysis, it still depends on firepower. At least on the Storm Frontier, the disadvantaged was undoubtedly Inquisitor Hastings.

This thought made him feel anxious and bored. He forced his consciousness to withdraw from this negative emotion and focus on the present moment: the twelve remaining Angels of the Holy Blood after the Battle of Skylos were dressed in plain linen robes, quietly gathering in front of the Imperial Shrine in the common room to pray.

Obviously, there was no priest among the twelve, and it was the only one who was left to preside over the process, so while everyone knew what they were supposed to do, the most important part of the ritual still seemed a little hasty and rudimentary.

It wasn't a matter of urgency before the Inquisitor at the moment, so he didn't disturb the ritual. After removing the Power Armor (and the various logos on it), Hastings realized in a split second that he couldn't tell who the Blood Angels were. He waited by the door, taking advantage of the moment to take a closer look at each one—and was finally compelled (unconvinced) to admit that the son of St. Giles did look invulnerable from an aesthetic point of view.

Hastings didn't unnecessarily emphasize their presence in this space, but with Astarte's senses, it was impossible for them not to notice that there was one more person in the room. The presence of an Imperial Inquisitor still noticeably quickens the ongoing ritual: it shows once again that the Inquisition is more powerful and powerful than imagined in the Empire, or that many of the things that the Rose Knot represents are not very pleasant, or both, depending on which direction the parties choose to look at the matter.

At least, for the current client, he is long past the age when he will think crankily about this little thing. Hastings waited in silence until the unofficial Mass of the Blood Angels was over, and he expressed his intention under the inquiring gaze of the Blood Priest Decker: he still had a lot to know about the war above Skalus, and about San Gillino, who suddenly appeared in a desperate situation.

Then, unsurprisingly, he noticed that in the moment when the words fell, Brother Decker instinctively took on a somewhat defensive posture. Considering the status of Judge Hastings, perhaps the other party understands it as a relatively mild form of examination, and the party does not intend to correct this-

- Because, of course, this is a milder form of censorship.

Personally, Sibylla Hastings certainly admires these Angels of the Holy Blood who have struggled for seven years in a desperate war and finally persevered until victory, but the Imperial Inquisitor will not give up his job because of personal feelings:

His job is to doubt everything.

——

A quiet voyage to the subspace of the Baal system.

Amazingly, the vast majority of subspace voyages that Rika Fujimaru has experienced have been uneventful—even after entering the dark side of the Empire. The relevant somatosensory evaluation comes from Inquisitor Hastings, so it can be generally considered credible by the standards of contemporary imperialists, even if Fujimaru Rika herself does not think so.

To put it bluntly, she doesn't feel that the losses that occur from time to time in the observation of subspace on the top of the Lionmane Navigator Tower are "acceptable".

She had indeed pondered the possibility of promoting the "Paper Moon" as an observation machine throughout the Empire, but this question didn't even need to be "asked", and she already had a full understanding of how much resistance there might be in that illusion. Human beings sometimes turn a blind eye to another more efficient use of resources because they are unwilling to give up the interests that are already in their hands, or it is simply because the "interests" in the eyes of vested interests are different from the overall situation.

Rika Fujimaru knew that this wasn't something she should worry about. Although she still firmly believes that "in order to ensure their transcendent status in the Empire, the Navigator Family has given up an observation method that can greatly reduce the loss of family personnel, and insists on using the dangerous and inefficient 'third eye' to observe subspace, so as to ensure that the Navigator Family still retains an unshakable monopoly position in subspace navigation", this kind of behavior that she has already tasted in the illusion is stupid, but she also knows that if she has to do something "big" in the Empire, Still, one's own energy should be left to the Chaldean Lighthouse first.

After all, everything has to be taken into account that her party herself is not dissatisfied, but in the current empire, it is like a "service life" that is only for a short time. In this case, it is basically certain that the end of the matter will be a mass-produced "Paper Moon" prototype, and she will be gone before it has passed the verification of the mechanical teaching.

Mr. Ferrus has to worry about technical problems, and Mr. Robert has a headache for the promotion of the whole empire, and the most important thing she should do at the moment is to talk to the Holy Blood Angel Warband, and then choose a place on the main planet of Baal to start laying the foundation. Rika Fujimaru thinks so about this.

- And this process of "chatting" will not be as simple as it was in front of Killiman before.

Although the Lord of Otlama is a primordial, the son of the emperor, and the regent of the empire, most of the meetings between Rika Fujimaru and the other party in the Pamenio system took place...... Either it's not so formal because it's in a hurry, or it's "secretive" for various reasons.

In particular, because of the existence of the most important reason which had compelled her to "conceal it" (in this case, Conrad Coetzes), and the erratic "need for secrecy" created by the importance of the Chaldean Lighthouse Project itself, she did not proclaim her existence to the people of the Empire in some form, although she was indeed known on a small scale as the "Saint of the Empire" or something similar.

With the acquiescence of Fujimaru Rika himself, the Imperial Regent changed hands and carried out some intelligence and rumor operations, and then after a period of fermentation, in the story circulated on Pamenio, the "Imperial Saint" who played an important role in the entire battle will become Kelya.

Regarding fame, honor, and the like, she has no waves about them, and even vaguely feels a little sorry for Kelya. If Rika Fujimaru could stack everything she had experienced in her previous life and fantasy world in a book or a movie, it would be enough to make anyone who could watch it realize that the "glory" that was put on her body was not really a good thing—or that she just couldn't learn how to enjoy it, and no matter how she looked at it, she could only see in the glory the unworthy expectations of her and the enormous pressure involved.

She was glad to be able to get rid of this bag of pressure and all the troubles that followed, but if it fell on someone else around her, especially someone like Kelya, who was obviously unsophisticated, inexperienced, young, or, more intuitively, reminded of herself when she first joined the Chaldees, she had to turn around, and worry about the other person at the same time.

Fortunately, at least for now, Kylea is physically far away from the planet that has become too fanatical, and is still within the scope of Fujimaru Rika's care...... Far from it. Back to the topic: the process of "chatting" with the Holy Blood Angel Warband will definitely not be as simple as when he was in front of Killiman before.

The situation is different in every sense of the word. She didn't just have a defensive counter-attack battle to fight in Baal that lasted only a few days, and she couldn't throw the rest of the mess to the Imperial Regent after solving the most critical problems. On behalf of the Chaldean Bureau, she was going to requisition land for complex civil construction on the conscription site of the Holy Blood Angels.

Whether or not this is legally justified, and whatever the ultimate purpose of this act, on the surface, it is tantamount to breaking ground on Tai Sui's head—that is, whatever she thinks about it, or even whatever the Blood Angels warband thinks about it, in this meeting, the Chaldeans must assert their official background and legitimacy in all sorts of grand and cumbersome ways, in order to show the entire empire that they do have the right in law, And it was impossible for the Holy Blood Angel Warband not to respond reciprocally.

Every time she thinks about this part, Rika Fujimaru becomes uncontrollably anxious. Even if the Janissaries and Somney have said that they will take full responsibility for the process and all the plans involved......

…… But Fujimaru Rika herself always felt that it was precisely because of these golden giants that she was very, special, extremely unreassured.

(End of chapter)