How hard is it to create a chance encounter on a planet?

At least not much for someone like Inquisitor Verczak. Hastings knows this very well.

The main planet of Baal is large, but pitifully small compared to the entire empire. As long as there are a few channels to quickly obtain intelligence information, and to be able to determine when and where the object of one's "chance encounter" will appear, then the planet will naturally appear smaller.

It was already the third day after the landing ceremony was over, and the Chaldeans had finally resumed their activities after a short break—at least, for the Inquisitor Verchak who couldn't reach inside the monastery of the Holy Blood Angels.

Rarely, the prerogatives of the Verchak inquisitors were not so useful in this situation. She is indeed a lord inquisitor, but Fujimaru Rika's level of secrecy is higher than hers, and she does not have enough "favors" to use on the home planet of the Holy Blood Angel, which makes it impossible for her to know in a short period of time who Fujimaru Rika, the subject of her investigation, has met in the Araks Angel Fortress, what she has talked about, and what she is going to do. She wanted to talk to the other party in person, but the day after the ceremony she found it difficult to find an opportunity under the strict guard of the forbidden army—whether it was a compliance opportunity or a non-compliance opportunity. She could only change her thinking and take out the skills she was familiar with in front of the big people with a relatively low identity before becoming a judge and monk, and find a way to create some "chance encounters".

Technically, she succeeded. She was able to easily use her authority to know which Imperial facilities had been called for martial law and some clearances at what time, and she had indeed blocked a group of people coming under the banner of Chaldea in the lobby of the Star Relay Station on the main planet of Baal. But objectively speaking, she didn't succeed: among this group, unfortunately, it did not include Fujimaru Rika herself.

The team that appeared in the hall of the Star Relay Station consisted of Inquisitor Hastings, a Blood Angel Tank, a five-member battle team of Dark Angels, and an underage girl in the center - not Rika Fujimaru herself, but the little girl who stood plainly behind the former as a backdrop at the ball. Truth be told, very few people noticed her on that occasion, and even Inquisitor Verchak thought about it very seriously for a while before he remembered that he had indeed seen such a person.

The scout who was scouting her had not seen the video recording of Rika Fujimaru, so it was normal for her to have this kind of misidentification. To trace the root cause of this huge omission would only be traced back to Verchak herself: she subconsciously thought that the trait of "underage girls enjoying high-level security measures" was special enough, at least in the here and now, but she never expected that there would be two people on this planet who fit this description.

While the level of security for a think tank and a five-man combat team is clearly not as good as that of an entire Praetorian Army, that is a conclusion that can only be drawn on comparison. For an underage girl who doesn't see anything special, such specifications are obviously a bit too luxurious.

Obviously, the information is wrong, but she can only blame herself for saving trouble and not blaming others. Because he "got the wrong person", Verchak chose to blend in with the crowd that was driven to the side of the hall, not showing up and greeting him with the roses hanging from his chest. But she didn't hide herself either, and was pretty sure that Inquisitor Hastings had noticed her in a glimpse of the journey.

She didn't think that the young man—in her conception, Inquisitor Hastings was indeed a young man—would not realize why she was here. But no matter what measures the other party will take because of this, since her trip has come to naught, it is obvious that there is no need for her to stay here any longer.

Verchak chose to leave the halls of the Star Relay Station with dignity and return to his own territory above the airport before the other party could make any arrangements to drive her away. But that didn't mean she had given up on exploring: she did wonder what the Chaldees were doing by sending such a team to the Star Relay Station - she didn't think it was just to send some Star Language. If that's all there is to it, then the Holy Blood Angel Warband's monastery naturally has corresponding facilities inside, and the Star Whisperers and Warband's think tanks raised by the Astartes can certainly meet such needs.

Ignoring whether the other party was looking at her, Verchak nodded in the direction where Hastings was, then turned around with a smile and walked in the direction of leaving the hall.

She did leave, but as she said before, she wasn't going to give up on the search:

Her scouts will remain in the building, hiding themselves in the shadows.

——

The six months she spent living together aboard the Storm Frontier were enough for Kylea to establish some new understanding of Inquisitor Hastings. Specifically, it can be roughly summarized as follows: when Rika Fujimaru was nearby, Mr. Inquisitor was the main source of danger and pressure for her; But when Rika Fujimaru wasn't around, Mr. Inquisitor became the safest place for her.

Leaving aside the reasons for this, let's just talk about the present—the situation is clearly the latter, so that Kelya, who was holding an apparently new scroll, dared to ask Hastings in this sense of security: "You know the lady who just left, don't you?" ”

By the time the conversation began, they had relied on certain privileges to make their way through the halls and ascend to the elevator leading to the highest astral spire at the relay station. The interior of the elevator also maintained the usual gorgeous and complex style of the Empire, and it was also very spacious in terms of space, at least this team of six Astartes and two mortals did not feel the slightest crowd after entering the elevator.

"'Right?' Mr. Hastings habitually emphasized the question of honorifics to her before answering the other party's question, "It's an acquaintance, not a familiar." When did you notice her? ”

This question is a bit of a quiz. Observation of the environment is also a necessary quality for the judge. Hastings had also told Kellyar about this some time before, but had not trained her to do so. In Hastings's concept, the learning progress of this young girl, who is not yet twenty, is obviously still in the stage of theoretical knowledge reserve, otherwise it is difficult for even ordinary acolytes to do the work, and naturally these practical experiences will not be used for the time being. He was only a little surprised that she was able to realize that "a lady had left" and "this lady seemed to have made eye contact with Hastings" while passing down the hall, and wanted to get a little more out of it, but the answer was somewhat unexpected:

"At the time of the prom." Kylia said, "I saw you talking to that lady. I also noticed that she was also a judge. ”

Hastings frowned. For a moment, he was tempted to ask, "How can you be sure that the woman of the day is the same person as the one of today" when you are so far away, and then he dismissed the thought. As a future psychic of hearts, Kylia has an inexplicably accurate instinct for identifying others, something she has already confirmed in her training. He swallowed the question and said, "You don't have to worry about her, focus on the next ritual." ”

It was supposed to be a slightly blunt consolation, with the focus on reassuring. But Kellya apparently took the lead with some "not good enough" to deliberately interpret this sentence differently: "So do you think that lady may indeed cause some problems next?" ”

Hastings sighed wearily, "Sometimes I wish you had learned a little less from Fujimaru Rika. ”

"'Unconsciously statements are often more honest than conscious statements.' Kellia immediately quoted a quote from Hastings' designated reading list (source: Lionmane Library), "I just read the book as you asked." ”

"And this trick of sophistry." Hastings gritted his teeth a little as he squeezed out this passage, "Listen, your next task is to complete the ceremony of the Astral Chorus in the presence of Clerk Joheselius, and the next task for me and several of the 'guards' around me is to ensure that there are no emergencies that interfere with the ceremony in the process." If we can all focus on what we are going to do instead of looking at what is within the other person's purview, I'm sure we'll be able to complete the process within a Terra standard week. ”

It's a rather Otrama-style yin and yang weirdness. Although Kylia is underage, fortunately she is also from Otlama, so there is no obstacle in understanding this yin and yang weirdness. The little girl shut her mouth in a huff, and clung to the scroll in her arms, realizing that it was difficult to explain to the other her a vague uneasiness she felt at the glance at the lady.

The main reason why she had to try to hit the side was that she didn't know where this feeling came from, so she couldn't say it directly. Rushing to talk about it will only make things confusing and end up being overreacted by others.

The topic was supposed to be over like this, but Johecelius, who had been watching the whole thing, unconsciously let out a nasal voice mixed with doubt, amusement, unobvious surprise, and disapproval. Hastings, who was already acting unfriendly, quickly changed the direction of the artillery fire, and asked the other party with the aggressive attitude characteristic of the Inquisitor: "Secretary Jocelius, do you have any advice?" ”

Realizing that something wasn't quite right, Kelia silently ducked behind Inquisitor Hastings, a little further away from Joheserius.

"I don't mean to offend." Considering the Chaldean background, after a brief hesitation, Jocelius decided to pay a little attention to the art of speaking here, "It's just that the master-apprentice relationship between the two of you, well, is rare in us. ”

That's a euphemism. If Joheselius were to be put bluntly, he would say that Hastings was too kind to his apprentices—in this context, "kind" is not a compliment. In Jocelius, who himself is a master of think tanks who are strict with his students and subordinates, it seems to him that if the above conversation takes place in the traditional master-apprentice relationship of the Empire, a qualified mentor should be able to end the entire conversation with a single "shut up". If he fails to do so, it means that the mentor has not properly established authority in front of his apprentices in normal times.

It has to be said that if Hecelius's guess is correct, but Hastings will not admit it. He clearly understood the implication behind the phrase "rare" and clearly wanted to struggle with it: "We don't have a 'traditional' mentor-apprentice relationship. In essence, she was Rika Fujimaru's apprentice and the next mistress of the Chaldeans. and—"

Hastingston paused, glanced back at Kelya, who had a weak and innocent face written all over her face, and sighed indistinctly, "I suggest that anyone should still have a little basic respect for her." ”

(End of chapter)