“Improve our treatment! Improve our treatment!”
“No Karrakis without workers!”
“Fulgrim, you betrayed us!”
Looking out through the glass window, dozens of people suddenly surged from the entrance of the manor, shouting slogans and engaging in fierce physical clashes with the patrol team maintaining order.
Fort Karaxis’s not-so-rich historical records contain many accounts of similar worker protests.
More than a decade ago, before Fulgrim rose to prominence, the entire Fort Karaxis was on the verge of riot.
For the workers, if they had to work more than twenty hours a day in despair, then it would be better for everyone to die together, which would be a relief.
However, ever since Fulgrim became an engineer and improved the production machinery, greatly improving the working conditions, the situation took a turn for the better.
With hope in life and motivation in work, people naturally rallied around Fulgrim.
Correspondingly, protest activities gradually decreased and disappeared.
Logically, no one should be causing trouble at the engagement ceremony of the workers’ savior—Fulgrim.
......
And that was exactly the case.
“I’ve never seen them in the factory,” Fulgrim said softly, leaning into Kasga’s ear, her expression solemn.
“Those protesters… are not workers.”
“Their expressions and actions are deliberate and exaggerated, more like they’re putting on a show with the patrol team.”
Her Primarch-level vision and logical ability allowed her to quickly grasp effective information.
Although they were pushing and shoving, the inattention to details still exposed their true purpose—to disrupt this meticulously prepared engagement ceremony.
As for the one who would implement such a malicious plan, it was even more obvious.
“It looks like the handiwork of my good brother, Herrold Sherlock,” Kasga responded quietly.
“Their methods are truly despicable.”
“It won’t be long before the riot escalates, and then the patrol team will deliberately be a step slow, allowing these thugs, under the guise of workers, to smash, grab, and kill.”
“We need to leave here.”
“You go inform the others to evacuate first; if the situation worsens, we’ll break out.”
“Alright.”
......
An open scheme.
This was a pure open scheme.
Kasga’s brow furrowed even deeper.
Herrold Sherlock knew Fulgrim’s standing among the workers, and he also knew her terrifying strength to forge alloys with her bare hands.
If he dared to protest at the engagement ceremony, he would surely be thrown out of the venue by Fu Gen like trash.
Kasga and Fulgrim were a perfect match, how could he, a monster, be allowed to object?
But if they used incitement to stir up conflict, Kasga and the others truly had no good counter-measures.
Building trust is not easy, but destroying it is incredibly simple.
Fulgrim’s prestige came from the support of the workers.
As long as the scene was disrupted in the name of the workers, this legendary goddess could be easily restrained.
If she acted against the “workers,” it would be tantamount to admitting the accusation that she abandoned the workers, becoming the “executioner” in everyone’s mouths.
If she did not act to control the rioters, causing bloodshed, Fulgrim’s credit among the nobles would plummet.
A dilemma.
In the end, Kasga’s best response was simply to avoid it.
Leave early, and then later catch the thugs and Herrold and other nobles colluding.
But no matter what, the other party could use the excuse of suppressing a riot to disrupt the engagement ceremony.
In fact, he sought even more.
Thinking of this, Kasga couldn’t help but look at the old Sherlock family head, who was looking confused.
......
Clap!
Even though many guests tried their best to ignore what was happening outside, the increasingly intense shouts and collisions seemed to finally reveal the truth.
Zzzzt!
Several crackling sounds and screams, accompanied by several rapidly flashing strong lights, burst out outside the venue in an instant.
Gunshots rang out.
That was the cry of laser guns.
The patrol team seemed to have greatly underestimated the rioters’ methods.
Sharp blades slashed, and the patrol team, very wisely, quickly dodged away, clearing a path for the rioters who rushed into the scene.
“Why are you selling your lives to those noble masters! Fulgrim, why?!”
“Nobles cannot be trusted!”
“Lackeys, lackeys! All lackeys of the nobles!”
“Brothers, kill these nobles, and we will rule Karrakis ourselves!”
Shouting, the riot leader, whose face was covered with a red cloth, kicked open the door of the main hall and looked at the trembling guests around him.
Among these people, the legendary goddess was not present.
She seemed to have left the place in advance.
Not here?
The riot leader breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, she wasn't here, otherwise they would have become the “lambs” sacrificed in the prophet’s words.
However, their target was not just Fulgrim.
The corner of his eye shifted at this moment, glancing at the trembling old Sherlock family head beside him.
His smile suddenly spread to the corners of his mouth.
“Hey, old man.”
“Time to go.”
Red light burst from the gun in his hand.
Zzzzt!
Blood splattered.
......
“Quick! Protect the many guests present, do not let them be harmed by the rioters!”
The patrol team, which truly had complete military equipment, did not seem to appear at the venue immediately.
Herrold Sherlock, who arrived a step late and was directing the rescue, was now extremely anxious.
“What’s going on?! How could the patrol team be so negligent?!”
Looking at the chaotic manor, he appeared extremely annoyed.
“Damn it!”
“I told you, believing these workers wouldn’t cause trouble is wishful thinking!”
“Report!”
A police inspector appeared beside him at the opportune moment.
“More than ten worker rioters have all fled; we found traces of their escape through a secret passage nearby.”
“.......Fulgrim.”
“It must be Fulgrim!”
“She’s the fortress’s engineering designer; she must have revealed the secret passage to those rioters!”
Herrold gnashed his teeth.
“And also…”
The inspector lowered his voice slightly.
“We found Mr. Sherlock’s body in the venue.”
“What did you say?!”
Herrold’s shout instantly rose by eight octaves, drawing the gaze of the surrounding guests to him.
“Damn commoners!”
“How dare they condone the rioters’ violence and beat my father to death!!!”
“Where is she now?”
“According to surviving guests, she and Kasga quietly left the venue before the riot began, which further confirms the possibility that they orchestrated this incident.”
“Good, good…”
Herrold laughed in extreme anger.
“Notify the patrol team, I, in the name of the new Sherlock family head, immediately launch a search and must find the whereabouts of the criminals Fulgrim and Kasga!”
......
Outside Fort Karaxis.
The raging storm had now subsided slightly, and the iron fortress Karrakis was still embedded between the mountains, quietly resting.
How long had it been here?
Ten years, a hundred years? Or even a thousand years?
No one knew, except for the yellow sand.
The sky and earth were empty, with only a man and a woman walking in the wasteland outside the city.
“It’s a pity, the old family head trusted his son too much and was unwilling to leave with us.”
Perhaps until the very end, he would not believe that he would die at the hands of his beloved eldest son.
“I guess by now, both of us are wanted criminals, right?”
Kasga smiled bitterly, looking up and remaining silent for a moment.
“Sorry, Fulgrim.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m sorry, I ruined your plan to control Karrakis. It made it less than perfect.”
“Less than perfect?”
Fulgrim smiled.
Under Chemos’s eternal twilight, her smile was exceptionally bright.
“Perhaps, but clearly some things are more important than perfection.”
Stepping onto the boundless desert, Fulgrim was full of curiosity.
The timeline had changed.
But perhaps this was not a bad thing.
Chemos’s engineer was now finally liberated from the bloated, decaying noble titles.
Like a child touching the world for the first time, and like a prisoner who had broken old shackles, she tried to feel this world she had never tried to understand before.
Imperfect, but full of… stirrings.
Stirrings from the depths of her heart.
......
“What about you, Kasga?” Fulgrim asked in return.
“Will you be sad about losing your noble status?”
“I never worry about that.”
After a moment of thought, Kasga shook his head.
“What I fear more is that one day we truly become like those old-fashioned nobles, staying in a place called Karrakis, isolating ourselves, and ignoring everything outside.”
“Forever immersed in the illusory glory of the past, not daring to face the pain of reality; cursing and envying friends who are still struggling in misery, and calling this ‘perfection’.”
Saying this, Kasga looked behind him.
The iron fortress with its tightly shut gates still stood there, quietly facing the yellow sand, the sunset, and their gaze.
“How pitiful, I don’t want to live like that.”
“Perhaps, Fulgrim.”
“Perhaps.”
......
Just like the bewildered yet hopeful man and woman walking out of the Garden of Eden.
The two smiled at each other.