The Imperial Witch Hunter, the most extreme and xenophobic Inquisitor, and the Space Necrons, who viewed humans as ants and at best experimental subjects—two individuals who should have clashed on sight—were now like old friends who hadn't seen each other in years.
Even more exaggerated was that Emrys had never seen such a rich range of expressions—enthusiasm, liveliness—on Inquisitor Aldrich's stern, cold face. It was simply unbelievable!
Seeing him enter, Aldrich reined himself in slightly, but was still unrestrained, raising a bottle of Amasec high and shouting at him, "Hurry up, you're the only one left! Let's drink until we drop!"
By the Emperor above, what in the world—? Emrys' mouth twitched. What had happened during his absence?!
And speaking of which, do Space Necrons even drink alcohol?
A series of questions caused Emrys' brain to freeze for a few seconds, then he received an explanation from Winnie.
It turned out that when Aldrich first boarded the ship, upon discovering that there were Eldar and Space Necrons here, he almost pulled out his bolter to execute these two heretics.
Only Winnie managed to stop the almost berserk Inquisitor, but even so, Aldrich didn't calm down, angrily demanding an explanation from her.
So—Winnie, unable to appease the Inquisitor, handed him over to 'Morgana'.
About five minutes later, Aldrich emerged from the room with a complex expression, ultimately choosing to—forget about the whole incident.
Then, Emrys arrived, and upon entering the Prayer Hall, he witnessed this miraculous scene.
"Thanks to the Emperor, praise the Emperor!"
After listening, Emrys made the Aquila sign with both hands on his chest, grateful that Morgana was there. Otherwise, by the time he returned, his own warship would have been blown up.
But this was also good.
At least, Emrys no longer had to worry about the Inquisitor finding any fault with him, and being sent to the stake the next day to be repeatedly executed with white phosphorus.
The next day, Emrys led his fleet, officially setting sail from the Wanderer's Port, entering the Mandeville Point en route to the Dark Zone.
This was also his maiden voyage.
As a Rogue Trader, the last bastion of human enterprise, journeying to places beyond the light of the Astronomican, navigating through chaotic and dangerous star seas, exploring one lost civilization after another, like explorers of the Age of Discovery, to forge his own glory!
"Close the deck!"
"Activate the Gellar Field!"
"Warp engine fully charged!"
"Traveler ready!"
Emrys, as the Captain, sat on the bridge of the command room, issuing orders in an orderly fashion.
With an excited heart, he cast his gaze towards that uncharted territory, full of the unknown.
The cruiser Excalibur, and the frigate fire sent by the Inquisition, instantly vanished into the boundless void amidst the surrounding spacetime distortion, completely disappearing from the star chart of the Wanderer's Port.
At this moment, the elegantly dressed Lillian was gazing intently in the direction of their departure, her eyes filled with reluctance.
"May the light of the God-Emperor illuminate your path coming home, Mr. Emrys."
Every year, hundreds of thousands, countless fleets, sail from the Wanderer's Port into that dark universe without the light of the Astronomican, but—very few ever return!
Beyond the unknown frontiers of human civilization, the dangers they faced were not just the Warp.
More dangers also came from those bizarre worlds, lost civilizations, and even some phenomena that were completely incomprehensible!
And among them, the most important was the star chart!
A Rogue Trader with a star chart was equivalent to having precise coordinates to find their way back in the Dark Zone, where the Astronomican's light did not shine. This was also the real reason why many Rogue Traders ultimately disappeared.
Without a star chart, and without the guidance of the Astronomican, if they encountered a Warp storm, they could very likely be flung into a completely unfamiliar area, ultimately becoming lost forever.
But even with a 'star chart', it was difficult to guarantee that every voyage would return smoothly.
At this moment, after the two warships entered the Warp, several Travelers of the Astropathic family began to perform their duties, under the gradually dimming light of the Astronomican, to ensure they did not deviate from their course as much as possible.
After entering the Warp, there would be a very long period of material time. During this time, Emrys began to carefully study the 'star chart' belonging to the Emrys family, which he had retrieved from the Fernando family.
This item was extremely important. Emrys originally thought its purpose was merely to record the coordinates of the Emrys family's ten-thousand-year exploration of the Dark Zone.
But Arch-Magos Carol said that this 'Yellow Latitude and Longitude Navigational Chart' was not so simple.
If 'it' were merely a star chart, it would never have been so important to the Fernando family, nor would his Grandpa, Arthur, have decided to retrieve it at any cost.
"Pfft—" However, Emrys had been tinkering with it for several days, trying all sorts of methods, but he still couldn't find the secret of this thing.
He even tried the blood-binding ritual.
But it was clear that this was not a fantasy drama, and his blood-binding had no effect.
Holding this object, which looked like a crystal ball with countless shining stars inside, Emrys fell into contemplation. Was his approach wrong?
"What are you thinking about?"
Winnie walked in and found him looking worried, staring at the object, examining it from left to right, and couldn't help but ask.
"Magos Carol said there's a secret hidden inside," Emrys frowned, only able to voice his thoughts.
"But I've been searching for days and still haven't found what secret this thing holds."
"Oh."
Winnie seemed to understand, staring at the 'Yellow Latitude and Longitude Navigational Chart' for a few seconds, golden flames seemingly burning in her eyes. After a moment, she said, "Found it."
"Huh?!"
Emrys was dumbfounded. The secret he had spent days researching without solving, was it just that easily seen through by Winnie?
"No need to be surprised," Winnie said indifferently.
"The God-Emperor has bestowed upon me the ability to see through falsehood and delusion."
—. Emperor, you're a bit biased!
Emrys was a little jealous. Why didn't he have such powerful abilities!
Just as he was thinking, Winnie took the 'Yellow Latitude and Longitude Navigational Chart' from his hand, then flung it out directly.
Crack!
The 'Yellow Latitude and Longitude Navigational Chart', which was already a fragile crystal structure, hit the deck squarely and immediately shattered into pieces!
Watching this scene, Emrys was completely stunned.
"You—is this what you meant by 'the way'?"
The 'Yellow Navigational Chart was an important tool for their voyage, yet it was shattered into pieces. What were they going to do now?
"Watch."
Winnie rolled her eyes at him, pouting her lips, seemingly a bit displeased.
"You don't believe me?"
"Well—I do," Since things had come to this, Emrys didn't want to be harsh. He could only patiently wait to see the outcome.
Within the shattered Yellow Navigational Chart, there was actually a very tiny information storage terminal hidden. It was like one of the countless stars in a crystal ball. If Winnie hadn't shattered 'it', it probably would have been impossible to discover!
No wonder neither the Fernando family nor Emrys himself could find the secret of this 'Yellow Navigational Chart'!
The reason was simple: no matter how hard they thought, they could never have imagined that the true secret was hidden in such a simple and crude way—just destroy it, and the secret would be revealed!
Emrys walked over, crouched down to pick up the information terminal, and took a deep breath.
"Thanks to you, otherwise, even if I thought for another ten years, I probably wouldn't have found it."
"Hmph."
Winnie let out a soft hmph, turned her head away, deliberately not looking at Emrys, with a rather tsundere demeanor.
"Alright, now let me see what secret is hidden inside!" Emrys connected the information terminal to the main control of the Excalibur.
Then, a figure was projected out.
The person looked in a way that gave one an extremely uncomfortable feeling. Beneath their seemingly calm face, a storm-like surge of emotions was hidden, even a somewhat deranged temperament.