A Switcheroo to Fool Them All!

"So it was you all along!"

Cedric gritted his teeth and glared at Alvin, veins bulging on his forehead. If he hadn't been mindful of the Lion King, he might have rolled up his sleeves and charged at Alvin for a fistfight!

The Adeptus Mechanicus Grand Sage and the Marshal of the Astra Militarum's Nineteenth Expeditionary Legion weren't any happier. Their expressions said it all: unless Alvin gave them a convincing reason, he wasn't getting out of this room alive!

You old bastard, you really have no sense of decency!

Knowing he'd been "played" again, Alvin gave the unruffled Lion King a resentful look, then sighed helplessly. He candidly admitted to the three of them that the idea had been his: "That's right. I suggested that the Lion King repair the Chaos Battleships and temporarily keep the destruction of the Chaos Fleet under wraps."

"I can understand keeping the destruction of the Chaos Fleet under wraps. If word gets out, it could attract even more Chaos Legions." Cedric took a deep breath, his stern, skeptical gaze falling on Alvin like a sharp sword. "But I don't understand why we should waste our already scarce resources repairing these Chaos Battleships!"

He rattled on like beans pouring from a bamboo tube, not giving Alvin a chance to speak. "If you're planning to have the Tech-Priests and Ecclesiarchy Priests purify these ships, I advise you to abandon that naive idea right now!"

The Adeptus Mechanicus Sage nodded along and added in a hoarse voice, "The possibility of purifying a Chaos Battleship is, by every logical calculation, infinitely close to zero."

The Mechanical Sage paused, then looked at Alvin and spoke with a note of mockery. "Even if it were theoretically possible, the supplies, manpower, and time it would consume would be better spent