Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 713

Fugen bypassed the skeletons and climbed onto the Black Stone Obelisk, hoping to find something useful or simply check if it was still functioning.

Thanks to the Primarch's excellent hearing, Fugen keenly heard the hum of some kind of instrument in operation. He carefully walked through the mess, where the undead creations had been violently broken open, and the pulled cables extended and converged underground.

Ironically, inside the black obelisk of the space necromancer, Fugen saw a human tombstone.

The inscription on it reads:

I chose this place not to get close to you, but to keep you under guard, traitor—if you return, you will face my trenches.

The signature below was obscured by dirt. Fugen reached out, brushed away the dirt, and saw the illegible High Gothic words.

[Welcome, this is the last loyal Iron Warrior. I have chosen to live on in agony. If he returns, awaken me, and I will become the Shield of the Empire who knows him best, to aid you.]

These brief, unadorned words, devoid of rhetoric and aesthetics, deeply moved the original, implying a grander existence. For Fugen, however, it was only by completely abandoning grand narratives that he was able to continue moving forward.

Fugen trembled as he dug into the soil. He saw a refrigerated warehouse, so old that it had been obsolete for thousands of years, and inside it, a steel warrior was sleeping peacefully.

It is Danteok.

....................................

Terra

I don't think I'm too hungry right now?

Guilliman rubbed his brow, still feeling like he'd just woken up from a hangover, but clearly his Primarch brothers weren't going to let him off the hook. Angron practically walked into the office right when Guilliman woke up, regained his senses, and was about to chat with someone, carrying a plate of breakfast with him.

"I can do it for you."

Hades raised his hand and began clearing the table of breakfast that Angron had brought him.

You should eat something to replenish your energy—but it depends on your mood.

Angron raised an eyebrow and naturally sat down at Killieman's desk.

What are your plans for the future?

[Handling the backlog of official business.]

Killieman answered without the slightest hesitation.

【certainly,】

The Emperor raised one hand, while the other continued to rub his brow. For some reason, Guilliman felt an unusual warmth on the back of his head, as if something had been dripped onto his cheek. Surprisingly, this sensation actually relieved his pain.

"Great Guilliman said solemnly,"

I know that what I need to do next is to determine the direction for this behemoth, as well as to reappoint and reassign the top leadership. I need to speak one-on-one with each of our brothers to understand their wishes and assign them their positions.

"Give me your breakfast, and you don't need to worry about the Mechanics Cult anymore."

Hades reiterated, the only difference being his serious expression—

To prove that he did indeed want Guilliman's breakfast, Mortarian reached out and used a mist transport technique on the plate of food.

Now you don't need to help Guilliman manage the mechanical engineering department anymore.

Motalian said, his gaze calm.

[We're returning to the Storm Sector—Guilliman. You no longer need to manage the Storm Sector.]

I unilaterally reject your proposal.

Guilliman remained calm as he watched his breakfast disappear, speaking slowly and deliberately.

You cannot go back to be your fiefdom.

What if I insist on doing this?

"Motalian provoked, and the next moment the Pale Lord saw the golden flames burning in Guilliman's eyes."

What can Killieman do to him?

Mortarian let out a laugh.

……

When Mortarian came to his senses, he felt extremely tired. The Pale Lord found himself sitting at his desk, pen in hand, with a stack of already-corrected documents beside him.

【…? 】

Motalian's pupils dilated in shock, and then he saw Karas, looking utterly dead, walk into the office and throw a stack of documents at him—

"?!"

"You finally woke up?"

Karas suddenly spoke, and upon seeing the bewildered Mortarian, he instantly understood everything. Karas sneered.

"You have been working for seven days straight—thanks to you, all the Primarchs are now working properly, and a new Great Slave Master has emerged, right on the highest throne of Terra."

Wait, Hades didn't help me?!

"Motalian exclaimed in surprise, slamming his hand on the table and standing up abruptly, but the cold smile on Karas's lips already revealed the Primarch's truth."

"Seven-day holiday".

Callas said, "Stab them without mercy."

"Plus, the right to permanent residency as a glorious citizen of Macurag, haha, Mortarian."

The truth is that Guilliman's psionic powers were so tightly bound to Mortalian's that Hades couldn't separate them without harming Mortalian's soul.

As for why Guilliman's psionic powers are so tightly bound to the Pale Lord's psionic powers, and even more so—Guilliman's psionic powers are tightly bound to all Primarchs.

The reason is simple: as I said before, Neos will ensure that the true victor remains firmly on his throne.

Yay, it's gone!

Chapter 740 Crescent Moon

【One month later】

Terra

A full month has passed since the day everyone lay sprawled on the ground.

During this time, there may be many frictions or disputes between the Primarch and the Emperor, between Primarchs, and between the Primarch and mortals, but no matter what, the main theme is always work, work, and overtime.

In terms of directing the work of others, Guilliman completely unleashed his potential.

Hades believed that Guilliman had clearly figured out the true way of slave owners, assigning each Primarch a task that was just too much to complete, yet always giving them the illusion that "with a little more effort, it could be completed ahead of time."

As for Primarchs who were unwilling to work autonomously, Guilliman used coercion and enticement—the Empire, the Legion, one of your offspring… The Lord of the Empire certainly knew what you cared about.

In short, everyone needs to work, and work is obviously necessary and essential.

Of course, Guilliman wasn't truly devoid of humanity; he was well aware of the different Primarchs' varying levels of acceptance of official duties, and therefore Guilliman devised a work plan tailored to each Primarch—

They also conduct weekly conversations, constantly monitor the mental state of each individual, and provide leave or psychological counseling to individuals whose mental state is precarious.

In this regard, the Primarch's mental state was assessed by Angron, who was reluctant to work and wished to remain anonymous.

In return, Killieman promised Anglon less official duties and more vacation time.

Everyone was assigned to suitable positions. Hades was in full charge of the operation of the Mechanicus and the Cult of the Underworld, and was also the Special Advisor for Strategic Management of the Imperial Construction Department and the head of the Seventh Bureau of Imperial Construction.

As for what the Imperial Construction Department is—

Yes, to welcome a new era and a new phase for the human empire, the empire's leader, Robert Guilliman, delivered a speech on the 22nd, outlining the empire's future goals, main tasks, and priorities.

Robert Guilliman points out that the Empire’s next priority is to eliminate the “three aliens”—alien races, aliens, and heretics—that are hindering the Empire’s progress and are still rampaging within the Empire’s territory and in the unrecovered territories.

The Emperor of the Empire emphasized that in order to accomplish this task, the Empire needs to further liberate its productive forces. Under the leadership of Hades, the Empire should vigorously apply advanced archaeological techniques to practical use and establish a fully armed army and people as soon as possible, armed in both physical and imperial psionic aspects.

As an aside, one day before Robert Guilliman's speech, the Imperial State Church, the Imperial Underworld Church, and the Imperial Mechanicus Church jointly signed and promulgated the "Standards for the Identification, Judgment, and Qualification of Imperial Psionic Power (M41)".

This action defined what Imperial psionic power is, why the Empire uses Imperial psionic power, and how to execute psionicists who violate regulations.

Imperial psionic energy refers to psionic energy that conforms to the beliefs of the Imperial State Religion, the Regional Legion, or the Mechanicus, and whose power originates from the Warp Emperor and the Primarch's psionic domain.

Those who meet these requirements need to obtain a certificate of recognition from the religious authority associated with their faith, and also need to pass the cult's hazard level assessment. Those with a hazard level of "medium" or below can travel freely within the Empire.

Following the announcement of this regulation, Imperial Psionic Grand Master Magnus immediately stated that he and the Grey Knights would dedicate themselves to promoting the implementation of a legal and compliant psionic education system, ensuring that every psionicist has access to books and education, and preventing any psionicist dedicated to exploring the warp from going astray.

Although there were rumors that Magnus berated Guilliman for being inhuman, it was also said that the Inquisition representative, Corax, apparently visited the Crimson King afterward, seemingly to discuss the possibility of adding a surveillance system to the system, and was successfully rebuked by Magnus.

This is just one of the many insignificant arguments and disputes that occur behind the scenes because of work.

Not to mention the many absurd things, such as Saint Gilles kicking Conrad out of the palace, leaving a human-shaped dent in the outer wall, and Vulcan smashing Mortarian's desk with a single punch.

Ahem, I digress. Let's get back to the speech by Robert Guilliman, the Emperor of the Empire.

In order to better liberate and develop productive forces, Robert Guilliman realized that the Empire now needed a department that could truly unite the strength of the entire Empire and be dedicated to the field of production and construction, rather than small-scale operations organized by the Mechanicus, local Star Armies, and Imperial caravans.

Robert studied and summarized the previous production and construction experience of Hades, and believed that the Mechanicus alone could not meet the needs of the Empire's size. Therefore, after consultation, the Emperor of the Empire established the Imperial Construction Department.

The Primarch intends to use the still-unrecovered Rogue Dorn and his Imperial Fist as the main force, and specifically allocate a Legion (Imperial Fist) and two Chapters (Silver Skull and Trident) to unite twenty-one large forging worlds and devote themselves to large-scale production and construction.

Its first-quarter objective was to establish a mass slingshot transportation network covering the entire Imperial network, guided by Hades's "Slingshot Theoretical Path and Past Path Fitting".

Once the transportation network is established, even if transportation errors occur between individual mass missile launchers, the mass missile launchers in nearby star systems will compensate for these errors, reducing the transportation error to about 15%.

Through Hades and the Mechanicus's arrangements within the Empire, this quarter's target plan will be completed within ten years.

In addition, countless advanced technologies have passed the joint review of the Academy of Athens, the Church of the Underworld, and the Church of the Mechanics, and have entered the stage of implementation and production, becoming one of the many small goals of the Imperial Construction Department in the first quarter.

Once this quarter's targets are achieved, according to calculations by Hades and Phenus, the Lord of Nirvana, the empire will smoothly enter a period of explosive economic and military development.

This will be the key to the rise and fall of the Empire, so in this month, in addition to communicating and talking with the Primarchs (using both threats and inducements).

Guilliman worked alongside Hades and Fernus in the office, calculating all sorts of data until he was dizzy and his head was spinning.

The office door was always kept open so that the mechanical sage, carrying various confidential documents and official seals, could rush in.

For this, Robert Guilliman sincerely thanked Finus and Hades, who made him realize that, apart from himself, there were still people in the empire who were willing to work seriously, desperately, and responsibly.

A deep friendship was thus established, stemming from a kind of mutual appreciation born of exploitation—although Guilliman forced others to work, he himself was the one who exploited himself the most.

This will be a fond memory for Killieman for the rest of his life, though it may not be so pleasant for the other two.

Finus doesn't show much emotion about anything and has become a chosen worker.

Hades himself was fine, but Booz Bella, the ox-man who came to work with him, collapsed right next to Hades's desk after a period of intense work. As a result, Hades had to give the poor man a day off. This also brought back a rare moment of conscience to Hades, who seemed to have been exploiting them rather harshly.

Because Robert Guilliman himself did not directly deal with the various mechanical and construction teams, Hades and Finus did not leave their desks for a whole month, and were truly cooped up in the office for a month.

Guilliman, on the contrary, kept busy in the already chaotic palace amidst the return of the Primarchs, with a series of events such as "Motalian's challenge", "Angron's request for leave", "Nios's request to go out", and "Sevita's heartfelt plea for improved Primarch treatment".

As an aside, after the seven-day contract ended, the Pale Lord Mortarion went straight to Guilliman's office, but after seeing the three men looking like they were in a coma, he silently took a half step back. After a long silence, the Pale Lord realized that Hades had voluntarily worked overtime.

Then, Mortarian invited Guilliman to go out and fight.

And once again, they were granted a seven-day work week.

Finally, a month later, on the day of the full moon, Robert Guilliman, who had toiled for many days and was both the great slave owner and the empire's largest slave, decided to give everyone a day off.

This is a reasonable concession made based on the extent of various official duties being squeezed, and it is also the result of Anglon's many days of persuasion to Gilliman.

Yes, whenever Angron has free time, he will advise Gilmando to rest.

So, Killieman used the excuse of preparing for Roger Dorn's return to persuade himself to allow himself a day off.

[Are you okay, bro?!]

The Lord of Red Sand, carrying a plate of desserts, suddenly shouted, and the Primarchs who had already gathered by the palace's open-air balcony turned around and saw the real trio of bulls and horses.

Guilliman had a psionic aura, Hades had overwhelming physical superiority, and Fernus was entirely mechanical, so the three of them still looked like they did at the beginning, without dark circles or other byproducts of working overtime.

But the expressions on their faces revealed a deep sense of death; their eyes were lifeless, and their steps were stiff.

It was as if he would nod in the next moment, willing to be buried in peace.

Angron was about to step forward and use his psionic powers to channel the poison, but Mortarion beat him to it. The Primarch, who had been lying in the corner silently releasing poison gas, sat up and raised his hand toward Hades.

Then Pluto walked over like a zombie and immediately collapsed onto the recliner next to the Primarch.

Karas, who was sitting near Mortalian, laughed loudly. He nodded to Sevita, who was talking to him, and then walked toward Hades, ready to launch a taunt.

However, Hades was already snoring, so Karas's taunts were likely to be ineffective.

Meanwhile, Severus watched Guilliman cautiously. Beside him, Dante, the Angel of the Holy Blood who was reorganizing the legion, had a worried look on his face, with dark circles under his eyes that looked like they were dripping blood. In his hand, he held the blood wine that the archangel himself had poured for him.

I'm fine, thank you for your concern.

Killieman said that as he took the hot tea from Anglon and listened to Hades' snoring, he wished he could just collapse into bed right then and there—but he obviously couldn't.