"Damn it, Guilliman should never have stopped me! Every last one of these Imperial vermin should be executed!"
Vulkan had only just followed Guilliman to the Central Administratum building, the heart of the Imperium's operations.
An angry roar was already ringing out from the largest hall at the center of the building.
Guilliman looked helpless, and Vulkan naturally recognized the voice as well.
The arrival of the two noble Primarchs prompted the mortals around them to bow before hurrying back to their work.
A senior official, his uniform adorned with gold thread and intricate patterns, was stumbling out of the hall. Upon seeing Guilliman and Vulkan behind him, the official abruptly dropped to his knees before them.
"Lord Regent, I..."
Before the administrative official could finish, Vulkan reached out and helped him to his feet.
Guilliman merely waved a hand helplessly.
"There's no need to explain. I know."
Guilliman had originally considered taking Lion El'Jonson with him to welcome Vulkan back.
But remembering the new messes Lion El'Jonson had created while he was dealing with the Pariah Nexus, Guilliman had not immediately told him of Vulkan's return. To give Lion El'Jonson a taste of his own suffering, he had made him handle the documents left unattended because he had executed the officials responsible for them.
For Lion El'Jonson, however, all of this was nothing short of torture.
The Imperium was far too vast. Even for a High Lord, working more than twenty hours a day was perfectly normal.
Not all mortal administrators were as incompetent as Lion El'Jonson imagined.
It was simply that, constrained by all manner of factors, the Imperium operated at an excruciatingly slow pace.
The officials he had executed had actually been quite unlucky.
They worked more than twenty-two hours a day, relying almost entirely on drugs