The banquet was held in an exceptionally luxurious aerial manor at the top of the Hive City.
The manor's decorations were resplendent, and various flowers and plants, under the warm breeze from the ventilation machines, emitted a faint, slightly fishy natural scent.
Everything here seemed to have no connection to the polluted Hive City outside.
It was a completely different world.
Crystal chandeliers, suspended by floating servo-skulls, were like the suns of this manor, providing just the right amount of light for the guests attending the banquet.
It was neither too dazzling nor too dim.
Girls, selected from the middle and lower levels of the Hive City and meticulously trained, wore revealing clothing and circulated among the guests, serving as hostesses.
The girls' skin was exceptionally fair, with a luster like white cream.
These girls' figures had been technologically adjusted, making them look incredibly hot, with fair skin, beautiful faces, long legs, ample bosoms and buttocks, and perfect features, full of a deadly temptation for men.
Each of these hostesses was a precious, untouched gem.
Of course, if a certain guest desired, they could also enjoy them to their heart's content.
All follow-up work was the responsibility of House Glaus.
This was a display of House Glaus' immense wealth; they were not stingy with sharing this insignificant fortune.
They owned industries in several star systems, and the wealth they earned every second was unimaginable to ordinary people, wealth that the lower class couldn't earn in several lifetimes, or even dozens of lifetimes.
Many believed that unless House Glaus was declared treasonous by the Imperium, they would never decline.
Now the situation was different; another threat had plunged House Glaus into a precarious situation.
That was the reform promoted by Guilliman.
The elder who said Guilliman had betrayed them was from House Glaus.
An old noble who had undergone multiple life-extending surgeries, he had lived for over four hundred years, experiencing four centuries.
House Glaus' vast wealth allowed him to afford expensive medical procedures, thus extending his lifespan.
It is worth mentioning that according to the Ministry of the Interior's statistics from a hundred years ago, the average life expectancy on the planet Natal was only 55 years.
A large number of workers engaged in toxic industries, and they often did not live to be fifty.
It was quite exaggerated for the old noble to live for four hundred years.
That was equivalent to over a dozen generations of the middle and lower classes.
The old noble saw clearly that Guilliman's reforms were bound to cause House Glaus heavy losses and would no longer guarantee their luxurious lifestyle.
House Glaus had offered over five thousand years of loyalty to the Emperor.
And now Guilliman was taking it all back, which was undoubtedly a complete betrayal of House Glaus.
Such betrayal angered the people of House Glaus, and they even publicly stated that they would not accept any of Guilliman's reforms.
The old noble's shouting attracted the attention of other nobles.
They whispered among themselves, their faces also showing anger.
In their view, Guilliman's actions were simply unreasonable, even utterly foolish.
Some nobles even felt that Guilliman was a mentally unstable tyrant.
He was harming the loyal subjects of the Imperium, persecuting their loyal families, and suppressing the loyalists of the Imperium.
If not for his status as a Primarch, these nobles would have wanted to report directly to Terra, declaring this fellow a Chaos heretic, and requesting all departments of the entire Imperium to work together to eliminate him.
Attacking loyal nobles and weakening the Imperium's strength, how could a loyal Primarch do such a thing??
He must be a heretic.
Only heretics would commit such acts.
"We must stop his absurd behavior," a younger noble said, "We have offered thousands of years of loyalty to the Imperium, our loyalty is beyond reproach and question, yet he wants to dismiss us. Ten thousand years of slumber have clouded his mind, we must make him understand that it is us who have maintained the Imperium's existence, not those foolish commoners."
"Watch your words, offending a Primarch will be considered treason," another noble said in a deep voice, "If you don't want to attract the Emperor's Angels, rein it in a little."
"So what?? It's just death, the Bandic family will not fear this, we are loyal to the Emperor, loyal to Terra, death cannot make us yield. The biggest problem now is to correct the Primarch's mistake, the Holy Emperor's system has been running for ten thousand years, fully proving its superiority. The families pledge allegiance to Terra, and Terra pledges allegiance to the Emperor, everything is so orderly."
"And now the Primarch wants to break this system, take away the rights of the loyal families, and give them to those foolish, easily tempted commoners, such an idea is simply absurd. Those foolish commoners are useless, what use are they other than having their sons take up arms to be cannon fodder, and their daughters wear bunny girl outfits to pour wine??"
The young man from the Bandic family shouted, "Our fathers fought for the Imperium to protect these wastes, our status and identity are what we deserve, and now he wants to take it all away, is that fair??"
"This is indeed unfair, my brethren. The Emperor rules Terra, Terra rules the nobles, the nobles rule the commoners, and the commoners offer everything to the nobles, this is the most perfect system. And now, Guilliman wants to break it, replacing it with a foolish system. For the Imperium, for the Emperor, we should indeed rise up and resist. House Glaus will only obey the commands of Holy Terra, unless the Primarch can withdraw that foolish reform."
The old noble of House Glaus shouted loudly.
The emotions of the many nobles at the banquet were also stirred up.
They discussed in low voices about the foolishness of Guilliman's reform, each of them filled with indignation, determined to give their all to protect the Imperium.
The banquet ended.
Several hostesses' corpses, bruised all over and with fear on their faces, were packaged along with the trash and sent to the bottom level via conveyor belt, where they were scrambled for.
The corpses were also snatched up by the vagrants at the bottom level, immediately dismembered, and then different parts of the bodies were divided up.
Only some blood was left in the garbage heap.
This kind of thing happened at every banquet.
The nobles, in their excitement, would always accidentally kill a few.
This kind of thing was nothing to them.
As long as things were handled cleanly and the law enforcement agencies couldn't find the bodies, there would be no problems.
Even if there were problems, with the power and influence of House Glaus, they could easily resolve them.
The bells rang in the Hive City, and the voices of the missionaries praying to the Emperor echoed through the loudspeakers in every corner of the Hive City.
A group of workers walked out of the roaring factory, dragging their heavy steps, and entered the public transportation that shuttled throughout the city.
Hawk was one of these workers, he was exhausted, feeling his bones ache all over.
Twelve hours of work had drained all his physical and mental strength.
Looking out the window of the transportation vehicle, what met his eyes were skyscrapers flashing with neon lights.
A trace of confusion appeared on Hawk's face.
His father was a worker, his mother was a worker, and he was also a worker.
This kind of life was unchanging, eating the same canned food every day, sleeping in the same cramped room, listening to the preaching of the Ecclesiarchy priest from a simple holographic device, or watching boring, time-killing videos.
In two years, the Fertility Committee would assign him a wife, and they would need to have a child within two years, otherwise, they would be considered deliberately defying imperial law, would be punished, and would have to pay more taxes.
Families who couldn't afford it would be driven to the bottom level, becoming pitiful vagrants.
His life was predictable at a glance, commuting to and from work every day, earning just enough wealth to maintain a living.
The workers' wages had been calculated by the tech-priests to ensure they wouldn't starve but also couldn't save money, they had to constantly maintain the motivation to work so they wouldn't fall into poverty without food.
In this kind of world, unless Hawk was willing to be a vagrant, there would absolutely be no change.
"I heard the Emperor's son is awake."
Discussion came from the front row, causing Hawk to subconsciously focus and listen to what they were saying.
"What does him being awake have to do with us??"
"Maybe it can improve our lives."
"Stop dreaming, every powerful person is the same, they don't care about whether we live or die, they only see us as a burden and a liability."