The worlds of the Imperium were primarily divided into Forge Worlds, Agri-Worlds, and Hive Worlds. These three types of planets supplied the Imperium with its armaments, food, and population, respectively.
"That is feasible," Kasha said with a nod, "I will select several suitable Forge Worlds to produce weapons and equipment. The Hive Worlds can then provide us with a continuous stream of soldiers."
The two of them spoke for a while longer, discussing the finer details of the next day's banquet and future recruitment drives.
Axis lay down on the bed;
"Axis."
"Hmm?"
"You seem rather attractive today."
"What do you mean? Was I not always like that?"
"Of course," Kasha said, her fingers gently drawing circles on Axis' broad chest, "But, I'm feeling all hot and bothered just looking at you."
For some reason, ever since Axis had returned this time, she sensed an attraction to her husband that was difficult to put into words. In her eyes, Axis seemed to have become unusually alluring.
"Hehehe!" Axis giggled, "Well, what can I say! I just happen to be a dutiful husband! Very well, I will fulfill my husbandly duties tonight."
"Mhmm," Kasha's lips were captured, and she was rolled over before she could say anything more.
A thousand words of what followed were omitted here.
…
Early the next morning, Axis appeared before everyone dressed in formal attire. He stood alongside Kasha to receive Lady Tarasha Euten, Guilliman's adoptive mother, and the retinue of administrative specialists she had brought with her.
"Greetings, Lord Axis," Lady Euten said, "I am the head housekeeper to Lord Guilliman. I have been commanded to deliver these talents to you. I will also be remaining here for the next ten years, so I ask for your consideration during that time."
In public, she never referred to herself as the primarch's adoptive mother; in matters of title and identity, she was always the primarch's head housekeeper.
Lady Euten gracefully approached Axis, offered a curtsy, and then extended a hand.
Upon meeting Axis for the first time, she found herself immediately intrigued by the tall, handsome man.
Her heart, which had been dormant for a century since the death of her old master, seemed to stir once more.
For reasons she could not comprehend, Lady Euten found Axis incredibly alluring, enough to make her heart race. It was maddening.
Why was she feeling this way after just one meeting? Lady Euten's brows furrowed slightly
"Nuceria is grateful for your arrival, and I thank Guilliman for his support. Lady Euten, I have already arranged accommodations for you. I hope you will have a pleasant stay on Nuceria for the next ten years," Axis said in a friendly tone, reaching out to shake her hand.
The gesture created a somewhat awkward moment for everyone present.
According to formal Macraggian etiquette, when a lady extended her hand in such a manner, it was not for a handshake, but an invitation to have the back of it kissed.
However, the Saiyan was completely unaware of such customs. Even if he had known, Axis would not have been inclined to kiss the hand of a woman who was centuries old.
"Lord Axis, I had imagined you would be as tall as the other primarchs. I did not expect you to be of a similar stature to us normal humans," Lady Euten said, quickly changing the subject to deflect the awkwardness.
"I am somewhat different from the other primarchs. I was born naturally and then later modified by the Emperor," Axis explained with a small smile. He found the way Lady Euten was looking at him to be slightly unsettling.
"Is that so? Lord Axis, I believe we administrators can begin our work promptly to assist you in developing Nuceria. I have brought talents from every field, including specialists in economics, architecture, and agriculture. They can provide comprehensive support for your homeworld's growth."
"Excellent, but let us leave that for tomorrow. Today is a welcome banquet in your honor," Axis replied with another smile.
"Then we are in your debt, Lord Axis," Lady Euten said, giving Axis another curtsy before departing with a veiled furrow in her brows.
Damn it, she thought, if I stay here any longer, I might lose my composure! At that moment, Lady Euten could feel her blood pumping faster.
An overwhelming and sudden sense of affection for Axis washed over her.
That evening's banquet proved to be even stranger. Many of the personnel Guilliman had sent were women, and these women, without exception, all developed an immense fondness for Axis.
One after another, they approached him to make introductions.
A few of the bolder ones even tried to invite him to dance.
The Saiyan was starting to grow impatient. What in the hell was going on?
As the night wore on, the situation became more and more absurd.
Axis noticed that even the gazes from some of the serving maids who were attending to the honored guests seemed off.
Several of the most beautiful maids were even sending flirtatious glances his way.
The banquet was a resounding success by all official measures, but it left Axis feeling deeply uncomfortable.
After the festivities concluded, Axis escorted Lady Euten and Kasha back to a private chamber.
It was a throwughly disturbing occasion.
"Alright, Lady Euten, please sit cross-legged here and place your hand against mine," Axis instructed, "I will use my Ki to revitalize your body. It should take about twenty minutes each day. You are free to do as you please for the rest of the time."
"Of course, Lord Axis," Lady Euten said, nodding as she sat down across from him.
Heavens, she thought, this young man smells…wonderful.. No what is this?!
Just sitting in front of Axis, inhaling his faint aroma, was enough to make her blush.
When their palms touched, Guilliman's adoptive mother trembled, her face flushed a deep crimson and her holding emotions that were hand to describe.
This made Axis exceptionally uncomfortable. He just wanted to rush out of the room with Kasha at this moment.
You have got to be kidding me, he thought furiously. Ain't no way I'm becoming Guilliman's stepfather!
The entire day had been profoundly wrong. No, things had felt strange since the previous night. Were all these women insane?
Behind Lady Euten, Kasha's eyes were filled with an odd emotion as she stared at the primarch's adoptive mother.
Her worries, it seemed, had not been misplaced.
The twenty-minute session of ki enhancement felt like a century to Lady Euten.
By the end, she was covered in sweat, the cushion beneath her soaked through. She looked as though she had just stepped out of a bath, her face intensely flushed.
"I… I am terribly sorry, Lord Axis, Lady Kasha. Could you… could you please leave me for a moment?" Lady Euten stammered.
Damn it! When had she become like this? The slight touch of his palm had been enough to… to… She clutched her dress tightly, unsettled at the odd emotion that were coursing through her.
But the man before her was just so irresistible. Oh, how she yearned to be in his arms!
An intense and sudden desire bloomed in Lady Euten's mind. If only this man could be hers.
Axis rose silently, his expression dark as he led Kasha out of the room. He could not stand to be there a moment longer.
"Please, feel free to make yourself comfortable, Lady Euten."
As the door closed behind Axis, Lady Euten regained a silver of her composure. Without even a seconds delay, she delivered a crisp slap to her own face.
And that was enough to calm her agitated mind.
…
Once outside the room, Axis let out a long sigh of relief. The atmosphere inside had been suffocating. His opinion of Guilliman's adoptive mother had plummeted.
His wife was standing right there! If she was going to act like this, she could at least pick a better time and place.
It was as if she had not seen a man in centuries.
"How shameless. That adoptive mother of Guilliman's is no different from those decadent planetary nobles," Axis grumbled.
Her behavior had put the Saiyan in an extremely foul mood.
He now had to face her for twenty minutes every day, a thought that made his skin crawl. Axis was even certain that if Kasha had not been present, the woman would have thrown herself into his arms.
"Kasha?" Axis called out as they walked.
"Hmmm?" Kasha who had been thinking something raised her head to look at the frown on her husbands face.
"I think I've become the very thing that I feared I'd become."
"What?"
"A chick magnet!"
"Oh shut up!" Kasha said, rolling her eyes, " But that was weird. Today was too strange, did you not notice? At the banquet, you became the center of attention. Every single woman there, including the serving staff, looked at you differently.
"And didn't I tell you yesterday, you were looking a bit too alluring."
"Indeed, it was peculiar. Some of the maids in the palace have seen me before, so why did their gazes change so completely after I returned?" Axis mused.
Previously, the maids had looked upon him with reverence and respect. Now, their eyes were filled with raw lust.
And as for the administrative specialists Guilliman had sent, every woman among them had kept her eyes fixed on him all night.
"Axis, even I felt it last night when I looked at you," Kasha said. "You felt incredibly, overwhelmingly attractive to me! That is the only way I can describe it. It was enough to make my heart race."
She and Axis had been together for decades. As a long-married couple, the heart-pounding, breathless feeling of a first encounter was long past.
Yet, last night, she had experienced it all over again. Axis was not ugly, but he was not exceptionally handsome either; he could not compare to the likes of Sanguinius or Fulgrim.
"Are you saying there's something wrong with me?" Axis asked, his brow furrowed.
"Obviously! Since your return, you have become far too alluring. Irresistibly so, in fact," Kasha explained, "It is as if all women have suddenly become unable to face you without being affected. This is not a good thing."
At least, it was certainly not a good thing for her.
What woman would want her husband to suddenly attract an entire swarm of other women?
"Ah, for fucks sake. There is something I did not tell you because I was afraid you would worry." Axis proceeded to recount the entire incident. He told her how Magnus had torn open a rift in the warp and how Slaanesh had sent a Greater Daemon through it. "Afterward, I killed the Greater Daemon and, upon returning to the ship, I also purged the Slaaneshi consciousness from Cassandra's body."
Whatever was happening, it had to be related to that perverse purple entity.
"Come with me. We need to examine your body thoroughly," Kasha said, her expression grim as she pulled him toward the training grounds.
Once there, she focused all of her psychic power and began to scan Axis's body.
"I shouldn't have been hit with any kind of warp curse," Axis said, "I checked myself and there were no residual warp traces. Besides, my ki is anathema to most curses; they would have no chance of taking hold."
After dealing with the remnant of Slaanesh's consciousness, Axis had performed a meticulous check of his own body, ensuring his ki had purged any lingering warp energy.
Kasha remained silent, but her expression grew darker by the second.
"Axis, you have not been afflicted with a curse of Chaos corruption," she finally said, "On the contrary, you have been given a blessing? A blessing is completely different from a curse. A curse uses the energy of the warp to corrupt you, to seize your soul and body. It is a power filled with malice. But a blessing is different. This is a form of benevolence."
She finally understood what had happened. This was not a curse from the warp, but a blessing from one of its gods.
"A blessing?" Axis asked in astonishment, "You mean Slaanesh blessed me? But that bitch is a Chaos God!"
"Yes! While he is a Chaos God, he is also the god who presides over love and beauty," Kasha confirmed, "Slaanesh has bestowed a blessing upon you. This blessing has likely amplified your attractiveness to an extreme degree; after all, that is his domain. That is why you captivated every woman at the banquet today. If I am not mistaken, from now on, wherever you go, you will attract the opposite sex."
"How is that possible?" Axis argued, "I traveled back with that Eldar woman. If this blessing were so effective, surely she would have been affected too."
"It would be stranger if she was affected!" Kasha scoffed, "You do not actually believe we are the same species as the Eldar, do you? Though we may look similar, in the eyes of the Eldar, humans are nothing more than wild mon-keigh. Do you really think an Eldar woman would ever be interested in a mon-keigh?"
"That… makes sense," Axis conceded, "What a vicious curse."
"It is a blessing! If it were a curse, Axis, you would not just be attracting women. Men would be drawn to you as well. In fact, every living thing would feel an overwhelming sense of attraction and a desire to mate with you. Imagine how horrifying that would be. Now, That would be a curse," Kasha corrected him.
It was not that Slaanesh had not wanted to curse him, but that He had been unable to.
"Your ki offers a powerful resistance to the malignant powers of the warp. A god's blessing, however, is different. And that is why that malicious god used this damned blessing on you instead."
...
...
I'll be back with the due chapters once my exam is over! I apologise!