Some time later.
Hades scratched his head as the shrieks of children echoed all around.
Oh no, there was no danger here - he was currently inside the first ever boarding school to be built on the orbital rings.
Hades stood at the entrance of the school, done up primarily in bright bone white with accents of elegant moss green, simple Barbaran proverbs for decoration, all surrounding the central skull motif. This was the architectural style of the school as a whole.
Perhaps if an angel of the Blood, an Adeptus Astartes, or a son of the Emperor were to come here, they would certainly say it was too oppressive, dull, and lacking in sacredness.
But in reality, Hades, lacking in any artistic or aesthetic sensibilities, had directly taken the interior design scheme of the Death Guard and slapped it on.
If it had been up to Hades himself to come up with a template for the school, the only thing he could think of was the prison-like schools from his past life.
Hades could still recall the bizarre stand-off when the Tech-Priest in charge of the school construction had come to ask him what kind of design he wanted.
Oh well, no use thinking about that now. As long as the finished construction was functional, that was a success!
At present, this school housed four thousand children of varying ages. Eight hundred Barbarans had been recruited to manage their daily lives, with each teacher also being assigned four servo-skulls.
For cultural education, there were also one hundred "highly educated talents" that Hades had hand-picked from a pile of down-and-out nobles. He was planning to test the waters with this group first.
For physical education, Hades had hired eight hundred mortal auxiliaries from among the Death Guard - some veterans who were now too old or plagued by old injuries that kept them from staying in active combat duty. Hades had simply decided to let them hang around the school instead.
This actually gave Hades an idea - he could have these veterans keep an eye on those worthless nobles. It just so happened that they also spoke Gothic, while the Barbarans mainly couldn't understand the more archaic High Gothic used by the nobles.
In general, the mortal auxiliaries who followed the legions had rather high loyalty towards their legion and Primarch.
And so today, Hades, who had come out to slack off, ahem, conduct an inspection, decided to take a tour around the school.
It had already been over a month since the school began operations.
But hearing the various shrieks and loud laughter of children from behind the gates, Hades had a bad feeling about this.
It should be noted that thanks to the Barbarans' bizarre age distribution, all the children here were twelve years old or under - twelve was when one stepped into adulthood.
If you suddenly tossed a bunch of brats into an environment tens of thousands of times better than what they were used to, with ample food and drinking water and no need to work...
In the past, these children at most might have played noisily with a few other kids in their tiny villages. The toxins present everywhere on Barbarus also meant they couldn't shout too loudly or engage in too much strenuous physical activity that used up oxygen.
Anyone who had interacted with Barbarans would say that they were silent and lethargic, like withered trees.
What these people didn't know was that such habits were formed from long-term exposure to Barbarus' toxic atmosphere.
Clearly, it was unwise to speak too much or move about when there were poisons in the air.
But now, everything had changed.
No more toxins, ample sustenance, no need for labour.
A bunch of brats.
One month was enough for their true nature to be unleashed.
Hades suddenly realized something was off.
Hearing the shrieks and screams from behind the gates, Hades took a deep breath, then signaled for the servo-skulls to open the doors.
The first sight that met his eyes was a chaotic mass of young Barbarans bouncing around on the large outdoor field.
The children were screaming, laughing uproariously, or deathly silent as they clambered up and down the various pieces of gym equipment scattered around the field. Hades gaped as he witnessed a child jump down directly from the five meter tall climbing pole.
On the other side, a group of kids were firing cork guns at those currently climbing and playing on the obstacles.
Damn it all!
Some children got shot down!
Hades watched as those kids immediately sprang back up and chased after the ones with the cork guns.
Next to the rambunctiously tussling children were the mortal veterans, bellowing out mangled Barbaran with strange accents:
"Run faster! Don't be coward!"
"Shoot him! Shoot him!"
"Hold your gun right, brat!"
Even further away in a cordoned off area emitting faux toxic gases, another group of kids were engaged in wrestling matches.
Holy f***.
Hades had merely informed the "teachers" to focus on building the children's physique and literacy, emphasizing loyalty towards the Imperium and Legion, while avoiding any deaths or dismemberment.
Other than that, he had given them free rein.
But now...
This was somewhat different from the school Hades had envisioned.
How to put it - there was a sort of savage beauty to it.
According to Hades' stereotypical impressions, schools in the Warhammer universe were supposed to resemble noble academies and such?
Clearly, the Death Guard seemed to be pioneering a much more feral brand of education.
Hades stood alone and confused at the school gates.
One sharp-eyed boy caught sight of Hades standing by the entrance. Clambering up to the highest point of the obstacles, the boy let out a loud holler in Hades' direction.
"Ahhh!!!"
"It's the lord of the Death Guard!"
The shrill cry instantly drew the attention of everyone on the field towards Hades.
Some children froze in place, while others awkwardly snapped to attention, but most of all, a horde of children simultaneously came charging at Hades—
Ahhhh!
Bearing helpless witness to a swarm of human spawn not even reaching his knees hurtling in his direction, Hades felt fear like never before in his life.
Was there still time for him to leave?
In the distance, the mortal veterans were bellowing hoarsely:
"Salute! Salute the lord!"
The children instantly surrounded Hades as pairs of curious eyes looked him over.
Because they were still young, and the image of the Death Guard on Barbarus was quite amicable, these brats weren't afraid of the transhuman Astartes at all.
Some of them even had relatives among the Death Guard.
But they were curious.
Some tried to clamber onto Hades, forcing him to grab one in each hand. His pauldrons and even his expertly-crafted backpack were occupied by seated children.
"Mister, why are you so much bigger than the other adults?"
"Ate a lot, ate a lot."
As Hades coaxed the children clinging to him in layers, he slowly shuffled his feet, trying to move.
Seeing that Hades was somewhat overwhelmed, the veterans also came forward. After receiving Hades' desperate plea for help, they began herding away the children.
The kids lingered reluctantly at the periphery, gazing at Hades.
After exchanging simple pleasantries with the "gym teachers", aka the mortal vets, Hades continued on towards the classroom area.
He had come today mainly to check whether those "talented" people sent by Macaroth were actually working.
Hmm.
But upon entering the classroom area, the noise didn't diminish one bit.
Hades headed for the central control room and began checking the surveillance feeds.
In the largest classroom, Fowler was teaching the children High Gothic.
"The meaning of this word is [tax evasion]!"
The previously smiling Fowler now looked haggard as he bellowed at the utterly uncontrollable brats below:
These were the ones still willing to learn. The children unwilling to study had already run off to wreak havoc on the field.
[Tax evasion!]
The children still listening to the lecture bellowed back in unison.
Hades nearly cracked up laughing.
He blinked and decided to check the next classroom instead. This one contained Barbaran adults, with most of the nobles hiding out here as if seeking asylum, teaching literacy to these hired Barbarans.
Hmm, starting by teaching the adults made sense indeed.
When class ended, Hades called Fowler out to speak with him.
Seeing Fowler on the verge of being tormented to madness, Hades strangely couldn't bring himself to reprimand him.
"How have the recent lessons been going?"
"Alright, my lord. Everything's under control."
Fowler dispiritedly squeezed out an oily smile as he dutifully continued:
"We plan to teach the adults literacy first, then have them teach their own people."
In truth, only the Barbaran adults could control the Barbaran brats.
Unlike the veterans in charge of phys ed who could vent their frustration simply by beating the ill-behaved children, these nobles had met their ultimate nemesis.
Their opponents were completely illogical and also couldn't understand what they were saying...
Fowler coughed up a mouthful of blood in his mind.
Hades was silent for a while.
"Can you control these children?"
Fowler forced out a bitter smile.
"My lord, if possible, please hire some more Barbarans..."