Bruce had calculated everything.
The one thing he had not calculated was that Curze would take such a strong interest in the matter. It was completely different from what he had imagined.
Under Curze's threat of death, Bruce had no choice but to explain, from beginning to end, exactly why he had drugged Lion.
It wasn't that he wanted to do anything to her.
It was that she had wanted to do something to him!
After hearing Bruce's "clumsy" explanation, Curze arched a brow, feeling as though she were being treated like an idiot. If not for the last sliver of restraint and maternal affection still holding her back, she would probably have already torn Bruce's mouth off.
You're saying you can turn into the Master of Mankind?
Why not say you can fly while you're at it?
Did he think he was fooling a three-year-old?
"Oh? You can drink a transformation potion and become the Emperor?" Sevatar stepped in as Curze's mouthpiece and sneered, "Acting Commander, jokes should at least have limits."
"On Nostramo, liars tend to have their tongues dug out and hung from streetlamps."
"The Night Haunter punishes every lying little wretch equally."
Although Sevatar and the others didn't particularly like the Emperor—and in fact believed he was the true source of evil—that was a separate matter. No matter what, he was still the Emperor.
They could oppose him. They could even attack him.
But if someone tried to make a mockery of him, that was another issue entirely.
A detestable enemy could still be worthy of respect. The two things were not mutually exclusive.
"I'm not lying. I really can do it." Bruce sounded miserable.
He was one of their own, wasn't he? Was trusting him really that difficult? And besides, this idea that the Night Haunter punished liars… wasn't that really just Curze's handiwork?
More importantly, when had he ever lied to them?
"Then why have you never mentioned something this important before?" Curze kept frowning, while also thinking about Lion.
Suddenly, she recalled that there really had been a particular day when Lion started craving Bruce's company almost obsessively, as if she had gone mad for no reason.
If Bruce's story was true, then everything made sense.
So that was why that woman had been so fixated on her recruit.
Then again, it wasn't that surprising anymore.
That explained it. That explained it.
"Well, you never asked..." Bruce spread his hands helplessly.
"I didn't ask, so you didn't tell me?" Curze's fist clenched, and she smiled in a way that felt distinctly dangerous. "For something this important, you chose not to report it? Are you trying to defy heaven itself, or what?"
He really needed a proper lesson.
If she didn't beat him up, he would never understand how to write the word respect.
"I was wrong..." Bruce instantly folded and apologized with astonishing speed the moment he saw Curze's anger flare up.
He tried to defend himself anyway. "I just thought this kind of thing was too trivial to bother you with. And even if you knew, I didn't think you'd react much, so I left it unsaid."
"Trivial? You call this trivial?!" Curze's voice rose, and with it her desire to beat him.
This idiot really deserved to have his head twisted off. Or perhaps she should just crush him to death between her thighs. What a rebellious son.
"My lady, I truly think the Acting Commander needs to be taught a lesson," Sevatar fanned the flames. "If he can hide something this important from you now, I don't even want to imagine what he'll do later."
Yes. This was exactly what he wanted.
If things kept going this way, the primarch would surely abandon Bruce, that little two-faced pest.
Then he, Sevatar, would be the one to monopolize their primarch's affection.
"I... accept punishment willingly..." Bruce's attitude was excellent. He admitted fault immediately. After all, his life was literally hanging from someone else's hips. If Curze really wanted him dead, all it would take was a little pressure. His life was already hers. A bit of punishment hardly counted as a problem.
"If you really can't bring yourself to do it, I can do it for you," Sevatar volunteered eagerly, gripping a throwing knife.
"No."
Curze glanced at Lion, who was already sleeping with Horus in her arms, and still felt that something about this whole matter was very wrong. Even if Bruce could turn into the Emperor, it was still fake. There was no way Lion should have lost her mind to this degree.
There had to be something strange going on.
"Round cat! Bring me a bottle of transformation potion!" Curze ordered Doraemon.
"Coming, coming." Doraemon trotted over, taking out another bottle from his pocket.
"Recruit, drink it. Transform and show me."
"Huh?"
"Huh what? Drink it! I want to see whether you're telling the truth or not!"
But I already transformed once today...
Again? I'm about to throw up from drinking this stuff, okay?
"Hmm?" Curze lowered her head and glared at Bruce with obvious displeasure.
"I'll drink it... I'll drink it..." Bruce gave in.
With no other choice, he took the transformation potion Doraemon handed him and drank it in front of everyone.
The very next second, a burst of transformation smoke exploded outward, and Bruce once again became a towering golden giant. The Atramentar watching the scene all wore expressions of utter shock.
Holy Terra...
It was actually true.
Their Acting Commander really could turn into the Master of Mankind.
Under the influence of the Emperor's psychic aura, the Astartes in the room found themselves almost unable to resist dropping to one knee. Even Sevatar—who hated the Emperor on principle—had to admit that, in that instant, he simply could not bring himself to hate him.
Who could resist the Emperor's charisma when seeing him face to face?
"I told you already. I really can do it. Why would I lie to you?" Bruce looked at his brothers-in-arms with pure helplessness.
When he saw the maid-captain's profoundly unwilling expression, it became even harder not to laugh. Somehow, he had the distinct impression that if he just walked over there and put a little pressure on her, forcing her proud head to bow, it would actually work.
"This doesn't make sense..." Doraemon muttered. "Transformation potions are only supposed to change appearance. Why can you use psychic power too?"
?!
If it had been anyone else, they could have brushed it off as some weird item anomaly. But Bruce wasn't even from the Warhammer universe. There was no way a simple item glitch could explain it.
"Good question. I don't know either. Maybe it's because I was blessed by the Emperor," Bruce said, defaulting to the Big E as the catch-all answer.
"Mm?"
As he spoke, Bruce suddenly felt something strange.
He stared in shock at Curze's legs—or rather, at her whole body. She was trembling.
Father?!
What was going on?
Bruce lifted his head and saw that Curze's displeased expression had been replaced by blazing embarrassment. Even her earlobes had flushed red-hot, her shoulders and neck trembling uncontrollably—whether with excitement or humiliation, or both, it was impossible to say.
"Ch-change back! Change back right now!!!" Curze cried, her voice shaking, and began kicking and punching at Bruce's head in a flustered frenzy.
Sitting on the shoulders of the Father...
Something like that...
No. Absolutely not!!!!
Bruce, you bastard, you did that on purpose, didn't you? Just to humiliate me!
In an instant, the previously imposing Curze turned into something like a child pushed past her limit, flailing wildly as if only violence could suppress the chaos in her heart.
"Dad! Stop hitting me, stop hitting me! It hurts!!!" Bruce yelped, then grabbed another bottle from Doraemon and drank it while enduring the barrage.
After a second, he returned to normal, and Curze finally began to calm down. No longer struggling, she breathed in great gulps, her whole body flushed red and steaming so hard her head seemed almost to be smoking.
"Round cat, open the Anywhere Door again. Back to my room!" Curze issued another order.
"Yes!" Doraemon immediately complied.
"And Sevatar—take your people and return to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."
"None of what happened tonight leaves this room. If it does, you all die."
"Do I die too?" Bruce asked automatically.
"Not you!" Curze raised a pink little fist as if to punch him, but halfway through, seeing Bruce flinch and close his eyes in fear, her expression softened. In the end, she flicked him on the forehead instead.
"Ow, ow, ow..."
Bruce instantly grimaced in pain and wisely stopped pushing his luck, worried the next hit might be full force.
"Understood." Sevatar cast Bruce an unhappy look, then took a deep breath and bowed in obedience.
Soon, Doraemon set up the Anywhere Door. Sevatar grabbed Meiling—who was still standing around in a daze—and led the rest of the Atramentar back through the door to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
Once the irrelevant people had gone, Curze sprawled across Bruce's head and began taking small, quick breaths. She needed several full minutes before she finally recovered enough to sit up properly again.
"Round cat, open another door—to my room."
"Right."
Doraemon reset the destination.
"So, go on. Recruit."
Curze lightly tapped the back of Bruce's head.
Bruce had no choice but to obey.
From the warm, luxurious suite, he crossed into a rather cold, classically furnished room.
As soon as he stepped inside, the Anywhere Door shut behind him.
"?"
Bruce spun around in alarm.
Hey! I haven't gone back yet! Why'd you close the door?!
"What are you staring at? Get in bed and sleep!" Curze barked, giving his forehead another light smack as an order.
"Huh?"
"Huh what? It's late. Sleep. Tomorrow I'll have the round cat send you back!"
As Bruce looked at Curze's utterly non-negotiable expression, there came a brief moment where he flashed back to being a child, gaming too late at night, only for his mother to come in and order him to bed.
"...Fine."
He could only surrender to the power of bloodline suppression.
He had no idea what Curze was trying to do, but obedience was his only real option. So he lay down on the bed, hands folded over his stomach, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Sleep was nowhere in sight.
After all, how could anyone sleep after everything that had happened?
He had barely escaped being raped by Lion—saved only because the sleeping drug kicked in—then just when he'd been rejoicing over dodging disaster, the little rabbit girl had rammed him into the floor and nearly raped him too.
And worst of all, whenever he closed his eyes, he saw hallucinations of bald Horus pinning him down and trying to force herself on him.
Hell no. Absolutely not.
"You're scared?" Curze asked in a resigned voice from beside him.
"A little..." Bruce turned his head awkwardly. "Too much happened today. Lion, Horus... both of them were kind of terrifying."
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with you."
Curze sighed, sat up beside him, and patted her thigh.
"Come here. Use my lap."
"Huh?"
"Hurry up."
Under that tone that brooked no refusal, Bruce had no choice but to obey again.
When the back of his head settled onto skin that was soft and warm, and he caught that faint, comforting scent, a strange sense of relief spread through him.
It was hard to describe.
It felt ancient, instinctive.
His whole body relaxed on its own, and his mind gave up trying to think.
"Sleep. Tomorrow I'll go with you and settle accounts with Horus."
Curze leaned down slightly, cradling Bruce's head against her stomach.
"She really frightened you, didn't she? That pair of idiots deserves to die."
"It wasn't that serious..." Bruce murmured, already feeling his eyelids grow heavier, his vision blurring.
"All right, all right. Stop talking and just sleep."
Curze had originally been considering punching Bruce into unconsciousness, but after some thought, she changed it to gently patting his back instead.
With that steady rhythm, Bruce finally surrendered. In less than three seconds, his breathing had already evened out into sleep.
"Tch!"
On the other side of the door, Sevatar and a group of Atramentar were peeking through the crack, green with jealousy as they watched Bruce sleeping peacefully.
Acting Commander, how dare you enjoy this so shamelessly?!
P.S. There'll be another update tonight. Time to start paying off some debts, otherwise I might really have to cross-dress by the end of the month... (gnashing teeth.jpg)
Time to push the plot forward!
After this, Curze will stay aboard the Remilia permanently. After all, she's the title character. She obviously can't stay off-screen for too long.
P.S. 2: I'll announce later exactly how many chapters I currently owe.
Also, please give me your monthly tickets. Thank you, thank you, QAQ
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 138)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter160)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter98)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter175)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 163
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 150
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 100
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 170
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 145
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 125
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 69
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 90
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 100
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 70
Uma Musume: I Want All 90
I Can Copy Unique Skills 65
Summoning an Evil God, but the 52
Supernatural Multiverse 65
My Harem Is Indescribable 55
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 55
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 55
Still playing traditional Honk 35
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 35
What Should I Do After Switchi 24
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 35
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 27
Transmigrated as Sukuna 27
Checking In in Demon Slayer 32
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 44
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