Sol Sahaal, also known as the Master of Claws, was, in the original timeline, the one who inherited the position of First Captain—a son of the Night Lords personally acknowledged by Curze.
Malcharion, the War Sage, was the captain of the Tenth Company. One of the very few true strategists in the Eighth Legion, he was also one of the oldest and most senior members of the Night Haunter Council.
Var Jahan, captain of the Twenty-Seventh Company, had been personally promoted by Sevatar and was an expert in urban warfare.
Naraka, known as the Bloodless One, captain of the Thirteenth Company, was another intelligence specialist personally elevated by Sevatar.
Tovac Tor, the Breaker of Arms, captain of the One Hundred Fourteenth Company, had known Sevatar since youth. He was one of the Legion's central pillars, and a rare defensive warfare specialist besides.
Alastor Rushal, known as the Crow, had no company of his own, but his connections ran through the entire Legion. He served as a kind of lubricant within its internal machinery. Not only did he understand every faction, he also knew exactly how to keep them in balance, and was one of Sevatar's most trusted confidants.
Heren Ophion, called the Coward, captain of the Thirty-Ninth Company, was an exceptional strategist and military commander. Though his style of warfare was completely at odds with the Legion's usual methods, it was astonishingly effective. He never cared what others thought of him, and among a host of lunatics, he was one of the very few rare talents who actually knew how to wage war properly.
Every one of these men was not merely part of the Night Lords' core—they were the core of the Night Haunter Council itself.
When the Legion was thrown into crisis, they were the ones who stepped forward and held the sky up.
They were also the ones loyal to both the Legion and their Primarch.
The single biggest reason Bruce had been able to sit there in peace, without being murdered and stripped of the Crown of Night, was that these people had chosen to obey the orders left by both the Primarch and Sevatar.
To put it bluntly, even if Bruce had actually been useless—if he had wanted nothing more than to become some idle ornamental prince—these people would still have gritted their teeth and helped him anyway.
In the Night Lords Legion, they were living legends.
Every one of their names was burned into the minds of the Legion's warriors.
Each name alone was enough to cow even the nastiest, most irredeemable bastard among the Legion ranks.
But after today, all of that—
would change.
"..."
Bruce watched the smoke bursting around them one figure after another, his feelings impossibly complicated.
He had already prepared himself for this.
But when he saw what they had actually turned into, he still failed to keep a straight face.
Holy hell.
Every single one of them had turned into women.
And not only that—they had all turned into vampires.
Was this... really right?
"F-Father? This..." Sol Sahaal stared at his shrunken hands in confusion. He found that not only had his body become absurdly small, his entire frame felt light and airy.
Even stranger—why was he wearing a skirt that was obviously all kinds of wrong? His lengthened hair had even been tied into twin tails.
And yet, strangely enough...
it did not feel all that bad.
"Pff—"
Bruce, who had been keeping a straight face until now, finally broke and let out a laugh.
Just moments ago, these men had all been towering warriors prepared to offer up everything for their Primarch.
And now, in the blink of an eye, every last one of them had turned into girls.
Who in the world could possibly keep it together at a sight like this? Anyone who managed it must have been born with divine resistance to laughter.
"Bring the mirrors," Sevatar ordered, her expression full of satisfaction as she watched colleague after colleague shrink into tiny little figures.
Good.
Now it was not just her suffering anymore—they were in it too.
And more importantly, they were all little girls.
That was perfect. Perfect.
Just like the Primarch—equally adorable.
"Not bad at all~"
Curze looked over the transformed state of her sons and nodded in great satisfaction. "Children, I am proud of you."
"!!!"
The company captains froze in place.
Along with the rush of emotion those words brought, the mirrors were wheeled forward at last, and they were finally able to see what they now looked like.
Not every single one of them had become a tiny fang-bearing, red-eyed little girl. A few had turned into noticeably older-looking forms.
For example, Naraka, the Thirteenth Company captain, had transformed into the figure of a mature, voluptuous maid-like girl—Kiss-Bell.
The rest were all one joke after another—though, of course, only Bruce, as a transmigrator, could actually catch all the references.
Sol Sahaal had turned into Krul Tepes, the so-called vampire loli queen.
Malcharion, the War Sage, had become Shinobu Oshino.
Now that was a truly sage-like transformation.
Var Jahan, the Twenty-Seventh Company captain, had become Evangeline A.K. McDowell—small in stature, but with an aura that still screamed danger.
Tovac Tor, captain of the One Hundred Fourteenth Company, had become Shalltear Bloodfallen—minus the original oversized chest attachment.
Alastor Rushal, the Crow, had become Seras Victoria. Though the look in her eyes was still somewhat intimidating, her smile was unexpectedly bright—there was even a bit of tomboy charm to it.
And finally, the most unusual of everyone present: Heren Ophion, the "Coward." He had turned into someone even Bruce had never expected—
Assassin Camilla.
She was the only mature-looking vampire among them, and aside from maid-chief Sevatar, the only other white-haired one in the room.
...Damn.
Why wasn't Ophion a little loli too? What the hell?
Naraka was not one either, of course—but compared to Ophion, she still looked far more loli-like.
So in the entire Legion, was Ophion really the only one who wasn't a lolicon?
At that moment Bruce truly understood why everyone in the Legion always piled insults on the "Coward."
When you are the only normal one in a room full of lunatics, you become the strange one.
That was Ophion in a nutshell.
"Wonderful, children. I like how splendid you all look now."
Now that her sons were no longer towering giants, Curze could finally look down on them properly. She was even happy enough to clap her hands, completely oblivious to the fact that the Legion's current transformation was, in all honesty, deeply abnormal.
Meanwhile, after weathering the initial shock to their worldview, the newly made vampire girls found themselves thinking that they were now even closer to their Primarch—and so they submitted, some of them even secretly delighted.
This was proof of the bond between me and the lord of the Legion!
So what if we turned into women?
Not a loss at all.
Not even a little.
"Hm?" Curze swept her gaze across the kneeling sons as they processed their transformed bodies, then fixed her stare on the Coward, Ophion.
Why was that one still so tall?
"Newbie, are you sure there's nothing wrong with that one?" Curze asked Bruce, the so-called technical expert.
After all, when Doraemon was not around, Bruce was the technical expert.
"In a certain sense... Captain Ophion is actually the most normal one here," Bruce said with a strained smile.
Everyone knew that when the Transformation Drink was consumed, the drinker would become the form they most wanted to be.
So if the whole crowd had turned into tiny vampire girls, while Ophion alone had become a mature woman...
well, then whose problem was that, exactly?
"I... see..." Curze looked at herself, then at the others, and finally stared at Ophion for a long, long moment.
What the newbie said seemed to make sense.
But if there was nothing wrong with him, then wouldn't that mean the ones with the problem were everyone else?
Including me?
"I think instead of getting hung up on that, we should celebrate first," Bruce said quickly, cutting off Curze's increasingly dangerous train of thought. "And while we're at it, we can discuss how exactly we're supposed to explain all of this to the outside world."
"A-Are we really going to make this public?" Curze thought it over seriously again.
"This secret is going to come out sooner or later. We can't stay in power armor forever. This is the new Night Lords now. In fact, this kind of selection ritual can be used to sift out the most loyal and most outstanding Night Lords," Bruce said.
"That makes sense." Curze nodded in satisfaction.
Then she turned toward Sevatar and asked, "What do you think, my maid-chief?"
"That, naturally, depends on what pleases you most, Father. Whether this is made public or treated as a Legion secret—what matters is how you wish it handled," Sevatar replied. She did not care what outsiders thought. The only thing that mattered was what the Primarch thought.
"Then we'll reveal it on a limited scale first. After that, we'll decide whether to extend it further depending on the situation. You all know what to do, yes?" Curze waved her hand and passed the responsibility to her subordinates.
At any rate, she was very happy right now.
Because she was no longer the only one making a fool of herself.
If there was humiliation to go around, then the whole Legion would share it.
Even if the Emperor himself came down to blame them, they could still argue back—what, they drank one stupid potion and turned out like this, and somehow that was their fault?
"Yes, Father!" the vampire girls chorused.
Whew—
Just as Bruce was letting out a long breath of relief, convinced that everything had finally settled down, a soft and adorable yet deeply serious voice rang out.
It was Sol Sahaal's question.
Or rather—
the question of the vampire queen, Krul Tepes.
"Father. First Captain. There is one thing I do not understand."
She looked up and fixed Bruce with a steady stare.
"Why is Acting Commander Bruce not required to become one of us?"
That was right!
Why didn't he have to turn into a woman?
As the vampire girls stared at Bruce with confusion and suspicion, Curze remained perfectly composed. She stepped down from the Night Throne and walked toward him with elegant grace.
"Newbie~"
"..."
Bruce dared not utter a sound. He dropped to one knee and set both hands carefully on his thighs.
Curze grabbed onto his power armor, stepped onto his arm, climbed from his knee to his shoulder, and seated herself there securely.
"That is the meaning behind why the newbie does not need to become a woman. Do you understand now?"
Now raised higher than everyone else, Curze put her hands on her hips, radiating a smug and arrogant pride.
"If you understand, then let the banquet begin! After that, we march together to punish that insolent wretch Shavok!"
"Understood!" everyone answered.
Yes—that made sense.
If there was going to be diplomacy in the future, and their Primarch stood several heads shorter than everyone else, then that simply would not do.
Now they finally understood why Bruce alone enjoyed such unique favor.
On this point alone, he truly did not need to become a woman.
It was perfectly logical.
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 150)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter100)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 60
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 50
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 50
The Way the Umamusume Look at 31
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 26
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 26
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