"So anyway, Theresa and the Doctor were a pair of star-crossed lovers. Who would've guessed Priestess was that dark? She even calculated the Doctor waking up early... Hm?"
"A-Amiya? No, Warmaster Horus?"
Bruce, halfway through his role as storyteller, suddenly realized that his little audience seemed to have fallen asleep.
Wait, what?
Was his storytelling really that hypnotic?
Looking at Horus slumped over the table, fast asleep, Bruce felt a complicated mix of helplessness and amused resignation.
But at the same time, he understood her a little better.
Even though Horus had changed shape, ever since waking from her sickbed she had thrown herself right back into work, handling official business by day while also drafting plans for the Great Crusade.
She had not neglected any of her duties. In fact, she had even been working through the mountain of documents that had piled up while she was unconscious.
If she could finally get some proper sleep like this, that was a good thing.
Bruce certainly did not think there was anything wrong with it. If anything, he fully approved.
"Definitely a little rabbit..." Bruce murmured, his mood lifting as he watched the Warmaster's adorable sleeping posture.
A cute little thing like this, head pillowed on her arm, tilted slightly to one side, her body rising and falling with the rhythm of her breathing—just looking at her was soothing.
He only wondered whether Horus had actually absorbed any of what he had told her tonight.
He really did not want to repeat the whole lecture again tomorrow.
Maybe... next time he should record a video first? Then the Warmaster could replay it whenever she wanted. He might even be able to charge a lecture fee.
Bruce Wayne was not greedy, of course. Another warship on the same level as the Remilia would be enough, thank you very much. He had even already picked out the name: the Flandre.
"Now what am I supposed to do..." Bruce muttered, seeing that Horus could not exactly go on sleeping like this forever.
He considered picking her up and laying her on the bed first, then going to find Loken or Little Horus later and having them come retrieve their father.
Seriously. Their father got to sleep comfortably, but what about him?
Where was he supposed to sleep tonight?
That was a problem.
But when Bruce tried to lift Horus up, he discovered that the little rabbit was unexpectedly heavy—so heavy that even with both arms straining to the limit, they started trembling uncontrollably.
His armor's power assist started blaring warnings.
"What the hell?!"
Bruce used a tremendous amount of effort to get the sleeping Horus onto the bed and pull the blanket over her. Through the whole process, she showed no sign whatsoever of waking up.
So much for Primarchs being hyper-alert creatures. She did not seem all that vigilant to him.
If not for her breathing being steady, and the faint little twitch he had felt while carrying her, he would have thought she had passed out again because of some soul-related problem.
She was too heavy. She had nearly overloaded the upper-body systems in his armor.
Left with no choice, Bruce started stripping the armor off. Otherwise, the noises it made when he moved around later might wake Horus.
He would just have to ask a techmarine to repair it tomorrow.
"Doctor..." Horus murmured in her sleep.
Oh? So she had been listening after all.
That was good. Very good.
Hearing her mumble about the Doctor even in her sleep, Bruce felt the night had not been wasted. At least she now knew there was such a person as the Doctor.
Nice.
Just as Bruce was preparing to go find one of the Mournival and have them haul their dad back to his own room, the paper cup sitting off to the side crackled.
His whole body tensed. He slid over, snatched the cup up, and turned to make sure Horus had not been disturbed.
"Bruce? Can you hear me?"
Lion's voice came through the paper cup.
Just like before, every night Lion would call—either to chat, or to ask for something to eat, and only then would she go to sleep.
Bruce had already gotten used to these late-night phone conversations, but...
Tonight was a little special.
He absolutely could not let Lion come to his room. If she saw Horus sleeping on the bed, everything would be finished.
If she got the wrong idea and thought he had slipped Horus a sedative tea and was preparing to do something indecent, it would be a disaster.
"I'm here. I can hear you. What is it?" Bruce replied in as normal a voice as he could manage.
"I can't really sleep..."
"That's normal. So much has happened—who could sleep after all that?"
"Exactly. In a few days I'll have to leave you and Horus and head for Holy Terra to see Father. Honestly... I'm a little uneasy." Lion finally voiced what was weighing on her heart.
"I get it. Totally understandable."
"Can I come see you? You're not that far away, and... there are some things I want to talk to you about in person. Is that all right?"
During the past few days, Bruce had mostly been aboard the Remilia, so Lion had not been able to visit freely. But now they were both on the Vengeful Spirit, which was a different matter.
"That's probably not a good idea this late at night," Bruce said, already sweating.
He had no idea why Lion was so set on seeing him, but it definitely had something to do with those little Emperor roleplay sessions.
And he genuinely had no energy left for that tonight. Besides, he was running low on transformation drinks.
"Are you... deliberately avoiding me?" Lion's instincts instantly picked up on the tension in his tone.
Too strange.
This was not how he normally sounded.
Whenever she made a request like this, he would usually find some way to change the subject and then start telling her stories. It was slippery, sure, but still acceptable.
Tonight, though...
Something was off.
"Of course not. What are you even thinking? Do I look like that kind of person?" Bruce said with great resignation.
Damn it. Was Lion's intuition really that sharp? That was terrifying.
He was speaking to her exactly the way he always did, so how had she noticed?
"Fine. Then I'm coming over now. Wait for me." Lion was certain now. Bruce had to be hiding something.
Bruce nearly broke down on the spot.
He hurriedly said, "I swear, your nose is way too sharp. You could even tell I made a midnight snack."
"What?!"
Lion's fury instantly flared through the line. Bruce could even hear the unmistakable sound of a sword being drawn.
"Bruce! You were secretly eating without me?! I knew it! That's why you were trying to dodge me!"
You act like you can't stand me, but really you were just hoarding good food! I only eat a little, all right? At most ten pounds of rice per meal! Was that really enough to make you this wary?
"All right, all right! I'm going, I'm going! I'll come find you. Just wait in your room."
Bruce could only give in, even though he knew he was voluntarily stepping into the lion's den.
If he refused, and Lion came here herself, found the sleeping Horus, and then summoned all the Sons of Horus over...
Bruce would be dead. Very dead.
"Mm! I'll wait for you!" Lion answered happily.
The line went dead.
Bruce set the paper cup aside and let out a long sigh. Then he turned toward the big pot on the table.
After a long moment of thought, he decided to go big.
He poured in a fine powdered substance.
Drugging someone was shameless, but Bruce did not care anymore. As long as he got through tonight, he was going straight back to the Remilia. Then he would only return to the Vengeful Spirit after Lion had left.
Or maybe he could be even bolder—wait until Lion had fallen asleep, then drag her off, open a portal to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and spend the whole night switching her back and wiping the memories between them.
Yes. That was the plan.
Once he had everything mapped out, Bruce carried the steaming-cold pot out of the room.
Before leaving, though, he checked on Horus several more times.
Only after confirming that she was still asleep did he finally step out.
It was only a few steps and one turn down the corridor before Bruce arrived outside Lion's room. He had not even raised a hand to knock before the door opened on its own.
"Bruce!"
Lion stood there in a thin blue gauze nightdress. Through it, two pink points were faintly visible, and below it stretched those smooth, bare thighs, along with a glimpse of suggestive little undergarments.
Bruce swallowed.
"You should come in first! I just so happen to be hungry too!" Lion said, and, seeing that Bruce was not wearing power armor tonight, stepped forward and hooked herself around his arm, pressing her body against him as much as she could.
So warm...
Bruce's body.
The softness of a young girl's skin, her light body warmth against the coolness in the air, the faint fragrance coming off her—Bruce's whole body tensed up at once.
"Shouldn't you put on a few more layers?" he asked as Lion led him into the room.
"It's fine. It's not really that cold, and sleeping like this is comfortable. Konrad told me so," Lion said with a smile.
"Father told you that...?"
Bruce muttered under his breath as he set the pot on the table. Lion, meanwhile, moved smoothly to a cabinet and took out two bowls and two bottles of alcohol.
"A little drink shouldn't hurt, right?" she asked, giving the bottles a small shake.
"If I drink, can I go straight back afterward?" Bruce probed cautiously.
"Well..." Lion set the bottles down, then opened one with a sharp chop of her hand.
Picking one up, she smiled and said, "Depends on how you behave."
"Fine."
Bruce picked up the other bottle and clinked it against hers.
Looks like tonight's battle really was unavoidable.
Good thing he had prepared for it.
As long as Lion drank half that pot of mung bean soup, she was guaranteed to sleep like the dead.
Do not blame me, Lion.
This is just...
the survival wisdom of the weak.
Time passed little by little as Bruce and Lion talked, drank, and ate the chilled mung bean soup.
Meanwhile, back in Bruce's room, Horus slowly woke up.
After waking, she first sorted through the memories swirling in her mind, then stared blankly into space for a while, before finally starting to look around for Bruce.
There was something she needed to ask him.
Horus wanted to know what kind of relationship Bruce had with her father, given how much he knew.
And also what connection he had to that world called Terra.
"...?"
After searching the entire room and finding Bruce nowhere, Horus could only give up and leave for now.
She would have to find another time to speak with him tomorrow.
She wanted to apologize as well—for falling asleep and keeping him from resting.
Stretching lazily, Horus stepped out into the corridor—
and suddenly, her ears caught two familiar voices.
One was Bruce's.
The other was Lion's.
Eh?
Why had Bruce gone to Lion's room? What was going on?
Drawn by curiosity—and because the voices seemed to be coming from very nearby—Horus followed the sound.
She soon found Lion's door.
It was not closed.
It had been left just slightly ajar: enough for voices to carry clearly, and for Horus to see inside through the narrow crack.
As she leaned toward the gap to get a better look, her pupils contracted violently.
A scene beyond description unfolded before her eyes.
Lion, flushed from drink, was lying nestled in Bruce's arms.
At her urging, Bruce took out a bottle and drank it.
The next instant, a cloud of smoke burst around him, and when it cleared he had transformed into someone else entirely.
"F-Father?!"
Horus stared at Bruce—now wearing the face of the Emperor—in utter disbelief.
At that moment, her breathing stopped for a beat, then her heart began hammering wildly.
Her whole body stiffened. A part of her wanted to rush in immediately.
But reason stopped her.
Then Horus clenched her fists and bit down on her lip.
Because she saw Bruce—wearing her father's form—lightly scrape a finger across Lion's nose, speaking in one after another of the warm, intimate praises that made envy and jealousy boil up inside her.
"Lion, my most beloved child. You are my finest son."
"Even Horus matters less to me than you."
"You are the child I cherish..."
"I regard you and your Legion as the pride I value most."
Each sentence stabbed into Horus's heart like a knife.
And with them came the memory of all those words of praise she had heard from her father while she lay unconscious.
So that was it.
"I see now."
Horus stared fixedly at Bruce, and slowly smiled.
Father is Bruce. Bruce is Father. And Father is Theresa. And...
Bruce is also the Doctor.
That explained everything.
I shared thirty whole years of bonds with Father. I was the first of his children to return to him. He regarded me as his pride.
And in that other world, Amiya was also the first child Doctor Bruce took in. Their bond was just as important as the one between Father and me.
Bruce...
From now on, you are one of the people I treasure most as well.
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 (Chapter155)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter98)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter172)
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 158
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 144
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 100
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 165
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 140
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 120
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 69
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 90
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 95
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 70
Uma Musume: I Want All 80
I Can Copy Unique Skills 65
Summoning an Evil God, but the 52
Supernatural Multiverse 65
My Harem Is Indescribable 50
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 55
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 40
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 50
Still playing traditional Honk 30
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