The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]

Okay, to be fair, as someone who was part siren, Theo had been raised hearing tales of nature as the source of life, wonder, and joy.

But admittedly, while his grandmother would often say things like, ”Nature was here before us, and we remain within its care,” or other such phrases meant to impress upon him the importance of respecting the environment, what Theo could not help but focus on was a far more unsettling thought.

They all existed only by nature’s permission.

With the kind of upbringing most people had, it was really unfortunate, but nature had come to be known as something rather frightening. Beautiful, yes, but also merciless.

In fact, his family had nearly been claimed by the very nature they had long tried to worship. As a child, Theo had smiled and thought of those stories as tall tales, but since meeting Luca and the others, he had come to realize that his grandmother had not been kidding at all.

If anything, she had been understating things.

As someone who worked so closely with nature’s gifts, Theo could now swear that the praises he had grown up hearing barely scratched the surface.

Still, as a nature-loving being raised mostly inside a protected dome, Theo, an unfortunately frail plank of a person, did not feel particularly confident about trekking through a dark forest without becoming a burden to everyone around him.

It was one thing to receive herbs and ingredients neatly prepared for synthesis. It was an entirely different matter to march through woods, mountains, and caves to harvest them fresh.

And judging by how often he heard people casually mentioning plants, roots, and saplings as they walked, the newly arrived cadet, who was still coping with a massive shift in his life, could not help but panic at how utterly unprepared he was.

Oh, shit.

Of course, as a person influenced by everyone’s intense enthusiasm for training, Theo had also been doing a bit of physical training, but next to the best of the Empire, how exactly was he supposed to hold up?!

However, just as he was about to ask whether he should be assessed for fitness before attempting the trek, Luca suddenly gathered everyone together.

And then, before Theo could even finish forming the question in his mind, the world blinked.

”...”

”...”

”!!!”

Sure enough, they had to be in the middle of the forest!

Theo couldn’t even dare whisper because as the newbie of newbies, he had no idea what kind of place they were going to. And with the twinkling in the sky being their only illumination, he couldn’t help but worry.

Then again, if he was going to die, there was no better place to do it because of how good his body was actually leaning in towards nature. If not for his overactive mind, he would have been fine picking a relatively open spot to sleep.

The forest was that inviting. And it remained inviting even as they went deeper, with the trees towering high above that the light was starting to disappear.

Oof!

The curious cadet bumped into Noah, who had suddenly stopped. Just as Theo was about to ask what was wrong while fixing his slightly displaced glasses, Noah reached back and pulled him forward. And all of a sudden the shorter cadet could see what was actually happening.

”Wha—”

”—t.”

Theo could barely form the words because he couldn’t really make noise when everyone around them looked rather solemn. And for a good reason.

For before all of them, Jax stepped forward and crouched beside the stream.

Then much to everyone’s surprise, he reached out and brushed the surface of the water with his fingers.

It was a gentle movement.

And yet with that light touch, the forest came to life.

Light bloomed.

From where Jax’s hand was, a soft glow rippled outward in widening rings. The water lit up from within, threads of blue and silver unfurling like something had been stirred awake. The glow traveled upstream, gentle but unstoppable, and as it did, the forest responded.

”!!!”

The darkness retreated.

Trees that had been little more than silhouettes revealed their bark, veins of faint light tracing along them like quiet breathing. Rocks along the stream glimmered with reflected light. Then, one by one, buds began to move.

Theo watched a flower open.

He had no better way to describe it than that the night held its breath.

Petals unfurled with careful grace, pale and luminous, opening fully as if following an unspoken cue.

Only, it wasn’t just one.

Dozens.

No. More than that. At the base of trees. Nestled in places he couldn’t believe flowers could grow.

As Theo’s eyes adjusted, the scale hit him all at once. Thirty. Fifty. Hundreds. A whole landscape revealed itself as bloom after bloom opened in silent succession, each one perfect, each one impossibly bright against the dark forest.

And then, the aspiring pharmacist finally made sense of it.

He really liked the smell of this place and thought it was largely because of spiritual energy. But it couldn’t be ignored now.

That earlier subtle scent now hit him so much stronger than before the flowers started blossoming.

Vanilla. Fresh and warm. Citrus threaded through it, bright and clean. The fragrance drifted outward like an exhale, light yet rich, wrapping around them until Theo felt like he was breathing something sacred.

Theo couldn’t help but grip Noah’s wrist as he watched in awe with everyone else.

”Oh,” he breathed, not realizing he had spoken aloud.

But in truth, the young cadet probably just spoke for everyone, because how else could such a scene be best described?

__

Well, the elders would beg to differ as they particularly had a lot of choice words to describe the scene before them.

In fact, each of them already had several carefully prepared descriptions lined up, ranging from academically poetic to painfully blunt. Elder Feng alone had enough restrained commentary to fill an entire lecture, and he was just about to clear his throat to remind everyone that they were on a very tight schedule.

Then he stopped.

Because someone was making an unusual sound.

”?”

”Heuk... Heuk...!”

”Mom?” he asked immediately. ”Is everything alright?”

Countess Jenna had one hand pressed to her mouth and the other clutching at her chest. Her eyes were glassy, red at the corners, and her shoulders trembled as she tried, and failed, to get herself under control.

”I’m so sorry,” she said between breaths, voice thick. ”I really tried to hold it in.”

She laughed weakly through it, shaking her head.

”It’s just... this is practically the most beautiful thing I have ever seen since you were born.”

Her gaze swept across the glowing stream, the radiant flowers, the night itself seemingly alive around them.

Moreover, how could a mother not be in such a state after seeing her own child do something with so much enthusiasm and grace?

However, she didn’t say that and instead thought about what her child mentioned earlier.

No wonder everyone had dragged themselves out at such an hour to witness this.

Imagine looking at this every day!

But that was just it. Her tears ended up momentarily intensifying because her dream of seeing such a beautiful sight daily was immediately crushed.

How so? Well, just as they were marveling at the scene before them, she couldn’t help but overhear that the flowers wouldn’t even survive until sunrise.

”WHAT?!”

Apparently so.

But unexpectedly, her tears dried up because she was informed that within that brief window, they would have to learn how to harvest the blooms and assist with pollination.

”!!!”