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

But at the end of the day, they still had to figure something out.

As it was, they had already bought as much time as they could and couldn’t force it unless they wanted to raise suspicion.

Thankfully, an already distressed and suddenly aging Killian Nox reminded them about a tiny loophole.

One that had to do with exploiting that particular window when ships dock at Solara’s ports.

Killian honestly felt like he was committing a crime because it just felt too much like a heist, and to top it all off, he was even sharing it with his bosses. But what else could be done? They were all in deep shit together anyway.

As per Imperial policy, foreign vessels were generally unable to send or receive interstellar communications while physically docked at Imperial ports. Not that it was impossible to really communicate, but if they wished to open that line, they had to apply for permission, which would then allow the Empire access to their communication channels until the ship departed or ended up docked elsewhere.

So, considering such a thing, which self-serving leader would want to do such a thing voluntarily?

Only someone with a death wish or an intricate plan.

But in this case, probably not that monster of a Prince.

Honestly, it sounded rather novel to Luca when he first heard about it. But then Xavier spent a good while explaining the reasons behind the policy to him, describing how the rule helped protect the Empire from remotely piloted battleships or from illegal jump points forming within their established defense lines.

Of course, there was a certain irony to the whole explanation.

Because no such defenses—whether here or in other territories—would be able to keep someone like the little chipmunk away.

After all, what would a communication ban even do to someone who basically lugged around his entire house?

A big fat nothing.

Still, that particular issue was for their enemies to deal with. In this case, both the docking policy and Luca’s ability to bypass all such restrictions worked entirely in the Empire’s favor.

Prince Eren would expect the communication downtime, and the Empire could exploit that very window as the perfect opportunity to squirrel Princess Marin away.

However, things escalated beyond that rather quickly.

Because Prince Elior suddenly volunteered to replace her.

”If it’s possible,” he said calmly, ”I’ll go in her place.”

”???”

The statement left the entire room blinking in confusion.

”I’m not particularly difficult to imitate,” Elior continued matter-of-factly. ”If anything, Rahil could probably do it, while someone else could pretend to take his place. But replacing Marin would likely be something only I could manage.”

He said this in a room filled with people who were staring at him with increasing bewilderment.

Of course, some understood what he meant, but several others were baffled by his words because the elf in front of them didn’t resemble a little elven princess in any conceivable way.

In fact, Prince Elior wouldn’t even pass as a much younger orc with his build.

So, as one could expect, the reactions were immediate and filled with questions.

That was when Elior stunned everyone by demonstrating his bloodline abilities once again—this time in front of a much larger audience.

From the butlers to the Imperial monarchs themselves, everyone present finally witnessed what the original heir of House Aetheryon was capable of doing.

It was an absolutely crazy situation.

Because who would have ever imagined that an Aetheryon would willingly reveal their treasured bloodline secrets in front of the literal Imperial family?

But Prince Elior honestly didn’t give a single shit about what his ancestors might think.

Not when revealing that ability was the least he could do in exchange for the effort these people had already put—and were still willing to put—into protecting his little sister.

They didn’t have to worry about Marin this much.

And yet they were jumping through every possible hoop just to make sure she would remain safe.

Embarrassingly enough, they didn’t even let him go through the plan alone.

Because instead of allowing Rahil to impersonate him, Elder Pao Xi suddenly volunteered to play the role of Prince Elior.

There had been a brief scuffle when several other elders surprisingly questioned why they couldn’t do it instead, but the issue was quickly resolved by lining them up according to height.

But if the others who chose not to speak had voiced their opinions, they would have pointed out another important reason.

Elder Pao Xi could convincingly pass as an elegant prince.

The others... had rather questionable habits and speech patterns.

Thankfully, no one was foolish enough to say that aloud, and the peace of the room remained relatively intact.

And that was how Prince Elior—armed with D-29’s detailed tips on everything the princess had planned for the day—ended up appearing at the Expo carrying the exact same items she would have brought, all while pretending to be absolutely thrilled about meeting himself in front of a crowd of extremely curious onlookers.

A crowd that Luca had very deliberately drawn together.

Uh-huh.

Rahil—and probably half the people present in that meeting—had physically shivered when Luca first proposed the idea.

Because the cadet’s suggestion sounded one hundred percent insane.

It was so questionable that he would have poked at the plan if not for having personally witnessed what Luca was capable of during the parade and at every point after that.

If anyone could do it, it would have to be Luca.

So he couldn’t really refute the cadet’s reasoning when he cheerfully declared, ”If we gather everyone as close as possible, then it’ll be so much easier to protect them!”

Because in the worst-case scenario, it would definitely be harder to give revive pills to people if they were scattered far away!

”...”

”...”

One little system and its companion guardian mecha paused upon ”hearing” that particular line of reasoning.

But they quickly felt better when their boss hurriedly added another thought.

But of course, it would still be better if they didn’t have to use revive pills at all!

Yes.

Now that was more like him.