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

It was around that point when the Aerun twins reached for what looked, at first glance, to be nothing more than an ornate incense burner.

The moment it appeared, little Isabelle dug her tiny claws into Jax’s shoulder with enough urgency to make him wince.

D-29 obligingly projected a still of that exact moment.

It showed the little bee clinging desperately to Jax.

But she wasn’t the only one whose expression had changed.

Luca had gone noticeably pale, every trace of color draining from his face as he stared at the object in undisguised alarm from where they’d been hiding.

The next still appeared almost immediately afterward.

Lyrian’s fingers had already settled around the burner as he glanced toward his brother.

”Are you truly certain you want to use this now?” he asked quietly. ”It was meant for the Nox heir.”

Cyrion’s gaze lingered on the artifact for only a moment before he gave a small shake of his head. Normally he was the rather impatient twin, but right now he felt that his suggestion was more than just justified.

”He’s being far too stubborn, yes,” he replied. ”But, brother, we always knew winning him over would take more effort than most. Tedious, certainly, but not impossible.

”Also, it would be far easier with the two of us and just one of him.”

Cyrion paused, directing his gaze toward the utter chaos unfolding before them.

”But look at this. Right now, we can’t afford to mismanage this mess. If they realize something’s wrong inside before we can calm everyone down, we’ll lose even more ground. Hell, we’ll be lucky if losing ground is the only thing that happens at this point.”

As Luca gestured animatedly to reenact what they’d overheard, the lounge gradually fell silent.

It was only then that Xavier, who’d somehow managed to remain composed despite the increasingly unconventional format of the interrogation, realized something important.

The licensure examination had concluded without the audience needing to be evacuated or realizing that Master Quinn’s appearance on behalf of everyone else hadn’t actually been the master mechanics convening for some important discussion.

Star Net had certainly exploded with conspiracy theories they would’ve much preferred to avoid, but that was still a far more manageable outcome than the alternatives.

As for those directly involved in the fiasco, the compromised master mechanics and their spouses had been secured, restrained, and placed under temporary supervision after Luca somehow interfered with the twins’ influence over them. For everyone’s safety, the military was keeping a close watch over the affected group, while the Luxastra twins remained sedated until a proper course of action could be decided, both to prevent any further use of their bloodline ability and to give the exhausted brothers time to recover.

They were liable for the mess they made but as royals of a foreign nation, they couldn’t allow them to die, could they?

Considering all that, as far as Xavier had been concerned, they were finally in a far better position than before.

But this?

This supposed incense burner had never once been mentioned until now.

And judging by the way his wife, Jax, and even little Isabelle had reacted the instant it appeared, it couldn’t have been something simple.

Where had it gone?

Xavier voiced the question almost immediately.

In response, Luca, Jax, and even little Isabelle all turned toward the same person before simultaneously pointing in his direction, each wearing the same guileless expression of someone dutifully reporting the culprit.

”Marshal Julian stole it.”

The room fell silent once again.

The collective accusation landed squarely on Marshal Julian, who had apparently expanded his already impressive résumé to include theft after being physically overpowered by a group of rightfully furious wives. Quietly rubbing a hand over his face, he gave a weary nod.

”Yes,” he admitted. ”I managed to nab it.”

Duchess Amelia stared at him in complete disbelief. Considering that man’s personality, this was truly something to note.

”Julian,” she said slowly, ”did you just tell us you stole something?”

”Yeah, yeah, I know!” the Marshal groaned, immediately throwing both hands into the air. ”But shouldn’t the more important question be how I managed to steal it in the first place?”

He jabbed an accusing finger toward the two cadets and their shortest accomplice.

”They told me they’d provide a distraction! I just didn’t think ’provide a distraction’ meant... whatever in Solaris that was supposed to be!”

__

Just like that, the tables turned.

The three allegedly innocent youngsters once again found themselves at the center of everyone’s attention, and rather unexpectedly, Marshal Julian’s decision to collect the evidence suddenly seemed like the most reasonable part of the entire story.

”Well... Not that we underestimated them or anything,” Jax hurriedly explained. ”We just didn’t think people their age would have that kind of vice grip! I actually think it deserves to be studied, you know!”

The explanation did not help.

Especially when one particular young official was looking at him as though seriously considering whether affectionate strangulation was still legally justifiable after the incident.

Realizing that immediately, Jax quickly raised both hands.

”Okay, hear me out.”

He took a breath before continuing.

”Originally, the plan was to get the twins’ attention and make them face each other in the end. You know, just in case they decided to do their thing.

”And maybe we could’ve thought of a better way, but we really didn’t have much time. They were already about to light that thing up, and that looked like absolute bad news.”

His expression grew noticeably more serious.

”You guys weren’t there, so you couldn’t feel it. It was... weird. Kind of like corruption, except it’d flicker and feel like spiritual energy at the same time. Really tainted stuff, I’m telling you.”

He frowned.

”So, obviously, we couldn’t let that happen.”

Luca immediately nodded in complete agreement.

Rather surprisingly, little Isabelle also nodded with equal conviction. She clearly didn’t understand the specifics of what Jax was talking about, but after noticing that the golden-eyed cadet was enthusiastically agreeing in defense of her Papa, she faithfully copied him anyway.

Then, before anyone else could speak, the masked guild leader brightly exclaimed, ”And that’s when Jax popped out and said, ’Sorry, but I don’t think you guys are his type!’ It worked really well! The twins reacted immediately!”

Luca sounded genuinely impressed.

Unfortunately, because of the fluffy sleeping mask covering his eyes, he had absolutely no idea what everyone else was looking at.

Almost every gaze in the room slowly drifted between Luca, Jax, and Killian.

More specifically, toward Killian, who looked as though he desperately wanted the floor to develop a sudden appetite and swallow him whole.

Then their attention shifted to D-29’s projected still image.

The projection and Luca’s narration... did not quite agree for once.

According to Luca, Jax had boldly executed a carefully planned distraction.

According to the frozen image hovering above everyone’s heads, Jax had very clearly allowed himself to get baited into an extremely personal verbal argument.

Caught so thoroughly that even denial felt pointless, Jax finally sighed, raised both hands in surrender once more, and defended himself.

”Hey, to be fair,” he muttered, ”he really said you preferred someone with a lot of years of experience.”

He paused before adding with complete sincerity,

”But I didn’t believe him. I told them I know better than that!”

”...”

”...”