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

The first announcement rang out across the desert.

One after another, members of the scattered battalions who weren’t already caught in active skirmishes stopped what they were doing and looked up.

Because somewhere in the distance, a brilliant pillar of light had suddenly shot straight into the sky.

”...?”

Until now, most cadets had assumed the exercise simply wasn’t going to provide updates about anyone else’s progress.

After all, an entire day had already passed without a single announcement about casualties, remaining members, depleted supply depots, or practically anything else that could’ve helped them figure out how the other battalions were doing.

Initially, they’d found that rather unfortunate.

Then again, there was something reassuring about knowing nobody else would find out just how disadvantaged some of their battalions had become after only one day. At least this way, they could still bluff about their remaining strength.

If only life could be that nice...

But to their horror, the organizers hadn’t forgotten about the announcements at all.

They’d simply been saving them for something considerably more scandalous.

[EXTRACTION INITIATED.]

[TIME REMAINING: 00:09:59]

”?!”

Several cadets nearly mishandled their flight controls when alarms suddenly began blaring from who knew where, immediately drawing everyone’s attention upward even as similar prompts kept popping on their restricted terminals.

Ten minutes?!

Then realization struck.

So this was what would happen whenever someone attempted to extract one of the confidential assets they were all competing for!

Not only would practically everyone on Caldris Minor-7 be alerted to what they were doing, but that would definitely make the extraction site impossible to miss.

It might as well have been an open invitation for every other battalion to come and stop them!

Unfortunately, for several appointed leaders, even that realization wasn’t nearly as alarming as something else.

Someone had already recovered one of the main objectives?!

Some nutjob had actually managed to get past those Caldris lunatics?!

”...”

How?!

See, it wasn’t that they were incapable of being happy about someone else’s achievement.

Unfortunately, there were only so many objectives available, and any battalion that failed to secure even one would automatically fail the exercise. Their final rankings would also depend on how many they successfully extracted.

Which meant every objective taken off the field was one less opportunity for everyone else.

Just how the hell did they do it?! Or had the information they’d received for arriving earlier given them some ridiculous advantage?!

Well, there was no use speculating now. They’d just have to find out for themselves once they reached the extraction point!

First, however, several battalions had the slightly more immediate problem of figuring out how to escape the hostiles currently doing everything possible to keep them pinned down.

Ugh!

But while most groups were desperately trying to break away from their current fights and rush toward the newly revealed location, there were also those whose opponents were now equally desperate to make sure they stayed as far away from that beacon as possible.

Ada, for one, practically went feral the moment that extremely helpful announcement broadcast her group’s business to the entire planet.

On one hand, it was excellent news.

The recovery team led by the Imperial Crown Prince had succeeded!

On the other hand...

Why did the exercise have to tell everyone?!

Because the moment that enormous pillar of light appeared in the distance, every Caldris Hostile they’d spent so much effort delaying immediately realized what had happened.

And now they were desperately trying to get back to help their comrades!

As if that wasn’t troublesome enough, the senior battalion they’d conveniently used as bait earlier had also noticed the extraction beacon and was now attempting to force its way past all of them to get its hands on someone else’s hard work!

”...!”

Absolutely not.

Ada and her teammates hadn’t spent all this time holding these people back just so they could rush over at the last moment and ruin everything!

Moreover, what would happen to her pride as a warrior if she had to report that she’d failed after coming this far?!

Forget about Her Highness’s reaction. Ada herself simply couldn’t tolerate the thought.

Hovering near the front line in all the glory of the body her parents had given her, she thrust both hands toward the mechas and infantry soldiers daring to come any closer.

A roaring gale erupted from her palms, compressing into a massive wall of wind before slamming directly into the advancing ranks. Sand and dust spiraled high into the air, turning the battlefield into a blinding storm.

Several hostile mechas skidded backward.

The senior cadets trying to push through fared no better.

Ada gritted her teeth.

She had no idea what Xavier’s recovery team had gone through to secure that objective, but considering the sheer tenacity of the people currently trying to get back to their base, it couldn’t possibly have been easy.

And if these Caldris Hostiles were irritating enough to make even her start cursing internally...

Then she certainly wasn’t going to let all that effort go to waste now!

”Prioritize restraining attacks!” Ada ordered over the open team frequency, her winds whipping her hair wildly around her face. ”Don’t let a single one of them break through the perimeter! Keep driving them back!”

”Understood!”

Around her, Battalion 8’s mechas immediately shifted formation.

Heavy tether lines shot through the roaring winds while concussive suppression rounds hammered into anyone attempting to force their way forward.

They didn’t need to defeat everyone here.

They didn’t even need to win this fight.

They only needed to hold the line.

For ten minutes.

__

But if all those agitated personalities outside, including Ada, had no idea what it had taken for someone to reach this point in the exercise, there was definitely one person who knew exactly how much effort had gone into it.

And that would be one Oliver Mylor.

The same blonde who’d almost fainted when he was asked to take out the enemy camp’s defenses by tinkering with the power supply and whatever backup systems their underground hideout might have!

The very same blonde who’d spent the entire process hoping no one, including the spectators he’d been wordlessly warned about, would realize that he wasn’t actually triggering cascading protective shutdowns through some brilliant feat of mechanical engineering.

Nope.

He was simply using his bloodline ability to achieve the same result while pretending very hard that everything happening around him could be explained by his sheer genius!

Which was apparently much easier said than done when Ollie was simultaneously trying not to blow everything and everyone up.

So much for finesse and regulation! He was built for booms.

BOOMS!

Then again, he only wanted said booms from far away and through those cute little buttons...!