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

”Ah. Seems they got to these guys already.”

The voice was languid and completely unconcerned as the figure lounging in his high-backed seat showed only the faintest flicker of regret when one of the displays suddenly dissolved into static.

Hundreds of small holographic windows filled the dimly lit room, each streaming ongoing footage from different points across the sector. Yet one after another, several of those channels were now disappearing beneath layers of gray noise.

Bram, who’d already expected this disruption to happen sooner or later, immediately stepped forward and bowed his head.

”My apologies for the inconvenience, Your Highness—”

To his surprise, Prince Eren merely waved one slender hand, dismissing the apology with a faint smirk before making a small gesture that brought up even more projections, this time displaying all sorts of things happening across the universe.

In the grand scheme of things, it made the few hundred projections that had disappeared seem like little more than a drop in the bucket.

Truthfully, he would’ve found it far more detestable if those Imperial fools hadn’t even possessed the capability to do this much!

After all, who would want to admit that they’d been derailed so many times by beings who couldn’t even figure out something as simple as a compromised transmission?

At least the Empire was proving that going through all this elaborate effort had been somewhat worthwhile.

Besides, even if they eventually discovered how they were doing all of this, what could they possibly find?

With their new pet, even if those Imperials turned those five pawns upside down and tore apart every corner of that outpost, there was nothing useful they could ever extract from them.

”There’s still the footage from today’s exhibit, right?” Eren murmured lazily as he swirled the liquid inside his glass. ”We’ll make do with that. As for the rest, we can simply replace them once the pet is ready.”

He paused before glancing toward Bram.

”He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

”Yes, Your Highness. He’s still conscious for now,” Bram reported faithfully, keeping his tone carefully measured. ”If we’re cautious, we should be able to squeeze a few more uses out of him before he’s entirely unable to perform.”

”Good.”

Eren took another leisurely sip before clicking his tongue.

”Next time, we’ll have to make sure Apex is distributed far more sparingly. They’re all much too greedy for their own good. Tsk.”

Bram accepted those words with another respectful bow.

Of course, somewhere within the quiet recesses of his mind, he couldn’t help wondering how any of those ”test subjects” were supposed to avoid becoming greedy when stopping made them feel as though they were literally going to die without another dose.

Not that such considerations mattered to his master. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

And certainly not enough for Bram to voice them aloud.

For now, all he could do was dutifully continue monitoring the progress of the terrifying new monsters Prince Eren seemed so hell-bent on creating.

After all, that was precisely what today’s little exhibit was meant to determine.

They were right in the middle of finding out just how long they could go on.

__

Elsewhere, those same screens dissolved into static, leaving the observers back at the Academy terrified for entirely different reasons.

Naturally, plenty of people were worried about the cadets. However, many of those gathered had once served as active soldiers, military officers, or government officials themselves. How could they not recognize the available options once trust within their own ranks had been called into question?

There was a very real possibility that the military had deliberately taken down the surveillance network as part of its containment measures.

At least, everyone desperately hoped that was the explanation.

Because if the terrorists themselves had somehow managed to disable the transmitters, then an already horrifying situation had just become significantly worse, especially when the cadets scattered across Caldris Minor-7 still needed some way to coordinate with each other.

Unfortunately, with no immediate way to confirm what had happened, the people back at the Academy could do little more than begin cross-examining one another while making damn sure that no one left the premises until the investigation was complete.

Yet while some people lamented the sudden loss of their ability to spectate, another particular group reacted to the news in an entirely different way.

__

”!”

Luca’s golden eyes widened before his hand abruptly shot out and grabbed Xavier’s arm.

D-29 had just alerted him to an opening they absolutely couldn’t afford to miss!

Until then, they’d been far too worried about Princess Kira, Battalion 9, and even the senior cadets and Caldris Hostiles currently being attacked to think about anything beyond preparing for evacuation.

Battalions 8 and 10 had already begun merging their operations while waiting for their battleships to rendezvous. In the meantime, members of Battalion 10 were teaching the other cadets how to properly handle their LME bombs and modified artillery while everyone took inventory of whatever supplies and armaments they could still share if they were forced into a fight.

Much to the sheer disbelief of Battalion 8, Battalion 10 had apparently managed to hoard a ridiculous amount of resources!

Sure, half of what they’d collected hadn’t seemed to make much sense at first, but after hearing exactly why they’d been stripping those hideouts practically bare, Battalion 8 quickly came to one rather glaring conclusion.

Their loadout was practically overpowered!

Between the modified equipment they’d developed, the materials they’d salvaged, and the sheer amount of supplies they still had left to work with, particularly when it came to energy, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Battalion 10 had been making frighteningly good use of everything they’d gotten their hands on throughout the exercise.

If anyone had bothered tallying the scores before everything went to hell, the members of Battalion 8 knew there was a very real chance they’d have been sitting comfortably near the top, if not at the very top, considering how insane their Battalion Commander had turned out to be.

But if the exercise hadn’t been suspended?

Well...

At the rate they were going, Battalion 10 might’ve eventually steamrolled everyone, including them!

And just thinking about facing something like this as an opponent...

How the hell were they supposed to fight something so unhinged?

Still, considering their current situation, this revelation strangely helped ease some of the anxiety spreading among the cadets.

The members of Battalion 8 were discovering that even the relatively ordinary freshmen from Battalion 10 had somehow learned to wield those ridiculous inventions effectively, while the Battalion 10 cadets themselves were slowly realizing they’d apparently become the sort of people capable of casually discussing the best way to corrode their opponents when, just the other day, they’d still been jumping at every suspicious rustle coming out of nowhere.

Really, they’d changed.

Whether that change was entirely healthy remained debatable.

Still, having more DG members gathered in one place seemed to improve everyone’s outlook considerably. The cadets couldn’t hear what the small inner group was discussing after Luca, Xavier, Jax, Ollie, and several others hurriedly stepped aside, but judging by their unreadable expressions, they were taking the situation extremely seriously.

For some reason, that alone made everyone else feel as though their commanders actually had a solid plan.

Well.

They did have some sort of plan.

Unfortunately, to the future mortification of nearly every other cadet involved, said plan, championed by one angry blonde with a missing husband, apparently consisted of having everyone else continue evacuating while they took advantage of the sudden lack of surveillance to make a grand show of retrieving their confiscated space buttons from the proctors aboard the battleships.

Then, once nobody could question where their equipment had come from, they could finally bring out their real mechas and go hunt down the rude terrorists who’d interrupted what could’ve been a perfectly nice field trip!

Of course, that plan could still change immediately if Princess Kira showed even the slightest indication that she needed urgent backup.

Then again...

Considering who they were talking about, perhaps it would be better to wait and see who actually ended up screaming.