The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1151: The Threshold

Before them stood two children whose eyes had already begun pooling with tears after hearing the utterly earth-shattering news that the baby wasn’t, in fact, born to the great chipmunk and the Imperial Crown Prince.

Well...

That was the abridged version.

The actual reaction involved dramatic swaying, tiny hands flying outward, and two little bottoms landing heavily on the ground in perfect unison as though the heavens themselves had just collapsed.

Their lower lips quivered so violently that anyone unfamiliar with them would’ve thought the children had just suffered the greatest heartbreak of their young lives. Both hands clutched tightly at their chests while they stared ahead in adorable disbelief, looking so thoroughly devastated that any unsuspecting adult would’ve been tempted to immediately promise them anything they wanted just to make them smile again.

Fortunately, the adults who knew them better reacted much faster.

Almost as one, they quietly looked somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

Because if they kept watching those pitiful little faces for much longer, some of them might actually start contemplating whether having another child at this point in their lives was really such an impossible idea. After all, with the lifespans they were expected to enjoy, surely it wasn’t entirely unreasonable...

Well.

Provided they still had the energy for it.

Fortunately, such dangerous thoughts were immediately forgotten when the children, still on the verge of tears, were informed that the little Queen Bee was actually the blessing of two entirely different big brothers who, rather inconveniently, couldn’t seem to explain to the increasingly curious princesses exactly how such a thing had happened.

"Big Brother Jax..." one of them murmured uncertainly.

Then her gaze slowly shifted.

"And Lord Killian?"

Their watery little eyes moved back and forth between the two men as though trying to solve an impossibly difficult puzzle.

Truthfully...

They weren’t the only ones.

Everyone else present looked just about as bewildered, especially considering the very questionable hallucinations they thought they experienced just earlier.

So, yes. As one could probably tell, in exchange for preserving everyone’s eyesight and salvaging whatever remained of one young official’s dignity after the earlier incidents, Xavier very graciously decided that this particular conversation should be handled by the parties directly involved.

After all...

Why should be the one expected to conjure up a baby when those two could pay up instead?

If they dared have one, then surely they could also explain the bizarre combination themselves.

Otherwise...

His little wife might start looking at him with those earnest, passionate eyes that somehow always managed to dismantle years of carefully cultivated self-control.

Not that Xavier didn’t want children with Luca.

Far from it.

But before any of that, he wanted his wife to have the chance to enjoy the childhood he’d never truly been allowed to have. There was still so much life waiting for his little chipmunk to experience, and Xavier intended to fight for a future where Luca could take all the time he needed before becoming the wonderful parent the Prince knew he’d one day be.

Which was why Killian was now being tormented by four particularly relentless beings.

Yes, four. Because not counting Luca, who was currently being hidden away against Xavier’s chest, his increasingly flushed face making it abundantly clear that he was far too distracted to participate, or Ollie, who was practically being bundled up and restrained by Kyle before he could enthusiastically volunteer information that absolutely nobody had asked for, that still left the three princesses.

And Jax.

Who, quite frankly, was proving every bit as troublesome as the overly excited girls by innocently blinking and batting his lashes at the already dying Chief of Staff, as though patiently waiting for him to answer first.

Obviously, Killian was not having the easiest time.

Caught between several pairs of expectant eyes that all seemed convinced he possessed answers he himself hadn’t even begun processing yet, the young official honestly wondered whether it’d simply be better to bury himself in work for the next week.

Or maybe the next year.

He hadn’t even dared look toward his parents.

There simply wasn’t any need.

He already knew exactly what kind of expressions would greet him the moment he did, and it’d only reinforce the conclusion that’d quietly settled over everyone the instant the little Queen Bee finally graced them with her presence.

Because no matter how they tried to twist the situation one way or another...

What exactly were they supposed to do about their bridged spiritual seas?

Honestly, Killian never imagined it’d come to this.

Sure, they’d been jointly nurturing the Queen Bee all this time, but nowhere in his wildest expectations had he assumed it’d somehow culminate in the two of them becoming connected in such a fundamental way. Then again... perhaps he’d simply made the mistake of overlooking that possibility because he was afraid of the answers that would come knocking back.

However, now that it was already reality...

What exactly were they supposed to do?

More than having to answer the increasingly curious princesses, the question weighing most heavily on Killian’s mind was how he could prevent Jax from becoming tied down by something like this when the redhead still had his entire life stretching out before him.

Someone as free-spirited as Jax wouldn’t want to be—

Killian’s increasingly frazzled train of thought, however, never reached its conclusion.

Because apparently...

Being smothered was next on today’s schedule.

"Ooof!"

Without the slightest warning, his entire vision was swallowed by soft golden fluff.

Unbeknownst to the thoroughly bewildered official, the little Queen Bee had apparently sensed the dangerously gloomy direction his thoughts had taken and reached the rather decisive conclusion that such thoughts posed an unacceptable threat to her brand-new family.

Naturally...

Something had to be done.

And so she did exactly that.

Swinging through the air with surprising enthusiasm, the tiny Queen latched herself directly onto Killian’s face, her little fluffy body sticking there with astonishing determination like the world’s cutest starfish.

"...?"

Several towering individuals, including Kyle Nox and his Captain, silently arrived at the mutual conclusion that this was an extraordinarily strange thing to witness.

Unfortunately for them...

The rest of the room erupted into delighted squeals the moment they saw the tiny Queen stubbornly clinging to Killian’s face.

And it wouldn’t have mattered what anyone said about the situation because they’d already made up their minds. Right then and there, they were busy wondering how something just as momentous could happen to them so they, too, could have keepsakes of the occasion.

It was, quite frankly, the collective decline of the Empire’s finest leaders and was probably best buried beneath several layers of classified documents if they wished to preserve their fearsome image.

Then again, whatever dignity remained eventually became fair game. For even those who were initially proud of their ability to stay sane eventually succumbed to something else.

And it started like this...

Jax, whose head had tilted slightly as he watched Killian struggle against the tiny yet astonishingly determined Queen Bee clinging stubbornly to his face, found that he didn’t dislike the sight one bit.

If anything, watching it unfold left him with the same strange sense of peace and contentment he’d felt when the little bee had first wrapped herself around him.

It reminded him of something.

More specifically, of a story his mother loved telling.

Back then, he never quite understood why she always grew so nostalgic whenever she talked about the day he finally emerged from the capsule that had gestated him for so long.

Apparently, it’d been raining that day. Not the gentle sort either, but the kind that began before sunrise and showed no signs of stopping until well into the night. To most people, it would’ve been remembered as a gloomy, dreary day, accompanied only by the endless pitter-patter against rooftops and windows.

Yet to one couple, it couldn’t have been more blessed, for it was the first time they’d finally met their child without a barrier separating them.

Perhaps it was because the rain had softened the usually blinding city lights, but in that seemingly somber room, their newborn had opened his eyes for the very first time.

His mother always said that after letting out a few tiny newborn sounds, he’d blinked those little eyes open and looked straight at them. Then, the moment her trembling hand met his impossibly small palm, she realized something she’d never thought possible.

As a happily married woman, she believed she had already understood unconditional love.

Well, apparently, she had been wrong.

For there was apparently an entirely different world waiting beyond it. One that opened specifically just for him.

Jax had heard that story countless times growing up.

He always thought it sounded nice.

He was simply glad his mother seemed to treasure their first meeting so dearly.

But only now...

Only after finding himself standing at the threshold of a surprisingly similar moment...

Did he finally understand what she’d meant.

Because it really did feel like that.

The little Queen hadn’t even been given a name yet. She hadn’t done anything particularly remarkable either. She’d simply existed.

Yet somehow...

She’d already carved out her own little place inside his heart the moment she first blinked at him.

He didn’t even need to feel that impossibly soft fur for all it took was a curious blink.

And now, watching her stubbornly plaster herself across Killian’s face as though personally determined to chase away every gloomy thought occupying the official’s mind...

How could Jax possibly not want more moments like this?

The answer came to him almost immediately.

So, as someone who’d always been painfully honest with his own feelings, the redhead simply turned his head until he spotted Minister Kordell Nox together with the thoroughly flustered Marquise Evelyn Nox.

"Auntie Eve. Uncle."

The two instinctively looked toward him.

"That list you have for him..."

Jax smiled.

It was the same open, uncomplicated grin he’d always worn whenever he’d made up his mind about something.

"Can I be added to it?"

One hand rested thoughtfully beneath his chin while the other casually pointed toward Killian, who was still engaged in an entirely one-sided battle against the tiny Queen Bee currently refusing to vacate his face.

Silence.

Utter silence.

Everyone simply stared.

"What?"

It was Killian who finally found his voice, though even he remained frozen halfway through prying the baby bee off his face. Curiously enough, the little Queen had also stopped moving, as though she’d somehow realized something important had just been said.

Jax turned toward him.

Then, with all the sincerity in the world and not the slightest hint of embarrassment, he said,

"The mother of our child seems really unsure."

He paused only long enough to smile.

"So I figure it’d be best if I worked on pursuing him."

"!!!"