The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1156: Skewed Worldviews

But so much for not being able to hide from the rest of the world.

Contrary to Killian’s expectations, he and Jax probably could’ve quietly disappeared into the void together, and no one would’ve been any the wiser. Every single person’s attention had been completely and utterly stolen by the newly hatched Queen Bee, whose existence alone seemed capable of overriding common sense, priorities, and perhaps even survival instincts.

An excellent example...

Was the suspicious round of applause she’d somehow earned simply by sneezing.

Yes.

Sneezing.

Now, to be fair to said people who had allegedly lost their common sense, the first time it happened, everyone who had successfully reared human babies but exactly zero baby Queen Bees reacted exactly as one might expect.

Poorly.

The tiny creature’s little nose twitched once.

Then twice.

Before a tiny, high-pitched...

"Achoo!"

...escaped from her.

Immediately, the group descended into complete chaos.

Luca, the cadets, and every parent present practically jolted where they stood, their expressions changing so dramatically that one would’ve thought the little Queen had just suffered some sort of catastrophic injury. Everyone started moving at once, each apparently deciding they needed to do something despite having absolutely no idea what that something actually was.

Ollie was, unsurprisingly, the fastest.

By the time everyone else had merely widened their eyes, the blonde had already produced a Revive Pill from somewhere on his person and was presenting it with complete sincerity.

"Quick! Eat this!"

"Wait."

Elder Pao Xi’s calm voice cut cleanly through the mounting panic before anyone could actually attempt to feed the pill to a baby that had existed for less than an hour.

"I think this is simply because of her unique constitution."

Countess Jenna, who’d already looked ready to summon every physician in the Empire, immediately turned toward the elder.

"Her... unique constitution?"

"Oh!"

Luca suddenly straightened.

"I think I know what Elder Pao Xi means."

Everyone looked toward the dungeon owner.

The little chipmunk scratched his cheek thoughtfully before saying, "I remember reading something about it in the manual. Well, not exactly about her, but about bees in general." He looked toward the tiny Queen situated in the middle of a table. "Isn’t it because ordinary bees don’t actually have noses?"

"What?!"

Ollie’s head snapped around so quickly one would’ve thought he’d heard the greatest conspiracy of the century.

"They don’t have noses, brother?"

The blonde immediately leaned in, thoroughly scandalized as he inspected the little Queen’s tiny face from every conceivable angle.

Because no matter how he looked at it...

She actually seemed to have a tiny nose.

But a tiny nose was still a nose! So how could this be?

"???"

"I believe they usually don’t," Luca answered after thinking about it. "The beekeeping manual had a section explaining their anatomy. From what I remember, bees smell, taste, and even feel using their antennae rather than a nose."

He paused.

"Though..."

The dungeon owner looked thoughtfully at the little Queen once more.

"I’m honestly not sure we can use ordinary bees as a reference anymore."

After all...

None of them had known a bee that could sneeze.

Or even just exist like this.

__

As if the little Queen was somehow aware that everyone was talking about her, she tilted her head before giving her tiny wings an experimental flutter, looking around with those enormous eyes that somehow managed to look both curious and completely innocent.

Seeing that, Elder Pao Xi finally elaborated. After using his abilities to examine the little one, he didn’t believe there was any actual medical concern. If anything, she was most likely just getting accustomed to the drastic changes brought about by her rebirth.

Speaking of changes...

There were quite a lot of them.

Compared to the ordinary worker bees surrounding her, she was unmistakably different, and Minister Kordell, who’d only moments ago been promoted to the rank of self-proclaimed grandfather, naturally wanted to understand exactly what kind of little miracle they were dealing with.

Truthfully, he hadn’t been nearly as enthusiastic as his wife when they first heard about the Queen Bee’s metamorphosis.

Of course, he’d found the entire thing fascinating. Surprising too, especially considering that Killian had always been the less problematic child. Predictable. Dependable. The sort who rarely became the center of bizarre situations. So whenever his eldest son somehow ended up involved in anything unexpected, it naturally became newsworthy.

Still...

He hadn’t quite reached his wife’s level of enthusiasm.

Not when she’d practically begun planning her grandmotherly duties before even meeting the little one.

That opinion, however...

Lasted exactly until a pair of warm, impossibly large sparkling eyes looked directly at him.

"!!!"

Safe to say, the minister never stood a chance.

Whatever reservations he’d previously harbored disappeared almost immediately, and before he knew it, he’d become thoroughly won over by a fluffy creature that wasn’t even a foot tall. As the self-appointed favorite grandfather who’d somehow managed to keep the little Queen’s attention the longest so far, how could he be concerned? It was practically his duty to learn everything there was to know about his granddaughter.

Which was precisely why the Elders’ next explanation nearly made his heart stop.

"Well, in terms of future physical transformations," Elder Pao Xi began thoughtfully, "that’ll ultimately depend on how she’ll choose to cultivate and how quickly she’d be able to progress."

He glanced toward the tiny Queen.

"But... if she succeeds..."

"She’ll most likely be able to assume whatever form she’d like in the future."

"!!!"

"I’d honestly say she’s already halfway there because of those two," Elder Shen added, his gaze lingering on the newborn spirit. "What’s mainly left is learning how to properly wield the spiritual energy she was reborn with."

He smiled faintly.

"If she’s guided well... then who knows just how far she’ll eventually go?"

Marquise Evelyn Nox genuinely felt lightheaded.

What a marvelous day.

It was also around this point that the entire gathering unanimously reached what was perhaps the most questionable parenting decision in recent history.

Namely...

That even something as simple as sneezing deserved enthusiastic applause.

So when the little Queen suddenly scrunched up her face again before letting out another tiny...

"Achoo!"

...that nearly sent her fluffy little body drifting backward through the air like a balloon rapidly losing air, the group, led by one exceedingly excitable Princess Nina, immediately burst into enthusiastic applause.

She clapped harder than anyone else before proudly declaring,

"You did such a good job!"

She sounded so completely sincere that even the Imperial Crown Prince could do little more than quietly clear his throat.

Now that...

That was the exact scene Killian walked back into.

The young official stopped at the clearing and stared at the gathering of people who were, apparently, fully committed to raising his daughter with the most catastrophically skewed worldview imaginable.

If the Elders were truly serious about her one day taking on a fully human form...

Then wouldn’t she eventually grow up believing that sneezing naturally earned applause?

Ah, but what would naive souls know?

apparently, turned out to be the least of his worries as a newly promoted bee parent.

Because while most babies, or children in general, tended to express themselves through crying, cooing, or perhaps enthusiastically grabbing nearby fingers...

His daughter had apparently inherited a rather questionable trait, one that suggested a future involving considerably more visits to some principal’s boxy office than awkward conversations about skewed worldviews.

For without the slightest warning, the little Queen bent her tiny knees before launching herself straight through the air.

Another tiny leg fully extended.

Directly toward the top of Minister Kordell’s head.

"!!!"

Everyone froze.

More than one person instinctively threw out their hands toward the minister, convinced he was about to be spectacularly kicked.

Others, for reasons they couldn’t quite explain, suddenly found themselves wishing they were him instead.

Yet before anyone could really decide how to react...

The tiny attacker bounced straight back.

Not off the considerably shocked minister.

But off

The little fluffy Queen promptly flopped onto the table with all the grace of a tossed marshmallow, blinking several times in slight confusion at the rather unexpected turn of events.

But, oddly enough, aside from the little Queen bouncing away, what truly caught everyone’s attention was the fact that another blob had somehow just hit the ground with a distinctly wet-sounding

"What the—"

"?!"

Wasn’t that his father’s sprite?

But how come it looked different from the usual bouncy bubble?