The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1158: Containment Breach

Killian, whose peripheral vision had long since been honed through years of watching for suspicious movements from deceptively harmless-looking individuals, immediately noticed the little Queen suddenly make an unmistakable beeline toward one particular stack of boxes.

His brow rose.

Quietly, he walked over.

If nothing else, someone probably needed to supervise the newest member of the family before she declared war on another innocent bystander.

She really was remarkably active.

So tiny.

So fluffy.

So unbelievably fragile-looking...

Yet somehow already capable of creating incidents.

Just what were they supposed to do with this little one?

If he simply left her with Jax all day, then the two of them would probably be perfectly safe.

The people around them, however...

Well, that was a considerably more uncertain matter.

Granted, she’d probably earned some praise for noticing something wrong with his father’s sprite before everyone else had.

Still...

How exactly was he supposed to teach a child not to solve every perceived threat with a flying kick? Or worse, a swarm of considerably bigger bees?

Killian could already feel a headache coming on.

Just thinking about returning to work without first making proper arrangements for those two was enough to leave him vaguely restless.

Rather scratchy, even.

Had certain people, particularly his younger brother, somehow gained access to those thoughts, they’d undoubtedly have teased him mercilessly. After all, wasn’t he the very same person who’d only moments ago been insisting that permanent commitments were premature? Yet now he couldn’t even imagine leaving without knowing how the two of them were doing or keeping them somewhere within his line of sight.

Well, thankfully he was spared that particular embarrassment.

Because before anyone could read even the faintest change in his expression, Killian realized the little Queen wasn’t merely staring at the boxes.

She was, in fact, trying very earnestly to pry one open.

Her tiny clawed hands strained against the lid with surprising determination, and after several unsuccessful attempts, she planted both feet firmly on the table and gave it another mighty tug, huffing so dramatically that she looked only moments away from summoning every worker bee in the vicinity to assist with the task.

Killian couldn’t help stepping in.

"All right, let me get that for you," he said, kneeling beside her. "Did you want to see what’s inside?"

He easily lifted the surprisingly heavy lid while the little Queen immediately placed one tiny hand atop his own as though personally helping with the operation.

As soon as the lid began to rise, her enormous eyes sparkled.

She even smiled up at him.

...

The heavens really did have an odd sense of humor.

Why was it always the mischievous ones who received this much destructive power?

Looking at that impossibly pleased little smile, Killian could already tell that resisting her whims in the future would become an increasingly impossible task.

More troubling still...

Even if he somehow managed to resist that face himself, how was he supposed to guarantee that everyone else would?

After what he’d witnessed earlier, perhaps only someone like Duke Leander, whose eyes remained permanently tinted by an incurable pair of rose-colored glasses, stood a chance.

"..."

"..."

To think there would come a day when he’d be worrying about something like this instead of mentally rehearsing the agenda for the next general meeting.

Then again...

Perhaps he didn’t need to worry quite so much.

If she really did take after Jax, then she’d probably inherit that same remarkably clear heart... paired with equally questionable execution.

So maybe that wasn’t so bad after all?

Killian was just about to pat her little head in consolation when—

The touching little moment between those two was unfortunately cut short.

Because while the eldest heir of House Nox and the little Queen were entirely focused on removing the lid together, neither of them noticed that everyone else had abruptly gone silent.

Not because of the box itself.

Rather, it was because the shriveled sprite had reacted the instant the lid shifted upward. Not after it had fully opened, nor after the contents became visible, but the very moment the slightest gap appeared. Its entire body jerked violently toward the opening.

But surprisingly, that turned out to be only the beginning.

Because all across the dungeon space, as though an invisible signal had suddenly been broadcast to every corner, heads began popping up one after another.

Then the alarms began blaring.

From somewhere in the distance, emergency klaxons wailed as heavy metallic shutters rattled violently and muffled impacts echoed from deep within secured buildings. High-pitched security alerts swept across the settlement with such urgency that anyone hearing them would’ve sworn an unprecedented containment breach had just begun.

"!!!"

The sudden eruption sent the group into an immediate panic. Xavier uncrossed his arms at once, instinctively stepping closer to Luca, while the dungeon owner hurriedly turned toward D-29 for assistance.

"D-29!" Luca called. "What’s happening?"

But the little system was just as stunned as everyone else. Whatever this was, it clearly hadn’t been anywhere near today’s projected list of possible incidents.

"Host!" D-29 exclaimed after frantically checking the feeds. "It’s the goat barn... the cow barn... and... uhh... the chicken coop!"

"What?!"

"It seems... it seems the animals are attempting to escape!"

"All of them?" Elder Pao Xi immediately asked.

"Well, not exactly, but..." D-29 pulled up several live feeds at once.

At first, they couldn’t make sense of what they were seeing because the screen appeared almost completely black.

Then...

The view shifted.

Well, no. Apparently, the subject simply shifted.

Everyone collectively realized that what had been blocking the camera was a single, thoroughly judgmental eye.

The owner of said eye slowly backed away, revealing Pan-pan in all her feathery glory before she lowered herself, spread her wings for balance, and once again charged straight into the tightly sealed door with every ounce of determination in her tiny (ginormous) body.

"What the heck?!" Rahil practically yelped.

Safe to say, after his previous encounters with that particular chicken, he immediately felt goosebumps race all over his body.

Unfortunately...

Pan-pan wasn’t the only problem.

Before anyone could even begin figuring out why the livestock had collectively chosen this exact moment to stage a prison break, the ground beneath their feet suddenly started trembling.

The heavy vibrations rolled across the terrain like a series of enormous boulders crashing through the dungeon space.

Everyone instinctively looked toward the source.

Waited.

Then collectively froze.

"..."

"..."

"Even Tortie?!"

There, barreling across the landscape with an enthusiasm that absolutely shouldn’t have been physically possible for a tortoise, was the guardian beast himself.

Oh, definitely even Tortie.

After all, how could the guardian beast, who had been tirelessly recovering from the exhausting ordeal of magnificently existing, be the very first to arrive after sensing whatever had just been uncovered?

More importantly...

He wasn’t simply arriving.

He was winning.

Long before the shriveled little sprite could fling itself toward the freshly opened box, one of Tortie’s vine-like tendrils shot across the entire distance with astonishing precision, wrapping neatly around the wrinkled bubble just as it launched itself with every bit of strength it had toward the mysterious contents Killian and the little Queen had just revealed.

The sprite barely got halfway there before finding itself dangling helplessly in midair.

Denied.

Completely and utterly denied.

Because sure, if the great Tortie was feeling reasonable and generous, then maybe it could have some for the sake of peace, but it would have to be after he’d taken the first bite!

"...?"