The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1187: Dangerously Close

"So let me get this straight." Killian Nox stared at the three little vigilantes with an expression that suggested his sanity had just taken another unexpected hit. "You decided to secretly deploy a few bees as security because you believed an attack was coming?"

He still couldn’t quite believe the words that had just come out of the Imperial Crown Prince’s mouth as the latter summarized everything they’d learned so far.

The Chief of Staff himself sat quietly beside Jax, looking every bit like a parent who’d just been summoned to a particularly troublesome PTA meeting.

As for Xavier, he’d somehow ended up becoming the lead interrogator for this exceedingly unexpected family conference.

After all, among everyone present, he occupied the perfect middle ground between being loved enough that children would willingly listen to him and feared enough that they actually would.

Princess Nina, who was both the owner of the secret headquarters and the younger sister of the person questioning her, swallowed nervously before lowering her head.

"Yes, Big Brother..."

She fidgeted with her fingers before letting out a tiny defeated sigh.

"We were really worried because nobody else seemed to notice. We didn’t know what else to do, so we just... acted."

Her little shoulders drooped.

"We were really desperate."

Princess Marin immediately nodded in agreement.

Truthfully, she was more than a little intimidated by the Imperial Crown Prince.

Her own older brother certainly had quite the presence whenever he became serious, but Nina’s older brother somehow felt even more imposing.

Still, she couldn’t allow her friends to shoulder all the blame when this had always been a team effort from the very beginning.

The tiny Queen Bee carefully observed the two princesses for a moment before apparently concluding that this was the appropriate response.

She promptly nodded up and down as well.

The gesture was so solemn that it almost looked as though she were formally accepting responsibility alongside the others.

Xavier pinched the bridge of his nose.

He honestly didn’t know why he’d agreed to be the one talking sense into these children when he could barely talk sense into his own wife most days. Moreover, Luca was an adult while the combined ages of these three still didn’t come anywhere close to his.

"All right," he said with a weary sigh. "Tell us why you felt so desperate. Start from the beginning, just like you explained it to our parents."

Princess Nina immediately scampered away on her stubby little legs before returning with several drawings that apparently served as the foundation of their entire operation.

Holding them up proudly for everyone to see, she cleared her throat with all the seriousness of someone about to deliver an official military briefing.

The adults blinked at the rather unique visual aids.

Only for every single one of them to be caught completely off guard by the little princess’s opening statement.

"We couldn’t let them attack twice!"

"?!"

"Attack twice?" Xavier repeated, tilting his head in confusion.

The three little vigilantes nodded with complete conviction.

They hadn’t stuttered.

The children had very clearly said "attack."

Apparently, judging from the rather colorful visual aids Princess Nina was using to accompany her explanation, the little Queen Bee had become unusually adamant that day, repeatedly using her crayons to ask for help because she seemed certain she’d detected danger dangerously close to her parents.

It admittedly took the two princesses a while to piece together what she was trying so desperately to convey, but once they did, they decided they couldn’t simply sit back and do nothing. With nothing concrete they could present to the adults just yet, they instead suggested quietly deploying their own security to keep watch.

Unfortunately, what began as simple surveillance eventually turned into a preemptive attack because, in the end, they really hadn’t been left with any other choice.

"Wait, wait." Ollie raised a hand to interrupt. "So you’re saying the ones who were going to attack were the twins themselves?"

The girls nodded in unison.

Unable to stop herself any longer, Princess Kira finally spoke up. She’d spent the entire discussion trying very hard not to defend the little cutie pies because, as much as it pained her, they did have to learn about that unfortunate thing called discipline.

"Did the baby sense that they were planning to trip themselves and somehow land on Killian?" she asked seriously. "Or maybe they were about to suddenly claim they were carrying his child?!"

The room fell silent.

Everyone slowly turned toward the Orc Princess, who had somehow managed to imagine scenarios even more dramatic than anyone else present.

Meanwhile, Killian quietly closed his eyes.

Perhaps disappearing from existence wasn’t such a terrible option after all.

The children, however, looked thoroughly confused.

They vigorously shook their heads.

"Oh no, Big Sister Muscle," Princess Marin replied honestly. "We don’t know about those. We were only protecting against their bloodline ability."

"!!!"

From the side, Empress Gisella finally spoke.

"See?" she said, gesturing toward the children. "That’s exactly why I thought all of you needed to hear this."

Surprisingly, before anyone else had the chance to react, someone suddenly leaned in as if conspiratorily.

"Wow!" Jax exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "So you girls caught that too!"

Every head immediately turned toward him.

"It’s their eyes, isn’t it?!" he said, pointing excitedly.

The moment the three little vigilantes heard someone validate their conclusion, their faces immediately brightened.

"All three of them rushed toward Jax at once as though they’d finally found someone who understood."

Meanwhile, everyone else exchanged meaningful glances.

Marshal Julian and Minister Kordell even looked at one another because, for the first time, they might finally be uncovering genuine clues regarding the elusive Aerun bloodline ability.

As for the younger group, they were already animatedly explaining how they’d used D-64 as the perfect transport vehicle to secretly smuggle the bees out without anyone noticing, all while doing their absolute best to avoid receiving a punishment that was too severe.

They even volunteered to wear the get-along shirt, and Luca had almost agreed. Kyle, however, immediately vetoed the idea because the problem didn’t seem to be that they weren’t getting along. If anything, they were probably getting along a little too well.

__

Elsewhere, far away from the lively atmosphere of the dungeon space, however, the very twins currently being discussed across the universe were busy tearing apart their new hotel room.

Never in the long history of the Aeruns had members of its royal family suffered humiliation on such a public scale.

To make matters worse, they’d gained absolutely nothing from the ordeal besides their father’s fury.

"We can’t tell Father we also learned nothing about the actual manufacturing process," Lyrian said grimly, bracing both hands against the desk as he recalled the scolding they’d just received. "He’s already threatened to cut us off and abandon us."

Cyrion, being the more wilful of the two, simply couldn’t accept that they were the ones being punished when they were clearly the victims.

He screamed in pure outrage.

Lyrian understood his brother’s anger.

After what happened to them, how could anyone expect them to concentrate on gathering intelligence?

It was as if everyone forgot that the two of them had spent their entire lives being doted on and served hand and foot. They’d never truly been injured before, so being reduced to such a pitiful state by something they couldn’t even see was almost beyond comprehension.

What made everything even worse was that their public image had completely collapsed, all because their attendants had been too incompetent to help them quickly enough.

Had they acted faster, the entire universe wouldn’t have witnessed the two of them screaming and flailing in utter humiliation.

Nor would Star Net now be overflowing with criticism from spectators claiming they’d originally wanted to help, only to think better of it after witnessing how viciously the twins berated their own attendants. After all, if they risked stepping in against an enemy no one else could even see, they might’ve ended up receiving the same treatment.

Feeling an unpleasant headache beginning to form, Lyrian switched off the holographic display before looking toward his brother.

"We’ll have to rethink our approach over the next few days," he said quietly. "If it comes down to it, we’ll simply use a different method."

His eyes gradually darkened.

"And if we’re truly left with no other choice... then we’ll use "

Neither of them particularly wanted to subjugate others against their will.

Unfortunately, these Imperials, who thought far too highly of themselves despite belonging to a race that had barely established itself among the stars, were steadily forcing their hand.