The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1229: A Family Matter

Now, it’d certainly be nice to say that the mop simply showed everyone his sample material, smiled for a few pictures, struck a few poses, bowed a little, and finally received his brand-spanking-new official license before peacefully calling it a day.

Unfortunately, that would’ve been a complete lie.

Especially when, even now, the newly licensed mechanic was being chased down by several relatively furious siblings who were still reeling from the aftermath of his little press conference.

"Come back here, you little—"

Olivia Mylor, older sister of the survivalist mop currently fleeing for his life, barely managed to catch herself before the curse escaped her mouth.

She’d already been halfway through shouting it while hunting down Ollie when she remembered that there were still other people around them. Granted, they’d finally managed to escape the conference room with great difficulty and relocate somewhere considerably more private after the stunt Ollie had pulled, but there were still enough people present that Olivia ultimately swallowed the rest of the curse and substituted it with a muffled noise of pure rage.

Meanwhile, Ollie had already taken refuge behind his husband.

"I was going for fairness!" the blonde yelled as he popped his head out from behind Kyle. "Fairness!"

Unfortunately, Kyle wasn’t exactly the perfect shield he’d normally been.

After all, the poor man had only just managed to survive meeting Ollie’s other siblings himself. Asking him to immediately turn around and defend the primary cause of their current outrage probably wasn’t going to work particularly well.

Realizing his usual dedicated safety net couldn’t save him this time, Ollie made the only reasonable decision available to someone in his position.

He ran.

Not toward his father, obviously.

Ollie wasn’t stupid enough to trust his Pop when there was a very real possibility he’d personally grab his own flesh and blood by the collar and hand him over to Olivia.

Instead, the mop bypassed his entire biological family and ran straight toward Luca.

"Brother!"

Luca suddenly found himself with his normally good brother hiding behind him while one towering Olivia Mylor came storming after them.

"!"

The golden-eyed cadet immediately raised both hands, looking between his bestest friend and the furious older sister of said good brother before offering Olivia a rather sheepish smile.

"Big Sister! It’s actually my fault!" Luca hurriedly confessed, looking shy but completely earnest, as though he were genuinely trying to take responsibility for the entire disaster.

Olivia stopped dead in her tracks.

Normally, she was the easiest sibling to deal with, mostly because the resident hermit rarely possessed enough social energy to make herself anyone else’s problem. But every once in a while, something outrageous enough would happen that Olivia somehow managed to summon an entire year’s worth of energy in one go, all for the noble purpose of exacting justice.

And this was apparently one of those moments.

Her eyes widened.

She couldn’t believe Ollie had somehow managed to get this little angel to take the fall for him!

Because really, who else could’ve possibly come up with something as unhinged as publicly declaring:

Uh-huh.

was why Olivia had been chasing her younger brother through the halls in the first place.

She wanted him to properly understand the error of his ways!

Of course, without any additional context, anyone hearing that statement might’ve wondered why Olivia was so furious over what was, objectively speaking, an incredibly sweet sentiment.

Her younger brother had basically announced to the universe that every one of his siblings could potentially own their own Zelunium mecha as part of their inheritance.

What kind of older sister would get angry about that?

Well, one whose idiot younger brother had said it immediately after spending an entire press conference showing everyone exactly how absurdly precious Zelunium was!

__

See, the reactions immediately following Ollie’s little revelation could’ve been divided into several camps.

There were those who were definitely confused, those who immediately realized something was very wrong, and those who’d simply heard the name of the material and collectively cooed over how majestic that sounded.

But aside from those camps, the ones everyone really should’ve been wary of were the people whose automatic reaction to hearing about something unfamiliar was to immediately search for answers.

Because it didn’t take those people very long to discover one rather important problem.

Zelunium didn’t exactly exist.

There were no known records of it, no established research, and certainly nothing that could explain how Oliver Mylor had somehow used it to manufacture the absolute monster everyone had just watched dismantle twenty other mechas.

To that, the blonde actually agreed rather easily.

"Yeah, I expected that," Ollie admitted, nodding along as though this were precisely why he’d decided to talk about it now. "That’s why I figured I should explain a little before even more weird speculations start coming out."

And explain he did.

The only problem was that somewhere along the way, Ollie casually mentioned that Zelunium was an extremely unique material that’d been in their family for a very long time, one they’d ultimately decided to use because this happened to be a rather special occasion.

Then, while attempting to demonstrate one of its more unusual characteristics, he nearly blasted a master mechanic’s wig straight off his head when the tiny piece of Zelunium suddenly returned the energy directed at it.

"!!!"

For one brief, terrifying moment, Owen thought his brother was about to lose his newly obtained license before he’d even gotten the chance to properly celebrate receiving it.

Thankfully, instead of the master mechanics demanding Ollie’s head on a stake, several of them practically lunged forward.

"Do that again!"

"?!"

Yes.

Again.

Apparently, nearly losing one’s wig was a perfectly acceptable sacrifice in the name of scientific discovery.

And by that point, Zelunium, particularly that tiny golden piece Ollie kept subjecting to increasingly random tests right in front of them, had already completely taken over the sensibilities of everyone fortunate or unfortunate enough to possess functioning eyes.

But if even the Empire’s master mechanics were staring at that tiny piece like they might willingly exchange an organ for it, then what more could be expected from the factions already imagining exactly what they could accomplish if they got their hands on such a material?

Elevation.

Progress.

Domination.

The possibilities were practically endless!

Soon enough, people who should’ve been sitting nicely in their seats were already halfway to standing, looking as though they might storm House Mylor themselves just for the privilege of being the first to ask whether Zelunium was available for purchase.

Money?

Please.

At that point, there were probably factions prepared to offer enough of it to make several noble houses question whether pride was really all that important.

With the atmosphere getting increasingly heated, one would’ve thought Ollie’s decision to gather everyone for this little question-and-answer portion had actually been part of some brilliant marketing strategy.

Build up the mystery.

Demonstrate the product.

Make everyone desperate.

Then name the price.

Except, much to everyone’s surprise, and particularly the surprise of Ollie’s very own siblings, the blonde did the complete opposite.

"Oh, but we don’t really have a lot of it," Ollie casually added. "So I figured I should say now that we can’t sell any."

"?!"

Several expressions immediately stiffened.

Then Ollie, completely oblivious (not) to the catastrophe he was about to cause for his own flesh and blood, continued cheerfully, "All my siblings will receive their share of the family heirloom, so it’s not really something I can freely distribute, especially when there isn’t much of it to begin with."

"!!!"

If his previous demonstration had been a bomb, those words were a death sentence.

All around the room, the people who’d already begun imagining the weapons, armor, and mechas they could create with Zelunium felt those beautiful dreams getting violently ripped out of their hands.

Not for sale.

Limited supply.

Family heirloom.

Already allocated.

What kind of nightmare was this?!

Unfortunately for the Mylors, that collective despair lasted for approximately one minute.

Because once the initial devastation passed, some very intelligent people realized something.

Wait.

Oliver Mylor couldn’t sell it because the Zelunium didn’t belong solely to him.

His had shares.

Meaning there were other Mylors.

Several of them.

"!"

Heads slowly began turning.

Owen was probably the only Mylor who looked as though he’d just been granted salvation.

The rest of his siblings, meanwhile, were still staring at Ollie like they needed him to repeat those absurd words one more time just to make sure they’d heard him correctly.

Unfortunately, by then, it was already far too late.

Because Oliver Mylor, beloved younger brother and apparent traitor to his own bloodline, actually turned his head toward where his family was standing.

Then he smiled brightly.

And waved.

At them.

"!!!"

It was practically a formal introduction!

In one innocent wave, Ollie had successfully shared all that heat, greed, curiosity, and borderline obsession with his unsuspecting siblings.

So yes.

Olivia had several perfectly valid reasons for wanting to strangle him.

And now, not only was that punk running away from the consequences of his own actions, but he’d somehow managed to get Luca Kyros to stand there and earnestly insist that everything had actually been his fault?!

But what the Mylor Heiress didn’t know was that, contrary to popular belief, only Luca Kyros could actually make good on a promise like that.

Because who else could casually suggest preparing even more mechas himself just to make sure everyone was protected in their day-to-day lives?!