The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1230: Good Intentions

The decision itself was actually a considerable departure from their initial plan of keeping Owen’s as the only Zelunium mecha for the time being. However, after consulting several people and hurriedly running the emergency plan by Marquis Osmond and Marquise Julienne, they’d managed to tell Ollie about the change right before he had to attend that press conference of his.

As for what’d sparked such a sudden change in plans, it really started with Luca.

The golden-eyed cadet had been happily supporting the Mylors while the race was in full swing, practically bouncing in place as he cheered, when he happened to notice the almost negligible change in his husband’s expression. It probably would’ve been completely unnoticeable to anyone else, but the observant wife already knew his husband far too well not to catch something like that.

So while the Imperial Prince remained properly seated, the avid supporter leaned over from where he’d been standing, pushing up the glasses he still wasn’t used to wearing as he asked a little worriedly, "...Is something wrong?"

Seeing his little chipmunk immediately grow concerned, Xavier quietly reassured him through spiritual energy that it wasn’t anything particularly serious yet. The only issue was that the golden mecha’s performance against regular mechas, particularly those Luca had absolutely no hand in creating, was proving far more impressive by conventional standards than they’d initially anticipated.

And if Xavier were being honest, even calling it was probably the understatement of the century and about as considerate as he could possibly be in describing the situation.

There was likely going to be much greater interest than they’d prepared for, especially since none of them had expected Owen to perform in such a manner.

Xavier explained all of this as calmly as he could, wanting to tell his wife the truth without making him panic. As he spoke, one arm slipped almost instinctively around Luca’s waist, his palm settling against the small of his back in quiet reassurance. "It’s okay. We’ll make sure to increase security."

Unfortunately, those words only made the suddenly alert chipmunk think a little harder about what could actually mean.

After all, back in Tesseris, being interesting enough for people to notice had rarely been a good thing. If someone became too curious about him, there’d always be the possibility of getting bullied or targeted somehow, which was why it’d often been safer to simply fly under the radar.

So when D-29 helpfully showed him the kinds of headlines already cropping up all over Star Net, Luca’s earlier excitement gradually gave way to dread.

There were already far too many of them, and the numbers only continued increasing.

Wouldn’t this level of attention affect everyone from House Mylor?

Of course, there would always be some worry for his good brother and the Mylor couple, but then there were the other siblings they didn’t get to see nearly as often.

Owen still had to attend school every day, while the rest of the Mylor siblings had their own work and lives to return to. None of them could simply hide away indefinitely just because the mecha his sworn brother had created had suddenly attracted far more attention than any of them expected.

While they’d anticipated intense scrutiny from those involved in the mecha manufacturing industry, they certainly hadn’t expected this level of eagerness from the general public.

Which left Luca wondering how they were supposed to compensate for suddenly dragging the Mylors into something this troublesome without restricting their everyday lives in the name of keeping them safe.

Surprisingly, it was Sid who eventually suggested the simplest solution.

If they were already going to tell everyone that Zelunium was some sort of Mylor family heirloom, wouldn’t it make perfect sense for the other members of the family to have their own allotments?

And if those allotments just happened to become mechas capable of protecting them in their day-to-day lives, then all the better. That way, no one would really question why and how they had such over the top builds.

That conversation had happened only a short while earlier.

Now, Luca obviously couldn’t reveal all of those details to Ollie’s siblings as he begged for forgiveness, but he could at least kneel right in front of Olivia and earnestly insist that he’d really been the one to suggest giving everyone their own shares.

That finally got the older Mylor to stop trying to get around him so she could strangle Ollie in the perfectly reasonable manner of an older sibling dealing with a troublesome younger one.

Though now there were two people kneeling on the floor, because the mop apparently decided that if his good brother was going down there, then he might as well join him and beg for his life properly.

Olivia stared at the two of them before running one hand through her hair in distress.

"Unbelievable," she muttered, genuinely wondering what she was supposed to do with these two when they were even protecting each other!

The young Kyros visibly flinched.

As someone who’d grown up alone despite being surrounded by other children in the orphanage, and who was still technically an only child now, Luca really had no idea how appeasing angry siblings was supposed to work. So, the moment Lady Olivia sounded genuinely upset, his already frazzled brain immediately started supplying him with the worst possible conclusions.

"I really didn’t mean to involve everyone else with my problems," Luca hurriedly explained, getting increasingly flustered the longer he spoke. "I just thought it’d be safer this way, but maybe I made a mistake with the solution. If it’s causing trouble, then I can fix it myself, and I won’t let anything happen to anyone because of what I suggested, so you really don’t have to—"

The words practically poured out of him as he grew dizzier from his own panic, only for Luca to abruptly stop when Olivia took one very deep breath.

His shoulders stiffened.

For one horrible moment, the returnee genuinely wondered if she was about to tell him he couldn’t be close to his good brother and best friend anymore. What if she thought he was a bad influence on the very kind blonde and warned him to stay away from Ollie?

But instead of hearing words he’d heard from well-meaning adults before, Olivia stared directly at him and screeched, "What are you even talking about?!"

"Huh?"

Luca blinked.

"Who’s saying anything about that?!"

"Ehh? But I thought—"

"So what if we’re all dragged to hell together?!" Olivia demanded, sounding more offended by his conclusion than anything else. "The problem is that a warning would’ve been great, you know?! You guys can’t just spring something like that in front of half the universe and expect everything to work out!"

Then she suddenly stopped.

Her eyes narrowed.

"No. Wait."

Luca blinked again as Olivia slowly turned toward the mop kneeling beside him.

"This better not be payback for volunteering you for that talent show. That was years ago!"

"?"

Then, apparently deciding there might’ve been a conspiracy involved, Olivia whipped her head back toward Luca.

"Tell me. Did he put you up to this?!"

The golden-eyed cadet looked thoroughly confused.

"Huh? But he didn’t put me up to anything?"

Thankfully, while Luca wasn’t quite sure how to string all those thoughts together, his good brother seemed to understand her perfectly. Though whether that would actually help save them was another matter altogether.

"Aha!" The newly minted licensed mechanic suddenly screeched from beside him as though he’d just remembered evidence critical to his defense. "Yes! There was that! Big Sis, you said it yourself! Now, it just means we’re all even!"

"No! How could those possibly be the same thing?!" Olivia immediately fired back. "You little runt! Didn’t we tell you that things like this require a heads-up?! We even said that if you’re going to bury a body, you should warn us first!"

"?!"

Luca’s head slowly turned from one sibling to the other.

Somehow, he’d become even more confused than before.

Yet while Olivia and Ollie continued arguing over talent shows, family etiquette, buried bodies, and apparently several old grievances Luca knew absolutely nothing about, the Kyros heir remained kneeling there with his good brother still clinging to him like a particularly hardworking barnacle.