The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1310: Ninety-Nine Point Nine Percent

Understandably, having everyone collect rainwater, assigning their Pharmacy students to separate its liquid components, asking the aspiring mechanics to modify half their hot weapons to accommodate the new ammunition, turning used energy canisters into LME grenades, and then making everyone practice firing those modified shells hadn’t exactly been on anyone’s bingo card for this exercise.

But really...

It was a strategy that absolutely Luca Kyros.

And Battalion 10 certainly wasn’t the only group starting to come up with increasingly creative strategies based on what they could realistically handle.

Take the heirs of House Vantari and House Azren, for example, who were currently leading Battalions 6 and 7, respectively.

Both had realized fairly early that they were at a disadvantage in this exercise.

It wasn’t that their battalions lacked promising cadets. Quite a few of their members were excellent, especially when compared to other first-years.

The problem was that they weren’t competing against first-years!

There were "visiting" senior cadets with considerably more practical experience, not to mention those ridiculous Caldris Hostiles who had already demonstrated exactly what happened when ordinary cadets tried confronting them head-on.

And while they were fairly confident they could take down a few on their own, considering elites from Houses like theirs had started training much earlier in life than most, this wasn’t some duel where they could simply ask the enemy to send out one representative for an all-out battle.

Heck, aside from their offensive abilities, neither Battalion 6 nor Battalion 7 was even confident they could quickly reconstruct an entire mecha without the convenience of a fully equipped workshop if one became badly damaged!

Meanwhile, those senior battalions probably had mechanics capable of doing considerably more with whatever meager resources they had available.

And then there were their fellow freshmen who’d somehow ended up with people like Luca Kyros or Oliver Mylor, either of whom could probably rebuild half their equipment with his eyes closed!

At this rate, anyone dissatisfied with their strategic decisions could volunteer to lead such a disadvantaged group themselves and then tell them how much they’d enjoy the challenge!

"..."

Okay, perhaps they were being a little too harsh on themselves...

Still, as future leaders of two of the Empire’s great duchies, Dominic Vantari and Leah Azren were at least honest enough to acknowledge a painful disadvantage when they saw one.

They couldn’t afford to fight this exercise the same way as everyone else.

So perhaps what they eventually came up with wasn’t particularly dignified.

Maybe it even looked a little crazed.

But if they couldn’t defeat certain opponents themselves...

Why not borrow the hand of another enemy to do it for them?

Which was why, when the Silver Rain finally stopped the following morning and most battalions immediately began racing toward supply depots after realizing just how many resources they’d need to survive each day on Caldris Minor-7, two groups were conspicuously doing something very different.

Battalions 6 and 7 deployed their light mechas.

Not toward the nearest supply depot.

Not toward an objective.

But in search of the Caldris Hostiles.

And strangely enough, they weren’t looking for a fight.

They simply needed to get their attention.

Then run.

Preferably straight toward whichever unfortunate battalion happened to be conducting a supply run nearby!

__

Meanwhile, just as some battalions were busy fighting over those coveted supply drops, and others were sneakily holed up in their shelters experimenting like mad scientists while everyone outside blew each other up, there were also those who had already started moving toward the actual mission objectives.

Namely, Battalions 8 and 9.

Instead of competing over supplies, both groups were aiming for the hostile bases themselves, which Xavier suspected would currently have fewer people guarding them.

After all, following yesterday’s altercation, the Caldris Hostiles had every reason to expect the cadets to prioritize their increasingly scarce resources.

In fact, Xavier Solaris, currently masquerading as Xavier Montclair, had deliberately waited and watched yesterday’s confrontation for that very reason.

Aside from gauging the strength of the hostiles, the Imperial Prince had wanted to get a good look at the cadets too.

More specifically, he wanted them to see how the visiting seniors performed.

If the Caldris Hostiles were even remotely competent, they would use that information when deciding how much manpower to deploy and where. And while there were obviously outliers like his little wife, any reports passed between the hostile groups would only make the disparity between certain cadets more obvious.

Knowing his all-too-caring Chipmunk, Luca would’ve immediately realized that Battalion 10 couldn’t fight at his level and adjusted accordingly rather than unnecessarily exposing his people to danger.

Which meant the hostiles would’ve seen exactly what Xavier wanted them to see.

A collection of cadets with vastly different levels of combat proficiency.

After having their faces wiped across the sand yesterday, the most predictable response from those cadets would be to regroup, protect what resources they had left, and focus on securing more supplies and intelligence before attempting anything ambitious.

And the Caldris Hostiles would naturally prepare for that.

The last thing they should expect from cadets whose capabilities they’d already measured was for some of them to ignore the bait entirely and head straight for their hideouts.

Of course, Xavier wasn’t arrogant enough to build an entire operation around an assumption.

Without access to real-time intelligence, he needed contingencies.

So Battalion 8 had been divided into three groups.

The first would accompany Xavier directly toward the hostile base where they believed one of the mission objectives was being held.

The second would remain aboard their battleship, monitoring the route toward the extraction area that would become relevant the moment they successfully recovered an objective.

And the third would position themselves along the expected route of the hostile group currently heading out for a rematch with yesterday’s senior battalion.

Their job was simple.

Ambush them upon return.

Their job was simple.

Ambush the returning hostiles and keep them occupied while Xavier’s team recovered the objective.

Honestly, the plan wasn’t nearly as suicidal as it sounded.

Only Xavier’s group was expected to truly engage the enemy. The ambush team didn’t need to win. They simply needed to hold their attention for as long as possible.

And fortunately for them, Lady Ada Marn happened to possess wind abilities strong enough to make a surprisingly viable battle strategy.

Perhaps that was one advantage of having Orcs, or someone like Luca, on a team.

Their bloodline abilities were already publicly known, so they could wield them openly without worrying about exposing something they were supposed to keep hidden.

The same couldn’t necessarily be said for people like him or the other members of their guild, unless he wanted to answer the rather awkward question of why he was suddenly wielding Ice.

So really, Xavier’s assignments made perfect sense.

At least to most of Battalion 8.

It was just that... one particular blonde was having a considerably harder time understanding why had somehow ended up assigned to the main objective team.

Because Oliver Mylor was a mechanic!

A mechanic!

Why in the universe was he going directly into an enemy base?!

Worse, he wasn’t even going with Ada!

Ada had promised Kyle she’d keep him alive!

Instead, the poor mop was currently being dragged straight toward danger by the Imperial Prince, who just happened to be his good brother’s husband.

"..."

The blonde mechanic became increasingly disturbed the longer he thought about it.

Why did they even need a mechanic for this part?

Was there something inside they needed him to dismantle?

A security system?

Some kind of mechanical lock?

Or...

Ollie’s expression slowly stiffened.

No.

Absolutely not.

He refused to think about this any further.

Because knowing his luck, if he kept following that particular train of thought, he was eventually going to reach the horrifying conclusion that Xavier had brought him along as

And Ollie couldn’t even comfort himself with the argument that the slowest runner usually became the sacrifice!

Because out of everyone in their smaller group, the probability of being the slowest was approximately...

Ninety-nine point nine percent.