The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1322: At Management’s Discretion

Just because others elsewhere in the galaxy were experiencing the same dead of night as those on Caldris Minor-7 didn’t necessarily mean they’d be using those quiet hours for sleep and recovery.

Because somewhere in a supposedly remote, lawless corner of the galaxy, two particular people were up to their necks in bullshit after going from nearly beating the house...

To getting beaten the henchmen of said house.

Yes.

Knee to the gut.

Elbow to the head.

Definitely not the best way to spend the night, and certainly not a sight suitable for younger audiences, but that was more or less what they’d been doing since arriving at their first stop.

And as one could probably tell, their current predicament wasn’t the result of some bizarre twist of fate.

No.

This was all part of a supposedly carefully orchestrated plan that both of them would probably look back on someday and agree had been incredibly fucking stupid.

Tech Specialist Eden Harcrest, for one, had already reached that conclusion.

She resisted the urge to spit out the blood pooling inside her mouth as she watched another blow land, wondering how difficult it would really be to take out an eyeball or two from the bastards who’d actually dared to hit Curtis in the

Of course, Eden was concerned about her own face too.

But she didn’t have to keep looking at herself!

For these stinky fucks to go after her man’s face of all things...

She clearly needed to start praying for something other than strength, because if she received any more of it, these people might end up dead before she and Curtis could get what they needed!

So instead, Eden, or rather, summoned tears to her eyes and let them spill freely down her cheeks.

"P-Please! Don’t hurt him anymore!"

Her voice trembled with the fragile, almost hysterical panic of a wealthy and terribly sheltered woman who had never known real hardship and was now utterly aghast that she and her partner could actually be treated this way.

She threw herself sideways across the filthy floor, clutching the bruised and bloodied frame of Curtis, who was currently going by the name

The casino henchmen laughed.

Their low, raspy voices echoed off the damp, rust-stained walls of the holding room they’d been dragged into after leaving the glittering VIP area upstairs.

Apparently, going catastrophically into debt after being goaded into a pissing contest at the tables would’ve already been bad enough.

But getting accused of trying to cheat the house on top of that?

Well...

That was why they weren’t merely being coerced into putting up their remaining assets as collateral anymore.

They were getting beaten to a pulp.

One of the pirates stepped forward and planted his boot directly against Curtis’ shoulder, forcing him harder against the ground.

"Cry all you want, little lady," the man sneered, casually tossing a bloodied brass knuckle from one hand to the other. "You’re both going to pay dearly for trying to pull a fast one on the house. But hey, look on the bright side. At least you’ll be together when you pay with your lives!"

"Tch. Honestly, it’s a damn shame we need manpower so badly right now," another henchman drawled from the doorway, cracking his knuckles with a disgusting grin. "If the higher-ups weren’t demanding bodies immediately, a pretty pair like you two would’ve been passed around first before getting tossed into the mines."

Eden squeezed her eyes shut as a wave of nausea rolled through her stomach.

She could only pray Curtis hadn’t properly registered that last part.

Because if he took those words to heart, there was a very real possibility he’d fillet every single person in this room the moment their mission no longer required them to play nice.

It didn’t matter that Curtis was normally a perfectly law-abiding citizen.

There were simply certain things the man wouldn’t tolerate.

Even now, Eden could feel the rigid tension beneath her hands. Every muscle in his body seemed wound painfully tight, silent rage practically vibrating through him as he endured one blow after another.

All because he knew how desperate Eden was for any information they could get.

And as sickening as the entire ordeal had become, their ridiculous plan had actually worked.

They’d managed to gather several useful pieces of information already.

But the most important clue for their actual mission was also the precise reason they’d been dragged from that luxurious VIP room and thrown into this filthy, bloodstained pit in the first place.

Apparently...

The hottest craze on the market was currently

Uh-huh.

As luck would have it, the Empire’s entire reason for sending them out here was

So unavailable, in fact, that Fortune’s End was supposedly turning away shitloads of Star Coins!

Earlier that night, Eden and Curtis had managed to secure seats at one of the establishment’s high-stakes tables after being personally escorted in as wealthy high rollers.

So when someone casually dropped such a bold statement within earshot, the two reacted with appropriate, lukewarm interest while silently hoping the people around them would take it upon themselves to explain why they should be impressed by something so dubiously vague.

To be fair, after everything they’d recently seen inside the Dungeon Space, there were very few things left in the universe capable of genuinely impressing them.

Heck, someone could’ve announced that human males were now capable of gestating children and Eden probably wouldn’t have reacted much, considering she and Curtis had just gotten a rather personalized lecture on the subject recently!

Fortunately, nobody here knew that.

Which meant several people were more than happy to boast about how much came with being one of the lucky few who could actually secure a reservation for such an elusive product.

Funny enough, from the way everyone talked about it, one would’ve thought Fortune’s End was some prestigious Imperial Auction rather than the Outer Rim’s most notorious all-in-one destination for practically every lawless dealing imaginable.

And considering the Outer Rim already had one of the highest concentrations of pirates in the known universe, that was saying something.

Still, whatever amused thoughts Eden had about their bragging disappeared the moment someone casually let slip another piece of information.

While Fortune’s End didn’t have the original version of the so-called miracle product everyone kept raving about...

They had something

Something their customers would supposedly prefer even more.

Neither Eden nor Curtis allowed even the slightest surprise to show on their faces.

Though admittedly, that became considerably harder when several people emerged from a more discreet room nearby.

Almost every head turned.

Powerful spiritual energy rolled off the group so intensely that Eden nearly frowned before catching herself.

The individuals clearly noticed the attention too.

Judging by the smug expressions on their faces, they were enjoying every second of it.

And as though he’d been waiting for exactly that reaction, one impeccably dressed casino staff member smoothly stepped forward.

"Ah, speaking of which..."

Eden almost wanted to roll her eyes.

The bastard might as well have brought out a giant sign advertising the product.

He never explicitly claimed those staggering fluctuations in spiritual energy were caused by whatever Fortune’s End was selling, but he didn’t need to. Everyone staring at the eye-catching group had already drawn the intended conclusion for themselves.

Even better, the host assigned to Eden and Curtis leaned closer shortly afterward and quietly informed them that while all current appointments appeared to be fully booked, special arrangements could occasionally be made for the establishment’s most loyal patrons.

At management’s discretion, of course.

Right.

That was when Eden and Curtis realized getting their hands on the product through normal means probably wasn’t going to happen.

The higher-ups were vetting potential buyers and personally overseeing every transaction.

Which meant simply throwing enough Star Coins around wouldn’t get them what they needed.

Still, their night hadn’t been completely wasted.

Because if they’d still harbored any doubts that the people running Fortune’s End were involved in something considerably more insidious, those doubts vanished after they intercepted a conversation between several staff members.

An alarming number of desperate gamblers had apparently been signing away their lives after falling too deeply into debt.

And from a conversation they’d managed to overhear through a listening device discreetly planted on a particular worker they’d deliberately bumped into earlier, they learned that the crew had recently been instructed to become far more proactive about collecting those people.

They were severely lacking manpower.

"..."

Now that was interesting.

Especially when the sudden demand for bodies happened to coincide with the very product they were investigating becoming almost impossible to obtain.

So Eden and Curtis did what any pair of highly trained Imperial personnel conducting a dangerous undercover operation would’ve done.

They started acting like complete idiots.

They became bolder at the tables, practically picking a fight with anyone who so much as blinked at them, and kept winning despite taking increasingly questionable risks.

Eventually, their behavior grew suspicious enough that several guards began wondering whether the wealthy couple had been cheating the house. And even when the spectators started realizing the staff would probably step in and force them to lose sooner or later, the two simply refused to stop.

They kept gambling.

Kept pushing.

Until, in the end, Mara and Dane gambled practically everything away.

Which, in turn, led directly to their current situation.

Dragged downstairs.

Thoroughly beaten.

And now presented with the golden-ticket opportunity to work directly for the very bastards they’d been trying to infiltrate.

Yay.