The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1352: A Question of Trust

The blonde, who’d been giving his imaginary performance absolutely everything he had, was startled into silence when he suddenly found himself being pulled against a hard, familiar chest!

"...!"

Before Ollie could react, a warm, steady stream of spiritual energy began flowing gently into his body as a comforting voice whispered beside his ear.

"Make a mental barrier. Imagine your spiritual energy wrapping around your mind."

"...?"

The diva of a mop wasn’t entirely sure how that was supposed to work.

But since it was his husband telling him what to do, Ollie decided to take the instruction quite literally, imagining a protective layer of spiritual energy forming around his mind.

And surprisingly enough, it worked!

Although, perhaps he should’ve waited just a little longer before doing that.

Because the moment Ollie felt his thoughts being safely enclosed, he was greeted by the sound of his good brother defending him with the utmost seriousness!

"Mister! Please apologize to my brother!" Luca declared, stepping forward with absolute conviction. "Please understand that some things can be an acquired taste, so it’s okay if you don’t like it! But I’m telling you, the birds like it, so you really shouldn’t say something like that!"

"...!"

At first, Ollie was deeply touched.

After all, wasn’t his good brother standing up for him against someone who’d just insulted his singing?!

But then...

What birds?!

Why were they suddenly talking about birds?!

And what did Luca mean by an

"Pfft!"

Behind him, Kyle abruptly sputtered, and Ollie felt as though he might genuinely lose consciousness right then and there!

Even the Imperial Crown Prince had closed his eyes.

Because Xavier knew perfectly well that if he continued looking at his wife’s dead-serious expression, there was absolutely no way he’d be able to maintain his usual stern demeanor!

"B-brother!"

Ollie stared at Luca in disbelief, feeling as though he’d just lost a tremendous amount of blood from having his singing compared to some sort of bird call that people needed to develop a taste for!

Yet the golden-eyed cadet seemed completely oblivious to his distress.

"It’s okay, brother! Don’t be discouraged!" Luca reassured him earnestly, turning around with eyes that contained not even the slightest hint of teasing. "I’ll even take lessons with you if you want!"

"...!"

Why would he need lessons?!

Wasn’t his singing already perfectly fine?!

As though that wasn’t enough, the arms wrapped around Ollie’s waist had begun trembling rather violently, and he could feel his husband’s entire body shaking against his back.

Kyle was clearly fighting for his life not to burst out laughing!

The blonde felt so wronged that he practically wanted to cry!

His singing career hadn’t even begun, and yet it was already being mercilessly stifled by the very people who were supposed to support him!

And the worst part was that his good brother genuinely seemed to believe he was being encouraging!

"The materials!" Ollie suddenly cried out, desperate to change the subject before anyone could say something even more devastating. "Let’s focus on the materials!"

Fortunately, the Imperial Crown Prince appeared to agree with him.

Because the moment those words left Ollie’s mouth, Xavier moved!

"!"

His figure shot forward with astonishing speed, closing the distance between himself and the mysterious pirate before the latter could react!

However, just as the Crown Prince’s strike was about to connect, the man twisted his body at the very last moment.

The attack missed!

"...!"

The pirate immediately leaped backward, putting more distance between them before settling into a guarded stance.

"Waste any more time here, and the others will arrive before any of us can finish what needs to be done!" he snapped. "And if I don’t lead you, you’ll spend even longer trying to prevent this entire place from self-destructing!"

"..."

Now, that wasn’t normal.

Xavier narrowed his eyes.

He knew exactly how fast he’d moved, and the fact that this man had managed to evade his attack at the very last moment, almost as though he’d anticipated precisely when and where the strike would land, wasn’t something he could simply dismiss as a coincidence.

Even so, the Imperial Crown Prince chose not to pursue him right away. After all, his initial attack had been partly intended to test the man’s capabilities and gather enough information to identify him later, especially since someone this skilled was unlikely to be an insignificant crew member.

Besides, Xavier had other ways to subdue him if truly necessary, but using them might reveal more about his own abilities than he was willing to show. And with the possibility that this person possessed some sort of mental ability, he couldn’t risk having that information passed on to anyone else.

"You don’t trust me any more than I trust you," the pirate continued with a grunt, one hand moving to clutch his side. "But I don’t particularly care how those materials are disposed of, as long as they don’t end up being used to manufacture even more of those final products."

He glanced toward the passage behind him before looking back at the four cadets.

"On the other hand, seem far more interested in doing something about them instead of letting everything get stolen by someone else or simply bombed out of existence. So make up your minds while I’m still bothering to help you this much."

"..."

Luca listened quietly.

To a certain extent, the man had a point.

They needed to locate every possible hiding spot as quickly as they could, but they couldn’t afford to be careless in their search. After all, overlooking even a small amount of the materials simply because they hadn’t realized there were other storage locations could lead to the very disaster they were trying to prevent once those materials were exposed in the open.

However, something else had already caught the golden-eyed cadet’s attention.

Because unlike the three unconscious pirates lying nearby, the person standing before them had something considerably more troubling about him.

Perhaps it was because he’d been exposed to it so many times by now, or because he’d encountered more people who needed to be examined, but Luca had gradually become better at sensing it.

Especially when the corruption was in this form.

Unlike the kind that betrayed initial scans, this wasn’t the same kind of hidden, relatively fresh contamination that those three pirates likely carried after apparently taking that dubious product they’d been bragging about.

No.

The corruption within this man ran much deeper, to the point that he’d likely been living with it for quite some time now.

"...?"

How strange.

They’d just learned that others were going after the illegal product in the hopes of curing contamination and, by extension, spiritual imbalance disorder. Yet not only was this man saying he didn’t want any more of those finished products being made, but he’d even gone so far as to attack his supposed teammates!

Had this person not taken the same product as the others?

And why was he even out here when, given his condition, he shouldn’t be fighting in the first place?

But before Luca could examine that possibility any further, the mysterious pirate spoke again. Judging by his expression, it seemed as though he’d struggled quite a bit with whether to say anything at all, but ultimately decided to speak up.

"The captives... they’re likely going to die from handling those raw materials. Even if they’re not showing any signs yet, it’s probably only a matter of time."

"...!"

The unexpected statement immediately drew everyone’s attention.

"So if you want to prolong their lives," he continued grimly, "give them a clean spiritual energy source."

"What?"

Luca blinked.

A clean spiritual energy source?

"You’re all cadets from the Empire, right?" the man asked, seemingly ignoring their more recognizable faces as he glanced at their uniforms instead. "Then you should have a much better chance of getting access to something like that."

"..."

For a moment, Luca was genuinely bewildered.

Because while he understood what the pirate was suggesting, he hadn’t expected someone who’d apparently been working alongside those terrorists to offer advice on saving the very people they’d been exploiting!

And more importantly...

How did this person know that clean spiritual energy could help them?!

Luca was just about to question him when the mysterious man turned on his heel.

"I’ve already done what I can for you," he called over his shoulder. "If you don’t want to come, then don’t. But I’m leaving."

And with that, he started walking away.

Or at least...

That was probably what he he was going to do!

Because how could the cadets of DG possibly allow someone with that much information to simply walk away from them?!