The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1362: When Ignorance Was Bliss

Right. Sid, unfortunately, hadn’t stuttered.

He’d actually repeated everything the little system had wanted to say earlier, and it seemed he was going to have to keep doing so for quite a while...

"FUGITIVES, HOST! CRIMINALS! ILLEGAL TRESPASSERS! Can you believe that?! WE were the ones who got kidnapped! WE never asked to come here! And yet somehow, D-64 and I are the ones being treated like we’ve committed some terrible crime!"

The white-and-gold mecha gave an enthusiastic little nod.

Precisely!

"Was it us who carried that accursed shard?! NO! Did we ask to be dragged into another dungeon?! ABSOLUTELY NOT! But does anyone care?! Apparently not! Because now we’re the ones being marked as illegal trespassers!"

"..."

"And because of that, WE’RE OFFLINE!"

Sid’s voice rose again, this time with such astonishing despair that he was clearly channeling his own thoughts about this particularly traumatic delivery.

"OFF. LINE. It hasn’t even been that long, and yet it’s already been so tragic! We can’t do anything remotely system-like! NOTHING! I’ve had to freeze every connection that could even remotely indicate that I’m managing such a reputable dungeon, so now even our communication has been reduced to going through a middleman! It’s as if we’ve been FIRED! Host, we’ve had to dim our lights, suppress our functions, and pretend we’re not even here, because the moment we start behaving like proper systems, we’ll end up being HUNTED!"

"...!"

"HUNTED, HOST! As if we’d ever wanted to enter another dungeon in the first place! Why would we?! What possible reason could we have to come here voluntarily when we were perfectly happy with our own?!"

D-29 was practically beside itself with satisfaction.

Finally!

Someone was explaining the injustice of their situation properly!

But Sid wasn’t finished.

Because apparently, the little system’s earlier lamentations had contained an entire second helping of grievances.

"And now, as though everything we’ve suffered isn’t already enough, those people are asking you and the others to come down for an EMERGENCY MEETING!"

"..."

"A MEETING! But how are we supposed to attend an emergency meeting when there’s no Host to be had?! NO HOST! Not here! Not anywhere we can reach! What are we supposed to do?! Magically produce one?!"

Sid’s mechanical voice practically trembled with indignation.

"And that’s not even the worst part! Not only do we have to hide from the authorities, but now we have to hide from the cadets and proctors too! We can’t even let them know what’s happening because how are we supposed to explain everybody’s disappearance or how we’d been moving with no one else around?!"

"..."

"Which is why we’re now forced to run away under the guise of investigating where we’ve landed! Investigating, Host! That’s what Lord Killian called it! But do you know what we’ve actually been finding?!"

Sid paused dramatically.

Then, with the full force of D-29’s accumulated grievances, he declared...

"WALLS!"

"..."

"WALLS UPON WALLS! Everywhere we go, MORE WALLS! We turn one corner, there’s a wall! We go down another passage, there’s another wall! We’re supposed to be investigating our surroundings, but all we’re doing is looking at walls of dirt while pretending we have everything under control!"

"...!"

"WE’VE BEEN KIDNAPPED, LABELED CRIMINALS, FORCED OFFLINE, AND NOW WE’RE HIDING FROM EVERYONE WHILE SURROUNDED BY DIRT WALLS!"

The guardian mecha delivered those words with such dramatic despair that even the little system beside him seemed thoroughly moved.

And then, as though he’d finally reached the very heart of their grievances, Sid delivered his final appeal.

"If we can’t even get 1 trillion Star Coins for our grievances from those people who carry around shards of dungeon cores... THEN HOW MUCH MORE SHOULD WE SUFFER?!"

"..."

"..."

Silence.

Absolute silence.

The moment Sid finished speaking, his voice immediately returned to its usual calm register.

"..."

He stood perfectly still.

If there were a function capable of deleting the memory of everything he’d just said, he would’ve activated it without the slightest hesitation.

Lamentably, no such convenient function appeared to be available.

"..."

Beside him, D-29 was practically celebrating.

Yes!

That was perfect!

Surely the Host would understand now!

How could he not?!

After all, Sid had finally conveyed the full extent of their suffering, complete with the appropriate urgency and emotional devastation!

And now...

They waited.

"..."

"..."

The communication channel remained silent.

A little too silent, actually.

D-29 began wondering whether the Host had been so thoroughly convinced that he was already reconsidering the amount.

A trillion!

Surely asking for a trillion in damages from someone who’d not only been healed but had also dared to carry around a piece of someone else’s heart wasn’t too much to ask, now was it?!

But then, after another long moment...

"Sid?"

"..."

The guardian mecha responded immediately.

"Yes, Little Master?"

On the other end, Luca hesitated.

Then, in a voice that sounded considerably more concerned than before, he asked...

"I know we already asked earlier... but are you sure you’re all okay?"

"..."

"..."

Oh.

Apparently, the Host had indeed begun seeing the situation in a different light.

Just not quite the way D-29 had expected.

__

If they could just set aside the rather shocking fact that D-29 wanted them to squeeze one trillion Star Coins out of a single pirate, then surely Luca’s sincerity would be enough to reach everyone!

After all, he was quite certain that a lack of concern or empathy for his friends had never been one of his problems.

In fact, if anything, he’d been told he had a little too much of both!

Ever since they’d managed to set foot on something resembling solid ground, Luca had been so busy fussing over everyone else’s condition that he’d actually needed to be reminded to check his own health and safety first...

And if not for the rapid succession of developments, from the ground practically being pulled out from under their feet to discovering a dying pirate who needed immediate intervention, he probably would’ve spent those crucial moments frantically trying to contact D-29 and the others!

Because weren’t the battleship group the ones who’d originally needed backup?!

In fact, Luca’s little group had been preparing to return and help them when they suddenly found themselves caught in an entirely different predicament.

And rather embarrassingly, judging by their current circumstances, it seemed they might end up needing a little help themselves.

"..."

Because no matter how optimistically Luca tried to look at things, their situation wasn’t exactly promising.

And for a moment, even he couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened.

After all, unlike most occasions when he’d managed to maintain his composure simply because he hadn’t fully understood the danger he was getting himself into, this time was rather different.

It was almost like being perfectly fine with a medical condition he’d unknowingly been living with for some time, only to suddenly feel weak the moment a doctor confirmed the diagnosis. Nothing about the condition itself had changed, yet simply knowing what was wrong was enough to make everything feel considerably more alarming!

And that was precisely Luca’s problem.

Because this time, he actually knew a little about what they were dealing with.

Just enough to understand that they had a serious problem.

But nowhere near enough to know what they were supposed to do about it!

So when he eventually learned that they weren’t the only ones caught up in this mess, instead of looking as elated as his good brother, the returnee actually looked a little too constipated!