The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 1363: The Missing Entrance

Not that Luca hadn’t felt immense relief when he heard Sid for the first time since ending up in such an unfamiliar place, where everything looked disorientingly similar no matter which direction he turned.

In fact, he’d practically gone limp, nearly falling back on his ass if Xavier hadn’t caught him just in time!

For a moment, he’d even thought he’d imagined Sid reaching out because of the immense stress he’d been under. After all, how was communication even possible when their small group had ended up somewhere else?

But it was real.

And unfortunately, so were the rather dreadful circumstances that Sid and D-29 had just described.

Because if there was one thing Luca hadn’t expected to encounter after everything they’d already been through, it was a dungeon rift in a supposedly dungeonless society.

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Rifts.

In the current era, spatial rifts weren’t exactly new. In fact, interstellar travel relied heavily on these artificially induced anomalies, characterized by localized distortions in the fabric of space, while natural occurrences had long since been observed and documented.

For a more personal example, Luca could simply turn to his husband and the Therons, whose bloodline abilities fell within that very category. In the future, they might even have descendants who inherited such abilities themselves!

And for someone like Luca, who used to only read about space travel in history books, that level of familiarity bordering on instinct had been quite reassuring.

After all, considering how many failures had been recorded throughout the human history he knew, he’d had every reason to be wary of interstellar jumps and spaceships. Yet he usually found them exciting, especially since the technology had already matured to the point where traveling between planets could be likened to commuting to work back in Tesseris.

He definitely thought it was cool.

But the same couldn’t be said for dungeon rifts.

That’s right.

Just the addition of one word, and all of a sudden, Luca couldn’t help but feel rather nauseous.

Honestly, the young Kyros hadn’t wanted to believe it at first.

Dungeon rifts were something he’d only ever heard about from gossiping Espers and Guides or through news reports back in Tesseris. They’d been serious enough incidents that even a recluse like him knew about them, but he’d never expected to experience one himself, especially when he’d always considered his own dungeon a safe space.

But given his current circumstances, now that it had actually become his reality, Luca was beginning to think that people back then hadn’t panicked nearly enough!

After all, here he was, already needing moral support from his husband when they’d barely even begun dealing with their predicament!

"Brother... you’re saying this is a dungeon???" the blonde asked, clearly confused. "Like, not that dungeon," he added, referring to Luca’s dungeon, "but another one?"

The golden-eyed cadet could only nod. Understanding why his brother might be confused, he glanced toward the still-unconscious pirate, whom they’d safely enclosed within a barrier so they could talk privately.

"But I’ve been awake the entire time this time around, and I swear I don’t remember getting a system notice!" Ollie argued, gesturing animatedly as he tried to recall what had happened with D-64. It hadn’t even been that long, so surely he would’ve noticed something similar this time! "Shouldn’t we have gotten that ominous announcement about recalibrating difficulty levels or accepting new challengers?"

"Maybe it’s delayed?" he eventually suggested, clinging to what little hope he could muster, only to find his good brother looking even more despondent.

"No, brother. That’s the thing. Instead of going through a legitimate gate, we kind of entered through cracks."

"Cracks?" Kyle repeated, his expression instantly turning serious.

"Yeah. You can think of it as a spatial rift... except that instead of a distortion allowing people to jump from one location to another within the same space, a dungeon rift leads directly into an actual dungeon without having to pass through its usual entrance," Luca explained softly.

He looked rather forlorn as he continued, "But without passing through the official gate..."

"We’re not considered challengers?" Xavier finished for him, finally understanding where his wife’s explanation was heading.

As someone who could hear Sid directly, the Imperial Prince had initially been confused by the guardian mecha’s report. Several of the things Sid had mentioned hadn’t seemed particularly connected, but judging by Luca’s expression, his wife clearly knew something he didn’t.

And sure enough, he’d been right.

Unfortunately, things only seemed to get worse as Luca hurriedly explained the implications.

No official gate usually meant no official exit.

No official exit for those usually meant no official entry point for everyone else

In short, no one would even know where to wait for them because there simply wasn’t a door for anyone to see.

Worse still, dungeon rifts could sometimes be so small that people simply disappeared into thin air without anyone knowing where they’d gone. If not for a few rare incidents captured by surveillance cameras from farther away, it might’ve taken ages for people to even believe such phenomena existed.

None of that sounded like good news.

"Wait, wait! No exit?! Brother, are you saying we can’t exactly leave like usual?!" Ollie held up a finger as he stammered out the question, his hair antenna springing into high alert.

"I don’t know yet, brother. From what I’ve heard, in most cases, the dungeon core couldn’t even be found, so clearance couldn’t be attempted... and that’s without considering that we’re not recognized as challengers in the first place."

"!!!"

The mop would’ve liked to call a halt to this extremely crazy joke.

Could something so insane really happen to them when they’d literally just been dealing with a terrorist attack moments earlier?!

Heck, the whole ordeal was still so fresh that they even had one of the pirates in tow, and now THIS?!

Was this what happened when they collectively went too long without taking proper baths?! Had their luck really gotten so bad that something like this could happen to them?!

The blonde simply couldn’t believe it! With all the good karma accumulated by the people around him, there should’ve been enough to last them a life—no, ten lifetimes!

So he began seriously rethinking their situation, only to suddenly realize something!

"Ah! But wait!" Ollie suddenly exclaimed. "If there’s information about all this, then technically, that means people actually survived, right?! They wouldn’t have been able to tell those stories if no one had managed to get out!"

"Well, that’s true, but according to those accounts, they only escaped because the dungeon gate eventually appeared and opened normally, allowing Espers from outside to enter and clear it. Those who managed to survive until then were finally able to come out... and even then, some ended up emerging in completely different territories, nowhere near where they’d originally disappeared..."

"W-what?!"

"Yeah... um, and well, in one case, that happened after more than a year had passed in Tesseris... but it had actually been around ten years inside the dungeon..."

"WHAT?!"

That revelation was enough to leave everyone struggling to catch their breath, while Ollie’s eyes widened like saucers!

"Yeah... although it could also be the exact opposite, since time dilation seems to vary. Sometimes, only a short moment passes inside the dungeon, but several days have already gone by outside."

No.

To the ears of one Oliver Mylor, that was actually even worse news!

Because what did his brother mean they could spend just a minute inside, only for an entire day to pass outside?!

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By the time Luca finished relaying what he knew, he was already fidgeting nervously with his fingers, unable to help the sudden wave of stress brought on by something so deeply ironic.

Had this happened in the past, he wouldn’t have cared about being stuck inside a dungeon forever.

Back then, he would’ve welcomed it as a peaceful respite... but now, what about their family and friends waiting outside?!

Sure, they were fortunate enough to have each other to rely on, but the returnee couldn’t help imagining what would happen to their parents. Would they be so worried that they wouldn’t even be able to eat or sleep?!

He desperately hoped they wouldn’t blame themselves for something that wasn’t their fault.

By then, Luca had begun fiddling so anxiously that his knuckles were turning pale and his fingers were growing red, prompting his husband to gently cover his hands with his own and hold them firmly to steady him.

The golden-eyed cadet stopped, blinking as he looked up at the man beside him.

Xavier didn’t seem nearly as shaken as he was, and only then did the returnee realize that he’d been so consumed by his own spiraling thoughts that he’d already begun closing doors without even considering them.

Then, as though satisfied that he’d managed to pull his wife away from his worsening mental trap, the Imperial Prince spoke softly, a quiet glint in his eyes.

"Hey... if it’s just as D-29 said earlier, are we actually as stuck as we thought?"

He looked at Luca knowingly, calmly waiting for him to arrive at the answer himself.

"Huh?"

The golden-eyed cadet blinked up at his husband, trying to process what he’d just said.

Had he been so caught up in the dreadful accounts he’d heard about dungeon rifts that he’d completely overlooked something important...?!

And as though to remind him of exactly what he’d missed, the Imperial Prince turned his gaze to the side, prompting everyone else to follow suit, only for their eyes to land on the pirate they’d recently rescued.

"..."

"..."

Oh.