The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 699

Chapter 699: Collective Breakdown

The sentiment was touching.

A representation of what they had been fighting for all this time. Just like how their ancestors fought to give them a tomorrow, they, too, would do the same for the children of today.

They would stand before them so that the younger generation would not have to face such horrors before their time.

And as the sounds of waves reached them with every tremble of the ground, Captain Nico was preparing to honor the Marshal’s wishes when—

"Luca! What are you doing?"

It was the Duchess, her sudden question breaking through the haze and helplessness that the soldiers around them felt.

The transmission crackled. Then came a sound that made every soldier blink in confusion.

Younger. Brighter. And unsettlingly ecstatic. One that would’ve definitely softened the hearts of everyone if not for the words carried by the voice.

"Mom! Look! It’s really a giant tentacle!" Luca shouted, as if announcing a sale.

And in the video before the Duchess, everyone else saw the same golden-eyed cadet who mourned two of their people, only this time his drooping frame was all taut, his eyes were shining with what could only be... excitement?

"..."

"..."

"..."

But to the mother who had learned better, it was the shimmer of money.

However, to everyone else, this was... what? Just what was that?!

Especially when the same boy said, "Brother, the bigger ones are really different from the smaller ones! We need to make sure to collect a lot of those, too!" Luca’s sudden serious voice rang clearly through the feed.

Somewhere off-screen, another cadet’s voice followed in panic. "But, Brother, is it okay to choose? D-64 refuses to grab everything and only wants the good-looking ones, but they don’t even look that good—?!"

"Mnnf!" came a strangled noise, followed by a new voice—one that sounded very much like the frantic voice of reason.

"Now, now, little star, let’s get back to collecting, just let D-64 collect what it thinks looks good, okay," said Kyle, an alarmed boyfriend who didn’t want to hear talk about good-looking heads all over public communication lines.

The line went quiet for a moment.

"???"

"???"

Luca hummed thoughtfully. "Well, Brother, maybe it’s because it knows there’s no more venom?"

He paused, then gasped like a man struck by revelation. "Oh, wait, speaking of which—Everyone! We can’t get the ones that have already discharged their venom! Sadly, it’s only one-time use!"

There was a momentary droop in the tone of the golden-eyed cadet, but as if watching a sponge, they all watched him quickly bounce back.

Back at the temporary shelter, there was a lot of blinking.

Definitely a lot of twitching.

Especially from the Captain, whose brain seemed to freeze into forced silence and unnatural calm. Then, as if his mind refused to accept everything he had just seen and heard, the Sector One Captain made a decision only a desperate man could make—he decided to run off and rescue the children.

"Children."

"Monster."

The two words looped in his mind like a broken signal. He wasn’t exactly wrong. It was just that, if the old guardian tortoise could speak, it would have pointed out that those two words would only work when together and in reverse. But the poor officer didn’t know any better, so he took one heavy step forward, alarm pulling him half a stride closer to disaster.

"Cadets are out there," Nico muttered, his voice cracking as if he had dropped something fragile. He moved as if to sprint.

But before he could take another step, he was stopped.

"Don’t," said the Duchess, calm and sharp. She raised her hand on the holo feed, her expression composed, but her eyes were lined with understanding and even pity. "Not yet. It might be harder for you to survive them than to survive the monster."

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang! 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Xavier didn’t flinch. His tone remained calm, his aim exact. "Luca seems fine," he said.

"Of course he’s fine!" Kyle shouted, dodging another incoming blast that could’ve sent someone to the afterlife.

Then, as if his name had summoned him, Luca asked in that bright, innocent tone, "What’s wrong?"

Elsewhere, Ollie, who normally carried one revive pill but now gripped two in his trembling left hand—in case Xavier’s aim got too enthusiastic—called out, "Brother, how are you avoiding Xavier’s shots?"

Luca’s cheerful answer came while he was slicing through another tentacle and neatly storing it away. "Oh! I’m not. I think that’s actually very difficult to do with the Eclipse Cannon. It’s just that Xavier only shoots tentacles that already hit something. So if it hits my shield, I know he’ll shoot it next."

"Huh?! What, Brother?! How are you even sure?"

"Well, because Xavier doesn’t miss!" Luca replied with the kind of smile that everyone could somehow hear.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The next few seconds were filled with that unsettling organized chaos. Muttered curses, shots, and gleeful interjections could be heard from the comms as the cadets dodged or retaliated. And yet, back at the shelter, all sounds felt drowned out as everyone tried to process the onslaught that most couldn’t even follow.

In fact, even across the temporary imperial command center, blood drained from several faces.

But somehow, Captain Nico found his voice small. He could not keep the astonishment out of it. "Cadet Kyros... what exactly are you doing?"

Luca, still cutting and storing while humming with joy, suddenly froze mid-motion as he heard a voice—there were other people here! Worse, unlike when they went to "communicate" with Tortie, there were actually people in command this time.

"!!!"

"Captain Kane, sorry for this!" said the money grubber, his tone far too polite for the carnage behind him. "W-we’re just checking for its generosity! I swear we won’t take so long!"

"...What?!"