The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] Chapter 638: Picture Perfect

Thump.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump-thump.

The sound was deafening to her own ears. A pounding heartbeat that might as well have been the drumline of a horror movie where the heroine crouched behind a door, praying the ghost would not find her.

In all her years alive, Empress Gisella had never thought she would end up in such a position. Never had she thought she could feel this scared... yet this satisfied at the sa ti.

She had practically revived herself just to listen. And now, with her ears tuned to every word being spoken, her chest was about to burst.

Because the conversation happening before her was sothing she never thought she would hear in her lifeti.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

"Luca," Xavier said evenly, his white-haired figure towering as he glanced at the gagged man struggling on the bed. His gaze flickered back to the boy in front of him. "Tell . What did this man say to you earlier?"

Luca blinked, golden eyes turning guileless as he thought back. "Ah... him? He just said a lot of strange things."

"I didn’t really understand most of it. But he kept saying odd complints, like how I was striking, or that I should be tired from running through his mind all day. Strange, right? I didn’t really know how to respond, so I just said we had been flying all day. After all, won’t it be inefficient to run when one could fly?"

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.

The Empress nearly keeled over from the force of her own pulse.

Her son, her ice-block of a son, was standing there, silent. A vein probably twitched faintly on his neck, but in front of Luca, he was calm. Calm to the point that if one didn’t know him, they would have thought nothing was wrong.

But the room had already cooled several degrees.

Renard Dreel, tied and gagged, thrashed harder, his eyes bugging out in horror. Because he understood that chill. That killing intent.

Yet the oblivious chipmunk only frowned. "I wasn’t sure if I responded right..."

And that was when Xavier’s expression softened. His voice lowered as he leaned closer. "You did really well."

"Eh?" Luca blinked.

"You replied appropriately," Xavier said, eyes briefly cutting to Renard with murderous sharpness before turning back to his little spouse with warmth. "I’m proud of you."

"R-really?! So when he said sothing about taking his breath away, that’s not considered a cri, right? I won’t have to pay fees? Because I swear I really didn’t do anything!" Luca’s golden eyes blinked up at his husband, worried about possible fees. Xavier had said that if he ever were imprisoned, he’d get him out.

So he wasn’t worried about that. Well, not anymore.

But the fees. The fees were a different issue. How could he pay for sothing he didn’t do?!

Thump-thump-thump.

The Empress’s ears wanted to clap by themselves. What was this? Her son... praising soone? Her son... using full sentences?

Luca’s brows knitted again. "But... is sothing wrong with him? He was saying things that didn’t make sense. Maybe it’s so kind of illness?"

Renard thrashed harder.

Xavier’s gaze flicked to him, lethal enough to slice steel. "Yes," he said flatly. "It is an illness. The kind that cannot be cured. So people have the bad habit of reaching where they should not. There is no dicine for that."

Renard whimpered.

Luca, however, nodded earnestly. "Ah, I see. That makes sense."

The Empress and the half-conscious doctor almost fainted again.

Was this real? Was this seriously happening? The Crown Prince was terrifying one man into insanity while at the sa ti comforting another with the most gentle tone in the galaxy?

Xavier’s eyes cut back to the attendant, narrowed and sharp. "I apologize. I assud this one had enough sense to stay morally upright. I see now... the bloodline of the Holt family really is that strong."

"!!!"

The Empress’s heart jumped into her throat. The shadows listening in practically fell out of their seats because he knew.

Then again, of course, he knew. He was Xavier Solaris after all.

Luca gasped. "The Holts?!" He tilted his head, confused. "The guy from last ti???"

"A rat of a relative. A very distant one, but still... Look closely," Xavier said.

A flick of his wrist. A sharp slice of spiritual energy hissed through the air.

Renard’s waxed hair fell in clumps, sheared close enough that the blade might as well have grazed his scalp. Had he so much as flinched, his head would have rolled off his shoulders.

Renard wet himself on the spot.

The Empress’s eyes went wide, thankfully hidden by the fact that she was slightly tilted to the side. The fake doctor, who was still pretending to sleep, silently scread into the void of his own mind as they thought it was over.

If they montarily questioned the probability of Xavier being kidnapped and replaced by aliens, that move right there just took out all their doubts. In fact, it just made them cling tighter to their acting because they might surely be the next one upon discovery.

But that was them.

What about the great innocent chipmunk who witnessed such violence?! It was the sa one that would’ve driven people away!

But then ca sothing even more bizarre.

"Wow!" he exclaid brightly. "Now he looks almost the sa as you! If he were just a little puffier here and there, he does look like the man in this picture!"

"..."

The Empress wanted to clutch at her heart.

"!!!"

The doctor wanted to actually die. And Renard was seconds away from collapsing into despair as he realized what kinds of demons he’d encountered.

anwhile, Xavier’s face softened again as he turned back to Luca, giving him one more reassuring look. She couldn’t even see everything if not for the reflection she could peek at.

But it was more than enough.

Thump-thump-thump.

The Empress clutched her chest. The sound of her heartbeat thundered so loudly she swore the whole do could hear it.

Because this was terrifying.

And glorious.

All at once.

And it could’ve been perfect, with how Xavier had knocked out and sealed Renard Holt with spiritual energy.

It could’ve been a fitting ending, with them pretending to sleep until next year, then escaping. If not for the tragedy that had befallen them.

Whirrr.

The automated doors slid open with a hiss, parting to reveal two figures. One looked battered, limping forward with a spectacular black eye swelling across his face. The other looked like a man who had been defeated by the ghosts of his past, shoulders heavy with resignation as he regretted his life choices.

But just when everyone thought it was a bad situation, apparently, it could still be worse.

Because it was the eting of a group of people who shouldn’t be eting. At least, not in a good long while.

And the painted picture couldn’t have been any worse.

A fake doctor, supposedly one of the Empire’s finest operatives, was still lying there like a corpse, desperately pretending to be dead and willing his breathing to stay steady.

The Empress of Solaris, eyes wide, seed to be moving in slow motion, because the air itself had shifted the mont those doors opened.

Floating in the center of the bay was Renard Dreel.

Catatonic. Knocked out.

And suspended midair like a ghastly balloon, completely wrapped in Xavier’s spiritual energy, not a thread out of place.

Luca’s golden eyes widened, flicking from the whirring door to the floating Renard, then back again.

And Xavier, calm and cold, turned his gaze toward the door.

Silence followed, stretching long, taut, unbearable.

No one even made a squeak. Even as the Marshal, whose mind caught up, figured everything had seriously gone to hell. If only he considered waking up tomorrow instead.

But that was hindsight.

What was important was the current crisis.

Because his nephew, the esteed Imperial Crown Prince Xavier Aeric Theron Solaris, sharp-eyed yet montarily resigned, clicked his tongue.

There was a collective flinch.

Then his lips curved into a faint, almost mocking smirk.

"Father," he said evenly, "I see that you’ve co to pick up Mother."

"!!!"