The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] - Chapter 806

Capítulo 806: Spoilers and Hypertension

To be fair, this time around, most people on Star Net were initially confused.

And really, it was a justified reaction for something that was rather niche in nature.

For a brief, fragile moment, the Empire collectively entered a state of shared buffering.

But fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Reeve’s livestream already had an arguably high population of experts dying to jump into the holographic projection just so they could see everything for themselves.

Therefore, they were heavily invested in everything.

So much so that what could have taken so much longer for everyone to digest took mere moments.

The chat that had momentarily stalled then began trickling in with the kind of cautious disbelief usually reserved for optical illusions and suspiciously generous contracts.

[Wait. Am I reading this right?]

[Please don’t arrest me, but… Is the Princess… serious?]

[+1]

[+1]

[+1]

Suddenly, more and more people were discussing different versions of the same question until, finally, a brave soul decided to broach the issue.

[What’s wrong? Why is everyone freaking out?]

[Is this rare? I don’t get it.]

[Rare? Rare would be the chance that we would all be watching the same stream today. But this? Those things on there? You could call them impossible instead!]

[Huh? Impossible?]

[IMPOSSIBLE. Brother/sister upstairs, the list had Jade Vine. JADE. VINE. Do you have ANY idea how hard it has been to get even a tiny bit of it?]

[Okay but what does it do?]

[Practically a lifeline for the sirens. It counters the backlash for prolonged stay on dry land.]

[Oh.]

[OH.]

The chat paused again, then resumed at twice the speed as the likes caught up with everyone suddenly understanding what the issue was all about.

That reaction echoed across the stream in real time just as another comment surfaced, long and increasingly hysterical.

[Hold on. HOLD ON.]

[My brother is part of a gathering guild. That’s literally his job. They take commissions for rare materials. Months-long expeditions in high fatality zones. And now I’m seeing the same materials listed here as PRIZES?]

But just when the people were about to respond to the viewer, someone immediately corrected him.

[Correction. Redeemable prizes.]

The words hung in alone in the supposedly active chat.

[What? Redeemable? What does that mean?]

[It means once you get enough tickets, you can exchange them. While we’re all busy trying to figure out what the prizes were, the Orc Princess just finished discussing how people could redeem whatever they wanted provided they have enough tickets.]

[So it’s more than just once.]

[…]

[…]

There was a half-second delay. Then chaos erupted.

__

Evidently, a scramble erupted across the Empire.

It didn’t matter whether one was a family, a corporation, a clinic, a research institute, or someone’s extremely determined grandmother with a suspiciously wide social circle. Everyone was suddenly trying to figure out the same thing.

Who did they know that had access to the Annual Expo?

Messages were sent. Calls were placed. Family group chats that had been silent for years were violently resurrected. Cousins twice removed were contacted with alarming urgency. Old classmates were remembered fondly and then immediately interrogated.

Up until this morning, an Expo pass had been a nice thing to have. A social convenience. A polite indulgence.

Now, it had somehow transformed into a matter of life and death.

And family pride.

Because imagine being the household that could say, yes, we went. Or worse, imagine being the household that could have gone but did not.

Somewhere between frantic planning and outright bargaining, the Empire collectively lost its composure.

Meanwhile, in the VIP procession area, one Duke Victor Vantari was experiencing a very different crisis.

Specifically, he was seriously contemplating choking Leander Kyros.

This was not an exaggeration.

Victor had always considered himself a paragon of composure. Calm under pressure. Excellent blood pressure. A model noble in both mind and body.

But today.

Today was testing him.

They had just arrived at the display of the Gilded Stags, a pavilion backed by the Vantari family itself. The presentation was excellent. Polished. Informative. Everything a responsible Duke could want.

The guild representative was in the middle of explaining their recent pharmaceutical advancements. Mission-hour contributions were at an all time high. Anti-toxin samples for corrupted zone research had reached unprecedented levels.

They had increased sponsorship for pharmacy scholars. Encouraged the formation of dedicated teams to develop alternatives for the most in-demand medicines, all in response to worsening scarcity.

Victor was nodding. Pleased. Proud.

This was good work. Important work. And clearly these cadets would be great additions to their House’s growing forces.

But then someone rammed into his side.

Hard.

“Your Grace,” his assistant hissed as quietly yet as desperately as possible. The normally demure man was suddenly gripping his sleeve with the strength of someone clinging to a lifeline. “You need to see this.”

Victor frowned, already irritated. He was fully prepared to ignore whatever nonsense had interrupted a perfectly respectable presentation.

Then he looked at his assistant’s face.

And immediately knew something was wrong.

The color had drained from the man so completely that Victor briefly wondered if he needed to summon a physician.

“What is it?” Victor demanded.

The terminal was shoved into his hands.

Victor glanced down.

Then stared.

Then blinked.

Then stared again.

His knees almost gave out.

The prize list glared back at him in merciless clarity.

His spine straightened so fast he nearly stood up in the middle of the crowd.

“What,” Victor whispered hoarsely, “is this.”

He sure asked that, but when he heard the answer he couldn’t comprehend, the Duke simply decided to seek a better explanation himself.

But maybe he really shouldn’t have.

The Duke turned on his heel and marched straight toward Leander Kyros with the fury of a man who had just realized the ground beneath his feet had quietly transformed into quicksand.

“Leander,” Victor said through clenched teeth. “Did you know about this?”

Leander turned, pupils trembling, posture hunched, and looking a little too much like a wilted plant.

The listless Duke took a brief look at what Victor was pointing at, before sighing and then shrugging.

Leander shrugged.

Shrugged!

But maybe he should have left it at that, because in the end, Victor felt something pop behind his eye.

“Victor! How could I possibly know?!” Leander exclaimed, sounding genuinely aggrieved. “My precious son did not want to let his papa know anything! Nothing! He said it was a surprise!”

Leander placed a dramatic hand over his chest.

“My heart bleeds too!”

“B-but don’t show me! I don’t want to see it now! I want him to show it to me instead!”

Victor stared at him.

His vision went white.

For the first time in decades, Duke Victor Vantari felt the genuine threat of hypertension.

“You,” he said softly, dangerously, “are telling me you didn’t know.”

Leander nodded vigorously. “Not a thing.”

“You didn’t suspect.”

“No.”

“You didn’t even accidentally overhear.”

“Victor,” Leander said solemnly, “do you think I would lie about something like this?!”

Victor made a sound that was halfway between a growl and a prayer.

Murder crossed his mind. Briefly. Vividly.

Friendship be damned. That face deserved consequences.

He might have acted on it too, if not for a sudden shift in the atmosphere.

The Emperor had looked over.

The commotion had caught imperial attention.

Victor froze.

Leander straightened instantly, all theatrics neatly tucked away.

The Emperor thankfully didn’t speak. He simply raised a brow, a silent reminder of decorum.

Victor swallowed his fury whole.

What he didn’t know, and what would have only worsened his mood, was that the Emperor himself was quietly relieved by the interruption.

Because even His Majesty didn’t want spoilers.

Some things were better seen with one’s own eyes.

Especially surprises like this.

And to be fair, they had prayed for the Empire’s well-being for several nights now.

Duke Vantari should be able to survive.