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

Chapter 1080: Dangerous Questions

However, all their questions had to wait because of a sudden alarm coming from the terminal of one Killian Nox.

The sharp chime immediately drew everyone’s attention.

Killian glanced down at the screen before reluctantly lifting his head again. It wasn’t like he wanted to be the bearer of bad news that even he didn’t want to hear, but whose fault was it that he became a damned official in the first place?

"I hate to interrupt this party," he said while gesturing vaguely toward the emotionally unstable money-grubber and the floating prompts, "but we’re running out of time before the usual operating hours."

Now, thankfully, the Day Care itself wasn’t particularly under Killian’s jurisdiction. But as someone who inevitably became a central figure whenever complaints, panic, or inexplicable threats surfaced, his workload was bound to be affected by any unexpected delays.

The citizens—particularly the nobles—would become stressed. Which meant the staff working throughout the Capital would become stressed. And in the end, Killian would be dead.

Yes, just like that. It sounded like an absurd leap in logic, but unfortunately, that was simply the reality of his profession.

Good thing these cadets, not counting his own younger brother, were more or less easy to talk to. So upon hearing his words, Luca immediately reacted.

"!"

__

Right!

There was still that.

Luca’s eyes widened immediately as he remembered what he had originally been excited about.

"Wait!" the dungeon owner blurted out suddenly. "The Purification Containment Cubes!"

D-29, understanding the urgency of the situation, promptly pulled up the relevant section within the Trove interface, and Luca could only stare in amazement because the containment cubes were truly available for purchase now.

Honestly, just seeing them listed like that already felt surreal enough.

And if the delicate shopper had stopped reading right there, perhaps he could have continued feeling relieved.

Unfortunately—

He also saw the prices.

"..."

"..."

To be fair, considering how life-saving and CP-generating the cubes were, Luca could logically understand why they cost so much.

That didn’t stop him from feeling faint anyway.

A Basic Containment Cube would cost a whopping 15,000 CP.

Meanwhile, an Advanced Containment Cube would cost 30,000 CP.

Nothing like the glaring fifty million that still lived behind his eyeballs like a haunting memory, but certainly more than several manuals combined.

However, what truly made the little money-grubber hiss inwardly was discovering that the blueprints somehow cost even more than those for an Advanced Biomecha or an Aquaponic Complex.

Were biomechas and advanced farming facilities really such commonplace technology that the pricing didn’t make sense to the likes of Luca? Or were they somehow being financially oppressed instead?

250,000 CP for the Basic blueprint.

500,000 CP for the Advanced one.

Ouch, right?

Honestly, seeing those numbers alone made it painfully obvious why such items only became available after upgrading to Dungeon Level 4.

Back during Levels 1 and 2, simply imagining prices like those would have been enough to make the poor little chipmunk feel physically ill.

But now...

While the costs were still horrifying, they had at least become numbers that could theoretically be calculated in terms of workdays and relatively predictable income streams.

Especially now that Luca could comfort himself with the knowledge that every purchase brought them increasingly closer toward that glorious future 30% discount.

However, just as Luca started entertaining the dangerous thought of buying a large quantity immediately, he suddenly paused because of one extremely valid question.

Surprisingly enough, the one who raised it was Prince Elior.

In all honesty, it might have just been a passing comment to himself, but with everyone having such heightened senses, his words were impossible to miss.

"These containment cubes..." the Elven Prince began thoughtfully. "I assume they can’t simply be opened once full unless they’re inside the Purification Chamber?"

At the question, everyone instinctively turned toward him.

Prince Elior, realizing he had all eyes on him, awkwardly waved a hand in front of his face.

"Apologies. It’s likely not a major concern for most people," he explained. "But I wanted to ask because if these ever reach the general public, I’m genuinely worried one might somehow end up in my brother’s hands."

"..."

"He isn’t exactly striving to become a hero or saint," Elior added dryly. "And understanding how his mind works makes me worry these could potentially be used to deliberately collect corruption and release it somewhere previously uncontaminated."

Rahil noticeably flinched at that. Nothing would beat personal experience after all.

Sure enough, the others immediately began thinking about the same issue.

Before, it hadn’t been much of a concern because there were literally only five containment cubes in existence, all tightly controlled and monitored.

But now?

Now they had the capability to purchase and/or produce more...

Wouldn’t safeguards become necessary?

Surprisingly, the one who answered was Steward Han, who actually had the most practical experience handling the chamber, having overseen both purification work and Luca’s online store operations.

"Your Highness," Steward Han replied respectfully, "we haven’t particularly attempted to destroy or forcibly pry one open yet. However, based on our observations so far, the cube only opens during deployment while still unsaturated, all while preventing the contents from surging back outward."

"Other than that," he continued, "it appears the cubes can only properly open while inside the chamber itself."

That answer reassured many of them.

But at the same time, it also served as a wake-up call because everyone suddenly realized they had never thoroughly tested that aspect before.

At this, Luca—who had also fallen deep into thought—finally spoke up.

"I think..." he began carefully, "we should buy several cubes specifically for testing purposes alongside the ones we actually plan to use."

Naturally, he wasn’t the only one who agreed with that line of thinking.

Thus, after some discussion, everyone ultimately decided it would be best to first equip the biomecha pilots and their respective teams with at least one Advanced Containment Cube while also purchasing several additional cubes of both types for broader testing.

The purchased blueprints, along with several cubes, were handed over to Cece, Count Alexander, and Master Quinn so they could begin examining the technology itself.

Meanwhile, additional cubes went to Xavier, Duchess Amelia, and Duke Leander for durability and security testing.

All in all, after purchasing ten more basic containment cubes, thirty more advanced ones, and both blueprints, the damage dealt to their CP balance reached a staggering total of 1,800,000 CP.

Then, to ensure their commitment to the soldiers remained uninterrupted—and ideally even improved—all complimentary cubes would be reserved exclusively for personnel purification.

As for the possibility of increasing the number of soldiers they could accommodate for purification procedures, Marshal Julian stated that the military itself could formally request increased accommodations rather than having DG publicly announce a sudden increase in capacity.

Off to the side, Noah quietly listened to everything while looking increasingly bewildered.

At first, he genuinely didn’t understand why the distinction mattered.

But eventually—

He realized exactly why politics was terrifying and why he wanted no part of it.

To begin with, the whole purification thing was still under wraps. The soldiers themselves seemed to have managed to come to the conclusion that they would inevitably risk their lives if they were to violate the non-disclosure agreement.

However, people weren’t particularly stupid.

With such observable and repeatable miracles here and there, how could no one figure out that something that required the suspension of disbelief was happening every time the soldiers went to visit DG’s facility?

Now imagine if they were to hear about DG offering to increase the number of people allowed per session?

Understandably, there would be many questions.

Why only now?

How?

Could the technology be shared?

Could others replicate it?

How come they kept on refusing to talk about it?

But unfortunately, because none of this was technology they could casually distribute throughout the Empire, those questions would become dangerous for Luca.

However, if the military itself requested additional accommodations and DG merely agreed to honor the request as if reluctantly—

Then the cadets would avoid placing themselves in an unnecessarily suspicious position.

As young Noah listened to the explanations, he couldn’t help but glance toward Luca, quietly worried that the golden-eyed cadet might somehow feel reduced to a commodity.

But surprisingly, Luca even had a faint smile on his face.

"...?"

Then again, how could Luca—someone who had once spent so long being taken advantage of—not feel touched by this? It was painfully obvious that everyone here was trying their best to keep him as safe and comfortable as possible.

And as someone who had experienced the effects of unimaginable greed, even the fact that they were seriously considering ways to disguise the devices felt rather heartwarming.

The discussions, fortunately, didn’t take very long, which was a clear advantage of having the people in power gathered to make such critical decisions.

Thus, while those who reluctantly had to return to work were sent off with extremely emotional and tearful goodbyes (not), a smaller group remained behind for what came next.

After all, among all the upgrades that had taken them ages to finally obtain, just how many had Luca actually managed to check so far?