The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 218

Chapter 218: Caught

The promise would likely be fulfilled, but only because a certain savior discovered the state of his kitchen.

The returning biomecha pilot was surprised to see the disarray in his usually pristine space and concluded that they had either been robbed or someone had tried their hand at cooking.

True enough, it was the worst option. Seems like a few people attempted to cook only to fail miserably.

But maybe that wasn’t all.

For the group of returnees who had been working on mechas looked for the missing people and bones only to find them bonding over by the river.

Fishing?

Were they actually fishing?

Luca was not sure if this could even be considered that.

The towering figures of his father, Duke Leander, and the usually calm Jax were currently chest-deep in the river. Not fishing with rods, nor even using nets as one might expect, but physically wrangling the fish.

The Duke, in particular, looked determined as he grabbed a slippery, massive fish that thrashed wildly in his grasp.

Jax, on the other hand, went for a more methodical approach—a swift punch that sent a catfish into stunned submission before dragging it to shore.

"Papa...Jax...what are you doing?" Luca asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

All the guilty parties froze.

"Fishing!" Duke Leander answered far too quickly as if the evidence of fish carnage around him wasn’t enough.

"Foolproof, they said! Can’t mess it up!"

The redhead, who had just tossed another fish into a pile, gave an approving nod. "The rods were useless. The nets broke. But this worked."

Luca blinked.

Behind the drenched duo, a group of bones cheered them on like they were witnessing the most riveting event of the century.

Nearby, Butler Gary and Steward Han filled buckets with gigantic fish that were absolutely too large for any reasonable storage container. Some of the fish even peeked out from wooden barrels, their tails flapping indignantly.

"Well..." Luca sighed, attempting to find the words.

"At least you caught dinner."

But dinner wasn’t even the real issue. For that would have to come after someone successfully gets to cook.

Duke Leander, reading, but really, more like imagining his son’s expression, lowered his head in shame.

"My son, we—we only wanted to surprise you. For your arrival. But we failed."

And from the side, Jax was screaming in his head, ’It wasn’t just a failure, it was a massacre!’

Of innocent vegetables.

His innocent vegetables.

The guilt was palpable.

But Luca, rather than scolding them, simply sighed.

The place was messy, and many lives had likely been taken for this...but he couldn’t help but feel happy that people went to this lengths for him.

It was already one thing not to be shunned but another to be welcomed by people who clearly appreciated his presence.

"First things first," he declared. "We clean the fish."

The words seemed to ripple confusion through the room. Clean? Why would one clean something that was just caught from clean water?

Obviously, they imagined a sanitation bay quarantining the products as they would usually do for solid food items to ensure safety.

But did they have to do that for the food from the space, too?

Seeing their perplexed faces, Luca remembered how these people hadn’t had a proper fishing culture for generations. With the contaminated rivers and mutated aquatic creatures, they likely hadn’t even considered eating fish until now.

"Fish have guts," the little chef explained patiently.

"And scales. And other things you don’t want to eat. And if we accidentally eat those, it would make it taste really bitter!"

The collective "Ah" of dawning realization was almost comical.

"Now," Luca said, scanning the room. "Does anyone have extra knives?" Since they mostly used cutting machines for the fruits and he didn’t have that many knives for the job.

For a moment, silence reigned. Then, with startling enthusiasm, people started pulling out what looked like swords, and even his good brother Ollie had out a power saw.

Luca, the stunned chef, nearly choked. "I—I meant kitchen knives!"

"Oh." The weapons were lowered, but not before Duke Leander patted his own massive sword with a thoughtful hum.

"But if the fish resists, it’s good to be prepared."

Everyone blinked at each other as Jax actually agreed.

But that was because only he knew just how much these fishes actually resisted!

And even now, his eyes narrowed slightly at a particularly feisty bass that had nipped at his hair earlier.