The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 983

Chapter 983: Tied Hands

Greed.

Pride.

Fear.

The Imperial Crown Prince couldn’t help but berate himself for entertaining such thoughts at such a critical moment.

Normally, deciding what to do would’ve been easy. He was never one to hesitate, not even when he believed corruption could very well take his life, so the fact that he was being this cautious now felt almost ridiculous.

And yet, seated in the middle of a darkened hall, as desperate bidders clung to their last hope and tried to outpace Cassian—who had already raised the stakes from fifty-seven billion to seventy-two billion—Xavier found himself glancing at Kyle.

The adjutant had already caught on.

Xavier mouthed something without a sound, and Kyle responded just as quickly, nodding before moving as a member of House Nox.

"Eighty billion."

Ollie practically wriggled at the number, not because his brother didn’t deserve it, but because he hadn’t expected Kyle to suddenly join the bidding, and certainly not from right behind him.

"!!!"

If he had eight billion to spare, he should have said so earlier! Then again, Ollie was also certain that his brother wouldn’t have liked it if he personally bid that much money when they could simply dance together at home. At least before Cassian actually participated, and it became a battle between the Empire and the Federation.

But the thing was, Xavier never really meant for Kyle to win.

Aside from needing to verify something on the security front, the Prince simply needed to clear his head, because his thoughts were starting to feel suffocating, as though invisible restraints had suddenly wrapped around him and refused to let go.

Moreover, there would be no point if Kyle won the auction, because it wouldn’t really calm the turmoil pelting the unfortunate Sid from within his sea of consciousness.

Because really, what Xavier wanted was a moment with his wife, and he wanted certainty that Luca wouldn’t have to go anywhere near Cassian Veyra.

"Master."

The nudge came quietly and carefully, as Sid attempted to avoid stepping on any landmines while asking his owner about his plans.

"Are you going to shed your current identity?"

"..."

"..."

Now, it could’ve been an easy yes if not for the fact that doing so would drag Luca out of the life he was currently enjoying, all for a dance his little wife might even consider trivial.

At night, when it was just the two of them under the covers, they would talk about what they wanted to do.

Luca would excitedly go through the list he had made, and what a long list it was. There were scribbles about improving the dungeon, about creating more products, and about making things he thought others would also like.

And then, off to the side, Xavier would find smaller notes.

The kind that revealed what he was curious about.

Xavier had seen them.

Luca wanted to explore. He wanted to see what mining planets looked like, of all places, and he was curious about the kind of farming the people used to grow all those artificial plants and produce.

In short, he was excited for the future.

Excited to enjoy the kind of freedom he had never truly had before.

And so, who was Xavier to take that away from him?

When the very reason he himself hadn’t returned to the Imperial family, despite meeting the qualifications long, long ago, was because he felt he hadn’t done what he needed to do freely as someone who wouldn’t right away be constrained by formalities and procedure.

And yet here he was, thinking about stepping in and bidding without even asking Luca what he wanted.

How selfish and hypocritical would that be?

Now it would have been different had there been no choice. But actually, even now, he was relatively sure that Luca wouldn’t forsake him regardless of his decision. Because Luca just wasn’t that kind of person.

He was the type who would willingly hold together a rocking boat. So it was probably not surprising that, despite it probably being a downgrade from the life he could have had, his wife had already told him that they would face everything together.

But that didn’t mean it had to happen now.

Not like this.

Not when this was so clearly a trap.

__

Sure, the probability of Cassian knowing his identity was probably lower than the likelihood of him using this event to force out all the hidden figures while announcing his discovery.

So, considering the perfect opportunity, it would just be icing on the cake of that scheming bastard if the Imperial Prince or any other powerful entity ended up revealing themselves in the process.

It may not be obvious to many, but they were currently in a fuck it if you do, fuck it if you don’t scenario.

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