The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]-Chapter 922: Double-Dipping

Like most expo-goers, closing time was just the beginning.

Today’s expo might not have been livestreamed the same way one golden harvest jackpot prize winner had done on the first day, but it was certainly chronicled by nearly everyone who managed to get in.

As such, only a few supposedly fortunate individuals didn’t get to document anything. Instead, they ended up being documented a lot.

Like a pair who weren’t exactly a couple, but also not exactly just friends.

Curtis couldn’t even be bothered to check his terminal for messages because by the time they once again sat down for a "discussion," his terminal had already blown up with questions about wedding plans or blinking twice if he needed help.

Apparently, soldiers whose keen eyes were suddenly of use couldn’t help but spot Curtis and Eden in so many streams and photos that even alluding to the idea that they weren’t actually together would be remotely impossible.

With how many photos he’d received of them locking lips, even he was starting to be convinced, if not for the same woman pinching his thigh hard enough to bring him back to reality.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Now what? What’s wrong with you?!" Curtis hissed, twisting in his seat and trying to evade Eden’s menacing hand.

Eden smiled in a way that didn’t reach her eyes. "You’re welcome. Consider it a personalized alarm."

"Now you’ll be able to focus."

Deputy Officer Curtis grimaced at that but let it go, because apparently, they were in for an even bumpier ride.

__

Smuggling.

Human trafficking.

Insurance fraud.

Premeditated murder.

Oh, and treason.

Eden honestly felt like barfing as more and more charges were flung into the holoprojection, each one appearing with clinical indifference.

Of course, they had long known that House Orell, a long-time Federation sympathizer, had been up to something again. In fact, it was precisely because of that suspicion that she’d secured her current employment, which had originally been her punishment for snooping where she shouldn’t have. She had risked her life the first time she broke into their servers, searching for traces of her older brother, and if not for what she found, she could have faced far bigger charges.

But despite all that, they had never managed to uncover how House Orell was operating. And they certainly never imagined they would finally find out on a day like this.

The Veyras wouldn’t have favored both House Orell and Aramont if they hadn’t been able to benefit from them.

But seeing it like this, and seeing it after just a few hours, had Eden’s hands trembling in both anger and relief.

Clearly, she hadn’t been delusional when she claimed that something else had definitely happened to her brother.

Moreover, she hadn’t been delusional when she’d informed them that something—no, someone—had been blocking her every time she tried to gather information about a mysterious individual and his wondrous doings.

See, if most people associated DG with Vendor 11820251002 because of the goods they offered, Eden became far more certain of the distinct connection upon being introduced to D-29.

An entity capable of needling its way through House Orell’s servers at such a speed and with such finesse had to be the same entity responsible for rebuffing her countless times.

But Eden swallowed back all her questions because she needed to hear the explanation first.

"If we trace back the earliest insurance claims I’ve found, it’s safe to say their family’s been at this for almost a century."

"!!!"

"A century?!" Ollie blurted.

"Yes, Lord Ollie."

D-29’s response remained even, almost polite.

"The timeframe was derived from archived insurance filings that House Orell legally submitted to Imperial underwriters. When cross-referenced with shipping manifests, casualty reports, and recorded pirate engagements, the pattern aligns with a repeated modus operandi of double-dipping via partially staged assaults."

It paused only long enough to expand the projection.

"The family would transport goods obtained under Imperial exploration permits. Prior to scheduled delivery, the convoy would be ’intercepted’ by pirate forces. Combat logs show abnormal congruence between declared losses and subsequent insurance claims."

Yep. That’s right.

Eden couldn’t believe what she was reading because, horrifically enough, it made perfect sense—if she’d been some crazed villain.

See, House Orell had actually fallen behind in power decades ago. As a family with members who’d defected to the Federation, their reputation with the Empire and its citizens hadn’t been favorable.

But everything changed when alleged soldiers from their family emerged as heroes during a major pirate conflict, proving, at least publicly, that they were still loyal to the crown. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

While the Imperialists knew that was a load of crap, the citizens thought otherwise. And with that shift in perception, House Orell regained stable footing.

They secured exploration, mining, and guardianship permits once more in exchange for their "efforts."

Momentum had been slow, though. They hadn’t produced particularly notable successors compared to other houses, and their influence plateaued. At least until recently.

And that was apparently all because of this.

Who would’ve known that they were directing both their triumphs and their tragedies? Their dealings weren’t even calculated risks; they were quite literally calculated deceptions.

House Orell would seek out uncharted planets under the Imperial flag to gather resources. Unlike private ventures operating under stricter licensing conditions, House Orell was obligated to deliver their finds to the Empire in exchange for a fixed percentage of the mined goods, along with military support, financial backing, and fair compensation.

And they did deliver.

It was just that every now and then, whenever particularly large shipments were scheduled to return to the Empire, they’d unfortunately encounter catastrophic pirate attacks.

Not minor skirmishes.

Full-scale battles.

Alarming death tolls.

At one point, House Orell even leveraged those incidents to claim that they had significantly crippled pirate operations, causing the pirates to hold a vendetta against them.

Ha.

Vendetta, my ass.

Because what hovered in front of them now were decrypted conversation fragments that D-29 had extracted from decommissioned custodial drones—old cleaning bots that House Orell had failed to properly wipe before shelving.

The projection shifted.

And what they heard next made Eden’s stomach turn.