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

Chapter 1016: The Smoldering Crisis

"Ummm... this ’look’? What does it really look like?"

Ollie practically croaked the question out. It came out rough and strained, like he had to drag each word up from his throat. The ladies immediately noticed how pale he’d gotten.

"Lord Mylor, are you alright?" one of them asked, her brows knitting in concern.

The flickering blonde forced a smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, but he held it there anyway.

"I’m fine! I just... realized it would’ve been better if my friend knew about this earlier. Now I can only hope it’s not too late!"

Then, as if catching how that sounded, he stiffened and waved his hands.

"Not too late in informing him, I mean!"

An awkward beat passed before he attempted to salvage things again.

"So, for the sake of my friend, I have to learn everything about this. Please!"

There was no missing the desperation in his voice.

The ladies exchanged glances.

"Well... it’s not entirely impossible to teach this," one of them said slowly. "But my lord, something like this requires not only determination but also full acceptance and responsibility."

Another nodded. "There’s really no going back after crossing this bridge. Once you move past it, the relationship... changes."

"So," she added gently, "are you that determined?"

"Yes! Completely!"

Ollie’s eyes suddenly lit up with a burning resolve. Even his hair antenna shot up like it was fully backing him.

Then he froze.

"I mean... my friend is completely ready!"

The ladies nodded, accepting that with polite grace while trying to stop the smiles threatening to break out on their faces.

The crash course finally began.

"It’s important to set the right time and place," one explained. "Imagine initiating something while your partner is in a bad mood, or in the middle of a crisis. Would anyone really be able to think about intimacy?"

That made both sworn brothers pause.

They glanced at each other.

Because... that was actually a difficult question.

Luca, for one, had very much experienced intimacy in the middle of life-and-death situations. Just thinking about it now made his toes curl.

Ollie, on the other hand, had never really sorted events that way. Everything felt like a crisis to him anyway. And more importantly, he was usually asleep when it actually mattered.

"..."

"..."

The blonde could only purse his lips and nod as if he understood.

The ladies continued, unaware of the internal chaos.

"As for the execution of the ’look,’ it requires mutual understanding. Every couple develops their own version. Something only the two of them recognize."

"Huh?" Ollie blinked. "Then what if there’s none?"

"Then you make one."

"Eh?!"

"Yes, my lord. The first attempt tends to be more obvious since there’s no precedent yet. But once you cross that bridge, it becomes easier to establish your own signals."

"Oh..."

Ollie nodded slowly, trying to keep up.

"So what do you do for the first seduction?"

"Well, some go for increased skinship," one lady said, raising a finger as if lecturing. "While others opt for something simpler, like the more universally recognized gesture to convey interest."

She paused for emphasis.

"A perfectly good smolder."

Ollie and Luca blinked, more like fluttered.

Like two big-eyed children who had just heard a foreign word.

"A good... smolder?" Ollie repeated carefully.

"Yes, my lord! Men are particularly good at this."

"What? Really?"

Luca raised his hand, genuinely curious, because how come he hadn’t heard of it when he was a man too?

"But what exactly is this smolder?"

"Ah!" one of the ladies brightened. "You know when someone looks at you without saying anything, but somehow your insides start twisting?"

Another chimed in, softer this time. "Sometimes the feeling is so strong that you want to look away... because it feels like you’ll burn if you don’t."

"!!!"

Ollie froze.

Then slowly brought a hand to his chest.

Honestly, there was a moment he thought about the looks teachers gave right before pop quizzes. Because, unfortunately, they elicited a reaction similar in him.

However, the ladies were likely referring to a more positive reaction rather than constipation.

So wasn’t that... something he should be able to do?

But if he didn’t even know what a smoldering look was...

Then, in all the time he’d been in a relationship—

Had he never made his boyfriend feel like that?

It hit him all at once.

It was a horrifying realization that had to be corrected right away! But who could’ve predicted it’d be so extremely difficult?

__

The noble ladies actually had to think long and hard about who they could use as a reference. After a brief but intense discussion, they finally decided it was safest to pull up a celebrity from a digital ad.

Since then, they’d been trying—very seriously—to get both Ollie and Luca to replicate it.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going well.

"Look at this, my Lords. When he does a double-take, he establishes eye contact with the person!"

"You can’t just double-take and look at nothing! You have to look at the person you’re trying to seduce!"

"Yes! And when you glance down before looking back up, take a moment. If you do it too fast, it looks like there’s an emergency instead!"

At this point, wasn’t this an emergency?!

How could step one already be this hard?

"Ah, Lord Mylor, that’s better! But please don’t look like you’re about to cry! It’s supposed to create excitement and tension!"

If the noble ladies thought step one was difficult, step two was far worse.

Because now, they had to freeze the top half of their faces while forming a sly smile.

Simple in theory.

In practice?

A disaster.

For some reason, all that effort went straight into uncontrolled twitching. Their brows tightened, their lips pulled unevenly, and the otherwise beautiful faces of the sworn brothers ended up looking like they were fighting off pain rather than creating allure.

Ollie had a wild thought.

How was it that learning about the Empire’s history had been easier than this?

Was this why their relationship had never progressed further?

Was it because only his Kyle could actually pull off that kind of smile?

"H-how come we can’t get it to work?"

The ladies, who had been remarkably patient this entire time, finally looked at each other in uncertainty.

Then one of them hesitated before saying something unexpected.

"I think... it’s because you’re both trying to smolder at each other."

"Huh?"

"My Lords, aren’t you sworn brothers?"

"Oh yes!" Luca answered brightly.

"Then with the kind of affection you have for each other... it would probably be impossible to smolder at one another."

"OH."

That... actually made sense.

"Then what do we do?"

One of the ladies leaned in, lowering her voice.

"I—I think I have an idea."

She whispered her plan conspiratorially, pulling the others in. Moments later, she found herself holding a dessert in her hands, stepping forward like she was about to commit something outrageous.

It really was a ridiculous idea.

Even the ladies didn’t expect much when they tried to identify something that would make the two exert genuine effort.

But now—

The moment she held up a chocolate bar that had been generously given by Young Lord Luca Kyros himself—

Everything changed.

The lady couldn’t help but feel as if she were holding a national treasure. Her hands trembled slightly as she stood there in her heels, carefully dangling the chocolate in front of Ollie Mylor.

"My Lord," she said, trying to steady her voice, "just like that. Please convince me with a smolder to hand this over to you."

The blonde gasped.

And then, as he tilted his head to look at the chocolate—

Something shifted.

It was subtle, but unmistakable.

Ollie took a step forward.

Then another.

His hand lifted slowly, as if he were about to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. And this time, his face finally began to fall into place.

Probably not perfect, but definitely much better than all the other attempts combined.

The smolder was there.

Or at least, supposed to be there had anyone actually been able to witness it.

Unfortunately—

The blonde had never been known for his speed.

And before he could properly show it off, or rather, before his desperation could fully bloom—

Someone else had already beaten him to it.

"So this is what you’ve been up to, huh?"

"!!!"