Chapter 1270: Competitive Advantage

"Should I worry about you liking them more than you like me?"

The teasing whisper came so close to Luca’s ear that the golden-eyed cadet practically jumped in place.

"!"

His head immediately snapped toward his husband, eyes widening in disbelief, clearly never having expected that kind of question!

With one Oliver Mylor groaning somewhere nearby and all sorts of corrupted beasts shrieking and rampaging around them, Luca immediately leaned closer to whisper just as secretively back to his husband, "What?! I’ll always like you the most!"

"Hm? Really?"

"Really!"

Xavier’s lips curved slightly. "Then mind telling me what got you all curious?"

"You saw?!"

The expression Luca gave him clearly said he hadn’t expected Xavier to notice at all, considering he genuinely didn’t think he’d been acting that obviously.

"Mn. Part of maintaining competitive advantage."

Now, to anyone else, that probably sounded like Xavier was simply teasing his wife.

But for those who understood how members of House Solaris operated, they’d know that the Imperial Crown Prince was most definitely not kidding.

And it didn’t even apply exclusively to romantic interests!

Once something or someone had Luca’s attention, why wouldn’t Xavier want to know exactly what had managed to capture it?

More importantly, who wouldn’t want to monopolize Luca’s gaze once they had it, especially when the little chipmunk was looking all giddy and secretive like that?

How could Xavier dare not ask?!

Yet to the Prince’s surprise, Luca actually leaned even closer before whispering, "I was just wondering, when we’re older... Would you look like them? And I was trying to check how much taller I’d have to grow so we can also look nice standing next to each other like your parents!"

"!"

Well.

The curious cadet had actually tried evaluating his own parents earlier, only to very quickly reach the conclusion that, unlike Xavier, who looked so much like both of his parents, Luca’s own build wasn’t anything close to Duke Leander’s.

Even if he ate five times his own weight in rice, he just might never reach the same height!

So after realizing that particular avenue wasn’t going to give him much useful information, Luca had naturally turned toward his husband instead, whose traits seemed to run exceptionally strong in the family.

He was so busy sinking back into his thoughts that he didn’t even notice how Xavier had suddenly stopped leaning in.

The Imperial Crown Prince slowly raised one hand to cover his own face.

Heavens.

They might’ve been right in the middle of a dungeon simulation with corrupted beasts all around them, but Xavier seriously felt like becoming one himself and devouring his wife, who somehow managed to look so intensely thoughtful while contemplating the smallest and sweetest things imaginable!

And as if Luca had absolutely no intention of giving his poor husband a chance to recover, the little fox innocently tilted his head before looking up at him again.

"If we have kids, do you think they’d have your hair color too? Or at least your height?"

Xavier went completely still.

Sure, they’d talked about children a few times already, but learning that his chipmunk could even think about it in the most random places really made something in him tingle.

It was just that aside from the sudden questions, the admittedly flustered husband had noticed something else that left him frozen in place.

That very open gaze.

Actually, Luca had been about to ask whether they’d inherit his husband’s muscle definition too, seeing as his golden eyes had already shamelessly wandered straight toward Xavier’s abdomen. But having to momentarily turn away to hurl several more bolts at the monsters managed to keep him from voicing that particular concern.

Unfortunately, it was already too late for one Prince.

He’d seen exactly where those golden eyes had gone.

And as far as triggers went, Xavier could honestly go to town with just a whiff. Therefore, even while currently surrounded by raging beasts, one Imperial Heir was starting to have a much more personal beast he needed to quell.

After several seconds of trying to keep himself perfectly composed, Xavier could only manage a slightly raspy, "With enough tries, anything is possible."

Luca nodded seriously.

"Right, there’s a lot of them every time, so—"

Ah, fuck.

Heavens help the suddenly panicked Prince!

Xavier immediately cut him off before that innocent mouth could finish whatever absolutely disastrous sentence was about to come out of it, reaching over to squeeze Luca’s cheeks between his thumb on one side and index finger on the other.

The sudden pressure made the golden-eyed cadet’s lips pucker into a tiny little beak.

"?"

Thankfully, disaster had been averted.

Because otherwise, whatever Luca had been about to say might’ve finally broken the already balking expressions of everyone around them who was desperately pretending not to hear a single thing.

At this point, the others were doing their absolute best to transform themselves into random rocks scattered across the dungeon floor, especially when it became increasingly obvious that the similarly curious Imperial Monarchs had absolutely no intention of interrupting the conversation.

If anything, those two seemed perfectly content—determined, even—to let it continue without a single hitch!

Still, there were maybe a few blessings to count. For while most of the group was hell-bent on simply surviving whatever strange family-planning discussion was currently taking place in the middle of their dungeon run, they could at least be thankful that Duke Leander had already been dragged straight into the actual battlefield.

Duchess Amelia had come along specifically to test the benefits of using the electric-type essence Theo had imbued into her current weapons of choice, and naturally, her husband had followed.

That meant there was at least one less person around to spontaneously combust after hearing Luca casually discuss how many attempts he and Xavier might require to produce children with the desired Solaris characteristics, as if determined to do it as naturally as questionably possible.

"..."

"..."

__

However, while everyone else was occupied with that particular problem, one blonde would’ve liked to remind everyone that there were people present who couldn’t even have proper skin-to-skin contact with their own husbands without risking electrocution!

And that unfortunate being was him.

Oliver Mylor.

The newly licensed mechanic, who might very well end up married but dying alone, or perhaps condemned to spend the rest of his romantic life wearing some ridiculous full-body rubber outfit if he couldn’t figure out how to create that blasted closed internal circuit!

At the very least, he needed to learn enough control to stop his ability from continuously discharging electricity out of every possible spiritual pathway.

Including, unfortunately, certain places where the sun really shouldn’t shine.

And compared to his brother over there already wondering what his future children with Xavier might look like, Ollie felt like his own priorities were currently much more basic.

He’d really just like to touch his husband without killing him!

Then maybe, just in case the universe was feeling a little more generous, they could convince his good brother to take a very long break from clearing simulated dungeons!

But what could the electrified blonde do when, after they assumed they had gotten enough training in and finally destroyed the dungeon’s crystal core, that damned bridge decided to grace them with the following prompts instead of giving them more reasons to maybe take a breather?

[E-RANK DUNGEON CLEARED]

[TIME: 04:05:13]

[CALIBRATING EVALUATION...]

[PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: L]

[CONGRATULATIONS! Bonus Awarded for Achieving 100% Hostile Threat Annihilation Rating!]

"!!!"

What?!

WHAT ABOUT NO?!