Chapter 1285: The Most Telling Clue

Well, the second son of House Nox didn’t exactly expect Princess Kira to memorize the same things he did, especially when the Orcs had been far too busy dealing with the Elves for much longer.

But what Kyle didn’t need to mention, especially with so many people unrelated to their guild within earshot, was that recognizing those academies was practically part of his job.

As Xavier’s adjutant, how could he not know the institutions responsible for producing a significant portion of the Imperial Military’s personnel?

The Royal Military Academy might’ve been particularly famous for its prestigious, occasionally controversial, and often high-profile draftees and graduates, but it certainly wasn’t the only academy worth mentioning.

And several of the others were apparently gathered right in front of them.

Normally, Kyle wouldn’t have found that especially concerning.

The problem was that he’d already formed a fairly good guess about what today’s mysterious activity actually was.

See, unlike most of the others, Kyle had one particularly useful advantage.

An older brother who’d graduated from the same Academy.

Killian had never directly told him anything about the first-year field training. In fact, looking back, his brother had apparently gone out of his way not to tell him.

But there had been clues.

Kyle still remembered the strange period when Killian had suddenly become unreachable, which, some years ago, had been about as rare as Xavier smiling without it carrying some sort of underlying threat.

At the time, that alone had been unusual enough. Yet their parents had remained suspiciously relaxed despite the fact that their notoriously antisocial son had seemingly vanished from the face of every known planet.

Clearly, they’d known something Kyle hadn’t. But given how busy the youngest Nox had been at the time, and how Killian eventually turned up alive and without much fanfare, he’d figured there was no reason to prod any further. Instead, he’d simply filed the strange memory away until today.

The most telling clue that something was probably about to go down, however, hadn’t come from any of those memories.

It had happened that very morning.

See, after Kyle and the rest of DG left, he’d been surprised to receive a message from his older brother, of all people, especially when they’d already bumped into each other earlier.

Nothing long.

Nothing particularly informative.

Just an instruction to occasionally check whether Jax was still alive.

"..."

Now, Kyle had recently accepted that his older brother had gone slightly insane.

But Killian also knew better than to hand him future blackmail material without a very good reason, especially when he could’ve just said the same thing directly to Jax when those two were literally close enough to have a kid together.

Therefore, the fact that his normally careful and sly brother had deliberately chosen the far more questionable option had to mean something.

So after getting locked inside the Academy and hearing that announcement, Kyle had a fairly good idea of what Killian’s strange warning might’ve been about.

What he hadn’t expected was for the activity to involve such a large and diverse group of cadets.

More importantly, if neither he nor Xavier had heard anything about an event of this scale being planned, then certain people must’ve gone to considerable lengths to keep it that way.

Probably—hopefully—because they’d been hell-bent on surprising them.

Though that was all the more reason to be careful.

Kyle’s expression changed.

Then, after another quick glance around, he made a decision.

A faint spiritual barrier quietly formed around the members of DG, sealing their conversation away from the surrounding cadets.

"Hey," Kyle murmured as vaguely as possible, just in case anyone nearby was intent on trying to read his lips. "All your important space buttons. Put them in the other inventory."

"What?!"

Naturally, the first person to react was the group’s resident hoarder of space buttons.

Ollie practically whipped around.

Kyle looked directly at his wife, who looked like he’d been randomly sentenced to death.

"Especially you."

"?!"

"Anything with truly valuable stuff inside, store it away. Only keep a spare out."

Blonde brows immediately furrowed.

Sure, he could do that easily enough. After all, his brother had been kind enough to give Ollie access to D-64’s inventory.

But what about everyone else?

Kyle himself had plenty of things stored inside his space buttons!

But before the blonde could voice that concern, Xavier calmly spoke from beside Luca, his attention still fixed on the unfamiliar cadets below.

"Including the mechas."

That got everyone’s attention.

"Only keep the space buttons containing your school mechas outside."

"..."

Well.

If even the Imperial Crown Prince was telling them to hide their good stuff, nobody was going to argue anymore!

Several hands subtly shifted toward pockets, belts, and accessories.

Those without direct access to the inventories began discreetly exposing the relevant space buttons so Luca and Ollie could identify exactly which ones needed to disappear.

One by one, anything particularly valuable was quietly stashed away.

Nobody outside their little barrier seemed to notice.

Still, the rest of DG couldn’t help wondering the same thing.

Why were they suddenly hiding their belongings?

What exactly did Kyle and Xavier think was about to happen?

Unfortunately, they didn’t get the chance to ask.

Because instead of the expected crackle of the Academy speakers coming to life, a series of enormous mechanical whirs suddenly echoed from somewhere overhead.

THOOM.

"?!"

Then came the wind.

A violent rush swept through the open-air Training Hall, tugging at uniforms and sending loose hair whipping across startled faces.

Thousands of cadets looked up.

The sunlight disappeared.

Massive shadows rolled across the bleachers and training grounds below.

Luca’s golden eyes widened.

High above them, several colossal battleships were descending.

Their enormous hulls eclipsed the sky as they lowered themselves toward the Academy, accompanied by a deep mechanical roar that seemed to vibrate straight through the structure beneath everyone’s feet.

And with them came pressure.

Not spiritual energy, but the sheer physical pressure of vessels that massive descending from above, enough to make the surrounding air feel heavy and turbulent.

For several seconds, the gathered cadets simply stood there, staring upward at the looming warships.

And call him crazy or whatever, but the first thing one Jackson Taylor thought upon seeing those ships was...

What happened to having two more free days?!