Rising up from a Nobleman to Intergalactic Warlord!!

—Several Days Later—

"Good Morning, Queen Mylene.", I said, as the maids pushed me into the King's Study.

Having arrived yesterday morning, after several days of travel, I spent the entire day reviewing proper etiquette with the Head Butler and being vigorously scrubbed down by the maids in the bath. While they did not outright say anything, they greatly disdained me. Uncertain if the Cabinet Ministers instructed them to do so or if it was because of my rural background, either way, it was completely unacceptable.

'I hope the Queen is reasonable with me this morning. After being ripped from my bed at the asscrack of dawn, thrown into my business suit, and dragged here, my patience is frayed.', I thought, ready to blow a gasket.

"Good Morning, Leon Fou Bartfort. I see I am not the only one upset about our early morning meeting.", Mylene said, with bags under her eyes, "Let me start by saying that we did not ask for the meeting to be done so early, the Cabinet Ministers did. I…I mean we are equally as upset about this as you are."

"I beg your pardon, but it is just the two of us here.", I remarked, seeing no one else here, "Does that mean King Roland will be joining us soon?"

"He…he is unfortunately busy at the moment.", the Queen stated, clenching her fists.

Noticing her facial expression begin to sour, I realized I had stepped on a landmine. Vaguely remembering that the King had a harem, it was clear where his priorities lay outside the public view. Feeling bad for her, as she was unwanted by him, I tempered my anger as she was undeserving of it.

"My apologies, forgive my inconsiderate question.", I stated, bowing my head slightly, "If I may be so bold, did the Cabinet Ministers want the meeting this early to try and throw me off? I suspect they doubt my Father and the Guild's reports and want to see my skills in person."

"How keen of you to pick up on that.", Mylene said, nodding her head, "As you suspect, they want to test you before entrusting you with many of our Kingdom's most treasured relics."

'If they wanted proof, I could have flown my boat here to show them…', I thought, "Shall we proceed then? I assume this concerns the hanger beneath the capital where the Holfort Kingdom keeps its strongest weapon."

"You…you know about that?!", she gasped, surprised that I knew about the secret hanger, "Yes…the Cabinet Ministers would like you to look at the Royal Airship as it is inoperable. Given your findings several years ago, we need the ship to be operational in case we go to war with the Principality."

Nodding my head in acknowledgment, Mylene rose from her seat and motioned for me to follow her. Making our way to the palace dungeon, the Queen led me down a series of corridors till we came to a dead end. Pulling on the last torch on our left, a secret door opened revealing an elevator inside. Stepping onto the lift, the Queen hit a button and began to speak.

"While I doubt you would say anything, everything you will see today is strictly confidential. Under no circumstances may you disclose anything you see or hear to anyone outside the Royal Family.", Mylene commanded me.

"Understood.", I agreed, 'Not like anyone would believe me anyways.'

Reaching the underground hanger several minutes later, the lift doors opened revealing a massive man-made cavern. Chiseled out of solid stone, Old Humans had created a gigantic airship port beneath where our modern capital sat. Easily capable of holding thirty or more ships, currently only two ships were docked here.

"Wow, this place is enormous.", I remarked, taking a second to admire the place.

"Indeed, it is a marvelous sight to behold.", Mylene agreed, motioning to the hundreds of staff members running all over the place, "As you can see, we are in the process of restoring this place to full operation. It fell into disrepair several generations ago, but with the recent threats, it felt prudent to bring this place back to functional use."

Motioning for me to continue following her, Mylene led me along several catwalks that ultimately brought us to the Royal Airship. Noticing several older men in sixteenth-century garbs looking over the craft, I assumed they were the Cabinet Ministers. Stopping their examination as we drew near, they turned to the Queen and gave her a respectful bow.

"Good Morning, Queen Mylene.", one of the Minister's said, stepping forward to greet her.

"Good Morning, Prime Minister Jacob.", Mylene replied, with a polite smile, "This is Leon Fou Bartfort, the young man called the Holfort Prodigy by the Academy and Guilds."

"Ah…I see. It is a pleasure to me you…", Jacob said, giving me a disgusted glance for a fraction of a second.

'It is definitely the Cabinet Ministers, these motherfuckers!', I thought, "Cut the crap, I am no fool you old fart. You are the ringleader behind the mistreatment I have endured since my arrival yesterday. Ordering the maids to scrub me raw last night, and telling them to deny my access to a bathroom this morning is unacceptable. All of you called me here for this meeting, if you want my help do not treat me like dirt!"

Opening his mouth to chew me out, the Prime Minister quickly shut his mouth as Mylene began to speak. Looking at me first, she wanted to clarify what my accusations were.

"Wait a moment, are you saying the castle maids have been mistreating you?", Mylene asked, looking at me with remorse.

"Yes, that is correct. I was forced to sit through a several-hour lecture on etiquette by the Head Butler, the maids rubbed my skin raw last night cleaning me, they denied me access to a bathroom this morning, and refused to let me eat anything before meeting with you today.", I told her, "I understand their suspicions about me, but they have crossed a line. If this is how they want to treat the only person who can repair Lost Items, I will happily leave and go to the Adventurers Guild."

Taking me at my word, Mylene turned toward the Cabinet Ministers to confirm if my accusations were true. Crumpling under pressure, a few men began sweating profusely all but confirming my statements.

"Do you deny his claims?", Mylene pressed them, her icy gaze burrowing into their minds.

"Your Grace, we did this to protect our Kingdom from yet another potential fraudster!!", one of them proclaimed, unable to withstand her pressure, "There have been dozens of individuals that have claimed they could repair Lost Items, and every time they were found to be frauds. After the last man stole a priceless artifact from the treasury several years ago, we chose to treat all claimants in the future like frauds."

"So you do acknowledge that his accusations are accurate…", the Queen groaned, "While I understand wanting to protect our national treasures, what was your plan if Leon is indeed the real deal?"

Looking at one another none of them had thought that far ahead. Turning back to me, the Queen gave me an apologetic smile.

"Forgive my husband and I, we were unaware that they had ordered our staff to act out of line. I swear to you that moving forward they will not act impolitely to you.", Mylene swore, "If you can repair the ship, how can we make this up to you? I would hate for you to leave here on bad terms with us."

"After I fix this ship, I would like assistance in opening my own Airship Workshop here in the capital. It is a tough market to break into, and the two existing workshops have a reputation for running competitors out of business. Having the Crown and the Cabinet Ministers backing my workshop would help prevent that from happening to me. Of course, I would be more than happy to work on any craft or Lost Item you bring to me.", I told her, 'It will be the perfect cover for repairing and building Starships!'

"I understand, we would be more than happy to aid your endeavors. Please rest assured that everything will be taken care of by us, right gentlemen?", Mylene said, glancing over her shoulders with a deadly glare, 'If you say no, I will replace you with more competent ministers. Our enemies will pounce on him if we do not lock him down.'

Sensing that their livelihoods were in danger, all of the ministers immediately agreed with Queen Mylene. Overexaggerating their agreement, to appease her, I wondered how scary she might be behind closed doors.

"Moving on, what issues are you having with this craft?", I asked, making a mental checklist of potential glaring issues, "The Levitation Engines are working as the ship is still airborne. Is it an activation issue? If memory serves, two individuals with a high affection rating for one another are required to rouse the ship from its slumber. Is it not working properly?"

Climbing onto the ship, I began checking the wiring on the platform the two individuals needed to stand on to receive their scores. While I was checking things out, the group was taken aback by my knowledge of the ship and how it turned on.

"Activating the ship is not the problem, our issue is that the ship does not move. We have given it verbal commands and tried using manual controls inside, but nothing works.", she explained, pointing to the cockpit, "There are several flashing lights on the instrument panel in the front of the ship. We do not know what the lights mean as the language around them is unknown to us."

Peering through the window, to see the lights she was referring to, I noticed that they were all system warning lights. Nodding my head, I pulled my T-45 Power Armor out and got suited up. Walking to the nearest entry door, I began fiddling with a cover panel that hid a keypad. Since I did not have override codes, prying off the keypad and hooking my onboard computer to the ship was my only option.

"What is it that you are doing, Young Leon?", Prime Minister Jacob asked, having never seen anyone do what I was doing.

"Since we do not have a couple here to rouse the ship, I have to manually override the ship's systems to open the doors.", I told him, granting myself System Administrator access.

Now that I had full access to the ship's security system, I opened all the external doors with a press of a button. Loudly clapping their hands, the Cabinet Ministers realized I was the real deal. Putting everything back in its place, all of us boarded the ship so I could get a better view of the trouble lights. As soon as I stepped into the cockpit, the ship's AI began conversing with me.

<Greetings Captain, how may I assist you?>

(AN: Just as a heads up, all of the machines in this world use the English language to communicate. English is a dead language now because only the Old Humans used it, and they left the planet after losing the war. When the MC speaks to the machines, only the machines will understand him, everyone else will hear a foreign language. This only applies to the humans in this first world. Everywhere else, English is the predominant language.)

"Leon, what was that!?", Mylene shouted, with a terrified expression.

"That was the ship, many Lost Items can communicate in a limited capacity.", I assured her, "Computer, run diagnostics on all systems please."

<Understood, running full system diagnostics test now.>

While the ship ran its checks, I climbed under the instrument panel and began checking for faulty connections. Doing a little cable management, to ensure no one's foot got caught on the wire harnesses, everything else looked good as far as I could tell. As I was picking myself up off the floor, the computer came back with the results.

<Please review the Propulsion, Stability, and Weapons control systems for potential damage.>

"Computer, where are the control systems located?", I asked.

<In the Engine Room>

Thanking the computer for its assistance, all of us headed into the bowels of the ship to find the engine room. Asking me how I could speak and understand the ship, Mylene wanted to know who taught me the language.

"The first five years of my life were spent cooped up in my family home. From the moment I could move freely, I spent every day gleaning all I could from the library in our home. Since the day I began reading, I have read and reread all the books in our library five times.", I told her, "From those books, I learned a lot about this world's ancient past and picked up their language."

"Truly a Prodigy!", a Minister praised me.

Ignoring his comment, when we reached the door, I ordered the ship to open it for us.

"Ship, please open the Engine Room doors.", I commanded.

<Opening Doors>

Watching the thick, steel doors immediately pop open with a hiss, I stepped inside hoping to find everything in order. Taking a quick look around the space, everything appeared to be in order and properly organized. Relieved that I would not be spending several days rewiring the ship, I began removing the specific module units from their docks to look for damage. Using an engineering diagram from a storage shelf in the room, slowly I began working my way through each leg of the three systems.

"Ah, here is some minor damage.", I remarked, finding several blown capacitors on the board responsible for arming/disarming the weapon's system, "Let me replace them."

Using spare capacitors I had scavenged off of faulty items Roxanne and I found, I used the small torch in my Power Suit Gauntlet to replace the faulty parts. Slotting the board back into place, we heard several audible clicks as the ship ran another battery of tests.

<Weapon's System Online>

"Alright, the weapons are operational again.", I told them, "On to the Propulsion and Stability systems."

Finding several blown fuses on the Propulsion Regulator Control Board and heavy circuit damage on the Gyroscopic Stabilizer Control Board, I fixed all the damage I found and reinstalled the modules. Hearing another series of audible clicks, the power reactor began to hum as it came back online. Watching the lights kick to their brightest settings, it appeared that the ship was switching back to main power again.

"Computer, are there any other system issues that need to be addressed?", I asked, wanting to ensure all the damage was fixed.

<All Systems Normal>

"The ship is ready to go.", I told them, with a smile.

Looking at one another, the Cabinet Ministers could not believe what they were hearing.

"It has only been an hour since you started working on the ship!!", Prime Minister Jacob said, looking at his crude watch, "You are saying this ship is fully operational now?!"

"Yes, I am. To satisfy your doubts, let us take this ship out for a test flight to shake off the rust.", I suggested, looking at the Queen, "Is that alright, or should we wake the King?"

"Oh no, I would HATE to wake him from his peaceful slumber. Please proceed with the test flight without him.", Mylene replied, with an amused smile, 'Haha, suck it you piece of shit. Hope that young girl was worth missing out on your dream of flying this ship!'

"Very well.", I acknowledged, "Ship, prepare for departure!"

<Preparing for departure now>

Returning to the cockpit, I climbed into the captain's seat and had Mylene take the copilot's seat. Hunkering down on the bench behind us, the ministers were all grinning ear to ear with excitement. Doing a quick systems check, out of habit, I shut all the external doors and engaged the Propulsion Engine. Slowly easing us out of the dock, all of them began peering out the window.

"Your Highness, we are flying without the use of magic!!", Prime Minister Jacob proclaimed, "Leon, forgive us for doubting the reports. You truly are a prodigy!!"

"Thank you.", I said, reveling in knocking the ministers down a few pegs, "Ship, please open the bottom bay door."

<Opening Bay Door Zeta>

Since this ship was a national secret and treasure, I would have to pilot this ship below the island to avoid anyone seeing us. Passing through the massive dock doors, the beautiful, blue morning sky greeted us with open arms. Shutting the door behind us, I slowly began inching the throttle forward.

<Warning: I am about to break the speed of sound.>

"Haha, more power!", I laughed, pushing the throttle forward to seventy percent.

Throwing the group back into their seats, several sonic booms rocked the ship as we sailed through the air at Mach 6. Watching islands, clouds, and monsters zip past the ship, everyone was left awestruck by what they were seeing.

"This is incredible!", Mylene said, with a beaming smile.

"If you think this is cool, just wait till you see what else it can do!", I stated, flicking several switches to bring the defense systems online, "Please pay close attention ahead of us."

Appearing on the window in front of us, a large reticle showed up showing me where the laser cannons were aiming. Approaching a group of Sky Pirates at breakneck speeds, I put their two ships in my crosshairs and fired. Watching a quick burst of laser reduce the airships to ash, both craft violently exploded as their munitions ignited.

"Bullseye!", I chuckled, powering the weapon system down, "Are there any other tests you would like to perform?"

"No, you have exceeded our wildest expectations!", a Minister remarked, "We can all agree that this test has been a success!"

Receiving an approving nod from Mylene, I turned the ship around and headed back to base. Attempting to dock it exactly where we had started from, an enraged King Roland awaited us on the catwalk. Disembarking the ship, the first words out of his mouth were insults toward Mylene.

"You stupid women, I told you to fetch me if the boy fixed the ship. It has been my dream to pilot this ship and you stole its maiden voyage from me!", Roland shouted, "How could you do this to me?!"

"Oh, I must have forgotten…like your promise to sleep in our marital bed last night!! We had an agreement that when we have guests, you would sleep in our bed!", Mylene pouted.

"Come now, the boy is just a child.", Roland countered, "Besides which…I needed a breather from all the work I have been putting in."

"...all the work…you have been…putting in you say?", Mylene growled, as a vicious anger began surging inside her.

Realizing a verbal fight was about to happen, Prime Minister Jacob and the other ministers offered to take me to breakfast. Wanting to apologize for their disgraceful behavior, they asked to discuss my workshop plans and potentially repairing family heirlooms that had been collecting dust for centuries. Accepting their offer, as no good would come from sticking around here, we swiftly made our escape as the Queen's voice began echoing across the hidden port.