XxXxX

Ridiculous.

Just ridiculous.

For his Highness to be led astray by such a vile and uncultured woman.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked one of my followers, a daughter of one of the court nobles.

"Yes, Lady Redgrave. That Lafan girl was seen with a demi human slave, allegedly bought by his Highness and his friends." She replied with a surprising amount of venom directed at the interloper.

Hearing a knock on the door I allowed entry, another of my followers entered my quarters with a pensive look on his face. He was the second son of yet another court noble.

"Lady Redgrave. You have an unexpected… guest." He started, for some reason unsure what to do.

"Who is it?" I asked with the slightest bit of anger, my patience frying on the edges from the stress the last weeks brought.

"The honor student, Olivia, asked for an audience presenting the seal of house Bartford." He replied with visible confusion.

"Bartford?"

"It's a small Baron household on the southern fringe of the Kingdom, it's insignificant in size and…" He started, taking my question the wrong way.

"I know that name. If I'm correct there should be a rather promising young man in between the first years, Leon Fou Bartfort." I interrupted, not needing a reminder about that household in particular.

The young man in question was an accomplished Adventurer, having discovered several floating islands and one of the biggest lost items in history. He also had a good head on his shoulders because he immediately paid enormous tribute to the kingdom to not be accused of rebellious actions and give the court an excuse to wrestle his new assets away from him.

I could appreciate the cleverness behind that move, making himself much harder to pressure while maintaining his status as an independent Baron, Bartfort left himself enough leeway to further pledge his allegiance if need arises without too much fuss on the court.

"Let her in." After I took a few seconds to calm down I allowed entry for my guest.

A timid looking girl slowly trudged into the room, a small basket covered by cloth clutched tightly in her hands before her. The beautiful aroma of baked goods wafted across the room, making it abundantly clear what the contents of the basket were.

"G-good afternoon L-Lady Redgrave!" The commoner girl blurted out, bowing deeply. I could already see the disgruntled faces of my followers with the corner of my eye.

"Good afternoon." I replied, dismissing everyone in the room after my attendant served me and my guest a cup of tea each.

Seeing that there were only us two in the room now, the honor student started to tremble slightly. I could hear how tightly she grasped the handle of that basket with how it creaked from the pressure.

"Your court etiquette is lacking, you should wait to be addressed by the highest ranked nobles in the room or their acknowledgment before speaking." I instructed her, realizing immediately that it may have been a bit of a blunder. With how pale the girl was getting it was clear that she was terrified, probably seconds from passing away.

"Do not fret. I specifically asked my followers to vacate the room so you wouldn't make more mistakes like that." I tried to smile, probably coming off as a fake with how I felt since the beginning of the school year.

"T-thank you, Lady Redgrave." She meekly replied, still rooted to the place she stood at.

"Take a seat. I assume you have some important business for you to use the seal of a noble household?" I tried to immediately get to the bottom of this, not having too much patience.

"I… I wanted to p-pay my respects to you, Lady Redgrave. I know that it's rather l-late but…" The poor girl stuttered out, presenting the basket that she brought to me.

"Pay respects…? That's all?" I could help but ask, somehow surprised.

Seeing a meek nod from the commoner girl I let out a sigh. I couldn't blame the poor girl, she didn't have the proper noble upbringing. With how frightened she was even now it had to take quite a bit of courage to come here.

"Do not fret, I accept." To my words she smiled, her shoulders relaxing slightly from the tense posture she had to this point

"I'm not going to lie though, I'm a bit curious. Who helped you with preparing this?" Looking at the small basket of baked goods, high class ones judging from the smell alone, I couldn't help but wonder.

"A-ah… that is…" She stuttered while starting to look a bit pale, probably misunderstanding my intentions.

"I'm only curious, that's all. For you to be offered the seal of a Noble household is just really uncommon." I continued, taking a sip of the already lukewarm tea.

"Mister Leon prepared this gift… Please don't be angry at him, he only wanted to help me…" The commoner girl replied meekly after a few moments. She clearly thought that I would be displeased, was I seen as someone with so little common sense?

"You are talking about Leon Fou Bartfort, right? I've heard quite a few good things about that young man." There was no way to change the girl's mind so all I could do was to just continue.

"You know Mister Leon, Lady Redgrave?" Now, that seemed to be a safe topic to discuss.

"I know of him. Baron Bartfort is an accomplished adventurer and I must admit that I'm quite interested in that profession." Seeing that my guest calmed down, I smiled slightly at her. "I wasn't present personally during the ceremony to bestow the title of a Baron upon him but the rumors about a young man that discovered a few new floating islands and is the owner of the biggest Lost Item in history is known quite well in the court."

From the surprised look on my guest's face I could clearly see that she didn't even know about any of this. I couldn't really blame her, not even all nobles keep up to date with the happenings of the court.

"Mister Leon is amazing…" The young girl muttered out in awe, at long last taking hold of her tea.

"Yes, he is." From the reddening face at my comment it was clear that she didn't mean to let that slip out.

Wait… that's it!

I could ask Baron Bartfort to accompany me and His Highness on the upcoming expedition!

"Hmm… could I ask you for a favor, Olivia?" I started, trying to not frighten the poor girl. It was disheartening how common people reacted to higher nobility.

"A-as long as I'm able, Lady Redgrave." Yup, once again trembling like a leaf on the wind…

"I understand that you have a rather good rapport with Baron Bartfort?" Seeing a nod from the girl I smiled, even if it was a bit hesitant. "Could I trouble you to deliver a letter to him from me?"

"Yes… I can do that…"

XxX

"Ahhhh… what do I doooo…." I couldn't help but to be anxious, everything that happened was because of me.

Standing a bit away from the main group I could see His Highness with his friends and a small blonde girl. I was trying to be unnoticed by the group, with good success so far.

Everyone was wearing their adventuring gear, from full plate armor to leather cuirasses. Most of the women in the group wore battle dresses, something the existence of baffles me heavily.

On the opposite side of the group stood Lady Redgrave, her face twisted into a furious grimace.

I thought about coming up to her when I arrived but in just moments everything descended into an unpleasant argument.

I couldn't understand why His Highness was so unpleasant to his own fiance, chasing her away like a lifelong enemy while smiling charmingly to Miss Lafan seconds later.

"Olivia, are you ready?" A sudden voice from beside me caused me to squeak in surprise, I could feel how my cheeks heated up after that.

"M-mister Leon! P-please don't sneak up on me like that!" I tried to chide him, flushing even more after remembering that I was talking to a Noble.

Before I could apologize Leon's soft laughter made me pause, especially after taking his strange getup into account.

He was wearing full body armor in pitch black colors with red highlights. No, wait… there were a few red glowing lines on his arms and legs, barely emitting any glow but it was there. Beside his head you couldn't see even a millimeter of his skin.

The beautifully decorated half mask that was usually covering his left eye was replaced by something much more rugged, made of some kind of metal with yet another red, horizontal line glowing slightly on it.

I didn't want to voice it but Mister Leon looked like the evil knight from a storybook. Seeing him in the darkness of the night would be rather terrifying.

"Hmm… remind me to procure some better equipment for you next time. This Academy issued armor and sword are of atrocious quality." His voice brought me out of my stupor, making me a bit self conscious about my getup.

"Oh, please don't trouble yourself with that! I-I'll buy something myself after I collect enough money!" I tried to protest, my traitorous face starting to burn red from embarrassment.

"Nonsense. I like to think of you as a good acquaintance, maybe even a friend. It'll make me feel reassured if I know that at least your equipment is top quality when you venture into the dungeon." He waved my protest off, saying something outrageous as if it was nothing. A commoner girl like me being friends with an amazing Noble like Mister Leon? Things like that only happen in books.

Deciding not to comment, I followed a few steps after him to the still fuming Lady Redgrave. Even with the angry grimace on her face she was beautiful.

Her own battle gear was clearly created to emphasize her beauty over being functional. Not that I had any doubt about it being able to defend her but a leather corset over a red dress with bare arms didn't look that protective. At least she had sturdy looking, knee high boots and long gloves, even if they looked more like something you would find on a ball gown.

Maybe she specializes in defensive magic? That would make much more sense.

"Lady Redgrave. Thank you for your invitation." Mister Leon greeted, bowing deeply before the red eyed blonde. Oh my god… I didn't know that even someone like Mister Leon would need to be so subservient! I was so lucky when I opened my big mouth back then!

"Baron Bartfort. Please, raise." To my surprise the sheer anger radiating from the girl seemed to evaporate as soon as Mister Leon arrived. To this point even the followers of Lady Redgrave kept a small distance from her, making it look as if she was alone in the group.

"Thank you, Lady Redgrave. I won't hide the fact that your invitation surprised me. For a lowly Baron such as myself to be granted the opportunity to fight alongside someone as Noble as yourself is a rare opportunity." Mister Leon continued, gently smiling at Angelica.

"Please, none of that. I'm sure that your own combat prowess is nothing to scoff at, Baron Bartfort." The blonde noblewoman waved his words away, eying the unusual black armor that Mister Leon was wearing.

Now that I could see it from behind there were a few boxy things attached to his upper back and on his hips. It was truly bizarre, maybe that armor was one of those Lost Items that Mister Leon found on his adventures?

"I'm curious though, I can't see any weapon on your person. Are you intending to fight barehanded?"

The black knight chuckled slightly, reaching over his shoulder to one of the bigger boxes on his back. To my surprise it shifted silently, forming something resembling a rifle. It was still boxy, but now it was clear it was some kind of weapon.

"This is something called a Magnetic Accelerator Rifle. Together with this armor and a few other things it was on board the Luxion when I found it." Mister Leon explained, presenting his bizarre weapon to Lady Redgrave for her to take a closer look. "It's quite powerful so I'm going to use it only in emergencies, for the kind of monsters that we will encounter in this dungeon my unarmed skills should suffice."

"Hmm… Luxion is the name of that enormous skyship you command, am I right?" Lady Redgrave asked further, curiously inspecting the Lost Item before her.

I couldn't help but think that it looked rather… cute. It was so blocky and looked a bit like the toy guns that village children would carve out of wood with their fathers to play Adventurers.

"Are we going to have any more members in our group? If it wouldn't be any problem I would like to request that Olivia here would be allowed to join us. She's an exceptional magic caster and would be of much help." Mister Leon suddenly said, gesturing in my direction.

To his words I suddenly remembered that at no point in time it was said that I would accompany Mister Leon on this expedition. It made me feel a bit faint, thinking about what would happen if Lady Redgrave declines. I didn't know anyone beside Mister Leon here, not to mention that other nobles wouldn't want to form a group with me.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to part any of your followers from you, Baron Bartfort." The blonde noblewoman agreed, sending a small smile my way.

Letting out a deep sigh I smiled back, happy that I could be in one group with Mister Leon.

"Olivia is more of a friend than a follower really, but thank you." To my embarrassment Mister Leon turned in my direction with a smile, causing me to fidget in place.

"Alright everybody, please pay attention!" The voice of one of our instructors caused all the ongoing conversation to stop, including our own. It was time for the first official expedition into the dungeon to start.

XxX

Well… Who would have thought that I would be dragged into the 'main storyline' so easily.

To be completely honest, I was at fault too. Giving Olivia the seal of my Household was certainly the fastest and the easiest way to facilitate a meeting with a Noble.

The solemn and frightened face of my new commoner friend when she returned nearly gave me a heart attack, with how pale she looked.

Thankfully it was only because Angelica asked her to deliver a letter, which Olivia passed to me with hands trembling so much that it was hard to catch the envelope.

I don't remember any details about the 'Villainess' that would indicate that she fancied adventuring to the point that I was requested as a guide for this event.

"Mister Leon! There's a monster ahead!" Olivia's voice trembled slightly, this being her first encounter with one of those creatures.

And what a creature it was!

Multiple spindly but powerful legs that could even cling to vertical surfaces!

Jaws capable of chewing through the toughest of iron armors!v Given time.

Antennas on their head capable of tracing the chemical compounds in the air even better than any hunting hound!

It was an ant…

It wasn't even funny, really.

I mean, I get it.

Even when I was in the army and with the training we received I would be terrified of facing an insect the size of a large dog.

After adventuring for a few months with Luxion it hardly fazed me any more. This was the world with a real probability of Sharknados occurring after all. Learning that, I just stopped caring about the absurdity and just went along

Moving swiftly with the assistance of my Powered Armor I jumped into the air, rebounded off of the wall and landed with one leg on the unsuspecting creature that let out a surprised chittering sound.

Praise be to futuristic, sci-fi technology in a medieval like world.

"This is a very young representative of the race of monsters known as Myrmekes, commonly called Myrm or Myrs between adventurers." I started to recite the entry from the bestiary, pinning the wriggling monster to the ground with my foot. "It's a race of giant ants that can range from the size of a dog when young, like this one, to the size of a bear. There are records of boss class monsters of this family being even bigger than a warhorse."

While explaining, I reached down, firmly grasping the small monster in a way that it wouldn't be able to attack anyone to give the two girls a better view.

"M-M-M-Mister L-Leon! Is this safe to do?!" Olivia asked with a heavy stutter, clenching the iron sword in her hands. The tip of the blade danced back and forth for more than a few centimeters from how hard her hands were trembling.

Note to self, prepare some sort of swordsmanship lesson program for Olivia later.

"Handling monsters is never safe, Olivia." Making sure that my grasp on the still wriggling monster was secure, I moved it in a way to present its profile to them. "I'm much more experienced than most of the students in the Academy, not to mention that my armor is sturdy enough to weather anything that this dungeon has to offer."

Seeing that my commoner friend relaxed slightly and that Angelica was curiously observing the wriggling insect, I decided to continue with my explanation.

"Myrmekes as a species are quite well armored. The best way to approach it would be with either long range, armor piercing weapons or more traditionally, targeting the weak spots. Surprisingly, eyes on those creatures aren't counted as such. With Myrs you should target their antennas, this will cause them to attack indiscriminately, even their own. Other weak spots are the neck, the area connecting their abdomen to the torso and the joints on their legs."

Seeing that both of my teammates were quite interested I racked my brain for any more information, remembering something from my past life as the dog sized monster was desperately trying to escape my grasp.

"Their respiratory system and heart are located in their abdomen which makes…" My further explanation was interrupted by a loud gunshot, the monster in my hand erupting into black dust that started to dissipate.

My two companions jumped in fright, Olivia even let out a terrified yelp, her sword clattering on the ground when she let it free from surprise.

"Lord Marmoria…" Being the first to see the one responsible, I greeted him in the most neutral tone of voice I could manage. The self-satisfied smile on this moss head made my own trigger finger itch.

"Good shot Jilk!" The crown prince praised his friend, walking with their whole group that started to catch up.

"It was nothing. I'm much more surprised that a supposedly experienced adventurer had any problems with such basic opponents." The rifle toting idiot laughed at me, causing his power ranger like group to laugh too.

"Jilk! That was uncalled for! Baron Bartfort was using that monster to explain its structure and weak points for us, what you did was reckless and dangerous!" Ahhh, what a sweet girl that supposed villainess is for defending my honor. Her sharp features only make her angry face more intimidating. It's good she isn't directing that anger at me.

"Don't worry, Lady Redgrave. No harm, no foul. Let us continue, maybe we will be lucky enough to encounter a flock of Feg monkeys. Those are truly bizarre and interesting creatures." Seeing the happy gleam in the eye of that gremlin that stole Olivia's place when it looked that the power rangers would try to berate Angelica I decided to interfere. There was no need for this to escalate into an argument, especially if it would damage Angelica's standing even more.

It was clear that the red eyed beauty was agitated, probably bordering on furious, but she agreed in the end. The fact that Olivia looked terrified probably helped slightly, the food natured villainess moving to help the distressed girl with a few whispered words.

Ignoring the still giggling group of men and the town bicycle we started to move out, naturally with me at the front.

With a bit of luck we wouldn't have any more exciting events like this one.

XxX

Life was going swimmingly for one Marie Fou Lafan as of late.

True, her new family turned out to be just a bunch of good for nothing parasites, but she was beyond that stage at this point and she could reap the benefits of her hard, backbreaking work.

From the moment she regained her memories from her previous life and discovered what world she was in, the petite girl had only one goal in mind and wasn't afraid to fight for it.

Chasing off that infuriating protagonist was easy, replacing her even easier.

A few choice words, a slap to the face and a bit of bashfulness and she had the crown prince in her pocket from the start.

Using the clueless idiot she quickly wormed her way into the four other capture targets hearts, a feat made so easy by her foreknowledge of them all that she had trouble keeping her laughter in for most of the time.

A few harsh words directed at the wallflower of a protagonist assured that the stupid girl wouldn't interfere. The poor commoner girl was so easily cheated out of her 'role' that Marie sometimes almost felt bad for her. Almost.

It was laughably easy to push the plot along without waiting, at this pace she would be able to trigger the villainess's bad end by the end of the semester, getting rid of the biggest problem that way.

At least it should have gone that way.

The moment that she saw that evil looking mob character that looked as if he was ripped out of some sci-fi game she knew that something was wrong.

She wasn't sure but from this distance she saw that he wore a half mask covering his left eye and most of the left side of his face, an appearance that jogged her memory after some time.

It wasn't surprising that it took so long as she saw that face only once, the Baron from the only 'good' end for the villainess, the one with ugly scars and no money to speak off.

"Julius… who's that scary looking man?" Making sure to sound slightly frightened, Marie asked the crown prince with upturned eyes.

"Hmm? Oh, that's Baron Leon Fou Bartfort. He's an up and coming adventurer that managed to rise to the rank of Baron after discovering a few floating islands and a lot of lost items that he offered to the crown as tribute. You don't need to worry, we will keep you safe from him if he tries anything." The blue idiot replied, smiling brightly at her with the rest of the stooges voicing their approval.

Smiling back at them Marie continued to stealthily observe the anomaly, especially as the protagonist was glued to him like a puppy to its owner. Her brow creased slightly in worry when she saw that the protagonist and the villainess were surprisingly friendly to each other too.

After the teachers sent them off into those dark, dank and slightly smelly tunnels she had to admit that the environment was a bit scary.

Thankfully, all the times she trembled, hugged an arm of one of her men or made a frightened 'eeep' only made her reverse harem dot on her even more. She couldn't complain about that.

Their group started as the second one, the villainess's group being the first cleared their path and for nearly twenty minutes nothing really happened.

It gave her quite a bit of time to flirt with the boys, practically all of them already wrapped around her fingers.

A spine chilling sound came suddenly from the front, just around the bend in the tunnel. Taking a quick glance around age saw that her 'bodyguards' didn't react, they didn't even stop their conversation.

When they crested the corner she saw that evil looking Baron holding an enormous ant that was wriggling all around, screeching and clawing at air with its disgusting legs that it had way too many.

It was the first time that she saw a monster in person like that and it was one time too many.

"M-maybe we should try to help?" She voiced her opinion when she saw that the group was passively observing what was happening.

"Marie is right. For that Baron to not be able to dispose of such a small fry, shameful." Julius said, shaking his head.

"What did you expect? He probably just got lucky with finding a lost item, that's all to that." Greg laughed, leaning slightly on his spear.

"Jilk, can you do the honors?" Julius asked his friend.

"Of course." The green haired man immediately took aim with his rifle, giving her only a few seconds to cover her ears.

The shot reverberated through the tunnel, making the small girl jump in fright even when she was fully prepared.

The evil looking Baron barely reacted, just looking at them with a passive face when his two companions recoiled in fear.

As expected the villainess took exception to their actions, defending the Baron who wasn't fazed at all.

She could feel that this Bartfort was going to be a problem even as she smiled and laughed along when Jilk mocked him.

He didn't seem to be a follower of the villainess, maybe she could somehow convince him to join her side? If he was just some rural Baron then promising him a wife and connections to the crown should suffice.

If the commoner girl was his pet then it would be even better. Marie was loath to admit but even with her training in healing magic she couldn't beat the sheer talent that the protagonist had.

Slowly, a plan started to form in her head, bringing a large smile to her face.

XxXxX

Author's Note: Leon's armor is loosely based on the N7 armor from mass effect if anyone asks. His gun is just a generic, sci-fi gun. I'm going to avoid lasers and energy weapons because I like lead throwers, even if they are throwing depleted uranium instead of lead.

I may or may not have written that Leon pledged himself to the kingdom, I'm slightly retconing that. He is independent for now, for how long we will see.