Chapter 7

—A Month Later—

After completing a series of tests, at the behest of my mother, Roxanne and I were finally given the green light to use the ship as we saw fit. Making me swear to her that we would not hunt Sky Pirates or leave the nation's airspace, I agreed to my mother's terms promising that I only wanted to hunt monsters and find a Dungeon to explore…not start an international conflict. With permission secured to travel to islands in our vicinity, Roxanne and I began preparations to start hunting again.

"Where have you two been? I thought you guys went missing or forgot about me!", Lucoa teased us, as we entered the Guild Hall, "This poor Guild Receptionist has been lonely without your two faces coming around here. I thought I was going to die from loneliness!"

"Oh, I am sorry! Please do not die!", Roxanne pleaded, believing Lucoa's words.

"She is just teasing us, Roxanne.", I informed her, "Please do not tease her too much, she is very gullible."

"Hehe, it would appear that is true!", Lucoa laughed, happy to see us again, "So what brings you two in today? Have you found more monsters to kill, or did you just stop by to say hello?"

"Actually, we managed to secure an airship of our own to explore outside our island.", I explained, "I wanted to check with you before heading out to see if you had any information on the Sky Pirates in our vicinity."

Giving me a concerned look, I could tell she thought we were going to hunt them next for an even larger payday. Clearing that misconception up quickly, as I did not want to receive a lecture from her after already getting one from my mother, I told her that it was to avoid the areas where they had been spotted.

"I am well aware that we lack the necessary equipment to go hunting for pirates.", I said, motioning to our equipment, "While we have upgraded our tools to a Steel Dagger and Steel Sword, our armor is still only worn leather. I promise we do not intend to hunt down pirates till we are full-fledged members of the Guild."

"Alright, I believe you.", she stated, trusting we were being honest with her, "Give me a moment, I will grab the most recent updated map I have from HQ."

Stepping into the backroom for a few minutes, Lucoa came back with the Guild Map of our country. Rolling it out onto the counter, she motioned for us to approach so she could show us where to avoid going. Using Levitation Magic to help us see better, as we could not yet look over the counter, Lucoa smiled at me before pointing to the red, highlighted areas.

"This is where we are now.", she explained, pointing at our island, "About twenty miles south of here the Principality has been rumored to be scouting our nation's territory. I suggest not going further than ten miles south just to be safe. There have been no reports of pirates to the east or west of us for at least fifty miles so you should be safe going either direction. As for heading northward, I would suggest only doing so after you have some more battle experience under your belts. The closer to the capital you get, the bigger pain in the ass the noblemen become. Being the third son of a Baron…I would not run it past them to damage your ship or strand you on a barren rock somewhere."

"That is fair, going north would also put us in the shipping/transportation lanes so I will avoid that route for now.", I agreed, "Where do you want to go, Roxanne?"

"It is your boat, you pick.", Roxanne told me, "As long as there are adventures to be had, I am happy to go anywhere!"

Making a mental map of our immediate vicinity, we thanked Lucoa before turning to leave. Walking toward the door in a hurry, as we were eager to get going, Lucoa told us something before we left the building.

"Since your stepmother is going to be here for a few days starting tomorrow, I will be closing the building down to the public. Your pervy, snobby brother and bitch of stepmother rub me the wrong way.", Lucoa stated, "I will be open for business once they are gone so save all the goodies you find!"

"Hold on…what did you say!?", I gasped, having heard nothing of her visit from my father, "Are you joking with us? Making jokes about that cunt and her crotch spawn is not funny!"

"Unfortunately, I am not joking about this. I received word from the Guildmaster that she was coming here, and that I needed to make myself disappear for a few days.", Lucoa laughed, dryly, "He wants to minimize the chances of me incinerating your brother. While the rumors are unconfirmed at this time, according to former maids who worked for your stepmother, he enjoys grabbing breasts and smacking butts of curvy women. Since that fits me to a T, the Guildmaster wants me nowhere near him while they are on the island."

'So he is going to destroy what little honor the Bartfort name has with his antics, fucking great. Academy life is going to be so nice for Nicks and me…the women will probably treat Nicks and me like even bigger pieces of garbage now.', I thought, 'If he wanted to cop a feel on curvy women, Zola should have just bought him a slave for that. Her name is going to be dragged through the mud too, but since it is her son, I bet she does not give a rat's ass about it.'

—Bartfort Home—

Reporting this information to my parents, my poor mother nearly fainted when she heard the news. Hanging his head in defeat, it looked like my father knew this might happen for some reason. Pressing him for the reason for this visit, as her annual visit was still two months away, he inquired if I remembered the knights he let go a while back.

"When I let them go, our income increased a good bit which should have allowed us to clear some of our debt and renovate the harbor. Somehow someway your stepmother Zola found out about the extra money we now had and demanded we increase her yearly budget by twenty percent.", Balcus told me, "Well, since the harbor was in major need of a renovation, I only increased her budget by ten percent and allotted the rest to you for the renovation you did. On the topic of the harbor, by the way, your innovative floating docks, dollies, and new road layout have garnered you high praise from the Merchant's Guild. They want to purchase the rights to your inventions for a large sum of money."

Taking inspiration from the Levitation and Propulsion Engines in my ship, I developed special enchantments that generated the same effects that were powered solely by the mana in the atmosphere. Using magic to mold several large boulders into forty-by-forty-foot platforms, I proceeded to carve the necessary magical circles into each of them granting each the ability to fly via simple voice commands. Showing this invention to the dock workers, all of them were a bit skeptical of how well it would work, but after several days of testing, they fell in love with it. Crafting the workers' heavy-duty appliance dollies as well, ships were now being unloaded/loaded forty percent faster and we were able to service ships of any size in our harbor.

"While I am interested in seeing what they have to offer, can we please focus on the more pressing matter at hand?", I scolded him, "Zola and my two half-siblings treat Nicks and me like garbage. Both of us are forced to stay locked up in the shed while they visit because they take our rooms, and trash them when they leave."

"What would you have me do, Leon? I cannot turn your stepmother away at the port.", Balcus remarked, "I know you do not like it, but it will only be for a few days. Can you please bear with it for me?"

"Since I only need to be here to greet her and say goodbye, is there any way Roxanne and I can just explore the vicinity while Zola is here? There should be no difference if I am locked in the shed or off the island right? All she cares about is that I am out of sight.", I said, hoping he would agree to my request.

"Even though I am usually against Leon's adventurous nature, I think this time it would be wise to let him go.", Luce conceded, "Given everything that is revolving around Leon right now, that woman and her brats may try to harm him. As much as it pains me to say this, he is probably safer off the island than in the shed this time around."

Looking at Mom with a surprised look, Balcus asked if she was genuinely concerned about my safety. Nodding her head, Luce admitted that she was genuinely worried that Rutart might attempt to kill me in my sleep.

"That boy has never been happy that Leon is smarter than him. Given all the achievements he has racked up now, Rutart might see Leon as a threat to his birthright and try to kill him.", Luce remarked, gripping her dress tightly.

"What are you talking about? Dad cannot change who will inherit the Barony when he retires. It always goes to the eldest son, unless they get disowned. No offense Father but I do not see you gathering the courage to do that without something severe happening to our family.", I stated, trying not to be an ass about it, "Is there something going on behind the scenes that I am not aware of?"

"We…we can talk about it after Zola leaves.", Dad said, with an apologetic smile, "A lot of it is speculation at this point, but based on your achievements it will almost certainly happen."

Wondering if the Crown or Guilds wanted to scout me for something, I became excited by the prospect of earning additional funds for my Adventurer's fund. At the end of the day, the sooner I explored every inch of this world the sooner I could find the resources I needed to leave this world. Having grown to enjoy Roxanne's company over these past seven months, I hoped that if I set her aunt and uncle up for life she would accompany me into space.

"Alright then, I will let Roxanne know so we can prepare to leave after Zola arrives.", I stated, with a grateful smile, "Thank you!"

Quickly running outside to tell Roxanne, the two of us began our preparations for our trip.