"Now this is just ridiculous!" I yelled out while maneuvering around a bunch of flying Mechasaurus. "This has to be some sort of prank, Control! They're literally just World War Two planes with Dinosaur heads sticking out of them!"

I was back in the simulator due to my whole morning being free. My meeting with the Queen wasn't until the evening after classes were over so I decided to get some reps in. Control decided that I could use some training on facing an absurd number of foes. That was how I sometimes glared at the victory condition that was on the upper part of the display.

Current Objective: Survive

I thought that I was going to have to kill EDF level numbers of monsters, not this!

"And why are they all so huge?!" I asked, narrowly dodging a suicide charge from one of the many dinosaur headed fighter planes.

These are all to scale, as are every enemy you have faced. It just so happens that Black Getter F is about half the size of the Getter Robo that these enemies originally fought.

Right, I did remember Professor Jin's comment that Black Getter was supposed to be smaller. Not that it made me feel any better about having to dodge bullets, lasers, and literal fire coming out of those Mechasaurus. Still, the smaller size of my Getter did allow me to bob and weave between the dino-planes much more easily than I would have with a full sized Getter Robo. When I cut open the fuselage of a Zero Fighter that had a Velociraptor face instead of a propeller, another notification popped up on the screen.

[Minimum Competency Achieved: Getter Beam Certification Unlocked for Black Getter F]

Getter Beam? Wasn't that what Control used on the Winged Sharks with the Nagare?

"Control! Getter Beam! How do?!" I yelled out in a clipped tone since I was still in the middle of a fight. It was pretty neat to make the dino-planes crash into each other though.

Except when the explosions block my vision of other dino-planes!

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I cursed as a triceratop dual-prop fighter crashed into Black Getter and started dragging it across the sky.

Congratulations on gaining clearance to use Getter Beam, Leon.

I appreciated the supportiveness in Control's voice, but now was not the time! "Thank you! Now what is it exactly?!"

Getter Beam placement and power varies depending on which Getter Robo Model is utilizing it. Black Getter F has two versions of Getter Beam. One is a smaller beam coming out of the green crystal in its forehead that can be utilized for precision hits. The other one is a larger and more potent beam coming from the emitter located at the torso for hard or numerous targets.

One in the head, one in the body. Got it.

You may choose whichever one to fire by pushing your intent onto Black Getter F and calling out the attack itself, as with the other weapons you have been using.

"Question!" I called out as I had Black Getter drive its elbow repeatedly into the eye socket of the tricera-plane. "Can I use both?!"

Pardon?

I groaned and clarified my question. "Can I use both Getter Beams at the same time?!"

Yes, of course.

"All I wanted to hear!" I cheered after finally getting free of the tricera-plane. "Double!"

"Getter!" I smiled as I saw a familiar looking green glow on the top part of the display.

"Beaaaaaaaam!" My vision was filled with green and pink light. A moment later, all the dino-planes that were in front of me were now crashing to the ground in assorted states of destruction.

"Okay! Now it's time to party!" I triumphantly declared, preparing to use a move I totally came up with myself. "Tomahawk!"

"Shot-Boomerang!" I yelled out and Black Getter started throwing tomahawks one after the other in a spread pattern, like a shotgun blast. When the baker's dozen number of tomahawks looped back to me, I just dodged them all and let them fly into the dino-planes behind me.

Ten-over-ten. Would use the move when surrounded again.

With the help of my new Getter Beams, I was able to last another half hour before I finally got taken down. Turned out that even Black Getter could run out of power.

"So what's the record for longest time in survival mode?" I asked out of curiosity as the scenario ended and I was put back in the default 'menu screen' of the simulator.

If you had lasted another hour, new types of enemies would start to appear. This would have escalated until you were ultimately defeated. As for your question, the longest time in the simulator for the endless survivor course was eleven hours by Shin Getter Dragon.

"Now that's a pretty impressive sounding name." I commented with a raised eyebrow. Now that was an anime-ass anime name for a giant robot. It seemed that Control agreed as well.

Indeed, there can be an argument made of it being considered the strongest Getter Robo of its era. Returning to the topic of the simulations. Now that you have managed to unlock Getter Beam, I believe that you are ready to face the elite Mechasaurus models starting our next session.

As intimidating as that sounded, I couldn't deny that the prospect made me pretty excited. Must be more of that Getter Change that has probably been happening to me. My smile froze and I blinked at the remembrance.

Getter Change? Hang on.

"Control! Meet me in my room! I think I have an idea!" I yelled as I got out of the simulator.

I paced around my room after I told Control my admittedly rashly made theory.

So you posit that Olivia's established sensitivity to Getter Radiation could be causing the premature manifestation of her latent power?

"Compelling Voice is supposed to be her Last Skill. Completely separate from any other she could learn, either through physical or magical means." I stated, continuing to pace around my room. "We already established that the whole thing started long after she had been continually exposed to me and I just apparently gave off tiny bits of the stuff. What if when she boarded the Nagare, she got hit with even more Getter Rays?"

How can you be sure?

"When we talked during summer vacation. I asked her if she sensed anything inside the Nagare and she said that she could sense something big that was asleep. I think it's whatever you don't want anyone seeing inside the reactor room." I explained but stopped walking around when Control remained silent.

"Control?"

It seems that I have been overlooking certain possibilities.

"Can we undo whatever the Getter Rays could have done to her?" I asked, hopeful with this new angle.

Changes via Getter Rays are seldom reversible. It usually can only be overcome with great will.

I laughed and gave Control a thumbs up. "Good, then I'm absolutely sure that she can do it."

How so?

"You underestimate the bullshit that Livia would have had to go through to complete the game on normal terms. If that doesn't show great willpower, then nothing does." I pointed out. It was something I was intimately aware of.

The issue of how to convey that to her and stop her subconscious manipulations remains.

"I think we'll need to bring Angie and Clarice into this once we actually have a plan on how to do that." If there was anyone that I was sure that Livia absolutely loved, it was those two.

Are you certain?

"Well you guys have that whole three hearts as one philosophy, right?" Control once told me that during one of our runs in the simulator when I asked how Getter Teams could work so well together. "I don't necessarily need to be a part of the trio. Especially since I'm the subject of her mental manipulations."

That is true. I shall also start doing scans on Olivia to confirm or deny your theory on the effects of Getter Rays on her.

"You mean you haven't been scanning her?" I had expected that it would have been the first thing Control would have done and just kept quiet because they didn't find anything.

I refrain from doing so if possible, I would like to respect the privacy of humans.

"Then what about that scan you did on me when I first found you?"

That was standard procedure. I needed to make sure that you were actually human.

I opened my mouth to protest, then I remembered that I spent nearly an hour fighting dinosaur airplanes. "Fair."

And the Saint Necklace?

"Keep it in the Nagare as insurance." I told him with a shrug before moving to my walk in closet. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for a date with the Queen."

I am certain that Angelica and Clarice have already warned you against seducing her.

"It was a joke, Control!" I pointed out.

I doubt they would see it as such if they heard you say it.

I ignored the comment and changed into a fresh Academy uniform set. The letter nor Julius ever said anything about any dress code when meeting the Queen and I thought that wearing the formalwear I did when I was knighted was probably too much.

"Be back in a bit, Control."

Take care and do your best to restrain yourself.

Honestly, they've been hanging around the girls for too long.

Upon arriving at the Palace, I was escorted by a couple of guards deep inside to a wing that I had never been to. We arrived at a set of double doors that also had guards stationed in front of it. They all talked to each other until one of them entered the room for a few moments, the atmosphere in the hallway not being awkward at all guys! I was instructed to enter and the guards who escorted me there promptly left at the confirmation.

"Whoa…" I breathed out when I walked inside and closed the door. I wasn't reacting to the very large and opulent looking room nor to the perfect woman sitting at the large table in the far end of the room. I was reacting to the stacks and stacks of paper piled on the large table that nearly obscured the Queen from view. It was an image that brought back quite a bit of memories of all-nighters at the office when my seniors pushed their work on me.

"Ah, Viscount Bartfort." The tired smile she gave me when she saw me made me sympathize with her even more. Was she doing this all day? Did she have to go through all this before she went to sleep? "Welcome, please take a seat."

It didn't take long for me to understand that I was talking to a monarch and not the woman I did during the school festival. The way she referred to me and the way she conducted herself was complete practiced perfection that I had seen in executive level people back on Earth.

"For your contributions in vanquishing the Winged Sharks Sky Pirates in Holfort territory as well as exposing a conspiracy of another noble house conspiring with them, you have been promoted to Upper Fifth Rank Viscount as of today." Queen Mylene said with a smile. I blinked at the promotion but at least it wasn't anything drastic.

"Thank you, your majesty. I was just trying to do the right thing." I responded with my own smile, falling back on my own experience when talking to way more important people than I was. It was just that the person in front of me looked like she deserved that respect.

"In addition to your promotion, a section of the Offrey territory will be awarded to you. It shall be named under your personal branch of the Bartfort family." To my surprise, the Queen actually continued and just said something really shocking. "This includes one medium sized and two small sized islands for you to develop as you see fit."

Wait, what?! I actually have land now? Did that mean that I had to build a house there?

"The people living there now have already been informed of the change in rulership. To assist you in managing your new territory, the Crown has seen fit to place the Wayne house under yours provisionally as Protectorates until you graduate from the Academy." I have people now too?! Wait, did that mean that I was responsible for their wellbeing?!

"What does that mean, exactly?" I asked both in curiosity and worry. Thankfully, the Queen seemed to understand that I was pretty much out of my depth.

"The Wayne house will still be allowed to govern themselves independently, but they will also help manage your other holdings as well. This includes the aforementioned islands. In exchange, you are responsible for defending them in the event that they are threatened. Something you seem to already have experience with." Oh, so they'd just keep doing their own thing and just take care of some of my stuff. That's good. I thought that I was going to have to start giving decrees or something.

"You have Carla Fou Wayne as a subordinate, yes?" I nodded at her question. "Then she can serve well as the envoy between yourself and her family."

That was true. It might also curb some of her overeagerness in trying to prove her worth towards me. I needed to talk to Angie and Clarice about this as well. The rest of the talk about my new territory and people was just hammering out my responsibilities and expectations while I was still studying in the Academy. Mostly bureaucracy. I couldn't help but smile when the Queen looked surprised that I was being so understanding about some of things like wages and taxes.

"Are you okay, Viscount? Since the attack, I mean." Queen Mylene suddenly asked after we finished with the last of the legal documents I had to sign.

"What do you mean?" I mean, it wasn't anything more than what I had already gone through in my old life.

"I personally read the letters from the Offrey house to the pirates. I know that they were targeting you." Ah, that stuff.

"Julius and I couldn't really figure out why I was targeted by them. The daughter, Karen, did cause some trouble with me during the school festival but that didn't seem like it lined up with what was written in the letters." I explained. Sure, she could have had some bad things happen to be in revenge for insulting her so publicly, but organizing a Pirate Attack seemed too much for something like that.

"This stays within the confines of this room." I gulped and nodded at how serious the Queen suddenly sounded. "I believe that there is another party involved. The Offreys had diplomatic ties to the Principality of Fanoss and have worked as the primary means of talks between them and Holfort."

Fanoss?! The Offreys were in bed with Fanoss?!

I rubbed my eyelids and sighed. "No wonder relations between the Kingdom and the Principality never improved."

"We cannot say that they are the sole reason, but the Offrey house didn't seem to help either." Queen Mylene nodded with her own sigh. "The Crown is currently investigating any involvement of the Principality. However, we cannot risk a diplomatic incident that could cause a war."

So basically, we're working on it but don't talk about it.

That was pretty much the end of our meeting and the Queen stood from her desk to walk me out. I saw the bags under her eyes and remembered something.

"Before I go, can I talk to the transfer student Mylene again?" I asked, putting on my act that I did back during the festival.

The Queen suddenly blushed and she seemed to immediately get into character as well. "A-ah! Yes, how can I help you…Leon?"

Man, her acting skills were top notch!

"I hope you haven't forgotten about my open invitation." I reminded her with an easy smile and a wink. "Anytime you want, just say the word and I can host you for tea."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly bother you–" I cut off her cute protests with a chuckle.

"If it was a bother, then I wouldn't have offered." I told her as I stepped forward and took her gloved hands into my own. She seemed slightly panicked with the way her gaze moved between my face and our hands.

"Just think about it please. You need to have a place to relax too." I sincerely said before letting go. There was an odd expression on her face for a moment but it vanished after a moment.

She gave me a beautiful smile even as her fingers fiddled with the sleeves of her gloves. "I shall think about it seriously, thank you Leon."

"It was nice seeing you again, your majesty." I said, breaking the act and going back to normal. I was turning to the door when I heard the Queen speak again.

"Oh, and before you go, Viscount Bartfort." I turned back to look at her and–

Slap!

"That was for bringing my son to fight pirates." She coldy said before I felt a pair of soft lips on the cheek that she slapped.

"And that was for making sure that you both came home safe." I blinked at the whiplash of emotions I was feeling in those very short seconds. "Be on your way, Viscount. Back to the place you belong."

I took a glance back at the Queen as I exited the room. I couldn't help but think that the way she smiled was a bit sad.