Rising up from a Nobleman to Intergalactic Warlord!!

---3rd Person POV---

Listening to their mother give a tour of the mansion, Rosetta’s two children poked their heads out of their bedrooms to see who she was talking to. Fearing that she had finally lost her sanity, as they rarely entertained guests here, the siblings were surprised to see a group of foreign women walking with her. Intrigued by this discovery, they wandered out of their rooms to ascertain who they were and why they were here.

“Sorry to interrupt you, Mother, but who are these people?”, Edward Sera Banfield questioned, stealthily ogling a few of the women, ‘Please say these are potential marriage candidates for me!’

Recognizing the glint in her son’s eyes immediately, Rosetta's hand moved instinctively and smacked him upside the head. Caught off guard by the strike, Edward looked back at his mother with bewilderment, trying to feign ignorance about what he had done wrong.

“Edward, cease your antics this instant before you get yourself killed. They are married to Prince Victor von Stark of the Imperium of Man; he will brutalize you if you touch his family.”, Rosetta scolded him, genuinely fearing for the safety of her eldest child, ‘Amagi was right, we have given our son far too much freedom. He already has a large harem of maids, but he continues to think with his libido instead of his brain. It is going to get him killed one day, and I cannot bear the thought of losing my baby boy. At this point, I will have to relent to Amagi and Liam’s decision to send him off to administrate a small portion of our territory.’

(AN: So everyone is on the same page, typically people in the Algrand Empire live to be around six hundred years old, sometimes older. Right now, Edward is in his late teens to early twenties.)

Opening his mouth to refute his mother’s insinuation, an intense pressure bore down on him. Sensing that the source was behind him, his body refused to move an inch as a voice spoke to him.

“Listen to your mother, boy. Be respectful and keep your hands to yourself, or I will send you on a one-way trip to meet your maker as a mangled corpse.”, Victor warned him telepathically.

Transmitting the ways he would kill Edward, his body began to violently tremble with fear and pain. Dropping to his knees instantly, the young man began to profusely apologize to the women before politely excusing himself. Watching her son disappear back into his room, Rosetta was very confused by what had just happened.

“I believe he had a heart-to-heart with Victor. Suffice it to say, he has been adequately forewarned about the consequences of his actions.”, Ahsoka chuckled, having faintly detected the telepathic connection.

“Uh… I am not sure how he did it, but I will take your word for it.”, Rosetta remarked, glancing around for him. “Well, that was my eldest child Edward, and this is my daughter Aina. Please say hello, dear.”

“It is a pleasure to meet all of you; my name is Aina Sera Banfield!”, Aina spoke, using the lines her mother taught her.

“Oh my, she is absolutely adorable!”, Deirdre commented, giving the young girl a smile, “I really like your spiral hair curls; when I was in school, I used to style my hair that way.”

 Showering her with compliments, Aina began to act very bashful as she was not accustomed to it. As she was about to return to her room, she noticed a small xeno child hiding within the group of women. Elated to potentially have someone to play with, the young girl reached her hand out toward Nuelalla with an excited smile. Noticing what was going on, Amallyn brought the wary Eldar child forward to introduce herself.

“Can you say hello, Nuelalla?”, Amallyn requested, trying to coax her out of her shell.

“Hello…”, Nuelalla spoke softly, visibly uncomfortable with the situation.

“Do you want to play some games with me?”, Aina inquired, “I have a bunch of games and toys we can play with.”

Seeing this as a good opportunity for Nuelalla to interact with someone close to her age, Amallyn insisted she give Aina a chance. Reluctantly doing as she was told, the Eldar child accepted the offer and followed Aina to her room. Happy to see that she was opening herself up a bit more, Victor’s wives took it as a sign that she was beginning to slowly recover from her trauma. If this were the young girl they met several weeks ago, Nuelalla would have refused the request and stayed glued to Amallyn.

“Now that it is just us adults, what would everyone like to do?”, Rosetta asked, struggling to recall what activities she had always dreamt of doing with friends.

“Hmm… Since the men will be preoccupied for a while, do you have any trendy clothing you could show us? As foreigners, we have no idea what is currently in style here.”, Claire requested, eager to add additional options to their wardrobe.

“Of course, I recently purchased several outfits that I have yet to wear. If you do not mind, could you give me your honest opinions about them? Liam says I look good in anything, but I am afraid he is just saying that to make me happy.”, Rosetta stated, genuinely wanting to keep her husband happy.

“Haha, Victor says the same thing to us all the time.”, Angelica laughed, understanding her worries perfectly. “We are happy to share our honest opinions with you.”

Showing everyone to the master bedroom, Rosetta momentarily hesitated at the door, fearing the servants had not straightened. Nervously opening the door, she released a silent sigh of relief as the room was in pristine condition. Leading everyone to her gigantic walk-in closet, three of them faltered slightly as they stepped inside.

“This takes me back.”, Clarice commented. “Do you remember when we had closets like this, Angelica and Deirdre?”

“Haha, of course I do! I even remember every shopping trip I took to fill it with things I liked.”, Deirdre laughed, “My sister and I went shopping for new clothing every three months during the change of the seasons.”

“Yeah, I have many fond memories of those days...”, Angelica agreed, before remembering that everyone she shared those memories with abandoned her when she needed them most. “That said, I would say the memories I have made with everyone here are by far the most special to me.”

“Absolutely.”, Clarice and Deirdre acknowledged, having come to the same realization as her.

Thanking them for their kind words, Olivia and Roxanne noticed the downcast expressions on their faces. Pulling their close friends into a hug, one by one the others joined in to cheer them up. Grateful to have such supportive people in their lives, even though they were about to suffocate them, they thanked everyone and apologized for souring the mood. Breaking up the tight embrace, the women began looking around the room at Rosetta’s collection of outfits.

“Oh my, is this what is in style right now?”, Mylene inquired, pulling out a single dress out of the hundreds present.

“No, that is a family heirloom that has been passed down through the family from my great-grandmother.”, Rosetta giggled, retrieving one of the recently purchased dresses. “This is what’s in fashion.”

Left momentarily breathless by the stunningly designed dress, they quickly came back to reality as the outfit’s myriad of colors ruined it for them. More akin to a painter’s palette than a noblewoman’s dress, it honestly looked like someone had accidentally splattered several dozen buckets of paint on an otherwise exquisite dress. Instead of throwing it away and accepting the loss, they advertised it as a designer outfit and tricked the gullible Rosetta into purchasing it. Asking to see a few more outfits, the women were mortified to discover that the others were even more outrageous.

“Rosetta… please tell me that all the outfits you purchased are not like this.”, Lucoa gulped.

“Most of them are; is there a problem?”, Rosetta questioned, with a worried expression.

“Have you considered shopping in a different country? The empire would not know fashion if it bit them on the ass.”, Tohru said, making no attempt to soften the blow.

“The fuck, Tohru!”, Elma and Lucoa snapped, smacking their friend on the back of the head.

“Ahem… I meant to say the dresses themselves are stunning, but it looks like they came out of a clown’s wardrobe.”, Tohru corrected herself.

Releasing a long sigh, her friends began to wonder if even Victor could fix her at this point. Patting Tohru on the back with a tearful smile, the dragoness demanded to know what she had done wrong this time. Having given her honest opinion, like Rosetta wanted, she was unsure why everyone was ganging up on her.

“I appreciate your honesty, no matter how harsh it may be.”, Rosetta laughed, wiping a tear from her eyes, “To be honest, I thought they were outrageous as well, but it is what the nobility considers fashionable right now. I cannot return them, though; I suppose they can stay in my closet until I can do something else with them.”

“We might be able to help with that.”, Serana commented, looking toward their ever-vigilant companion. “Cleare, do you think you could reconstruct the outfits in singular or dual colors?”

<Easy-peasy, just let me know what colors you want.> (Cleare)

Voting on the colors amongst themselves, they gave Cleare the results and watched the magic happen. Atomizing and then reconstructing the outfits in seconds, Rosetta was astonished by how easy Cleare made it look. Stripping down to her undergarments, the duchess enthusiastically tried one of them on to see how it looked on her.

 “My word, it fits even better than any of my other outfits!”, Rosetta gasped, twirling around in her dress, “How is this possible?”

<I took your measurements to ensure it fit you perfectly. In addition, I added an elastic quality fabric to ensure you can use it for many decades.> (Cleare)

“You are going to delete that information, correct?”, Rosetta inquired, giving the floating orb a scary smile.

<Of course, I only have an interest in keeping track of my master’s wives.> (Cleare)

Satisfied with her answer, Rosetta thanked Cleare for going the extra mile for a stranger. Accepting the duchess’s gratitude, the AI inquired if she had any other clothing items to adjust. Nodding her head with an embarrassed look, she retrieved a lace bunny suit from one of the drawers. Having received it from her mother as a wedding gift, she had only worn it a few times as she had outgrown it after conceiving Edward.

“I… I did not take you for such a naughty woman, Rosetta.”, Mylene laughed, sharing in her embarrassment, “Does your husband enjoy seeing you in that skimpy outfit?”

Silently nodding her head, vivid memories of those nights came flooding back to her. Hiding her bright red face, Rosetta could not bear the thought of someone seeing her expression at that moment. Teasing the duchess a bit about her cute reaction to the question, Roxanne posed a serious question to her fellow harem members.

“Should we consider buying a few outfits to test the waters with Victor?”, Roxanne inquired, seriously considering doing so. “I think he would like it.”

“I agree, we should give it a try!”, Mylene seconded with a big grin. “You will give it a try, right, girls?”

“I am willing to give anything a try once, but if I do not like it, do not expect me to do it again.”, Aela remarked, willing to step out of her comfort zone.

“You… you want me to wear a bunny girl outfit?”, Serana repeated, looking at the two of them like they were crazy. ‘If my mother got wind of me dressing up like a bunny girl, I would never hear the end of it…’

Glancing around at the women that would one day soon be her fellow harem members, Amallyn could see that most appeared on the fence about this topic. They were genuinely worried that they were going to embarrass themselves for nothing, but Amallyn knew better. Having observed Victor closely during the first night at the casino, she had caught his gaze lingering on the outfits far more than normal. Having planned to use this information to her advantage here soon, the Eldar woman decided to share the information to quench their fears.

“I did not want to say anything until after I took the next step with Victor, but… I know for a fact he does have an interest in those types of outfits.”, Amallyn spoke, bringing the room to a dead silence.

Turning their attention toward her, the women asked her to repeat herself. Doing as they requested, Ionica walked up to her and asked if this was another one of her jokes. Swearing to her that this was the honest truth, Amallyn asked Ahsoka and Bo-Katan to back her up here. Confused why they were being pulled into this, she decided to expose their little secret to everyone present.

“I am not blind or stupid, ladies. That first evening at the casino- “, Amallyn began to say, as the mansion started abruptly shaking, “What in the world?!”

Fearing that the planet’s tectonic stabilizers had failed, Rosetta tossed the outfit to the floor and told her friends that they needed to evacuate the mansion immediately. Following the duchess’ lead, they grabbed the children from their rooms and made a hasty descent down the stairs. Finding the staff crammed together in the foyer, they were pushing and shoving their colleagues out the front door as some people felt they were not moving fast enough.

“Everyone please wait a moment!”, Brian shouted, running out from the back of the residence. “The tectonic stabilizers have not failed; this is not an earthquake. This shaking is being caused by Master Liam and Lord Stark’s sparring session in the backyard. I apologize for not warning everyone sooner… I had no idea it would get this chaotic…”

“Not to doubt you, Brian, but are you absolutely certain this is being caused by Liam and Victor?”, Rosetta inquired.

“I can assure you it is, my lady!”, Brian assured her, looking her dead in the eyes, ‘I do not blame you for doubting me. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it myself as well.’

“I have got to see this. Can you show us?”, Samus asked.

Complying with her request, Brian led everyone back to Liam’s study. Motioning for everyone to look out the ballistic bay window at the devastation unfolding outside, the crowd stared at two blurs that vaguely resembled Liam and Victor. Wanting to get a better look at their fight, Samus moved to the back door and started to open it. Shouting at her to wait a moment, Brian’s words came too late as the door was instantly blown open by the hurricane-force winds.

“WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL?!”, Bo-Katan shouted as everyone dropped to the floor and held on for dear life, “SOMEONE CLOSE THAT DOOR!”

“I GOT IT!!”, Ahsoka yelled, trying to be heard over the roaring winds. “Give me a sec- “

Crashing into Ahsoka before she could finish speaking, Ahsoka and Samus flew into the back wall, falling unconscious on impact. Dragging herself across the carpeted floor, Elma began to slowly make her way toward the door while Ilulu and Tohru treated this situation like it was a game.

“Wait a second!”, Lucoa said, noticing Fafnir sitting over in a corner of the room ignoring their plight, “FAFNIR, USE YOUR MAGIC TO CLOSE THE DOOR, PLEASE!!”

Lifting his head up from his book, he looked at everyone with mild annoyance before carrying out the request. Snapping his fingers, the door slammed shut and engaged all the locks. Releasing sighs of relief now that they could move freely once again, people began staggering to their feet to assess the damage.

“I am sorry for doubting you, Brian.”, Rosetta said, dusting her children off. “Should we still consider evacuating the mansion?”

“The mansion was designed to withstand orbital bombardments; the safest course of action is to stay inside.”, Amagi interjected, entering the room with refreshments, “Brian, I recommend alerting those around us to hunker down and wait for them to finish. Even I could not safely approach them under the current circumstances.”

“They intend to keep going for quite some time though…”, Brian stated, looking at the devastated garden and yard, “There has to be something we can do to bring this to an end sooner!”

Tossing around a few ideas, Fafnir glanced up from his reading again to give them another helping hand.

“The wisest option would be to resuscitate Ahsoka and ask her to contact them telepathically.”, Fafnir suggested. “Now if you could, please lower your voices. Some of us are trying to read here.”

Thanking the black dragon for his assistance once again, Victor’s group began trying to rouse the unconscious Jedi Padawan before there was nothing left to save outside.