...

Marisia's Office, Leonandra Estate

Inside the office of the Lady of the Leonandra estate were sitting what Moorgrelians would describe as the most fierce and talented in their generation. They were called prodigies by everyone inside their noble circles and simultaneously feared by outside circles for their ridiculous strength and, especially, their potential.

Both were rulers of their territory, but this was where the difference began. One had a healthy fief that had developed under excellent leadership for the last decades. At the same time, the other one inherited a mess recently, trying everything in his power to make up for the mistakes of the earlier rulers.

As such, they have been discussing a deal for the last few hours. However, it gradually became unpleasant since one party's proposal was unmovable, and they were not even considering negotiating.

"This is as much as I can give you, and the terms are very favorable if we look at the overall situation. I understand you want to haggle, but you should understand that the current demon run is fully ongoing and much larger than usual. We can't spare too much even though we want to help you."

For Bartholomew, it was the best deal he received, but also one he couldn't negotiate since Marisia seemed to have already given him the most favorable one without putting herself into a bad situation.

It was 150.000 average gold coins with an interest rate of 0.05%, which he could start paying back in ten years while having no interest in those years. Knowing how gold fluctuated in price, it was basically a gift. Even allowing her to mine in his copper mines for ten years made the deal worth it.

However, it was too little, and he couldn't haggle for more since she was like back then: So stoic and unmoving that one could put coal in her ass, only for it to come out as a diamond. As such, it was rather strange that she was Scarlett's daughter.

Nonetheless, it also made sense since one needed such a mindset to survive Scarlett's training and her as a parent in everyday life. Bartholomew himself experienced her and her training, but he had another way of dealing with things, which was breaking down every couple of days but getting back up and trying to kill the so-called Slaughterer, only to get the shit beat out of him.

Bartholomew shook himself awake, thinking he could talk about the good old times later and first needed to try and pursue her otherwise, but he suddenly remembered something, "Fine, let's forget it for now. There is something else important."

She slightly smiled at him, "What else? Did you get into a fight with Ori, and are you now wanted?"

Bartholomew chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, but this is important, too..." He cleared his throat and became more serious, "...ahem, do you know that I got a letter from your son Alexander and that he was ready to give me a loan, too, for a far more favorable rate?"

She tilted her head, acting as if confused, but he saw her smile widening, "So?"

He was confused, "I wanted to inform you that maybe your son is using your treasury somehow without your knowledge."

Her smile grew, "Thank you for your consideration, Bart, but my son is using his own funds. If he wants to support you, so be it."

He creased his eyebrows, "I don't understand. Is he not like seven or eight?"

She nodded, "He is. However, if you are interested, you can visit him, discuss it, and then decide on an offer. Of course, there will be no privacy because he is young, and a guard will be present for his protection."

He shrugged, "I understand. I don't want to look like I would do something atrocious, like scamming him. As such, I will appreciate your presence."

Marisia chuckled, holding her hand before her mouth, "Oh no, it will be Lili..." Bartholomew suddenly stood up, looking behind him, as his anxiety increased heavily, "...where is she?! Where is this demonic Lord?! Is she somewhere skinning puppies alive?!"

Marisia laughed out loud, "Haha! Don't worry, my Mother is not here and only left Lili for Alexander's protection."

Bartholomew looked at her, astounded, "You don't let Alexander talk with Scarlett, right? Does he still have his soul?!"

Marisia didn't stop laughing, "Haha, stop it! She isn't that bad..." She wiped a tear away, "...she only had some..." She showed a so-so gesture, "...some bad moments, but I think she changed slightly."

Bartholomew carefully sat down again and smirked at her, "Bad moments? After getting rid of a whole town, she almost killed us because we were too slow..." He glared at her, "...I remember her damn methods, and my Grandfather almost started a fight with her because of this."

Marisia relaxed a little and waved her hand in dismissal, "Calm down. She left months ago, so even if she was close, you could smell the corpses of millions of demons and scum immediately while hearing them scream in agony at her presence."

Bartholomew smirked back, thinking that their inside jokes were a little exaggerated. Still, it was true that Scarlett had a particular reputation inside their noble circles, which he would know the best since he had followed her as a trainee for three decades.

While on the battlefield, she was like a walking nightmare, bringing fear and destruction. Bartholomew even remembered how she brought them along to the North, where they raided small towns daily, eradicating more than a hundred before the Vulcanic Forge army arrived, trying to stop them. They could easily flee, but after that, he could barely sleep for weeks as he woke up in terror every night, remembering what atrocities they performed.

He shuddered slightly and tried to forget it quickly, "However, when will Alex join us?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I meant what I said. Alex doesn't need me as those are his funds, so don't worry about it, but know that Lili is there for his protection."

He looked confused at her but, in the end, shrugged, letting himself be surprised by what was to come, "Well, whatever. Can you get a servant to show me to him?"

Marisia pushed a plate with pastries toward him, "You need to wait around two hours for him to meet you. So relax, and let's just talk about the past."

Bartholomew tilted his head, confused, "Pardon?"

Marisia shrugged, "He has lessons right now."

He sat there dumbfounded, 'He is really a puppy.'

...

Later, Alexander's Office

"Oh, you are the one who beheaded your Dad and smashed your Mom to mush, right? I heard it from rumors, though. So, I'm not really sure if they are true."

Bartholomew looked at him and immediately saw someone he knew too well, 'This is 100% Kairo's blood.'

Alexander sat and looked at him without a worry in the world, with a calm demeanor puppies wouldn't usually have in front of him. Others saw Bartholomew as a monster because his [Divinity Line] produced a slight aura akin to wild demons, so most would shake in fear.

However, it could also be that Alexander was so confident since he wasn't alone. Inside the office, an aura was floating around, constantly warning him to do nothing stupid, 'Urgh, I hate Lili.'

Lili had an annoying way of making everyone wary of her. While invisible, she constantly leaked a bit of her aura throughout the room as she walked around, which irritated him.

Bartholomew sighed, trying to ignore her and Alexander's lack of etiquette. The most crucial question was whether he could even give him a loan before they discussed anything. With Marisia answering it indirectly and positively, he had nothing against being more casual since the puppy was the leading party in their negotiations, which set the tone.

"The gossip you heard is true, but I came here to discuss the offer you made me."

Alexander's tail moved from side to side, while his ears twitched when he talked, a sign of immature behavior, 'This will be a weird negotiation.'

Bartholomew never dealt with such young ones who wanted to make a deal with him, but there were weirder things he saw. So, his first goal was to see what intentions Alexander had.

"Yeah, so, do you accept? You could've just sent me a letter, though. Not like it changes anything."

Bartholomew shrugged, "I wanted to see face-to-face with whom I deal since many rumors float around about you, Mr. Saint."

Alexander tilted his head slightly, "Saint? Where does this come from?"

Bartholomew's assistant had an incredible [Divinity Line] with which she could listen to others talk even hundreds of meters (1 m = ~1.1 yards) away while filtering information out. Sometimes, it was even possible for her to discern information from another territory altogether, but this would only work at most a second, if at all. Veronica would then need to wait a week before using it again as such skill usage was too taxing. So the moment they came to their fief, she was trying to get as much information as possible.

For one, Alexander was a mage, which no one took really seriously, but the more important thing was that he was called a saint by the orphans and other less fortunate, and they took it very seriously. The other nicknames, like the Unfortunate One, came from the fact that he was almost assassinated, but those weren't important.

However, Alexander seemed to be mostly associated with his charity, which did not come from nowhere. He was apparently helping many of them, which Bartholomew respected even though it was weird for such a young pup to invest so much gold into such endeavors.

With this, Bartholomew could guess why Alexander wanted to help him. While traveling through Foxteeth, Veronica often used her [Divinity Line] and discovered that Alexander's charity opened there some days ago. As such, he guessed that the puppy also wanted to operate inside the Silver-Tail fief.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Why though? He had some theories he quickly cobbled together, 'The loan was probably mostly bait.'

Bartholomew was very cautious in his approach, especially when dealing with exceptional individuals. While Alexander was young, he nonetheless earned Marisia's trust, which meant a lot. As such, there were many possibilities for why the puppy wanted to make such a deal.

The most plausible explanation to him was that it was a deal where Alexander would put the charity inside the Silver-Tail fief only for Bartholomew to pay the costs, plus some charges, with mostly the loan. He would never accept it if something like this were written inside the contract in later negotiations. Yet, as long as it was not brought up, he would also not do it.

Bartholomew smirked slightly, "Just heard it here and there, why?"

Alexander waved his hand in dismissal while smiling, "Ignore it—just another stupid nickname for me. However, you are here and saw me. So?"

Bartholomew raised an eyebrow, 'Arrogant, huh? Well, if you put so much coin into the poor, some ego should be involved.'

He straightened up and first wanted to talk about the weird minerals Alexander wanted to mine, "About the offer, I don't exactly know what the minerals are you mentioned. For example, what is calcium? It would be helpful if you could explain what it is and what you want to use it for."

This unexpected request surprised Alexander, making him surprisingly joyful, "Right!" With a flick of his finger, wind conjured beside the shelves, and a glass container floated to the desk.

This action surprised Bartholomew, and he was almost ready to go for the offensive but could hold back on time, 'I am so jumpy fuck!' Because of Lili's continuous aura around him, he was on edge, thus always using his skills to calm down, but they helped little as she fucked around with him, sometimes increasing and decreasing the intensity.

However, his attention switched quickly as the glass container with some white powder inside floated to the desk. He was fascinated and also understood the other nickname, 'So young and such skills in magic already?'

Bartholomew saw some mercenary mages here and there, so he knew a little about magic besides how to kill the users. Most of them told him they needed to study for over twenty years before they could even fight Tier 2 monsters. For Alexander to be not even ten and seemingly using magic just this smoothly spoke for his skills.

The container landed before him, and Alexander signaled him to open it. Yet, Bartholomew was a little apprehensive since he had heard too many weird stories from those mage acquaintances about how their colleagues did bizarre experiments. For example, there was someone who accidentally changed their sex by mixing something up wrongly. As such, he was careful.

Alexander saw this and said, "Don't worry, it's safe. Look..." A slight wind turned the lid, and it popped right off, with some white powder floating into the air.

This sudden release of an unknown alchemical ingredient frightened Bartholomew, and he scooched a little back but, after a moment, recognized what it was, "Chalk?"

Alexander clapped his hands together, "Yes! With this, I can make something incredible! I want you to use it and build what I ask you to while we do the same on this side!"

This overwhelmed the hardened Knight, who looked at this puppy in disbelief. He tried to understand him but couldn't, and since the meeting was very casual, he just asked, not fearing coming off as dumb, "I don't get it. What exactly do you want to make with..." he pointed at the container full of chalk, "...this."

Alexander nodded in understanding, "Cement."

Bartholomew became even more confused, "But we already know how to make it?"

Alexander shook his head, "No, no, no. What we use now is too hard to make, too complex, and inconvenient for large-scale projects. I want access to your mines for chalk and some other things, which you find probably useless."

He looked at the little noble, who was excited and suddenly noticed something, "Wait, you said you wanted me to use it? Do you want me to buy you this cement?"

If this was true, then the whole thing made sense and was something he had already expected. While maybe not fully cold-hearted, he would be shrewd. After receiving the gold, Alexander probably wanted him to buy the new cement. Bartholomew would never agree to something like this, no matter how desperate.

However, what Alexander said next baffled Bartholomew, "Nah, I will give you the recipe and the method to make it. I only want you to connect villages of a certain size as you lay them down for street building! Imagine the interconnectivity! I also want you to spread it and build up north to the Feather-Paw fief while we build it towards you. This project will..."

Bartholomew interrupted him, "Wait! Let me digest it first."

Alexander was about to start his explanation, but Bartholomew suddenly interrupted him, wanting to be more open and honest since it was the puppy of his senior, "You can't be serious, right? Besides the exceptional loan, you want to give me an alchemical recipe for better street building while you..." He leaned forward, pointing at him, "...only want me to better my fief and have some access to cheap ingredients? Is this a joke? If I take it, I will basically scam you."

Bartholomew followed the Silver-Tail tradition: peace and prosperity. They never scammed anyone till his Mother came along, and for him to build up his lost connections, he would need to start with it again. It was all about trust, and he wanted everyone to trust him.

Alexander smirked at him, showing his arrogance, which irked Bartholomew, "Pffff, calm down. You don't know this since you are green behind your ears, but better streets mean better interconnectivity, which means better and faster trade and more taxes for both of us! It's a win-win. Who would be so stupid to make it a secret? Either way, I would give you the recipe and buy it, even if you only take my loan."

Bartholomew looked back at him and was now baffled to no end, 'Did I get told off by a puppy?!'

Bartholomew rubbed the place between his eyes and then looked at Alexander, not feeling as if he wanted to scam someone, "Got it, but why not just buy the ingredients for cheap while building the infrastructure out? Why the loan? The last thing I want to do is to make more enemies."

Alexander's smirk widened as he straightened up, looking down at Bartholomew, "I don't need some failing fief in my vicinity. A trade goes both ways and if I have more prosperous partners, we can trade more and better."

Bartholomew looked at him, becoming angry, "Listen, pup..."

Alexander stood and looked intensely into Bartholomew's eyes, "Don't call me pup! It is my gold, and I want to invest in your damn failing fief while building up a better future for everyone! Are you too stupid to understand?! Do you want me to draw you the plan with finger paintings?! Can you even count?! Trade plus better infrastructure equals more gold for everyone!"

A vein popped on Bartholomew's forehead, and he suddenly stood up, screaming, "My fief didn't fail!"

Alexander stared at him without any fear in his eyes, "It did. It did. It. Did!"

Bartholomew looked at him more severely, and his tone became deeper, almost threatening, while Lili's aura increased, "Don't say it ever again..."

Alexander smirked at him, "Or what? Will you have my head, or will I become mush?"

It was silent until Bartholomew fell into the chair, almost cracking it with his enormous build. He held his forehead while laughing out loud, "Hahaha! By the circle, okay, fine!"

Alexander walked around the desk, shaking his head, "It is not enough. I want more, much more."

Bartholomew became suspicious, glaring at him through his fingers, "Oh? What is it now? Servitude or some weird trade rights?"

Alexander stopped, raised an eyebrow, and looked at him as if he was a moron, "Wow, Mom was right. You really are stupid, huh?"

Bartholomew, though, didn't like what he heard, 'Mari and Alex are really the fucking same.'

In the past, Marisia was incredibly arrogant to him. Every time they studied, she would look down on him, and her son probably looked it up from her. While coming over as benevolent, she only accepted the talented and regarded everyone else as not worth her time. There were obvious exceptions, like her family, but she didn't see others as more than some dumb cattle only for her to use.

Alexander continued slowly walking towards him, "I need my charity, The Helping Paw, to be as autonomous as possible inside your fief so it can help to the best of their abilities..." He suddenly snapped his fingers, "...there is also the train thing I want to create in the future and will need help with, and I need to build a Temple branch there."

It was silent, and Bartholomew didn't know what to say. On the one hand, Alexander was an arrogant little brat who needed a really good beating. On the other hand, he would help him massively, especially his subjects, to endure their crisis.

'I can't do this. This isn't even a deal but sponsoring.'

All of Alexander's proposals were perks that would help Bartholomew. At this point, he wanted to avoid screwing him over not only because of political implications but because there was a familial trust between the Guardian Households that they would act in good faith toward each other. There were some exceptions, like if there were internal fights as the Silver-Tail household had, but otherwise, they were very close with each other and did almost everything in goodwill.

Bartholomew wanted to continue this tradition and rebuild trust in his household, "Listen, Alex, all you told me are positives, and I don't know what a train is in the first place. If I agree to such a deal, you will lose heavily."

Alexander came behind him, grabbing his shoulders, "I knew it."

Bartholomew raised an eyebrow, "Knew what?"

Alexander leaned forward, close to his ears, as his smile widened, becoming more vicious, whispering, "You are a giant pussy."

A vein popped, but before he could answer, Alexander continued, walking back to his chair, "You are too soft and a good guy. This is why you got fucked over for so long by your trash Mother..." He sat down again, putting one leg over the other, "...I mean no offense..." He shook his head, "...no, it is obviously insulting, but you are too nice for your own good."

Bartholomew also leaned back, "So, what does it mean?"

Alexander shrugged, "I like you and will thus increase the loan by 20%, and if you ask me why I am doing this, it's easy. I want our fiefs to be prosperous. I want to bring education and better living standards to the poor..." His tone became serious, "...I want to better these damn fiefs, which were ravaged by wild demons and others for thousands of years, helping my subjects."

Bartholomew saw not Kairoso anymore. Not even Marisia, but he saw the same ambition and greed as what Scarlett exuded, only that he wanted to help the impoverished instead of getting stronger himself, 'This whole family is fucking crazy.'

He remembered Scarlett too well as she tortured him for thirty years. She never budged if she had a goal and expected nothing less from her allies and friends—the same he could see in Alexander. The puppy had the same greedy eyes that made Scarlett into the monster she was.

After some minutes of silent contemplation, he decided, "I will take the deal, but we need to have a thorough mana contract, and you need to tell me beforehand what a train, sulfur, and magnesium are."

Alexander showed his hand for a handshake, "Deal!"

Bartholomew grabbed Alexander's hand and shook on the deal.

...

Later, Bartholomew's guest room

"What happened?"

"My Lord, you accepted an excellent deal. Why are you worried?"

Bartholomew lay on his bed, with one hand over his eyes, "I have a multitude of skills that control my emotions, but for some reason, Alex riled me so much up that I wanted to beat the shit out of him."

Veronica shook her head, "Not true, my Lord. If you had an inkling of killing intent, Lili would've killed you in a second."

He chuckled, "Thanks for the reassurance."

Veronica sighed, obviously not understanding what was happening in their discussion, which was in Bartholomew's opinion for the better. Otherwise, she would yell at him as to why he didn't take an even better deal.

What irked Bartholomew the most was that Alexander was open and honest about everything. He talked about every ingredient he wanted and made sure to explain to him what he would use it for, except magnesium. He only said it would become necessary, and he worked on how to utilize it.

Yet, there was something. Like a nail scratching Bartholomew's mind, he couldn't figure out what irritated him about the deal. However, after a lot of thought, he knew the problem. Alexander had ambitions, and while they were exactly the same as his, to better the lives of his subjects, it would also mean that the puppy would expect a lot from him.

While the details of the contract would be talked about in the next few days, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the loan would bind him to those goals. If Bartholomew wanted to stay in the good graces with Alexander, he would need to fulfill those expectations.

'What am I even thinking? He is only a pup, but... he will surely become the heir in a couple of years... damn it.'

Veronica sounded unsure, interrupting his thoughts, "I am confused, my Lord. All you told me about what he said made sense in the long term. Even implicitly, our end of the deal would also be to owe him a favor and bind ourselves to him, which would be nice since you both have the same goals and ideals."

"Tsk, It's just... I need to clear my head about what happened. This discussion was too ridiculous, and I understand, but doesn't one want to only get the most out of oneself? Is he betting that I am someone honest and don't later stab him in his back?"

Veronica shrugged, "Do you want to backstab him?"

Bartholomew became angry while straightening up from the lying position, "No! Obviously not!..." he punched the bed, which felt bad for some reason, "Damn it! Urgh."

He lay down again and looked at the ceiling, "I... I need to see what the next days will bring."

Veronica sighed, "My Lord, please go to sleep and think it over tomorrow with a clear mind..." She remembered something, "...ah right. Do you want to have something to eat? You didn't have much."

...

"My lord?"

She came closer and saw that he was already sleeping.