Author's Note: No Cheat sheet ;) The next .5 chapter will continue this side story. Oh yes, this is an extra chapter because it is the first of May. Wish you a great worker's day :) Schedule as normal.
...
Correspondence: From Emma I. Cold-Snout to Patricia O. Nine-Fire
Hello dear Patricia,
I hope you remember me from the visit to our estate, where you performed so mighty in a spar! I wonder how much of a great Knight you will become after seeing such a display.
You immediately became my idol, witnessing how confident and charming you were while swinging your spear. Sadly, though, I have little to no strength and a weak body. Nonetheless, I strive to be as strong as you are, but through other means, which I learned with the help of Alex!
Now that I mentioned him, I was visiting the Leonandra estate with my sisters and had very lovely rendezvouses with him arranged by my Mother. I was pleasantly surprised by him, and he was exactly like you mentioned! A charming and adorable boy!
I couldn't agree more with your taste. As such, I must say I fell in love with the cute boy. Hearing his stories about you and him, I couldn't stop but admire you both and how you were there for each other after the assassination attack—a true romance, which I wanted to be a part of.
Yet, he rejected me when I confessed that I loved him, saying he still loved someone else and couldn't get over her without saying who it was. When I asked him if this was you, he only shook his head, saying I shouldn't spread such awful rumors since you were his best friend.
I didn't tell him what you told us, as I was just confused since you often mentioned that you were both in love. Now I am writing to you to ask if everything is okay with you and him? I hope so!
It would be a shame not to see you together. Still, since Alex is getting over the other person, I decided to ask him again in the future, should a chance appear, hopefully with you together, since I admire you and adore his personality. It would be such a great relationship we could have!
I know that you are currently training under Scarlett and thus probably have no time to visit us, but I would love to exchange letters with you since you are an idol to me.
Cheers, and all love,
Emma <3
...
Somewhere in the North of Moorgrel, Camping site
A fox-kin girl sat at a bonfire, reading letters from her family, Alexander, and others until she read the last one, which confused her. It made her leak out the little killing intent she had acquired by killing monsters for weeks, crumpling it in her hands, 'Emma... love someone else... huh...'
Her energy suddenly went haywire, leaking out of her hands and destroying the letter. A small flowery treant beside her that looked like a sunflower raised her eyebrow, made out of multiple seeds, and shuffled away, mumbling, "Mistress has some weird trainees again."
However, Patricia ignored Sunshine, her current healer, for the body strengthening, which Scarlett had brought over a couple of days ago, concentrating only on the letter in front of her.
It was the third letter from those Cold-Snout girls. While the first one almost made her explode in rage, saying they were interested, the second made her relax again, as they seemed to decide otherwise. Yet, this one just unpleasantly confused her.
Patricia could barely remember anyone from the Cold-Snout estate, less someone so obnoxious as Emma. Still, from her written words, it seemed she was an innocent girl who fell in love with Alexander. It was her worst nightmare.
Such girls, usually innocent and pure, would jump from a cliff because of love, and all the boys loved them back, seeing how sincere they were, especially since she ignored her sisters and fell for Alexander entirely, wanting to ask him again in the future.
Inside their Guard Households, such specimens were a rarity because most had at least some fundamental education regarding love and romance, which made them rather cynical from a young age.
She bit her fingernail, or at least tried to find some since they were shortened because of training, which annoyed her even more, 'This is bad...'
Emma also seemed not to be jealous since she openly expressed that they could be a happy family together. She was a typical descendant of the Cold-Snout household who was fine as long as they could be close to the man they loved, who was, in Patricia's opinion, nothing more than a slave they exchanged between each other for breeding purposes.
However, Patricia was jealous and wanted Alexander for her alone. There was no way she could live inside a harem. Because of that, she couldn't accept such an arrangement, but she also couldn't push Emma blatantly away, in case Alexander liked her to some extent.
'What to do...'
After some minutes of contemplation, Patricia decided to push Emma slowly away by discouraging her over time while trying to get as much information out of her as possible since she read something that shocked her.
'Damn it, what does it mean he is in love?!'
In Patricia's mind, Alexander fully trusted her, which was a lot of work. She opened herself fully to him, telling all her secrets, fears, and much more, except for one thing: she loved him.
Of course, the hypocrisy was apparent even to her, but she didn't care. Alexander, for her, should be like an open book that she could read and learn everything about. There should be no secrets.
However, there seemed to be someone who came before her, with whom he was in love, which made her furious, wanting to rip the person apart.
She stood suddenly and walked around the camp, making all the servants around her tense as she leaked out bloodlust while thinking. It was a tricky situation for her, but she needed more information before she would decide on any course of action. Even writing to Alexander, asking what this was all about, needed to wait.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She suddenly stopped and clicked her tongue, 'First Emma, then Alexander. No need to be hasty.'
Patricia liked to be more aggressive and direct, wanting to ask Alexander why he didn't tell her. Still, it was impossible now with someone so naive involved who was probably acquainted with Alexander since she also mentioned magic implicitly or at least that he helped her, which was most likely teaching her mana skills. It was better to be strict while indirectly fishing for more info about who he loved.
...
Correspondence: From Patricia O. Nine-Fire to Emma I. Cold-Snout
Hello Emma,
Thank you for your uniquely open letter and admiration, which made me feel that my hard work was worth it. I also appreciate your sincere proposal to become part of a harem.
However, when I got your letter, I was first confused since another two arrived earlier, written by your sister Vanessa, first saying that she, you, and one other named Matilda were interested in Alexander, wanting to be part of his harem and later again by Vanessa, saying that I should ignore the first letter since they decided otherwise because there was some weirdness surrounding Alex?
Now you write me, saying that the weirdness is something like him loving someone else? If you may, I would love to hear what this is all about since he never mentioned something like this to me.
However, even if you are enthusiastic about becoming friends with me, from what I can read, I don't know if Alex is really polygamous, meaning interested in a harem, while I would be uncomfortable having someone like you close to us without knowing you.
It is not an outright rejection of your character or talent, but it is more that I simply don't know you. I would first like to exchange a few letters and meet before deciding on such a thing. Of course, only if you are okay with it. Seeing your honesty in your last letter, I wouldn't want to pressure you.
Yet, I want to clarify something: I am a Nine-Fire, not a Cold-Snout. I learned from when I was little that we don't pressure our husbands into a harem but that the Lord and Lady work together like a team, friends, comrades, and lovers to better the fief.
As such, I will not accept any pressure to be put on Alexander. Please think about it before you decide to become his wife by yourself or try to force him into an arrangement he may not like.
Also, I want to address the misunderstandings regarding my relationship with Alexander, saying that I like him but in a different way than what you perceived. Me saying we were like husband and wife was metaphorical since we went through a lot. As mentioned before, the Nine-Fire household would see it that way, as we were there for each other for months.
However, life is long, and nobody knows what will happen in a few years. Maybe I will fall for him, maybe not, but whatever the case is, he will stay my best friend like I am his, without any doubt.
I await your answer.
Cheers,
Patricia O. Nine-Fire
...
Cold-Snout Estate, Emma's room
'This stupid whore.'
Emma leaned back in her chair, using an air contraption to slowly but steadily let a book float to her. She opened it as it landed on the table, with the wind making the pages flutter, turning to an empty one. Then, carefully, she created an ink contraption floating in the air, from which a string slowly moved downwards, starting to write. It was much slower than just using a fountain pen, but she saw the potential, wanting to train with every possibility she had.
'Didn't expect her to be this clever... let's plan the next step...' Emma smiled widely, '...well, it was only a test, to see how she would react.'
Patricia did the right thing by denying everything she said at the Cold-Snout estate visit and treating it like a misunderstanding. She explicitly mentioned being Alexander's best friend, using it to give her the role of gatekeeper to his relationships while not denying her interest in maybe marrying him in the future. Furthermore, she also used her household, making it seem superior to the Cold-Snout, as an argument as to why Emma shouldn't get engaged with him, implicitly saying that they were too different.
She started writing her thoughts to organize them later, 'Tsk, how cunning.'
First of all, Emma didn't mishear Patricia but clearly understood what she said when visiting the Cold-Snout estate. Still, since they exchanged letters that could fall into Alexander's hands, she became much more careful. She showed her most sociable side, denying everything and even explicitly mentioning what she thought of Alexander, the same way how he thought of her.
It was quite frustrating because Emma wanted her to be more open for multiple reasons. Should Patricia try to push her away more aggressively in the future, she could blackmail her with the letter or make her look bad in front of Alexander by accidentally showing it to him.
However, the other way around, it was the same. In her letters to Patricia, she never admitted to anything that Alexander would perceive as negative, but to Patricia, it probably looked as if Emma loved him. Should the vixen show Emma's letters to him, she could reasonably imply that she had no idea while acting confused and distressed. Seeing how Alexander reacted when she cried, it was foreseeable that he would never suspect her to be this manipulative. Only Patricia would look insane.
'Now...' She clicked her tongue in annoyance, '...I really don't like the insult against my household, though.'
It was common knowledge that households were very different in their approach to marriage.
The Cold-Snouts had harems with a strict division of responsibility for the Lord and Ladies. However, as Patricia implied, many saw their husbands as nothing more than some poor male being forced into a den of lions, only to be devoured and used.
She became angrier thinking about the insult, her contraption wobbling around, barely able to hold. While it was somewhat true, they never saw the other side of the coin when the Lord decided on something ridiculous. The wives would follow his whims and wishes, not daring to contradict him, be it war, trade bans, or anything else.
Fortunately, they could avoid the worst situation by putting up only men who were the best at decision-making and contemplating their wives' different opinions. It was more of a council, with the husband having the last word concerning external affairs.
Regardless, the Nine-Fires were very different and looked for either the strongest or most intelligent male for their heir to marry, who would also usually be the most talented, creating relationships of monsters.
Even though she was infuriated by Patricia's insolence, she slowly calmed down because it ultimately didn't matter. The only important thing was what Alexander's household cared about since Emma didn't care which household she joined as long as she could be together with Alexander.
However, it became confusing as she researched Leonandra's family history. It was pure pandemonium. The rulers often tried to establish rules and conduct regarding finding a suitable spouse for the successor, yet this never worked.
Marisia was the best example of this by marrying a Druid. The same was true for Scarlett, who married Roland because he was the strongest of his generation. She chose him after visiting every household, dueling every man, and deciding on a husband after she lost. Before that, Volos, Alexander's Great-Grandfather, kidnapped a girl from the Nine-Fire household after she rejected him. However, they married after they had a brutal fight when she tried to flee, almost destroying a town in the process. The rebuilt town was then called Lover's Quarrel.
In short, the Leonandras had no norms and traditions regarding marriage and selecting a spouse for the heir. At least, that's what others saw, but Emma knew this wasn't true. She saw a pattern: they did what they wanted, regardless of status or obligations.
As such, Emma decided to sit still and slowly make herself available to Alexander, making him like her, step by step. From what she saw, he had the same personality as his ancestors: He took and did what he wanted, regardless of what others thought of him. Forcing him to do something would never work.
Because of that, Emma decided on a plan, smiling widely as the candlelight flickered, 'Hm... let's make you panic.'
Emma took out some paper and started writing and rewriting dozens of times. It needed to be perfect, as one mistake could make it impossible to get Alexander. However, it didn't mean she was heartless; she would still allow Patricia to work with her together and build a harem. In her opinion, it was wiser to have allies instead of enemies. Still, it didn't mean she wouldn't set up a trap for her if she decided otherwise.
'Now, what do you decide to do?'