...

Wintersleep Hotel, Private Lounge, Early Morning

Alexander strolled through the room, his tail happily waving from side to side, with his retainers behind him, either angry, sad, anxious, or something in between.

He became slightly nostalgic, remembering when his Father consoled him after his Mother and sister screamed at him. He told him that women were like the weather, and sometimes, one should put on warmer clothes. However, with the miasma, it always felt like a blizzard, and it didn't matter what gender one was.

Regardless of Alexander's Earth Father's old school sayings, his retainers were now irritated by him, the person who made their life Outer Circle for the last day, and in all honesty, he couldn't care less.

Alexander waved his hand in dismissal, making them all frown, "I will attend the meeting, and you can't say or do anything to stop me."

Ocilia was the first to answer him, not hiding her irritation, with her upper eyes turning slightly red, "Master, you will not!"

The next one was the usually shy Ariana, who, by how she looked, was clearly overworked and barely holding it together, her pupils squinting into slits, "Mr. Alexander, I would rather beat you unconscious and drag you away than let you participate."

However, some had very different reactions. Aurum took out a pipe and started to fill it with something veteran warriors smoked after a battle to calm down, and Alexander noticed it, finding it more interesting than the outbursts, "You smoke?"

Ignoring them, Ocilia and Ariana became slightly more aggravated, with one's eyes becoming dark red and the other's tail swinging more widely.

Aurum looked back at him, shrugging, "What? Do you want me to hold you back? I couldn't hold you back with the stupid rehab idea, and you think I can now? I just let fate take me..." He ignited the pipe with a spell, inhaling strongly and exhaling colorful smoke, "...to the Core, one way or another. With an executioner or without."

Alexander shrugged, seeing he wasn't the only one giving into it. Quill recovered and sat around, filling the ashtray with one cigarette after the other. Maurice, who also came to talk sense to him apparently, was only staring blankly outside, training his mana skills secretly, after he got told no. He was indeed a simple man who needed only to be answered once.

The most peculiar person inside the room was his temporary personal guard, though, who was also the most relaxed. She lay around beside the door, tongue out, and made only some offensive jokes and maybe a threat here and there, finally acclimating to Alexander's favorite style of dialogue—a very unproductive and aggressive one.

"My Mistress's grandson is truly some egomaniac. Give me a good reason not to force you back to the estate and maybe let your head bang occasionally at some stones on the way..." Her smile widened, "... accidentally, of course. We don't want your little head to get too much damage." Ariana and Ocilia nodded toward Lili in gratitude, calming down a little after hearing her.

Alexander sighed, conjuring wind to move the furniture around, like the massive blackboard they brought inside, or the couches to create a circlish-seating arrangement so that his guests would feel equal and thus would speak more freely. Quill and the others who sat on them didn't care, still trying to relax and resigning to their fate.

Other than that, pieces of paper fluttered elegantly into stacks of towers as they had all the information his guests needed. However, they would need to leave it here since the paper was still a rarity and would give away who was working with them should they be caught.

While such a scene was ongoing, like from a very popular and cold-blooded conglomerate, only with depressive people and drugs, Alexander started to gesture more strongly, trying to explain why they shouldn't worry and why he wanted to do it in the first place. After announcing it yesterday, it immediately escalated into screaming curses and worse, so he had no chance to explain.

Alexander held a finger up, "First, I want to be part of this discussion because I need experience in such things, and second..." While it sounded stupid and probably was, he wanted to practice making deals with those who weren't his subjects and didn't need to listen to him, temporary or otherwise. They were perfect, with little to no risks involved, in his opinion.

He held a second finger up, "I am strong enough to go against Tier 2 to 3 soldiers and have enough protection with Lia, Maurice, Quill, and especially Doggo here to invade France."

Maurice became confused, waking up from his stupor, asking, "What's France? Is this some territory? I never heard about it."

Alexander waved his hand in dismissal, "Never mind, it was just a saying I heard somewhere."

He had accidentally used a saying from Earth since he was as if not more overworked than his retainers trying to create enough gunpowder. He did it by using those slimes as filters and requesting as many as possible, trying to make it as simple and fast as possible so his workers could do this job.

Aurum raised an eyebrow, confused, "I never heard this name, either..." He looked at Ariana, who was now taking a cigarette from Quill, "...did you?"

Ariana shook her head, "Me neither."

Quill also answered, puffing out a cloud of purplish smoke, "Me thrice."

The topic changed, and everyone was now probably trying to find out what he said meant, which was not so bad until Lili opened her mouth, "I know what it means."

She smiled at him, "When I was a pup, there was some crazy assassin running around and saying a lot of things people didn't understand, and one of those was something with a fictional country named France and many unflattering things about it. Though, it wasn't the only country nobody heard about."

Alexander stopped rearranging, staring at Lili while everything stood still in midair or a weird position. However, after a moment, he shrugged, "I read it in a book, saying that it was a pretty cool country. It was a fantasy book, you know?"

He saw no use in asking about whoever went wild after being reborn. Like him, many probably saw this as a new beginning, trying to do what they couldn't in their last life. Others lived maybe everyday lives far away from what he was trying to achieve. Then, other crazy ones probably went the edgy teenager route.

Alexander would accept those who wanted to live simple lives. Still, everyone else, trying to achieve something much more crazy than he was trying to do, needed to be dealt with promptly. There were too many horrific events in Earth's history, and he didn't want to see them happen here.

Lili quickly sounded bored again, but there was a certain glint in her eye, "Hmm, how boring, but I still need an excellent reason not to drag you back. By force or not, it will be your choice."

Alexander let the furniture and pieces of paper move again, holding his hands up in peace and smiling widely, "All right, all right! Got it. However, with you here, I can literally crush half of Wolfsteeth, so I don't think they will make any problems, and other than that..." He tapped his cheek, "...I still have my tongue tattoo from Dad, which can block even my Grandmother if she doesn't become too crazy."

It was somewhat silent, everyone glancing at Lili, Maurice, Quill, and Ocilia. Even without Alexander's crazy magic, security was more or less impeccable. The youth in the private lounge agreed with him. Even something silly like poison was mostly ineffective against him because he was well resistant to it.

They only waited for Scarlett's personal guard to give the okay since she had full responsibility for Alexander when outside. She knew this, having a somewhat self-aggrandizing smirk and a smidge of regret showing itself after she started talking, "I am okay with that, but what if they get caught by those Essence djinns and rat you immediately out? My task is protecting you and, in general, securing the estate from your crazy ideas."

"From? You meant probably..." Lili interrupted him, "Mr. Alexander, you heard me right."

Alexander rolled his eyes, "You are such a jokester, but..." He plopped on a couch while it moved under him, putting one leg over the other, cruising slowly around Lili, and with another sofa moving in front of him like he tried to play the shell game, "...how would they even know that I am me?"

Everyone looked at him, stunned, though it was such an idiotic assertion. Only Ocilia rolled her eyes, annoyed, "Master, I don't think it's time for your stu..." She stopped but shrugged after thinking about whether she should say what she wanted, "...stupid philosophical questions."

All turned to Ocilia, and she explained, "Master liked tort..." She stopped again, thinking through her word choice, but only less than a second, "...torturing me with homework, always making me guess the nature of life and crap nobody cares about."

Alexander's couch stopped, and he smirked at her, opening his arms, "And what a great girl you became..." He turned to Ariana, who was brewing a tea and dropping a fluid in it containing something used to torture others, making them unable to sleep, "...right, Ariana?"

She turned to him, with a cigarette in her mouth, "Yeah..." She turned back to her brewing, "...why not? I want to get my Father here before turning into a drug-addicted loser."

Quill squinted at her, "Hey!"

Ariana turned sharply to him, "What?! I didn't sleep for five days, trying to work out with a dozen workers' tasks I needed to coordinate and juggle this monstrosity of a scheme here! You just..." She waved at him in dismissal, "...was in pain but with the hookers we sent you, you were fine."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Before the conversation could derail even more because of everyone's tiredness, he tried to focus it back, "Listen, all they could tell under any contract is that I am someone who looks like Alexander and say that I am him. However, if I don't use magic and other stuff, they can't be truly sure that I am me."

Everyone turned toward him immediately, looking as if he was insane and doing it audibly.

Ocilia was the first, "This sounds stupid."

Followed by Ariana, "Dangerous."

With Aurum smirking, "Moronic."

Even Quill didn't like it, "Idiotic."

Alexander rolled his eyes harder, as they didn't understand it, "Wow, look at my aides with all those synonyms for calling me a retard. However, what I tell you is true from all the cases I read. If true nobles get caught for some stupid shit, it mostly doesn't matter if some commoner snitched on them. They went all free if there wasn't anything highly specific pointing that it was the person like a particular energy, magic, a technique, our token, etc."

When they looked at him dumbfounded, he continued, "This is why, while we meet them, nobody should use anything too unique to themselves. No magic, no energy, nothing. Stuff like that can indicate that they could identify you as you, but only seeing you doesn't mean it's you."

Maurice scratched his head hard, not understanding, "I don't get it."

However, all the others were in thought, thinking it through, so Alexander continued, elaborating, "Imagine there is someone who wants to fuck me over. Every person with a little wealth could easily replicate me superficially with skills, potions, or scrolls..." He suddenly stopped, gesturing much more strongly, like he did one of his speeches, trying to convince them, "...remember the assassination attack? Those bastards had the ability to copy someone else's appearance by simply using their blood."

Ocilia was the first to argue against it, "It all sounds too esoteric, Master. While I agree with you on the merits, making others believe it sounds far-fetched. It's like her..." She pointed at Ariana, "...trying to avoid going to my favorite restaurants, always saying her feet hurt."

Ariana looked at her lover, squinting, "Want to know the truth that I don't want to go?"

Ocilia smirked back, "Sure."

Ariana's upper lip went up in disgust, "What you call restaurants are what I call public lavatories. All the food there tastes as if someone wanted to hide children's bodies, so they mixed it under the rotten meat and spiced it up so much, one needs [Immediate Poison Resistance] to not get diarrhea for days."

Ocilia squinted at her, "What? You think your fancy restaurants are so much better where you pay one small silver coin for a glass of water?!"

Ariana rolled her eyes, "This again! You embarrassed us because you refused to pay for water, conjuring it yourself!"

Ocilia became exasperated, "What?! Who pays so much for fucking water?! It's just some atoms pushed together!"

As Ariana wanted to stand up, with Ocilia also inhaling to start their couple's spat, Alexander pushed one down and the other to the side with his air contraptions, "All right! You can later hatefuck each other until you get chaffed; right now, we need to stay on topic and let me try to bring it back from those morons. Give me a second..."

While Alexander looked at something inside his spatial pouch, Ariana started drinking the mixture, one would make immediately wake up, and Ocilia mumbled, "Yeah, I am the moron. Wanting to meet up with possible assassins inside some overpriced hotel."

Overhearing this, Ariana smiled back at Ocilia, "Agree..." Giving her an air kiss, which her lovers smiled at amiably.

"Great going girls. Bond by insulting your Master; I mean, who cares? Certainly not me... Oh! Here it is..." Alexander pulled out a silvery shiny amulet with a golden feather, and his name was finely engraved on it.

When Alexander showed it around, everyone knew what it was: Alexander's Golden Feather Bank Identification Card that gave him access to his accounts. Lila did this with some colleagues after one of the meetings. Everyone in the room had one, but it was much less prestigious than what the young noble had.

Alexander held his BIC so everyone could see, "Now, look at this. If I..." He pushed his mana into it, with its lightning-up bluish, "...push my mana into this, it saved up my mana pattern... which I didn't even know I had and recognizes through the tiny enchantments."

This became a sore point for Alexander. He couldn't study magic in much detail since he had all the dealings. Sure, he could learn a spell or read a book occasionally, but to study genuinely, he would need a lot of time, which he didn't have. Of course, he could push everything back, but it felt wrong to him. With his power and wealth, he felt a responsibility to do something. It was always like this, even on Earth, making him only look on the side of certain things.

However, he knew it was only a question of when not if. After wheeling out all the essential things and after his Noblesse Oblige, he could take a break and concentrate only on what he was interested in. The best thing was that his Mother was far from her first body modification and would probably need another ten to twenty years, which meant he wouldn't need to have any duties to administer this Outer Circle of a city for a long time.

Regardless of the fun mana implications of turning the world upside down, he concentrated back on the BIC, biting his finger and letting a drop of blood fall on it, "It also lights up if my blood touches it, another safe mechanism which ensures that I am the guy who opened the account."

Almost everyone understood immediately. There were many precedences where something like this was usual and more reliable when looking at someone superficially.

However, Aurum was the first to see a big problem, "Yeah, let them sign you a mana contract and then tell the truth by yourself. There's no need for prisoners or eyewitnesses."

Alexander looked mischievously at them, "True nobles like me can only be forced by our parents to sign a mana contract."

Everyone looked at him dumbfounded, only for Lili to chuckle, "Using aristocratic canine-kin traditions to ensure your safety? Aren't you a little too cocky?"

Aurum immediately asked further, slowly waking up from his haze, "That is actually true? Isn't this just some stupid fairy tale?!"

Aurum talked about a fairy tale that was told to every guard household puppy. It was ridiculously long and roughly said that family was the most important thing there was. The family portrayed in the story was a dog-kin one, with their puppy doing something stupid and their Master not wanting to force the puppy or parent to cough up the truth. However, after some time, they did, nonetheless, because of honor, pride, and all the stupid shit.

The morals of the fairy tale were too apparent. However, what was important, was that this fairy tale was based on proper law, and Alexander started to explain it, seeing that especially the ones not from Moorgrel had no idea what they talked about, "Me and cocky? Excuse me, but I will use the law as much as I want..."

Without knowing the concrete situation of the political system in Moorgrel, it sounded like the poor Count was bullied by his Knights. The fairy tale tried to tell every canine-kin noble since little how important it was to be morally righteous and obey their Master or Mistress, even without any obligation.

Guard households were massively loyal to the Count mainly because they were unrestrained, even protecting their offspring to a ludicrous degree. Their freedom was comparable to the rights and duties of 90% of higher nobility in central Mal-Gil under the Royalty. They could start local wars, as Bartholomew did, and build trading relationships with foreign entities, a right usually reserved for the highest position in their political system.

While it sounded like a perk, Alexander saw it as a necessity. The Moorgrelian territory was fucked beyond belief, with humans to the west, dwarves to the north, wild demons to the east, and the south having all kinds of races trying to take over islands besides the Essence Alliance.

Also, in addition to outer enemies, they had inner ones from other higher nobility trying to usurp them from the inside. Not giving them enough freedom to act as needed would mean a too rigid system, and breaking it would become an easy feat with enough pressure. However, with their flexibility, they could react individually to certain situations well enough.

Regardless, with such responsibility came the appropriate rights, which, while somewhat too predictable, had some perks, like that family and especially the offspring, were untouchable to a certain age. Canine-kins were always a little touchy when others tried to force their will onto the descendants.

After he was done, Ocilia was the first to see one giant flaw in his plan, "Are you sure the Lady will not hold you accountable after finding out? I am sure she would."

Aurum answered her, "You mean giving him to the Count?"

"Yeah, why?"

"This will not happen, I am 100% sure..." Alexander interrupted Aurum, looking smugly at Ocilia, "...see? No need to worry!"

Aurum wasn't done, smirking at Alexander, though, "Yeah, remember Sarah? She will have you for herself. Be ready to suffer once she gets her hands on you."

Alexander waved his hands in dismissal, "I am fine..." Shrugging, "...what else can I suffer through? However, ignoring the horrific torture, do you really think that the moment the camp starts to get active, with all their weapons, food, and shiny gunpowder, who do you think would be the first to be blamed for? All fingers would either way point at me, but we, fortunately, have our ladies from the Eros Alliance."

Everyone nodded and humphed in agreement. It was a sensitive situation for Alexander, but what they did until now was to go through the worst-case scenarios, even if they were implausible.

Even if the refugees who knew about him were caught, the Essence Alliance was at war with Moorgrel, and their tattle on Alexander would be hilarious.

However, he needed to go through every scenario to react appropriately. For this, they had the fire-djinn half-sisters, or rather their clans, who could act outside Mal-Gil's restrictions.

Clank

His thoughts were interrupted by the fire-djinns half sisters coming inside, one cheery and the other tired beyond belief, like Alexander's workers.

Lila waved at them as she strolled inside, pointing at her spatial pouch, "Look! I bought some yummy things from those vendors Ocilia told me about!..." Ocilia smirked smugly at Ariana, who frowned, "...They are pretty good even though their hyg..."

She was quickly pushed away by Helena, "Out of the way, fatass! Damn it..." She scratched her head, "...who knew that the damn law was so complicated when it comes to fucking ships?! I just need a few vessels, and the administration wants to know with whom I will trade. With their Fathers which I will fu..."

Aurum burst into laughter, interrupting her rant, "Haha! Welcome to working with Master! After a week, you will want to kill yourself. If you need a good strick, it will be provided, free of charge, of course."

Helena smirked at him, "No thanks if I want to kill myself..." She pointed her thumb at Lila, "...I would eat those shashliks made out of who knows what, hehe."

It was actually nice to see who was working not only for them but also for their fief and future. Sometimes, a retainer came to Alexander, telling him that Helena asked a lot about what it meant to be his retainer.

On the other hand, Lila did the minimum, which was fine too. She wasn't ambitious and wanted just to live a comfortable life. However, she did her work almost perfectly regarding finances, so she had no reason to leave the Golden Feather Bank other than for such opportunities.

Like that, they readied themselves for the following hours, going through everything thrice so nobody made any mistakes. While it sounded terrible, Alexander and the other youth had fun. It was an exciting experience for them, especially those who indeed wanted to change the world.

However, primarily, only youth had such a risk-taking attitude, while more mature ones would avoid it altogether.

...

Hours Later

"I welcome you, my friends! Today we will decide how to fuck shit up real good!"

Clank

However, after he greeted the camp representatives and sat them down, the door suddenly opened, and Alexander smelled someone too familiar. The person's overwhelmingly disgusting charismatic voice resounded like an unicorn shitting another unicorn out. This made Alexander panic.

"Alex? I need to talk about... what the...?!"