...

From Scarlett J. Leonandra to Lili Leonandra

Hello dear Lili,

Thank you for acting so quickly and sending me the update about Alex. I didn't expect such a thing to happen, and while at it, you also did a great job sending me everything Alex had created and researched about.

There are genuinely some gems there, like the blueprint for the book press, but the collection of fairy tales is fairly immature and lacking in many ways. However, with Alex wanting to mass-produce books, it makes sense now that he also wants to make education available to everyone. Just watch out that he didn't waste so much gold on such a puppyish idea.

Enough chit-chat since you probably await my orders to stop Alex's little scheme, thinking it could blow up in his face. However, do not worry. I want him to continue, and you have my complete trust to act as you see fit should a problem appear.

Alex doing what he can to fix an issue is fantastic. He is young and needs to learn many things as he advances through life, so let him collect the experience he needs to become someone of stature.

If nothing comes out of it, do me a favor, eliminate those pests quickly, and dispose of all evidence. I don't particularly appreciate having a dagger held around my protege's neck at all times.

It would also help if you did me a slight favor. While I trained the little vixen, I was often reminded of Narsi and his training progress, which you described positively to me. Indeed, your compliments are a rarity, and thus, I decided to help the poor boy come out of his shell.

While I appreciate strength more than anything, the boys in the current generation seem to be blessed with exceptional intelligence, and I would like to focus on that. Of course, seeing him become a decent fighter would be pretty fascinating, but ultimately, it would be a waste of time. He clearly could grow so much more if we push him in a specific direction.

As such, please make sure he participates in Alex's scheme. With some luck, his abilities will not end at bureaucracy and charisma but may reach into espionage, military tactics, strategy, and perhaps even scheming, like Peter's. By the circle, we would need such a person in our household more than anything, so tell Saru he should cut the training hours.

Also, be a sweetheart and include Sarah and his fiancé, whatever her name was. While Sarah has talent, I don't think highly of her because of her laziness, so please try and push her to find something acceptable she could do. The fiancé was as average as one could be, but she has our blood, so she should be enough to act as a meat shield for Narsi, but again, if she died, he would be distressed and lose some of his most important years. As such, ensure she at least wouldn't die when protecting him.

Before I forget, please be a dear and send me the alchemical mixture that hurt you. I want to test it out on something that has annoyed me for quite some time. Two to three tons should be enough.

I am awaiting good news.

Cheers,

Scarlett

...

Leonandra Estate, Main Garden, The week after the letter was given to Makol and William

A fauner strolled through the estate, the sun warming her fur while one of her bonded spirits frolicked around her, which only she could see at the estate. Her divine skills, unique to a region far away from Moorgrel, allowed her to tame spirits.

However, there were little to no spirits besides her own here. The miasma coming from Kratikal irritated them, and even hers, which were powerful, preferred to stay inside her, coming only out occasionally for a few minutes to stretch their legs.

Lili felt the same. Those short moments of peace and calm were all she had now. Guarding her Mistress's grandson was a monumental task, making her nervous that the little squirt would suddenly flash away from her sight in Wolfsteeth, using some esoteric spell or potion he created to make himself undetectable.

Of course, she liked him, even finding his jokes, which bordered on suicidal ideation since he insulted someone who had already gone through their first Spiritual Guidance, sometimes funny, but most of the time quite tiring. She could only endure so many of his dog and pet jokes in a day.

Because of the constant strain on her mental state, she rejoiced in having a break from guarding her Mistress's grandson. Alexander was now training with Marisia and enhancing his body after that with Ipe, like every evening. On today's menu were hex-potions, a nasty kind of affliction. Those attacked his soul and, through this, damaged the body, which the dryad would then heal.

As such, she had the whole evening for herself, which she had planned out: a nap, dinner, some rest, a midnight snack, and then sleep. It would've been perfect if there were a bit of combat to help her digestion, but sadly, the region had, at most, Tier 4 monsters, which wouldn't be enough to digest the snack.

Unfortunately, her plans got canceled. Lili needed to sacrifice her break because of the Mistress's orders that she received through the Thunder Express Mail. Those orders were mindboggling to her, and she could not comprehend her reasoning for such a decision.

At first, Lili thought that her Mistress would order her to stop this whole scheme and maybe eliminate the camp while at it. Yet, she actually liked Alexander's plan, and for some crazy reason, she began to think about her other grandpuppies, wanting to include them in her grooming, too.

Regardless of the insane reasoning, she didn't like how her Mistress considered this nothing more than a game. Even though it could have quite the consequences, Alexander's crazy plan persuaded her, making her want to try it at least.

'I miss the good old days.'

She now experienced pure boredom in the form of politics, talks, meetings, discussions, and maneuvering on paper. She hated it and wanted nothing more than to get an assignment whom she needed to assassinate next, hoping for a good challenge.

Gone were the days when her Mistress went rampant in the North with her husband, bringing destruction to every town, her retainers by her side, slaughtering and killing with no end.

Lili smiled slightly, remembering how she ripped her first gnome Knight apart, 'What a great time this was.'

However, those were phases of pure chaos. Whenever a new Lord and Lady took over the North, the dwarves and gnomes would attack, trying to get rid of them since they had only recently reached their first body modification and were mainly trying to get used to their new power.

Usually, the rulers only tried to defend their territory, enduring the attack, but not Roland and her Mistress. When they got attacked, she went rampant, dropping all her administrative duties and basically massacring every town she came across. Thus, her dozens of unflattering nicknames.

Lili shuddered, blushing as she remembered the scent of the uncountable battlefields they had created. The earth was saturated with blood, coloring the air red and making her constantly taste iron.

Now though? It was boring. Even though she respected Alexander's great intellect and ingenuity, she hated him similarly for taking all the fun away. He created a version of the black powder, which even hurt her. As an assassin-styled fighter, she was obviously less resilient to attacks, but getting hurt by something silly like black powder, even in her defensive transformation, was new for her.

When Lili stood before Alexander, protecting him from the explosion, her blood went cold when she felt her HP decrease. To make sure she wasn't hallucinating, as some of her spirits liked to play jokes on her, she looked afterward at her system window.

image [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/2fd6e9ef283150bb6826ca09a06ff0f8ccce68fe/Chapter_151_to_160/Chapter_153/Template_new_window-Seite-1.svg]

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jpeg if SVG doesn't work

image [https://github.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/blob/main/Chapter_151_to_160/Chapter_153/Te1.jpg?raw=true]

At that moment, Lili knew that the weapon Alexander created was something her Mistress needed.

A month's travel time from the Leonandrian estate in the North was an annoying dwarven and gnome fort built into a mountain. This castle stopped their lovely time back then, as they couldn't conquer it.

The dwarves and gnomes weren't really known for their strength but for the ingenuity and weaponry they created. As such, the castle was a massive bulwark, able to defend and attack through its shields and canons.

Of course, destroying the defensive mechanisms, avoiding their vaporizing magic and energy canons, and invading them was possible, but it would require sacrificing too many soldiers to be worth it.

Even if they made it through, once inside, even someone at the second body modification would be worried that the castle would suddenly collapse on their head. Those midgets had a petty habit of taking their enemies down with them.

Ultimately, it was a fruitless endeavor. Yet, Lili's Mistress was quite the petty Lady herself, as she tried many unordinary methods, such as conventional weaponry and alchemy, and even asked the Count to allow them to use black powder. It didn't work and was quite underwhelming.

Regardless of their past tries, if this new black powder worked, it meant terrible news for Lili, 'I am stuck here while my Mistress has her fun... why?!'

However, for now, she would need to do her job, 'Well, let's look for Mr. Narsiz...'

Lili looked lazily around, using Foggy's ability so she could become invisible and move around like fog, slithering through cracks and holes barely large enough for needles.

She then casually entered Alexander's mansion, walking toward Narsiz's room. She thought about him and how to convince him, 'What does this boy want?'

Narsiz was, if she were honest, talented. The same was true for Sarah and partly for Lorient, who had some initial problems but could grow well enough since she was ambitious. However, with Alexander's presence overwhelming everyone, it was understandable that her Mistress wasn't really paying any attention to anyone else.

Why? Her dream was to force the Count to decouple from central Mal-Gil. There were many reasons such a thing may be objectively reasonable, and others may call it insanity. Beast-kin had the advantage that their race was the only one with a whole empire, while humans and others were split into kingdoms and fiefs.

However, calling their empire aligned was also quite the stretch, with the three factions fighting daily. Lili's Mistress's reason was that she hated the central Mal-Gil nobility and wanted the right to take the land inside Moorgrel and rule it or even have her vassals take it. There were apparently also other reasons for wanting to create a rift, but Lili didn't understand politics too well and was honestly entirely uninterested in them.

As such, Lili's Mistress had only eyes for Alexander, wanting to groom him into something exceptional that could create the desired split and, ultimately, ignoring every one of his siblings until now.

Lili also understood that her Mistress would go so far as to take a risk for a complex and damaging scheme as long as she could improve his abilities even a little more. Her ambitions were quite massive.

With that, she also probably thought, as much as Lili understood her Mistress, wanting Narsiz to become his retainer. Why now, though? Perhaps because she wanted to use the scheme as a bonding experience.

However, Lili wasn't any closer to figuring out how to convince the rather shy boy to take part in this scheme. It was such a waste to let him stay somewhere far away from genuine politicking. While she didn't understand politics, she knew that his intelligence and charisma were essential to the process, which could make him successful.

'There needs to be something...'

An almost invisible fog arrived at Narsiz's room, but she suddenly heard something she probably shouldn't have heard before she could manifest her energy to knock at his door.

Intensive breathing intertwined with a girl-tomboyish voice whispered loudly, "Just... a little bit here... please, Narsi..."

A soft, boyish voice answered her, but he sounded confused and a little frightened, "Lin, I love you, but do you think this is right?"

Lili panicked and immediately went inside through a small gap under the door. As she appeared beside the bed, she looked at the scene before her, calming slowly down. After her initial panic because it sounded terrible, it wasn't as bad as she thought.

At first, she thought Linuel was forcing Narsiz and was thus ready to kill her immediately. However, seeing those two reminded her of all the young nobles she spied on.

Lili chuckled inwardly, 'Wow... they are adorable and... cautious.'

They were already wearing their nightgowns, but Linuel had her shirt pulled upwards, showing her breasts, all the while having her hand inside her pants.

Narsiz was beside her, wearing his rather cute pajama set, which Alexander had gifted him. It was made out of silk and had drawings of cartoonishly dumb dogs on it. He was lying on her arm, gently and innocently patting her breast.

'This is just too cute.'

Lili once witnessed her Mistress and her husband mating after months of not seeing each other. Calling it brutal was an understatement, as they destroyed their bedroom in the process. However, comparing Narsiz with her Mistress was a little unfair. The boy was far more like his Mother, much more sensitive and gentle. He already looked overwhelmed by what he was doing.

Linuel pushed him to her, smelling his hair. Her face became like a tomato, and her pants became much wetter, her legs shivering, pressing together, "I... you are about to go into your first mating season, and your smell is killing me..."

Narsiz, even though blushing, had no erection, which meant that he did this whole thing for her. He would probably need to train later to calm down since he had no other outlet, making Lili sigh inwardly and readying herself as his sparring partner.

"But... I want the skill. I don't think..."

Linuel pushed him closer to her, turning around and lying on the side. Now, her nose was directly in his hair, and she tried to get an obvious reaction by putting her leg between his, slightly rubbing, "No, I will not touch you. I promise..."

Liliane didn't like it at all, 'A little more, and I will kill you myself.'

There were clear boundaries, and while there were many opinions about where those were, her Mistress told her it was when someone usually tried to force a reaction.

If one ignored all those rumors and gossip about pheromone manipulations, which could be true or not, the bigger problem would be the mental state. Narsiz was already a timid boy, barely able to come out of his shell outside of his family. As such, every consecutive harmful event could negatively impair his mental fortitude.

While Lili had very objective reasons to stop this, she was also very emotional about it. Lili's name was Lili Leonandra, and Narsiz, a puppy, was like a younger sibling to her. Anyone who dared to touch her family in a malicious way would be executed on the spot.

Linuel took her leg away, noticing what she had done, "Sorry..." She looked into his eyes, breathing loudly, "...just you... please, only kiss me while I do it... like last time, okay?"

Narsiz looked at her, smiling and coming closer. He started kissing her while she moaned, touching herself much more roughly and becoming more restless.

He was a boy who would probably take even a potion if pressured enough, which Lili disliked as he was too trusting. However, his character could quickly change for the better if he was Alexander's retainer. All of his aides became ruthlessly argumentative, rude, and massively arrogant. For someone like Aurum, who was like his Mother, it may be overkill, but for the shy and supportive boy in front of her, it would be perfect, as she now also understood her Mistress's train of thought.

'Well, that's boring again.'

Lili watched them to ensure Linuel wouldn't do anything despicable, but all that happened was her trying not to laugh out loud. Narsiz looked instead turned off as she pressed her tongue inside him and flapped her legs like a mermaid trying to breathe while outside the water. However, such a scene was nothing special, and many had quirks. As long as they loved each other, it was fine.

It changed quickly, though, when taboos were broken. Forcing very young ones to drink potions to make them enter their first mating season a decade too early, engraving tattoos unto them which were even for the First Servants to vile and worse. She saw everything.

However, what Narsiz and Linuel were doing would be considered pretty tame by everyone who didn't have Marisia's prude standards. However, Lili needed to agree with his fiancé somewhat. His smell was powerful, which could make everyone go crazy.

Narsiz's pheromone gland began to go wild, preparing for his first mating season in a few months. Yet such a strong smell was rather unnormal, which usually could mean a couple of things, like, for example, that he had a [Divinity Line] specialized in breeding or sex work or that he had found a soulmate, making his pheromones much more potent. She guessed it was the latter, which fitted his personality perfectly.

"Yes! Please..." She pushed his head toward her breasts, pressing him and almost suffocating the poor boy, "...lick me!"

Lili almost accidentally laughed again, looking at the innocently dumb scene, 'This is... do I really need to watch this now daily?'

After finding out, she had an obligation to observe those two until she was confident that Linuel wouldn't cross the line, which made her regret her previous thoughts about how annoying Alexander was, wishing him back.

"That's good! Yes, the nipples! Bite me!"

While this weird scene was going on, Narsiz, confusingly not knowing how to lick and bite Linuel's breasts, Lili's thoughts drifted away, wanting to give them some privacy and thinking if she was as laughable when she had her first mating season.

"Call me Lady!"

"La... Lady?"

"Louder!"

"Lady!"

"Hm...!"

Lili refused that she was like this, not wanting to even think about it, as it only made her cringe.

"Hmmm... I am coming! Bite my neck! Hm!"

Liliane came out of her stupor, seeing how Linuel took Narsiz by his hair and pushed him to her neck, making him bite her, 'Well, nothing too terrible but...' Lili suddenly smiled from ear to ear, '...I guess no need to negotiate anything.'

Like that, she disappeared after Linuel was done, and she saw for herself that nothing terrible had happened. Over the following days, when she had time, she observed them, making sure of it, but it was usually the same cringe.