Ocilia was lying in her master's arms, bleeding from every orifice of her head. Her upper spider-kin eyes were all white, far away from their typical purple, red, or blue. A bad sign.
Looking up, she saw that her master was bleeding through the nose and ears, staining his beautiful snow-white hair and fur.
She wanted to say something, but she could barely stay awake. A smile was on her blood-stained face that somehow made it through all the pain, and before she heard the so-called bells of the deity, a ringing noise invaded her hearing, becoming louder and louder.
She didn't think about her life and death situation, but if she got the [Mana Sense] skill, she prayed inwardly, 'Please, by the all the circle, let me have it.'
Alexander watched how she bled for a moment before clearing his head and analyzing the situation, pushing his pain away. He turned suddenly towards the healers, who were already scrambling towards them, and screamed at them, "START HEALING LIA! NOW!"
But they, instead, ran up to him. Good. It was all that Lia thought before she closed her eyes and slowly drifted towards unconsciousness.
As the healer came, they started healing Alexander.
Something cracked inside Alexander, and killing intent leaked out of him, "Stop! Lia is first!"
This startled both healers, "But... Mr. Alex..."
Alexander's eyes started to hurt, like tiny needles pricking them. With his last bits of sanity, he carefully laid Ocilia down.
His anger became unbearable.
As he stood up again, a visible misty energy in the form of a gigantic wolf flowed out of him to the ceiling. Staring the healer down.
In their eyes, the small puppy suddenly appeared much bigger. Alexander's voice became more hoarse, his eyes staring them down like some beast, full of anger, wanting to rip them apart, "If you don't start healing her..." a growl almost escaped his bloodied throat, "...I will behead you both, so... GO!"
The visible killing intent vanished. The healer, frightened and pale, started to heal Ocilia with all they got, hoping the noble's child would survive, as the immediate fear won over, and they listened to him.
Alexander started to meditate as he tried to catch his breath. The ringing and headache slowly subsided. Luckily for him, his other pain-reducing skills were the perfect aid, especially the ones he got from resisting his father's anti-mage skills. Though they sapped a part of the little stamina away which he had left, he could hold on.
The skills he used at the moment were practical, like an instant Ibu, and he could hear that something leveled up, but he chose to ignore it for now for obvious reasons.
The mana in his body went haywire, but the meditation helped to calm it down slightly. Sadly, as he tried to examine his own body and mana with [Mana Sense], his headache worsened, so he stopped immediately, 'Maybe I really overdid it with the combination of skills? The strain wasn't much stronger on mana, stamina, and mind than usual, but this time... it was really too weird.'
As he pushed his mana into her, it was as if he had invaded the innermost part of her being, 'This was really... more intimate than sex...'
Alexander shook all the unnecessary thoughts out of his head. He needed to concentrate on not dying right now and not on how it felt to have a go with his dying disciple.
Alexander was already on the brink of death many more times in this world than he was in the military on earth. It was a godsend that he listened to his mother and took precautions, as they showed to work. Having a healer 24/8 at the estate and bringing one more in for his experiments.
The experimentations the popularly nicknamed archmage puppy did were sometimes dangerous, as he tried to create every possible physical concept through his mana skills.
Mana was something he could not predict, less the mana-related skills with it. Right now, his prediction failed as he almost fried his innards and brain, 'Damn it, I was too impatient. I should have stopped by the slightest discomfort and not done it while exhausted... Alex, you are a first-rate moron.'
The self-blame he had for this disaster kindled his anger again, 'Come on, calm down, you can't push out your blood lust like some moron while your disciple is on the brink of death...' he closed his eyes, trying to sink in deeper into meditation, which luckily helped him a bit.
He calmed slowly down, remembering for later to level the [Meditation] skill much more since he barely used it, relative to other ones, but needed to start doing it more regularly, as it was the only way to soothe his bloodlust, 'God dammit, how in the hell did dad control himself?'
Kairoso told Alexander that it was some stupid ancient bloodline from his ancestors which could be found thousand years ago in almost everyone.
Normal then, not normal now, and even though it sounds like something great, it is not. Not for soldiers, not for nobles, not for knights, and not for mages. Every emotion will be amplified, resulting in bloodlust, rage, and a much smaller tolerance to kill, like some maniac. A murder hobo, basically.
According to his parents, it was expected to have this attribute in ancient times, thus now named the ancient bloodline. In societies of beast-kin, where tribals fought almost weekly, it was practically mandatory to have such a predisposition.
Were animals migrating towards another territory? Go after them and take down the other tribe. Ultimately, it is for survival, and the fear of death hindered feeding your family and tribe.
Do others enslave you? Fight to the last drop of blood, even if you rip out the necks of your enslavers with your last breath. If you could ignore your fear, your enslavers would think twice about trying to take you back in shackles.
But what about now? Trying to hold formations as a soldier? Not if you run into them like an idiot. A mage who flings around his spells willy-nilly will be a hindrance since others need to look at their backs, so they don't burst into flames by an enthusiastic fireball.
Beneficial then, utterly worthless, going as far as harmful, now, 'Thanks, dad.'
Suddenly the door opened.
He slowly opened his eyes again. Cross and Aro rushed inside, with the noisy butterfly-kin in a slight panic, "What happened, Mr. Alexander?!"
Looking down at Ocilia, the proud puppy looked back at him with a tired smile, "She learned [Mana Sense]...," he shrugged his shoulders, "...hopefully."
Aro stood there with eyes wide like plates, his breath heavier, not believing what he heard from the weird son of the lady. He needed a moment to process it.
Cross entirely ignored what Alexander said, not caring about mana-shmana or whatever, thinking it was some fancy stuff. He concentrated on what he had felt a moment ago, "Why did I feel insane bloodlust coming from this room?"
Alexander shrugged again and gave Cross a wink, "You know how dad is sometimes. I came a bit after him."
Cross grunted and started looking around the room to see what had happened. Always grumpy, that is the Cross, Alexander knew.
The personal guard of the lady knew the lord's mood swings, but he always had a reason, and right now, it looked like the son assaulted his disciple, 'Why can't he be more like the other ones? All this fancy magic stuff makes my head hurt...'
Cross grunted again and decided to observe the situation more as he stayed on guard.
Aro came out of his stupor, remembering why he was in the part of the estate where Alexander and his retainers reside, 'I followed Cross as he felt the short burst of killing intent... or was it blood lust? I really don't like all the brutish nonsense.'
The nervous butterfly-kin investigated the blood stains on Alexander's face more closely, asking, with a bit of panic in his voice, "Mr. Alex... Are you hurt?"
The wolf-boy looked down at his blood-smudged clothes and swiped under his nose, checking if the bleeding stopped, and it did. Smiling, he opened his arms, "You know. Dry weather."
Alexander's body was okay-ish enough. Even though he was much younger, he was much more robust than Ocilia. At least, he thought so. Who knew what his pain resilience skills hid as pain generally was a good indicator if something was wrong with the body. He needed to wait for the healer to be done with his disciple before they could start healing him.
A side thought occurred to the tyrannical teacher, which he needed to remember, 'After today, Ocillia will start training with me together.'
Cross pointed at the healer wanting to say something, but before he could do it, Alexander was already talking with a charming smile. Or at least he tried since, through the blood smeared all over his face, he looked more like a wolf that was done eating his prey, "Cross, we shouldn't interrupt them healing Lia. We had a little experiment that went a bit out of control, so she needs silence, and the healer needs to concentrate, alright?"
Alexander didn't know why but through Aro's nagging, he started acting more like a noble, more cordial and restrained. Cross would probably like his true nature more. The one shaped by his earth-self would be telling Cross to step back and shut the fuck up before he could interrupt the healer.
Aro and Cross both frowned, which made Alexander chuckle. Aro went out of the room, saying something to Cross, who nodded to him.
The old but buffed, grinchy wolf-kin wasn't the sharpest blade regarding discourse and intellect, but his loyalty towards the lady and her family was unquestionable. He was ready to kill a thousand Ocilias if it saved Alexander or anyone else in the family.
The lady's son was thankful that he didn't just cut down the commoner spider-kin girl, so they could start healing him. Cross's glance towards him was noticed since he could distinguish by stance and pose if something was wrong. His intuition was sharp as he went through hundreds of battles against monsters, demons, and the usual riffraff.
After some more moments, Alexander's smile bloomed, and he could feel his pain lessen even more. His tail started to waggle around slightly. This happened either due to increased skills, or the pain subsided naturally. He didn't know what to hope for as one tickled his inner gamer, and the other meant his internal cooking stopped.
He couldn't ignore Cross and his grimace and wanted to calm him down a little since he was so tense, more than usual, "Cross, don't be so grumpy, rather be happy that I... no, we, Lia and me, had a breakthrough..." he saw how Cross couldn't comprehend what it meant. So Alex tried to make it more understandable for him, "...one from which every soldier could improve!"
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A small smile bloomed on that ol' wolf, and Alexander hoped his disciple got the skill. His instincts told him it worked out, even though he needed to wait for her to wake up for a concrete confirmation.
At this moment, the healer finished, sweating and barely standing upright, "She is ok," and "We got her."
Alexander nodded, and as he looked at them, he noticed they barely had enough mana and stamina to heal him. They were totally exhausted, 'Hopefully, Aro went to get another healer for me... that means I need to silence them now somehow.'
There is no way in hell that Alexander would let them go away with such valuable information. He was not one of those dumb protagonists from the cartoons his fiancé liked to force him to watch together, 'I can already see the glint in your eyes. Don't think you will be able to sell such valuable information!'
His eyes turned into crescent moons, "Great, now..." he looked at Cross again, "...if you would, please guard the healer, so nothing leaked out what happened here."
The healer gasped, "Mr. Alexander, what does it..."
Before he could say anything, Cross shouted, "SILENCE!"
The puppy's eye twitched while his ears reeled back, 'Why is he so loud?'
Cross looked at Alexander and sighed, trying to understand this weird puppy. For him, he was the weirdest one. A room full of insects, always odd smells and ideas, unheard of in this part of the world. He shook his head inwardly, hoping this puppy knew what it was doing since he had already improved the soldiers in the estate, even Cross himself, with his ideas and constructions.
Later he would go to the lady and inform her, but right now, he followed her youngest son, watching over him.
Cross glanced at Alexander, and he murmured something and could see more than all the weirdness. He saw the lord in him: the will to act as he wished and self-confidence beyond anything, never wavering from his point.
It was not stubbornness, no. The will to enact something he was so sure of, even if it endangered his life, was quite intriguing. Seeing such resolve in someone so young was even more fascinating, 'I can already see who the next lord will be... I only hope he doesn't start war after war.'
Cross's thoughts and the forced discussion between Alexander and the healer were interrupted as Aro came in with another healer.
She was a lovely fairy who always looked like she was going to the gulags. For her, it was only when she was at the estate.
She went directly to the apparent patient, the one who was unconscious on the floor, but Alexander stopped her, smiling and trying to compose himself, "She is fine as she is already healed. Would you check me, please?"
She nodded and grumbled almost inaudibly while she laid her hands on her future student, activating a skill, "This family is crazy..."
Alexander chuckled slightly. True. Even before his craziness, Sarah and Lorient were hyperactive and pushed themselves to no end. To his knowledge, it resulted once in Sarah being bedridden for months.
Is this the curse of being talented or having too much energy? Well, Alexander never saw himself as a genius. Intelligent, sure, but nothing exceptional. It was probably the energy that he couldn't direct anywhere else but his new interest.
In his previous life, his energy went into making money, looking after his sisters, and studying on earth. There was no time like here when he could enjoy his interests to the fullest.
There were times when he was praised by his siblings and teachers, but so what? Even if he was above average, he had no real chance to explore anything as he needed to remember not to burn his arms when he cleaned the damn grill in the fast food joint he worked at or avoid getting spat at by customers because they couldn't have the breakfast menu at 4 pm.
A wave that made his insides cribble, in good ways, brought him back from his faraway thoughts and washed over him. Green looked at him with intense open eyes, like he was some monster. He did not dislike the look she gave him.
She stuttered, "M... Mr... Ale...Alexander, do you have pain anywhere?"
Alexander smiled at her while opening his arms, "A slight headache. I think the dry weather is getting to me."
She looked at him and nodded, probably knowing that the lord's son did not want her to say anything about how bad his actual condition was. She started healing.
With one of her mystic skills, Green saw that his whole body looked like someone ironed him from the inside, then took his brain and put it into the oven.
The fairy's look made Alexander think, 'Huh, was I more injured than I felt?.'
What if he was on the brink of death? He didn't know if he would instead make the healer heal him instead of Ocilia and didn't want to contemplate such dark thoughts, so he ignored them and concentrated on what was essential right now, 'I need to silence the healer, or else, if the information came out that some knight family child found out how to make everyone into a mage, it would probably end badly.'
While Green did her job, Alexander looked at Aro and whispered to him to bring some high-level Mana contracts.
While he waited, he was bored again. Thus chaotic thoughts of the future went through his head.
The puppy imagined creating a world of magic, science, and liberalization of the nuisance of anything which would stop one from pursuing their dreams.
Was it possible to create a mandatory magic education? Even though their legacies and the corresponding skills existed, why not go a step further? A world where a farmer not only has the right skill for farming but also uses magic for anything from planting to fertilizing to harvesting the crops?
Combining it with science, he couldn't imagine what the possibilities would look like!
From what he knew, mages and similar professions were too haughty for his taste, and he knew from chatting with his mom that they were basically expensive weapons. There was no way that a mage would go and live in a small village, so they could tend to the villagers' needs. Besides, the village would not have the money to pay the mage.
But what if everyone knew magic? Starting from the estate, it could spread, together with the methods to activate it, and if not, he would make sure that it would, 'Is this what it feels like changing the goddamn world by ripping out the fundament? Why does it feel so good?'
He would create a mandatory education, and the productivity and living standards would skyrocket, 'Beast-kin are already much healthier, have more longevity, and are more resilient to all sorts of things than humans on earth.'
First, Alexander wanted to only bring modern science to this world, but why not make mana training and magic a part of it? He needed only to fix the annoying bug of not killing anyone who activated their [Mana Sense].
He forgot that there was no difference between magic and science. All he needed was time and a good plan. He could...
His rather chaotic and unorganized mind ramblings were interrupted by Aro coming in and giving Alexander the high-quality mana contracts, which he floated with magic toward his desk. Seeing this, Green almost gasped.
The following minutes were full of cries, threats, and other unsightly things. For Alexander, it was clear that the healer really wanted to sell the information for good coin, but there was no way in hell Alexander would let them even leave their estate before signing a mana contract and running it through by his mom.
An agitated healer screamed inside the room, "Mr. Alexander, this is going too far! You can't force us to sign such contracts!"
He held up a pre-written contract on ordinary parchment that was harshly worded, with the total destruction of the whole mana pool and reducing their stats to 10% of their original numbers, making the person who broke it into a useless cripple.
Alexander could not decrypt how a mana contract worked. How can language, which could vary in its interpretation so broadly, be used in such a specific way?
Language is shaped by culture, class, age, sub-race, geography, and so on, so how would it even be interpreted then?
Nobody in the estate knew since they had no access to mana-artificers who created the mana contracts. Someone who mixed their abilities in mana with artisan-like skills, a scarce thing in their fief.
He also gave up on getting someone to the estate since how such things are made is a secret of the artificer union, or at least this was what he was told.
Be it intent or something else, they worked through whatever reason. How the curious puppy could find out would be only after he reached the age of ten, when he could leave the estate.
He looked at the healer, who was sweating buckets. Alexander sighed and opened his arms with a mischievous smile, "My my, the contract only states that you will be forbidden to communicate with anyone or anything in any way about what happened in this estate for the next fifty years, AND you will be compensated well for this. So, where would be the problem?"
The other healer looked at his colleague and smiled mischievously, obviously knowing that he could not come out of this situation with the information at hand. Still, he wanted to make sure to be in better standing with the nobles. It was a consolidation price, but better than nothing.
He laid his hand on his colleague's shoulder from behind. His crackling and tired but soft-sounding voice sounded behind his mask of a smile with deceit, "My friend, why are you like this? Just sign it and be reasonable."
The toad-kin turned around, clenching his teeth as his bigger eyes bulged even more, "You can't make me sign it!"
The other one shrugged and looked at Alexander, "Fine, I like what is written, so when will I sign the original?"
Alexander stood there, baffled, 'Do they know that it is so obvious what they are doing? One wants to crawl into my ass, and the other wants to sell the information.'
The pup scratched his hair, annoyed by all this. He frowned, "Fine..." as he turned around, he glanced at the healer and how both were all smiles, as they had probably different thoughts.
Alexander looked towards Cross, "...get mother, and..." Alex pointed with the thumb behind him, "...put them under arrest. If they try to flee, chop their heads off."
The last thing the wolf-kin mage needed were nuisances sent by dragon-kins, the sole sub-race which could produce mages from all the beast-kin races.
Contingencies must be made to convince the healer to sign or silence them. Luckily, he could act almost insanely, almost without restraint, because of a roll of the dice as he was born a noble.
There was a line he could not cross, but this here was not it. This would not be unreasonable even on earth if [Mana Sense] was some secret state technology. The few who leaked valuable information, not technology, were regarded as traitors and fled for asylum.
He remembered some whistle-blowers who leaked a truckload of sensible information, 'There needs to be more security around them.'
He pointed Aro towards himself and whispered to him how important that was and that the lady needed to be immediately informed.
He was sure their heads would fly if they resisted. The healer union would annoy his family, whatever scenario may play out, but his mother would understand... hopefully.
While all this played out, Green stood in the middle of the room, done with the healing. She felt like a lone island in the middle of the metaphorical river of death from the human churches, where the soul of deceased ones cry and wail in anguish till all their sins are washed away, 'By the circle, what is going on?!'
Only now could she really notice everything that was going on in the room, as healing her future student needed much concentration.
On the floor lay what she could perceive as Alexander's disciple and screaming healers who were out of their minds going against a noble on something like the usual non-disclosure agreement, and even she signed one that was much harsher, provided by the druid.
Though all this was nothing compared to the body of the puppy she healed, 'His innards looked like a vegetable soup, which was cooked over black fire.'
But she remained silent, as she had the skills to heal him, so there was no reason to sound alarmed, even though she used eighty percent of her mana for this endeavor, making her incredibly tired.
She was today at the estate only to introduce herself and talk to her student.
The other surprise was that her new student could actually use spells but somehow without any incantations, which only her late professors could do, 'Interesting... That's good! I will see how much he can do with time, but he has at least talent.'
She feared that his father dramatically overestimated his proficiency with magic. Most parents did this and saw a ignite spell for the black fireball.
She saw him perform some minor spell, but this gave her the motivation to teach him seriously, as he would surely remember her as a teacher later on, should he gain status through his spellcraft.
As she analyzed the situation, the small fairy also watched Alexander talking to Aro, who suddenly bowed and opened the door, screaming for guards, who rushed inside, taking the healer with them.
Suddenly the previously roasted wolf turned around with a tired smile and asked curiously, "...and you might be who? I read in books that you are a fairy..." suddenly his eyes became sharp again, "...oh! I am sorry, I should thank you for healing me!..." he suddenly made the noble greeting, "Thank you... but you need also sign a contract."
Green sighed and greeted him properly back, knowing that her new student needed an explanation, "I greet Mr. Alexander. I should start with..."
Before she could explain everything, the door shot open, and a spider-kin maid came in who greeted Alexander first with an almost 90° bow and Green with a slight one, showing who was more important to her and in the estate.
She whispered something inside his ear while he nodded and suddenly stared at her. All smiles and his tail waggling around like a windmill inside a hurricane, "So, you are my teacher in magic?"
Green just nodded, and before she could say anything, the puppy interrupted her again, "Ok, you have already signed one with probably Salyna, right?"
Green nodded again, "Good, I trust you since you are dad's acquaintance. We can do the introductions later. Mom calls..." as how he called the lady, and lord, she remembered how young he actually was. She overlooked it as his demeanor was anything but usual for a child, "...I need to go..." he saluted again, "...till later!"
Clack
An utterly confused fairy was left alone inside the room, with the maid who looked very apologetic, "So... so... sorry, Ms. Green, it is always this chaotic with M... M... Mr. Alexander."
Without wasting more time, she didn't wait for the fairy's answer, as the maid turned around and screamed outside to take Ocilia toward her family. Multiple maids and butlers slowly and carefully brought Ocillia out on a stretcher.
Green hoped sincerely that this day was an exception.