"Do you understand that you need to visualize your mana? Push it into the water and imagine how it heats up. Imagine how the water moves really fast."

Inside Alexander's office, where most of the experiments were conducted, a hatchling kneeled in front of a pot filled with water and had her hands inside it.

Ocilia stood in front of a basin filled with water while she tried to learn more mana-related skills, and right now, she is trying to learn how to inject mana into an object.

An object is very relative, and the emission of mana into something can be done easily. At least this was what Alexander thought, who stood behind her and frowned at how she couldn't do it, 'This can't be so hard, right? I learned it pretty much instantly.'

He wanted to speedrun this whole ordeal of learning all the basic skills and thought that [Mana Emission] was much easier to understand than [Mana Manipulation].

It was the next day after she learned the [Mana Sense] skill, so he may need to be more patient in his approach. He would know after a couple of days.

He sighed heavily, frustrating himself as he, a natural, put his intuition into his teachings, and his [Teaching] skill screamed that it was wrong. He wanted to yell back and say that he knew it, but he had nothing else to go on. It was not like he could go to the local library and look for: Mana for dummies.

The worst teachers were geniuses who never needed to learn anything and expected the same from their students, "Stop it. We need a different approach."

The disciple put her wrinkly hands out of the basin and sat down on the floor, heavily breathing, "I... can't do it..."

She was downtrodden since they had been trying for hours now with all they got. First, it was just injecting the mana into the air. After that, a stick, an insect, etc.

Nothing happened, and Alexander was getting nervous since he didn't experience something like this. Well, to be honest, he almost killed himself multiple times, people could call it a success to some extent, but he chose not to use his methods, even though they could be efficient.

He had the same experience as a student in his previous life, where a classmate tried to teach him. He was a natural, thus, couldn't understand the plight of plebians.

After five minutes of silence where he thought of a different approach, the door opened, and one of Alexander's maids, Cloelle, came in, "Mr. Alexander? Are you hungry and want something hearty or maybe some snacks? You are training for hours now."

Alexander stared at her while rubbing his chin and thinking if he should teach more people [Mana Sense] and see if they have the same problems. Still, he could also wait for Green, his new magic teacher, to come and teach both of them, 'I was never the patient type of man.,' and especially not if he pitted against other long-living races like fairies.'

In the morning, he went to the library and found a book about them, as he wanted to know who actually was teaching them and if he should act in a certain way so she would like him more, and it was... insightful, to say the least.

On the cultural side, there were a ton of sub-races, and they all had different cultures, so he would go blind in that sense as he had no idea who Green actually was. On the other hand, he found some facts which were... enlightening.

While an average wolf-kin could live up to two-hundred years without much investment into skills or attributes, an elephant-kin could live easily for 300 years. They could easily double or triple their life span by investing in their attributes and skills. Thus Alexander's great-great-grandparents were alive.

Fairies are somewhat different. They are literally immortals who live for more than a thousand years and, at some point, reincarnate and lose almost all of their memories. Only snippets are left with them.

The only way to breed for them is if a fairy decides to give up a part of her to create a child. With this, the child will have her lifespan significantly reduced and mostly exist for 200 years in their first life, but it also shortens their parent's life span.

The other thing was that fairies had something like legacies for beast-kin but different, and they received theirs only at a hundred years of age. Thus they could be a child at the age of eighty. The puppy found it highly disturbing for someone who lived on earth.

Alexander thought fairies would be unimaginably strong since they could live for so long, as a baseline even! But no, it couldn't be farther away from the truth.

They had a twisted sense of time that gave them insane laziness, and only through his father was Green even moving so quickly to teach him. Otherwise, she would not show up for five years or so.

But it made sense if he tried to take the fairy's perspective. Why rush through something if you could have a break for a year or more? It would be the same as a human on earth taking a break for a few months.

However, Alexander found fairies interesting but threw them to the back of his head. Right now, he has other problems. He glanced at Ocilia from the side at how she trained with her threads, and he suddenly got kissed by the muse.

He ran up to her, grabbing her hands, "Lia!"

Francisca, one of his maids, stood on the side, hoping he wouldn't expect something crazy from her too. Rumors went through the estate that he wrung the poor hatchling as he trained her, which went as far as injuring her badly.

Every of Alexander's retainers and servants got a new mana contract, much harsher than the last one. Nobody really knew what had happened, but it was nothing good. She was sure of it.

Alexander looked into the hatchling's eyes intensely, "Threads!"

Ocilia was a bit perplexed and confused, "huh?"

Alexander stepped back and opened his arms widely, "Threads! Use your threads for everything mana related!"

Ocilia looked at her hands and released a thread that dangled in front of her, and like almost instantly, the mana came out from her fingertips and twirled around the thread till it was fully hugged.

Suddenly the thread started swinging around, and Ocilia burst out in tears and laughter after hearing two system notifications informing her about new skills.

Alexander noticed her tears. He instantly cut off her thread with a conjured blade made out of highly compressed air, screaming out of his lungs, "GET TH..."

Before he could end his sentence, Ocilia suddenly interrupted him, "No! Everything is fine! I am just happy!"

A frown was building on noble's face, 'I hate this damn world. Because I almost killed myself multiple times and her, I got too sensitive.'

The pissed pup, who almost got a heart attack, crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Hm, so which skills did you learn?"

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Before Ocilia could answer, Francisca stepped in, "Mr. Alexander, you can't ask something like this."

Every one of Alexander's staff was instructed by Aro, the lady's personal butler and head butler of the estate, to teach him thoroughly. Usually, teachers do something like this, but because of this wolf-boy's unique situation, it was postponed till more trustworthy personnel were found.

Someone was actually found, and she was right now on the way toward their estate. The problem was if she would sign one of those contracts.

Even though a high-level mana contract could counteract treacherous behavior and assassination attempts, they were never 100% secure since loopholes could exist.

The one healer from yesterday who signed such a contract needed to sign multiple times since it was fifty pages long, made with special mana-infused paper and enchantments. The other healer refused and was disposed of.

Even Alexander didn't know about it. The healer thought that having the healer union behind him would protect him and felt that the Leonandra-family only made threats void of consequences. He was wrong.

Now, for security reasons, the personnel needed to teach him until he was strong enough, or some teacher would be found.

Never mind that Ocilia went on and told Alexander since he was the sole reason that she could achieve what she did because of him, "[Mana Emission] and [Mana Manipulation]!"

Clapping his hands and ignoring a frowning Cloelle, Alexander was elated, "Great! So, you can use it through threads - that's fine and possibly the inherited specialty for spider-kin! Now is the time for training!"

After a quick high, Ocilia was brought back and remembered what it actually means to be a mage, 'Right... I need to learn alchemy, physics, mathematics, etc... if I want to use the spells my master uses. I need to make clear that he can't give me even more work!'

She asked nervously, "Ehm, Master..."

Before she could say anything, Alexander watched how nervous she became and misunderstood her, "Don't worry! You will be a great mage, and don't worry about anything else! We will start right now with teaching and training! I will not get another disciple, so you can do the other stuff on the side, no pressure!"

He turned towards his maid, baffled by the energetic pup, "Get my notes from the other room and tell Melina that her daughter is exempt from every chore at home! She will have work to do!"

Ocilia was already exempt from doing anything at home; even her mother was cleaning her room, as she was dead tired every day when she came home. If she had a free day, all Ocilia did, was sleep, eat and just sit in the garden, watching birds.

Francisca bowed and went out of the room while Ocilia tried to signal her to help her, but she only received a mix of jealousy and pity. Everyone thought that the young noble only got her the position as his apprentice out of his inexperience and that Melina manipulated him somehow. Hence, there was a ton of jealousy and sometimes ridicule from the servants in the estate, but it changed, literally, overnight when the word spread that she could sense mana. Now she has earned the respect of all the workers... and even more jealousy.

It needs to be said that rumors and murmurs were the worst she got, and Alexander had no idea what happened behind his back since he was too deep into research. He really wanted to be involved in this kind of bullying and stop it, but everybody in this world saw this as something so minuscule, not even worth baiting an eye at that.

Having enough food and a place to stay for themselves and their family was the most crucial issue for them. Then, having a non-abusive boss, who was also nice, was such a miracle for them. Everything else, like some nasty rumors, nobody really cared about.

The young noble only made sure to modernize his contracts as best as possible with decent pay, work hours, medical care, etc., to have them be as productive as possible. Money was not a problem, especially since he actually created a training and diet regime for the soldiers, so Salyna, the head accountant of the estate, was much more lenient with him.

Alexander was actually interested in how rich they were. Still, all he got was an arrogant smirk from the head accountant with a snide remark which said everything, "Let's say this, Mr. Alexander, if we went all out with our finances, we could let count Moorgrel look like some peddling beggar."

He loved it being rich.

While Alexander fantasized about having a pool full of gold coins, Ocilia, on the other hand, frowned slightly but was also excited since she knew that being a mage was something only children could fantasize about!

But she also knew that reality was far from fantasy and acquiring power needed a lot of work. There was a misunderstanding that knights were brutes without a brain and mages were only bookworms. It was also not really true.

Knights needed to be educated and know psychology, build cultural understanding, and other relevant subjects, while mages required at least a healthy body to not die if someone sneezed at them.

Ocilia was ready but also didn't really know what she was exactly. Was she a mage or a fighter? She looked at her master and asked solemnly, hoping for an answer since he always had an answer for everything, "Master, am I a mage or knight? How should I train?"

Alexander was brought back from his thoughts of spitting into the faces of the three ghosts from different times. He looked at his disciple in confusion, "What do you mean? Does it matter?"

Ocilia fumbled with her hands and looked down, her upper eyes becoming slightly pinkish, a sign of nervousness, "I mean... I always kinda wished to be... strong... and..."

Before she could finish, Alexander did it for her, "Yeah yeah, all that stuff of being a knight. I know how you looked at the paintings. What about it?"

She became even redder and baffled, "Wait!..." her voice cracked, "...you knew?!"

Alexander stood there blankly, scratching his head and waggling his tail a bit, "I mean... yes? It was so obvious that I didn't say anything... why should I even? It is a nice dream to have."

Now she had a blank expression before turning into a tomato and just staying still. Alexander thought he shouldn't embarrass her more but give her some confidence and flexibility.

He crossed his arms over his chest, "Listen, being a knight..." he looked upwards as of thinking about something, "...if you want honor, pride and all that, be strong first and second, choose how to conduct yourself."

Alexander hoped that it would help her if he could direct her toward something more positive, less confidence-destroying, as she tends to self-doubt quickly.

This whole honor stuff was nice, but knights were nothing more than exceptional soldiers who were honored with a title and a plot of land, so they would stay loyal. Like always, his family was an exception to the rule, and he was thankful for that.

So he played into the idea since it would be alright if she developed more like what she imagined a knight would be and not what they are.

Ocilia looked at him with those eyes, which didn't lose the glint. She saluted and spoke solemnly, "I want more power."

Alexander frowned, his tone becoming more condescending, "Why do you not also want to learn how to conduct yourself too?"

She didn't look up, "I... I... don't know."

Her master shook his head and conjured a leviathan out of ice and water, which curled around the room, looking down at her, 'I need to teach her that power and magic should be respected.'

Luckily, he conveniently ignored his own hypocrisy, and he treated magic as nothing more than a toy. He also dismissed this thought.

Alexander also wanted to show off since it wasn't that easy to create something like this. He needed to conjure water first out of thin air, which there wasn't even close to enough in the room, even with the water in the pan.

Forcing an air flow, he basically sucked steam (water in gas form) from far away; using all this water, he created a serpent and froze it. He used mana to stop the atoms from moving. The more he wanted them to stop, the more mana he needed, so a partially frozen giant snake should do the trick.

It sounded easy, but in his head, he calculated every single bit and tried to imagine how the particles moved while simultaneously using at least four different mana skills to actually form it all.

To say that his head was burning was an understatement, but the moment he saw his artwork, it was worth it.

He said, "Look at me."

Ocilia looked at the puppy, who had the giant and menacing leviathan behind him. This made her speechless.

He looked down at her, even though he was smaller, "Tell me, what is power if not handled with the right morals?"

Alexander couldn't have a debate about morals and philosophy. She was too young for this, so he wanted to ensure that she knew what it meant before he put a gun into her hands.

His disciple was frightened, but she stood still and listened as the leviathan slowly crept towards her, "Now imagine that you are some farmer who annoyed me, and I have a bad day already."

The leviathan was beautiful. Ocilia listened to what her master said, but she also watched as the giant serpent was so intricate in his carvings, glistening through as light fell on him. He opened its mouth slowly as if it wanted to bite her, and she felt almost panic, but before it could happen, it transformed into water and slowly evaporated into the air.

The next she felt was a snip on her forehead, which stung. Then she heard the annoyed voice of her master, "I want a thousand words on when it is the right time to use magic for self-defense..." he thought for a moment before he continued, "...I also want to know your opinion on when and how you should use magic around others... make it a thousand words too, you have three days, got it?"

Ocilia understood and nodded toward him. She couldn't really say anything as she was scared shitless by what her master did, but she understood why he did it: Magic is not a toy.

Alexander thought it was kind of cute how she acted, but now he was hungry and needed a bite, maybe even cake. This made his tail propel around as he went towards the kitchen.