In a large, beautifully decorated ballroom and void of any person except two wolf-kin youths, both wearing very legére clothes and stretching.
The smaller one with snow-white hair and tail was trying to, but his whole body was strained by the warm-up they had done before, and he was sweating buckets. He was mentally exhausted, and his whole body screamed at him to stop.
The wolf-kin girl, his sister, was having a blast and had an innocent smile, "Hm, it was good that I met Ana and that she told me what she is planning to do with you..." she shook her head, "...otherwise I wouldn't know."
Alexander frowned, "I get that you want to help me, and I am really thankful..." he was not, "...but why... dancing and acrobatic?!"
While Lorient started to do a split and bend forward, she explained, "I am not really clever, and I can't take you out to teach you how to track, but I was always very good at dancing and acrobatics..." a smugness could be heard in her following words, "Even Ana said it!"
With Alexander around, she never felt like a big sister, trying to help him learn reading or anything else. Her youngest brother was always one of a kind, and she felt useless as an older sibling.
So, after she heard her previous teacher's plan for Alexander, she immediately made the suggestion, and Anastasia accepted it instantly.
Now she felt like a proper sibling, 'Maybe later I can teach him how to talk to other girls?...' she chuckled internally, '...would surely be fun.'
Alexander sighed, "Fine..." he held his hands up, "...you are the boss, so what should I do?"
As she was done, she jumped up and circled Alexander, analyzing him, "You know... I think we start with a little easy acrobatics, do a roll, and we will see afterward."
She stepped forward and rolled over her shoulder, not her spine, while her arm was diagonally pushing her momentum. She made wide movements so her little brother could see everything clearly.
She stood up elegantly with a spin, her tail waggling, looking again at Alexander, "A roll is vital. In a fight, the worst could happen where you fall, but as you fall, you should always attempt to roll forwards or backward..."
She stroked her chin, thinking of other situations, "Or when you loot a corpse, and someone tries to attack you, you should roll away too, depending on where the danger is..."
She chuckled slightly, "...away from it, of course."
Alexander chose to ignore his sister's experience with looting corpses, it was too morbid for him, but he took the advice, nevertheless, to heart,
She stepped to the side of the wet Alexander and motioned to show that he should begin, "So, I will correct you if I see a mistake, obviously."
Her brother wanted to surprise her since he had a little parkour experience, nothing much, only a summer course, but he learned there a bit, so he jumped forward, trying to control his increased body weight.
The beginning of his roll was perfect, but then he tried to stand up, and his weight overwhelmed him. He fell down in the end.
Lorient gave him a hand and helped him to stand up, "Again."
No comment, no praise, no critique. For Alexander, it meant it was fine enough.
He tried again, and again, and again, and again, but only failed.
After thirty minutes, he was drenched in sweat, and Lorient stood over his head while he lay on the floor, breathing heavily.
Her voice was stern, "Your breathing, posture, and movements suck."
Before he could say something, she continued, "Don't give me the weight excuse. Even with the increased weight, you should be able to do it. You don't take your momentum with you and lose most of it mid-roll."
Alexander couldn't say anything because she was right.
She held her hand up and helped him up, "Also, you don't try to get better, but...what do you call it again? Ah, yes, brute force with more power while you barely need any."
The wet puppy frowned, gulping down the self-esteem he built up for the day, and asked her sincerely, "So, what should I do?"
She shrugged, "Now that I have an idea where the problem is, you will try to better yourself with every try, and I will point it out till you get it. Are you in?"
Alexander nodded and went on trying.
...
Two hours later
Alexander felt that the floor was his new friend as he was lying there and thinking if he should make it his new room, "I can't anymore..."
After hours, he somehow managed to do a couple of good rolls, 'I am bad, so fucking bad... I can't believe I needed hours to do such an easy exercise!'
In reality, it was very average for someone to train rolls, more so on a hard floor, and he will probably train it for far more hours and days.
Lorient helped Alexander for the maybe hundredth time on his feet, "Let's stretch, follow my routine."
...
After stretching every single muscle in his body, he was ready to eat again.
Alexander had already lost his common human sense. He ate as a beast-kin at least three times what he ate as a human. It was an insane thought that he needed around 6000 - 7000 kcal, but now, he was even hungrier.
As he went out with Lorient, talking about daily stuff, "You know, I will be soon in my first mating season."
Her little brother looked at her, a little scared, "Gotcha, but I don't know why you are saying this to your underaged brother?"
She looked at him and laughed loudly, "Haha! Don't worry. Your big sis has no interest in something like this. I only wanted to warn you beforehand that I will be locked in my room, probably... meditating." she actually meant something different. Still, she decided against it to kill Alexander's innocence, as she thought he would have.
Alexander was confused, "Why, though? It is not like you will attack someone... right?"
Lorient's laughter became a chuckle, "Oh yeah, you forgot my legacy? Also, if I look at dad and if I have at least one-tenth of him, I will probably destroy the whole estate to get a half-decent guy into my grasp."
The puppy shuddered, "Okay, I noted it down to not get close to your room."
She nodded, now talking more seriously, "I really mean it. Dad told me about his first mating season, and he went almost insane as he was in a temple without any beast-kin... I think he had his way with a fairy or something in the end?"
Alexander didn't want to hear it, but he needed to integrate himself as beast-kins were really open regarding sexuality. Uncomfortably open.
Shame was seen as something humans conditioned them into. Thus most beast-kin went the other way, being far more open.
The reincarnated human tried his best to accept lifestyles, but even though they were open, rape was nonetheless not seen kindly.
So he asked, confused, "Huh, a fairy, though? Don't they look like children and don't need intercourse?"
Lorient smiled savagely, "Don't forget that dad was a child himself at that point, and don't worry, there are enough of them who enjoy it for the lust..."
She slightly pushed him, "Didn't know that it was your type, hehe."
Alexander glanced at her and thought about how she acted, trying to imitate their mother. He smirked, "Didn't you want to be like mom? Knightly and such? What happened? Hehe, trying to hook up your little brother with some old hag of a fairy."
His sister blew a raspberry and waved her hand, "Pffff, forget this, a stupid children's fantasy. I don't even want to be a noble..."
Her smile became savage, showing her fangs off, and Alexander could feel her demon energy building up, "All I want is to be on the battlefield or out there hunting..."
Suddenly she slumped forward, all her fervor blown away, "...but mom won't let me."
As he wanted to say something, Alexander could hear someone scream in the kitchen, "Come on! Just give me some sweets!"
An angry voice came as an answer, "Ms. Sarah, you already had half a cake after your breakfast! This is enough!"
The sweet tooth answered with her undeniable logic, "See? Who wants only half a cake? I will take it, so you don't need to look at such a thing!"
He could hear how Sarah was fighting with the food supply manager, a funny guy who was funny enough a well-fed rat-kin, and he always gave Alexander more than enough to eat, sometimes too much, and right now, he really needed protein.
As they entered the kitchen, they could see Sarah staring through Marlo, the rat-kin, and looking at the cake behind him.
Lorient voice rang out, "Stop harassing the kitchen personnel, or you will find poison in your food, hehe."
Sarah turned around and frowned.
Marlo had a panicked face.
Alexander didn't know when but her humor became more like dad's. More savage and not really fitting for the average beast-kin. He frowned, "Lori, you are not funny."
He ignored Sarah and looked towards Marlo, "Hey, can you get me some chef? I am starving from my training. I need something meaty and a lot, please."
Sarah looked back from Lorient towards Marlo, "Yes, how about you get someone for my cute little brother and let me look after... this very undelicious-looking cake?"
Marlo looked between her and him, only for Alexander to step in, "Marlo, please give her my sweets. I have bunkered up quite a bit, all right?"
The fat chef sighed, "Are you sure, Mr. Alexander?"
The puppy nodded, as he wanted nothing more now than someone to cook half the animal population into cheeseburgers and give them to him. This is how hungry he was.
Marlo nodded and put the cake back into a storage room with a magic item in the middle that held the food inside cold.
Sarah looked at him as if he had revived one of her heroes, Fenrir, a wolf-kin from the Leonandra family and the first one to gain the name by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of demons, clearing out armies of dwarves and humans, and liberating millions of beast-kin from slavery.
Alexander guessed that the story was slightly exaggerated but fun to read nonetheless.
His hungry sister came over, hugging him really firmly, "Where?"
Alexander could barely breathe for multiple reasons, "Keough, one of the cabinets in the storage, somewhere where the vegetables are."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
She kissed him on his forehead and went towards the vegetables but, after a couple of steps, stopped and turned around, "Ah, by the way, I met Ms. Anastasia..." A grin appeared on her face.
...
A little later, at the training ground.
Alexander was standing before his other sister, who now got pink eyes with hearts in them. A legacy that changed the body wasn't unusual but what was unusual was that she got extremely rare mystic skills.
Alexander learned more about the system window, legacies, and their corresponding mystic skills. As much as he knew, they had something like an indicator of how rare something was.
The rarer the divinity line, the more potent the effect was, but it was also harder to level up, reach level 99 and go into the next tier.
The higher the tier the [Mystic Skills] reached, the more specific and potent they became.
A perfect example was the demon energy his mother and sister possessed. While on world terms, it was not rare at all if you consider that wild demons in Kartikal to the east had this skill en masse.
It was highly potent against other than those demons, and because it was easy to level up, it could get even more powerful.
His family basically possesses a bugged [Divinity Line], which would have strong [Mystic Skills], which could be potent and easy to level up, to become even stronger.
The rest of his information was blurry, but he also found out that you could increase the potency of your [Divinity Line] by improving your first [Mystic Skill]'s you get with your legacy to the next tier.
The blurry thing was, what if he reached the next general tier and got a new [Mystic Skill]? More questions to answer, but first, he needed to survive his sister's training.
Sarah told Alexander in the kitchen that she was ready to train him in different fighting skills without any energy or magic.
She was a genius when it came to anything physical and learned it fast, thus her disbalance when she was young.
However, he hoped she was kind, "Today I will show you martial arts! I am not that good, but we can train together and beat each other up. How about it?"
She was lying, as she learned martial arts absurdly fast. Only her laziness stood in the way of reaching an insane level.
Alexander was somehow okay after he ate what felt like a feast and a short nap, 'I wished I had such a sturdy body when I was human.'
He frowned, "Big sis, you know I am smaller, weaker, and cuter. How about we start somehow easy?"
She smiled and came closer, and Alexander's instincts went haywire, but before he could act, she had already planted a fist into his stomach.
He went down on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
She squatted over him, patting his head, saying in a lovely voice, "Alex, I love you too much as to go easy on you. So, because of that, you will train with me daily till you go limp..."
He caught his breath, "What happened to the fucking cute big sis?!"
Sarah chuckled, "You said what you thought out loud..."
She tapped with her index finger on her nose and thought about it, and answered in a cute voice, "Because we have enemies, and I am training as best as I can to protect big brother when we leave for a town which he needs to manage, but this also means that I can't be there for you and who knows what big sis will be doing."
Her smile became suddenly savage. Alexander never saw it on her, "If somebody touches my family, I will rip'em apart, but..."
With a loving smile, Sarah continued petting Alexander behind his ears, "...I need you to defend yourself even without your magic... thus..."
She suddenly grabbed his hair and pulled Alexander up on his feet, not losing an ounce of her caring smile, "...you need to train till you can't stand anymore... you can do it, right?"
After Alexander stood again on his feet, he felt his bracelets weighing him down more than ever. It was mental as he never saw Sarah like this, and it shocked him.
Sarah took a few steps back, cracking her neck, "Get ready. I do learning by doing."
The former human knew why his parents and siblings acted like they did and were overprotective. He saw that beast-kin had specific personality traits similar to their animal counterparts.
Wolves never had something like alphas, betas, etc. this structure only occurred if they were enclosed in captivity. Typically, they hunted in packs as a family; thus, alpha males and females were the parents.
They have a very close family structure and protectiveness, and right now, he could see that Sarah was over the top as the older sister.
Sarah, on the other hand, thought about all the things that happened to their family and how Narsiz was almost assassinated as a puppy by poison, Lorient, who was in danger constantly as she was eager to hunt and go to the battlefield, and Alexander who was the most suicidal and since he was a one of a kind and had all the [Mana Sense] stuff figured out, he would be in constant danger from more than just monsters and his own experiments.
When she heard that Ms. Anastasia was starting to teach Alexander and asked Lorient to help her, Sarah demanded to help too. She would often break her lovely little brother and build him up again till he could rival their father.
This thought alone made her almost ecstatic for some reason, she couldn't understand her feelings but knew that it would help him, and that was all that counted.
A plus for her was that she needed, either way, to train herself when she went with Narsiz to a new town.
Alexander took his stance as he saw the resolution in her eyes. Feeling the pressure, he clenched his teeth.
Before any thoughts could come to him, Sarah rushed towards him with a kick towards his side, which he could barely block by bending his knees up, pulling his arm towards his body, and tightening his muscles.
Never mind it, this kick pushed the air out of him, but he grabbed it, and as a ding resounded in his mind, he now had a better idea of how to act next in his grapple. As he fell back and down to knock her out of balance.
But she jumped towards him, sliding her leg through his weak grab, ready to pummel him.
...
Two hours later
A heavily breathing and beat-up puppy was lying on the floor, and a healer was kneeling beside him, healing him.
His sister was stretching, and a smile was plastered over her face, "Good job! I will come to you tomorrow, and we will play again!"
With a wave, she went away, "See ya!"
It was hell for Alexander but also fun. It calmed him down since he usually only read, did alchemy, and did some sport.
All he wanted was to sleep, but he felt that the sun was disturbed by a shadow, "Sarah is really worried."
It was Narsiz, and what he knew about, he also started to train himself, but not in martial arts. No, he went for archery since his luck-based skill was basically made for it.
Alexander needed another truckload of food, a nap, and maybe a vacation, and he hoped that his big brother didn't want to train him too.
Narsiz scratched his head slightly. As he was nervous, Alexander thought he wanted to ask him something, "I know she means well. However, what's up?"
The now less beat-up puppy stood slowly up and thanked the healer, who was the same one who healed Ocilia and was now under an exclusivity contract under their family.
The healer had a giant smile plastered over his face. His pay probably was generous enough that he didn't care about his union perks.
Narsiz was nervous but straightened up and looked down on Alexander, as he was a head bigger, literally, not metaphorically, since he was also quite a bit older.
He took a small bow from his back, and Alexander feared the worst, "You see, I heard how Lorient and Sarah are helping you and..."
Alexander started to sweat, hoping that it was not what he thought, 'Jesus Christ, please don't...'
He gave it to Alexander, "...I really wanted to help you since you also taught me a lot, even while you were sick... so, how about it? My archery skill is not bad, and I am getting better really quick... it seems I have talent in it, and the synergy you told me about with my skill is working well!"
Alexander screamed: NOOOOOOOOOOOO! But only in his mind.
As he stood before Narsiz, he smiled and nodded, "Sure! But let me, please, get something to eat first, all right?"
Narsiz was elated and nodded. He even got a servant and commanded him to get something to eat for Alexander.
Alexander couldn't say no to Narsiz as he also really wanted to learn archery, but also the enthusiasm from his older brother made him unable to deny him the request to help him.
...
Hours later, early evening.
Alexander dragged himself to his office since he needed to check on Ocilia.
He didn't know why his siblings were this forthcoming and helped him, and he was thankful, but he wished for a bit less enthusiasm.
Tiredness and soreness were invading his body like Germany did with France. He chuckled inwardly about this stupid joke. Too bad nobody could understand it.
From tomorrow, he needed to plan everything out more precisely since he now had five instead of two teachers.
Also, as Janina was getting older, he wanted to start teaching her in fun ways so she didn't become like her sisters, a meathead. He would probably need to invest a lot of time into Janina.
While he was in a body of a six-year-old, more like 8 to 9, since this calendar year had around one-third more days, he couldn't know precisely since time was relative and he didn't know how to compare times between... worlds? Dimensions? Something like that.
He shook his stray and chaotic thoughts away, which always happened when he was tired.
However, he had a mental age of around mid-thirties, but acted like a child sometimes and sometimes more adult-like. It was weird. He didn't know why but he enjoyed having a childhood, parents, and carelessness he didn't have in his last life. He hoped his sisters, on earth, enjoyed their childhood the same as he is now.
Nonetheless, he wanted to use his experience and give back on what he received in his current life. But he needed time, and now, he would drag his maids with him everywhere, so he didn't need to constantly run to the damn kitchen and get food.
As he thought about food again, he noticed that he was hungry again, and he calculated in his head what he ate today and concluded that it was over 10.000 kcal.
He couldn't think of an explanation since he was so damn hungry, but if he spitballed it, he would say it had something to do with his physiology...
He duh! himself and thought that maybe mana made it more efficient for him to build his body up, but if he ate every day as much as he did today, it would become a nuisance.
He threw the questions to the back of his head, as he was not even closely qualified to answer them, and he needed to meet Ocilia, eat, and then sleep.
Alexander entered his office and found it tidied up and Ocilia studying, bringing a smile forward.
Before he came inside, he called for a servant, telling him to bring something to eat or go to his servants and tell them. They would know what he wanted.
He went inside afterward and threw himself on a Klinai, scaring Ocilia out of her studies.
She looked slightly tired at him and greeted him, "Hello, master. How was your training?"
Alexander smiled at her, thinking she was too nice for her own good. He also wanted to reward her and thought about her dream and got an exciting idea, "You know, I thought that it would be unfair if I was the only one who received such training, thus..."
He pointed at her with his index finger, palm half open upwards, "You will, beginning from tomorrow, train with me..." he thought for a bit and remembered how physically weak she was, "...every third time."
Her master noticed how her eye twitched, "I... but... there is so much to learn for me... how about..."
He interrupted her, "Nope, I only thought about now and find it better and better the more I think about it."
First, Alexander thought it would be nice if she could be physically fitter, but after a moment, it would really be great if she learned how to self-defend herself and be more flexible.
Yes, she learned with him: alchemy and magic, but as he saw it, she could primarily use her strings as a conductor. This means that if she ever went into a fight, melee would be a possibility.
He straightened himself, getting serious, "You know Lia, I want you to defend yourself. Even though you learn magic and alchemy, it is wise to at least know the basics in other fields."
Ocilia looked at her master like he was crazy. No, he was crazy, and she knew it from day one as his disciple, apprentice, or whatever they called her. It changed all the time and didn't mean much.
He was her master, and she accepted it and only received the best from him, and by best, she meant knowledge and training. With her skills, she could leave and become a scribe, and a good one at that.
But whenever she thought there was a flattening of her skills and they wouldn't increase anymore, her master suddenly taught her something new, discussed something controversial, or challenged her worldview.
Her skills increased, her mind broadened, and now she had the chance to get stronger. The only problem was that she already had a lot of stuff to do.
Learning seemed so easy for him, but for her, it was a fight to understand something, but when he said that she could train with him, the only way she could respond was with greed. Greed for more.
Not only power. Not at all. Also, recognition by her master and all others. She really loved the feeling that someone looked up to her. Ocilia could not wait to meet her old friends from Wolfsteeth again and show off.
Thinking about Wolfsteeth brought out a strain in her chest as her family couldn't find her brother. But she ignored it. She couldn't change it, and it was a wonder that he wasn't beheaded in the first place. So she dragged it to the back of her mind.
So she answered in the only possible way, "Yes, master, do we begin tomorrow?"
Her master only blew a raspberry and rolled on his back, closing his eyes, "Pffff, how boring. You are too perfect of a disciple, and yes."
Silence returned to the room as both youths smiled to themselves, which was interrupted as a maid, Francesca, rolled a table into the room, packed with food to the brim.
As the food was set up, he asked Ocilia if she wanted to eat with him and, as usual, what norms dictated she should've accepted. Still, since she felt relatively comfortable around her master, she said she would eat later at home with her family.
After setting everything up, Alexander started to eat while testing Ocilia on what she had learned that day, "Did you understand what density means now?"
As Alexander stuffed his face full of puree and pork with some sour berry sauce, she answered, "Yes... it is the mass inside a certain volume per a certain measured metric."
After gulping down and licking his lips in a very non-cultivated way, he looked around the room and found what he wanted. He used alchemy on some booklet full of parchments which he made and floated it towards Ocilia, "Close enough, here you go. These are some exercises and more information on this topic. If you have questions..."
She interrupted him, "Yes, yes, I will come to you if I have any questions or problems I can't solve. Please enjoy your food, master."
Alexander looked at her, first bewildered and then with a smile, really liking Ocilias new bold side, "I really need to borrow Ms. Anastasia's horsewhip."
Ocilia started laughing, "Sure, how was it, by the way, with her? She looked really strict."
He forgot that she wasn't one for rumors and was relatively focused on her family and his teachings, so she never participated in gossip, "She is fine..."
While he talked, he cut down his meat in the meantime, "...though, she is also a bit too excited teaching me, and I don't know if I am good at languages since we will learn everything simultaneously."
Laughter boomed from the office, scaring Alexander. As he looked around, he saw Francesca and Ocilia laughing. Confused, he asked, "Why are you laughing?!"
Francesca was the first to catch herself and said with a smile, "Mr. Alexander, honestly, I... I... I was today at the training field with Cloelle for a walk and saw you training with Ms. Sarah and Mr. N... Narsiz..."
Alexander's face reddened, "Yeah... wasn't the best."
The maid's eyebrow rose, "Mr. Alexander, by all respect, you are absolutely insane if you think that it was less than very good what you showed..." then she pointed at his accessories, "... and no less with this weight training."
Now the puppy became redder as he was one weak for compliments.
Francesca said honestly, "I think you, Mr. Alexander, will be excellent at learning l... l... l... languages or whatever you do with Ms. Anastasia..."
She sighed, "...it is insane to think that the lords and lady's children are this talented."
Before Alexander could answer, Ocilia started talking, "I know, right? Even my siblings look up to them like they are heroes. It is insane."
Now the puppy had enough, "Okay, enough! Gotcha! We are good at learning, jumping, and beating ourselves up. Good job, me or rather us..."
He inhaled and pointed with his fork towards her parchments, "...now enough of this gossip, and tell me what you learned today."
Ocilia and Francesca both shook their heads in disbelief, and Ocilia continued to talk about what she had learned on that day.
Later, Alexander cleaned himself and instantly fell asleep when his head touched his pillow.