Character Information - Who is who?
Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)
Alexander K. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Transmigrated from the earth and the MC
* The fourth child of the current Leonandra household
* Golden eyes
* Snow-white fur and hair color
Marisia S. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Lady of the Leonandra household
* A user of the wild-demon energy
* Mother of the MC
* Golden eyes
* Crimson red fur and hair color
Sarah M. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* The third child of the current Leonandra household
* Sister of the MC
* Green eyes
* Pastel-greenish fur and hair color
Narsiz K. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* The second child of the current Leonandra household
* Specialized in administration, economy, etc. (bureaucracy)
* Brother of the MC
* Golden eyes
* Golden-blonde fur and hair color
…
A school bell woke Alexander up. He opened his eyes slowly and was greeted with an unusual surprise, "This…."
He looked around and noticed that he stood in the classroom where he previously wrote the math test for his skill test. This time, though, he was in front of the class, where the teacher usually was, and everyone stared at him, 'What is happening now?!'
The doll teacher sat at his desk and smiled at him, "Are you ready?"
He became confused while readied himself for the worst, "Ready for what?"
She winked at him while the other students giggled, "Your oral test, of course, you dummy!"
Alexander looked blankly at her. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly. He knew there would be a test because he reached [Physics | 25], 'Nobody fucking said I needed to do it orally!'
He looked upwards while rubbing the back of his neck. He was a little pissed if he was, to be honest. Even more so because the teacher looked at him with curious eyes, 'I hate surprises such as these.'
After a moment of inhaling and exhaling to get a grip, his instincts from his previous life kicked in. He looked back at the teacher with his best and most charming smile.
In his opinion, while teachers like to pretend to be as objective as possible, it is but a lie. Who are they kidding? Every human…humanoid creature? Whatever they were, they were incredibly superficial, so acting confident should already be a big plus.
Alexander opened his arms, "I am ready, teach. What should I do?"
She clapped her hands and beamed a smile at him, "Great! The topic will be…."
While she said that, Alexander saw how her eyes rolled inside her head, like a slot machine, and suddenly stopped after half a minute, showing some weird symbols, "Kinetic and potential energy!"
He exhaled slightly as he was pleased. While this topic could be something he would need to prepare for, luckily, he did not need to do it since skills functioned like encyclopedias. Knowing, applying, transferring, and solving problems was very doable with little to no preparation.
Alexander held his chin and thought about how to start. After a moment, he looked at the teacher, "Ok, no problem. Where do I start? Should I first derive the E-kin and E-pot formula?"
She shook her head with a mischievous smile at him and held her hand towards the class, "They will be asking…." She then pointed back to Alexander, "...and you are answering!"
Alexander cringed inwardly, 'Why being so dramatic?'
It was nothing new for him, and actually, it was much easier than having a presentation and, after that, a colloquium. He shrugged inwardly and merely nodded with a smile.
The first one to ask was an action figure who smoked a cigar,
"What two measurements do we need to calculate kinetic energy?"
Alexander answered almost automatically, "Velocity and mass, next."
This went on for thirty minutes as he was asked basically everything in the book. Some questions were basic, and others were much harder where the skill couldn't help.
The teacher stopped the oral examination, "Good job, you passed without any problems!"
Alexander smiled and wanted to ask some questions about this weird place, "Tha..."
Everything went black, and he found himself again in his crib, 'I woke up.'
He looked at his system, '[Physics | 26], perfect.'
Alexander closed the window, glanced around curiously, and saw that he should have left at max for a minute or two, 'Hm, thoughts for later, I guess.'
...
After some months
A school bell rang, indicating that Alexander was again about to do some kind of test.
He looked around him and saw all the people sitting around him. Now was the [Algorithmic] test's turn, 'Whatever they throw at me, I am ready!'
But to his displeasure, he got hit in the back of the head. As he turned around to find the source of that attack. A dog plushie was sitting there while blushing and smiling with its tongue out at Alexander.
He smiled back to appear friendly, 'Is bullying a thing here too?'
It put a paw up and pointed toward a crumbled piece of paper on the floor, 'Oh, was this thrown at me?'
He took it and uncrumpled it. It was cringe.
+----------------------------------+
You are Paw-Some!
[ ] Let us go for a walk!
+----------------------------------+
He raised an eyebrow, 'Wow, how pushy! Not even an out…wait, what the fuck am I thinking? First, I am not into dogs; second, she is a plush toy….'
Before Alexander could answer her love letter, the teacher returned to class and pointed at him, "You!"
He pointed at himself, confused, "Me?"
A beaming smile was seen on her puppet-like face, "Yes, you! You are not even one year old and are racking one test after another!"
Hard coughing was heard behind him, but the teacher and Alexander ignored it.
He tilted his head, "So?"
The teacher's smile grew even more extensive. She looked so excited that Alexander could see her face become flushed, "Nothing! It is just so interesting! I have never had such a student, so this will be fun! Don't disappoint me in the coming test, little pup!"
Alexander responded excitedly but not as much as her, "Sure, teach!"
In his mind, he shrugged inwardly, 'I can kill time since it is boring in the real world. After all, I am too young as my real self, so I can't do much there.'
She clapped her hands and looked at everyone else, "Today, you all have self-learning class while I take this pup to the test area!"
They walked through the hallway when she started a conversation, "Don't you have any questions, little pup?"
He shook his head while following her through the colorful school corridors, full of posters and decorations, "Nope."
She giggled and hinted at something, "You are more interesting than I thought. Don't you want to know who I am, why you are here, and so on? Hehe."
Alexander smiled slightly as he was sure she couldn't answer the questions he wanted the answers to, "Do you want me to ask you those questions?"
After walking for half a minute, she suddenly laughed, "Bahahaha! You are not the first one who gave me such an answer."
In Alexander's mind, she, or whatever was behind her, should know he was not from the new world he landed in since they perfectly replicated many aspects of Earth in this dream. As such, he believed that they rummaged for sure inside his memories.
There was also the problem that this teacher was so excited about Alexander having so many tests, which made no sense since they should know that he was from a different world and just someone reincarnated.
Going by this alone, she should know that Alexander was actually a guy with much more knowledge inside of this puppy's body than would make any sense. There was a big difference between intelligent and just highly knowledgeable, so clearing one test after another in this short time frame should be expected and not celebrated.
If he deduced everything and did some guesswork, the chances of her being literally a puppet that knew nothing was high, or rather some AI, without the most essential information he wanted to know.
'If she doesn't even know who the previous me was, I have no hope for her knowing the answers I seek.'
Alexander didn't care about common knowledge she could give him, like that was obviously an environment made from his memories. So, he could pass his tests in the most comfortable way possible. Though, he ignored the corporal domination over the world.
As Alexander was in his own world, the teacher's voice came like a hit, taking him out of it, "Almost, little pup."
Standing still, his smile vanished. He looked at the teacher, who turned around and smiled at him while shrugging her shoulders, "I am semi-autonomous, and you are right. At least subconsciously, I am here only to help you pass your skill tests, and I can't answer questions unrelated to the skill test because I was not given any more information than that. So you are right about that! Also..."
She touched her hips while licking her lips, "Did you look cute in your previous life?"
Alexander stepped back while sweat ran down his forehead, but before he could run away or do anything, she laughed out loud, "BAHAHAHA, calm down, not like I would violate such a cute puppy!"
She gave him a wink and kept walking again. After a moment, Alexander frowned and followed her, but more than a couple of steps behind her this time, trying to not think about anything since she could obviously read his mind.
Suddenly, a question came to his mind, "What if I fail the skill test?"
She giggled while looking up into the void like she remembered something, "How worrisome is it to want to be perfect. You will have another chance in a week. You can repeat it as much as you want, but the test will always change."
Alexander nodded in understanding, "Seems fair."
They walked for another two minutes in silence, and as they reached the designated room for his test, she remembered something again, "Oh right, if you can't pass this test, no other test can be passed till this is done."
Alexander clicked his tongue in annoyance, knowing it couldn't be that easy. But rather than a frown, he felt a big smile building up. Wasn't this fantastic? Since transmigrating, all he was doing were tests, leveling up skills, and training his mana. Without any punishments, this kind of thing would become much more boring.
She smiled back at Alexander, her voice sounded cheerful, "I knew you would like it. I bet I will see you much more often, little pup. Hopefully, you also like the test since [Algorithmics] is a scarce skill."
The teacher opened two big double doors, and they went inside a large auditorium with a stage. Standing on it were ten puppets who wore hip-hop clothes. On every outfit was a piece of paper with a number painted on it. The numbers went from 0 to 9, and they all stood disorderly – not sorted by any means.
They walked towards a table in the middle of the auditorium, and Alexander took the piece of paper on it, 'Well, this will be easy.'
He read the task out loud, "Build the most efficient sorting algorithm by sorting the dancers. The more efficient, the better the result. They should be sorted from the smallest number to the largest."
It was an easy task. An insertion sort algorithm should do the trick. He also thought about others, but this scene, in front of him screamed insertion sort,'
A voice from the side came out of nowhere, almost breathing down his neck, "It is nice, isn't it?"
Alexander got scared and jumped against the table and hit his leg, "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"
He turned around and glared at his semi-autonomous teacher, who giggled, "Sorry!... hehe."
She held her hand over her mouth and kept laughing while Alexander glared at her, "Hehe..."
Frowning, Alexander concentrated again on the test but had a question. So, he looked at her and tried to show an innocent smile, "Teacher, I have a question."
She pointed towards the wall, where a giant clock hung. The clock's hands had already started moving, "Sure, ask, but you only have an hour for the test."
Alexander nodded, looked back at her, and asked, "What I mean to ask is, what is the difference between barely passing and perfectly passing the test?"
He was confused since he had a perfect score on his last tests and wanted to find out the exact difference between barely passing and acing.
She smiled at him and held a finger up, "It is pretty straightforward. The better your test, the easier the leveling will be for the following 25 levels until the next test."
He rubbed his chin and thought, 'So, it doesn't matter in the end so much.'
While the sound of faster leveling sounded appealing, it wasn't that important at the moment for him, but it could become a great cheat. After the first test, he could fail on purpose, get some idea of what it would be about, and then prepare for the next one more thoroughly.
He pushed all possible loopholes back in his mind and concentrated on the test he was doing, which he didn't want to fail.
The moment he read the task out loud, he solved it almost instantly. He looked at the teacher with his hand open, requesting, "I need a pen."
She raised an eyebrow, put her hand into her Décolleté, and got a pencil out. Now, Alexander raised an eyebrow and took it while commenting on this behavior, "This is not really hygienic, teach."
She opened her eyes wide open and laughed out loud, "BAHAHAHA! You are a weird little pup!"
Alexander ignored her weirdness and concentrated on the most efficient sorting algorithm. He found it too easy and wondered if there was some trap, but after five minutes of looking at something, he glanced at his teacher, "Teach, do I need to sort only these ten dancers?"
She stopped and took a look at the puppy. A wide smile emerged on her face, "Good question! Yes! Don't worry. The first tests will always give you a little taste of what will come in the future and are usually easy."
Alexander sighed and went back to examining the paper again. He already had an idea in mind.
...
Forty minutes later
After rechecking the sorting algorithm at least ten times, he gave the sheet to the teacher.
She raised an eyebrow as she took it, mumbling, "It is quite new that someone actually wrote something. They usually tell me how it should be sorted… let me see…."
She looked at the sheet of paper, and her smile grew, yelling euphorically, "GREAT! Let us begin!"
While the music played and the dancers got in position, his thoughts were a mess. He hoped that he had chosen the best one for this situation. He also considered using a merge-sort algorithm, but ultimately, he decided on his first idea since it was almost self-evident.
They all stood in a row. Mannequins with no facial expressions. But Alexander could feel they were looking at him for some reason.
The second dancer [3] bowed to the first dancer [5]. They interlocked their feet while rhythmically moving (or rather jumping) toward the beat. While interlocking, both made one move simultaneously, a summersault, to end it by interlocking their feet again.
After they were done with their moves, the second dancer [3] did multiple spins while jumping around the first dancer [5] while also interlocking their feet after each spin. In the end, they changed positions.
Now the third dancer [2] bowed towards the first dancer [5], who was now, after the swap, in the second position of this array. Both jumped and made some insane moves. A spin while somersaulting.
Alexander always respected hip-hop dancers since he had no idea how they could not throw up mid-air.
After swapping positions, the third dancer [2], now in the second position, looked directly at the second dancer [3], who was in the first position. After some new moves, they swapped places. A new marker was set, and it started anew.
...
A simple Insertion sort algorithm should bring the best case out in such a small dataset.
To explain it as simply as possible, Alexander set a marker to the second [3] one. He was the first in the unsorted group.
(This unsorted and sorted group stuff is only for your imagination.)
The first [5] one is set in the sorted group.
The marker set up on the second [3] one will always look towards the sorted group. The marked looks at them, one after another, and whether he should swap (depending on how you want to sort).
He swaps along the way to the back until the correct sorting positions are reached, or rather, to the point it can't swap anymore in the sorted part.
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Then the marker moves on to the third [2] one, as it is now the first one in the unsorted group, and it begins anew till it is sorted out.
…
After a couple of minutes, the dance concluded. Alexander looked at the teacher in anticipation.
A frown was seen on her face, and he fell into panic inwardly, 'SHIT! I did something wrong!'
Then, she laughed while holding her stomach, mocking him, "Bahahaha, you should see your face!"
He frowned, but she tried to calm him down before he could say something, "Don't worry, it was excellent. You passed!"
Before Alexander could say something, he suddenly woke up. He clicked his tongue, or at least tried to, and decided to sleep some more. It was really taxing having to deal with the eccentric skill test teacher.
...
Months later
The light fell through the French window, and the tiny dust particles danced insight the sun's gift to the world. Alexander reminisced how such a beautiful present existed and was reminded why he contemplated such things, 'I am bored!'
But all this changed when he saw his savior, "Big Shishder!"
A smile bloomed on Sarah, "What is it, little pup? Want to play more?"
In his mind, his sister probably loved everything cute, which you saw in what she wore, as she loved to wear summer dresses with all kinds of poppy colors and, as a waistband, a colorful and giant ribbon, 'Also, let's be honest, I am God damn cute!'
Being relieved from boredom, the puppy cheered, "Yesh!"
Her mood also went up by a notch, "All right!"
As she helped Alexander out of prison, she put him down and supported him while he tried to walk again, 'It is pretty annoying to learn again to walk!'
It was super weird since his muscles were underdeveloped, and he would need to get a feel for them. It was also highly disorienting having his mind in another body altogether, as his old experiences sometimes made things much more difficult.
The door opened, and someone came in, a butterfly-kin butler, and spoke to Sarah, "Ms. Sarah?"
While not neglecting to support her little brother, she looked back, asking what he wanted, "Oh, Aro, how may I help you?"
He held on to his matter-of-fact tone, "Hm, the teacher is waiting for you."
She frowned quite heavily and took the puppy into her arms, obviously trying to get out of this, "I think…."
Before she could continue, Aro interrupted her harshly, "Ms. Sarah, don't."
This situation already happened a couple of times when Sarah didn't want to learn and instead wanted to play with him, 'I can't blame her, though. I am irresistible.'
There were always some servants who looked for her. Sometimes, she even took him with her as she wandered the estate, trying to evade everyone as they looked for her because she avoided her teacher.
She frowned and gave her brother to Aro, "Alright."
After she gave Alexander into Aro's arms, she smiled at him and kissed his forehead, her voice full of joy, "I will come later to play!"
As she left, Alexander saw her tail and ears hanging low, 'Somebody is not happy about her education. At least some things are the same as on Earth.'
Alexander watched Aro's almost perfect face with rainbow-colored eyes. He couldn't decipher his expression for the life of it. He was at the same time solemn but also very friendly like he had a switch.
He glanced at the puppy in his hand, and the puppy took his chances, "Play with me, big brodda!"
He used the [Charm] skill to the fullest, but the butterfly-kin butler shook his head, "I am sorry, Mr. Alexander. I have a lot of work to do, and you should sleep."
Alexander clicked his tongue inwardly. Aro laid him back into the crib and called a maid to watch him.
This was also something new. They were watching him with eagle eyes 24/7. The reason was apparent to him, though. Once he was left alone and tried to flee his prison, which they call crib. It didn't end well.
As he tried to flee, he got his tail stuck somewhere between the bars, down in some crack or so, for hours. Afterward was such a commotion that multiple healers/doctors visited him for days because he couldn't feel his tail anymore. Luckily it lasted only a few days.
The only positive thing he could take from it was that he got a giant crib to move in more freely! He shivered slightly as he remembered how his mother screamed at the maid who should have watched him but didn't, 'I pray for the carpenter who built my previous crib.'
Alexander felt sorry for the maid, not that he could do anything about it. She was really at fault. While he might be a moron, she should've watched him at least once every hour or so and seen that he tried to get his tail out. Now, she was nowhere to be seen.
Now he was bored again, and like always, he loved to check out his system window now and then and train his skills, but he was careful as he checked it under his blanket so nobody could see it, 'This is really addictive.'
Even if he was sure that nothing had happened, it was addictive seeing the progress he made in all the months. This whole level thing was no good for gamers like him.
'System.'
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/main/Remade_Alexander_Chapter_3_1.svg]
'Hmm, not bad.'
He had a skill test in [Logics] a week ago, but it was a rather dull writing test that he aced, naturally. He also unlocked new skills like [Mana Absorption] and [Mana Emission].
For the absorption one, he tried to take the energy into himself by sucking the air and trying to get the mana into him, which was in the air he could sense. He was bored and tried something stupid, but it worked nonetheless, so it was a win in his mind.
He got the emission one afterward by concluding that he could also push mana out, as [Mana Absorption] took it in. He tried it by sensing his inner mana and, at the right moment, wanted to push it out of his mouth by blowing. It worked, and he was proud of it.
It sounded straightforward that anyone could do it passively, but gaining those skills took a lot of deliberate work. After sensing the mana around him, he was sucking the air for hours where the most mana was, while he could push the mana out by blowing it at the exact moment when the mana was around his lungs the densest. Only after hours was he able to gain the skills which gave him the knowledge on how to use them correctly, even though roughly.
[Mana Absorption] was pretty neat. With it, he could absorb ambient mana and accelerate his mana regeneration by ~50%. If he did it together with [Meditation], it could reach ~100%.
[Mana Emission], on the other hand, was confusing. He understood that he could push out his mana with this skill, but he needed to figure out where to. He tried to push it into something, like his blanket, and it went only slightly inside and was forced out again after a moment. So he didn't see any use case for it externally, but he had a great idea of how to use it internally.
Alexander wondered if he should try something others would probably consider dangerous. This thought was subconscious, while his conscious mind went, 'Nah, it's fine!'
He brought his hands together while lying on his back. He tried to ascertain the mana inside his body with closed eyes first. He couldn't see it moving, but it felt like blood running through his veins.
The mana had multiple exchange points inside the body. The biggest one was inside the solar plexus. The smaller areas were in the joints of the hands, elbows, shoulders, hip, knees, feet, tail, ears, eyes, and so on.
It was connected to all the others through the main one via veins and arteries-like lines that pulsated in various intervals. With it, he could feel it flowing in and out.
Alexander used [Mana Absorption] and could feel how mana came through his pores inside him, but much faster and slightly forced through the skill.
He tried to use it on more solid objects with little mana, like the bed or the blanket. All objects had saved up mana inside them, even if it was very little. It didn't work. He couldn't absorb or inject (emission) mana into more solid objects or only very little. He thought it was too embedded of a structure to do with his skill levels, 'It should be possible later when I am stronger.'
But he could inject his mana into the air by letting it out of his body. It didn't make sense why he would do something like this other than just to level up his skills.
It was all exciting to him, especially with something new as mana. If he needed to describe it, he would see it as something like energy, but for how exactly it worked and functioned, he would need to do more experiments, which he surely couldn't do at this point in his life, 'It would be a sick movie idea though, baby mage, heh.'
After chuckling inwardly at his bad movie idea, he thought how there was no mana in his previous life, or he at least didn't know anything about it, if there were.
He became angrier by the second, his tail waggling angrily as he couldn't decipher anything he wanted to know, 'DAMN IT! I AM BORED AND ACTUALLY WANT TO RESEARCH BUT CAN'T!'
Also, because of his boredom or because he was a baby, he had insane mood swings and was quickly tired out after good physical exercise, which consisted of crawling, trying to sit up, and a lot more.
Regardless, his mind switched back to hypothesizing about how mana worked and what it was. How did mana affect the structures and properties of materials? He wanted to find it out the same way Earth scientists did. They first tried to clarify the properties of elements through many experiments. They could, with this, build a fundament for further research, though he would rather not repeat some experiments like licking on radioactive material.
'I need more mana for my experimentation and clearly quantify and plot it.'
As he thought about it, he remembered that he had no computer, 'How did people do it before the 70s... wait, when was the first computer-like machine built? Was it one from IBN? No, it should be the one in the 50s.'
He interrupted himself from drifting away into more useless thoughts, 'What am I doing here? Lying around like some slob!'
He didn't know that he had a little scientist inside of him like his father. He wanted to be more drastic while he had one of his mood swings, 'If Curie could do it, I can surely too!'
He wanted to try more with mana as this was a thing he knew from video games. Energy with which he could conjure spells. Alexander already had some ideas for cool tests, and through his boredom, he decided to go through with one. He brought his hands together as he wanted to try out what would happen if he pushed his mana around his body, 'Should be doable since mana is in my body and also moving.'
He concentrated on using [Mana Emission] with the left hand, [Mana Sense] in general, and [Mana Absorption] with the right hand.
As he started, his whole body suddenly heated up at an insane speed. After a short moment, he could feel how he lost mana at a crazy rate and how it flowed at least four to five times faster inside his body.
"Keupuk."
After a few seconds, he stopped it and saw that he had puked out blood, 'Oh, this is not…. good….'
He heard rapid steps and screams as Alexander could barely hold his consciousness. After some time, which felt like years but was probably only a minute or two, came people rushing toward him, 'Hopefully, mom has the healer on the short dial... because... I... barely... hold...'
...
In front of Alexander's bedroom
In front of Alexander's bedroom was a relatively young spider-kin maid walking back and forth. While she made a hole in the redwood floor with her spin every three steps she did, she was also so nervous that she started chewing her nails again after years of abstinence.
'I can't believe what happened.'
Melina was lucky. She reacted instantly when she heard that little puppy puking and called for help. Who knew what would happen if she didn't or was somehow distracted for a minute.
But it was not over yet. Half a dozen healers were at it in the last four hours, and there was no news, and the time they needed was worrying.
She was nervous and didn't want to lose such a great job. It was paid a little better than her old one, but the perks she got made it too good. She and her family could live for free in a much better and bigger part of one of the mansions than their old home while the food was free.
There were better positions like being a personal servant, which paid only a little more but had more perks like free education for her and her family.
The door opened, interrupting her thoughts, and four of the six healers came out and mumbled something barely audible between themselves.
She heard and saw the first one, a fox-kin, clearly tired and with blood all over his robe, "I can't believe it. We barely did it."
The next one was a seal-kin, barely walking, "How can he have such internal injuries?!"
A toad-kin, who looked the oldest, was not much better than the two, chided in, "Don't talk. Your annoying voices will give me an even stronger headache now that I have barely any mana."
The maid ran to them, bowing down slightly and anxiously asking them, "May I go in?"
They looked at her and were quite annoyed. Being overworked like this, she could understand them.
One of them, the old toad-kin, waved his hand in dismissal, "Yeah, go inside. He is stable."
The maid instantly went inside the room. There were standing two other healers around and the family except for Ms. Lorient, who was on a training expedition with her personal guard.
Everyone glanced at her as she entered the room. After seeing who came in, they returned to what they were doing. The tiredness in their eyes was apparent, and the young Ms. Sarah was crying while she petted her little brother and looked worryingly at him.
Melina held her hands before her chest, praying and hoping he was healthy, "Is Mr. Alexander.... fine?"
The lady looked at her and ignored all etiquette as she was too tired, "Yeah, he could be saved, thanks to you. He just needs a lot of rest."
The maid heavily exhaled as she felt glad that he survived. For one, she didn't want such a young puppy to die, but there was also fear that, if he died, she would be blamed.
The lady crossed her arms and started questioning her, "You are Melina, right?"
She nodded, "Yes, my lady."
Marisia rubbed her eyes, "Good, now tell me every detail and what happened."
Melina kneeled instantly, and sweat began to form on her forehead, 'Right! They could think that I could try to kill him!'
She remembered how the other maid was yelled at and kicked out, so she tried to appeal, "Mistress I…."
Before she could speak further, the lady interrupted her, "Calm down. We know it wasn't anything external or poisonous – you have nothing to worry about. Now stand up."
She stood up and calmed down a bit, "Thank you, my lady."
The lady waved her hand to calm her down. Even looking this tired, she was rational and pragmatic. Melina expected nothing less from such a knight. From rumors, all nobles were relatively easily irritated and were prone to give out harsh punishments for even the slightest mistakes. But, since Melina worked here, it was never the case, and her paranoia always hung in the back of her head. Other servants, who were not personal servants, thought, more or less, the same.
She urged Melina to speak, "So, tell me every detail of what happened."
She thought for a moment and chose to tell everything. Even if she would stand out badly, there was hope that the lady wouldn't blame her, "I… was sitting close to young Master in the chair, reading a book and sometimes looking at him…."
She looked back at the lady, who nodded and signaled her to keep talking.
"...well, after… maybe an hour, he moved around a bit too much. It was like he was annoyed or something but nothing else when I looked...."
She thought about every little detail for a moment. She continued, "...but after a short moment, Mr. Alexander put his hands together, and then shortly after that, he puked out blood. Luckily I was at that moment looking at why Mr. Alexander was suddenly so silent…."
She peeked at the lady and saw that she was in deep thought.
After ten minutes, nobody said or did anything except for Sarah and Narsiz, who kept caressing Alexander.
'Such a poor child. I don't know what to do if something happened to my children like this.'
Suddenly the lady looked at Melina sternly, "You reacted well and fast. You will be Alex's personal maid from this day onward."
Melina became quite perplexed. Being a personal maid is one of the most prestigious positions inside the estate, besides head maid or head butler.
Marisia decided by pure instinct. She felt that this woman was not the best maid, but she felt she would be reliable and loyal. This mattered the most to her. But she wasn't naive. She would have someone look over her for the first months and see how she conducted herself.
The new personal maid on probation stuttered, barely saying anything, "B… But my lady, I... I don't think…."
Marisia held her hand up to stop Melina from talking and reassured her, "It doesn't matter what you think. You are the right person. We will sort out the rooms close to here in the next few days and temporarily give you a neighboring room. Also, we will give you two servants to help you watch after Alex. We clearly don't know what happened, but it could happen again, and I want him to always be observed. Do I make myself clear?"
Melina bowed down roughly with the right hand on her heart, "Yes, my lady!"
Marisia satisfyingly nodded and went back to Alexander. She suddenly turned around and instructed Melina, "Go tomorrow to Salyna and Noriken. Let them know everything. If you have family, bring them in here too, but we must make the same investigation and contracts as we did with you."
The investigation was a lie detection test. Everyone who wanted to work in the inner estate needed to show their system window and answer many questions. While this was considered taboo, the Leonandra estate did something like this openly for every new applicant.
Because of this strictness, they paid more and coupled the previously mentioned benefits to it. Nobody really saw a problem with it, well, at least the commoners.
Other nobles didn't like it because some of their talented workers switched to Leonandra's estate. Ultimately, showing the system window was only considered taboo for nobles for different and more complicated reasons Melina couldn't comprehend.
But Marisia did. Nobles had rare skills or [Divinity Line]'s which they didn't want to show. This taboo they also tried to ingrain into commoners and especially their talents, so they didn't leave if someone like the Leonandra family made them an offer. It did not work, though, as most commoners didn't care about something like this, and they cared even less about things like honor or pride.
Furthermore, the contract was a mana contract that ensured loyalty. Some didn't sign the contract because the penalty for breaking it was immense, though the clauses were reasonable for most who wanted a simple and safe life.
Melina bowed again, "Yes, my lady, I will bring them tomorrow to this mansion."
The lady nodded, "Good, now go home. We will look after Alex ourselves tonight."
Melina nodded and headed out as fast as possible, as she had a lot of things to do.
...
Some hours later
Alexander barely opened his eyes and felt a stinging pain around his body, 'I fucked up, big time.'
He didn't think that it would be that bad and expected, in the worst case, something like a stomachache at most. Apparently, forcefully circulating your mana inside your body will turn you into an overclocked PC, 'I overheated my whole body.'
In his mind, he thanked god that he was at least alive, 'Thank the gods!'
'System'
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/main/Remade_Alexander_Chapter_3_2.svg]
The HP and MP explained why he felt so terrible, 'hm! I got a new skill: [Body Overload (Mana) | 1].'
It was self-explanatory, 'If I want to overload again, I would need either a much stronger body than the one I have right now, which made sense after almost killing myself. Infants weren't the most robust or a team of healers standing behind me.'
But something good happened, which made Alexander very happy and only slightly distracted him from the pain. His [Constitution], [Spirit], and [Perception] increased by +1, 'Who knew that almost dying increased my attributes by a minuscule amount, huh.'
Alexander didn't attribute it directly to the skill. He thought it was rather that he overtaxed his body to the brink of death, so the body kind of adjusted itself.
Nonetheless, Alexander was happy: A new skill, better stats, and probably no long-term disabilities, 'Hehe, I am a genius…ouch! My head is killing me, and I am hungry.'
Alexander looked around and saw his mother sitting there. He didn't know when, but he started to accept her as his new mother. Now he felt horrible because of what he did, 'Well, shit.'
He wasn't alone, and like in his previous life, he wanted to start looking after himself to look after his new family. Alexander sighed inwardly, as he was really annoyed by his stupidity.
'Now, to a bigger problem,' His stomach grumbled, but he didn't want to wake up his mother. She was probably stressed enough having a brain-dead son.
After a moment, he heard something and saw that she woke up and stood beside the crib, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Alexander's eyes became teary, and he almost choked, "Mom."
She leaned over towards him and smiled lightly. She looked terrible. Messy hair, bags under her eyes, and tiredness on her face, like she went through a war.
Tears were flowing out, and he tried to apologize, feeling horrible, "I shorry, Mom…."
She shook her head, clearly making her son feel better, "It's all right. Are you hungry?"
Alexander nodded and wished his moist eyes with his tail away. His mother picked him up and went to the kitchen to look for food while trying to teach him, "Don't wipe your face with your tail. It's a sign of unmannered behavior."
It was a quiet night, which Alexander enjoyed even while feeling bad. Knowing he had people who loved him that much almost brought the tears out again. It was pure happiness.
In his previous life, while having a great family, he was, in the end, the one who was always the adult. Looking after his siblings and their needs.
It was an incredible burden for him as he was never really at ease, but this now was soothing to the soul, 'Hopefully, my new family will not discover too fast that I am a moron by heart.'
...
Next day
'He looks fine?'
It was already the next day, and Melina brought her husband and four children over to Salyna and Noriken for the investigation and contract signing.
In her mind, they wouldn't fail, but even if they did, nothing terrible would happen, she hoped at least.
If they were not allowed into the mansion she would live at, she would find it sad but acceptable if looking at the incentives. Worst case, her husband could stay with the children while she visited them regularly. The money and especially the education, which was provided for free, were just too important.
It was much more vital for her to secure a promising future for her children than to have more closeness with her husband or children. With the wage and perks she received, she could achieve precisely that.
She already saw the new rooms for her family. The biggest room was three times bigger than their old house. Also, she suddenly got paid three times the old wage, which cemented her decision to stay here, 'They probably overpay me since I will have more work to do.'
She wanted to at least stay this puppy's personal maid until he went through his legacy. Until she could save up enough, her children would receive the promised education. She would love to stay longer if she could, even if her little master would become an asshole. The problem was that the lady put her into that position, and if he became old enough, he could dismiss her.
She ignored all the negative thoughts, and ultimately, because of this little pup, she got the job. She hyped herself up to do everything she could to protect him and serve to the best of her abilities.
She walked into the bedroom of her new master, and she saw that the little pup walked inside it while holding onto the grid and mumbling. He noticed her and smiled wildly, "Who you big shishda?"
This whole situation somehow caught her off guard. She didn't know what to think. She remembered her children, 'What was their age when they talked first? Surely not this early!'
The day the accident happened was her first day looking after the puppy, so there was not enough time to appreciate this rarity. Melina came out of her daze and did a rough bow with her right hand over the heart, "Mr. Alexander, I am your new personal maid, Melina."
He tilted his head cutely to the side, "Oh, og! Whad gan I do fur you, Meilna?”
With both hands before her, Melina stood again and put on a stern face. She tried her best to follow the etiquette, "I am here to support you through your day, Mr. Alexander."
He swung his fluffy snow-white tail and looked at her with big golden eyes. Responding cheerily, "Good! Gan you shaw me how do read and wride?"
Her eyebrow twitched slightly, and she couldn't believe what she had heard. A not-even one-year-old pup wants to learn how to read and write from her, a simple maid.
Nobody had the time to teach Alexander. His mother was the lady and had a ton of work to do. His siblings had their own life, and his father was who knows where killing demons, monsters, or whatever.
There was a possibility of getting a teacher, but who would actually want to teach a one-year-old? In his mind, only one option presented before him, 'I only need to learn the basics. The rest I can learn by myself.'
On the other hand, Melina tried to process the whole situation as this was really weird. Why? Usually, wolf-kin age slower than most other beast-kin subraces. This means they start a little later to get educated, around six to eight, since they also need more time to develop physically.
They were similar to fox-kin, tiger-kin, and so on. On the other hand, spider-kin, ant-kin, butterfly-kin, and so on needed less time to develop.
Turtle-kin or elephant-kin were the ones who developed the slowest, most of the time, even going so far as only starting their education after their legacy at the age of ten, when everyone got their [Divinity Line]. This obviously had its positives and negatives, as the one who started later also had a much longer lifespan on average.
Melina remembered all the common knowledge and sighed slightly, trying to advise him, "Mr. Alexander, I think you are too young to learn it."
Melina's heart stopped momentarily as she saw his saddened face, "Bud you said you wull helb me?"
The little puppy did his best, used a skill, and tried to manipulate her to the best of his abilities. She, as a relatively new maid, didn't notice it.
Melina frowned inwardly. Not that she didn't want to teach him, as she even learned the basic skills [Reading] and [Writing] while working at the estate, which was unusual for commoners.
She looked into his big, sad eyes, 'I don't want to see him feeling bad, but I also don't want him to see him fail if he starts to learn too early. He could feel much worse.'
Melina tried to reject him, "Mr. Alexan…."
He instantly interrupted her, with a facial expression that said he figured her out, "Sdob, led us mage a deal, og?"
She sighed again, now without restraint. In her mind, she already broke the etiquette she should have toward her young master, but it seemed in her eyes that he liked it and smiled at her. But thinking about what he said, she decided to at least listen to him. So, she just nodded.
He clapped his hands, "Gread..." and fell, "Uufff!"
Her heart stopped for a moment, but before she could help him, he held his palm towards her to stop her, and he reassured her, "I am wine… where was I? Oh, righd, the deal!"
While standing up, he talked. Melina was fascinated by this deal because it came from a toddler, "So, you will deach me for a weeg, if I gand learn id, you sdob, og?"
He stood again and gave his baffled maid an expectant smile, which she couldn't even think of resisting, 'DAMN IT!'
Melina sighed again and accepted his deal with a nod. His smile widened considerably, and his fluffy tail wagged enthusiastically, "Good! Led us sdard afder eading something, og?"
She nodded again and went to get a servant to get some food for her young master.
'I am getting crazy. I can't believe this job has become so weird. Why can't he just want to play something?'