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
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
Sarah M. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* The third child of the current Leonandra household
* Specialized in shield arts
* Sister of the MC
* Pinkish eyes (heart-formed pupils)
* Pastel-greenish fur and hair color
Janina M. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* The fifth child of the current Leonandra household
* Sister of the MC
* Green eyes
* Black 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
Cross Leonandra (Wolf-kin)
* Personal protector of the Lady of the Leonandra household
* Commander of the Leonandra military
* Specialized in sword/shield style
* Greenish-brown eyes
* Chestnut brown fur and hair color
Salyna Leonandra (Swan-kin)
* Head accountant of the Leonandra estate
* Specialized in accounting, economy, and finance
* Blue eyes
* Snow-white feather and hair color
Noriken Leonandra (Spider-kin)
* Archivar of the Leonandra estate
* Specialized in history and archives
* Purplish-pink eyes
* Bald
Aro Leonandra (Butterfly-kin)
* Head butler(servant) of the Leonandra estate
* Specialized in management, hr, and logistics
* Rainbow-colored eyes
* Black hair color
...
Leonandra Estate meeting room
Alexander sat in the meeting room, where he brought forward his paper idea. All of his mother's close retainers were here like her children. Even, for some reason, Janina. Lorient couldn't attend, though. As her mating season ended with her getting the skill, she needed to destress herself, which meant having multiple professionals visiting her.
He looked at his mother, and she looked slightly pissed. He heard that something had happened, which was why Ocilia wouldn't come out of her room and wanted to be alone, and why Sarah looked like crap.
Alexander wasn't allowed to talk to his sister, but Ocilia was fine. So he would try to visit and talk with her, but she refused. He had not the slightest idea what could've occurred, but he gave her a couple of weeks since it seemed that it was something serious and personal.
He guessed it also had something to do with Sarah, who looked like a corpse. She was usually jumpy and happy-go-lucky, but at the moment, she flinched from the slightest movement around her.
His training with her also paused for some time, and his new instructor was a pissed-off mother. It wasn't that he didn't like to train with her since she actually taught him instead of using him as a punching bag, but the training was also much more demanding.
His challenging training regime became a bit of a problem since he was tired the whole day and wished for nothing more than get his hands on some coffee beans. In that sense, he instructed Aurum to find him those or something similar.
Usually, if you were tired, a cheap stamina potion would be more than enough to pep you for a couple of hours, but as he had no internal energy, any potion would be poisonous to him.
'I need a break.'
The training with his mother was hard, but it was only a small part of the whole, which made him tired.
Furthermore, he trained semi-regularly his muscles more wholly by doing [Fitness] and archery with his brother, who was getting good. On the other hand, Alexander was mediocre at best, as he could barely hit bullseye with the bow made for children.
However, the more he did it, the more ideas he got, and one of those was to present a unique bow to his brother that he would gift him after his mating season.
Alexander needed experience in every aspect of life for later, so he didn't want to ignore the things he could do, even though he sucked at them.
Yet, he had much more success on the side of production and artificing. Alexander could successfully create paper repeatedly and increased his artificing skills by checking the Cold-Snout mana items they sent. All this busy work also raised his magic/alchemy skills considerably.
He also increased them as he continued to give out [Mana Sense] to loyal household members. He waited for the first one to be good enough to do it without him, but this would need time.
Alexander did all this while wearing the weight mana items and the collar. It was a vicious cycle. The weight increase was needed since his body started acting up again as his skill levels shot up quickly. He even got the [Stress Resistance] skill that alleviated some of his mental stress together with all the other skills.
Yet, he had fun and loved all of this busyness. Especially since he was literally about to change the world with his first invention, and such an achievement was all the motivation he needed to keep going.
His mana skills progressed, too, as his precision and control were over the top. Green even tried to get more spells to quickly end his apprentice phase and start with the 3D constructs. She saw no reason any more to have him learn easy spells.
Still, she also had little time since she was a temple leader and needed to teach all the others who got [Mana Sense] through him. It went so far that they started visiting her instead of learning it while she taught Alexander.
Despite all his busyness, he knew that all would level off in due time when more and more people became proficient in things only he could do for now. If that happened, he would have much more time to relax.
There was another motivation, though, which made his mind kindle as he remembered his system window from yesterday:
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/main/Chapter_56/Alexander_System.svg]
Alexander couldn't wait to get to his legacy and, at last, boost his attributes to a new level. Also, he wished for nothing more than to at least have his [Divinity Line] with the [Mystic Skills] with the energies. He didn't care what he would get, thinking he could make everything work.
His inner ramblings were interrupted as he heard his mother clearing her throat to stop all the chit-chat around him.
"Ahem!"
In front of them lay around a hundred pieces of paper on a couch table. Even though Alexander created them, he didn't like them much, but they were much better than papyrus or the material used for mana contracts.
His mother stared at one, then took a feather and wanted to start writing, but Salyna stopped her. It seemed she activated her skill and analyzed it more thoroughly.
Salyna turned around towards Alexander with a questioning face, "Why is it worth so much?"
She rubbed it between her fingers and glanced at it occasionally. She obviously liked it but couldn't understand why the price was around ten times higher than their highest estimate beforehand.
Alexander leaned back and smirked, "Well, I don't know why but the paper here has a ton of mana in them and..."
Salyna continued for him, "This is contract material... and since it is so expensive, it is around higher middle grade..." She looked back at Alexander and asked nervously, "...how many?"
Alexander shrugged, "I don't know exactly, but around ten thousand?"
Eeeek!
Salyna made a weird noise, and everyone looked at her weirdly. Even Marisia was confused and took a sheet of paper to observe it more closely, but she laid it back down as she had no idea what it meant and waited for Salyna to continue.
After a minute of closing her eyes, she asked Alexander again, "It wasn't enchanted, right?"
Enchantments were like a combination of mana circuits and chants, as the name described it. You would need to create a specific chant, which could be engraved on a material to enchant something. For it to work, you would also need to create circuit-like engravings through which mana could flow.
The paper Alexander created had mana in them and thus proved that it could hold enchantments in the first place. Regular papyrus would crumble when you inserted mana into it or, if it were somewhat robust, it would be porous toward mana.
He couldn't find out more since he couldn't tinker around because his mother became much stricter with him since Sarah presumably fucked up. While he, for example, tried to find mistakes in mana items, there was always a guard and a healer behind him. It was annoying, to say the least.
"Nope, Green, together with Aurum, are now trying to find somewhere a manual on how to enchant them, but yes, they are raw."
Salyna's smile didn't become smaller, and Alexander could smell her greed metaphorically and could swear that she almost started drooling. He understood why: Even selling them raw would significantly fill their treasury.
Narsiz asked what everyone had on their mind, "Ok, it is much better than papyrus and obviously has some mana, but I am utterly confused about the worth of this."
Alexander ignored that his brother didn't understand that the mana it had wasn't the important part but that it could hold mana. Artificing wasn't something one usually learned as a noble, and going by his experience in the IT sector, he chose to ignore it as there were the same problems.
Everyone nodded, and Marisia answered for her head accountant, who daydreamed, "Remember the earlier estimations from the first discussion? If we take it as it is for writing, one sheet should be worth 1-3 gold coins, but if you take the mana into account..."
Salyna interrupted her mistress, screaming, "No! Three to five gold coins, as the paper is of exquisite quality, and if we add the mana, it will go up to ca. 25 gold coins..."
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She suddenly added more, "Also, don't forget the barely existing costs of this..." She looked at Alexander with a smile that made him slightly shiver, "...we gave this little golden goose some pocket money and barely any access to crafters..."
She came close to Alexander, who wanted to run away as she stared at him like a giant treasure chest filled with gold coins, "...and he laid a lot of golden eggs for us."
Salyna started patting him, which Alexander didn't like, but he was, for some reason, frightened and endured it.
Marisia squinted at her and ignored the unsightly display, "No way? A normal contract costs around fifteen small gold... does it mean that these are so much more expensive?"
Salyna stopped her patting and turned to her mistress in confusion, "Mar... My lady, with all respect, we are not talking about small gold coins. I am talking average gold coins."
Alexander already learned that one large gold coin was ten average gold coins, and one average one was ten small ones. Silver and copper, on their own, had the same system. It only changed if one wanted to trade between those different noble metals. Eight large silver coins could be worth one small gold coin, sometimes twenty. It all depended on the market and the supply of those metals to mint the coins.
Marisia's eye twitched slightly, "Excuse me? Is it twenty times the worth of our contracts? How can it be?"
Salyna didn't stop to smile and looked at her lady with her stupidly wide smile, "I have no idea. Ask Mr. Alexander."
It looked ridiculous that Salyna couldn't stop smiling like a moron, that even Aro and Noriken looked bewildered at her. Marisia looked back at Alexander and signaled to explain, which he did with glee, "I looked at a normal contract which we normally use and the one I made..."
He shrugged like it was no big deal while leaning back arrogantly, obviously loving this moment, "My paper has a higher and better-distributed mana density, and the conductivity is excellent."
Janina, who sat beside him, looked at it with a sparkle in her eye and asked, "What is it made of?"
Alexander nodded and explained, "I used basically normal tree scraps from a tree called Oyarion."
Marisia raised an eyebrow, "This is an ordinary tree species in these parts, nothing special..." She looked toward Noriken, who was more knowledgeable in these things, "...right Noriken?"
He didn't answer and only stared at the paper. A hit to the back and a whisper from Aro brought him back, "Ah yes, Oyarion, I am sorry, my lady. This tree is widespread on the border since they can survive the demonic energy."
Narsiz looked at Alexander and asked him, "Did you try it with other trees?"
Alexander shook his head, "Nope, but I surely can."
Janina asked again, "So, you have ten thousand of this paper?"
Alexander answered while patting her, "Oh yeah, and if you want, you can get some to draw on!"
Janina rejoiced at this, "Yeah!"
The short wholesome moment was interrupted by the lady who started talking to Salyna, "Ten thousand. If we can sell it for the market price, this will be a lot of gold, but who would buy it?"
When Alexander saw his mother talking to what looked like a Salyna who was about to climax, she looked for some reason, unsure how to react. Why? His mother tried to relativize the situation by poking holes and finding flaws. For some reason, Alexander liked this kind of behavior since he was trained to do the same while his mother did it naturally.
The chit-chat in the room from everyone was interrupted by Alexander exclaiming, "I talked with Green, and she is ready to buy it all out for a discount..."
Salyna stopped him instantly, "How much?!"
Alexander didn't expect her to be this aggressive but answered her, hoping she wouldn't choke him out, "Around 20% under the market price..."
Before he could elaborate more, Salyna interrupted him again, forgetting his and her position, "20%?! Alex, did Aurum know about this?!"
The moment she screamed at Alexander, he reeled his ears back. He could see her somewhat holding back, obviously waiting for an explanation.
So he nodded, "I convinced him, actually... are you ok?"
Salyna clenched her fists, and she mumbled something barely audible under her breath, which Alexander could only understand partly, but it was enough to know that Aurum would have a bad time if he didn't convince her, "...bastard ...beat the... waste of money..."
She looked suddenly at Alexander and inhaled and exhaled strongly, asking him in a nice way that was forced, "Could you try to convince me too, Mr. Alexander? I find this rather ridiculous."
Alexander chuckled, which brought out a giant vein on her forehead. He tried to explain, "Hehe, I really don't want to sell it directly and have the hassle with the distribution. Our profit is basically our revenue, and almost everything is in-house. I would rather have someone trusted to buy it than to try and send Aurum on a goose chase to sell it to a consolidated market. Since Green is with the Temple, nobody would even try to go against her..." He shrugged, "...so I see no problem."
Narsiz chimed in, "But couldn't you make more if you sold it yourself through other avenues?"
Alexander shrugged again and looked at his brother, "Sure, but I can create around a couple of thousand sheets of paper on the side. Slowly selling them will only halt us since we need first look for buyers, which will take too long..."
He wanted to add that he wanted to have one distributor who bought all of his stock off for a reasonable price so he wouldn't need to hassle himself with it. He had other ideas he already was working on and wanted Green, who he trusted, to gain more power in the Temple while he would also indirectly benefit from it.
Alexander continued, "What I want is to bring them out as fast as possible, so I can work on automatizing the paper-making and create more things. Paper is not the only product I can produce, and having Aurum and others run around and sell mana contracts by the dozens to some merchants and nobles will get annoying. Green can buy everything and anonymize our household. So no one would even know where she has it from, and with that, nobody would want our head, too."
Usually, on Earth, it mattered little if someone had a great product in terms of security, but here, it could be a death sentence since he put other producers and sellers out of the market. So, he was concerned with safety, at least for now.
Salyna looked at Alexander more intensely and nodded at him, "You are right. If you have more ideas for other products, looking for buyers and sellers will cost a lot of time and manpower. On the other hand, selling it in bulk to a distributor like the Temple, we could concentrate on just the production..." She tilted her head slightly, "...however, what do you mean with automatizing, Mr. Alexander?"
Alexander looked at Salyna and snipped, "Oh, right! Anyone can make paper. I am working right now on making it so, but I need some of Cross's people who would learn some easy spells and are ready to work for me in creating it."
Cross, who stood at the door, answered him with a rarely seen smile, "Don't worry, Mr. Alexander, just give us some time to get used to the mana skills and show them what to do, and they will do it in earnest."
Alexander honestly didn't expect less. He created a new and stronger elite every two to three days, whose loyalty toward the estate and him increased heavily. He even forbade them to enter his mansion as they wanted to thank him or send presents since they were genuinely thankful to reach a new height in strength.
He was also allowed to give everyone the spells he used, and they loved especially the lifestyle spells. Green seemed not to care what he would do with those spells she gave him. He didn't know why, but it was well and good since he also archived them openly in the library while giving Ocilia the task of asking everyone who received their mana skills to write down explicitly how they did it so future generations would have some direction.
Salyna nodded and stepped back with a giant smile while murmuring, "We will be richer than Moorgrel, damn that old bastard."
Everyone heard it, but nobody said anything. Count Moorgrel was their lord and master, but Alexander knew little about him. Anastasia only said that the Count and Moorgrel as a territory was a highly complex topic that she would teach much later.
Narsiz asked Alexander, bringing him out of his thoughts, "I want mana skills too. You can do it, right?"
Sarah's eyes twitched, and she looked toward her brother expectantly. He saw that she also wanted those mana skills but was at the moment too frightened to ask with their mother around.
Alexander turned to his brother, "Yeah, of course, but I need some time to improve. Give me... a week or two..." He looked at his mother, "...if this is ok, of course."
Sarah and Narsiz looked at her expectantly. However, Sarah looked immediately down as she looked back at her but not like her mother would forbid her to become stronger.
Marisia leaned back and crossed her legs, "Fine by me, but I want myself to go through first."
Janina became elated, "Yeah! I can be a mage!"
Everyone looked at her and then at Alexander, who was the expert, and her situation was different, so he answered carefully, "Nope," he tried at least.
Janina pouted, "Why?!"
Alexander answered her, "I have no idea how to give someone mana skills if they have no [Mystic Skills]... I am sorry, Janina, you will need to wait."
Janina wanted to say something, but Alexander continued, "So there is a need for a different way... only I don't know which one. So there will be a lot of trial and error. Are you ok with this?"
The little pup was happy and nodded heavily while her tail waggled heavily. This little exchange was interrupted by Marisia, "Well, I think this problem was solved rather fast, and we will talk later about how much gold you can afford to give for the repairs, Alex. Then there is the next point: My mother will visit us in a couple of weeks."
Almost everyone started to growl, and even Aro broke his demeanor as he shivered slightly. Alexander and Janina were the only confused ones looking around.
Narsiz saw this and explained, "She is a terrible person only interested in the fief. The last time she came, she wanted me to engage with someone from the Nine-Fire household."
Alexander looked confused at him, "You mean the fox-kin guards from the north? What about Lorient or Sarah?"
Everyone chuckled a little, and Narsiz tried to explain it, "Fox-kin, Wolf-kin, various dog-kin, basically everyone from the canine-kin variation has a little problem."
"Little problem? What problem is there?"
Narsiz smirked at him, "Canine-kin have a higher female-to-male ratio. For wolf-kin, it is for every three males, there are seven females, and for fox-kin, it is for one male, there are nine females."
Cross added, "Mr. Narsiz is right. Around seventy percent of our wolf-kin soldiers are female."
Alexander looked at him, confused, "Wait? Those were female?!"
Everyone laughed and chuckled in the room. Only Marisia's stare could stop them, so Narsiz continued, "Males are an important resource for the fox-kin, but they are pretty happy marrying other canine-kin too."
Alexander knew about the weird difference in wolf-kin numbers, so he thought that it would equalize itself through war and other dangerous encounters, but he noticed that he thought in terms of Earth.
Females weren't weaker than males; even if they were, it wouldn't matter much. With skills, mana, energies, and the [Divinity Line], there was an equalizer. Nothing stopped a female from becoming a soldier, which they apparently did a lot.
'Well, gender equality was achieved by the system, I guess?'
Aro commented, "That is not all. The former lady wants her grandchildren to marry only other noble households, and since Narsiz is also very talented, he has become a true treasure in her eyes."
Janina asked, "Hm? I thought Sarah and Lori were much stronger than Narsi?"
Salyna answered her question, "Brute strength is not all there is to a ruler. If you have only muscles for brain..."
She nodded towards Cross as an apology, obtuse that he popped a vein at such a gesture, "...your fief will become a disaster. Nobody wants to be known as a bad ruler, so talents like Narsiz, who is also a noble, are a hot commodity..."
She turned to Alexander with a smirk, "...of course, we are lucky she doesn't know about our little golden cygnet too much. Otherwise, we would have half a dozen little fox-kin girls trying to woo him."
Alexander suddenly started to sweat a little as he finally understood the issue, "Wait?! My grandmother wants to marry me off to some fox-kin?!"
Marisia coughed into her fist and explained before it became more uncomfortable, "I am one-fourth fox-kin since my grandmother was one and a half jackal-kin since my father was one. We all exchange with each other, but we never force someone..."
Narsiz interrupted her, "Excuse me, Mother, but I remember being almost made to sign a contract for an engagement."
Marisia sighed, wanting to defend her at least a little, "My mother is, in that sense, a little bit more extreme as she tries to... let's say ensure that her grandchildren don't make the same mistake..." She air quoted mistake, "...as I did."
Alexander asked, "What mistake?"
Salyna answered for her mistress, "Your father. She disliked him heavily since he was a commoner. Even his status as a druid was nothing of notice to her."
Sarah then said something for the first time, "I remember being very little, and she forced me to speak in the right manner for hours, and if I made a mistake, she whacked me with a stick. Papa stopped this, and a fight happened in which he could barely go against her."
Suddenly, Janina remembered something, "Isn't Saru a fox-kin? Can't he marry one of them?"
Another chuckle went through the room, and Aro explained it to her, "He is a rather special case... I don't think anyone with all their senses in place would marry him... keugh!"
Salyna elbowed him and stared him down to stop it before he could continue, but luckily Narsiz was there to ask his mother some questions, changing the topic, "Mother, please tell me father will be at the estate."
She nodded, and Sarah and Narsiz sighed in relief. Alexander asked, "She can't be that terrible, right?"
Marisia looked at him with pity but turned to Aro, "Make sure that when she comes, you follow her 24/8, and I need Sarusos to follow Alexander throughout her visit..." She looked at Cross, "...since you will take Kairo's place in the East while he is here, instruct some of your better guards to follow behind Narsiz. I want to avoid a fight, and having others around my sons will be enough for her not to do anything weird."
Narsiz frowned, but Alexander waved his hand in dismissal, "What can happen at worst?"
Sarah looked at him with a smirk, "You are a mage and genius, so I would say kidnapping and torturing you till you accept a contract?"
This scared Alexander, and Marisia yelled at Sarah, "Stop that!"
Alexander ignored Sarah, who almost started crying, and looked at his mother, waiting for an explanation, "She would never torture you, but about the contract... hopefully not..."
Aro tried calming Alexander, "Don't worry, she doesn't know much about you."
This made Alexander even more pale and scared shitless, but Marisia corrected Aro, "She knows... a little more. Her nose is everywhere, and she can sniff it out instantly, so I only mentioned it indirectly in my letters."
Alexander looked at his only ally in the room, his big brother, who looked back and laughed, "What are you looking at me? Haha! I am probably weaker than you."
...
Hours later
After some more talk, it was decided that Alexander and Narsiz would be guarded from all sides when the former lady came to the estate. Sarusos would guard Alexander like a fabergé egg, and Cross's best soldiers would be by Narsiz's side.
As the meeting ended, only Janina was perplexed and downtrodden, 'I thought I would marry a beautiful prince or knight, but now I need to think about kidnapping someone so I can marry them?! The novels are all lies!'