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

Aurum (Swan-kin)

* Son of Salyna Leonandra

* Specialized in accounting, economy, and finance

* Blue eyes

* Snow-white feather and hair color

Green (III) from the Forest of Fallen Wishes (Fairy)

* Messenger of the temple

* Head of a temple branch in the east of Moorgrel

* Teaches the MC magic

* Specialized in healing, herbalism, agriculture, and administration

* Light-green eyes

* Greenish hair

* Autumn-colored wings

Authors note: I will now do this "creation" more straightforwardly. Also, readers are advised that I use, like before, some of my creative freedom to cut some corners.

...

Alexander sat in his office with some guests, which he tried to avoid like the plague. Because the moment they found him, he was forced to do what he hated the most: Budget discussions.

For the last few days, he has been thinking and researching beast-kin's familial and societal structures. So, besides his usual training, he was mainly hiding in the library from them.

However, it was not over, as he could change the topic. He could propose a little project for fast results and steer the discussion there before it could begin.

"Mana ink."

Aurum raised an eyebrow while sitting and looking at his Master in confusion, "All right?"

A high-pitched voice came from the other side, "Mana ink? How did you get the receipt from the Draugr?"

Green was sitting on the other side. She was with Aurum since she was also part of their team and needed to discuss some things about the paper he sold to her.

Alexander shrugged, "I wrote down some ideas beforehand, and mana ink is one of the few that Mom approved. So, that's what I want to create next."

It was a battle for Alexander to convince her that he could sometimes work alone on some things. On the other hand, he knew she wanted nothing more than to have all the healers close to him when he experimented. He found it exaggerated till he remembered that he almost died multiple times.

So he took his mother seriously as he understood how she felt and decided to have some restrictions on the more risky inventions of his. While others, like the mana ink project, he was sure that it wasn't dangerous. He hoped.

Alexander looked at his retainer and Green, "Well. It is actually perfect that you are here because I need your excellent expertise!"

Aurum sighed in defeat, visibly annoyed, "All right, Master, you want me to use... what do you call it again? Database skill?"

Green ignored him and wondered, "You know how to make mana ink?"

Alexander nodded happily while his tail flung from one side to the other, "I know how to make ink, and putting mana into the ink shouldn't be that hard."

He was familiar with how ordinary ink was created and could easily recreate it, at least the medieval version of it. Modern ink was too hard to make for now, and he would need much more time. So he wanted to stick first to the recipe he knew and later adjust it slowly.

By making the ink from the start, he also wanted to avoid the costs of buying common ink since it was too expensive. In this world, it was costly because nobody bought it since there was no real need as not many could even write or read.

What does it mean for the market? Since the merchants and alchemists wanted to make gold, they would produce it in small quantities and sell it with high profits to nobles and other wealthy persons or companies.

Alexander liked the thought of disrupting the papèterie market and giving future students cheap material to write on and with. However, his main goal, for now, was to create mana-infused ink.

So, before he started without any plan, he wanted first to ask Green about a couple of things.

He smiled at Green, "Well, only you can answer my question since you are the most beautiful..."

Green sighed, "Just ask..."

Alexander nodded vigorously, "Sure! So, is there anyone who sells mana ink? I heard you talked about the draugr?"

Before creating anything, Alexander knew that one must look for existing products on the market. If yes, he could just buy them and replicate everything. If not, he would need to create them from scratch.

Green contemplated, and her upper lip rose slightly in disgust, "As I said, Draugr, or rather the undead bitch is producing and selling them."

Alexander could feel the hate, and he suddenly remembered a short lesson with Anastasia about them. Draugrs were undead: Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, vampires, etc. They, among others, attacked the nature-dweller in the past and took a not-so-little chunk of their territory. Unlucky for them but lucky for the beast-kin, as this became a giant push factor for nature-dweller to go under the beast-kin umbrella for protection.

Alexander thought it was not wise to anger her by making mana ink, so he was about to propose something different, then she suddenly flew up and looked at him full of anger, "Do it! I will buy it from you and flood their customers for cheap! Even if I lose gold, I want this bitch to suffer!"

It didn't stop there. Aurum and Alexander sat and listened to her rant about them while calling them slurs he never heard about.

"Around 5300 years ago, we were at peace, but some of their rotting emperors had the stupid idea to attack us, but we crushed those soulless shells under our feet!"

There was more behind it since the rant went on for some time. Green told an obviously slanted story about their wars. The reason was somewhat dubious, but it was clear that the draugr attacked them, and in the end, beast-kin helped them out, saving the current part of their territory.

It was shortly after the beast-kin liberated themselves from slavery, and since then, they have become strongly allied. However, the story ended quickly when Aurum suddenly stood up and screamed at her, "Shut up! We all know the fucking story of you treehuggers! I heard it thousands of times at the temple ceremonies!"

Green became even more agitated and squinted at him, "So what?! Do you..."

Before it could escalate, Alexander clapped his hands and used an air contraption to amplify the sound, "Enough!..."

He looked at Green, "If you want to fuck them over, don't rant and tell me if there are any resources I need..."

He turned to Aurum, "And you, listen to her and check how expensive they are with your skill."

It became silent, and both nodded solemnly, knowing they had overreacted. Both were getting increasingly emotional over the last years, and Alexander knew precisely why.

The wild demonic air could wear down anyone. Green was only in central Mal-Gil, and at her birthing place, the Forest of Fallen Wishes. While central Mal-Gil was acceptable, and her home had a soothing aura, the Leonandra territory was like a nail that scratched day in and day out at everyone's psyche, making them irate.

Aurum wasn't much better since he left Moorgrel when he was young to attend boarding school. After returning a couple of years ago, he suddenly felt the irritation slowly getting to him.

The puppy thought both had skills to mitigate this feeling, but it only brought them so far as he could see it. It wasn't enough to increase them further and decrease the effect, leaving an itch of pure irritation. He knew it because his skills would stay the same if he left them alone. Otherwise, he would have a [Mental Fortitude] skill as an infant.

Alexander looked at them again and nodded cheerfully, ignoring their current irritation, "Alrighty!..."

Before he wrote down everything he needed with the properties, he twitched slightly and looked at Green, "Wait. If we hate the draugr and stuff, why do they sell mana ink to us, or do we buy it somewhere else?"

Green flew down and sat on the top of the back of the chair, explaining, "Not at all. We are at war with them; thus, all dealings are forbidden..."

She grabbed into her bag and brought out a beautiful feather made out of metal with fine ingraining, "I know what you think. We don't use mana ink but mana items which transform our energy into mana and infuse it into the ink."

Alexander nodded and tried to inspect the feather further with his [Mana Sense], only to get blocked by Green, who looked at him angrily, "You know, Alex, you should know that trying what you wanted to do, is nothing short of grabbing it from me and breaking it apart. Never do something like this, or you will end in a duel..."

Alexander smiled sheepishly at her and stopped analyzing, "Sorry about that, but why do you use it then and not your own mana? I bet the combination of [Mana Emission] and [Mana Manipulation] should do the trick, right?"

Green frowned at him, "I thought Ana showed you proper manners? Because I am not good enough for it, obviously."

Aurum interjected and nodded at her, "Green is right. Even though you should know the conclusion, such direct questions are not becoming for nobles, Master."

Alexander became a little irate himself, "There are obviously more possibilities why it couldn't work, right? However, why should I research mana ink if we have these mana items?"

He would create ordinary ink either way for his subjects, but he somehow didn't see why to go the extra mile and research mana-infused ink if such items were on the market.

Green explained, "First, this feather costs a lot, and second, the efficiency of converting energy into mana is very low..."

She started to twirl the feather around while continuing her explanation, "You would need to use a ton of energy even to write one contract, and if it were a multi-paged one, it would go up exponentially since the mana would need to connect to the other pages and thus become much more demanding."

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She shrugged, "Well, since the paper you made barely costs something, it would be worth looking into mana ink. We could sell it for incredible margins if it could be made cheaply. Right?"

Alexander fully agreed. It made sense for him to create a cheaper variant of something with which one could write mana contracts, and if there was a way to make mana ink, it meant that all the mana items could be made obsolete, so to say, become garbage in his mind.

'Well, time to destroy multiple industries for the draugr and beast-kin artificers, hehe.'

There was something he found giddy in destroying whole sectors because he invented something. Of course, he ignored that nobody could go against him since he was a noble and had the Temple behind him. If he was a commoner, there would probably be assassination attempts by the artificer union.

Alexander nodded and became excited again, seeing as his tail swung widely, "Well, all I need is rather trivial: Water, alcohol, a binder, and pigments. The recipe is straightforward."

Alexander wanted to create iron gall ink. It was perfect. He would barely lift a finger since most of the procedure involved throwing stuff together and boiling them afterward. There were little things here and there that he needed to look for, but they were trivial.

Green was already in thought. Alexander knew that her old specialization was in agriculture and herbalism. So, pigments and binders should be familiar terms to her.

However, Alexander wanted to help and tried to describe oak gall, the primary pigment. It was hard since most terms were very different, and even though many plants resembled the ones from Earth, their properties could be wholly different.

Luckily for him, Green knew of something similar, "Well, your [Luck] attribute seems to be very high since something like this is in the north. I think it is called Black Melon and inside the territory of the Feather-Paw household."

Aurum quickly noted it down and used his skill to identify the price. He raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure, Master? Black Melon is dirt cheap as the price from ~100 years ago is showing."

Green nodded, "I also thought about it. It is seen as a weed since it is the cocoon of monster worms, and after they leave, it can't even be used as fertilizer."

Alexander asked Green, "If you cook it, did the water turn black?"

Green crossed her arms and thought for a few seconds, using all her skills. She nodded in the end carefully, "Ye... s. I think so... you want to use this as pigment? I mean, it is cheap by Aurum's accounts, but there are better pigments which you don't need to cook first."

Aurum chimed in, "It really depends on how good it is. Let's say it is as good as the Black Water Berry in terms of quality. Then it is worth it. Even though we need to cook it first, as Master said, it would be cheaper in the end, even if we also additionally plan in the cost of coal."

Alexander nodded, "Well, can you get it? And is there any other cheap plant that has pigments? I can test them out later."

Green and Aurum discussed various plants and their prices for the next half hour. In the end, Aurum noted down around five sorts that were cheap and easily accessible.

They couldn't choose something only cheap if it was on the other side of the empire. It would need to be close to them or inside a very friendly territory like the ones of the guard dogs.

Alexander needed to admit that logistics was simultaneously much more complex and easier in this world. Without many regulations and space bags available, it became much easier, but because of the complicated political situations, it was also much harder.

They discussed the same for the binder, which would be on Earth Arabic gum. Here he had different sorts to choose from; like with the pigment, he would need to test them out.

The Gum Arabic prevents flocculation, makes writing more effortless, and acts as a binding agent. As an emulsifier, it makes the components work better, protects the substrate from the corrosive effects of the acidic components of the ink, and gives it tension and gloss.

Alexander groaned inwardly, 'So many plants... I will need to test a lot.'

He added inwardly that it wasn't that much, but staying in the lab for multiple days, mixing everything together, and taking what would work best was already annoying him.

Next was Iron (II) Acetate. Usually, he would use Iron (II) Sulfate, but since Alexander needed all the sulfate he had for the paper, he would make the acetate version instead. Aurum could delegate the work to some poor apprentice who could make the solution in-house, so he informed him about it.

First, for what was it used? It was mixed with the oak gall on Earth to enhance the color. If the ink was ready, and you wrote with it, it oxidized slowly from Iron (II) to Iron (III), thus making the fantastic black color seen in medieval writings.

All Alexander needed to do to make it was to take any scrap iron, rusted or not, as small and fine as possible. Put it into vinegar for a couple of days. Done, easy peasy.

He didn't know how it would react altogether on Orbis (Planet's name) but hoped for the best. Worst case, he would test out a lot of combinations. As long as it didn't explode, everything would be fine.

After discussing everything, Green looked at him and asked for the essential ingredient, "Let's say we have everything for ordinary ink. What will you do for the mana component? For multiple reasons, we can't use prisoner mages as living cattle to push mana into the water."

Alexander raised an eyebrow, "Is this what the draugr are doing?"

She nodded, "Pretty much. Slavery is allowed in their territory, and since they are undead, they live for a lot longer and can do this task for hundreds of years before crumbling into dust."

Alexander smirked at her and used an air contraption to bring over a piece of wood, "No need to do something this stupid since we have this!"

Green and Aurum looked at this piece of wood without saying anything. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air till Alexander broke it by clearing his throat, "Ahem! Now, let me demonstrate something!"

He used a fire contraption to burn it down quickly while using another contraption to increase the pressure. After some seconds, a charred piece of wood floated before them, and Alexander looked at it proudly.

Aurum was confused, but not Green. She smiled as she barely sensed what was inside, "Mana... and how do you..."

She was interrupted by Alexander, who floated the piece of charcoal into a water bubble contraption and mixed it well while heating it. After some seconds, the water was blackish and had mana residue.

Alexander smiled at them, "This will be our new gold mine! We will use it as a pigment additive inside our ink! I will keep testing it, but it should work out perfectly!"

He had already done some experiments since he created the paper to see how the wood retained its mana. He didn't find out why, but only that it did, and the more harsher the treatment, the more mana it kept.

There was an obvious possibility that it wouldn't translate well into ink, but with this, he already had something as a fundament he could work on.

This little experiment he did beforehand was also the sole reason why he saw creating mana ink as a small project since he already figured out the most challenging part.

While Alexander put the suspension away and Aurum was writing like a madman, Green had a certain glint in her eyes while she maliciously smiled.

Everyone wanted something from this new invention and would also come closer to it. Aurum would make even more gold for his projects, like Alexander, who could accelerate even more his plans.

On the other hand, Green could also make even more gold, but her main premise was to chock off the draugr and probably get even more merits inside the Temple.

What happened thousands of years ago was a disgrace to her and the nature-dwelleth races, so even a slight hit to the draugr would give her immense satisfaction.

However, Green quickly woke up from her grand dreams, remembering why she was there. Since her knowledge was not needed anymore and Alexander's retainer had all his hands full, she asked, "Since everything is settled, I want to talk about why I actually came here."

Alexander tilted his head, smiling innocently, "Because you like me so much?"

Green chuckled as she was in a great mood, "Hehe, sure, why not. I am here to deliver your gold."

Aurum perked immediately up and quickly pulled a contract from his sling bag. However, Alexander stopped him, "Stop. There is no need for this. If you need her signature, just forge it..."

He looked at Green with a sheepish smile, "Well, not like we are strangers. You know terrible things about me, and if you do something to me, your Temple will be nothing more than..." He pointed the charcoal at his desk, "...something like this."

Green smiled at this statement. She was already too far gone in her current life from everything the Circle taught her: Bribery, corruption, blackmail, etc. She already broke almost all the essential rules and wouldn't care about something trivial like forgery, especially not if this weird beast-kin youth was involved.

She shrugged, "Try it if you can, but I dou..."

She stopped herself before continuing. Her signature was unique and made from the particular nature-like energies nature-dweller usually had. For some reason, a little thought invaded her mind, and even though she knew it was impossible to forge it, she couldn't take a singularity like Alexander with common sense.

Green looked at him sternly, "Don't do it, and don't even try it. The last thing I need is to have my branch on the line because you saw this as a..." she air quoted, "...fun challenge."

Alexander sighed, understanding it, "Fine. Aurum, bring the transfer contract out."

As he did it, Green brought out multiple enormous chests from her bag, which looked ridiculously big beside her.

Aurum quickly wrote in normal ink a standard text and looked at Green, "How many gold pieces?"

Green thought for a moment and used her [Mathematics] skill, "Well, you gave me 9.000 samples for 15 average gold pieces per piece of paper. So, this chest..." she pointed at the smallest chest, "...should have 171k average gold pieces."

Aurum nodded, but Alexander stopped him before he wrote anything down, "Wait, didn't you want to prepay for the next six months? You know, because of the little accident?"

She nodded, "Sure thing. The other two have the gold for ~25.000 pieces of paper... but say, why so little? I know you created 10.000 pieces in two days, and now you are saying that only 1.000 are possible in a week?"

Alexander sighed, "You know that I needed two whole days for the process and was out of mana in the end. I can't do it since I have other things to do, and the workers are new, so I would rather underestimate it."

Green shrugged at this, not like she cared. She would make a killing with those 9.000 pieces alone. They were high quality and had a market price of ~25 gold pieces. But she would sell them at her temple colleagues for 20 - 21 gold per piece and get a ton of favors.

Usually, they used specially prepared leaves for mana contracts, but even they had an internal price of 22 - 23 gold per piece. So, she would make a killing either way and afterward, when she had enough personal funds, buy it for herself and go to nobles and merchants and sell them for much more.

The prepay was a favor to Alexander, and even if he didn't deliver the same quality, she wouldn't really care. There were many more important things than gold. For example, she really wanted him to make the mana ink and grow. She saw the paper as nothing more than a little bonus she could get from him.

However, the mana ink became a new dream for her. She almost salivated at the thought of all the merits she could get while bringing down the business of a certain draugr who she, and nearly every nature-dweller, hated to the core.

Yet, while Green was again in her dream world, Alexander admired the three giant chests full of gold. He made ~650k gold coins with a ridiculous profit margin.

However, as fast as he became rich, he would immediately pay 500k for the repairs, which was not enough, but with some of his family's treasury, it was basically settled.

He would also put some into renovating the estate. Usually, he disliked such extravagance but clearly understood that status meant something on Obis and Earth. Seeing a White House, Reichstag, Great Hall of the People, etc., in need of repair would put a significant blemish on the people in power. So, he needed to splurge some.

While it sounded rational and logical, it was only a justification he gave not to look like an irresponsible money thrifter, which he was. This old habit came out as soon as he planned out what to do with all the gold, and he remembered it clearly, 'Damn it. I really like to throw money around.'

Alexander wasn't really frugal in his previous life, and the moment he had any money, it was used for his family. Be it new clothes, technology, or a pleasant café visit. In his mind, money was there to be spent, and it seemed this habit would become more profound with a literal gold mine in his backyard. If he needed more money, he would work more and not save.

This thought made him a little jealous of Green. The temples of the Circle of Nature were rich beyond belief for one simple reason: They made a provision in the peace agreement once Mal-Gil took control of their territory. The temple branches could borrow an enormous amount of gold with little to no interest from the Royal Bank.

It was a good deal for both sides since the Temple could now act inside their territory with their currency, which they didn't have beforehand, and the Royal Bank, if there were any interest, received it for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, making a killing over time.

The next thing was that nature-dweller really didn't care about anything monetary. They just played along and saw the gold as a means to an end and as something weird the beast-kin liked.

This was also how Green, in the first place, had the funds to buy Alexander's sheets of paper out for more than half a mil. However, she was only allowed to use it for the Temple. Anything else would be seen as corruption. So, as long as she used most of her funds this way, nobody would bat an eye at her.

Alexander assumed that she would take her profits and buy his paper with them and afterward sell them to nobles or merchants through her connections, trying to kill the market before hiking the price up. He recommended this idea, and she liked it a little too much for his liking.

They would use their status and manipulate the market unfairly. Something like this wouldn't fly on Earth, and multiple government organizations would force him to at least price everything accordingly for some time and bring it down slowly, so he couldn't build a monopoly. He made a mental note for later to build an organization for precisely that.

He shook himself awake as Aurum presented him with the contract. He quickly signed it with his ink and tried to infuse some mana into it. It was a first for him, and after Green told him about her energy signature, he wanted to try it too.

Puff

The contract went in flames. Alexander smiled sheepishly at Aurum, who was about to scream at him, "Hehe, sorry about that. I wanted to try something."

Aurum didn't find it funny but nodded and wrote it again, repeatedly mumbling, "He is giving money to help the poor. He is giving money to help the poor. He is giving money to help the poor. He is giving money to help the poor. He is giving money to help the poor..."

Green knew what Alexander's retainer felt as she worked at her university with talented but eccentric people of many races. She also sometimes needed to suck it since such a thing was nothing unusual and usually even contributed to their creativity.

Green smirked at the scene and found it hilarious, but after a moment, a little shiver went through her spine, 'I need to make it to him clear that I don't want him to copy my damn signature!'