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)

* Known Position

* The fourth child of the current Leonandra household (Nobility)

* Specialization(-s)

* Magic and Alchemy

* Eyecolor

* Golden-Colored

* Hair (Fur-) Color

* Snow-white

* Miscellaneous

* Transmigrated from the Earth and the MC

(Close-)Retainers

* Ocilia L. (Disciple)

* Maurice L. (Protector)

* Melina L. (Head-Maid)

* Francesca L. (Maid)

* Cloelle L. (Maid)

* Aurum L. (Head Accountant)

Patricia O. Nine-Fire (Fox-kin)

* Known Position

* The youngest child of the current Nine-Fire household

* Specialization(-s)

* Fine Arts, Spear Arts, and Riding

* Eyecolor

* Scarlett-Red Colored

* Hair (Fur-) Color

* Charcoal-Black Colored

* Miscellaneous

* Very intelligent and talented

(Close-)Retainers

* None mentioned

Anastasia I. Ramputt (Bunny-kin)

* Known Position

* MC's private teacher

* Specialization(-s)

* Teaching, Philosophy, History, and Politics

* Eyecolor

* Blue Colored

* Hair (Fur-) Color

* Black Colored

* Miscellaneous

* Hates boring things

* Loves interesting things

(Close-)Retainers

* None mentioned

...

At the same time, Leonandra Estate, Alexander's (General) Classroom

"Take a seat somewhere. Anastasia usually comes a few minutes later, and hopefully, she doesn't smell this time like twenty guys."

Patricia entered the classroom, which was nothing more than an office room with some desks and chairs. The blackboard was the only thing she could identify, which showed that it was a classroom. She was not impressed, to say the least, and even confused about how anyone could learn in such an environment.

Special personnel designed her room for lessons to create an atmosphere where she could relax and learn much better. It was fitted with many things, like toys, paintings, accessories, etc., to make her learning much easier and more fun.

So, seeing this barebone and the chaotically fitted classroom was unexpected, which made her quite disappointed. However, she didn't say it aloud as she thought there should be some reason for this and that maybe the teacher wasn't the one they talked about and just someone lazy and inexperienced.

"Really? Are you sure it is Anastasia I. Ramputt? You know our family tried to get her to come to us, but she refused every time."

Alexander casually planted his butt on the chair, "Well, she is a fickle personality. You will see once..."

The door opened, and behind them came Anastasia inside with a hop in her step, "What will who see? Oh, hello there! A cute little fox-kin..." She stopped and looked at her, "...you must be from the Nine-Fire household..." She smiled at her, "...do I steal your precious time with Alex?"

Patricia immediately did the typical noble greeting, "N... No, it is fine! My name is Patricia O. Nine-Fire, and it is my utmost pleasure to meet you!"

Alexander blurted out nonchalantly and unrespectfully, "Stop your smirking. Not like anyone would buy that you are actually in some way noble."

She shrugged at Alexander's comment and introduced herself while going to the teacher's desk, "Nice to meet you, Patricia. My name is Anastasia I. Ramputt. You should relax, and Alex, be nicer. Otherwise, you will end like all the grumpy scholars, hehe."

Patricia relaxed and could feel the nobility oozing out from her. Even though she was relaxed and didn't follow any decorum, she had an aura of dignity around her, which only nobles in high positions had. However, what baffled her was that Alexander was highly disrespectful to her and talked with her openly like commoners would do with each other.

Patricia quickly sat down and remembered why she was here in the first place: She wanted to show Alexander her intelligence and that she was not just a little puppy. After his comments at the greeting, she wanted to make him regret saying what he said.

However, it all felt bizarre. For some reason, she saw that Alexander was actually much more mature but also more puppyish at the same time than her. It was a weird contrast.

While dining, he got so drunk that the servant took away his beverages. He became a little grumpy, but luckily, he only had some relaxing tea, which effect was short. It was a very immature behavior she witnessed. However, when Alexander talked with Scarlett, he became overly composed and didn't even brag about his achievements, only mentioning that she should talk with the lady.

On the way here, it was the same. She thought he would act puppyish toward her but only tried to make appropriate conversations and even rebuked his fox-kin retainer to stop threatening her with his crazy aura. Now, he became again overly casual, but not in the puppyish sense.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Anastasia put her bag down on the desk. She turned around and thought briefly before asking in Loi (human language), "How well do you speak other languages?"

Patricia was baffled as she couldn't understand anything and looked at Alexander, who answered casually in beast-kin dialect, "We are speaking in our lessons in different languages so I can learn them. We are now at Loi and already done with Nocir. It is fine if you don't know. We can just speak Nocir if you are learning it now."

Patricia became nervous and didn't want to say she hadn't started learning other languages. Luckily, Anastasia saved her, "I totally forgot that most only learn languages at the start of their legacy and mostly one or two..." She smiled at Patricia, "...don't worry. We will just talk in beast-kin dialect."

Patricia looked at Alexander, who shrugged, not caring at all. This gesture made her self-esteem drop even more since he didn't see her as a rival or someone he wanted to impress. He just didn't care.

After what her sister said about Alexander, she thought it was just some stupid joke to tease her, but looking at him, how he welcomed her, and how he used magic at dinner, she thought it was maybe true.

Yet, there was a sliver of hope that it wasn't true. She didn't want to acknowledge that someone much younger than her, while being so rude, was much more talented.

After another moment, she let the current situation sink in and became more nervous as she couldn't believe that Alexander already spoke different languages. Still, she quickly found a probable reason for this, 'Maybe he is talented in languages? I heard that languages have a lot of similarities to magic, so maybe they are his strengths..." She straightened herself more, '...I am good too in other things; I just need to show it!'

Anastasia started to write Law on the blackboard and looked back at her students, "Today we will talk about the law and how it works in Mal-Gil. However, it will be a little complicated since there are a lot of intricacies. Do any of you have questions beforehand?"

Patricia was confused and thought they would discuss some poem or a story and then write something about it, but she didn't expect they would go directly into something like this.

Alexander spoke bluntly, "This is what I don't get from what I heard beforehand. Isn't the law, in this sense, incredibly unfair? The nobility is basically the executive, legislative, and judiciary. So whatever decision they make is law, right?"

Anastasia looked at her student with a smile, "Good point. However, while I know of your liberal thoughts, how would you do it then?"

Alexander thought momentarily and answered, being slightly unsure, "How about making the noble an instance in itself, above all else, but making all the three branches separate to ensure something like fairness? The noble would only act if cases of corruption appeared. He would be the overseeing instance in this sense."

Anastasia nodded and looked at Patricia, "Patricia, do you have any opinion on this?"

Patricia became baffled, not even knowing the terms they used, 'How can this be a lesson? Isn't Alexander younger than me? Is he actually much older?'

Patricia looked at Anastasia but quickly averted her eyes while clenching her fists. She was feeling ashamed for not knowing what to say. Usually, even if there were questions she couldn't answer, there was a way to try it somehow. But here, it was impossible for her.

Anastasia smiled and tried to be as approachable as possible while walking behind Alexander, "Don't worry, Alexander and I already had some subjects which were close to this topic, so this is why he knows all this, so don't worry if you don't know it."

Patricia became more relaxed, "Oh, I understand!"

However, Alexander looked confused behind him at her, "We did? Ouch!"

Anastasia looked weirdly at him, grabbing his shoulder. Alexander thought for a second and remembered, "Oh, right! The thing with the history of law and such."

Anastasia nodded while patting Alexander a little too hard, "See? Even geniuses forget some things."

Alexander clenched and opened his hands repeatedly while smiling nervously, "Of course, teach!"

In Patricia's eyes, he became a little nervous, and she thought he felt ashamed that he had forgotten her lessons, 'Hehe, so he has his moments too!'

So she nodded happily and in grace, wanting not to shame Alexander in any way. She wanted to have the moral high ground and show him her most noble side, 'He is much younger and only dabbled in magic... hm... never mind, he looks cute and talented in things I don't understand. I need only to show him that there are always bigger mountains.'

Anastasia returned to the desk and looked at her temporary student, "All right, what did you learn, or are you learning right now? Maybe we can do some lessons in this subject."

She quickly told all of her subjects and what she learned, like basic mathematics, reading poems of significant poets, and writing about their meaning and what one felt while reading. She sometimes sideglanced and saw how Alexander frowned increasingly, 'If he wants to become my future husband, he should at least be versed in fine arts! The last thing I want is to have some uncultured bum as my spouse!'

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Patricia was very interested and versed in the fine arts. She loved playing the piano, writing poems herself, and painting. It was essential for her to find out if Alexander was as interested as her so she would know if she needed to groom him.

After she ended the retelling of her lesson plan, Patricia puffed her chest out in pride at how much she had learned, but she suddenly got second thoughts on overdoing it and if she should've said less, 'I hope he learned at least half of it. The last thing I want is to embarrass him...'

Anastasia ignored that puppyish display from Patricia, took a book from her spatial bag, and started writing down a short poem on the blackboard, "Okay, let's do a little poem today. Patricia, you didn't have poem structures, right? This we will learn today and how the syllable structure affects the rhythm and sound of the poem."

Patricia smiled immediately and straightened herself. She already learned it but lied not to know to appear more knowledgeable. She took the new parchment the Leonandras provided, which she liked very much, and her feather and ink.

She looked to the side and saw something bizarre: Alexander was sitting lazy, and in front of him floated a ball of ink from which came a string and wrote for him. She thought he cheated, "Alexander is using a mana item!"

Anastasia turned to him, and he turned to Patricia and looked lazily at her, "This is called a contraption, and this is an alchemist's magic, basically."

Alexander looked at her like he was bored and tapped his collar several times, "The only mana items I use restrict me."

Anastasia tried to assure her to ignore this, "This is fine, Patricia. If you can write like this with your skills, you should use them. However, you are right: Mana items are absolutely forbidden."

Patricia looked at Anastasia and back to Alexander, who already started to ignore her and went back to waiting for the teacher to continue. She did the same but found it unfair that someone could easily write like this while she needed to do it by hand.

Yet, after a moment, she relaxed and smiled inwardly, 'I will show him that the world is not all about magic!'

Anastasia continued, "Well, the poem is a little special since it was written in a time of turmoil between Moorgrel and the central Mal-Gil empire. It is showing how the divide is affecting us as an empire."

Without waiting for Anastasia to finish, Alexander blurted out, "I am pretty sure that we have a way through the sea, right?"

Anastasia frowned and looked at Alexander, "I am obviously not talking about the literal sense but about the poetic one."

"Well, in that sense, Moorgrel could be regarded as an island like the ones south of us. I would say the poem is about the divide itself, not that we are divided."

Anastasia thought briefly and smiled, "Patricia, do you think it too?"

Patricia became suddenly nervous again and asked meekly, "What... is the question again?"

Alexander answered her, "Teach is saying that the poem is about how we are divided from the empire. However, I say that it is about the divide in itself. I used the islands to the south as an analogy and said there is no real difference between the central region and Moorgrel, like the islands, which are equally divided from the empire as Moorgrel is. So, it makes only sense that it is describing the divide which occurred."

Anastasia pointed at a part of the poem, "Here. It is obviously about that we are divided, not about the divide. You can't get more on the nose in analyzing the poem."

Alexander raised an eyebrow and pointed with his ink contraption at another part, "Look at this part. It clearly implies that it talked about having our child separated from us. It says indirectly that the divide in itself is dividing our soul. Besides the moronic statement, I would say that the divide in itself is the theme, not that we were divided in the first place."

Anastasia became agitated, "Do you really think that the divide or being divided is such a big difference? One is the conclusion of the other, and it does not make a big difference."

While they discussed it, Patricia looked between them and was confused, 'Are they always this unmannered, screaming at each other? Why is she even staying here if it is like this?'

Anastasia was like a born aristocrat. Her gestures, mimic, and her refined dialect showed it. However, the moment she talked with Alexander, something changed immediately, and it was like she had forgotten everything, transforming into a rude merchant barging for one more coin for his eggs.

The discussion continued, and Patricia became more confused by their statements, especially Alexander's, "There is, though. It is the difference between shock and the lingering pain of being apart. If I lose my arm, it will be a sudden shock, but if I already lost it and live without it, it is a different kind of pain."

Anastasia thought momentarily about it and asked Patricia, "What do you think?"

She looked between both and was a little overwhelmed, "I... I thought we were studying the rhythm and syllable structure..."

Anastasia glared at Alexander, who smiled sheepishly since he derailed the topic and held his hands in a sign of peace, "My bad! It is just a bad habit of mine!..." He turned to Patricia, "...I apologize."

Anastasia sighed and returned to the blackboard to start the actual lesson. She marked down all the syllables and described the rhythm. After half an hour, Alexander was visibly bored, sometimes closing his eyes for too long while sitting upright.

Patricia saw this and wanted to teach him to pay attention, "Ms. Anastasia! Alexander is not paying attention!"

She stopped and looked, a little annoyed at her, and then Alexander, "Alex, please pay attention as such things could be topics in the noble circles."

Alexander straightened up, and before he could say something, Patricia got an idea, "Ms. Anastasia! How about we write a test to see how far we came? My teacher does that sometimes."

Anastasia murmured, barely audible, "Of course he does. Hacks who can't teach always need tests to confirm someone's knowledge..."

She stopped herself and shrugged, "We can do it for today. However, I dislike tests, so this will be a one-off."

Alexander looked at her and smirked, trying to get revenge for her scolding, "Explains your lack of levels, hehe."

She came over, and both smiled at each other.

Pack!

"Oooww!"

Anastasia hit him with a rolled-up pamphlet. Alexander looked at her like she betrayed him while he rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry, teach, couldn't resist, hehe."

While the duo was fooling around, Patricia tried frantically to remember what she learned beforehand and now to try and show off.

There was also a thought that Anastasia would choose her if she could show she was more capable than Alexander. She liked her a lot since she could explain everything in such simple terms that it was easy to remember, and Patricia could see what a great teacher she was.

Yet, she wouldn't take her as a teacher alone and would let even Alexander come with her if he was nice enough to her so they could learn together, 'Hehe, I will not let you beg, but be graceful enough to allow it.'

After a few minutes, Anastasia wrote a new poem on the blackboard and started the test, "30 minutes should be enough, begin."

...

5 minutes later

"Done. Here you go."

Anastasia saw how Alexander's voice brought Patricia out of her zone. She smirked while peeking at him shortly and returned to her test.

Anastasia ignored this kitish behavior, took Alexander's analysis, and sighed while reading it. He had 100%, as expected. However, he also repeatedly wrote a statement in different languages she highly disliked: I am bored, just kill me.

She understood that her student was bored, and while the lesson was more age-appropriate for him, he clearly only went through it because of Patricia to the best of his abilities, even though he was as sensitive as a stone sometimes.

Throughout the lesson, she was incredibly bored, too, and needed to remember that Alexander was a particular case repeatedly. Their usual classes were primarily suitable for those who already had most of the secondary scholastic skills and knew how to use them, so to say, mostly university students in their later years.

But accommodating the young fox-kin was like whiplash to her since she was back to her average student. If she was honest, Patricia was talented, but after teaching Alexander for so long, primary education seemed to bore her out of her mind.

'I remembered again why I refused most of them.'

Anastasia only took two kinds of students: Terrible and genius ones. She loved challenges, and both gave her exactly what she desired. However, the students who were called talented or intelligent were most of the time average, and an ordinary teacher was more than enough for them.

After Patricia told her what she was taught, she needed to suppress a frown because it was standard education without creativity or individualism. The thing she wanted to avoid more than anything as it became repetitive after the third time teaching it.

Examplewise, poetry was a favorite under teachers for young students, and she hated it. She even cringed inwardly when she told Alexander it was necessary in noble circles. It wasn't.

Such things would only come up in literature departments, and even then, it would be discussions like the philosophical implications of putting a poem into rigorous structures.

While Anastasia loved literature, she couldn't stand all the basics one needed to learn for this topic. Yet, she clearly understood that they were necessary so a student could grasp the concept of analyzing certain aspects while formulating them into an understandable medium. Still, she found there were more straightforward and better ways to do this, depending on the student.

Despite the disdain she felt throughout the lesson, there was a great thing from all of this: She found the golden pup's first subject he was awful at. Alexander clearly didn't understand poetry, and she found it fascinating.

However, she wouldn't reprimand him for his stupid conclusions and would discuss them with her student, encouraging him to think further and trying to challenge his thoughts. She only became slightly agitated by Alexander's personality, which sometimes screamed pure arrogance. Thus, she began to be incredibly argumentative.

It didn't matter so much to her that her student had a particular point of view that was, in her opinion, clearly wrong. All she wanted was to try to guide him to learn to analyze and think creatively through debating, making him see more points of view.

Another great thing was that as long as Patricia wrote the test, she could work on the plan for Alexander's law lessons, 'Is this why all the hacks write tests? Tsk.'

...

25 minutes later

'Can someone not end it all? Damn it, this was a stupid idea.'

From the beginning, he heavily overestimated Patricia and even fell into his old spiel of discussing things with Anastasia. It was because he didn't know what other noble children learned, and through the discussions with his siblings, he thought they were the standard.

It wasn't true, and his assumption was also totally skewed, which he only understood now. Best example: Janina. She was curious and intelligent, but only if it came to art, anything else, and she would get a headache. Yet, Alexander only saw the positives without reflecting on the whole.

So he somehow embarrassed Patricia without wanting it and only because he made stupid assumptions. It began with languages, which was his obvious blunder as he thought it was the same as on Earth, where students started to learn very early. However, he also knew that even Sarah, the laziest person he knew when it came to studying, knew some sentences in Nocir, so he assumed that Patricia would at least be more knowledgeable on this subject.

Then, there was his blunder with the poems. He hated and despised them to the core as he found them boring. This lesson brought back not-so-fun memories from his discussions with his old teachers. He got bad grades for his analysis and tried everything to push them up.

Thus, he was less sensitive when it came to Patricia and automatically went into stupid discussions where she obviously couldn't join in.

Next came the silly ink ball incident where he just went automatically with it, but it looked like he wanted to brag how cool he was, 'This was cringe.'

Yet, he didn't want to be an asshole and tried accommodating her. But it seemed it didn't work too well. It was like he would drag his younger siblings, who were intelligent, into a lecture on a topic they never learned about. Everyone would feel like a moron afterward.

'Urgh, I was never good with kids.'

He became very fast an adult and wasn't too much around children except his siblings. Funnily enough, the same one could say about his current life as his only contact with other youth besides family was Ocilia.

However, Alexander hoped Patricia would be fine as he had already thought of some things where she could feel better. He wanted to skip the lessons and take her around the estate, 'She likes poems, so maybe art too?'

It wasn't that he tried to woo her, but since he needed to spend time with her, he wanted to let her, at least, feel well, too, 'What would I give to play a round of football or tag.'

Alexander was brought out of his thoughts when Patricia exclaimed loudly, "Done!"

Anastasia quickly looked through it and nodded satisfactorily, "Good job, 94%!"

The fox-kin girl's eyes twitched, and her tail swung more vigorously. She then looked at Alexander, "What is your score?"

Alexander looked at her with a nervous smile, 'Shit, I should've failed, and now I look like I bully little kids.'

He turned to Anastasia, who answered her, "100%."

Patricia stood suddenly up, aggravated, "This can't be! He was done after five minutes!"

Alexander reeled his ears back, not expecting such an outburst, "Sorry?"

He looked at Anastasia with a look that said: "Why did you tell her my score? Just say 50% or something!"

Anastasia sighed, ignored her student, and turned to Patricia while staring her down, "Ms. Patricia, you should learn some humility. There will always be someone better than you."

So she was about to give Alexander's test to her but felt an air contraption coming her way, which she blocked with her energy easily since it wasn't anything substantial.

She looked at Alexander, who stared daggers at her, "Don't!"

He wrote some things down that he understood could hurt Patricia and clearly didn't want her to read. He also had no idea that she would read his test. Otherwise, he wouldn't write it.

Anastasia smiled at him and understood him immediately but didn't care. She activated one of her [Mystic Skills], and a small bubble of light slowly floated towards Patricia, "Look for yourself."

Alexander wanted to stop it but suddenly failed his contraption as he didn't get used to the new anti-mana collar, 'Damn it!'

The bubble invaded Patricia's head, and she suddenly saw Alexander's test fully and became stunned. After a moment, she suddenly had tears in her eyes.

"This... this heuk... is not fair!"

She stood up and stormed out of the classroom, only to scream out of frustration, "Alexander is stupid and dumb!"

Alexander looked at Anastasia in anger, "Damnit! Why?!"

Anastasia sighed and shrugged, "This is a lesson for you and her. She should learn some modesty while you may learn to think a couple of steps ahead and how your actions affect others. However, go after her."

Alexander stood up and, while going out, screamed at her, "Steps ahead, my ass!"

He ran after her, and the moment he caught up, he tried to make her stop by holding her by the shoulder. However, the moment he did, a fist came flying his way in full force.