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!)

Kairoso Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* Known Position

* Lord of the Leonandra household

* Specialization(-s)

* Transformations (Monsters and Animals)

* Eyecolor

* Green-Colored

* Hair (Fur-) Color

* Black

* Miscellaneous

* Is a Druid

* Father of the MC

* (Close-)Retainers

* Sarusos L. (Girl for Everything)

Marisia S. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* Known Position

* Lady of the Leonandra household (Nobility)

* Specialization(-s)

* High energy control and Martial Arts

* Eyecolor

* Golden-Colored

* Hair (Fur-) Color

* Crimson-Red

* Miscellaneous

* A user of the wild demon energy

* Mother of the MC

* (Close-)Retainers

* Aro L. (Head-Butler)

* Salyna L. (Head-Accountant)

* Cross L. (Commander)

* Noriken L. (Archivar)

Scarlett J. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* Known Position

* Former Lady of the Leonandra household

* Specialization(-s)

* Martial Arts, Administration, and Manipulation of Energy

* Eyecolor

* Golden Colored

* Hair (Fur-) Color

* Crimson-Red Colored

* Miscellaneous

* A user of the Wild Demon Energy

* Grandmother of the MC

* Incredibly ambitious

* Likes hazelnut cookies

* (Close-)Retainers

* None mentioned

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)

...

Shortly after the assassination attempt

Marisia was walking through her office and could barely hold her anger back. It needed a lot to push her skills to the limits, which kept her emotional state in check.

Her puppies and the guests were attacked while one went missing. She assumed that he was the culprit behind the assassination attempt.

However, even though she wanted to go on a rampage, she couldn't since they were night-elves who disguised themselves as servants from the Nine-Fire family. This meant that she had to follow specific procedures laid down by Count Moorgrel. They were there to handle how nobles under him could act toward each other.

So, at the moment, she tried her best to relax to send a coherent message to the Nine-Fire household, informing them and making it clear that she wanted the head of whoever the culprit was.

Yet, Marisia wasn't the most infuriated since Kairoso was in the same office and was about to order a purge from the main branches of the Temple. She needed to calm him and stop him from contacting the executive branch of the Temple. Otherwise, they would invade the Nine-Fire territory, and pure chaos would break out.

Druids had a lot of privileges, and one of those was when their family was attacked, they had the right to mobilize whole branches of the Circle. It was important for the Circle of Nature to keep everyone happy and bring the ones outside of the Nature-Dweller races toward them when they had a unique [Divinity Line] or something similar that would make them a druid or shaman. They did it by guaranteeing them to go scorch earth should their family be attacked.

It rarely happened for two reasons: There were few druids outside the nature dweller's race, and those had no real concept of family. The second was the precedents they created: They actually took their promises seriously and attacked nobles, basically eradicating whole families who went against the puppies of beast-kin druids. Nobody in their right mind would even think about doing something so stupid.

It also depended greatly on the status of the druid/shaman, but the least they could expect was revenge and protection. The most was a whole eradication of a fief.

While Kairoso wasn't the strongest inside the Circle of Nature, not even close to the top brass, his merits of defending against wild demons and helping build branches, like the Twin-Acorn branch, in places where their religion was barely present, made him one of the more prestigious ones. This meant they would keep their promise and do more to satisfy him.

It was the last resort, but nothing more would make her happier than telling her husband to contact the Temple and ask for revenge, especially since he had a special status as a druid and didn't need to follow any procedures as he wouldn't use any resources like their soldiers which belonged theoretically to the Count.

Yet, she held back and waited. She tried to calm herself down by repeatedly saying to herself that all her puppies were alive and wouldn't have any lasting damage except for some ugly scars. This was what at least Green said to her.

There were also many other problems to solve. One of those was that she couldn't determine where the attack originated. The moment she would find out about it, she would go herself and bring judgment upon them.

There were only three possibilities: One was, obviously, the night-elven territory, but they were very isolated from Mal-Gil and the nature-dweller domain. So this would be exceptional if they actually knew about their knightage at all.

Next was the asylum camp to the East, but they were also isolated. Moorgrel strictly forbade the guard households from having anything to do with them since they were the ones who betrayed them and their races. It wasn't even the Count's choice, but he was instead pressured not to execute them immediately so the emperor could show the populace his kind heart.

Who was this populace? Mostly nature-dweller, but beast-kin also saw this as something positive. It showed that the imperial Leo family was benevolent even in front of traitors.

During a campaign, it was a political stunt to regain the territory between Moorgrel and the central Mal-Gil occupied by humans. While the emperor at the time tried, there were atrocities, and the nature-dwellers, who were usually very peace-loving, saw this as pure savagery. To show his goodwill, he sent the prisoners of war to Moorgrel and the Count towards Kratikal, promising not to kill them. There, they could die, far away from the populace's eyes.

Most nobles knew of this spiel and ignored it. Most probably thought they were already dead and it was a thing from the past to be ignored.

Marisia ignored them since they were basically decimated to a small camp, barely surviving, and would not make any problems except for the casual fights with them at the buffer zones. They were nothing more than a nuisance.

However, even if the asylum camp did attack them, the Leonandra household needed first the allowance of either the emperor or their master, Count Moorgrel, to counterattack, as the parties were bound by promises she couldn't break as a knight.

Otherwise, Marisia would have invaded and killed them. She found it quite disturbing to have such people at her border but also didn't lose any sleep because of them.

Last but not least was Fiorello, a son of the Nine-Fire household who suddenly disappeared and tried to kill one of her daughters in the assassination attempt. This was the most probable culprit behind all this. However, nobody knew why he did it at all.

She had her letter already roughly written and waited for at least Linuel to wake up so she could confirm what her daughters said.

In all of this, her mother, Scarlett, was more petrified than all of them. Since she brought the fox-kin teens and servants from the Nine-Fire estate, she blamed herself for not being careful enough. She apologized to Marisia repeatedly and told her that she could instantly sniff out any assassination attempt if she was younger.

Marsia understood her as such things on this scale were rare. Nobody was stupid enough to go against them. There could be assassination attempts like poisonings, which Narsiz survived, but what happened with her son was the first try after a hundred years. Her mother, even though she said she could sniff them out, nothing like this happened even once while she reigned.

Even the whole reason was absolutely unknown to them:

Political reasons? For what exactly? They were a knight family under the Count who mostly dabbled in the East.

Territory? Also no. Their borders were enshrined by imperial and Moorgrel's law. They couldn't lose anything but also didn't gain.

Enemies? Yes, but there were no rewards, only petty revenge. She couldn't believe someone would risk their whole fief and household for such things. She also thought it was someone with some power, which they could also lose easily. Otherwise, she couldn't explain the explosives and night-elf assassins, who, for some reason, also exploded.

For this, she needed Alexander, but he was in terrible condition and unconscious. Otherwise, she would drag him to the prisoner and search him with his [Mana Sense].

This reminded Marisia of something. She looked at her husband and asked again for the hundredth time, "How long?"

Kairoso looked back at her and shook his head, "Don't be hasty. Saru needs time since they are professionals. In a couple of days, they will sing, and don't forget that he also barely survived the attack... well, he was pretty jumpy the moment he heard that we got one of them alive."

Scarlett looked at Marisia and bowed down, "I am sorry, Mari, I really didn't know."

Marisia ignored her apology, "I don't care, and I know you well enough that you wouldn't do such a thing... so stop apologizing before I start taking out my frustrations on you."

She suddenly felt her husband's energy surrounding her. She became immediately more relaxed. When she looked into the mirror, a highly dense film of his energy was all around her, 'I don't want to know how I would react without him.'

Kairoso asked Scarlett, obviously trying to change the topic, "How is Linuel doing?"

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Scarlett sighed, "Bad. The healer will need a few weeks to heal her fully, but a scar will remain. However, she survived all thanks to Narsi. Otherwise, she would've probably died."

Kairoso nodded, "Narsi was also in pretty bad health. I got told that he used too much mana and got something called mana cramps. He will have the worst headache of his life for the next couple of days. Thus, the healer put him on strong drugs..."

Kairoso scratched his three-day beard, "I need to thank Linuel when she wakes up for saving my brat."

Scarlett smiled slightly and looked out the window, "It is somewhat cute to have at least gained something in this tragedy, right?"

Kairoso frowned and was visibly seething, barely holding back, "Yeah, they will be a cute couple. Two morons side by side. One a show-off and the other too stupid to just run away with the show-off..."

Marisia interrupted his rant, "Enough, they are young and made mistakes. Don't think everyone has had the same experience as you."

They heard what happened and needed to admit they had acted stupidly in such a dangerous situation. However, it was well done if they took their age and experience, which only one had, and only against monsters or demons, into account.

Her husband sometimes only looked from his perspective and thought everyone had the same experience as he had. So, the moment she said it, he smiled proudly, "Not what I heard about Alex. Even though he acted recklessly, his decisions, not knowing what to expect, were excellent."

Scarlett interrupted him this time, "Stop it already. We all heard Saru's side of the story and how he praised him to the core (heaven) and blamed himself. I never expected to see such an ecstatic smile on the face of this maniac."

Kairoso leaned back and sighed, "It was rough, and they all survived in such an all-out assassination attempt. What can I do except praise him?"

The atmosphere became a little tense, "Hopefully, Alexander will wake up soon so I can praise him directly. Green told me he would need a couple of days of intense healing plus weeks, if not months, of recovery..."

He sighed and smiled even more proudly, "He even saved Patricia, risking his life. Who knew we had such a heroic pup, guhahaha!"

Marisia commented while chewing her thumb, ignoring all etiquette, "He survived, that is the most important part, but I can't believe that he actually... was this mangled up."

Scarlett explained, "Patricia told me everything she saw. I barely understood her because she cried and could barely breathe from all the stress..." She rubbed her temples as she got visibly annoyed, "...after the talk, she ran to his room, wanting to stay beside him."

Marisia raised an eyebrow, "Isn't she in her room sleeping?"

Scarlett shook her head and chuckled, "The moment I told her he was in his room, she ran to him. I easily caught her, but she started biting me, so I knocked her out for good and ordered some guards not to let her out of her room."

Marisia smiled at this, "Young love is always a little extreme, hehe..." She suddenly remembered something, "...he is really like the one crazy little knight from this fairy tale. What was it called again?"

Kairoso smirked, "Yeah, The Adventures of Sir Flame and Squire Wet..." He looked down and started playing with his giant hands, "...I have very weird feelings about this. I am too proud of him while really wanting to beat the stupidity out of him. While he was heroic, I would rather have a healthy son."

Scarlett chuckled, "Hehe, spanking a hero would be such a disgrace, so rather not. But I worry about Patricia."

Marisia perked up and frowned since Patricia was the one who was attacked heavily from all sides and needed to be rescued, "What is to worry about her? She is a little stressed. She will get over it."

Scarlett shook her head, "Frightened beyond belief, and I think it is good for her and Alex to allow her to visit him. She could sleep on the couch in the room. I find this a cute beginning of a romance, don't you think?"

Marisia waved her hand in dismissal, "No to her visiting him, and there will be no romance. I already told all the guards, Sarah and Lorient, who guard Alex now, that no one can enter besides Green and her group of healers. She will have to wait."

Scarlett put one leg over the other, looking at her strangely, "Mari, please stop. I know you are a loving mother, but there is no way you wouldn't support them, right? Would you really forbid them to see each other because Alex got injured while saving her?"

Marisia sat down and copied her mother on how she sat. She welcomed the distraction to a different topic as the waiting made her slowly go crazy, "This is not it. Alex is too different and has certain problems, so I think we shouldn't put much hope into that..."

She then told her what Aro and Anastasia discovered about how he acted around others and his strange ways. It was weird after she heard it and suddenly knew why he was so distant toward his disciple, her family, and others he employed or had a particular relationship with.

After she was done with telling, Scarlett looked at her like she was an idiot, "This you couldn't tell me in a letter before I bring someone for him to rendezvous?"

Marisia tiredly smirked at her, "Would you believe me?"

Scarlett waved her hand in dismissal, "Probably not."

Kairoso suddenly stood up and smiled at them, "I need a drink. Someone with me? Let's wait for Saru to finish his work and Linuel to wake up so we can write the letter..."

He opened his arms wide and smiled, "While this was all terrible, our pups survived! This needs to be celebrated! We need a clear head for this, all right, my pretty ladies?"

Marisia frowned but went out first with Scarlett behind her, who answered him, "I thought you would never ask. A lady never asks for a drink, know this."

Kairoso followed them with a tired smile, "Got it, got it."

...

Alexander's dream, the same night

His eyes opened, and he saw that he was in a bar. He immediately remembered it from one of his favorite sitcoms, 'Really? What about all the heaven and stuff? If this is hell, I am curious what I must do for all eternity... maybe getting rejected by chicks, hehe.'

The stupid joke made him chuckle as he remembered every bit of what happened. Everything was like it happened a second ago, so this change of scenery was comical to him.

He walked forward and looked to a certain table from the sitcom and to a corner, 'Huh, he is not here. What would I give to see him doing the scuba diver for all eternity, hehe.'

This thought made him laugh even more, as the situation was bizarre. He just enjoyed it and hoped it was some dream while he was unconscious.

He walked to the counter and frowned when he saw a boy. He looked young but was rather tall for his age. He had a fluffy tail and wolf ears and drank what looked like cheap scotch.

"Figures. Am I dead again?"

He looked around again; there was nobody beside them and a faceless barman with a bad toupee who cleaned some glasses. He sat beside the boy and only now noticed that he had hands he hadn't seen for years, 'This is weird.'

He looked at himself more closely and noticed that he had his old clothes right the moment before he died. His white shirt had even a stabbing mark, 'Well, this is more weird.'

He heard the boy from beside him, "Can you stop looking at the stabbing wound? It is weird, and no, you didn't die... well, maybe. However, the move where you almost pressed your guts out wasn't the smartest, y'know?"

Alexander gulped the whole glass down and knocked a couple of times on the counter to get another fill-up. While the barman did his job, he looked the wolf-kin into his eyes and saw how condescendingly he looked at him, "First, this shirt was expensive. Second, I hope that I at least looked cool. However, are you some kind of soul thingy that survived after I took over?"

Alexander smirked, "You watched too many movies for your own good. I am you."

He shrugged, "I watched them only because of Laura. You should know that since you are me, right?"

Alexander sighed, "First, her name is Angélique, and second, stop testing me and just enjoy the time."

He raised an eyebrow, "Y'know, I am in a world full of magic and weird shit. I can't even trust my dream self after almost dying to some crazy Taliban elves."

Alexander smiled, "Zidane, you were almost killed in a coup d'etat as a child and later when some real terrorists attacked you while doing reconnaissance. Good enough?"

Zidane looked at him weirdly and smirked. He then looked at the barkeeper and nodded toward him, "Hey, barkeep, y'know that this brat is not even 16? Do you want to let him drink this shit?"

The barkeeper looked at him even though he had no face and took a cherry, putting it into Alexander's glass. Zidane cringed at that, but Alexander was laughing, "Haha! You are some petty asshole, as always!

Zidane waved his hand in dismissal, "Urgh, just shut up."

Alexander took the cherry out and started eating it while talking, "So, why are you like this? You see who I am and see that I know what you know. Where is the problem?"

Zidane took Alexander's scotch glass and gulped it down before answering, "Yeah, what is weird about it? Figure it out yourself. By the way, you really aren't some weird ghost stuff, right? I would like to hear how my siblings are doing and how you can drink this shit? It literally tastes like industrial ethanol with food coloring."

Alexander shrugged, "What do you mean? Isabelle is probably kicking ass in uni... at least better than you since she is actually attending instead of working. Philippe is just... well, hopefully, he didn't impregnate anyone, but he should fiiiine. By the way..."

He tapped the bar counter for another fill and continued, "This is what we mixed and sold to bums so we could have money for their stupid clothes and phones. So be proud. This is what we created!"

Zidane chuckled and nodded, feeling at least 50% alcohol slowly going to his head, "Hehe, the best was that they didn't care and liked it..." He looked down, feeling sad talking about them, "...I miss them."

Alexander looked weirdly at him, "First we and second, what was all this crap about your new family n' shit then? I remember at least hundreds of those calendar sayings you told yourself day in and day out."

Zidane looked at him weirdly, "Can't I miss them even though I have a new family?"

Alexander shrugged, "You tell me. We feel like crap whenever we call the ones whose ancestors assumably bred with wolves mom and dad."

Zidane sighed, "What do you expect me to do? Let go of all my past just because I have a new future? I wish sometimes that my memories were mostly cleaned up because of this... it would be so much easier."

Alexander gulped down another glass of scotch, cringing at the taste, "Stop bitching. I also can't stand your weekly crying session before going to sleep."

Zidane smirked, "Our weekly crying session."

Alexander's tail waggled strongly, "Now you got it. Just accept who we are and where we are, not like anythin' changes."

Zidane nodded, "Right you are. By the way, did I really talk like a damn hillbilly?"

Alexander nodded, "Depends, why? Like we could survive in the military with how Angie fucking talked, all snobby n' shit."

Zidane tilted his head, "Huh, but I remember talking normally, unlike someone with a potato in his mouth."

Alexander nodded, "Yeah, we are perfect for adapting to situations. School, military, college, or her rich-ass parents who initially hated us. You are like a fucking cockroach. Barely able to die... I guess we would survive and thrive even inside a dumpster fire."

Zidane smirked at that, "Don't call our country like this, hehe. By the way, I remember talking with her for the first time. She really barely understood me."

Alexander straightened up again and looked confused at Zidane, "It wasn't because of your dialect. It was because she had no idea about physics and math. She wasn't the brightest candle on the cake, y'know? Not like we cared."

Zidane raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? She studied medicine and was more than just excellent in her residency. I think she became later on a plastic surgeon or something."

Alexander looked dead straight at Zidane, "So?"

After a moment of silence, both started to laugh:

"Hahaha!"

"Hehehe."

Zidane became a little melancholic, "Well, now I need to date a fucking nine-year-old, apparently."

Alexander smirked at him, "Just wait till she gets older. Look at those underdeveloped..."

Zidane rolled his eyes and interrupted him, "Dude, this is so creepy. There is no way I think like that."

Alexander laughed, "Haha, nah, but we like to make really bad jokes, and most of the time, they are as black as... well, after the little explosion, I would guess as your whole ass."

"Our ass. Hehe, we are a team, isn't it right, partner?"

Alexander tilted his head to the side, "Our? Oh..." He started pointing between both of them and making a stupidly high voice, "...oh my god! You got it, genius. Now I will cry because you see that I am you and part of it and that we are a team, uuuuhhhhhh."

Zidane cringed, "Wow, I am really an asshole, or you are just the worst of me."

Alexander smirked at him, "We are even worse. Don't forget the time overseas when you were so incredibly racist that..."

Zidane interrupted him while asking for a drink by tapping, "Got it! Man, what do you wanna do? If you are with fucking school drop-outs who think that hummus means pussy in Arabic, you need to adapt."

Alexander laughed at that, "Haha! Remember that fuckin' asshole who got almost killed by the skank? God, how stupid can one be."

Zidane smirked at that, "Damn, man. The military was something."

Alexander looked at him like he was an idiot, "It was like, what? It was terrible. We slept with a bunch of parasites and STD-riddled morons in the tightest spaces, and in the day, all we did was repairin' 'n doin' com'.

Zidane shook his head, "Not true. Remember the child I killed?"

Alexander scratched his head in annoyance, "She wanted to blow up and take other men with her. Wanna have their deaths on our plate 'cause of some weird ethical dilemma? Be our guest, but the sons of bitches were at fault who talked her into doin' it."

Zidane looked down, "Damn, you are right, but at least I could leave shortly after and go studying."

Alexander smiled at him, "See? You are like a fucking cockroach. You always go forward and thrive everywhere, even though we should've stopped the self-harm ea..."

Zidane looked more intensely at his new self and interrupted him, "Stop. I worked on it, didn't I? I am fine."

Alexander shook his head, "I am you, right? I know wha' you think, so don' give me that shit."

Zidane scratched his head, "I know, but I am fine, and the skills are helping me immensely. So stop talking about it. I stopped a long time ago."

Alexander looked more intensely at him, "Yeah, bu' you are thinkin' tha' shit. Always! Even now, you are feelin' bad for those fuckers who attack'd you and that little inbred fox girl."

Zidane groaned in annoyance, "God damn, man! I am fine! I can intellectually rationalize that shit and work through it. The skills are also a damn godsend, so I am fine."

Alexander shrugged and suddenly twitched, "Well, whateva' you say, and by the way. Good luck. You will need it."

Zidane braced for the worst, thinking it was some kind of dream assassin, "What? Why?"

Alexander chuckled, "Hehe, you are abou' to wake up, and how fucked up you were, you are in for a treat. Hope they have morphin', or you will suffer like a bitch."

Zidane suddenly remembered all his injuries and wanted to scream at his possibly worst representation, but instead woke up. He suddenly felt enormous pain and heard his system suddenly pinging at him multiple times, 'Fuck you, Alexander, you little bitch!'