...

Alexander's (makeshift ICU) Room

"You look disgusting."

"You are disgusting."

"Boys are disgusting!"

Three wolf-kin girls sat on a couch while Narsiz, who was all happy-go-lucky in the last days, lay beside Alexander and patted him carefully.

If stares could kill, they would. Narsiz was the envy of his sisters since it was not that usual to find a partner whom they were in love with while being noble, especially since it was his first arranged rendezvous. Usually, it would take much more time to find someone.

In the best of cases, it was someone acceptable, and they would learn to love each other over time like their Grandmother did with their Grandfather. Only after five to ten years they became truly close to each other.

However, Alexander didn't care about this childish dispute since he was primarily a couple of organs stitched together with pieces of bones and muscles around them that didn't function. Fortunately, he could at least follow the conversation without screaming at them to leave him alone because Green had turned his massive bed into an ICU. Otherwise, he would be in too much pain.

Everything around him was some kind of special item directly from the Temple. The mattress, pillows, and bedding gave off some natural energy, which comforted him and reduced the pain. However, they were also exceptionally comfortable since he couldn't move at all. This, in turn, brought some embarrassing situations to his mind where he would need to wear linen diapers, also made out of special cloth, specially brought from the Temple. Alexander didn't know how to feel about it, but what could he do?

Even the water he was cleaned with was something from a spring, which was apparently good against scars. However, when he saw his Frankenstein-like body, he wasn't so sure about how well it would work. His Grandmother demanded it since the noble society was highly superficial, and such scars were a sure way to end up with a subpar partner.

Last but not least, he got some Talismans around his bed, which encircled him and gave out some aura, which reduced his pain even more, but he felt a little bit groggy from them. It wasn't so bad since he was bored to no end, and being constantly high at the right amount was a nice change of pace.

Every day, his father came over to recharge them, and while he did, he tried his best to entertain his son. To tell the truth, though, the stories he told him were about his time as a mercenary and highly inappropriate for a six-year-old. Yet, one time, he became serious and asked him something weird: Why did you do this? Do you want to be a hero?

Alexander told him the truth and why he acted as he did: Fuck them. That's why. All I wanted was so they wouldn't get shit out of me.

His father laughed so hard after hearing it that it became scary. However, it was the last time he talked about this. After that were only his stories about killing bandits and saving his Mother from evil elves or his escapades with some other women he should never tell his Mother about.

Yet, the moment he heard what happened from Alexander when he woke up wasn't funny. He told his father every detail he could remember, which made him visibly proud at some point, but at others, he emitted bloodlust, which was far more potent than what Alexander ever could produce. It went so far that he couldn't breathe for a second or two. Luckily, he quickly stopped and apologized too many times afterward.

Alexander could fully understand him. While he had no children, he had siblings, and if they ended up like him, he would take up a gun and be on a hunt for whoever did this. Especially now, after he experienced the hell he was in after waking up.

The pain he experienced was something Dante's version of hell couldn't compete with. Green's operation was the main reason since she was like a homeless guy rummaging through trash, looking for coins, only that it was his body instead of garbage. The only positive was that he didn't die, and she got new skills out of this, which she wanted to discuss with him at every moment they were together: [Surgery], [Anatomy], [Steady Hands], and [Cold Mind].

He couldn't tell her much about them since he wasn't versed in anything related to medicine and could mostly think of the shows he watched. So his advice was rudimentary at best, like that she would need to learn stitching, and it seemed to help.

Not only Green was doing stuff. Narsiz and all the others were training and having fun, while Alexander could not move and was high 24/8. If this was all, he could somehow cope with it since it was temporary, but no, he also had constant pain.

Even now, he was enduring an amount that drove dozens of skills to level up frequently. The pain he usually felt through the excessive leveling up was, at this point, nothing more than some ache.

However, through the pain, his thoughts centered only on one thing: Love. The love of modern drugs, 'I need morphine... they can't be serious, saying that they have no painkillers for juveniles. This is ridiculous.'

Even though the talismans had pain-reducing properties and acted somewhat like drugs, they barely worked. It was like he was shot into his stomach and given some Ibuprofen. Every part of his body was hurting, and even his skill [Intermediate Pain Resistance] was already at level 38, making him go through another test that was like children's play for him.

Furthermore, other skills also jumped immensely in levels like [Absolute Mental Control], which was already 55. The constant pinging he heard while some university dropout butchered him was quite the experience in the truest of senses, and he had not one calm night since the assassination attempt as he had one skill test after the other.

The healing he experienced from the dropout wasn't much better. Everyone said to him how the healing of nature-dwellers was the hottest shit. He was of another opinion, though. Every time he got healed, he felt how his bones slowly reconstructed and moved to their positions and how his muscles were broken down and rebuilt again.

It was pure agony, but nothing came close the moment some dumbass bug tried to heal his mana veins. For some reason, all of his mana veins were done, just broken, ripped to pieces, and healing them made him remember the old good times of Green opening his heart with something that felt like a cheap chainsaw bought from Walmart.

He couldn't cast or use any mana skills in that sense since his mana veins and core were nothing more than pieces at the moment. They would heal themselves automatically, but this needed time and a lot of it. He would need to wait years for them to recover naturally, but with healing, he would be done in a couple of months. The negative for him was that it felt like he got invaded by millions of drunken ants with little chainsaws. No biggie.

Other than the constant hellish pain he needed to endure, it was all Honkey Dorey. Except there was another thing: His family stayed with him all day and night, watching and entertaining him. This was why his sibling's new hangout spot was his room, where they all discussed their stuff, and he didn't know if he was that much of a fan of this.

Alexander became frustrated by all the arguing, "Listen, can't you let it go?"

Lorient turned around to him, "Wanna thrashing?"

Alexander smirked, "Listen, I killed four assassins, so I can probably take on... Janina, if she doesn't move too much, so be nice to your little brother. I barely escaped the cold hands of death, hehe."

Janina planted her face on Sarah's lap and muffled, "I hate it. Why are you the ones who have a nice time with girls while we need to go out of our way to get scumbags who want to assassinate us!"

Initially, they were extremely worried about Alexander with all the shebang: Crying and revenge swearing. Still, after around three weeks of him slowly recovering, it was all back to gossip and typical topics like romance. He didn't mind, though, since it became boring after listening to Lorient describing her favorite ways to dismember Fiorello for the hundredth time.

Narsiz raised an eyebrow and answered, "Can't you see what happened to Alex? I don't think he has such a great time."

Alexander affirmed it with a tail nod. Yet, Janina apparently had another opinion, "This is only tempro... tampor..."

Sarah helped her, "Temporary."

Janina nodded as a thank you at her and continued, "After some time, you are healthy again, but the love is eternal with Patricia!"

Something snapped inside Alexander since his mental capacity for bullshit was strongly reduced, and he was about to throw some serious insults at his little sister since she thought going through hell was worth it if some girl was waiting on the other end, which wasn't even the case for him. Still, Lorient was first, "You are an idiot."

Janina looked at her, baffled, "Why?!"

Lorient continued, "Stop reading those stupid fairy tales about glorious heroes and knights. Reality is far different..." She pointed toward Alexander, "...first, wanna know what kind of pain he felt?"

Janina became confused but nodded slightly. Sarah sighed, took her into her arms, and went to Alexander, slightly touching his foot, "Janina, are you sure? We all tried to feel his pain with my new mystic skill. I can feel what others are feeling and transfer it to you."

She nodded and became determined, so Sarah looked at Alexander and nodded towards him, "Excuse me..." Her eyes began to glow as she looked deep into his eyes, "...I command you to remember and recreate the most severe pain you ever felt."

Alexander's mind went blank, and he was forced to imagine his pain while Green went through his innards like a raccoon through garbage. However, he didn't feel anything. Janina did, though, as she suddenly grabbed Sarah's arm, wanting to rip it apart, and screamed, "Stop it! Ahhhhhhh! Stop, please stop it! No!"

After two seconds, it was all over. Janina was crying and shivering in Sarah's arms. It was her new mystic skill called [Empath]. With it, she could take the emotions and feelings of others and experience them instead. Little to say, it was an insane skill to quickly level up specific skills without having long-lasting damage.

She already did this by coming to Alexander twice a day and trying to endure his pain as much as possible. By her accounts, the [Pain Resistance] skill was already at level 41. What made Alexander even more jealous was that her mystic skill [Pain is my Lover] was a passive skill with which she could increase or decrease the effects of any kind of pain.

But, another great thing about it was that with [Force of Partiality], she could deflect it to someone else or back to the person, but to a different place. She could, for example, hit someone on the left arm, but through the combination of those skills, the person could be confused by feeling the pain on the right arm. It was an incredible cheat: Senses, emotions, pain, etc. She could redirect everything with enough training and make the lives of her enemies pure hell.

With unlimited stamina, she would be unbeatable since she could now deflect everything. Before that, it was only possible with physical attacks, but she now had a mental defense and attack skill because of the new mystic skill.

However, because they were teens and bored, Alexander suggested at one point whether they wanted to try out what he felt, and this was also when it all started. He then explained his theory of how she could use [Are You Trying To Sacrifice Yourself?] with which she could bring out emotions and not only command others. With [Empath], she could get the emotion, feeling, or whatever, and with [Force of Partiality], she could redirect it to someone else.

Little to say, it worked very well, and Alexander's moronic siblings had a contest who could hold it the longest. Sarah won, by the way, with around ~20 seconds.

Alexander looked at the idiots, "You know, you are idiots. You could've just given her what I feel now to make her understand. No need to be unusually cruel."

Sarah shrugged while patting Janina lovingly, who was curled up into a ball in her arms, "She needs to learn that things are never that easy. If she can learn through this to act more rationally, it is fine..." Sarah sat down again and looked at everyone with slight worry, "...don't tell Mama, please, okay?"

Narsiz chuckled slightly, "Hehe, don't worry, but now you need to look after her for the next weeks."

Sarah shrugged and smiled lovingly at the curled-up furball in her arms, "I am fine with it."

Lorient also shrugged, "Yeah, her mindset needed to be..."

Janina suddenly interrupted her, her voice sounding frightened, "Sorry..."

Alexander waggled his stick, formerly known as tail, at her, "No worries. This whole fairy tale stuff with knights and heroes is all nonsense. You saw how Patricia was, and now look at me. Not so much fun."

Janina nodded but carefully asked, trying to hang obviously on her fantasy, "So, the knight novels you read to me were all lies?"

Alexander was confused since he didn't understand clearly, "What do you mean?"

Janina momentarily thought and elaborated, "In the stories, all the knights and heroes want to win the favor of the princesses and ladies by protecting them from evil humans. In the end, they sometimes sacrifice themselves for their true love..." her voice became much more timid, "...I find it beautiful."

Alexander understood, "Oh yeah, that's a tragedy for everyone. Look at Patricia. Do you think she is happy with how it all went even though she is healthy and has a..." He tried to imitate air quotes with his tail, "...hero? She cries every night in her dreams while apologizing. She feels terrible because she was frozen in place and couldn't do anything."

Janina wanted to argue back, "But... aren't you much closer now?"

Alexander shook his tail from side to side, "No. I am in constant pain, while Patricia is probably depressed and doesn't know how to cope. We are..."

He thought about how he should explain it since he needed to stay as cordial as possible and didn't want to destroy Janina's dream, but he also knew that whatever he said here, someone would talk, and Patricia would know about it later. He had already learned his lesson with Anastasia, so the last thing he needed was an even more depressed fox-kin girl. However, he also didn't want to give some weird statement that could be interpreted that he was in love and make everything weirder.

Some rhetoric trickery was needed, "...not closer. We are farther away since this tragedy is between us. We would be much happier and closer if not for the assassins."

Janina was silent for some time, clearly thinking what Alexander said. He wanted her to be not a dumb damsel in distress, which wasn't even a gendered thing. There were also fairy tales about how princes got saved by strong and beautiful female knights or heroines. Since the system basically eliminated all sex differences, this kind of genre was somewhat popular with boys from noble households. Still, his sister clearly didn't want to be the knight but the princess.

However, for the guard households, it was rather rare to see who was really into it since they were knights who fought with their lives on the line. This romanticism usually was only exhibited as much as Alexander could trust his teacher, by central nobility, who weren't under constant attacks from four sides.

Janina brought him out of his thoughts by repeating her question carefully, "So... fairy tales about honorable knights are all lies?"

Lorient groaned as she was clearly annoyed by such a topic, "Urgh!..." She leaned towards her and looked intensely into her eyes, "...we are a knight family! Mom is one, and Grandmother! What do you think a knight should have?"

Janina immediately counted all the typical traits, "Honor, loyalty, elegance..." She was interrupted as all her siblings started chuckling, "...what is so funny?"

Lorient said what was primarily valid for all the guard dogs, "Strength, luck, and a spouse which complements you. What you said are only fancy words. We are fighting with monsters, demons, and other sapient races. There is no place for honor or elegance. The most elegant thing you can expect is decapitating an assassin without spilling tea."

Janina looked around while everyone nodded toward her, except Alexander, who nodded with his tail. She started sulking into Sarah's lap while getting patted, "You are too young to worry about such things. Give yourself a little more time and then think this through again, okay? Narsiz, for example, wasn't even aware that he liked girls before his legacy, hehe."

Narsiz suddenly turned to Alexander, "You told them this?"

He raised in turn his eyebrow, "Tell what? I didn't say shit!..." He turned to Sarah, "...what are you spouting?"

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She, in turn, chuckled, "Hehe, it was so obvious, though. You visited Alex when he was sick and then tried all your skills on his maids. It was kind of cute how you asked them stiffly if they were okay if you could use a skill to seduce them, haha!"

Alexander chuckled at him, "Hehe, see? You are the... Ow!"

Narsiz nodded stoically after grabbing Alexander's tail and slightly pressing it, "Got it. Can we change the topic?"

Lorient was the first to shrug since she cared little about embarrassing stuff, while all the others looked at him funnily. She looked at Narsiz and Alexander with pity, "Scarlett, though, treat you both like a piece of meat for sale. Are you fine with that?"

They all looked at Narsiz and his stupid happy-go-lucky smile, even though they had teased him a moment ago. Lorient revised her statement, "Are you fine with that, Alexander?"

Alexander waggled with his stick, formerly known as tail, "Scarlett can swallow a big one for all I care. I am rich and have unlimited talent, so I do what I want!"

Janina looked back at Alexander, "But, I think that she brought Patricia was nice of her, though. Don't she come over every night and try to comfort you even if she feels terrible, like you said?"

Alexander frowned. He couldn't address it without coming over as some kind of asshole. In his mind, she was clearly distressed from the assassination attack and thought it was all her fault. She apologized to him very often while snugging herself onto him, and in her sleep, she often had nightmares and mumbled his name or even cried. So he needed to be the adult while living through hell and comfort her.

Patricia was only a little girl to him, like a sister. There was no possible way for him to kick her out while she was clearly traumatized. Sometimes, he found it not so bad, though, since she was a great help against his boredom. She loved to talk a lot. However, she sometimes crawled into his bed without saying anything and slept.

They all looked at Janina, and Sarah was the first to laugh, "Haha! Is she nice, though? Remember how she tried to visit Alex even though he was heavily injured? She started multiple fights with the guards, and then she even cursed Mama, who didn't allow her to enter in the first week... oh right then there was the thing with Papa..."

Janina interrupted her, "Stop it! We all got it!"

Sarah nodded toward Janina as a sign of apology, "Sorry. However, she is a real pain in the ass who can't accept a no. We tried to tell her hundreds of times that she needed to wait, but she never accepted a no."

Alexander waggled with his stick and chuckled at those statements. There was a lot of commotion whenever she wanted to enter, but everyone was against it until they brought out some safety measures. He now had some talisman glued under his tongue. The moment it got scratched or blood got on it, it would immediately activate, and a bubble would surround him, protecting him from anything akin to the explosion he experienced.

The sad thing was that it was powerful. Thus, it was only active for 24 hours and needed a constant recharge with natural energy. Otherwise, he would love to have something like this as a trump card.

There was another way everyone proposed to safeguard Alexander, which he opposed vehemently: A mana contract. He knew she wasn't at fault, so he would not make her sign anything so that she would feel much worse. If everyone around her thought of her as a danger, she would probably start to spiral into something much worse than what she was going through at the moment. So this was also why he now had a cool artifact in his mouth.

'It has some perks being sick since I can always invoke pity, hehe. Otherwise, those dumbasses would probably even send her back.'

Even though Alexander went through hell, he always said to himself that at some point, it would end, and he would be back to doing his routine. All he needed to do was to bite his tongue and wait. The same went for Patricia since he didn't want to let out his frustrations on her.

Janina started to sulk, "Sorry, I really want to have the same what Alex and Narsi have and meet others..."

Alexander made a snide remark, "Yeah, let me contact the underworld first so you get the full experience."

Lorient rolled her eyes at his comment and remembered something, "In three years is a ball for the noble youth. How about you go with Alex there?"

This time, Narsiz came out of his lovey-dovey commata and commented, "I doubt Alex is going there... otherwise, I prophesize that it will be a slaughter, and the first time was already bad."

Lorient glared at him, "Wasn't that bad."

Janina knew about their story but didn't care and looked at her brother with big sparkling eyes, "Big brother! You really want to go and take your poor little sister with you, right?"

Alexander hated that his youngest sister romanticized that mindset and was all for the aristocratic way of socializing, even after trying to lower her enthusiasm for it. He hoped that she would grow out of it. Yet the ball was a great learning opportunity for him. At some point, he would need to learn how to network. It was a possibility he wouldn't get so quickly again.

Since it was a ball for aristocratic youth, he imagined it was far more casual than the one for adults, like training wheels for his poor social skills. There were also probably many young people who wanted to make many friends. However, after another moment, he remembered who he was, 'Well, I need to get my shit together beforehand so I don't go on a killing spree.'

Alexander wasn't stupid and knew he could roast the living shit out of every other child or even lower guards, so he would need to be careful and sensitive when joining those circles. It's not like he was all for creating wars for his family because he froze a toddler into a popsicle.

He sighed, "Fine, I wanted, either way, to go there, but I am not at fault for what will happen, so you know!"

She cheered, "Yeah!"

Alexander looked around the room and got slightly annoyed, "By the way, isn't it time to leave me alone for a change?!"

Lorient was the first to answer, "You have the biggest room, and I wanted to hang out."

Alexander answered her immediately, "Because you destroyed yours!"

Lorient shrugged, not caring, as she was put in a shed for punishment, "So? Just let me sleep in one of your rooms."

Alexander sighed, "Aren't you doing this either way? Melina told me that you have lived in my mansion since your mating season ended."

Lorient smiled at him cheekily, "Well, I want to protect my lovely little brother."

Alexander stopped the discussion and ignored that she also brought her servants with her, who were immediately thrown out, creating a dispute between their people. He didn't care, though, and it was funny how sometimes Melina ranted about them wanting to enter only to be rejected.

Alexander waggled his tail and pointed at Sarah, "What about you? I thought you got house arrest or something?"

Sarah shivered slightly but smiled in the end, "Mama forgot it, so..." She held the index finger before her mouth, "...sssshhhh. Just let me hang out. I came alone, you know?"

He frowned, knowing that she leeched off him like his other sister, "You also live here, don't you?"

She nodded with a genuine smile, "Protecting my family was always my priority, you know?"

Now, four out of five siblings lived in his mansion besides Linuel and Patricia. He could imagine how little space everyone had. He noted down inwardly to talk later with Melina to figure out what it looked like on her end and if she would need more people.

Narsiz also lived here with him, but Alexander invited him since he looked like he was rather lonely. However, with him getting closer to Linuel, he would throw him out at some point.

Alexander remembered some fun gossip as he thought about his brother, "Hey Narsiz, how is it to be called archmage, hehe."

Narsiz laughed at that, "Haha, please, because I know three spells. Calling me like that is a little too much."

Sarah commented, "Well, you learned them pretty fast. Even Green was astounded by your progress and got depressed."

Alexander became more giddy, "Well, just ask her for more pamphlets and..."

Narsiz immediately interrupted him, "Nope. I will not get more spells, so just you can have them."

Lorient chuckled, "Hehe, I should also start with magic. I found some interesting spells I want to learn."

Alexander waggled his stick at Narsiz, "See?! It is for the greater good!"

Janina became incredibly annoyed, "Why am I again the only one left out?!"

Alexander answered her, "Because I was trying to give you [Mana Sense], but we need time... well, Green needs to rearrange my body into its right positions and replace some important stuff, but after it is done, we can continue."

She pouted, "I don't understand why it takes so long. How did you learn [Mana Sense]?"

Sarah commented, "I don't think Alex actually knows how..."

Alexander interrupted her, "I know how."

Everyone looked at him astounded, and Sarah was the first to ask, "Excuse me? I remember you told me you were not older than one year old when you got it."

Alexander tried to mimic his head movements with the stick and nodded at this, "Yeah, but it was pure luck. I somehow felt that the world around me had something obscure. It was like being submerged in something I didn't know before."

Narsiz asked, "So, how does your training for Janina look like?"

"I move with my mana, the ambient mana around Nina while she mediates. Well... I try since moving ambient mana is hard."

Narsiz raised an eyebrow, "Why not move the mana away and let her be in a place without for some time only to enter a place with much more mana? Wouldn't it align with your experience much better and how you got the skill?"

The room suddenly went silent, only to hear a mad laughing from Alexander a moment later, "Muhahaha! This idea is actually genius!"

Janina groaned at this, "Urgh! All the training for nothing!"

Lorient rebuked her, "Not really. Through this, we learned how to do it..." She mumbled slightly, "...if it will work at all."

Sarah tapped her cheek with her index finger and thought out loud, "Wouldn't the ones who got the mana skills through [Mystic Skills] or racial skills get annoyed that we now know a better way to do it to get the real thing? I mean, I don't really care, but I am sure that others would like Lia."

Narsiz shook his head, "I don't think so, and I can't imagine that the dragon-kin households didn't find out the method I proposed. If it were the case, every one of them would have mana skills, which is not the case. It will probably work partly, and if not, the old method will be their plan B."

Alexander waggled with his tail furiously, "Who cares?! We actually found many ways to transform others into mages! Now, try the second! Put Nina...ow!"

Narsiz weakly grabbed Alexander's tail and reprimanded him, "Yeah, sure. How about you calm down first? We have more than ten healers at our estate, including Green and her friends, and they are almost always out of stamina or mana. There is no way we would do your crazy experiments with them being tired."

Alexander understood him and agreed, "Got it! But we can at least think about how we would do it, right? Get Green and Anastasia here... ow!..." he looked at his brother as if he had betrayed him, "...Why?!"

Sarah chuckled at this, "Hehe, listen, Alex. First, you need to recover, and then we will plan it all out slowly. It's not like there is a need to rush things, right?..." She looked at Janina while patting her with more force, which everyone could see, "...I think Nina can wait for a few more months, right?"

Janina nodded or tried at least while her eyelids were pulled back, "Yeeeeaaaah... I can wait."

Lorient laughed at how obvious they were, "Hehe, you both are really subtle..." She looked at Alexander, "...there is a reason why we are here and only gossip about stupid stuff. When we let you alone, you start to do something stupid, so we are also very happy that Patricia is visiting you at night, keeping your unpredictableness at bay."

Narsiz nodded and started to pet him slowly, "We love you and want only the best for you. So stay calm for a couple more months, okay?"

Sarah smiled lovingly at him, "Just wait a little bit, Alex. After you are healthy, we can do whatever you want again."

For some reason, Alexander felt suddenly an immense pressure on his chest. He didn't know why, but all his emotions got crazy. Something he pressed down got triggered by the love of his siblings they were showing him.

He suddenly cried.

It became silent the moment he started to cry. He was confused and didn't know why as it came so abruptly. No, he knew. It was the same as he came out of the operation directly into the Tier test. He felt desperation. He didn't know why, but it felt like the world did everything it could to crush him.

The willpower he exuded to withstand the last weeks slowly dried up. He needed to be strong. Otherwise, he would just crumble under the pressure he put himself under. It was something he did to himself. Nobody forced him not to seek support.

He let everything out. Sobbing while his brother patted him.

But there was something inside of him that told him it was wrong. He was alive, and everyone did their best to comfort him, so how could he dare to cry and break down? Everyone overextended themselves to make him feel better and comfort him in his worst state. To cry and break down felt like spitting in their faces.

Was he irrational? Yes. Somehow, he wanted to be more like Patricia, who could just show her emotions without a care in the world. He had something like a mental barrier, though, which made it much more challenging, and he didn't know that he needed first the support of his siblings and weeks of torture and suffering to bring the barrier down slowly.

He said the first thing that came to his mind, without any jokes, sarcasm, or pettiness, "I was frightened. I don't want to die, and I don't want to feel this pain... heuk."

He was frightened to no end. Even though he acted and did what he thought was right, it was not like he could swallow everything afterward and let it go. It worsened since he couldn't distract himself, which seemed to be why he broke now.

There was another situation that gave him nightmares, which he couldn't disclose even though he wanted to. Before waking up from the pain, the dream he had was like a nightmare, where he was his old self with the stabbing wound and Alexander in front of him like his old self, drinking and suppressing his emotions.

Alexander wanted to change it and be more honest with himself, but for some reason, he felt shame in front of his family. Even now, it felt wrong to him to be like this, "Heuk...it was terrible."

Janina also started crying, "Heuk... I thought you were dead after I saw you..." Her face turned reddish, and her voice was full of anger, almost screaming, "...why did you not... ow!"

Sarah pinched her, but Alexander knew what she wanted to ask, "Hehe... sorry."

Lorient smirked at him and tried to change the topic. Everyone knew she wasn't the best regarding emotional stuff, "Well, someone hungry? The chief here can make a really good steak. Want me to get you some?"

Sarah sighed, "What Lori wanted to say was that we are all happy that you are alive and... let's stay alive since you are not so well..." She suddenly chuckled but stopped immediately, "...heh..."

Alexander knew that besides her insane personality and love for fights, she was empathetic and had a strong maternal side. However, he chuckled at that, "Hehe, it's fine. I am a moron and deserve to be yelled at."

Narsiz tried to be more positive, "Don't worry, there is a positive thing in all of this madness."

Janina groaned and mimicked his voice, "Urgh, nobody wants to listen to you anymore at how lovely and great and honest and..." She inhaled strongly, but Sarah stopped this rant by pocking her into her side, "...eek!"

Sarah called her out, "Calm down, Alex, number two. You can insult each other for hours when Alex number one gets better."

Janina rammed out of annoyance her head into Sarah, only to what Alexander assumed felt like pure steel. The veterans she pummeled to a pulp weren't losing on purpose, and her training regime was on the high end. Even his fitness studio could barely support her strength anymore. So, he felt a little pity for Janina. But only a little.

Narsiz tried to steer the topic back, "Well, I wasn't about to talk about Lin but that Alex is now owed a big one by the Nine-Fire, so for your plans to expand the charity or your businesses, it should help heavily, however..." He smirked at him, "...you are also much more desirable, so the moment Patricia returns to their estate and tells everything that happened, I expect many more visits from other girls."

He wanted to answer him, but the door suddenly opened, and Patricia came inside the room angrily, "Like I will tell anyone about Alex!"

Sarah looked around at the weird silence and stood up, grabbing Janina with her, "Well, time for bed."

Narsiz stood up while scratching Alex behind his ear, "Well, good night, little hero, hehe."

Lorient also stood up and nodded toward Alexander, "Till tomorrow..." She suddenly remembered something, "...Mom will also come again tomorrow, so be ready."

Alexander didn't like that his Mother was visiting. She was clingy toward him, and he knew she hated that he disregarded his life while saving Patricia. How did he know this? She told him this directly. When she had time, she would visit him and discuss how he should act more selfishly. It was like she wanted to educate him by bombarding him with reasonable arguments.

However, it was a problem for future Alexander, and now that all his siblings had left, only Patricia was here, who, like always, took her Mary Jane shoes off and crawled into the bed after turning off the candlelight.

There was no talking or anything. She cuddled against him as close as possible and breathed slowly, 'It's one of those nigh...'

He couldn't end his thought because she interrupted him by being weird, "You cried."

Alexander looked at her, and she stared back with her big red ruby eyes, trying to pierce into his soul. It gave him the shivers, and he attempted to change the topic, "Try to go through a talk with Lori without crying or raging."

She slowly moved toward him, "Liar."

Alexander became suddenly perplexed, "Excu..."

She came too close for his taste, where he could even feel her breathing on his face, "Woah, hold your..."

Patricia interrupted him, "Shut up."

Alexander was ready to activate his talisman but felt no killing intent or danger. However, she suddenly stuck her tongue out slightly, 'No fucking way! After getting almost murdered, I am about to get sexually assaulted?!'

He readied himself to activate the talisman, but she went suddenly for his cheek and licked him, "Salty."

After licking him, she propped herself up on her elbow, looking down at him, "Alex."

Alexander was confused and couldn't think what that meant. However, he answered her, fearing what this crazy fox girl would do, 'I need to talk to her more thoroughly. Otherwise, she will do something crazy. I don't think she can cope with her trauma.'

His voice cracked as he answered, "Yeah?"

Patricia was hairsbreadths away from his face and stared at him for a minute. He suddenly got a deja vu and knew what she was about to do. How did he know? He knew the stare. It was too familiar to him, 'She is the same as Angie...'

She had the same insane stare as his ex-fiancé. At their prom, she told him her feelings. The eyes were the same, full of obsessiveness which showed that she wanted him and would never accept a no, 'I am royally fucked...'

Alexander readied himself to reject her as softly as possible while holding his tongue against his teeth to scratch it immediately if she did something insane. She suddenly shook her head and mumbled something he couldn't hear.

He was inwardly delighted not to get proposed by her, but this brought other thoughts out, 'Did I misinterpret her?'

In all his lives, Alexander wasn't the sharpest tool when it came to emotional stuff. He tried his best, but most of the time, it was a miss, especially when it came to love, which he couldn't interpret even if someone choked him with it, 'Yeah, what did I think? She is nine and not even close to knowing what love is... hehe, I am truly a moron.'

She smiled at him suddenly, "Your heart is beating very fast. Is everything alright?"

He nodded and smiled back, "Kind of... I am only a little nervous."

She chuckled and took him as carefully as possible in her arms, "Hehe, don't worry. While I am here, nothing will happen to you. You saved my life while risking yours. So, will I."

Alexander was outwardly very calm but inwardly not, 'Well, she is a little crazy, but what would one expect after such a traumatic experience?'

In his mind, she was very different from what he experienced when they had their little rendezvous, which was to be expected. No nine-year-old could think clearly after something like a life-and-death situation. Even he broke down in tears before his siblings, even though he regarded himself as very resilient.

She probably felt horrible for what happened and tried to overcompensate in her care for him, 'If she truly was like Angie, I would be truly fucked.'

Alexander remembered how she was after they moved in together and shivered inwardly. He loved her, but her love was crushing him at every moment they were together, 'Well, the sex was exciting...' For some reason, he really shivered slightly as another thought occurred to him, '...if Angie ever would find me like this...'

He came out of his thoughts when Patricia suddenly became solemn, "Alex?"

"Yeah? Sorry, I just feel a little cold."

She gently petted him and put the blanket over him, "Better?"

He nodded, "Thanks."

She smiled, "By the way, will you visit the noble ball for youths in three years? The big one?"

He became elated as it was back to small talk, "Hm, I will, together with Janina. Will you come too?"

Her voice sounded much more joyful, "Yes, and I will wait for you, okay?"

He suddenly sighed inwardly in relief since if she was genuinely interested, she wouldn't ask something like this, implicating that they wouldn't see each other for a long time, 'I am truly a moron. She probably sees me as a good friend and not some love interest...' He started to reprimand himself, '...what were you thinking?'

Alexander smiled back and tried to accommodate her, thinking they could truly be good friends after she got older, "Do you want to leave? It's sad, but I will, of course, see you there!"

She got even closer, pressing herself against him, "I will train with your grandmother so..." She suddenly stopped, and he could feel her heart beating faster. She said nervously, "...three years, okay?"

He answered her softly, "You can bet. I will probably be surprised how strong you will get."

Alexander could hear genuine happiness in her voice, "Thank you..."

It became silent, and she quickly went to sleep. However, Alexander stayed awake for a bit and reprimanded himself for being a fool. He felt ashamed for even thinking such things like she would be in love with him, but on the bright side, he didn't make himself look like an idiot, so everything was fine, and the misunderstanding he almost created was quickly resolved.

'Well, I don't think we can go for a drink when we are this young, but later for sure.'

However, something was bugging him. A feeling that he might be correct with his previous assumption, 'I guess asking Mom should be fine, but I will look like a dumbass if I am wrong...'

He shook himself inwardly from such thoughts, 'I need to change slowly, so such a thing should be fine, trusting my Mother with my worries.'