Chapter 124: Cold-Snouts III (Part 1)

Author's note: This is part 1 of the chapter. Part 2 is a mess, which I need to edit thoroughly. As such, I thought I could at least post the first half since they could be seen as two chapters put in one :) I will post the second one a little later.

...

Later, at the library

Two youths strolled into the library. The atmosphere between them could have been better, as when one of them wanted to start a conversation, the other responded with shrugs, throwing then the question back, signaling that they didn't want to answer it, which made an exciting exchange impossible.

One of them was Alexander, wearing a slightly crumpled-up blazer with unkempt hair and fur while looking for something. On the other hand, Emma looked like a Lady from a picture book on etiquette, exemplifying nobility. Her black dress perfectly matched her bluish hair, fur, and eye color, making her look like a beautiful puppet made of porcelain. Every choice she made regarding her outfit made her appear much more mature than she actually was, even older than the company she was with.

"Alexander, what do you think about what happened at the Silver-Tail estate?"

"It was bad, I guess, but what do you think?"

Emma looked at him and sighed, finding her rendezvous rather dull. It was as if Alexander didn't know what to talk about, and thus, brought her to the library to get some inspiration while she tried to find interesting topics by herself, but nothing helped.

Seeing Alexander, he also seemed a little drained and spaced out, probably because of the rendezvous with her sister and likely the spar they had, 'Damn it, Matilda! What is wrong with you?!'

It was clearly too much for him to spar and have another rendezvous afterward, but she also thought it was not too much to ask for some semi-interesting conversation. All he did was answer them casually and throw the question back to her, expecting her to have a monologue while he could relax.

It wasn't fun and felt more like when she went to her first ball at the Heart-Fire estate, where she talked mostly to her older peers, who couldn't hold a candle to her intelligence.

"It's fine."

Emma demanded a lot from her future husband and knew that if she found someone as intelligent as her, he would probably have ambitions to go to the North and West. If this were the case, he would also look for someone strong, not caring if it matched their intellect, following the tradition of their Knightages. Thus, she was ready to join a harem, as she also didn't know it differently and found it quite pleasing.

Of course, she could look for someone strong and intelligent, but someone like that usually didn't exist as the day only had so many hours. From watching her Father, who she would describe as reasonably clever, she saw a lot of potential but knew that honing his sword arts took a lot of time. She believed one should choose one thing and concentrate on it to become the best, never mind what she found was more important or appealing.

So, hearing how intelligent and charming Alexander was made her eager to meet him, but after spending some time with him, she became increasingly disappointed. Even though exhausted, she thought he wouldn't be more eloquent after a good night's sleep.

However, considering all his accomplishments, he seemed very intelligent and ambitious, but so was a hog who tried to carve out territory against other monsters, and looking at her current situation, both the hog and Alexander were equally stimulating in their fluency.

She wanted to have someone with whom she could converse for hours—politics, economy, art, military arts, administration, etc. She was curious and loved listening to other's thoughts and trying to discuss them. However, for this to happen, grunting wasn't enough.

Constant input was what she needed. Her natural [Intelligence] attribute was at 33, making her a genius. Thus, her partner would also need to be close to it. Otherwise, she would feel like she was having a rendezvous with an animal.

Despite her arrogant thoughts, she wouldn't voice them directly. She wanted to become an administrator, and building relationships was necessary, even more so with her peers, who would become highly important later, especially someone like Alexander, 'Never mind, let's just suffer through this Outer Circle again.'

It wasn't the first time her Mother, Cecilia, wanted to partner her up with some apparently brilliant youth, but it never worked out. They were clever but relative to others their age, which didn't mean much. Ultimately, Emma only stayed at the estates and suffered through weeks of bland discurs.

"Ah! Here we go!"

Emma looked to the side, seeing Alexander picking up a book with those great parchments the Leonandra's had, showing her proudly, "You know what this is?"

She shook her head, but as she looked more closely at the leather book cover, a small girl was drawn on it, holding a basket, dancing around, 'Is he showing me now his favorite book for puppies? Should've guessed.'

It always escaped her mind that she was very young, which meant that she would always be paired up with peers who would be roughly the same age, at most five years older. So, obviously, they would talk about such things as fairy tales. Even though someone was talented in many things, it didn't mean they were mature enough to hold engaging conversations about more mature topics.

Alexander answered proudly, "These are the fairy tales I have written down, and look at this..." He came close, opened the book, and showed it to her.

She opened her eyes wide in disbelief. The penmanship was excellent, and all the letters looked as if they were copied, "Want to read it? It's my first ever book, and I thought you would be interested?"

Emma looked at him and back at the book, "Your first book?"

He sheepishly smiled while scratching his neck, "I mean, our rendezvous isn't going well since I am a little drained after talking for hours about metals and how to hammer them with Matilda, so I thought I could show you some of my writings, and maybe we can talk about it? You seem like you know your stuff."

Emma nodded, finding it quite interesting, and started reading. After some sentences, she slowly raised her eyebrows, "Why fairy tales, though?" (1)

Alexander nodded, coming close to her, which made her slightly flustered, "Yes. Let's say I can copy books easily. The first one I want to give to every student should be a fairy tale book. Since they are young, it would be perfect for them..." He tapped his book while smiling widely, "...this one, to be precise."

She raised her eyebrows and looked at him, confused, "Only fairy tales?"

For her, it felt as if someone threw pearls in front of a pig. She wanted to ask about the ability to copy books easily later. Still, right now, it was more important to her to ask why Alexander wanted to do something so stupid.

"This is silly..." For some reason, her tongue slipped, and she became overly honest. It was as if Alexander's natural aura made her much more calm and open.

She wanted to apologize immediately, with Alexander only chuckling, "Good point, but can you read, for example, any fairy tale first and then tell me how you find it?"

Emma suddenly felt a whirlwind of emotions, from confusion to relief. Alexander was like the antonym to her earnestness. He was doing what he wanted, clearly seen by how he dressed, not caring what others would think about him, and infecting all around him with this carefree attitude. As such, she didn't expect much from his fairy tales, nodded at him, and started to read a random story she chose after turning over some pages.

At first, Emma thought she would go through it quickly and then reprimand him for wasting his potential and time by writing such books. He could've done so much more.

Even worse, he said he could copy them somehow. It made her even angrier if it was true since there were many more significant texts than some stupid heroic stories. Still, after reading her first fairy tale, she immediately understood the reason.

It was a fairy tale called The Boy Who Cried Human. While very simplistic in approach, style, and lesson- it was perfect for very young puppies, with a meaningful moralistic and ethical reasoning it wanted to pass along.

She just stood there, staring at the last sentence, and suddenly understood why he wrote them, making all sense to her when looking at the whole picture now. The free education he wanted to provide, together with the fairy tales aimed at the common youth, was obviously a way to influence them. She turned around and looked at him, with interest now, awed.

While fairy tales were nothing new, they were mostly written to fit nobility since many commoners couldn't read. Thus, they were rather monotone and mostly told how they should act to match their status, which became bland after the third story, as one could only be told so much about how vital a dignified appearance was.

Worse, many written fairy tales came from central Mal-Gil, and since Moorgrelian culture was far different, they tried to change the perception of their local nobility. However, it worked little since they were too different in their approaches, education, etc. It usually ended in confusion, especially regarding insect and avian-kin degradation, making their youth feel somewhat uncomfortable, especially since all Guard Household servants were mostly made up of those sub-races.

Commoners also had their fairy tales, mostly from mouth-to-mouth tellings, with little to no consistency. Also, they mostly depicted heroic encounters, brave adventurers, and all that stuff. There were little lessons, like the moral one about not lying.

'Was this fairy tale a fluke?'

She immediately started reading more, using her skills fully, and suddenly found them intriguing- Redhood, the goose that laid golden eggs, the frog princess, and so on. They all had a moral core that could teach the youth to become a better person. Considering all the other things like free education and a way to copy books easily, it would change the morals and ethics of the future youth.

Also, those stories were endearing and suitable for nobility, too. There was no reason to give them only to commoners since most moral lessons in the book were generally seen as something worth pursuing.

Emma turned to Alexander, looking at him like he was a rough gem who needed to be ground into a beautiful jewel. Something inside her wanted him to be more sophisticated and noble, like a gentleman who could be all she wanted since he had all the prerequisites.

He smiled at her charmingly, "Done?"

She nodded, "Yes..." She gulped and blushed suddenly, "...this is fantastic..." However, she wanted first to know how he did the copying process, "...and you say you can copy them as much as you want?"

He scratched his neck, "Thanks, all the fairy tales are... let's call them inspirations, but sure. I can copy them..." With a finger swirl, another book, looking the same, floated toward him, opening up before her, "...See? It's the exact copy, and I have around a hundred of them... I guess? It was a test, though, and in the future, I will be able to make much more of them."

She opened her eyes wide, not believing what she heard. Copying books, even with skills, was a lot of work. The book she was holding had around 600 pages and would need more than a week to copy fully down, and such work was tedious and hated by many scribes. Thus, it was also costly.

"I want all of them!"

Alexander looked at her, bewildered, only to laugh, "Haha, how about fifty? I need to give them those I teach, all right?"

She blushed and nodded, "Sorry..." Feeling the book in her hands, she changed the topic and decided to ask later how he exactly copied them, "...I love it, especially the morals you want to ingrain into the youth."

"What is your favorite one?"

"I love The Little Fish-kin..."

Like that, she found the charming, intelligent, and talkative boy she wanted. He described his visions, his work, and how his fairy tales would play a vital role. It was exciting listening to him and giving her opinion, which he took seriously, which led to more stimulating topics about morals, ethics, and their current system.

Their conversation was enriching and made her almost blush, as it had been so long since she could actually talk to someone on her level. Even the discussions about the fairy tales she didn't like, which were close to what she would describe as disobedience toward nobility, became suddenly an exciting discussion.

However, she felt very sad when their rendezvous ended, as he needed to meet with Vanessa, "It was wonderful, Alexander. Hopefully, we can continue this tomorrow?"

He smiled while scratching his head unseemingly, "Yeah, thanks, Emma..." He looked at his pocket watch, clearly under time pressure, "...now I need to go, sorry."

Like that, he was gone with her, left alone in the library. Even though she smiled till he was gone, it turned immediately into a frown as she had too much on her mind.

'I need to talk to the others. If they are interested, we need to make him our fiancé.'

For her, jealousy or rivalry was something she didn't really know about. She would rather share her future husband than not have him at all. As such, she hoped he also thought like this and was open to a harem. The worst that could happen was that they would fight over him if they were also interested.

Yet, another thought constantly scratched her mind like a rusty nail, 'He is too sloppy.'

Alexander acted like a commoner. Even though some of his behaviors were refined, others were not. For one, she would need to educate him properly and get some servants who would look after his clothing, hair, and fur, and, if he constantly had these large bags under his eyes, also get some cosmetician.

However, those things were, while important to her, not really something she would say that would be an exclusion criterion. They could be easily fixed with enough time, and then he would become an ideal fiancé.

She licked her lips slightly, seeing it as a great challenge, 'Tomorrow, I will start with his hair. A little critique here and there should be fine to make him more conscious of his sloppiness.'

(1) Because you voted on it would be the honest answer, but this is only the beginning :P