Authorial POV

"…is everything fine?"

Two women were standing around a crib in a room full of beautifully carved middle-aged-style furniture. Both were gorgeous and mature – one with Golden-eyes, the other with crimson red ones.

The one with red eyes sighed, clearly annoyed, "Please don't worry, Miss ."

On the other hand, the one with golden eyes bit her nails slightly. Her snow-white hair fell down and slightly concealed her face while she stared worryingly inside the crib.

She was not listening to what the red-eyed woman said, concentrating worryingly only on what was in front of her, "I don't get it. His siblings were so different…."

Heavily frowning, the woman with red eyes brought her wolf-style tail over the crib to disturb the stare of the other woman, so she would start listening to her, "Miss, I bet I am not the first healer, am I right?"

Looking at each other, the wolf ears of the golden-eyed woman stood up, and with eyes full of anger, she answered while growling, "If you don't tuck your dirty black tail away, I will rip it off."

The room's atmosphere became so thick that you could cut it. Taking a step back, the red-eyed woman moved her tail swiftly away from the crib and spoke full of fear while slightly bowing down, "I apologize, Mistress Marisia."

Standing with a bow, the red-eyed woman was intensely sweating while looking at the floor without moving. Sharp killing intent could be felt around the room.

The red-haired Wolf-kin frowned and let her go, "Fine, leave."

"Thank you, Mistress Marisia." The red-eyed woman turned around and went for the door without looking back out of dread. Her back was so wet from fear that Marisia could see her skin through the clothes. Closing the door, the sweaty woman left the room.

*Clack*

Clicking her tongue and looking back at the closed door, the killing intent slowly left her eyes. "Tsk."

Her eyes became more peaceful as she slowly walked towards the crib, seeing a baby inside, with golden eyes, snow-white tail, hair, and ear fur. A smile bloomed on her face as she looked at her son's calm but curious eyes, Alexander.

She took Alexander in her arms and started to caress him while talking in a soft and quiet voice, "I don't know why you are so active, trying to move so much, but also so quiet at the same time, barely crying."

Before she sat down on the rocking chair, she opened the window lightly, got a blanket to cover herself and her son. As the beautiful and elegant Wolf-kin was sitting and rocking fro and back, she continued to caress her son while keeping her tone from before, "Your siblings cried as much as the Cat-tribe during their mating season, while you…."

Chuckling, she watched as Alexander slowly fell asleep.

*****

POV Alexander

While waking up, I looked curiously around and did my daily routine, 'Pampers? Hungry? Check and Check. Everything looks and feels fine.'

Trying to move, I gave up very quickly again. 'To tiring…'

Ten minutes passed while I just lay there, sometimes moving from side to side and playing with my tail, 'I can't believe it….'

While I lay there, I thought about what happened last month. I was thinking about being born and being watched by what are probably: doctors, parents, siblings, and Maids, 'This shit is crazy….'

Sighing heavily, I looked around and thought about what happened before I was reincarnated, like so many times before.

I was an ordinary guy in my "last life." While I came from a relatively low-income family who lived in a war-torn place, my luck was quite good as my family sought refuge in a western country and got accepted.

When young, I went to school, got a degree, and went to the military for a couple of years as orientation. Most people thought that I was crazy about going there, but the military consists not only of guys at the front line. Trying to remember, ~50-70% should be in support roles. Medical teams, IT specialists, accountants, logistics specialists, technicians, etc.

So, most concerns were unfounded, as they would never send something like an accountant to the frontline, even if I wished they would do it to Lawyers.

After the initial training, which everyone goes through, you do some tests and work in some field where your talents shine. Mine was STEM.

While not having a college degree was problematic, I got some vocational training as an electrician in IT/CE (computer engineer). Nothing fancy, though.

After six years, with 4 of them in a foreign country, I left the military and started my college career with some love life in between. Finishing it resulted in a Master's, 2 Bachelor's, and a fiancé.

This is where my luck ran away, as I got stabbed by an ex of hers before I could start at my first job... Death was what happened instead.

While thinking about it, fury sought within me. 'That stupid fucker! I hope he burns in hell!'

…

Relaxing a bit, I tried to be more positive as being negative only drags me into depressing and suicidal thoughts. 'At least my sister is a doc, so she can keep my little brother financially stable … shit. I miss them… why did this happen to me?'

…

'I volunteered and helped my community, donated money, helped underprivileged kids… DAMN!' "A heee Ahh Waaa eee!"

'I even lived as a Vegetarian, more because of my better half than on my own accord, though….'

…

'God, I miss Angie… I love you, sweetheart – hopefully, you live a happy and fulfilling life after I died….'

…

"Ga geee uuuuhhhhh"

…

Tears started to fall as all my emotions exploded from the inside.

*sniff*

…

'I thought I would at least see my parents again, who were executed in this shit-ass war right before fleeing….'

…

"A waaa eee uuuuu"

…

*sniff*

'Fuck, I need to get my shit together, but I am obviously not myself – I can't control my emotions and thoughts.'

…

*sniff*

At this moment, dark thoughts entered my mind. 'Should I suicide and end it… maybe then I can see my loved ones again….'

*sniff*

*clank*

*sniff*

*tap* *tap* *tap*

Before me stood a beautiful woman, my mother – looking at me with worrying eyes. “#### ####### ##### ### ######## ####”

After saying something, she took me softly in her arms and sat down in the rocking chair near the window.

It was dark. Only the moons were there in all their colors, and this woman was looking at me like only a mother could, and I could feel her love towards me, like a link you could never explain. Her expression showed that she was a little worried as she was sitting and caressing me.

'Damn it. I forgot that I have a new life….'

*sniff*

'…new loved ones….'

*sniff*

'…new parents…'

*sniff*

'…new siblings…'

*sniff*

'…I need to get over it and start a new….'

*sniff*

Before my thoughts again got into overdrive, I heard a wonderful voice singing beside me. Softly like a summer breeze, something laid over me. Closing my eyes, I decided to live in this new world – A fresh start, so to say. Shortly after, I fell asleep with a voice in my background, which soughs my very soul.

*****

Lorient POV

Running through the mansion with greasy and messy hair, my white shirt was buttoned up asymmetrical, linen pants and a pair of house shoes, different on each foot. 'I overslept again!'

I am lucky that dad is away on the yearly "thinning campaign" in the west, or he would let me suffer. Such thoughts let her *shiver*.

Thinning means nothing more than hunting all Monsters down they come across in some areas. It is actually much more complicated and essential than it sounds. As you also need to secure trade routes for a prolonged time.

While some adventurers and mercenaries help with protection, it is not enough. Also, you need to find their (Monsters) birthing places, so the scouting needs to be superb, or there will be more monsters next year.

But…mom is still strict, too, especially since I got a new little brother who is really a handful. Always trying to crawl, roll, etc.

One time we sat on Klinai's (couch) in our tearoom, talking about various topics, and out of the blue, Alex, who lay between mom and a friend of hers, shot like a wild boar against the thigh of my mother, bashed his head and almost fell to the floor. Luck has it that he was grabbed by the foot by the friend. Everyone in the room had almost a heart attack. Since then, there is always someone looking over him, the servants, we, the siblings, or Mom.

Even Mom always mumbles that this is unnormal. What makes everything worse is that he already tried talking in coherent sentences after 4-5 Months, which is insanely early! I don't know what this means, but he always tries to babble with me. He tries to say sentences, but I obviously, can't understand him. As I was before the door, I tried to change my mindset, but this puppy didn't leave my mind as I whispered while thinking about him, "Cute."

*tap*tap*tap*

*clank*

Opening the door to the dining room, five pairs of eyes fell on me. Rubbing the back of my neck and smiling, I apologized sheepishly, "Hehe, sorry for being late…."

The whole room sighed at me, even the... puppy?! What the hell?! I could've sworn that Alex sighed at me!

I went to the end of the table to the place reserved for the oldest child, showing a perfect appearance, except for the clothes, hair, and shoes.

But my impression was excellent, having a stride befitting a knight's daughter. Maintaining a straight back like a pole. Overall, trying to show dignity and gracefulness.

Sitting down, I started my meal by grabbing the bread and some butter, but my breakfast was interrupted as I heard a slightly passive-aggressive voice giggling at me, "Sis, if you need help with putting clothes on the right way, just ask, no need to embarrass yourself, hehe."

Looking to the opposite side of the table, I saw my younger brother, wagging his tail slowly, Narsiz. Snow white hair with golden streaks, a face with childish big golden eyes, and baby-fat, typical for a 9-year-old child. But his eyes showed something of a competitor, ready to rip me a new one.

I never had a good relationship with him since I awakened a rare Divinity Line. Well, it was not really "rare" but had a rating of "common," but nonetheless, it was seen as something rare because it was very niché and precious in this part of Moorgrel.

He somehow got overly competitive for the seat of the head. No wonder since he was always more talented than me, but somehow, I have awoken a relatively unique and outstanding Divinity Line.

If I think about the politics and rank system, only one child of the current generation can inherit our "Tri-Iron Rank" and the Knight title. The other ones are mostly free to do what they want. It is pretty unique for our family for whatever reason.

In every other Aristocratic family, you would be married away for more power. We also have more uniqueness: the inheritance doesn't go to the oldest male/female like human nobles or other Beast-kin families do. No, we only focus on merit.

Clicking my tongue, I ignored him. If we started a fight right now, Mom would be our sparring partner today. Shivering slightly and looking back at him, and looked again around the table. I could see him smirk and shrugging his shoulders from my peripheral view.

But there I saw my little sister, Sarah. She looked back at me, her big green eyes locked onto me, and a smile bloomed on her face. She looks so adorable, so I automatically smile – she is the best potion against feeling down since she was so cute, "Good morning, sister!"

Grabbing her head and caressing behind her snow-white ears with green streaks, I was already cheery, "Morning Sarah, did you have fun yesterday with the teacher?"

She took a bite from her bread and tried to talk with a full mouth, "Uhum, Tscheacher wat reabby shtrict."

Chuckling slightly, I stopped her before she choked on her breakfast, "Swallow first down and then tell me everything."

Nodding slightly, Sarah concentrated again on her food.

"Hm…" I took another slice of bread, smeared a handful of butter on it, and looked toward Mom and our family's newest puppy, letting out a small whisper, "…so cute…."

He just lay in my mother's arm while she breastfed him. She looked up into my eyes, smiling slightly. "Hm, honey, do you have any plans today?"

Looking back and switching my eyes to Alex eating peacefully, I looked back at Mom. "Nope, do you want me to look after this little puppy?"

Mom looked between Alex and me and sighed, "Yes, I need to be at the temple for a meeting."

"Oh, what for?" After asking her, I looked at Mom as she furrowed her brows strongly.

As she was starting to talk, her tone got serious, "The wave this time will be much stronger and…."

*Cough*

Now, this is something to worry about. Almost choking on my bread, I quickly beat my chest. I asked hastily in worry, "What about Dad?!"

Mom glanced at Alex as he stopped eating and looked at me, scared. 'Please don't cry!' After good 10 seconds, we were in the clear, and my mother said with a worrying and caring tone, "Eat. I have more information after the meeting."

Sitting on the edge of the chair, I looked at the plate and remembered the last time a big wave happened. But something interrupted my thoughts.

*Crack*

The wooden cup in Narsiz's hand cracked while he looked and sounded worryingly at mom, "Mother, how bad?"

She leaned back in her chair while holding Alex more intimately and said solemnly, "Estimation shows that it should be around 3x times the normal wave."

"WHAT!"

"HOW?!"

The silence was prevalent in the dining room; you could hear a pin drop. A wave 3x times the size is insane; how will we defend the east if the demons can just roll over us with the tidal wave strategy! It was nine years ago, the last time it was this bad, shortly after Narsiz's birth. Father followed his duty and went to the frontline, like every couple of years, but that time, he almost died. He needed years to recuperate from such a wave.

Narsi caught himself and urged for more information, "Mother, will the majesty and the other clans and families send us aid?"

Looking back at Narsiz, I saw an incredible anxious face. While he is competitive with me and a little scumbag, he, like me, holds the well-being of our family over everything else.

She answered, slightly annoyed, watching Mom furrowing her brows and pinching between her eyes, "I don't know, for this, we will have later the meeting, but so you know..." She looked at us more saddened, "Your father will not come back till next year at…."

Before she could end her sentence, Sarah cried out, "WHY!? I want to meet Papa!"

With tears in her eyes, I knew instantly how she felt. Solemnly I thought back to when I would meet dad again. Describing it as barely would be too optimistic. 80% of the time, he is at the front line, pushing back wild Demons or Monsters trying to encroach on our territory or trading routes.

Because of the coming wave, which will be so much more extensive, he needs to thin out as much as possible and build more infrastructure to hold them back more efficiently, at least this much even I could understand.

Mom had a very apologizing tone as she spoke, "Sarah, Papa will be back in 2 years, after the wave…."

Before Mom could end the sentence, Sarah threw her wooden plate to the floor and screamed, "NO! HE PROMISED ME!"

Tears were building up as she breathed intensely, "I ONLY… *huff* PAPA ONE TIME…huff* HE PROMISED ME!"

Crying and Sobbing, she was really in distress, "*sob* Wahhh!"

Standing up, I wanted to hug Sarah, but she was too much of a hothead and pushed me away. "NO! I WANT PAPA!"

She looked with red eyes and snot all over her face and ran away.

*tap*tap*tap*tap*

*Clank*

*BAM*

Mom came over to me, clearly distressed by this whole fiasco, "Here, take Alexander and look after him"

I took him without asking anymore and watched her as she walked gracefully towards the door. I knew she would tell me how the meeting went later today or tomorrow. As such, I needed to calm down, too.

She looked at Narsi, as she had already caught herself, instructed him to take care of Sarah, "Go and talk with Sarah, be sensitive, and just be there for her."

Narsiz nodded slightly and stood up.

Mom opened the door and said her farewell, "I'll see you guys later. Bye."

She looked back, heavily sighed, and closed the door.

*clank*

I looked Narsiz in the eyes, and he looked back, now with a more friendly expression, "I will get the servants on my way to Sarah for cleaning up."

I nodded and gave him my gratitude as today, many Servants were busy with some dealings, and you needed to find them, "Thanks."

Walking away towards Sarah's room, he waved his hand without looking back, "Not for this."

Watching the little puppy in my arms which held onto my blouse, I sighed for the twentieth time this morning and whispered to him, "Let us go to the art room."

****

Alexander POV

Well, yeah – not only was I reborn, but I also landed in "The Jerry Springer Show." I could partly understand them – it is something about Dad.

Looking up, I saw my sister, Lorient. Twitching her wolf's ears, she looked back with a smile while walking towards some room.

I can't reason that she…we… are some kind of weird beast mix. Well, this is not even the most shocking news to me. Having a tail and a couple of wolf ears are things that I can get used to.

What is more fascinating is the System.

'System'

In the first couple of days as an infant, I was pretty much bored to death... well, after overcoming my mental breakdown. So, I did some mental calculations to pass my boredom and heard a *ding*. I thought it was my subconsciousness.

After some rolling, playing, and thinking, I heard more *dings* and thought that my first signs of insanity would be system notifications that sounded similar to the Windows XP ones. Then, out of nowhere, my glorious system window popped up.

Thinking about it, I tried more things that I could comfortably remember and pushed the levels of some skills. While trying to confirm my skills, I also noticed my experience increase. Every time I level up, I would get the experience equivalent to the previous Level from which I leveled up.

Example: I leveled up Mathematics from level 1 to 2, my Exp increased by 1, but when I level it up from level 2 to 3, my Exp will increase by 2, and so on.

I leveled my overall Level up a couple of times, and each Level is 100 Exp. You will also get a free stat point, which I can't use. I can't wait until I can communicate to ask more questions!

At that point, I tried as many things as I could. Logics was the hardest, as I could barely remember stuff like propositional logic. But trying to remember, for example, De Morgan's laws and apply them exemplarily in my imagination, I leveled the skill two times.

What wonders me is how the System determines what skill will be leveled up because logic is also mathematics? Well, this is food for thought for later to find out, not that I can bounce ideas off someone.

At some point earlier, the other lady in white came back and examined me again – and by that point, I was stable enough to investigate the feeling she gave me. While examining me, I tried to hold onto it as much as possible and copy it.

What came after that was that I could feel Mana. It was a feeling akin to a soft breeze in spring, but the breeze held high humidity… but was different. Clearly, something like that I can't describe accurately. It is pretty much like describing colors to a blind person.

My adventurer spirit was ignited, and I started testing everything I could – which was, at best, restricted. I could unlock [Meditation], which was… pretty easy, to be honest. I don't know what it does exactly. I only know that I am relaxed after a round of meditating. Everything else is self-explanatory – except Alchemy.

Nothing happened when I tried remembering everything about chemistry and even solving some calculations. After trial and error, I could unlock it because I knew about typical lab tech stuff and remembered fundamental things and imagined them step by step, titrations, distillations, etc.

Next, I need to do my best in Medicine and biology – I mean, besides training my Mana sense, I have nothing else to do.

What is also kind of a cheat in this world is that Skills help you remember everything perfectly. After each Level in mathematics, I can essentially graph out and calculate more correctly linear functions in my head.

“Hey ###### puppy, do you #### to ####?" Damn, I am getting better at understanding what they are saying, but their language is really longwinded and exact.

I smiled at her and tried my best to communicate, "Yesh!"

*ding* Hell yeah, [Charm] leveled up!

Letting me down on the carpet, we started playing, and she helped me crawl and stand up for a bit while holding me.

While playing, I tried passively to use [Mana Sense]. It should level up like crazy when I use it this way, right? The question will be, how will I improve it passively?

'Let's try to widen my range!' After some minutes of trying to sense my immediate environment with my [Mana Sense], I could widen my sensing range up to 10 cm from my body. I can sense Mana like a really low-density gas around me.

Next, I need to learn how to throw an atomic bomb casually! But first… "Shishda, ma yaber!" Looking at me with her big eyes, she chuckled slightly. She picked me up and went with me on the adventure for my new linen diapers.

*****

Marisia S. Leonandra POV

Inside the temple of nature, in a big room, fully furnished, were around 30 people sitting down and discussing. Village lords, earls, three knights (me included), and 2 Barons. All these people belong to the east part of the county Moorgrel. Some non-important trading partners were from the central region, but everyone else was from the east.

Putting one leg over the other, I listened as they all discussed the hot topic: "The Demon run." Not just any "Demon run," but one that should be at least 3x times larger than the average ones.

Good thing that the county knew about this already for two weeks, so the meeting was positioned to the east, so the Leonandra's would not be inconvenienced in such times.

My ears twitched all the time out of anger at what I heard. If I could, I would rip everyone a new one to whoever suggested that the Leonandra's can defend it themselves just fine.

'God damn cowards.' The Leonandra Estate lies in the deep east in the county of Moorgrel – protecting for generations against wild demons from the farther east. Those against aid are obviously from the central and west sides of the east.

Gripping my legs hard enough to tear a hole into a tree, I was interrupted by someone poking my side with an elbow, and a whisper entered my ears. "Is Kairoso fine?"

Looking to my left, I saw an old friend: Marcus Melodia, a knight with the rank of "Mo-Iron" who works for merchants. While he has barely any power in matters of politics, the wealth should be more than enough to make it up.

Knights will rarely work for people other than Nobles, but in some cases, giant trading companies can pay knights an equally tremendous amount of coin for protection and prestige.

He is a good friend of my husband, but I can't stomach a Knight who sold himself for some coin, "He is right now thinning out in the west."

His answer came quickly as he stared at me with shocked eyes, "What?!"

Before he could babble me to death, I preemptively answered him with what he probably wanted to know, "I know what you think, so shut up. In the end, we also need to trade while we deal with the Demon run."

Shrugging his shoulders, he tried to thank me and throw the name of his employer into the mix, "Hm, I get it, and "Nil trading" is really thankful for…."

I interrupted him, not caring about some golddiggers. "We do it for the Count, not for some Merchants."

He held his hands slightly up, like giving up, and smiling at me with a somewhat mocking expression, "Sure, sure, so what is your plan for getting help?"

Without as much as waving my tail slightly subconsciously, I answered loudly and announced myself to everyone, "I don't beg. I will just take all our soldiers and healers back to the estate, the ones who are stationed around the county. We will stop providing any food support in winter and start our campaign in the east when Kairo returns."

At this point, the whole room fell into silence. Everybody heard my declaration. Some lord from a large-sized village talked in panic somewhere in the back. "Ms. Leonandra, you can't do that!"

And others joined too, "Yes, how will we defend our village…."

"The Leonandra can't take food away, or we will starve!"

"…"

Listening to everyone, I released my Aura as a Mid-Tier 2 Knight and pressured the whole room. "Silence!"

Standing up, I was the strongest in the room, even more, powerful than the Adventurer or Mercenaries hired by different nobilities for protection.

Standing at ~1,7m, being relatively small myself, my Aura told another story. I probably look like a giant in their eyes.

They are all weak and are the ones who were chosen to defend our Empire?! How can they call themselves nobility!

Feeling disgusted by them, I gave them the decree, "The Count gave me full authority over the east defense."

I took a sheep leather scroll from behind and threw it toward one of the Barons. Catching it and reading it almost instantly, his jaw dropped to the floor. "Wha… how can a lowly knight order me, a…."

I Interrupted him with my Presence. The Baron felt a mountain standing on his shoulders, slightly bowing. I came a little closer and asked him sternly, ready to chop the head of this Noble off if he said something in the wrong tone, "Do you disagree with the counts' words?"

If he says something wrong, it would be appropriate to make him a couple of inches shorter just for disagreeing with the command of the Count.

The Baron looked as he could die at any moment. The Aura around my right hand became visible. A thick dark red radiated out, and everyone could feel the Demonic Aura that radiated from it. A quiet whisper was heard from the crowd, "The Leonandra Divinity line..."

The Baron bend forward with the right hand on his heart, "Of course not!"

I could clearly hear him grinding his teeth. A baron bending his back towards a knight is unheard of.

Looking around again, I knew what he said was just for its sake. Otherwise, I would have cut his head off directly here and now. Sighing heavily, I put away the pressure and started to talk about my plans, "We will conclude our thinning campaign in the West in the next months and will afterward concentrate on the upcoming Demon run."

The Counties capital is in chaos because of some god damn Shovelers who started skirmishes in the northwest. Looking at the different village lords, I knew that the situation was sub-optimal, and I couldn't wait for help from the Count, "The food is needed for our soldiers, builders, and healers."

I know what they are thinking by their looks, but I can't do anything else – if we fall, the chance that the east will hold is minuscule. The fights will be tiringly long, and we will start directly after the thinning.

It could come to a chain reaction that could reach the capital... these morons are too short-sighted, "We will temporally raise taxes till the end of the Demon run..."

Murmurs were heard, but nobody had the guts to speak up. I could see in their eyes the unsatisfiedness, "…but the taxes will come down after the Demon run to the point, which is a proportional decrease to the rise, for double the time."

You can't have their taxes raised without giving anything back. It will not end well – with this policy, they are even inclined to give even more taxes, so the decrease will be even higher overall. Anyone with basic mathematics and economics skills should see a great long-term opportunity.

After a short time, I could see their eyes flaring up with greediness. 'This is what I want.'

Clearing my throat, I announced more critical procedures, "The following policy is canceling tolls for entries, products, etc. The movement of labor and products is crucial right now. Anything disrupting it will commence with forced conscription or a death penalty."

After every point, I paused so they could write it down and think this through, "The implementation will begin in half a year, after the Spring harvest."

The Labour question was equally important, and nobody will be stupid enough to go to the east, even if we triple the wages, and if we forcefully conscript them, it will end in a riot where the Barons will surely try to take us down.

But I had a plan to make everyone happy, "Slaves and prisoners will be brought to the east as soldiers. They will regain freedom if they survive, except for type A and B prisoners. Furthermore, the slave masters will be compensated with tax deductions."

Swinging my tail slightly, red streaks were reflected on my snow-white fur. There were right now different kinds of Beast-kin. Some were from the Tiger tribe, others from Fox's den, and the Baron who almost insulted me was from the Mouse's group.

While we call ourselves beast-kin and are identified as one group, it could not be further from the truth. Even inside a tribe, there are always fights for power, love, and more.

After seeing that they were waiting, I continued, "While the conscription is voluntary, except for the group of people named before, you are obliged to represent my offer."

I need to plunder our treasure, but it will be fine. We have more than enough coin to do a Demon run which holds on for 30 years, "Everyone who joins the demon run will be paid 1 large iron coin per month, while at the start of the demon run, the pay will increase to a bronze coin per month."

I could see how their mouths opened, smirking slightly. I knew that they didn't think that we had this much wealth, "All basic necessities and training will be provided."

Pausing again, this was the most crucial part for the really poor with family. While it's saddened me, sometimes you need to exploit them, even if it is against the Knight's codex, for the greater good, so to say. "In case of death, a Mana signed testament will be provided, which will guarantee a payout of 1 large bronze coin to family members or a partner – additionally, a lie detector test is needed so we can determine the correctness and sort out blackmail."

The whole room stared at me as if I was insane. Everyone knows the Leonandra's as a Knight family who kills demons, but this is just a tiny part. We provide protection, and through this, we did accumulate an insane amount of wealth in the past. We built infrastructure with part of our wealth and thus controlled the trade partly.

Also, all our members are loyal to a tee because of our family structure. We had cases where some members chose to marry lowly commoners like farmers or maids, like my sister. We allowed it without a hitch – which is unthinkable in any other clan, and they would rather disown or kill that member.

Not us, we allowed it and welcomed her husband, a lowly farmer, with open arms – in the end, he became, through our support, a village chief.

And like this, we build our power throughout generations. Right now, we hold onto the same power as some viscount families in other counties.

Seeing how they can't believe our wealth made me smile so much that my voice almost cracked, "This should also conclude the possible food shortage as many will probably join the demon hunt. Enough should be maintained for villagers who stayed behind."

...

"Also, start the training of young farmers, as this Demon run could remain for a year or two or even longer."

…

And so, for the following hours, new minor policies were read out by me.

…

It is nothing less than an emergency, and the only good thing about it is that it was spotted early on by one of the Count's mages. Not preparing for it would be disastrous.

With the Authority of the Count at hand, it will be easy to implement policies on the surface level, but if you want them to comply and work with you, you need tasty carrots. Hopefully, the carrots were enough.