21 Kingdoms

After having their feelings come across each other, the siblings-turned-lovers are now sitting on the couch, cuddling with each other as they watched the sunset. There weren't any entertainment magic items such as a movie set in their household, so unfortunately this was the next best thing for them.

'It's not the best, but I shouldn't complain too much considering I've made a bunch of progress,' There was still some excitement in Noir's eyes even after some time had passed. Whenever he recalled his progress over the last three days, words can't describe what he's feeling right now.

In the short time he's been here, he's gotten much stronger, has two people in his harem and lost his virginity in the process. Though he does plan to take things a bit slower with Alice, and likewise in the future as he doesn't want to rush things and ruin his hard work all because of mistiming things.

'I kinda wanna go to the dungeon and grind for a bit,' Just thinking about it gave him more motivation to work, but he knew that wasn't possible at the moment. It was getting late and he didn't want to ruin the moment because of his mood.

But the next best thing would be to ask the Sage a few more questions during the night now that she's given him the pass. Though that was something he'd focus on later as Noir opened up a book about magic theory.

"Hehe~"

And as for Alice, she was still in a cheerful mood as she kept nuzzling against Noir's arm, glancing at him, the book and the sunset now and then. When Noir looked to see why she was laughing, she was looking at him.

"I feel like I'm dreaming. Are you sure this isn't one?" Her face was still red with warm feelings as she was looking at him with loving eyes and used her fingers to play around with Noir's arm. She still couldn't believe her situation and if it was a dream she was hoping that she would never wake up from it.

"Are you seriously asking me if it's a dream? If it was one, how would I know?" Noir sighed at his cute sister's antics. How was he supposed to answer that question? He wasn't the great Sage after all. But there was something about seeing her behave like this that made him want to tease her.

After thinking over it for a second, he decided to lightly grab Alice's cheeks before playfully stretching them apart.

"Ow, ow, ow. Hey!" The previous starstruck face she had earlier disappeared as she grabbed Noir's arm and tapped out. This was something that the two of them used to do a lot, even if Alice wasn't feeling hurt by him playing around.

'She has stretchy cheeks.'

"Is that proof enough?" Seeing her wake up to the same reality, Noir gave her a huge smile to welcome her back. He wondered if this was what people would call the honeymoon phase.

"Big brother became a meanie now," Once she got out of Noir's grasp, Alice immediately started pouting before facing away.

"Haha, I just wanted to prove to you it's reality." Instead of helping, it just made her sulk more as she tried giving him the silent treatment. It was only for a few seconds, but it was enough to make Noir awkwardly smile before asking her a question to break the stillness.

"By the way Alice, how much do you know about the Demon King and the Hero from school?"

Her ears perked up from hearing the names she wasn't expecting to come out of Noir's mouth, but there was a reason for it. He wanted to know what the average student would know about the history of the war and then later ask the Great Sage the same questions to figure out what information was filtered out or few people know of.

'History is written by the winners after all. No one wants to spread what horrendous stuff they did for their country and make their people hate their country in the process,' Governments and people in power tend to show only the good things their country has done without any of the atrocities they committed.

There was a time when Noir was ignorant about what kind of place the Uk used to be and the only way he found out was thanks to his online European friends and some people he met during his streams to fill in the missing information.

"The Demon King? Wasn't he destroyed over 200 years ago? I recall the teachers saying they reigned over their continent for over 50 years and during that time they caused problems for not only the human kingdoms but many of the other races. It got to the point that the Temple of Abaffe had to summon a hero from another world to destroy it…"

'The temple of Abaffe keeps on getting mentioned. I wonder what they are?' While Alice was talking, Noir had to backpedal on the temple. It wasn't mentioned in the series at least nor could he recall it from his original host's memories. There were too many unknowns so far that's made Noir slowly start hating the original author for skipping out on the details.

'But then again I probably would forget it after some time. I don't even remember the receptionist's name at the guild or the elf girl. Hell, I don't think her religion was ever named,' Can't blame him considering he was only a casual reader of the series. If he'd known he was going to reincarnate here he would've tried learning more things to help him out.

In the meantime, Alice was talking about the Hero's actions and the battles he partook in, the towns and important figures he saved and other trials along the way…

"...He united the four human kingdoms together to fight against the demon king. Each of the kingdoms ended up adopting a particular trait of his and continued doing so for the past 200 years."

…Until it got to the topic of the development of the four kingdoms where Noir's ears perked up.

"The Freesia kingdom, our kingdom, specialises in Magic for the most part and Alchemy. It's part of the reason why we have so many magical items, but we're still lacking against the Lupine Kingdom, the Desert Nation, which is more technologically creative. I heard they have magical items more accessible to the general public, however, they're a closed-off nation with very limited communication to the outside world even though they reside in the middle of a desert."

'There's a desert kingdom? I guess they don't have much worry about the heat if they have the magic items, huh,' There was barely anything he recalled about the kingdom he was currently in, let alone the kingdom of the surrounding neighbourhood so Noir didn't really have many complaints there. If their magic items are a lot better than the ones he saw at the magic item stands, then he was excited to see what they have to offer once he was able to explore outside the kingdom.

Though after he gains some kind of heat resistance if he's going into a desert for who knows how many days.

"Although we lose to them in that aspect, our Mages are stronger than the kingdom and we even rival against the wizard union. But if you want something custom-made, you most likely have to order it from the Lupine Kingdom. I heard over half of their population are artificers."

"Yikes, that sounds like an overrun and competitive industry," Thinking of his days as a streamer and how difficult it was to start a career without any social media presence give Noir a slight chill. Those were the days he spent all waking moments at the chance to become successful. Even though he knows what to do a lot better than he first did, he wouldn't want to build himself up from the bottom up again.

But he didn't miss out on the thing she glanced over.

'What the hell is the wizard union?' It was a term that seemed obvious to an RPG player, but in this world's context, it could mean anything. Noir wanted to ask about it in detail but he was afraid that it would bring him too much suspicion.

"It is, which is why it's able to be so advanced and survive in today's climate, even while the temperature has been increasing lately. It's also a mixture of their kingdom's location and technology they have that makes it a force to be reckoned with if any other kingdom tries to wage wars against them, especially during the summer."

It made sense if you consider their location. Once you got water and food sorted out, which they most likely did through magic items, they wouldn't need any support from the outside world other than for specific commerce.

"Anyway, they're mainly the dream for most artificers. Then we have the Rosette kingdom, which is more focused on physical strength and technique, as well as good food and commerce, though some are questionable. You're likely to find people with specific schools of martial arts there and it has the most adventurers in the world.

I heard that the reason why it's popular for the food is that most of the adventurers retire and become street stall workers. They would sell the cooking they invented during their time on the field and I heard it's usually tasty, though some are nasty. One of my friends told me that they were tricked into eating Diregoat's testicle by one of the native friends because it looked like meatballs to her."

The topic of food made Noir recall a certain kingdom in the novel.

'That's ringing some bells. Is that the place where the original mc went to save his useless brother?' He recalls there being a scene where Emma ate something that had a sauce made with some kind of mammal's semen. It was the perfect place to get life points with the variety of weird foods they have.

"Sounds like an interesting place. Wasn't that where our brother went?" To confirm if it was the right place, he asked. He was curious about his elder brothers as one of them was never mentioned in the original other than the fact he worked as a knight in the kingdom.

But upon mentioning their second brother, Alice had a displeased look on her face.

"That useless piece of shit? Yeah, that's where he went," She still hated him for the troubles he used to cause for the household. He was a fuckboy and it was common for him to break up with girls more often than eating his three meals a day.

Some of the girls would later cause trouble for both Noir and Alice too, which is why she hates him.

"Haha, what about the last kingdom?" Seeing that she was unlikely to talk about their older brothers, Noir switched the topic back to the kingdoms.

"Well, the last one isn't really a kingdom but is more like a tribe that dwells in the frozen mountains. It's called the Lilium Peaks. The people there are best at surviving cold environments and are masters of medicine and the mind. I heard some of the people there are even able to hear people's thoughts."

'And another place with annoying environmental conditions,' He remembers that the Rosette kingdom has a problem with their monster infestations. Out of the four human kingdoms, the Freesia kingdom doesn't have many problems with its territory, other than being the closest to the Demon Continent.

"What kind of impact did the hero have there?"

"Well, he tried using medical knowledge from his world, but the village immediately shunned him until he could prove to them he didn't mean bad."

A bell rang in Noir's head, but he held back from seeming too interested in it.

"Is that so? They must've hated his way of doing things."

"Of course. He once suggested something about the Four Humours that was supposed to explain every form of medicine, but instead it complicated things for us. I'm not sure if it's because the humans in his world are much different, but he'd suggest things like drilling a hole in someone's head for headaches, cutting off some of the tongues to cure stuttering or bleeding a tonne to fix some sort of imbalance in the body…"

While Alice was talking more about the weird things the hero did in his earlier years, Noir was lost in thought from the information.

'I remember my history teacher talking about this… Was the precious hero someone during the 1800s? That would make sense I guess,' He silently thanks his history teacher for shoving some of the past down his neck, but the more knowledge he was gaining, the more confused he got.

'And so few chances to ask questions. Not to mention that I can't focus or write notes during those moments. I really need to upgrade that skill when I get the chance,' He complained at how specific his skill was. It's powerful but inconvenient so a good investment would be to upgrade it after creating the lucky pervert skill.

Maybe something like a question tank that gets fueled by his intimacy with his harem? That way he could focus on things individually instead of being half-assed.

'Plus hearing his voice while having sex is so off-putting,' He wasn't particularly interested in men, let alone old men so it was sort of a mood breaker for Noir.

Though that's going to take a long while to reach.

"Why the sudden question though? Did you get something from asking the Great Sage?" After some time Alice finished her short lesson. Her eyes sparkled a little when she mentioned the Great Sage, probably because it gives them an excuse to kiss again.

'She's quick to catch my drift,' Noir smiled at Alice for figuring out his words and gave her a head pat as a small reward. The person in response was confused about why she was suddenly receiving one but didn't complain as Noir began speaking.

"Yeah, apparently the new Demon King has been recently crowned," Unlike how peaceful it was previously, Alice's face immediately froze from the shocking words. She didn't understand what he said for a moment so Noir repeated his words.

"That's not a good thing! We need to tell the kingdom!" She immediately had her face close to Noir as panic was all over her face. That was how the regular residents of this world would react to the news, unlike how Noir took in the news.

'What mother feared most is happening!' As for Alice, she was worried about what her mother said. Going to war isn't something anyone wants, even if the country makes it sound like a noble thing to do. She didn't want to be separated from her brother. She doesn't want to lose him.

A million and one thoughts raced through her head as she also remembers Noir wanting to apply to the hero academy. If he goes in, he's most likely to get drafted into the war and risk his life for who knows how many years.

However, unlike Alice, Noir calmly sat her down and explained to her some important stuff.

"We can't really do that. No one's going to believe a young baronet with a skill like mine. Even if it was the Great Sage skill, remember how everyone dubbed it as a useless skill that didn't seem to be worth it? They'd question why I haven't received a head injury or something."

That was the sad reality of being a bearer of the Great Sage skill in this day and age. Merlin was a great scholar from 1000 years ago but because of how limited the information was at the time, the correct activation was never taught to the general public. No one truly knew how to use the skill.

At least that's what they might have wanted the public to believe.

'In the original Emma found the correct activation through an ancient record. Although it's small, I have a feeling the kingdom wanted to hide this information to prevent potential future users from abusing the skill.'

Knowledge is a dangerous skill in the wrong hands. The more you know, the more options you'll have and the more options you have, the higher the chances of you creating an irreversible change. It was understandable from that aspect, especially if you want something hidden to remain hidden, but it seems like they weren't able to get rid of all shreds of evidence.

'Too bad it's in my hands now, the God fragment skill,' Although it's not as overpowered as Olvia's creation skill, it was still up there among useful skills.

"This isn't fair," Alice wasn't aware of how useful this fact was, but Noir didn't try telling her this. He wanted her to figure out for herself how useful it is for them to underestimate him and potentially not execute him for trying to lurk around any fun information.

'If they do have something to hide, they would be monitoring Noir 24/7. I guess I'll know if the hidden dungeon gets discovered or not,' It was a gamble on his part, but he didn't think about the possibilities until yesterday night. He was hoping that everything he was hypothesising was just a wild guess, but he was still slightly worried.

"The kingdom already suspects their movements. But remember this Alice, the way we are right now, we're too weak to deal with anything of the future. Fighting against a monster is already a big difficulty, let alone whatever's to hold in the future. We need to train ourselves."

If a situation happens, he wants to prepare for it. The world isn't a slice of life as in the original series so he had to make sure the people around him are at least able to hold back the problems somewhat.

"How?"

"I think it'd be best if we start improving the skills we have and start learning some basic self-defence techniques."

Since they were only starting out, he could only suggest the obvious. Once he gains Olivia's skills though, he'll be able to upgrade his girl's skills, but he'd rather do it sparingly.

'Upgrading skills costs a lot of Lp. The more girls added may help the cost, it also means I'd have another person in need of an upgrade.'

Just having more girls or more lustful encounters wouldn't sort out the problem he'd have unless he had a skill that can passively improve those around him or something along the line.

'But I'll think about that when the time comes,' Although it was important to think about how to save on Lp, without having the skill itself, it was a little unnecessary to think about that instead of something more urgent.

"I think so too, but I don't have much skills other than using a rapier,' Meanwhile Alice agreed to Noir's suggestion before trying to come up with ways for her to get stronger.

She may be at the top of her physical classes, but compared to an adventurer she was still lacking. Her only attack skill was [Rapier Technique] and some skills that a noble lady would learn at the preparatory school like [cooking], [dancing], [sewing] and [etiquette].

Unfortunately magic wasn't a skill that was inherited by the family.

"Even if you don't have many skills now, it doesn't mean you can't learn them later. Or maybe you've yet to awaken your skill? Plus you could use your skills to do stuff outside of the box if you think about it."

"How so? Cooking while using rapier techniques?"

"Haha, not like that, but it could work," Although the idea of cooking as if you're a master in fruit ninja was entertaining to Noir, he had to decline that idea for more important things they could do.

"I was thinking of using the dancing skill to nimbly travel the field or to make the steps just a bit more light. Plus it'd help with your dance classes."

It was a two-for-one deal for Alice. Footwork is important in most fighting situations. Not everything is about taking hits or dishing out attacks, movement was vital. Whenever you dodge, lean to the side or jump around using a lot of energy so you have to know what's the best set of movements to perform.

"Using dancing with swordsmanship… Are you trying to get me to create my own sword school or something?" There was some jokiness in her tone, but Alice was mainly looking at Noir with confusion.

"Haha, nothing like that, but that's an entertaining idea at least."

The idea of creating a school of swordsmanship seemed like a fun activity but Noir knew that doing that would be too much responsibility. Currently, he wanted himself and those around him to be stronger, not be content with their strength and then help the masses

'To help people like that, you need to have the strength to back it off. Anyway, if it's about a dojo, I have something similar in mind.'

One of Noir's goals is to gather a group of people to perform a certain task for him. If things go well he could be raking up money for the service. What is the goal you ask? Well, it's a secret for now.

But for now, Noir stretched his arms as he decided to think out loud for a bit.

"Skills are an amazing thing. Once you put in just enough effort you get rewarded with one. Fulfil certain requirements and you can upgrade that or potentially get yourself a unique one that's only been heard in myths and legends."

The concepts of skills just fascinated Noir. As a gamer and someone who likes numbers/analytics, seeing things like skills, levels and stats improving awakens the geek side of him.

"Big brother…"

"What's up?"

While Noir was immersed in the ideas of skills, Alice seemed to have something to ask Noir.

"May I ask a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

She's noticed many changes in Noir in this past week. She had thought it was due to him getting a job that he's started changing, but with the talk of demon kings and skills, she realised it was too drastic of a change for it to be the regular Noir, who used to run away from most commitments.

"Why have you suddenly decided to start doing things when it's not necessary."

The old Noir, although kind, would carry on staying cooped up in his room. However, in the span of a couple of nights, he's suddenly changed and become proactive, which is something she's happy about but feels something off about it.

In order to find out more about it, she looked at Noir as if examining him. Fortunately for Noir, he already planned a script for this moment.

"It's because I've had enough of being a coward. I want to become my own man and not need to rely on others for assistance."

Noir said that while gripping his hand and looking down. Leaning in enough so his bangs would block his eyes.

"...And I dislike this kingdom. At least how it runs things and looks down on commoners and baronets. I want to change things in this country and make it a better place."

"I see…"

There was silence once more as Noir just looked up with a neutral expression to make his act more convincing. Although he was true about his words, he wasn't as serious as he made it out to be. His target was the kingdom and to have some kind of change to the society, he'd have to get close to the royal family and their politics.

'If I could hook up with the princess or something it would make things easier for me,' Although he doesn't know of the princess from the original series, he recalls her presence briefly in Noir's memories. Though he says this, if her personality is trash he'd pick other options to change the kingdom, they would just be annoying to deal with.

With thoughts like that, more time passed as Alice suddenly jumps towards Noir.

"As expected of my big brother! Your kindness knows no bounds!" And hugs him as if he's done something worthy of celebration. There was some happiness from her reactions, but at the same time Noir questions how far she'd go for him.

"Hey hey, I've not done anything just yet."

"You're right. We should become stronger too."

Hearing her use the term "We" settled it all as Noir broke into a smile. Another phase seemed to have finished but he wanted to start a small phase to sweeten the deal.

"Sounds good to me. Do you think you could teach me to sew? If everything doesn't work out I'd still have the skill to sew and make a tailoring business if that's the case."

"Haha, you like thinking of a backup clause just in case huh."

"It's not really a backup. It's more of an insurance that I won't be the useless third son of a baronet," If everything goes to shit, he'd at least have a backup occupation. Hey, he might be able to make a fortune if he uses the designs from his world.

"Anyway, let's do some sparring."

With motivation in his eyes, Noir was eager to pick up the sword and start training once more.

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