Noir Settles In

It didn't take Noir too long to get used to his life in the modern world he'd ended up in. He learnt that the place where he had met Solis was actually a hotel – something like an inn, but much fancier – and not his house. Which was quite a relief for Noir, because he'd been worried about safeguarding Solis.

Solis lived in a secluded estate in the outskirts of a city called Green City. He had travelled for some work to Red City and stayed in a hotel for a couple of days – which is where Noir had appeared. That day, after giving Noir permission to stay with him, Solis had called his subordinates to take Cain and the mercenaries into custody and had immediately returned to his home in Green City, taking Noir with him. Noir had been like a wide-eyed child seeing the world for the first time, and Solis had been unnaturally patient as he explained things to Noir on the way. When they reached Solis's home, Noir had insisted on taking a full tour of the house and met all the servants and guards. Solis didn't like to be disturbed too much, so all the servants and guards, except the ones on duty, lived in outhouses within the estate. Just outside Solis's private villa, there were usually half a dozen guards with guard dogs. Within the villa, there was a cook who came in once a day to prepare meals, and two servants who helped Noir with his daily activities.

Solis had kept his promise and given him a book which had the myth mentioning Prince Noir. Although Prince Noir's appearance in the myth was quite short (only about four chapters) and the rest of it was mostly about the exploits of Emperor Licht, Prince was a popular character among the masses – because he was beautiful, talented, young, mysterious and tragic. That's right – tragic. It appeared that Prince Noir really had died in his fall from the viewing tower! And, at the time of his death, a silver mist had risen from the ground and engulfed his corpse, which had then disappeared. No one knew what had happened, and some people hypothesised that Prince Noir's demi-god Master had taken away his corpse to make him reincarnate as a demi-god in his next life. The royal family, especially Crown Prince Licht, had been so saddened by Prince Noir's death that they had built a shrine in his name and it was said that visiting the shrine brought great luck for anything work related – be it a student's exam or a new business venture!

Noir was honestly flummoxed after reading all this. He didn't know if he ought to be amused or annoyed. However, he was very interested in the silver mist that had taken his body away…if his guess was right, it was this very light that had brought him into Solis's arms…but shouldn't it have taken him before he hit the ground? Perhaps there was a mistake in the writing.

More importantly, the silver teleportation really was a skill of his Master. Noir knew it very well. Master had once used it to save him from a ferocious beast. Noir had been seven years old at the time, and had wandered off in the middle of the night, wanting to hunt big, furry beast and make nice fur cloak for his Master's birthday. Unfortunately, a child of seven was hardly a match for the ten feet tall beast he had run into. Just when Noir thought he was about to be eaten, a silver mist had engulfed him and brought him into his Master's arms. Master had been furious, and Noir had been grounded for three months.

So…if the silver mist really was supposed to bring him to his Master…then why did Solis have no memory of anything? Solis didn't show any demi-god attributes, either, but Noir couldn't say for sure without testing it properly, and that was a very elaborate process which Solis would probably refuse. Had Master's powers and memories been sealed, somehow? Or was it that Solis was a descendant of Master and not Master himself…?

Noir was certain that Solis was somehow related to Master. Not only did he have the same face, but his demeanour and preferences were also very similar. Noir had started testing it out by making his Master's favourite dishes and alternating them with those he disliked, and realised that Solis had the exact same tastes as his Master. And although the style of clothes in this world was completely different, their choice of colours was the same. They even smelled the same!

While Solis's real identity perplexed Noir to no end, he had quickly grasped the basic situation in the current world. Basically, magic had disappeared from this world, even healing magic – and what remained was only made-made medicine to treat people. Moreover, Noir found, the knowledge and use of natural medicine was also almost extinct. No wonder the healers here had been unable to do anything about Solis's legs. Over half the things Noir needed to start treating him were not even known to people here! It made Noir really frustrated. He couldn't believe that these things didn't exist here, especially since he had found three of the plants he needed in Solis's backyard – and, to his horror, the gardener had labelled them as weeds and was plucking them out!

So now, besides the basic looking after of Solis, Noir spent long hours poring over books detailing plants and animals in this world, and was slowly beginning to gather everything he needed to heal Solis.

Speaking of Solis, he was the boss of a gang called Chaos Demon. While their original business had been in the underworld, thanks to Solis's leadership, they also owned one of the largest legitimate corporations in the world which had offices in several countries around the world. In fact, some governments even recognised Chaos Demon as a legitimate gang! Noir had been amused to learn that monarchy was almost extinct in this world, and people chose their own leaders by voting for them in most countries. The concept fascinated him so much that Solis gave him school level books on social sciences to read.