“Big brother Roel, can you sleep with me tonight?”


  “Ah? …… That doesn’t sound appropriate.”


  After finishing up her dinner, Alicia turned to look at Roel with pitiful eyes as she made a request that left her brother in a difficult position.

  Over the past two years, due to Alicia’s insistence, Roel’s feeding job gradually grew more and more obsolete until it came to a point where he suddenly found himself unemployed. In a way, Roel had expected this to happen since Alicia was already 10 years old.

  In this world, the mana in the atmosphere affected not only beasts but humans too. Humans matured at a younger age here, reaching adulthood at 14, the permissible age for lawful marriages. By such standards, someone of Alicia’s age no longer needed caring for.

  In exchange, however, Roel began receiving all sorts of bizarre requests from her. For one, Alicia liked to dive under his bedsheets, and she always used the same three reasons:

  “Wuuu, big brother Roel, the story in the book was really scary!”


  “Big brother Roel, I had a nightmare.”


  “Big brother Roel, I miss you a lot.”


  There was at least an attempt to justify it for the first two reasons, but the third one was really just trying to brute force her way through.

  It went without saying that Roel had to turn her down.

  He was already 12 this year, and he had already begun growing as a man. It would be inappropriate for him to continue treating her the way he used to.

  However, that was easier said than done. Every time he toughened his will to turn her down, the silver-haired girl would begin tearing up.

  “Big brother Roel, do you not like me anymore? Am I being a bother to you?”


  Just the sight of Alicia crying pitifully made Roel feel like there was something crushing his chest, leaving him suffocated. There was once that he felt that it wouldn’t do for him to continue doting on Alicia like that, so he bucked up all of his willpower and chased her out of his room.

  But for the rest of the night, as soon as his eyes were closed, the forlorn silhouette of a silver-haired girl wiping her tears while leaving the room kept surfacing in his mind. He ended up tossing and turning for the whole night, unable to catch a wink at all.

  It was then he realized that he was physiologically incapable of refusing a crying Alicia.

  However, he really couldn’t allow her to continue doing as she pleased. Due to her bloodline, Alicia had been growing more and more beautiful over the last two years. Worse they weren’t blood-related, there was no saying that something might happen one day if they continued sharing a bed.

  “Alicia, you’re a grown-up now. I don’t think that it’s right for us to continue sleeping with one another.”


  Roel pondered for a long while before finally saying these words. Alicia raised her eyes to look into Roel’s golden eyes silently for a moment before asking softly.

  “Is it because big brother Roel has a fiancée now?”


  “Hm? What does this have to do with me having a fiancée?”


  “I’m only your adopted sister whereas Miss Charlotte is your fiancée. She’s someone who is going to accompany you for life……”


  As Alicia spoke, her voice gradually grew a little agitated. She took two deep breaths before turning her head away from the stunned Roel, as if trying to hide her helplessness and frailty before him.

  Roel stared at the silver-haired girl standing before him, and he suddenly realized that he had been so focused on removing Charlotte’s death flag that he ended up neglecting Alicia. Had Alicia been the one to get engaged instead, he would have surely gone on a rampage. Just the thought of another man getting all touchy with an unwilling Alicia was enough to make flames of rage burn inside him.

  As I thought, all political marriages are toxic, the cancer of society! Marriage should be a union of two loved ones! I can’t allow Alicia to suffer such injustice! The least I can do is to ensure that she retains her freedom to date and marry whoever she likes……

  though it should go without saying that the man would have to first clear Roel’s assessment before being allowed to date Alicia.

  Roel quickly snapped out of his thoughts with a cough. He tried his best to turn his eyes away from the reality that he was a siscon by telling himself that this was his duty as an older brother!

  In any case, he turned his attention back to Alicia and sighed softly to himself. His feelings always triumphed over his rationality in the end.

  “Fine. However, I’ll first put it out clearly that I’ll only allow it at most once a month in the future.”


  As soon as Roel said these words, a smile returned to Alicia’s face as she jumped up from her chair and leaped into Roel’s embrace.

  “Thank you, big brother Roel!”


  “Haa. You’re already a grown-up now, but you still act like a child.”


  “That has nothing to do with age. It’s only normal for girls to act like a child before the person they like.”


  “Yes yes, I get it.”


  Roel couldn’t help blushing at Alicia’s words as he felt an itch in his heart.

  After finishing dinner, the two of them walked hand in hand to the study and spent their time reading and chatting idly. Reading was a hobby Roel picked up after transmigrating to this world as there was simply nothing better to do here to alleviate boredom. But ever since he obtained the Crown Origin Attribute, it had evolved from a simple hobby to a means for him to grow stronger.

  Learning about history was one of the ways to advance the Crown Origin Attribute, albeit slowly.

  Over the last two years, Roel had learned a little more about the rules concerning the growth of the Crown Origin Attribute. For one, he had to read a correct snippet of history in order to absorb a significant amount of mana into his body and enhance his Degree of Assimilation. The effects were further amplified when he was reading about war, politics, dynasties, and related topics.

  The more important and consequential an event he was learning about was, the greater the growth of the Crown Origin Attribute.

  As for fake snippets of history, the effects depended on the degree of fabrication as well. The mana absorbed would typically be significantly lesser, roughly around 30% compared to reading a correct snippet of history.

  To summarize, the more fabricated the history, the greater the loss in efficiency. Too many lies, and the Crown Origin Attribute would hardly grow at all.

  This discovery made Roel realize why his ancestors would often head out on adventures. Most likely, there were encountering too many falsehoods in recorded history that their growth slowed to a tortoise’s crawl. In the end, they couldn’t take it anymore and decided to take matters into their own hands.

  It was fortunate that Roel’s Origin Level was still low at the moment, and his ancestors had left behind quite a huge collection of historical records. On top of that, he had sneaked away several carriages of books from the Holy Capital’s Royal Library, so there were plenty of books for him to read through at the moment.

  “Big brother Roel, what do you think of this book? It looks quite interesting.”


  In the study, Alicia, who had cultivated a habit of reading after having accompanied Roel for the past few years, held up a book named Secrets of the Seafolk. Just a glance at the title was enough to dispel Roel’s interest.

  “It’s indeed a historical record, but it’s fake. Don’t bother looking at it, I didn’t get any reaction when I flipped through it back then.”


  Roel spoke words that could easily be mistaken as an innuendo.

  The book, Secrets of the Seafolk, contained mainly speculations, so there was hardly any concrete content in there at all. Rather than a historical record, it could be more accurate to think of it as a fantasy-horror genre novel.

  “Is that so? Are the Seafolk nothing more than legends?”


  Roel’s evaluation had greatly decreased Alicia’s interest. She casually flipped through the pages, feeling a little regretful that one of her fantasies was fictional. Surprisingly, her black-haired brother shook his head in response.

  “No, the Seafolk do exist. There are records of sightings over at the northern archipelago.”


  “Ah? Is that true? Are there beautiful mermaids like those in the stories Lord Brother has told me?”


  Roel recalled the fairy tale he had told Alicia on a whim, and he quickly retracted his words.

  “Those stories I told you about have been beautified. Those of the Seafolk aren’t that beautiful, and they have a ferocious nature. They can be considered to be an ancient species on the Sia Continent, so it would be hard to see them anymore.”


  Roel recalled the historical records he had read and the conversation he had with Grandar, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit whimsical at how so many things had changed since the old days.

  Based on Grandar’s account, mermaids and similar species were fairly common back in his era, and he had once met a merman by the seaside. The term, Seafolk, was an all-encompassing reference to all intelligent beings living in the sea, but this broad category could be further divided into many different species. One notable trait of the Seafolk was that they were fairly territorial, so most of the major seas had a ruler.

  The prowess of the Seafolk should not be underestimated. In the vast ocean, there were even oceanic beasts that possessed powers comparable to the gods, making it far more dangerous than the world on land.

  However, as time passed, the Seafolk gradually faded from view. Humankind hadn’t even been able to fully explore the lands of West Sia over the past thousand years since their migration, let alone exploring the oceans.

  “I see. Hm? What is this?”


  Alicia was in the midst of listening to Roel’s explanation while casually flipping through the book when she suddenly jerked to a halt. She slowly retrieved an envelope from between the pages and assessed it closely. Slowly, her lips curled up.

  She casually turned toward Roel, wrapped her hand around his neck, and rested her chin on her shoulder. Then, with a coy voice, she began claiming credit.

  “Lord Brother, look at what I’ve found here.”


  “Hm? An envelope? Where did it come from?”


  “It was stuffed between the pages of the book you said is fake. It seems to have quite some years to it.”


  “Indeed. The paper has already yellowed.”


  Roel assessed the envelope in Alicia’s hands before nodding his head. He carefully took it from her hands and raised it up to the light in an attempt to peer through it.

  “The paper doesn’t allow light through and turns a little green…… This is Barke paper in its earlier years. It’s particularly known for its resilience, but the manufacturing costs are too high. I believe its production was discontinued about 300 years ago.”


  Roel came to a conclusion using the huge arsenal of knowledge he had accrued over the last two years. His heart jolted when he realized that the envelope he was holding onto was actually antique, and his movements immediately became much more careful than before.

  Alicia had practically picked up a huge EXP pack for him!

  Roel knew that this was a good opportunity for him. Through reading all sorts of historical records, he managed to reach the peak of Origin Level 5 within two years. However, he soon realized that he had reached a bottleneck; the Crown Origin Attribute had already stopped growing for half a year now.

  Grandar had already been urging him to go on an adventure to seek out the impetus required for him to make a breakthrough. However, with the eventual fates of his ancestors weighing on his mind, Roel dared not make a move recklessly.

  However, this antique envelope could very well provide the impetus he needed for his breakthrough!

  An object that had 300 years of history could be considered to be of substantial value to the Ascart House too, though the content of the object was equally important as its age.

  Roel examined the wax seal on the envelope, and he noticed that it was quite an interesting insignia.

  “An anchor and a rose? Wait a moment, is this gold wax? How extravagant!”


  “Gold wax? That would explain the color of the seal. It does look like they have mixed gold in.”


  Roel’s analysis sparked Alicia’s curiosity too. The two of them carefully opened the envelope and retrieved a slightly yellowish letter from inside before placing it on the table. The letter was surprisingly concise, containing just a single sentence of words.

  It was just that……

  “Big brother Roel, these words are different from the ones we use.”


  “This is a language of the Ancient Austine Empire. It was used before the Third Epoch Year 378, and it was renowned to be a dignified language exclusive to the nobles. However, due to its complexity, it gradually grew out of use before becoming obsolete.”


  “I see. Are you able to read the content of the letter then?”


  “You can say so.”


  Alicia’s eyes twinkled with stars upon hearing Roel’s answer. All of a sudden, she felt that her older brother looked even suaver than before.

  On the other hand, the black-haired boy chuckled softly at her response before he began deciphering the words on the letter earnestly.