Neptunia: Merc's Involvement

Chapter 26: Lastation - Confrontation

'Yeah...I definitely need to spend more time with Uni.' Thought Noire, who was now feeling slightly worried about the type of people her younger sister was hanging around with.

After paying at the counter, the two left the gun store.

"Well, that should be it." Said Alex while carrying the bag containing the oil he bought as he walked back to the Basilicom.

"I suppose so." Said the CPU as she walked alongside him "Say…mind if I ask you something?"

Alex turned his head and looked at her.

"Go ahead."

"How's your first week back been so far?"

Noire asked it as bluntly as she could, but there was some notable hesitation on her tone.

As sudden of a question as it might be, the CPU knew she might not have another chance as good as this one where there only ones around would be the two of them, if you excluded the bystanders moving around the streets of course. Which was why she decided to risk it and ask now.

Alex looked at her in silence for a few seconds before looking forward again and answering her question.

"It's been nice. Definitely missed being in a place I'm familiar with." He said.

"What about Leanbox and Lowee? What's your opinion on those nations during your stay?"

"Well…" Said Alex while thinking about it for a moment.

Leanbox had a sophisticated and modern appearance, but there was too much hype about idols which Alex didn't feel the slightest interest about that even if he did take an interest for 5pb's music.

Lowee was pretty to look at but a bit too cold and there wasn't that much to do except reading or sightseeing.

"They were nice in their own way." He said.

Noire was surprised as she expected him to be more specific with his description about the other nations after living in them but it was hardly anything detailed.

"I thought you'd have more to say about them after the last few weeks."

"I didn't really do much more than what I'm doing now. Just be out in the city helping people or work together with the CPU on something."

"Really? " Said Noire with a surprised expression. "What about Blanc and Vert?"

"Even though I spent a lot of time with Vert towards the end of my stay in Leanbox, she had spent a majority of her time all playing games. As for Blanc, she spent a majority of her time reading in her room."

Noire was left speechless. Not only did Blanc and Vert do no effort to teach Alex about their nations, but they just left him by himself to wander around to his own devices.

'Seriously!? They jusy brought him over to work and didn't even try to make him feel hospitable!?' Thought the CPU with an irritated expression while placing her clenched fist at face level but soon snapped back from it and realized something about what Alex said. 'Wait, did he just call Vert and Blanc by their names?'

One thing Noire noticed about Alex was that he add prefixes to names like Ms to show respect.

Despite this, Alex had just referred to both Vert and Blanc by their names which made Noire wonder if during his stay on Leanbox and Lowee, Alex developed a certain amount of acknowledgment towards them, seeing them on equal footing with him and referring to them by name rather than adding a prefix like he did with most people.

After they returned to the basilicom, the young boy gave the CPU Candidate the oil for her gun before returning to his room while Noire returned to her office.