"Dad she-."
"Starting like that makes you already guilty," Uwe said, glaring at Selena, who walked closer to him only to recoil backwards.
"You guys are earlier than I thought," I said, nodding at him.
"Glad to see you are still the same, Ren," Uwe said, seeing me not even react to his frown.
"Dad! You guys are finally back." Karl yelled, running up to his father.
"What the hell happened this last week," Uwe asked, looking at everyone while his gaze lingered on Hendrian the longest.
'He really worries for the dumbass.' I thought, noticing the sort of gaze Uwe held for Hendrian.
"Well, not much. We were just arguing, that's all." I said, looking at Selena, who glared back.
"I could hear that," Uwe said, nodding.
"Hmm, oh, everyone is here," Lina said, walking to the dining hall with Leah behind her. Both of them were carrying boxes on their backs.
"Oh, you guys have presents for us?" Karl said happily, seeing the boxes.
"Ah, sorry, Karl, these are for Ren. She is getting her weapon today." Leah said, looking at him apologetically.
"But she already has one. I don't even have one." I heard Hendrian mutter, making me feel a bit guilty. Only a bit, though. Glaring at us, he turned away from us.
"What are you guys talking about?" I said, looking at them confused.
"We will explain. "Come, let's go talk," Leah said, grabbing me by the shoulder from behind and starting to push me out of the dining hall.
"I will join you guys in a bit; I just have to talk with everyone," Uwe said, looking at Selena.
"Father, what were you guys thinking accepting someone like that?" Selena started saying, only to get another shout and glare from Uwe.
"Selena!"
"Oh, he is going to get mad if she goes on like that," Lina said, shaking her head in disappointment.
"Why? It's kind of fair what she is going on about, though." I said, shrugging.
"No, it's not. We don't discriminate in this family. It is low and unethical. I hate it when people do that."
"Haha, really, you should have seen the number of nobles that we face-slapped because they were annoying us about me being a half-breed."
"I guess they are uneducated shitheads."
"That reminds me, but what am I really? I know I am a half-demon, but what sort of demon am I?" I asked, tilting my head at Leah.
"Ah, well, you are a mixture of a few," Leah said, looking away.
"What is this, a few?" I said, pressing on.
"First, I gave you my blood, a succubus," Leah said, making my face sink.
"…. What?"
"Ah, don't worry. You won't get any of my powers or turn into a horny little lady at all. I made sure to extract that out of myself years ago," Leah explained, making me sigh in relief.
"Sigh, I can't believe I am relieved to hear something so fucked up," I said, looking at Leah like she was crazy.
"After that, we gave you the blood of the demi-demon of the eagle tribe. It is one of the tribes with good eyesight. Now for the next one, I just need to clarify. At this point in time, you were still out, and I started to panic like crazy, so I took 5 random blood vials and injected them into you, so I don't know what they are." Leah explained, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
"… You aren't done, are you?" I said with a heavy expression of regret that I even asked her to tell me.
"Ah yes, the last one was one of our relics. It's also the blood that woke you up. Uhm, dragon blood; that's where your scales come from." She said this, pointing at my eye.
"Huh, I see. Not that bad." I said, nodding at her.
"Yeah, because I would say you are now about 1 fifth human, about two-fifths dragon, and the last 2 fifths you are whatever else I injected. Your human part is mostly your appearance at this point.
"Wait, then, am I actually not a half-breed but an outright demon?" I said, looking at her weirdly.
"Uuuh, now that you mention it, yes and no, you still have human blood, but you are way more demon than anything else. though I would prefer that they still call you a halfling instead of half-dragon or something." Leah explained, looking at me sternly.
"Ah, right, cool. There are dragons in the demon society?" I said, surprised.
"Yes, but they don't like war a lot. They like to have order around them, though." Leah explained, making me look at her weirdly.
"You are very chill about this, or am I reading you wrong?" Lina said with a raised eyebrow.
"Hmm, it might have just been a week, but I feel I can move on. It just felt like holding on to the past was going to make it harder for me to move on in the future. Something that must happen, seeing what situation I am in anyway. Though it's not only because of that." I explained thoughtfully.
"Ah, that's good to hear," Leah said, nodding.
"Oh, but let me make myself clear. If I find out you have lied to me in any way about what happened in the last 2 months, it will come back to bite you in the ass. I might have accepted moving on, but you guys are still old enemies to me." I said, staring at them emotionlessly.
"Okay, okay, you don't have to be like that mean," Leah said, making a fake gulping sound.
"We never lied to you," Lina said, looking back at me in the eyes.
"…" Not saying anything; I just stared at her.
"Huh? What are you guys doing still in the hallway?" Uwe said, coming from behind us.
"We were just talking and got distracted," Lina said with a small smile, looking at me.
"Right, anyway, get in the room. We need to talk." Uwe said, opening the drawing-room door for us to go in.
"Okay." We all said it in unison, going in and sitting on the couches. Lina and I were on one side, and Leah sat on the other side.
"Alright, so I got the basics of what happened in the dining hall. I talked with Selena about it, and she should cool down for now." Uwe said, looking at me.
"Not stop, but cooldown?"
"She has been betrayed a few times by halfbreeds and humans. She just came back killing a gang full of halfbreeds, even." Uwe said, making me nod in understanding.
"Ah, great, just great, so she might try and get me in my sleep if she thinks I am up to something?" I said, laughing sarcastically.
"Yeah, but we both know that's not possible."
"Heh, she might even think she is stronger than me because of this morning," I said, chuckling at the thought.
"Hmm, what happened?"
"I was doing endurance training with Sara, and we went a bit overboard," I said with a small smile.
"Ah, no wonder she looked so pale," Lina said, nodding.
"Yeah, sorry about that," I said apologetically.
"Oh, so that's why the guards intervened," Uwe said, remembering a report he got from the guards.
"I told them too before I got beheaded for no reason."
"Okay, we will leave that to you to sort out at some point. Now on to Hendrian. What did you do to him?"
"I beat him up, of course. He was being an uneducated brat, so I needed to put him in place." I said, staring at Uwe like it was his fault. While it really was his fault.
"Ren, I will warn you just this once: don't go too far."
"Hey, now you already know I want to react to your killing intent. Uwe, I will be straight with you as well. Your dumb child needed to get a beating. Who in the right mind will try to kill his younger brother just over a sword he can't use?" I said it aggressively, narrowing my eyes.
"I promised him if-"
"If the dumb general dies, you will give him the sword. I already know I asked him. But now you can't give it to him because someone else is soul-bound to that thing, right?"
"… yes, and stop interrupting me."
"I will try my best."
"Well, I am trying to sort out the sword problem, but he somehow got one already. Duel blade soul weapon somehow. I'm sure you saw it. Anyway, I don't think he will even be able to get the fire sword."
"He would have lost the sword as easily as he got it. Sara explained to me the basics of soul weapons, but I don't think an ex-general sword will like to be wielded by a snotty brat with a stick up his ass. Stop with the killing intent. He is my 'brother'. It's family love." I said, waving my hands.
"….what?" Uwe said with wide eyes.
"Can we move on to more important things, please?" Leah said, putting the box she had on the table. Lina did the same with hers.
"Right, right, I must apologise, Ren Diamon, but there might be a betrothal coming to the castle in a few days," Uwe said, sitting down on the couch.
"What the fuck do you mean by that?" I said, looking at them weirdly.
"Uh, one of the country's leaders, someone I owe a lot to, asked to have you marry one of his kids. Now I already know you only like girls. So I explained-"
"Just get to the point, please. Sorry, I interrupt again." I said, looking away.
"It's fine. So, in the end, his daughter will be coming to the castle in a few weeks. I think we said 5 weeks so you could grow to your normal size." Uwe explained.
"I am not marrying someone I don't love!" I yelled, annoyed.
"Well, you don't have to. All I will say is she did something, and now she is paying the price by trying to win you over." Uwe explained, smiling awkwardly at me.
"Yeah, whatever; it's not important right now," Lina said, changing the subject.
"That is right. Here, open them and choose your sword." Leah said, tapping the two boxes on the table.