"Dad she-."
"Starting like that makes you already guilty," Uwe said, glaring at Selena, who had walked closer to him only to recoil backward.
"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 observed Uwe's intense gaze on Hendrian.
"Well, not much. We were just arguing, that's all." I looked at Selena, who glared back at me.
"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, do you guys have presents for us?" Karl expressed his happiness upon seeing the boxes.
"Ah, sorry, Karl, these are for Ren. She is getting her weapon today." Leah replied, looking at him apologetically.
"But she already has one. I don't even have one." Hendrian's mutter caught my attention, causing me to feel slightly 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 about accepting someone like that?" Selena began but was interrupted by another shout and glare from Uwe. Selena began to speak, but Uwe responded with another shout and glare.
"Selena!"
"Oh, he is going to get mad if she goes on like that," Lina said, shaking her head in disappointment.
"Why? Her argument seems somewhat valid. I replied, shrugging."
"No, it isn't. 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 annoyed about me being a half-breed."
"I guess they are uneducated shitheads."
"That reminds me, but what exactly am I?" 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, few?" I asked, 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'm so 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 excellent eyesight. For the next one, I would like to provide some clarification. At this point, you were still out, and I began to panic. As a result, I took five random blood vials and injected them into you, although I'm not sure what they contain." Leah explained, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.
"You aren't done, are you?" I asked, with a heavy expression of regret, I admit that I had asked her to tell me.
"Yes, the last one was indeed 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 nodded at her and said,
"Yeah, I would say that at this point, you are approximately one-fifth human, approximately two-fifths dragon, and the remaining two-fifths are whatever else I injected." At this point, your human side is mostly your appearance.
"Wait, then, am I not actually a half-breed, but an outright demon?" I said, looking at her weirdly.
"Now that you bring it up, it's true that you still possess human blood, but your demonic nature surpasses all others. However, I would prefer that they continue to refer to you as a halfling, rather than calling you a half-dragon or anything similar. Leah explained, looking at me sternly.
"Ah, right, cool. There are dragons in the demon society?" I was surprised.
"Yes, but they don't like war very much. They do 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 it with a raised eyebrow.
"I believe I am capable of progressing, even though it has only been a week. I felt that clinging to the past would hinder my ability to move forward in the future. Regardless of the situation I find myself in, something needs to change. It's not solely due to that." I explained thoughtfully.
"Ah, that's good to hear," Leah said, nodding.
"Oh, but let me make myself clear. If you lie to me about the last two months, it will blow up in your face. I might have accepted moving on, but you guys are still old enemies to me." I said, staring at them emotionlessly.
Leah made a fake gulping sound and said, "Okay, okay, you don't have to be like that."
"We never lied to you," Lina said, looking back at me in the eyes.
"…" I was not going to say anything, just stare at her.
"Huh? Huh?" Uwe asked, coming from behind us.
"We were just talking and got distracted," Lina said with a small smile, looking at me.
"Right, anyway. Get into the room. We need to talk." Uwe opened the drawing-room door for us to enter.
"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.
"Don't stop, but cool down."
"Halfbreeds and humans have betrayed her several times. She just came back and killed a gang full of halfbreeds." I nodded in understanding as Uwe spoke.
"Ah, great, just great. So she might try to 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 informed them before my unjustifiable beheading."
"Okay, we'll leave that for 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 an uneducated brat, so I needed to put him in place." I said this, staring at Uwe as if it were his fault. While it really was his fault.
"Ren, I will warn you just this once: don't go too far."
"Hey, you already know that I want to react to your killing intent. Uwe, I will be straight with you as well. Your child deserved a severe beating. Who in his right mind would try to kill his younger brother 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 know. I already 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 resolve the sword issue, but he has already acquired one. Duel blades are soul weapons 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 misplaced the sword just as easily as he acquired it. Sara walked me through the fundamentals of soul weapons, but I don't believe a snotty brat with a stick up his ass could wield an ex-general sword with such ease. Stop with the killing intent. He is my 'brother'. It's family love." I spoke, waving my hands.
"….what?" With wide eyes, Uwe spoke.
"Can we move on to more important things, please?" Leah spoke, placing her box on the table. Lina did the same with hers.
"Right, right, I must apologize, 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.
"One of the country's leaders, to whom I owe a great deal, requested that you marry one of his children. I already knew that you were only interested in 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 arrive at the castle in a few weeks. I believe we set aside 5 weeks for you to 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 that she did something, and now she's 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 spoke, tapping the two boxes on the table.