I said, "Now, to answer your original question," before someone interrupted me.
"Haha, so my father betrayed me and gave the sword to an outsider."
"No one stole this sword from you. I found it on a battlefield and picked it up. For some reason, it resonated with me deeply, or whatever you might call it. I said, inspecting the sword. For an unknown reason, the katana underwent another transformation. Although my height was different, the length didn't change, making it feel like I was carrying an odachi around. However, it did lose its tsuba. The handle stayed black while the blade became red-golden, the same as the triquetra in my eyes.
"It's quite a beautiful katana, isn't it?" I mumbled, turning it in my hands.
"Y-yes," Sara said, still in shock.
"What is your name, Runt?" Hendrian said, leaking killing intent.
"You didn't hear what I said?" I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Peasant, answer me!"
"Sigh, sorry, Sara, but get the healers," I said while rolling up my sleeves.
"But…"
"Oh, so you really are royalty now. Heh. However, it doesn't matter if you show me your insignia. I am of higher rank than you." Hendrian replied, grinning.
"Haha, here's something you should know about me. I don't give a shit about authority. You hold a higher rank than I do. Who the fuck cares?" I uttered the words, piercing the earth with the sword.
"Who! Who cares! This is a formality you must uphold, ugh." As Hendrian mentioned earlier, he could only see dirt.
"Like it says, I don't fucken care, you dumb shit," I said, stepping on his head and sending it deeper into the ground.
"Mhmuh!"
"Come again. I can't hear you." I pulled his head out of the ground, annoyed.
"stop this."
"Stop? Are you mad? I've already initiated your punishment for calling me a brat." I grasped his shoulder and then dislocated it.
"Aaagh!"
"Now, the other one."
[10 minutes later]
"Wha-what happened here, Sara?" Julia asked, looking at the bloody Hendrian on the floor with a sword sticking out of his thigh and all his limbs in the wrong direction.
"Uh, Hendrian attacked Lucas and Karl. We intervened." Sara spoke with a dead fish's gaze.
"Yeah, I heard that from the knights already, but why does Hendrian look like that?" Julia said, pointing at the miserable sight on the ground.
"Oh, he called Ren a brat and runt a few times, and she didn't have it," Sara said, gesturing towards me, sitting cross-legged on a rock not far from them, eating melted ice cream.
"Are the healers on their way?" Julia said, pale, not wanting to look at me for long.
"They should be. I did call them a while ago."
"I see. Note to self: don't piss off Ren." Julia and Timmy mumbled in unison.
"Oh yeah, Julia, just a question about your deceased fiance. Do you know what sort of sword he used?" Sara asked softly.
"His sword? Hmm, if I remember, it was a soul-bonding sword." Julia said it with a thoughtful expression.
"Yeah, I know that, but what were its perks, and how did it choose owners?"
"Perks? I don't know much about them, but the main thing is that they boost your strength and agility and give you the ability to manipulate fire. They also provide resistance, which is undoubtedly a factor.
'Fire manipulation? I don't remember the general using fire, though?' I thought about not stopping eating my ice cream. Just then, a few people came running at us, or, more specifically, toward Hendrian to heal him.
Indeed, its name was Hou Yao. I'm not sure how to identify who owned it. You will have to ask Dad. Anyway, why are you asking? "Well, it's probably the same strength as most soul-bounding weapons," Julia spoke, tilting her head towards Sara.
"Uhm, Princess Sara, can someone please remove the sword from Prince Hendrian's thigh?" One of the healers said this to Sara, bowing.
"To get it out, you will need to ask the owner of the sword," Sara said, gesturing towards me.
"Uhm, who is that?" The healer looked at one of the maids, mumbling under his breath.
"You haven't been informed?" One of the maids whispered to the healer.
"No, I have never seen that."
"Don't call her that." Sara interrupted, then sighed. "Then allow me to introduce her to you." My new big sister, Ren Daimonas, is here. She's 18 years old, so she's the second oldest now."
"Um, greetings, Princess Ren." The healers shouted, bowing 90 degrees towards me.
"Hmm, why are all of you guys bowing? If that idiot dies, I will burn alive." I pointed at Hendrian, who was lying on the floor.
"Haha, I won't worry too much about that. He won't die that easily. However, Mother will rip you a new one if she sees the garden." Sara spoke as she walked up beside me.
"Why?"
"Well-"
"Uhm, sorry, Princess Ren, but can you please remove the sword? We won't be able to do any healing with it in him." The healers replied, bowing again.
"Oh yeah." Lifting my hand, I gesture upward, making the sword fly into the air.
"Thank you." The healers said this before rushing over to the idiot to heal him.
"These things are so useful," I said, making it float in front of me.
"Sara, I understand the potential scenario with that sword, but isn't the compatibility too strong?" It's absurd for a soul-bound sword to be able to maneuver with such command. That's insane." Julia muttered to Sara.
"Yeah, I agree. I am certain Hou Yao was a hard sword to control, though," Sara murmured back to no one in particular.
"What did you just say, Sara?" Julia glared at Sara and then at me, but I just looked back at her without showing any emotion.
'It was inevitable that the sword would come up, but Sara made a significant mistake here.' I thought, sighing to myself.
"Well, let's take this somewhere else, yeah," I said, teleporting us to the roof Sara and I were on before the fight.
"Kyaaaa!?"
"Ren! Didn't I tell you to warn me?" Sara yelled, glaring at me.
"Now that I remember, humans could also teleport."
"I will be stopping you there. I can guarantee that it wasn't me who killed that guy." I said, pointing at myself.
"Yeah, mom told me all about it last night. Her story." Sara said, smiling.
"Sigh, my home was near the final battlefield before the peace treaty. You do know I am a half-breed, right? If not, now you do. My family hid in a village that didn't really care about race, humans, or demons. Both sides were there." I said, explaining.
Sara exclaimed, "Wait, there is a place like that!" Her surprise caused me to look at her as if she were naive.
"Oh, yes, mom did mention something like that." Tehee." Sara chuckled as she tapped her head.
"Now, my parents and siblings are making sacrifices to ensure my survival." When everything was over, I went to the area where I heard the most fighting. When I arrived, I noticed a sword lying on the ground next to a filthy, hairy corpse.
"Don't call my dear hairy!"
"Oh, sorry about that, but it is his fault my parents are dead," I said, not sounding very emotional.
"No, it's the humans' fault. They are the ones who started it."
"Hmm, that's not what I've heard." Your fiance took his troops and attacked the humans so that the treaty could fall through. He disobeyed orders—something that would have gotten him killed anyway if he survived."
"That makes sense."
"Yeah, so don't think so highly of your deceased fiance. He was a dumb tyrant." I said it emotionlessly, staring at her.
"He wasn't dumb," Julia muttered, failing to make a compelling argument.
'He was holding back when his life was at risk. How dumb can you be? I thought, shaking my head.
"Well, now you know the details of how I got the sword."
"I guess then it's fine that you keep it, hmph," Julia said, looking away.
"Sigh, it's not like you can take it away from me now. It's already soul-bound to me."
"You can remove it, but it's quite dangerous."
"How?"
The goal is to render you so weak that the sword no longer recognizes you.
"Hmm, I see. It doesn't sound fun."
"It isn't, but don't worry. Daddy won't do that for something like this."
"Oh yeah, is it possible to have more than one?"
"Not really. It will drain your soul, so I don't recommend it."
'I wonder, what would be my maximum number of swords?' I thought to myself, chuckling.
"I don't like that chucking of yours," Julia said, stepping away from me.
"Hehe, don't worry, it's not bad."
"If you say so," Julia said.
"I won't recommend going for more swords, Ren. They can destroy your soul," Sara said, seeing right through me.
"Hey, we only know each other for a day. Please refrain from judging me based on my appearance. I spoke, averting my gaze from her pout.
"Haha." Sara laughed.