“Giggle! Dada!”
“Y—Yes...” Davey held the girl in his arms with an awkward and forced smile. He asked, “Why are you so cheerful in the morning?”
“Hehehe! Dada! Dada!”
Nobody knew that a sword could have the authority to materialize into a human. Davey was aware that Caldeiras, the divine sword, could materialize and show her ego, but it made no sense for a sword to become a blob of energy and adopt the human form all by itself.
-Name: Red Ribbon.
-Status: Complete.
-Shape: A wide, two-bladed Ring Pommel Sword.
-Length: 88 centimeters.
-Width: 6 centimeters.
-Contractor: Davey O’Rowane.
-Completion Level: 100%
-Details: Ego has awakened; consciousness of ego is quite young since the ego has awakened earlier than expected due to an unknown reason; although the original creator is different, it sees Davey O’Rowane, the person who finished the sword with everything he had, as her father; ego develops with time; caution: extremely cute.
“...”
-I—It’s not me!
As Perserque shouted with a bright red face, Davey quietly nodded.
Honestly, Davey had thought that he had seen everything; he had survived being thrown into an extreme wasteland and multiple battles that should have killed him. He had changed a curse into a blessing and had also created a springboard for the territory’s success. However, he had never expected nor experienced a sword of his making that took on the form of a human and saw him as her father.
“Hehe. Hehehe.”
As the little girl giggled happily in Davey’s arms, he looked up at Amy who was wheezing. Amy tried to catch her breath. “Wheeze... Wheeze... I’m sorry, Your Highness... She is... Wheeze... Very active...”
Davey could tell that the little girl had incredible stamina despite being young; after all, she was similar to the divine sword. Although she took on the form of a little girl, she was probably a huge ball of energy that had been accumulating for over thousands of years on the inside.
“Thanks for working so hard in the morning...”
“It—It’s fine...” Amy backed away, looking at Davey and Red Ribbon like she couldn’t understand this situation. She usually didn’t doubt Davey, but if even she was looking at him like that, everyone else would definitely be bewildered.
Perhaps it was because of the red-haired girl playing in his arms, but Davey soon saw the blue-haired girl looking up at him. She had her arms out, tugging on his shirt.
“Blue Ribbon...”
“D... Dada.”
‘When did she come in here?’
Blue Ribbon sounded similar to Red Ribbon. In fact, they had such similar appearances that it would be difficult to tell them apart if it wasn’t for their differently colored hair and eyes. Davey could also tell them apart by the slight nuances in their voice and impression. Maybe it was because he had made them, but he could strangely distinguish them rather easily.
‘Maybe I have really become their dad.’ When Davey suppressed a deep sigh from escaping his lips and picked up Blue Ribbon, he heard a gurgle. Red Ribbon wasn’t hiding her happiness, and Blue Ribbon blushed while hugging him tightly. He glanced at them and thought, ‘They are so cute that it hurts my heart.’
“Miss, your hair isn’t done yet,” Amy said.
“Noo!” The girls stuck their tongues out to Amy and buried their faces into Davey’s chest.
Looking at Amy’s helpless expression, Davey said, “Red Ribbon, you have to be a good girl and listen to her.” He persuaded Red Ribbon, since she listened to him relatively well.
Weep... Sob...
“You can’t... You can’t... You can... Okay! I’ll allow it. You can have one more!”
‘Oh, disciplining them is hard already.’
“Yay!” The two girls excitedly ran into Davey’s arms and smiled.
“Damn...” Davey couldn’t help but frown. Still, he made sure to hide that expression from the children.
-They’re not going to listen to you if you do whatever they want.
‘No way. I mean, they’re swords.’
-From the looks of it, they are similar to real children. They might change depending on how you teach and discipline them.
“Hm....”
Giggle, isn’t it funny? They might become saint swords or demon swords depending on how you teach them.
Well, although the standard for whether a sword was a saint or demon depended on the user and not the sword itself, Perserque had a point.
“Well then, let’s check out the most important thing.” Davey couldn’t just let go of his suspicions so easily. It wouldn’t be a problem to think of them as innocent children if they were left like that, but... Davey asked, “Okay, then. Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon. Do you think you can go back to your original form?”
The children understood language rather well. Their speech wasn’t fully developed yet, but that might be due to them not having materialized for long yet. The two kids initially tilted their heads in confusion, but soon went into Davey’s arms as if they understood.
Davey smiled at the children’s warmth for a moment. Very quickly, the two kids emitted a bright light from their bodies as they fully transformed into two swords. Cute, red-haired Red Ribbon transformed into a red sword, and shy Blue Ribbon turned into a blue sword. The children did not protest the transformation, perhaps because that was their original form.
“Hm...” Davey lightly swung the swords after making sure the children had fully transformed. It was a relief that the swords hadn’t weakened or anything from the egos’ awakening. It actually seemed like the power within them had become denser.
‘Transformation is natural as well.’ Davey realized that the girls could change their forms quite naturally as if they relied on instincts.
“That’s good. You can come back now.” As Davey spoke with a cookie in his hand, the swords soon changed back into two girls and ran toward him excitedly. It was as if they were never swords in the first place.
“Dada!”
“C—Cooookie, p—please!”
They were trying so hard to speak even when they couldn’t pronounce words properly. As Davey handed them a cookie with an insuppressible smile, the girls began nibbling their cookie with a serious face; they were trying to savor it.
“Since I can’t just leave them, I should still declare that they are under my care.”
-Aren’t they your daughters? Well, foster daughters might be more like it.
“Are you trying to make me ineligible for marriage?”
-Wasn’t that your intention in the first place?
Davey clicked his tongue at Perserque’s question and stared at the girls. He could’ve just said that he was taking care of them if they were just children, but they were still his first pieces of work that had an ego. Even if they were swords, it didn’t seem too bad to live up to their expectations and act as their father. It was right to take responsibility for them since he had created them in the first place, but...
-Royalty must be cautious with adoption.
“Right.”
It would cause quite a commotion if an unmarried man were to adopt two children with an unknown bloodline. His reputation would be damaged instantly, and trivial rumors would spread. Everyone else would raise a fuss even when the man in question wouldn’t care at all; some nobles just have their noses stuck in everyone’s business.
“Whatever. They can talk crap about me if they want. I’m not going to care about that when I have a million other things to do.”
Davey needed to develop a territory and regain his strength. To Davey, who had unexpectedly come back to another life after spending nearly a thousand years in the Hall, there was no clear goal. The only thing he could think of was to live a long life since he had never led a long life in both his past and current life combined.