Chapter 28: Heart to Heart

"So, what you are telling me is that all I need to do is make sure there are enough resources for this thing to make metal sheets like that?" Selena explained, pointing at the storage containers behind her. Something I brought here a while back while I was waiting for her

"Yes, and you need to make sure it is flawless. No problems with the sheets, as that will be a wall, so it needs to be strong." I explained sternly.

"Yes, yes, that doesn't sound that complicated," Selena said, dismissively nodding.

"Until you see how fast this thing works," I said, grinning and tapping the glass top of the machine.

"What? How fast will it print one sheet?" Selena asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"2 minutes."

"Wha-what!! I have seen 3D printers at work. There is no way this thing will only take 2 minutes to make one 9-square-metre metal sheet." Selena said, baffled at my blatant lie accordingly to her, though.

"Normal ones will take longer, but I made this one," I said, boasting a bit.

"And what, you're some genius or something?" Selena said sarcastically.

"I learned most of all this from Doc and his wives," I said, shaking my head.

"Wives? Like multiple?" Selena said, tilting her head at me.

"Yeah, like Uwe has. Now that I think about it, I know multiple people with more than one wife. Huh, interesting." I muttered thoughtfully.

"Why are you calling Dad by his name?" Selena asked curiously, but her facial expression told me something else.

"Because I have only been adopted for a month, and it's a bit weird for me to do that."

"Then call him the Demon King."

"Ah, he doesn't like that, though," I said, raising an eyebrow.

"I am sure he would like it more than being called by his name by a halfling," Selena said, making me sigh in annoyance.

"Didn't Uwe talk about not calling me that?" I said, looking at her with a raised eyebrow, trying to hide my annoyance.

'I honestly don't care what people call me, but this isn't how Leah and Lina said they are, so this is more problematic than it should be.' I thought, sighing and returning to setting up the programme for Selena.

"Are you going to cry to our daddy if I don't stop calling you halfling?"

"No, but if I understand our society correctly, you need to listen to me because I am stronger than you," I said, making her grumble in anger.

"You were lucky." She said this, fuming and crossing her arms.

"Whatever you tell me, why do you hate halflings so much? I mean, something must happen for you to be like this." I said, gesturing at her.

"Why would I tell you?" She said this, looking away.

"Well, I am sure Leah and Lina don't know, or else they would have told me most likely the reason or a hint to it," I said thoughtfully.

"Why would they tell you about my personal life? You were only adopted like a month ago." Selena said, raising an eyebrow at me like I was crazy.

"Well, I might look like this, but I am older than you and have gone through more problems in life than you. As I was saying, seeing that you haven't told Leah or Lina about your mental state, you think they might think less of you. Same with you. Just don't talk to any of your siblings about it." I explained, only to see her look at me like I was crazy again before

"Hahaha, this is just bullshit. What do you think you can read me now, huh, because you're mistaken? There is nothing wrong with my mental state." Selena laughed before getting angry at me again and drawing her sword at me.

"Says the girl that is holding a knife to an innocent girl," I said, just looking at her blade pointed at my face.

"Ugh, so what? My problems have nothing to do with you," she said, taking her sword away again.

"Ah, but that is where you are wrong. Right now, I am your boss. You listen to me, and I need to know what to do to make you more productive so that my work and the project we are busy with can go easier. You get it. Also, I am new. We don't know each other much, so we are strangers, but strangers that can be trusted way more because we are technically family. Me being adopted or not." I explained honestly, sighing, seeing that she actually thought about my words before answering.

"So, what does that mean?" Selena said, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Did you know talking about your problems makes understanding why and how to move on easier? I am a stranger, someone who has nothing to judge you on. So, talk about yourself." I said not to answer her directly.

"Tsk,"

"Come here, so you put these containers in here and insert the start of the string in this little thing here. It's easy to do it. Also, if the print comes out crooked, stop it and check what is wrong. If you don't understand, call me. I will be here somewhere." I explained while putting in the first container and everything else for her.

"How many sheets will be made out of one container?" Selena asked, standing before the 3D printer.

"18 or 17. Also, do be careful. Each box is like 300 gold." I said, thinking hard.

"What!? That much for only one!" Selena exclaimed, spinning towards me, baffled.

"Yeah, so don't mess it up," I said, teleporting a chair behind me before sitting down.

"What are you doing?" Seelan said, narrowing her eye at me again.

"I need to see if you will be fine or not." I simply answer, taking out my tablet.

"I will be fine."

"Then start," I said, not looking up at her.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Press the enter button," I said, not hearing her start after a while.

"Right," Selena said, nodding and pressing the enter button on the laptop connected to the 3D printer.

"So, you are going to tell me what happened to you?" I said, glancing up from the tablet.

"Again, why should I?" Selena said, concentrating on her.

"Well, I need to know you to understand you."

"Then ask me to tell you about myself then."

"Ah, that's true, but please keep your concentration on the printer," I said, reminding her about her job.

'Though she doesn't actually need to worry about missed prints, that won't easily happen, and it stops on its own when the scanner senses it, and the demon's technologies are years in front of us, so it really won't be a problem.' I thought, reminding myself how I reacted when I found out how good their tech was. On second thought, that was really embarrassing. I was a little kid in a candy store. Even though I wasn't even in a store, I was in the castle, running around.

Face palming, I breathed out, calming myself.

"What the hell was that?" Selena said, looking confused at me confused.

"I just remembered something quite embarrassing," I said, looking away.

"Ah, right… You know what? Why don't you tell me about yourself first? Then I will tell you about myself. Maybe I will."

"That will make more sense. So, I am a half-demon that came from the human world. I was abandoned by my parents at a young age."

"Oh, so you really are half human and got a human power? That is some luck," Selena said, whistling.

'That's possible? I didn't know half-demons could get human powers. That also makes sense as to why people didn't look at me weirdly when I teleport around.' I thought, understanding even more about the demon society.

"Well, it's actually because my powers are only being S rank that they abandoned me."

"What? Seriously?" Selena said, baffled.

"Yeah, I am still confused why, though. I mean, I can knock out a guy with an A-rank enforcement power active in one shot. I am also great at duels. I don't lose those easily." I said, boasting about myself and annoying her.

"And now you are boasting," Selena said, annoyed.

"What? You wanted to know about me, so I am telling you about myself." I said it innocently.

"Right, right, telling someone how strong you are is telling them more about yourself."

"Fine, I guess you have a point there. After I got abandoned, I lived in a warehouse that I made to fly in the upper atmosphere."

"Ah, so you did something like we are doing right now before?"

"Yes, kind of. I always had the original ground that I just built on, and when it was half destroyed the last time, I still had most of the warehouse, so this will be the first time I made it out of scratch," I explained, looking at the platform proudly.

"I see, so I've got some genius tech sister now," Selena muttered, nodding to herself.

"Uh, I guess. Is that a compliment or not?" I said, a bit confused at her character change all of a sudden.

"It depends on what you will be doing with all your knowledge," Selena said, getting serious again.

"Demon tech is way more advanced than human tech, so I need to catch up more." I simply said, making her nod.

"But you were more advanced than human tech, weren't you, or am I reading too much into it?" Selena said thoughtfully.

"Huh, I was, but... never mind. Even though I was more advanced, demons were still ahead of me."

"I see, that's good to know," Selena said, nodding and smiling proudly.