Shiro experimentally swung the Yang Sword in his hand.
He barely moved his arm—Yet the sword suddenly began trembling violently.
Its blade released an intense wave of heat, practically vibrating with joy as though it had finally found a new master it adored.
"Uh..."
The Yang Sword's reaction left Shiro speechless.
At this point, it was obvious that the thing calling out to him from beside Priscilla earlier had been this sword.
The Yang Sword also possessed attributes related to the Sun.
So being attracted from afar by Shiro's aura was not particularly strange.
Still...
Shiro glanced up at the intrigued Priscilla standing before him, then lowered his gaze toward the Yang Sword.
This was absolutely Priscilla's sword.
'Your current owner is literally standing right there.'
'Why are you clinging to me like some abandoned puppy?'
'And what the hell is [Celestial Star Spirit's Protection] supposed to be?'
'It actually made this sword act like some corrupted heroine from an adult doujin, openly abandoning the victim to flirt with the blond guy right in front of him.'
'Isn't this effect a little too strong?'
"What is that expression?"
Priscilla, unaware of what Shiro was thinking, noticed the strange look of amusement and helplessness on his face.
A trace of displeasure flashed through her scarlet phoenix-like eyes.
"It is merely a sword."
"Do you truly believe I would behave like those incompetent fools who value possessions more than life itself and blame others simply because they cannot protect what belongs to them?"
"Jewels possess value only when they adorn my body."
"In the hands of ordinary people, their original brilliance merely becomes tarnished."
"There are always fools who believe that wearing decorations similar to mine will somehow steal a fraction of my radiance."
"Such people are not only stupid."
"Looking at them for even a moment dirties my eyes."
"No matter how you put it, this is still a famous sword you must've gone through quite a lot to obtain, right?"
Shiro looked at the Yang Sword in his hand.
"Are you really fine exposing it this openly in front of someone who may become your enemy later?"
As one of this world's famous Ten Swords of Power, the Yang Sword's abilities were obviously far beyond something that could be dismissed as "merely a sword."
One could judge the whole from a single clue.
Just looking at how Reinhard's Dragon Sword performed was enough to infer how extraordinary the other famous swords must be.
Even if the Yang Sword was inferior to the world's strongest Dragon Sword—It could not possibly be weak.
While holding it, Shiro could feel a seemingly endless reservoir of energy inside, like the Sun itself.
Even someone with no swordsmanship training whatsoever could probably unleash considerable power simply by swinging it.
Only someone like Priscilla would casually refer to such a weapon as "merely a sword."
In anyone else's hands—It would probably be treasured as a final trump card.
"Gone through quite a lot?"
Priscilla froze for a moment.
Then she scoffed.
"Have you misunderstood something?"
"This blade merely wished to cling to my radiance and voluntarily became one of the servants beneath my dress."
"Something of this level is not worth wasting even a single second of my precious time."
That was right.
Ridiculous as it sounded—Priscilla had obtained the Yang Sword exactly as casually as she described.
The day she acquired it, she had simply grown bored and gone to the royal capital for entertainment.
As she prepared to return home, ripples suddenly appeared in the air.
Then—The Yang Sword simply emerged from nothingness.
Priscilla found it amusing, so she casually picked it up.
There had been no trial.
No ordeal.
No test of worthiness.
Just like that—She effortlessly obtained one of the Ten Swords of Power.
"So you really are a simp..."
After hearing Priscilla's story, Shiro was left momentarily speechless.
Apparently, he had simply assumed too much.
Not every sword was as proud as Reinhard's Dragon Sword.
Those weapons only appeared cold and aloof because they looked down on everyone around them.
When they actually met someone they liked—Even something as powerful as the Yang Sword could apparently throw away its dignity and offer itself up immediately.
Just like now.
It already had an owner—Yet the instant it discovered Shiro, it called him over from what felt like eight hundred miles away.
So Shiro had never been the blond homewrecker after all.
The fickle Yang Sword was the real playboy.
For some inexplicable reason, Shiro suddenly felt an urge to violently pour magic into the sword and teach it the consequences of flirting with everyone it met.
And he actually did.
However—The moment Shiro injected magic into the Yang Sword, its temperature only rose higher.
Like someone who had been starving for days suddenly encountering an enormous feast, the sword greedily swallowed every trace of magic Shiro poured into it.
Afterward—It even vibrated sharply in satisfaction.
Almost as though saying—
'This new master is pretty great! He hasn't even used me yet, and he already fed me such a huge meal!'
Anger.
If this were not Priscilla's sword—
Shiro would have smashed the damned thing into the ground immediately.
"Simp...?"
"What does that mean?"
Priscilla tilted her head slightly.
"Is it another word from beyond the Great Fall, like the expressions Al uses?"
Before Shiro could do anything else to the Yang Sword—That sudden revelation immediately stole all his attention.
As expected.
His earlier guess was probably correct.
Subaru was not the only person who had been transported into this world.
Before him, there had likely already been many others who had come from what people called "the other side of the Great Fall."
The best evidence was a country located on the western edge of the continent—The Kararagi City-States.
When Shiro first read about that country, he had already found its architecture suspiciously similar to Japan.
Even stranger—The people living there spoke in something remarkably similar to a Kansai dialect.
Previously, Shiro had only been suspicious.
But after learning that Subaru was not the world's only transmigrator—He was now almost certain that the original founder of Kararagi had also come from beyond the Great Fall, just like Subaru.
And now—Information about someone who had crossed over even earlier than Subaru was sitting right in front of him.
Naturally, Shiro became interested immediately.
"Al?"
"You know someone who came from beyond the Great Fall?"
"Do not answer my question with another question."
Priscilla stared at him imperiously.
"Before asking something new, satisfy my curiosity first."
"Or do you require me to personally teach you how the word 'manners' is written?"
"It's kind of difficult to explain."
Shiro scratched his cheek.
"But to put it simply..."
"You can think of a simp as someone who knows another person doesn't like them, yet still throws away all dignity and shamelessly flatters that person without any limits."
Explaining internet slang to someone from another world gave Shiro an inexplicably strange feeling.
Still—He was genuinely curious what someone as self-centered as Priscilla would think of people like that.
Unexpectedly—After listening to his explanation, Priscilla nodded in understanding.
Then she declared with complete confidence—
"I see."
"Then the world itself is my simp."
"..."
…