Chapter 87

Day 5 Month 5: 5th Birthday

That night, Mom and Dad told me that the twins’ fifth birthday was coming soon, and they were planning on celebrating it—consider that it was also a welcome party for them, as we were too busy when we first welcomed them.

And they told me that after their fifth birthday, we should start introducing the twins to the others, to help them learn how to socialize.

I was very excited to hear about the surprise birthday party plan!

...It was quite hard trying to brush off the twins, but... there was no way I could bring the twins along when I was preparing for their surprise birthday party right? Or it won’t be called as surprise birthday party again...

It was worth it, though! Their expression upon seeing the surprise birthday party was so priceless!

“Happy fifth birthday, Freyr and Freyja!”

After we said that, the twins had this stunned look we never saw on their faces before.

They were looking around for a while before they tilted their heads and asked.

“Our...”

“Birthday...?”

I nodded as I smiled at them, “That’s right! Now come here and let’s celebrate your birthday!”

Then, I took their hands and led them to where everyone was waiting.

All of us were surrounding the twins as we gave them our birthday greetings. Their expressions gradually turned warmer, their cheeks turned redder.

After that, we really had fun. I put the party hats to the twins and hey, everyone was wearing the party hat! Not only the children, but the adults, too!

While waiting for lunch time, we did lots of fun things such as watching Dad’s water show (in collaboration with Mom’s magic show), making the twins play the pinata, and so on.

The usually not-too-reactive twins began to react in a positive way. Smiles naturally formed on their faces—and their smiles today seemed to shine so brightly. It was also our first time seeing the twins laugh so freely—with the exception of when we tickled them, of course.

It might be too presumptuous of me to think like this, but I guess this might be the twins’ happiest day after they lost their father.

Time seemed to pass by so quickly when we had fun!

Just right when our stomachs were about to growl, time for lunch finally arrived~!

We indulged ourselves in Chloe and the house keepers’ delicious food. The food was still warm thanks to the technology and magic we had~ This way, Chloe and the other house keepers could participate in the surprise party earlier instead of preparing the food during when we surprised the twins and played with them.

As for the dessert... Needless to say, it was the birthday cake!

“Ah, don’t eat it now!” I quickly stopped Freyja who was reaching out her hand towards the cake. Freyr who was watching her intently also turned to me with a questioning look.

It felt as if they were asking, “Why stop us when the cake’s already put in front of us to eat?”

“You need to blow the candles and make some wishes first!” I gave them my reason.

“Wish...?” They tilted their heads at the same time.

“Yep, you should close your eyes while saying your wishes inside your heart—then open your eyes and blow the candle~!” I instructed them as the candle was being prepared.

Soon after, the candle with the shape of “5” was being lit. The candle’s flame was swaying, but thankfully it didn’t get extinguished due to the wind.

“Now then... Happy birthday Freyr~ Happy birthday Freyja~,” we started singing as if indicating the next big event of candle-blowing was about to start.

“Happy birthday, dear Frey twins... Happy birthday to you~!”

“If you’re finished chanting your wish inside your hearts... Blow the candle~!” We instructed them.

We were actually debating whether the twins would be so synchronized that they would open their eyes at the same time and blow the candles together.

And the result...?

Freyr actually opened his eyes first and was about to blow the candle in his excitement before he noticed that Freyja was still closing her eyes. Freyr quickly let out the air he had sucked in before and waited for Freyja patiently.

After a while, Freyja opened her eyes and she was quickly greeted by Freyr’s gaze!

Then, they turned their attention towards the swaying flame and blew the candle at the same time. Yes, they communicated in silence!

It was unfortunate that they weren’t that synchronized and didn’t end up opening their eyes together and blowing the candle right away after that. But they demonstrated their silent communication and that was awesome, I think~

Chloe then moved closer to cut the cake to several pieces. The twins quickly grabbed the parts of the cake they liked and ate them. There were cake crumbs and cream on their cheeks... Ah, come to think of it... they need to learn table manner—but no rush for now!

After filling our bellies to their maximum capacities, it was now time for the twins to take a look at their birthday gifts~!

With me being me... I just gave them storybooks that I found intriguing—not that I was the one who wanted to read them, okay? I... can read the storybooks to them~! Besides, the storybooks were equipped with interesting mechanism, namely pop-up illustration and the other one even had hollographic effect!

Alt-nii gave them toys... that could be used to prank others. Actually, the twins were the first victims of the said toys. Freyja went back several steps as she looked at Alt-nii in disbelief. It was only after Alt-nii laughed and explained to Freyja that it was only a prank-toy that her trust in Alt-nii was restored. Freyr seemed to like the toys right away—perhaps it was something that appealed to boys more?

Mom gave them wands—actually, semi-toys. Like toys in the form of wands, but they might be usable as actual wands. Ah, aside the wands, they were given a pair of witches’ clothes! I couldn’t wait for the time they wore the clothes and acted like real witches!

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Dad gave Freyja a huge rabbit doll as Freyja seemed to like rabbits. ...or Freyja was actually similar to a rabbit! Now, she could go to sleep while hugging the huge rabbit plush comfortably. I guess it also functioned as a pillow?

Freyr was given a detective toolkit by Dad as he seemed to really like detectives and mysteries! He even gave him a mysterious map leading to “treasure” that he had to find quickly! Freyja was also intrigued by this “treasure” so the twins then spent their time looking for the treasure box that Dad hid before the sun set.

Fortunately, the twins managed to find the treasure box before the sun set—but with great difficulty! We had to give them a few pointers. I kinda wanted to scold Dad for not giving them something easier or just give them the treasure box already, but after seeing how engrossed Freyr was and how he seemed to have much fun during the whole progress, I deleted that idea from my mind.

On the other hand, Freyja was more impatient with this kind of thing. Rather than thinking too much, she preferred proving it by searching in the places she thought were the treasure box’s hiding places.

“Freyr, hurry up!” She said impatiently to Freyr who was looking at the map and the clues intently.

“Wait, Freyja!”

“What’re you waiting for? It might be there, right?”

“But we aren’t sure yet.”

“Then let’s just go and see!”

“No, no, let’s make sure first!”

Freyja halted her steps and looked at Freyr whose eyes were on the clues the whole time. As she approached him, that twin of hers didn’t look her way and continued to try to see the map and clues through.

Perhaps Freyja was getting too impatient as the sky turned redder, or perhaps she was annoyed that Freyr ignored her as... Freyja suddenly hit Freyr’s head!

“Eeeeeh, no fighting, you two!” We tried to mediate them.

“Stupid Freyr!” Freyja sulked.

Freyr almost bawled—mostly due to the surprise move that Freyja did, but thankfully, he didn’t bawl out in the end.

It was also our first time seeing the twins argue—they were so cute! And Freyja didn’t hit Freyr that hard, it was most likely a friendly quarrel among siblings.

It was good to see them starting to show their color more to us. Before this, they hadn’t really argued—most likely it was due to the fact that they felt they only had each other.

Anyway—shortly after this small quarrel, they managed to find the treasure box. Dad instructed them to open it later that night.

For now, we had to clean up our bodies—or take a bath! Particularly the twins, as all the treasure hunt they did today made their bodies dirty.

That night, there were two big events waiting for the twins.

The first one was their initial magic test~! Mom brought the testing device home.

Since they were not yet six years old, we could only test their highest magic affinities.

The twins curiously observed the round orb or the spherical tool—the magic testing device.

“Touch your hand gently on the orb, okay? Who wants to go first?” Mom asked.

The twins reached out their small hands at the same time—uh-oh, nobody wanted to give in!

Eventually, the fastest (and perhaps the more competitive) one grabbed the opportunity first. Guess who?

It was Freyja.

Several colors started to swirl inside the orbs as the colors started to settle... and then the orb glowed, indicating that it was now time to show the results!

Let’s see... Light green... and deep green.

The orb stopped glowing, indicating that Freyja’s strongest compatibilities were with [Wind] and [Plant] magic.

“[Wind] and [Plant], huh? That’s nice,” Mom smiled. I kinda wondered what she was thinking about in her heart—as Alt-nii and I had amazing results.

But then again, perhaps it was because we inherited Mom’s amazing magic talent and the elf blood from her side of the family... Ah wait, it was also revealed that we inherited dragon blood from Dad’s maternal side of the family... While the twins didn’t, so it might explain the differences in our magic affinities.

I sweated a bit as I realized I might have taken it for granted by now... I remembered being so excited at the idea of being able to use magic for the first time after I realized I was reincarnated in a magician’s family.

...I guess I’m quite extraordinary, huh?

I felt a bit nervous knowing that, but since I was still overshadowed by Alt-nii, then I guess I was safe(?)

“Okay, then Freyr, it’s your turn,” Mom said as she gently pulled Freyja away from the orb.

“...Done?” Freyja asked as she looked at Mom.

“Right, it’s done, Freyja. We already know your affinity now,” Mom said.

“Uuu...,” Freyja casted her eyes downward, perhaps she was expecting more from the magic test...

Freyr excitedly touched the orb immediately after Mom told him it was his turn.

Then, the orb glowed after a while. It glowed in... Brown. Deep green.

“[Earth] and [Plant], huh? You two share [Plant] affinity,” Mom concluded.

“That’s nice, they can easily grow plants, then?” Alt-nii chimed in.

“They’d need water too, right?” I quickly added to Alt-nii’s idea.

“We can cover that for them! We can become a family of farmers easily!” Alt-nii said.

“Hee, are you two interested in growing some plants in the garden?” Dad seemed to like the idea and asked the twins.

The twins were silent for a while before nodding.

“But before it all, I’ll have you learn magic,” Mom added before we forgot the process the twins had to go through.

“Oh, that’s right! Aren’t you glad, Freyr, Freyja?” I asked them—and my question was immediately responded wih their enthusiastic nods.

“Let’s start tomorrow then,” Mom said happily.

“I-I will help!” I added as I worried for the twins if they were left with Mom’s explanation...

“Let it be, Lyra! I didn’t quite understand the explanation, but I managed to pull it through before,” Alt-nii added.

I silently cursed him inside my mind, ‘That’s because you’re a [protagonist], right? Yes, you fit the description of a series’ protagonist, Alt-nii, that’s why!’

“Okay then, now that the magic test is concluded... Shall we move to... unboxing the treasure box the twins managed to find?” Dad asked as he put the treasure box on the table.

“Open it!” Freyr excitedly said.

“Okay, no rush, let’s open it together!” Dad said as he opened the box and took out the things inside.

The box contained several photo albums. And one memory album.

A memory album is a magical item that can be made to preserve memory so one can “watch” it again later. Different from normal videos, a memory album can display the memory in a hollograph. Items that can be used to store memories like this are quite expensive and hard to gain, but I think they are definitely worth it. The more it can store, the more expensive it becomes, though.

Speaking of which, Dad only has one small memory locket, containing a very short memory of him and his mother back then. I think it was all that Firis could get to preserve their memories together. I saw the memory stored inside. Small Dad and Firis were laughing so happily. The locket is Dad’s most treasured item, needless to say.

“These are...?” Freyja asked.

“Open them, will you?” Dad didn’t open the albums himself—he let the twins do it.

The twins opened the albums and noticed... there were pictures of their infant selves with their parents. There were also pictures of their growth. Then, the other albums contained photos of their parents back when they were younger. Then, the photos of their grandparents—in other words, the rumored Hartmann’s daughter who eloped back in the olden days, when Dad’s father was still young.

“Although there aren’t a lot of pictures... Well, that’s what I can find,” Dad said.

“Mama...”

“Papa...”

The twins said as they recognized their biological parents there.

“This...?”

“This is your papa, but when he was younger,” Dad explained.

Based on the albums, apparently the twins and their paternal grandmother had met one another before.

Then, when they opened the memory album... It contained several memories. Memories of their papa when he was young with his parents. Memories of their papa and mama together—memories of when their mama was pregnant with them, memories of when their mama was holding them... It ended with the perfect memory of their family, complete.

The twins kept folding the pages and rewatching the memories.

They hugged the albums tightly.

When we were watching them hugging each other with the albums too, we noticed that the twins seemed to be holding something... Huh, a ball? A jewel? An orb?

“Hmm, what are you holding there?” Dad seemed to have noticed it and asked.

The twins looked at Dad and obediently showed the thing they were holding—a small orb, a dusty white one... Ah wait, it’s indeed covered in dust!

“Is this your old toy?” Alt-nii asked.

The twins nodded... only to shake their hands a moment later.

“It’s an important orb!” Freyr said.

“Papa gave it to us,” Freyja added.

“But we forgot what...”

Dad took the orb the twins handed over and examined it. Its size fit an adult’s palm.

“Could it be...,” Dad seemed to have an idea on what it was, before he flipped through the album’s pages and stopped after finding a certain picture.

It was the picture of a woman that Dad introduced as his father’s sister who ran away from the Hartmann house. She was holding the same orb.

“...It couldn’t be, right?” Dad laughed after comparing the two orbs. Both seemed to have identical form and size, but the color...

“Let’s clean that up, okay?” Mom said.

“Oh, right,” Dad agreed and cast his [Water] magic to clean the orb and...

There it was—a beautiful pure white orb—white just like snow, with beautiful blue light flickering inside from time to time...

Dad gasped.

“This is really the Maozi jewel?!”

His voice was full of disbelief.

The twins nodded upon hearing Dad.

“Ah, right! That’s what it’s called!” Freyja suddenly said.

“Oh, right, right!” Freyr nodded in agreement.

I saw how Dad and Mom were surprised upon the twins’ confirmation. Meanwhile, Alt-nii looked at Rurune and asked, “Rurune, do you know what is Maozi jewel?”

Rurune then answered, “Ruru, rururu!”

...Thanks for the answer, Rurune, like we could understand what you were saying...

I looked at the beautiful jewel that Dad was holding and breathed in...

...Maozi jewel, what the heck is that?!