On a throne at the far center where it’s elevated by three flights of stairs. Overseeing the crowd and sitting on the left is a person in black military clothing, then on the other side, is a lady in a blue dress.

One is bobbing her head delightfully while resting her chin on her hand, while the other is sheepishly fidgeting on the throne.

…Why am I sitting here! There’s literally no reason for me to be sitting here!

Elcesta is thinking about her life choices onto why she was in this situation. She got a small idea as to how she got here, which is because of her pushy wife who she normally could’ve easily refused. But there was a small unforeseen happenstance where when she was about to reject it, somehow, the crowd aggressively agreed for her! As in, the majority were basically in full support of Serena taking Elcesta with her to the throne.

She’s wondering why the people are suddenly very supportive even though just earlier, she was definitely hearing how they were really second guessing whether Serena “should” be with Elcesta. She can only think that such a change in demeanor happened only when she danced with Jake, to which she also taught him how to, but how could that even be linked to this situation in the first place?

There’s no way these people would have such an overall silent agreement that it’s better for Serena to take Elcesta over Jake taking Elcesta himself is there!?

Now that there’s a considerable distance between Jake and Elcesta. Somehow, the two never saw each other directly now. As if the timing will be perfect – coincidentally – a person will be standing in between. Not even their shadow can be seen and sometimes it makes one wonder if the person was still there or if they moved to another location.

Glory to the hivemind! Not.

Kuh… I have to at least be presentable now that I’m here.

Although she’s slightly red, she leaned back to the throne and had a very posture befitting of an emperor… or empress for that matter.

The crowd that made it happen is starting to feel that those two fit perfectly sitting on a throne.

Onto Adam’s side because Jake is his current bodyguard, who is just behind him, he can feel the animosity of the majority of the guests phasing through him. It’s giving him this constant slight chill and goosebumps all over his body that he started rubbing over his shoulders with his hands to somewhat stay warm.

Darn… I’m getting some collateral damage here.

“Brr….”

“Are you feeling cold young master?”

Oh, I actually made a sound. “No… I’m fwine, a small excited.”

It’s true that he’s feeling a bit excited but at the same time, is a little nervous because it’s finally time to give the gift.

“I see. Pardon me.”

Jake continued to monitor the surroundings while still being oblivious to the glances and stares.

Gosh darn, Jake! How are you not feeling in all these eyes?! Do you have this dense protagonist halo on you? Are you actually the main character of this world to have such a resistance? It’s almost like you’re doing a really bad job at being a bodyguard if you don’t notice this.

It might be that Jake can differentiate actual threat on the surroundings or maybe he can actually feel it and just doesn’t mind it because the animosity isn’t really pointed to the person he’s guarding in particular. Still, it’s hard to pinpoint when you really can’t read what the person is actually thinking.

Enough about that. Now its gift giving; the focus of this celebration should be how Serena receives gifts, so we have to go in that direction.

Having a long queue of people just below the throne, a line that starts at the center, which is in between the front of Elcesta and Serena’s Throne, it then turns horizontally before reaching a corner and turns to the opposite direction, this repeats about a few times almost like a forming coiled snake.

“Your ‘highness’, I will tell a joke.” A man in light formal clothing said.

“Hmhm… proceed.” Serena nodded in response.

The Queue of gift giving didn’t have to be an actual physical form of gifts. The guests have easily caught on that there’s a recurring theme of royalty.

So to each their own way style, whether it may be offerings, lip service, advice, news, jests, and whatnot that could be related to how royalty receive things or just a generalized idea of it, is welcome to be offered as a “gift”.

There have been many people who actually just gave Serena their present directly earlier, whether they were too embarrassed to play along or maybe they weren’t feeling it to some extent, it is still an occasion.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”

“Hm, why did it?”

“It had to stretch its leggs.”

“…”

“…”

It was met with silence, there isn’t even any indication that Serena nor Elcesta thought that it was funny.

Huh, that started as a classic joke back in my world. I found it pretty clever, but I guess it didn’t make me laugh either. Adam thought as he felt the silence too.

“You can take him away now.” Serena gestured with her hand.

Two butlers came in each side of the man and dragged him outside.

“Damn it, I thought that was pretty good.” The man said as he got pulled back out to the entrance of the banquet hall.

He’s not really getting booted out, just a minor inconvenience of being taken outside the banquet hall and you’re free to instantly walk back in. Just some flair to settle in that royalty theme.

“Your highness, today we received a message of a wandering merchant wanting permission to get in.”

The next person in line even kneeled and held out the parchment over his head while presenting it to both Serena and Elcesta.

“I see, you can leave the parchment on that corner over there.”

Elcesta looked over at Serena, it seemed to be actual news that should’ve been discussed with the village chief but was presented here just for the sake of it.

Serena noticed Elcesta’s disapproving gaze, a gaze that’s saying, your father would be very disappointed about this.

Serena slouched on the armrest of the throne with a hand on her forehead then said, “Ahem… Someone take the parchment and deliver it to the chief’s office.”

Elcesta rolled her eyes upon seeing Serena’s initial reaction but didn’t probe any further since it was the correct way to handle that matter. As to why it’s even presented here in the first place, Serena probably told them to present matters like this here just for the added authenticity.

“Thank you, your highness.” The man stood up, bowed, and left.

The next person in line stepped up, a normal lady in a dress.

“Your highness, I offer a liquor that has been fermenting under our own personal cellar for at least ten years.”

“Oh, how nice! Tell me, is it done with the usual method or is this a personal blend?”

“Yes, it’s a different blend and isn’t similar. The alcohol content is actually stronger than anticipated, but the result is still very good, although my father got drunk faster than usual.”

“Splendid, splendid! Thank you, maybe with this I’ll finally…”

*Stare*

“…I will give it a taste later and afterwards I’ll inform you about my thoughts on it. For now, someone take this next to the wine cellar, just place it on top of the counter.”

A servant took hold of the liquor and left with it.

“Hehe, thank you, your highness.” The lady smiled to the two before leaving the line.

Isn’t Elcesta really doing well in this? Not as in being the empress but being an actual nagging wife to the slouch of an Emperor. So much so that the men around feels like they can start to sympathize with Serena for a bit. At least that’s the impression those two gives while receiving such “gifts”.

The man in line walked up and said, “Your highness, I too will tell a joke.”

“Another so soon? Well, Proceed.”

“I tried fishing once.”

“…”

“…”

The awkward silence continued…

“Oh, sorry, it seems like I have to reply… Um, how did it go?” Serena awkwardly responded.

“…I didn’t get too into it because I can’t figure out the right angle.”

“…”

“…”

“Take him away now-”

“Kufu-”

But then Serena heard a held back giggle on her left.

“Oh, really? You found that funny?”

“I guess so, but it took me a while. Fuh.. ” Elcesta replied.

Then the crowd who also heard started to discuss about.

*murmur*

“Damn it, it took me a while too, now I’m smiling to how dumb this is.”

“Heh is it too dumb or too clever?”

“Oh, fufu…” Even Ana found it funny to say the least.

“Huh, Big sis found that funny?” Gain who noticed his big sister looking down and then covering her mouth, it was amusing to see all her friends who also didn’t laugh just look at her weirdly.

At least, for Gain, Ana’s circle’s expression was more funny than the joke itself. Which made Gain wonder what could’ve made it funny for his father and big sister to find it so.

I guess the punchline is that you need to take a couple of seconds to figure it out? Then it wouldn’t have worked on me, too bad.

Gain just lightly shook his head that such a joke wouldn’t have been that effective on him.

Serena then faced back to the man who made the joke, “Well, looks like you can stay! Oh, and you can take a prize seeing as how you made certain people laugh too, just talk to a servant about it later.”

“Nice! Thank you, your highness.”

The man happily left the line.

…

“Hah-” Adam instantly held his mouth.

“..? You got that, young master?”

Oh my god, how did that make me laugh? Why did it make me laugh!?  I shouldn’t have laughed! The joke was too dumb, and I’m not supposed to be able to analyze such a joke yet! I hadn’t even been taught a single thing about this world by my mother! Or any common sense for that matter! My brain gave me a huge warning sign as I laughed!

He took a peek at the person who could’ve posed such danger if he was seen, which is Gain. Luckily, he had his eyes closed and was currently shaking his head.

“…No, I shwould start to get in line too.”

“I see, I will accompany you then.”

“Sure!”

The two left their table, somehow there’s a subtle reposition of the line as if they were trying to block something out of sight but Adam didn’t pay it much mind. He got glances from the people near him that seemed troubled whether to let him through the line and give him priority. But he actually needed a bit more time to gather up more courage, so he reassured them that it’s fine to wait in line and want to experience doing so.

There’s a long line of people and it’s slowly getting replenished as time passes by; Adam really should’ve just gone earlier just to get it over with.

Now we just wait in line and fix the preparation once we’re halfway through this.

…

…

Time continuously passed, the line has progressed further so that it’s now inevitable for Adam to see Serena and Elcesta close by, but he’s still somewhere in the middle.

“Nancy, Vanerie! It took you two a while!”

“The line basically replenished itself, so it took us a while to get here, we should’ve gotten in line sooner.” The lady in red, Vanerie said.

“It was a bad idea to wait for the line to get smaller, it just did not fast enough. Hi, Elcesta!” The lady in yellow, Nancy said and waved upon being close to the thrones.

Elcesta lightly waved back, she has gotten used to this by now.

“So, what will you offer seeing that you two decided to play along? Nancy already gave me her gift earlier.”

“Oh, I’m just here to accompany Vanerie, but I still pitched in some of my help to acquire it.”

“Naturally, and for that I thank you.” Vanerie then faced Serene with a serious tone. “We offer you news.”

“A news coming from you two? Let’s hear it.”

“The church’s oracle has started.” Vanerie gestured with an open hand.

Then Nancy followed up, “That ‘it’ is nearing the start of a new era.”

“!!” Serena leaned forward on her throne with widened eyes.

*Grip grip* Elcesta looks visibly upset as she tightly gripped the armrest of the throne.

Serena gave a long sigh before regaining her composure and said, “Let’s discuss it in a more private setting. This isn’t the best time and place for it.”

She started massaging her temples, and looked over to see where Ana currently is.

“Adam…”

But she first noticed Adam within the line of people. Seeing her child who she thought didn’t like her for whatever reason is actually taking part in giving her a gift. She can’t help it but feel elated for the moment, as if a huge burden was suddenly lifted upon her.

Oh, mother finally noticed me. Let’s wave back.

*waves*

“Oh… oh! He’s.. he’s waving at me!”

Elcesta, Nancy, and Vanerie looked at Serena weirdly then faced the direction to where she was looking at, there they saw the saw the white-silver haired boy with golden tips along with a butler.

“Ahem… Of course, we’ll discuss it later your highness.” Vanerie formally bowed then took her leave.

“See you later, your highness. The usual time, right? Oh, why am I even asking, just find us since we won’t be leaving any time soon.” Nancy lightly bowed then left to follow Vanerie.

“I told you it would be fine.” Elcesta reassured Serena.

“I’ve been ignored for so long without knowing why and he actually still cares about me? I’m so happy!”

Naturally, she’s been ignored for too long, of course she’ll be happy even with such a simple gesture. She’s so moved and excited on what kind of gift her child will give her, she just wants the line to hurry up and give priority to Adam, but that would be somewhat risky and maybe even cause him to dislike her now again. Her patience is now truly being tested.

With how the phase of Adam in the line is moving he started to think.

I think I’m close enough… I’m starting to feel nervous, now’s the time to give orders to my big brother and sister.

Adam looked to where Ana and Gain were, and he did a hand gesture that only the three of them knew, he spun his index finger and pointed to a general direction. Gain noticed it first and nodded back to Adam, but Ana seemed to still be busy talking to her friends, so Gain had to take her attention and relay the gesture from Adam that it’s time.

“It’s time. Apologies everyone, I still have things to do so I’ll be leaving taking my leave for a while.”

With that, Ana and Gain left their circles and regrouped together to go fetch the materials.

Serena noticed ana leaving with Gain and she got reminded of the news earlier which made her solemn again. She thought that she should inform Ana about this later too.

…

…

…

“Thank you, your highness.”

The person next to Adam finally left.

Serena has basically received things one can think of receiving as a gift, ranging from jokes, to theater, songs, dances, dresses, jewelry, liquor, the usual things one may receive; still even if she had an abundance of those already, she still welcomed it. Elcesta didn’t fail to have a watchful eye over the gifts, but it is noticed that she has a particularly strong reaction against alcohol.

Adam is now the literal next one to present.

This is it… just to make sure, everything is ready now, right?

Gain has already talked to the musicians about the tone of the music to use. Since Adam is still 2 years old, it’ll be hard for him to convey a specific tone he wants without sounding too knowledgeable about it, so Gain’s knowledge about music and his choice of words to explain it in a simple manner so that the musicians understood it is essential.

Along with that help, he also helped in folding more paper crafts, but the majority of the papers were done by Ana.

Paper crafts which are basically origami.

Teaching it to them came from Adam, but the process in doing so – was forced… to say the least.

•••4 Days ago, at the Recreation room•••

The three siblings are passing the time inside.

“Lwook I folded the paper! (Rectangle)”

“Good work, Adam.” Gain said.

“What a marvelous work!” Ana said.

I don’t like how I’m being treated as a child, but I really am one right now, aren’t I?

“Lwook I folded it! (Square)”

“Good work, Adam.”

“You’re so good at this!” *Pat pat pat*

“Hehe, thanks Bwig sis!”

Then Adam folded again.

“Lwook, a bird!”

““A WHAT?””

•••Back to the present•••

Suffice to say, my brain gave a huge red alert that I jumped too soon, but I needed them to help me to create more and be done with it as soon as possible. They bugged me on how I managed to do it, so I taught them how to. I really needed an extra pair of hands to create a version with a more complex folding scheme, done with a similarity of at least 95%~ accuracy; just so it does what it is intended to.

Ana has brought the box containing the bundle of origami and is now just waiting for Adam’s signal to start at the balcony, Gain is also on the other side of the balcony waiting too.

Hmm… check… check.. All that’s left is to execute the plan as practiced. Let’s do this.

Adam and Jake have stepped up to be in front of the throne.

“…” I’m starting to feel that something will go wrong… urk…

It feels just like the very start of a presentation in school again, being nervous until you take that first step.

Now that Jake had accompanied Adam without any problems, he bowed to the two at the throne then distanced himself. If there’s any safer place for Adam to be in, it’ll be in front of those two and it’ll be bad – very bad – if he is the reason why Adam’s gift somehow fails because of his continued presence.

“…Adam, hello.”

Serena sounded oh so stiff because she was trying to contain her excitement upon finally reaching Adam’s turn.

One can feel that slightly awkward tone, that the people around maintained silence maybe even stopped breathing for a moment, which amplified the embarrassment from that opening statement.

Darn, mother, you’re making me even more nervous now!

Adam did an inconspicuous gulping before saying.

“Mama, I will-“

“He called me mama again! Oh my, oh my! It’s been so long.” Serena was so moved that she just spoke instantly. You can directly tell her excitement by the wagging of both her legs and her eyes slightly getting moist.

Do I even need to give you a gift anymore? It seems like me treating you like normal again is sufficient for you to gush all over…

Though Adam wouldn’t stop it now, plus it would be bad not to do it, especially when Gain and Ana helped and this will technically be their gift to their mother too. At the very least, the tension has been dispelled slightly because of how silly Serena looks.

“I offwer a play!”

“A play? What will we be playing, Adam?”

Adam lightly shook his head. “It’s… like a shwow!”

What I really want to say is theatrics, but that’ll be too weird to know such a word… wait, with what I’m going to do, will it even matter at that point? I guess we just ball!

“I see.” Serena looks like she wants to say more but continued with, “You can now proceed.”

That’s Adam’s cue, so he just lifted his hand with an open palm to the side where Ana’s currently waiting on the balcony.

Ana saw it and began to enact what’s practiced, “Ah… this is it; Adam particularly wants it to be as showy as possible. He shouldn’t get hurt by this right? Just as practiced, just as practiced… Okay! [Precision]!”

Ana already had one of the magic tools that amplifies one’s voice, similar to a mic. It was borrowed by Gain and He passed it to Ana, since she’s the one who knows [Precision] more than Gain.

She gently chucked it halfway through the distance of Adam. Afterwards before it reached its terminal velocity, she threw a paper plane to hit the mic with incredible precision. Good enough to make it redirect and land safely on Adam’s hand.

“Ngk.”

 Though the landing was lessened, we can’t forget that he’s still 2 years old, so it was definitely still surprising for him that something landed on his hand which made him discreetly grunt.

“[Gust]”

Gain’s role in this one is to control the wind, not in a perfect sense, but at least to better guide where the paper crafts will land or fly through; for now, no one should be aware of the presence of the paper crafts, so he guided it to fly back on to his side of the balcony since hitting the mic made it lose its flight.

“““!”””

“That magic tool fell down from above!”

“How did it get there? I didn’t notice it.”

“I thought I heard something got hit from above, though I didn’t manage to catch anything.”

The crowd hurriedly looked up to find where it could’ve come from.

You all shouldn’t focus on the workings behind the scenes.

Adam held the mic near his mouth and there he prepared to sing. This is the reason Adam has been avoiding anything remotely sweet. Because the stickiness could affect his performance, even if he can actually differentiate the ones that can affect his singing, he still avoided them just in case, which resulted in him avoiding sweets altogether.

*Riiiiing* I know, I know! Starting now, no way a normal 2-year-old would be able to do all these preparations and performance! But I need to do it to perfectly fix my relationship with mother! Only just this once!

Adam gestured with his free hand to where the musicians could see it.

“That’s our cue.” They then started the music. “Go for it, young master.”

*Music* A very uplifting melody is being played, it shows a hint of nostalgia, love, and innocence.

The start of the music made everyone look down again.

“Whoa, what music is this? The melody is…”

“It feels soothing.”

“I haven’t heard this kind of tune yet. I like it.”

This… this is almost like a skilled amateur cover of the tone of the exact music I’ve heard! This is amazing! Big brother Gain managed to convey it perfectly! Yes, this works well… these musicians are really a different kind of talent, being able to play something just from a few pointers and feeling.

“Thwis bond between us, can’t be broken~ I will be here – don’t you crwy.”

Now for the theatrics.

Countless origami bird figures flew in perfect intervals and are flying around rhythmically with the tune and song.

“Cwause you’ll be in my heart~.”

It continued to fly passing by Adam’s left and right, like a swallow that’s surveying the surroundings.

Not longer, it started to grow in number and it even piled up more and more as it merged into a barrier surrounding Adam, blocking him from sight.

With it being different colored origami,  looks breathtakingly beautiful as it continuously spun over Adam, like a flowing river.

“““Whoa”””

*Fwoosh*

A strong gust of wind erupted from where Adam was, and all the origami birds gently landed near every person, technically distributing it.

The ones who didn’t get looked sad. There’s more than enough for everyone; don’t worry, to the people that are too far away, all of you can take some. It’s just that it’ll be harder for Gain to control it from a such distance.

“What is this made of… paper?”

“This looks like a bird, it’s beautiful.”

“Who made such a thing? It looks like a work of art.”

“This is so cute!”

“Can we really keep such an expensive item?”

Yes, you all can.

Now for the harder part.

“Yes, ywoull be in my heart~.”

Adam continued singing as he was unveiled, and he was unveiled to be controlling two stringed puppet like items with one hand!

These are puppts made of paper cut outs, each joint is connected to an individual string.

The puppets were dancing on the same floor as the throne so that it was clear to be seen by the crowd and the ones at the throne.

“The youngest master is singing and controlling puppets at the same time!”

“Whoa! Is he a genius!?”

“I don’t think I can even do that.”

“This is very surprising, but it should’ve been expected!”

“Does he have a [Unique] for being able to do so at such a young age?”

“Wouldn’t this mean that we have another [Unique] holder in the village!? Hooray!”

“Frwom this day on.~”

Creed and Serena are astonished with how talented their child is, they looked down on their lap, and saw the papercraft that looked like a bird which made them grin. They then instinctively looked at each other as if to see what the other was also thinking about it and saw that each other had a wide smile on their face.

Instantly taking notice of how silly each other looked, they quickly went back into a neutral expression. However something needs to be confirmed, the people started thinking that Adam may have a [Unique], so after regaining a bit of composure, Serena gestured her head for Creed to use his own [Appraisal] to which Creed quickly caught on and responded with a nod.

It’s because no one can tell when a person gets a [Unique].

“Now, and forevwer more.~”

Creed got surprised a bit, the intelligence, wisdom, and Charisma… is higher than before! But there’s no change to the Unique category, even though his [Appraisal] is higher than Serena’s. So, he quickly responded back to Serena by lightly shaking his head.

Serena got wide-eyed but then formed a genuine smile as she enjoyed the performance of their child. It would mean that Adam has an innate talent that can’t be easily measured by skills or magic.

“The way the youngest son is controlling the puppets, it’s so smooth.”

“It’s almost like they have a life of their own!”

“If there weren’t any strings, I would’ve just believed that he’s controlling it with magic, without a doubt!”

“Hey, are you guys noticing something?”

“That the youngest son is skilled?”

“Well, yeah that’s obvious. But I feel like I’ve seen it before.”

“What are you on about.”

“Oh! I know! The way those puppets are moving and how they look! It’s the same as how Serena and Elcesta danced!”

“Holy! You’re right!”

“As expected, a genius!”

More and more praises are being sung to Adam.

“You’ll be in my hweart.~”

I had to take a little longer when I was hidden behind a flock of origami since it was planned to be just Mother and Father Dancing, but I had to make small adjustments to make it look like Elcesta and Serena dancing. Yes, this is not something a normal 2-year-old can do anymore. I’ve been breaking my image since the start of the preparations.

Adam continued the complex puppet movement with one hand and singing with the other. He is starting to get tired by doing both at the same time, but overall, he can still manage.

Huh… what is this? Is it asking me if I want to learn the skill [Puppetry]????

Something similar opted on his mind like when he got notifications on acquiring titles. But why now? Isn’t he already doing puppetry itself? He is already doing pretty well at that.

Tsk, not now! I might lose focus, plus I may be already doing impossible things for a 2-year-old, but I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to have such a skill at this age! I might be breaking norms here, but this is currently where I’ll draw the line for now.

Adam rejected the opt in his mind, and the notification quietly left. He’s betting in the fact that since he easily got offered to “learn” it now; it’ll also easily appear again in the future.

“No mwatter what they say~.”

Adam has now got to the part to where the dance was the hardest, so he nimbly controlled the strings along with how the lead changes with each step. It’s starting to take a toll even though he omitted the hardest parts, his hand is starting to redden and even feel like it’s numb, but he kept going.

“Huff…”

SHUT UP! I DON’T NEED IT RIGHT NOW!

Although it quickly came to mind and how it tickled his Chuuni fantasy of controlling threads, he’s really getting tired and instantly shut down such a proposition without any second thought.

“You’ll be here, in my heart.~”

The puppets have reached the neutral position where the two are holding each other’s hands. Just like how Elcesta and Serena’s dance ended.

“Nn.. puff”

With that, Adam perfectly finished the puppetry, but there’s one last more theatrics to enact. The song hasn’t ended yet, there’s one last line to say.

We have to end it with a bang! With the power of presentation!

Adam left the puppets at the center stage to take the flight of stairs from the side.

*Step* Now, one different type of birdlike origami flew by which just went past him.

*Step* on the next step of the stairs, five flew by with differing colors.

Then the final *step*, 12 flew by.

He is now on the same level as the thrones. Adam continued walking then a parchment that’s big and more than half his body size revolved around him once before he caught it and shaped it into a cone. Gently passing the open cone to Serena and once she received it, 13 of the same birds position themselves mid-air then untangled themselves into another shape.

Turned into 13 shapes of flowers.

13…?

Gently guided by a caressing wind to land softly in that open cone making it appear as a Bouquet. But one flower didn’t go in because 12 was enough to fully fill the space and not even enough to squeeze right in.

Adam gently caught the extra flower and made a quick glance at Ana.

She had a horrified expression as if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life.

Uh… Let’s comfort her later.

Well, he wasn’t even mad. Just inconvenienced. Extra flower origami get!

“…Always.~”

With that end, the music has also gone through its finishing touches.

“Happy birthday, mama!” Adam then went to hug Serena.

Phew, I never thought I’ll enjoy singing as much as showing theatrics.

“Ooh, oh thank you, Adam! This is definitely the best birthday gift Mama has gotten!” Serena then returned the hug and kept Caressing Adam’s back with moistened eyes.

She looks like she’s about to cry… actually, she already is crying now, the tears are freely flowing, and there’s no more presence of that kingly monarch, here she is just a happy mother who appreciates the gift of her child.

More importantly, he really still does care about her!

“Mama, dwon’t cry…”

“Don’t worry Adam… it’s just tears of joy. I’m just really happy to know that you really didn’t hate me.”

Tears of joy confirmed. Mission accomplished everyone; I fulfill my promises.

*Clap clap clap – Applause*

“What a song, this is the first time I’ve heard of it, yet it’s invoking me feelings that I should appreciate the person dear to me.”

“I should tell my own mother that I love her.”

“Damn it, my old man is annoying, but I can’t imagine a world where he’s gone…”

“Every single one of them has an outstanding talent of their own!”

“I can’t believe he’s 2-years-old!”

“He may be the next chief of this village!”

“Thank you for the paper bird!”

“Do you know any other songs? Can you sing some more?”

“Encore!”

“““Encore, encore, encore!”””

Right…. There was a crowd. I’m starting to get embarrassed again… does it even matter?

“-Do you have another song, Adam?” Serena innocently asked as if Adam had another song in store. Maybe she got swayed by the atmosphere.

“No-” But he quickly cut himself off.

Wait… maybe I do. The thing that made it hard for the song was translating it into the language of this world while maintaining the rhyming tone of it. Then I have one that’s easy.

“Ywes, mama. I’ll sing again!”

“Aww, my child is so talented!” Serena cuddled her face to Adam.

Mother is really soft and warm…

She then stopped her cuddles and released him. “Go on, I’m also curious to what song you have.~”

“I hope ywou will like it, mama!”

Hehe… you know what kind of song I’ll use if I wasn’t even prepared to do an encore.

Adam faced the musicians.

Hm… I have an idea of what a conductor does and what each movement means… but is it the same for this world? It’s already too late to act clueless and naïve again. Let’s try it.

Adam gestured with his hand in memory to see if it’ll translate well or even maybe understand some of it.

The musicians looked surprised, but once Adam repeated the motion at least twice, they then got the gist of it.

Prepping on the movements of the tune, there’s a brief silence before they started.

*Tutun tututun tututunnnn tun* *Music*

Pfft, HeheheHAHAHA.

No.

Yes!

Don’t do it Adam.

“We’re no strwangers to love~.”

God damn it, Adam!

Chapter 18 end. ~~~Giving a gift and singing in another world~~~

Terrate

Hello! I managed to make this chapter because I'm finally free! It took so long because there really was something important, but man, writing again made me feel like I'm making something nice. Also we got 300 favorites! Actually, I don't know anymore which to keep counting as a milestone, but I drew a Character! Although I used my phone for it since I still have no computer currently. Anyway this birthday arc is finally FINISHED! DONEZO Done! donedone! All of you are lucky That I don't have a fixed schedule, or else, I would've have deliberately waited until it was april to upload this chapter and change the status to completed with the words "Made this work just to rick roll, get rekt lmao". Yup, luckily, LUCKILY. Phew... We can finally go to the time skip, but I feel like if I just timeskip without any side chapters in between there's so many things that'll be confusing. So I'll be making another chapter before the time skip... *wink wink* I want to keep that short, like a summary of what happened. The second Anyway,,,, how was your valentines? did you all got a good date? me I just stuffed myself with food, alone T-T but more food for me! hehe! Take care! - February 15, 2024

I drew Jake this time! Our average hunter/butler/guy that somehow got hired. Only used the phone that's why it's so different than the other drawings O-O

Glossary:

We ball! - Almost the same as Carpe Diem. An internet slang.

Origami - A japanese term for paper folding. It's a craft where you fold paper in complicated shapes, most notable one and iconic is the crane. I personally like seeing these kind of art, because of how complicated it looks, as in, how did you even figured out that if you fold it in such a way it'll look like something else without tearing!?

Chuuni - derived from the word Chuunibyou, a japanese term that literally means "8th Grader syndrome". The time when you think you have an unstoppable power hidden within you that's just waiting to be awakened. or maybe you think you were a Super saiyan back then, I still think I'm a super saiyan! lol

Extra:

Rick Astley - Never gonna give you up

Phil Collins - You'll be in my heart

•••???•••

On a space that seems an empty void, but with a color of dim cyan all around. There, sits a girl; a girl with long smooth golden hair with tips that goes into a slight curl, a pale milky skin, wearing a dress that’s similar to a Greek clothing.

There, she is sitting on the void as if there’s solid ground, huddled. She isn’t moving as there’s nothing to do; She isn’t breathing as there is no need to; she isn’t thinking as there’s no reason to.

“…”

There she is, alone in the void.

But the Cyan light flickered once, there she finally raised her head.