A few days later, Christmas Day had arrived, and everywhere I looked was drenched in holiday spirit. Unfortunately, I still had work to do. Today was also the day of the Christmas party at the orphanage that I’d been preparing for. I finished getting ready for work, and by the time I left for the orphanage it was early evening.
“Oh, are you heading out, Master Abel?” As I tried to leave, I ran into Lilith, who just happened to be walking nearby. “It appears that you’ve been hard at work, but what do you need money for?”
“Nothing really. Pretty much just killing time these days.”
Of course, I was lying. Truthfully, I was working in order to buy Lilith’s gift. After I got my reward today for my work at the orphanage, I planned to stop by Edgar’s shop and buy the ring. It’d be cutting it close, but I would have just enough to buy the ring.
“Did you know that today is a special day?” she asked.
“Hm? Oh, right. What’s it called again? Christmas?”
“Yes, impressive knowledge. You must be getting used to modern-day culture.”
Well, if anything, I’m more than just used to it; by getting Lilith a gift, I’ve become an active participant. Regardless, spilling the beans now would only serve to ruin the surprise. It’s better for me to keep it all under wraps until the very last second.
“I’ll be waiting for you with a cake, so please do your best to return as soon as you can,” she said.
“Got it. I’ll be back before it gets too late.”
“Heh heh. I’ll be waiting.”
Good grief. I’ve somehow managed to keep her present a secret. She’s pretty sharp, so I was worried she’d sniff out what was really going on here.
Now then, everything is going smoothly so far. It looks like it’s gonna be a busy day.
✦ ✦ ✦
Once I left the academy and began my walk to the orphanage, I immediately felt something cold touch my neck.
Snow? I thought it was just cloudy, but it’s actually snowing now? Looks like it’s a so-called white Christmas. Due to the lights that’d been hung up, the royal capital seemed much more vibrant and colorful than usual.
“Hey! Master!”
After walking a while, I was called out to by a friendly face: Ted. As he waited for me at the agreed-upon spot in front of the fountain, he was holding what looked like a steamed bun.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A meat bun! You want half?”
“No. Sorry to rush you, but we don’t have much time. Let’s go.”
“Whoa! Wait, Master!” Ted cried, chasing after me and stuffing the remainder of the steamed bun in his mouth.
I’d recruited Ted as a helper for today’s Christmas party. It seemed that today we’d need some extra hands, and Kikuko had asked if I knew anybody who might be a good fit at the academy. With his friendly personality even towards strangers, I thought Ted fit the bill perfectly.
✦ ✦ ✦
When Ted and I got to the orphanage, we went inside and changed into our outfits for the event.
“Master! Pfft! That outfit really suits you!”
Since Ted was kind of a class clown, he pulled off the reindeer costume perfectly, while I was in a Santa costume complete with a fake white beard.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“Yep! Good to go!”
I was fully aware that the Santa suit wasn’t really in character for me, but since this was a job, I had to do my best to meet the expectations of my employer. The outfits that’d been prepared for today had a new-clothes smell to them.
“Let’s have the star of today, Santa, make his appearance,” Kikuko said, signaling that it was apparently my time to come out.
Hm. It hurts to see how excited the kids are. I’m worried if this costume will be good enough to satisfy them.
“Let’s go, Master!”
Hm. It’s in moments like this, as rare as they are, that I envy Ted’s shamelessness. Ted energetically opened the doors and jumped in front of the kids.
“Wa ha ha! ’Tis me! Santa!”
The kids didn’t respond because Ted was obviously a reindeer, and not Santa. But I held myself back from saying anything; this wasn’t about me, this was about the kids. It might’ve been uncouth to let my own personal commentary out right now.
“No! Who are you?!” one of the kids said.
“Hey! That’s not Santa, that’s Abel!” said another.
I guess it’s not surprising they saw through my disguise. It’d be one thing if it was Ted—a total stranger—in this costume, but since they’ve been seeing me quite often, it’d be hard for me to fool them.
“I hear Santa’s brought gifts for everyone, kids!” Kikuko called out.
Everything so far is going according to what we planned earlier. Now that Kikuko’s said her line, I’ll put the bag of presents that I have slung over my back onto the ground.
“They’re presents from me! Take good care of them!” Reindeer-Ted announced bombastically. He seemed to have Santa and the reindeer’s roles in all this reversed.
“If you insist, I guess we’ll take ’em.”
“They better be normal presents, or else!”
Hm. The kids seem like they actually really want these presents. I thought they were just cheeky brats, but they can act like cute kids too.
It might’ve just been my imagination, but after passing out the gifts, it was as if all their excitement had disappeared. The room went silent for a bit.
“Sheesh...what’s with this shabby doll?” a kid sighed, picking out a doll from the bag.
“Lame! So outdated!”
“Dang. Why isn’t it food?!”
Good grief. Orphans these days have high expectations. Must be all that guaranteed food and drink. Back in my day, orphans had to drink dirty water every day just to survive. That being said, their reactions didn’t surprise me at all—I’d been anticipating them, in fact.
“Don’t jump to any conclusions just yet. These aren’t normal dolls.” Well, I guess I should do the reveal now before they get too discontented. “Try pressing the button on the back of yours.”
“Hm? Like this?” One of the kids asked, following my instructions while still fully unconvinced, proceeding to press the buttons on one of the dolls—a tin soldier.
Of course, I had no intention of simply giving them dirty dolls as presents. I’d used Obsidian Eye magecraft to outfit them with my own little tricks.
“Welcome to the city of hopes and dreams!”
“It talked!” the kids yelped, surprised at how I’d tweaked the doll. I’d made it so that this doll would say a different line at random every time you pushed the button.
“Whoa! How’s this work?!”
“It’s magecraft! I bet he used some amazing magecraft to do it!”
Hm. Their reactions are much more positive than I expected. These are the perfect things to get them interested in magecraft.
“Hey, Abel, my robot doesn’t talk!” A different kid complained, already quite unhappy.
But even so, there was no problem. Each of the dolls had a different type of function installed in them. The one I’d given him didn’t have a speaking function.
“For that one, push the lever on its arm down.”
“Hm? Like this?” the kid asked, pushing the lever down, still doubting me.
In the next moment, a high-speed beam shot out of the robot’s hand, the air around the robot trembling from the force of the beam.
“Whoa!”
All the kids froze with surprise after seeing what’d suddenly happened.
“Holy cow! What was that?!”
“So cool! What happened?!”
Hm. Seems like the beam attack is a hit. The beam itself didn’t do any damage—it was an elementless mana pellet that I’d tweaked to only make a loud sound. Though it didn’t serve any purpose outside of being a kid’s toy, it was arguably the best kind of present a kid could get.
“Hey, Abel, what does this one do?!”
“What about mine?! What’s it do, Abel?!”
The kids came to me one after another, asking me about the functions of their presents. Good grief. What a mercurial bunch of kids. But making something for others to enjoy doesn’t feel too bad at all. It looks like Emerson’s lessons on Regalias actually came in handy.
“Amazing... Are all students your age this talented?” Kikuko asked Ted.
“Oh, no. Master’s just in a league of his own. I’m so proud to be his student!”
It seemed that Kikuko and Ted were talking about me by themselves. But either way, this was how Christmas ended—with full smiles.