Toddler Arc VI : Cute Magical Wand!
Everyone turned towards Astraea with looks of surprise, not expecting to able to garner any information from the current conversation even with her advanced vocabulary and intelligence. They quickly brushed it off in favor of what she actually said.
"Little sister, huh?" Aereon said with a sigh as he looked between the cloth doll and Astraea who were both currently staring at each other, one with its black button eyes and the other with eyes that sparkled in excitement.
Astraea was genuinely excited about her new sibling as she had been paying very close attention to each and every word that came out of Kaelie's mouth, and at the end was filled with countless thoughts and emotions.
She couldn't believe just one year into the world and she would have received a companion and friend that would be able to grow alongside her and the fact that it was a highly advanced sapient A.I.!
She couldn't wait to be able to teach it and form an unbreakable bond with it, and most importantly, teach it all about the ways of cuteness!
"A little sister, that's exactly right Astraea, and you'll be the older sister. You remember what an older sister does right? You have to teach and guide your younger sister everything you've learned, and teach it things that are right and wrong, and most importantly, you have to protect your little sister and be kind to her because she's a baby and babies need a lot of love and care." Paela came up beside Astraea to tell her all of her future responsibilities, already more accepting than Aereon was, who still had an unsure expression on his face.
"Mhm! Astraea will love little sister very much!" Astraea said, she had already considered the small doll to be part of the family and that would, in turn, make it be affected by the wish she had made earlier.
"Well... looks like there's no way to give it back now is there? Is there anything else you wanted to add?" Aereon asked with a tired expression, all that information that he was given made him a little mentally tired that he couldn't find any words to say.
"There is one thing, Kaelie didn't receive the A.I. in this mechanical doll you see here but was actually in an external hard drive. And it was a military-grade drive that had enormous storage space and was extremely secure, I'm sure a percentage of the price also came from this drive as well." Vaena gave the stink eye towards her daughter who looked away once again with a slight blush and continued speaking.
"After deciding to gift the A.I. to Astraea, she knew she had to acquire a body for the A.I. to reside in or it wouldn't be able to grow and learn as she intended, but she didn't have any connections regarding that field and lacking time to research, she was also reluctant to spend more money after the huge amount she had spent just to get the A.I."
"Fortunately, her kind and generous mother stepped in and helped to commission a body for the A.I. to reside in, using her own funds to get the highest quality body created in less than two months." Vaena finished with a hmph in Kaelie's direction.
"Thanks, mom..." Kaelie said, though she had sent her thanks to her mother for helping her with the body countless times, she reminded her constantly.
"Thanks, grandma!" Astraea said cutely at her grandmother, causing her face to switch to a kinder and more gentle expression.
"You're welcome, dear. The doll is made of the highest quality materials that ensure its longevity and endurance while keeping its weight the same as any old doll, it has an inbuilt mana siphon to store and collect magic and is able to cast various types of magic and spells. It was partially made with the hard drive the A.I. came in to reduce the cost and the fact that there was no situation that Kaelie would have any use for its advanced specifications. Its inner workings are at military-grade as well, moving seamlessly without a sound."
"Only the best for my granddaughter." Vaena advertised all the main specifications of the doll making Astraea let out a small voice filled with amazement, soft enough that no one had heard her.
"I think we've spent enough time on Kaelie's and Vaena's combined present, why don't we move on to the others?" Paela asked as she didn't want everyone to be focused on this for the rest of the party.
The next to give their presents were Dennix and Aneya who had sent out their children to give the present to Astraea.
Kyris had given handed her her present uncaringly and going straight back to his seat, causing Dennix to sigh.
Tearing open the present, inside was a pink wand with a big pink heart at the end with four different colored buttons on the handle.
Each button was the color of one of the four elements, red for fire, blue for water, green for air, and brown for earth.
Astraea immediately pressed one of the buttons, specifically, the blue one, and bubbles suddenly started to appear around the head of the wand in different sizes. Astraea stared at the bubbles in awe and started twirling the wand around while giggling.
"Pretty cool huh? It may not be as great as your new 'little sister', but I can guarantee that you'll have lots of fun with it!" Dennix proudly said. He hadn't been worried in the slightest that Astraea wouldn't like his present despite the previous one she had received as he was confident in himself and his choice.
"An actual magic wand huh? with four different spells themed after the four elements, finally a normal present." Aereon said while emphasizing the word 'normal' but only looking in Astraea's direction.
Kaelie crossed her arms and gave a small 'hmph' in Aereon's direction, knowing that he was talking about her and her present.
Astraea stopped pressing the blue button and pressing the red button next. The wand's head started to catch fire and quickly spread to the handle, almost making Astraea drop it in shock.
Though she quickly stopped herself when she noticed that the fire only felt a little warm and the wand still looked in perfect condition and wasn't melting. She let the fire spread all over the wand and reach her hand. As she had expected, it didn't hurt in the slightest and her hand looked kinda cool being covered in fire.
"Since fire is too dangerous, what you're seeing is just an illusion that is able to replicate the physics of fire, there are also two more functions, try waving it around," Dennix explained to Astraea, though he didn't know whether she had understood it or not due to her intelligence that had not been properly measured, in the beginning, he had thought she was just a really bright child, but the more he saw her show off her intelligence, the more confused he got about her actual level of intelligence.
Astraea started to slowly wave the flaming wand through the air and it made a beautiful fiery trail that followed the head of the wand from behind. Astraea's mouth fell upon as she became mesmerized by the beautiful trail of fire that was dancing gently in the air.
Kyris and Tirana didn't look too impressed with the sight as they both had received similar presents before and had used them plenty of times until the novelty of it wore off.
"That's not all kid, now try strongly flicking the wand in one direction."
Astraea nodded her head and did exactly that, aiming at the open air in front of her. A stream of flames burst out from the wands head, reaching quite far before stopping completely. Astraea only had one thing on her mind the moment she saw the flames burst out of the wand, magical flamethrower!
Her amazement at the function displayed by the red button didn't prevent her from immediately pressing the green button next, as she wanted to know what other functions her wand had.
The wand started to produce a strong gust of air from its head, making Astraea instantly point it at her head, blowing her hair back and strongly tickling her face, she giggled in joy at amusement at having a portable fan that was a thousand times stronger than those on earth.
"This button only has one more extra function, but before I tell you what it is, I'll go get something."
Dennix rushed into the kitchen while everyone watched in confusion, which was further increased as Dennix exited the kitchen while chugging down a can of soda, and finishing it the moment he reached his previous spot.
"Aah...that hit the spot, now try swinging you wand while aiming at this empty can." Dennix set down the now empty can on the coffee table not too far from Astraea, with Aereon looked at him in slight annoyance for drinking a can of soda just to make a target.
Astraea held her wand with her right hand, swinging down in the direction of the can and a whistle of air was heard, and the can was suddenly toppled by an invisible force.
"Mini wind blade, strong enough to knock over light objects, it's the most functional of the buttons by far," Dennix explained with a smile as he watched Astraea get excited once again.
The brown button was the last one to be pressed and it created a small clump of dirt that floated atop the wands head and followed it when it moved.
"Like the fire button, the earth button is also just an illusion that creates a clump of dirt that is able to be launched and also simulates the laws of physics. Like the wind blade, you can also swing while aiming it and it will send the fake clump of dirt flying."
Hearing that the clump of dirt didn't actually exist, she decided to aim her wand at her dad and catch him by surprise by aiming at something else and switching at the last moment.
Astraea aiming at an open space and started to wind up her spin, swinging it down and turning to face her dad while she did so. The clump of dirt hit him in the face dead on, breaking off into bits and disappearing as they dropped to the floor.
Though Aereon was experienced and talented in the matters of battle and would not easily be caught off guard. He had totally not expected her angel of a daughter that had not misbehaved once since she was born would even think to target him! It had even made him flinch and take a step back the instant it hit his face, though there was no actual force when it had hit him.
Astraea started giggling non-stop when she saw the shocked expression on her dad's face, which made the other guest join along in the laughter, including the two children. As Aereon recovered from his shock, he didn't turn angry but instead started to join in the laughter, already guessing that Astraea had played a prank on him as she saw it as harmless.
"Okay...okay...you got me good, I didn't know my little angel was starting to grow horns, I don't remember teaching you how to play pranks on people." Aereon teasingly said as he approached his still giggling daughter, and started tickling her all over.
Astraea's giggles turned into uncontrollable laughter as she squirmed while in her dad's grasp, but not actively resisting his tickles.
Astraea had never been tickled when she was a child in her previous world and was very surprised to find that she enjoyed it greatly. She had never laughed very much in her previous life and had not experienced a lot of physical bonding with her previous grandparents as they were very advanced in age, so she wanted to experience all of that while she was still a child in this world.
Though most of the time she would be thinking with her advanced mental age, she would frequently allow her mental age to regress simply by letting her enhanced behavioral cuteness takeover along with the natural instinct of joy and fun that a child had, making the mature parts of his soul to heal from living a previously lonely life by experiencing fun and joy and not a moment of loneliness in this life.