Seventh Birthday

Over the past few days, nothing major happened as everything was the same. The royal families were still investigating the people who attacked the Quintus family but today, they temporarily stopped.

You know why?

Because it was the princess, Ena von Quintus's birthday.

The day her sister, her parents, her maid, and the citizens all waited for.

They were all prepared to send gifts to the cute princess.

Even if her appearance was different from her family and she couldn't use magic, that was all moved on since the king made an announcement. Her father wanted to hold a huge party for her daughter, but it was too risky since it would make the perfect place for an attack.

Instead, the party would be held at their second residence and the citizens could send their gifts to her. The guards with wind magic would carry it over through the gate and bring it over to Ena.

"Happy birthday Ena!" said Alice pulling Ena into a tight hug.

Ena had to pat Alice's back a few times since it was getting hard to breath.

"Sorry about that, I was too excited." said Alice.

"It's okay and thank you big sister." said Ena.

"Happy birthday sweetie." said mother.

"Happy birthday." said father.

"Happy seventh birthday, princess." said Marie.

"Thank you all!" said Ena.

Everyone prepared gifts as an entire pile of gifts given by the citizens were up against the corner of the walls. It was going to take quite a while to open everything...The present opening was going to be last event they were going to do.

The rooms and hallways were decorated with balloons, banners, letters that spelled out her name, and everyone was wearing a birthday hat. They looked like a normal family instead of a royal one.

Music started playing as they started dancing in the wide room, the Ena and Alice had no idea how to dance so instead, they just randomly started dancing. But their father and mother was a different case, they were dancing with graceful and smooth movements as if they were professionals. Their easy but beautiful and controlled movements caught the attention of the 2 daughters.

It was simply an amazing sight to see, her parents were shining with their beaming smiles. Once again, Elizabeth and Alden fell in love, it as if they were back in their youthful days, back when they blushed whenever they saw each other. As the music ended, they parted ways with red faces, some habits just never change.

Looking at their children, even Marie, staring in awe, they grew even more red.

"That was amazing!" exclaimed Ena.

"I agree!" added Alice.

"It was truly a majestic sight your highness, your majesty." said Marie.

"Thank you guys." said mother.

"Ena, we have a gift for you. Even though the present opening event is the last event, this one is a must. Marie, can you bring it over?" asked father.

"Of course." said Marie.

With her wind magic, she brought over a long large box covered in wrapping paper used for presents.

"How am I going to open this?" asked Ena,

"Don't worry princess, I'll be unwrapping it." said Marie.

The large wrapped box started unwrapped by Marie's wind magic, her delicate use of wind magic allowed the paper to not make any unnecessary cuts as it started unwrapping layer by layer. Once it reached the last layer, Marie suddenly stopped her wind magic leaving Ena confused.

"Why'd you-"

"RAWR!"

"AH!"

Before Ena could finish her question, she received a jump scare making Ena scream. Jumping back a bit, she looked at the torn box and there revealed her instructor, Mary Avyanna.

"EH???"

"Haha! You should've seen that look on your face!" said Mary.

They all started laughing as Ena started to turn red in embarrassment.

"What is this?" asked Ena.

"Mary here is going to teach you how to dance. Usually, when royal children turn seven, they'll learn to dance if there comes a time in the future where they'll need to dance. And as a birthday gift from Mary, she's going to be teaching how to dance." said mother.

"HAH?"

"What do you say?" asked Mary.

Ena was shocked, she has no idea how to dance nor did she want to dance at all. It made her feel embarrassed but looking at the expectation in her mother's eyes, there was no way she could refuse.

"Okay, so when do we start?"

"Right now."

"Right now?"

Before she knew it, Mary had already took her hands with a delightful smile as she started teaching Ena. Dancing is a way of expressing yourself, it makes you feel lively and happy. Some people would get embarrassed and would doubt themselves, but Mary already knew that.

The first thing Mary did was make Ena feel comfortable about herself and her skill. To boost her confidence, Mary first taught Ena easy steps that she can quickly master. As she gets better at learning steps, she'll slowly increase the difficulty, but made sure to give her time to adapt to the harder moves.

The next thing Mary did was break down choreography. Mary broke the steps down into smaller, bite sized chunks and gradually build up to the full series of choreography. Observing Ena's dancing skills, she was surprisingly good at it, she was better at dance moves that required small amounts of footwork yet would create an elegant sight.

After teaching Ena the dance techniques, she allowed her to rest for a bit to go over the things Mary had taught her. Ena wasn't tired yet, Yue was helping her memorize the steps as her birthday gift which made things much easier. Somehow, dancing felt kind of fun, it was enjoyable, but she would not do this all the time.

Soon enough, the dance session ended and Ena took a quick shower.

By the time they finished, the sun was already setting meaning it was time for the cake. Opening the box, there revealed a circular and sacred white cake. Before they cut the cake, they lit up small candles on the cake and sang Ena happy birthday.

"Alright, now blow it and make a wish!"

*WHOO*

With one blow, the fire on the candles extinguished.

"Did you make your wish?" asked mother.

"Yep, now let's eat the cake!" said Ena.

"Haha~ Getting excited aren't you?" teased father.

Mary started cutting the pieces of the cake evenly and served it to Ena first then the rest of her family. Taking a bite out of the cake, it's fresh, crispy, along with the sugar that gave it a sweet taste. The cake also contained ice cream which made everything more amazing than it already was.

Soon enough, it was already time to open presents.

The first present came from Mary, it was quite surprising since she was only her maid. but nevertheless felt grateful. Unwrapping the gift, it was in a black box that looked quite expensive, but when she opened what was inside, the word expensive couldn't compare to what she was now holding. It was a golden rose with the petals made perfectly and it was light too.

The second present came from her father, opening the box, there contained a black and purple bracelet. It matched her hair and eyes perfectly as the bracelet fit perfectly on her wrist.

The third present came her mother. The present was a royal ruby and white gold necklace, the ruby was a symbol of love, passion, and good fortune. The ruby and gold shone brightly as the chandelier's light hit it.

'All 3 presents were probably worth more than my rent in my past life!' thought Ena in shock.

The final present came from her sister, Ena was waiting for this.

"Close your eyes Ena." said Alice.

"Okay." replied Ena.

With her eyes closed, she felt Alice's soft hands touching her hair and attached something on her.

"Alright, you can open your eyes now." said Alice.

Opening her eyes, her face was reflected on the mirror and there was a hairpin that represented a violet butterfly was attached to her hair. This was by far the favorite gift she received, the violet butterfly matched her eyes, and in her past life, she would always go see different types of butterflies since they all looked pretty.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Ena hugging Alice.

"No problem." said Alice as she patted Ena's head.

"Where's hours?" asked her mother.

With a pout, she went over to everyone and gave them a hug as a thank you.

Just like that, the party ended.

Ena now laid in her bed staring at the darkness that covered her room.

The smile she had didn't show up on her face as she looked expressionless.

As if every smile she showed during the party was just a facade.

'Yue, is my brother still alive?'

「 At the moment? Yes. 」

'How is he doing?'

「 I cannot give you all the details about that, but he is probably doing better than you. 」

'How?'

「 What do you mean how? One minute you're all cheery and happy, then the next minute, you're all cold and serious, it's just weird. 」

'Like you aren't like that either!'

「 I am since I'm a system, a human shouldn't be that way. Just stay having one side. 」

'I can't help it, the other side is my serious and smart side!'

「 This really is stupid, I don't want to talk to you. Go to sleep. 」

'Fine.'

Closing her eyes, she easily drifted into sleep.

She only wished for her brother to be safe and sound.

Deep into the night, Yue muttered something in her room.

「 Mission Pack, "To Get Stronger." Activated. 」