The Limen household was busier than ever.

The whole family was currently preparing for Shaden’s 5th birthday. They had rented a small hall of a large inn for the celebration. The tables and chairs had been set up, but there were still many things to do.

“Rother, don’t let your sister wander around!”

“Got it!”

Melsei was ordering the hired servants of the inn to put which food and which items where. Many people had been invited to the party which was soon going to begin. A sizable cake passed through the room and was positioned at the center, right under the simple chandelier of the hall.

Garthan was setting up signs outside of the hall at the entrance while also keeping a lookout for guests. He checked the clock. An hour remained until the celebration began, and yet nobody had arrived yet. He returned to the hall.

“Honey, I don’t see anyone.”

“Garthan, you know they will come. Here, help me move this dish.”

“Leave it to me.”

The children were at the corner on some chairs, watching as their parents decorated the hall. Melany was constantly trying to escape Rother’s grasp, but she was no match for his superior strength that had been trained over the years. Shaden was trying to prevent her from crying by making funny faces.

“I wonder if Miss Yannoeth will be coming,” said Rother out of nowhere.

“I’m sorry, who?”

“Miss Yannoeth. She was there when you were born. She was really pretty. I really want to see her again.”

“Who is she exactly?”

“She said she was an old friend of dad’s. She hasn’t visited since, but I’d love to see her again. Maybe since it’s your birthday, she’ll come.”

“Huh.”

Shaden started flapping his arms around after seeing Melany almost about to cry. Gosh, she was such a crybaby. The whole family had to cooperate to keep her under control.

Finally, Melsei finished her preparations and came to Rother and Shaden. She took Melany from Rother and held her in her arms.

“Rother, Shaden. Go stay at the entrance. Be careful not to wrinkle your clothes, okay?

Rother and Shaden nodded. They headed outside of the hall and went where their father was standing in. Everyone was dressed neatly for the occasion; even Garthan wore a suit.

“Dad, will Miss Yannoeth be coming today?” asked Rother.

“Do you mean Lia? I don’t know, son. We did send her an invitation, but there was no reply. Who knows.”

Rother looked disheartened. Who was this Yannoeth person anyway? His brother was obsessed with her, thought Shaden. Judging by his reactions and expression, she was probably his childhood crush or something. Ah, the joys of being a child.

Melsei appeared soon with Melany on her arms.

“Everything is ready now.”

Around thirty minutes before the official beginning of the party, a group of five men arrived. Garthan’s face lit up into a smile.

“Commander!”

“I’m not you Commander anymore, kid,” he said as he embraced Garthan. “Seems like you’ve been doing well.”

“All because of you, Commander.”

“Heh. Do you understand now? Well, I’m going in.”

Garthan bowed as the former Commander of the Goblin Squad entered the building. He then exchanged greetings with his old groupmates.

“It’s been a long time, Mask.”

“It’s Garthan, Morrill.” Garthan looked over the group. “Where’s Charles? Is he ill?”

“One of our missions got him a few years back.”

“I see…”

‘Former’ Knife slapped Garthan on the back and chuckled.

“I was joking. You’re always so emotional. He’s retired to another city with a dwarven girl. Says she chained him down or something.”

“A dwarven girl…I’d have never imagined.”

“People change. Anyway, you asked us, so here we are. See you later, leader.”

The group also headed into the room. In reality, they had already visited Rother’s 10th birthday party but had been too shy to show themselves after the swordfight. Garthan had never been able to meet them as they were located on the other side of the city, but here they were. It brought up old memories.

“Dad, who were they?”

“Just some old friends.”

Shaden had no idea what old friends had to do with his birthday, but it didn’t matter. The more the merrier. He had also spotted presents which was very nice.

Other people arrived at the celebration continuously. They were mostly Garthan’s acquaintances or the people that had assisted Melsei during her recovery at the Academy. A carriage pulled up to the entrance later and an elderly lady with grey hair that was tied up fancily stepped out of it.

“Headmistress!” exclaimed Rother.

“Yes, yes, I’m here,” she said nonchalantly while patting Rother’s head. “Shaden, is it? I have never gotten a good look at you. Come here.”

Shaden approached the lady with bony fingers. She gave off an intense aura despite her lax attitude.

“Hmm…you have your parents’ looks. And your mother’s beauty.”

“Surely you exaggerate.”

The Headmistress was taken aback by Shaden’s sudden reply.

“Boy, what have you fed this child?” she asked Garthan.

He shrugged. “Sometimes he says phrases beyond his age. It must be from all of the books he read.”

“How peculiar. You are planning to send him to the Academy, are you not?”

“We’ll see, Headmistress.”

Other people followed after the Academy’s supervisor. There weren’t that many people, but all of them shared a close past with Garthan and Melsei. Most of them knew of their background and the significance of the event. Except for the children. The children were clueless.

“Dad! It’s Miss Yannoeth!” exclaimed Rother.

“You kid…Lia?”

From the distance, a slender figure with long, straight blonde hair was walking—no, sprinting towards them at an incredible pace. She had a bow on her back and a sword strapped to her side. Shaden noticed her pointy ears that stuck out. An elf?

The girl/woman stopped right in front of the family. Her green eyes shined with excitement.

“Hey. I’m not late, am I?”

“Lia!” cried Melsei. “You came!”

“Sure, I came. I just happened to be around the town.”

Lia Yannoeth. She had lost to Garthan at the Annual Sword Tournament and had developed a crush on him. Not that he ever knew. They had been good friends after the battle, and when Lia heard that Garthan was getting married, she had come to congratulate him. After quickly becoming close friends with Melsei, she had taught some magic to her. She had been the one to be present at Shaden’s birth, and yes, responsible for the telekinetic magic.

Her voice sounded strangely familiar to Shaden.

“Miss Yannoeth!” said Rother as he bowed. “Welcome!”

Lia smiled. “Hi, Rother! You grew a lot since the last time I saw you.”

She ruffled her hands through Rother’s hair. Rother looked very happy about the whole situation.

Shaden couldn’t blame him. This elf looked like she was in her teens. Her face looked youthful and cute, and her golden hair was braided on one side intricately. He could understand why Rother had developed a crush on this girl. Or woman.

Garthan looked down the empty street.

“I think you’re the last person to arrive, Lia. Let’s go inside.”

Garthan hoisted Shaden up onto his arms and returned to the room, Lia, Melsei, and Rother following after him. The crowd’s attention turned towards Garthan and Shaden as they went to stand on the small stage at the front.

“Ahem. I thank you all for joining us on this special day,” he began. “Five years ago on this day, Shaden was born into our family, when he…”

The speech went on and Shaden looked around the room. He barely saw any familiar faces but all of them looked interesting. His mother was standing at the corner with her children, smiling happily and proudly at Shaden. Shaden smiled back. Today was a great day. They had plenty of delicious food and friends to share it with. Though none of them were his friends, he felt comfortable.

“And now, I’m happy to present Shaden to all of you.”

Nice.

“Shaden, say anything you want,” Garthan whispered into Shaden’s ear. He let him down on the ground and waited for his son to say something. It was nothing serious. This was like a tradition of some sort—seeing how a five-year-old would react in front of a crowd. The better they acted, the greater their future would be. Of course, it was nothing but a superstition, but it was entertaining.

Hm, thought Shaden. I’m just a child, so it won’t matter, will it?

“Thank you, everyone, for coming to this party,” he said.

Some people smiled in the crowd. Shaden looked towards his father. He just motioned Shaden to go on.

“Erm, hope you all have a great time.”

Shaden heard a few chuckles go around the room.

“Show us something fun!” shouted someone from the crowd.

Something fun? Was there anything fun a child could do?

“Okay,” he said. He raised his hands to the air. Some simple magic would be okay, right? Maybe some light would suffice.

A quiet gasp went around the room as Shaden summoned an orb of light into existence in front of him. Shaden scratched his head with his imaginary hand. Was there anything special about it? It was the most basic of magic spells.

The whispers were replaced with applause after Shaden undid the light. He returned to his father who patted him on the back.

“I hope you enjoy the food,” Garthan announced to everyone. The feast had finally started.

Shaden was seated on the front table where everyone could see him. He didn’t care though. He wanted to devour the meals in front of him. Shidey took his usual place next to him and gouged on some meat. Rother was seated next to him, as well as Melsei and Garthan.

“Shaden, where did you learn the magic?” asked Garthan. “Did your mother teach you?”

“No? I read it from the books you gave me.”

“I see.”

The reason why many people were surprised was because Shaden had used chantless magic. It usually took hundreds, maybe even thousands of repetitions for a person to use a certain spell without chanting. Shaden had achieved the feat at just five years old. The spell wasn’t impressive, but the age at which he did it was.

But at the end of the day, it was nothing but something that was a little bit interesting. Children being able to cast magic was not unheard of. In fact, among the nobility and royalty, it was very common for children to practice spells from a young age.

The party went on. People laughed, drank to Shaden’s future, talked about recent events, shared their life stories. It was more of a social gathering than a birthday. But Shaden didn’t complain. There were piles of presents stacked up to the side, and he looked forward to opening them.

He had to go to the toilet, so he got off his chair and headed outside. After relieving himself, he was about to return to the room when he spotted a figure in black outside the hall.

“Hello?” he asked the man.

The man turned and looked at Shaden. He had black eyes and grey-black hair and beard that represented his age. His somewhat wrinkled face looked like it was made out of stone. His eyes were cold and calculating.

The man smiled at Shaden.

“Are you perhaps Shaden?”

Oh. Shaden recognized the voice. This was his grandfather.

“Yes.”

“Come here, child.”

Shaden felt like he couldn’t refuse. There was something commanding about the man. He took a step forward and stopped. The man bent down and looked directly into his eyes. They were dark like the night sky.

“You have your father’s eyes.” The man then reached into his coat for something. “I can’t leave without giving you a present, can I?”

The man took out a dagger from his coat. A freaking dagger. It was sheathed in black leather, but by no means was it an appropriate toy to give to a five-year-old.

Not that Shaden was unhappy about it. He was actually very happy. He accepted the dagger with his small hands. It felt very heavy even when he used two hands to hold it. He looked at its hilt. It was jet black and was intricately designed with…bones?

Wow, he thought.

‘Thank, you, grandfather. I’ll treasure it,” said Shaden mindlessly. He was too focused on admiring the dagger to think about what was coming out of his mouth.

The man’s eyes widened. “How did you know I was your grandfather?”

Shaden’s mind came back. Oh gosh, what did I just say?

“You look like a grandfather,” he said stupidly. Wow, his logic sounded stupid even for him.

The elderly man narrowed his eyes. “You’re an interesting boy,” he stated.

“I hear that a lot.”

“Ha. Ha! Hahaha!”

The man started laughing. He suddenly stopped, all traces of emotion gone from his face.

“The weapon is yours to keep. Don’t allow anyone to take it from you.”

Shaden nodded. He had no intention of letting something as cool as this go.

“Say hello to your father for me,” he said. Then the man walked out of the building and vanished.

Shaden held the dagger tightly. His grandfather was a cool guy, maybe?

He returned to the room, dagger in his arms. He took a seat with Rother’s assistance and started eating again.

“What’s that in your arms?” asked Rother.

“This? Someone gave it to me.”

“It’s not even a sword.”

“It fits my height?”

“I guess.”

The feast went on without any more disruptions. After the guests had left, Garthan fetched a large bag and started putting Shaden’s presents inside it. Thankfully, everything fit. They were mostly clothes and baby toys.

Then Garthan noticed the dagger in Shaden’s arms.

“Son. Where did you get that?”

Oh, shoot. Garthan had been on bad terms with his grandfather.

“An old man gave it to me.”

“…would you give it to me?”

Shaden shook his head. This was something he liked. It wasn’t cursed, was it? He didn’t feel anything from it.

Garthan placed his hand on his head. He sighed.

“The old man always finds a way…” he breathed. “Shaden, promise me you won’t hurt yourself with it.”

“I promise.”

Garthan knew his son. He wasn’t the type to carelessly use the weapon. Perhaps he was being naïve. But he’d wait and see what would happen.

“I’ll put it in the bag. It’s too heavy for you to carry.”

Shaden nodded and handed the dagger over to his father and watched it enter the bag.

To the side, Rother was energetically talking with Lia. It was a funny sight.

So that’s how Shaden’s 5th birthday concluded.