Birthday

Hiro’s POV:

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The huge factory was filled to the brim with modern machines, which worked non-stop to tailor each cloth. There were cabins, which measured people’s sizes. The data the machines gathered was sent to the tailoring machines. There was only one person in the whole factory, but even he was spending his time cultivating. That person was none other than the owner. People had to pick a fabric, an outlook for the cloth they wished to buy, and after paying, the tailoring machines would finish in a few minutes.

If the material was really high-class, it took more time since such materials were hard to handle. But Aurora wasn’t with us, so we had to ask the owner personally. There was no problem with the sizes either. How could we not know such thing about our cute daughter! Well, and she resided in our world, so we could check it anytime…

The owner, called Krull, was sitting on the ground, his eyes closed. Squatting down in front of him, I tapped his right shoulder, saying, “Hello. Can I have your attention for a bit?”

His eyes snapped open as he jumped up into a defensive position. His body trembled and sweat covered his forehead, his eyes darting all over the place. Locating us, his eyes opened wide.

“Ah, sorry for startling you, but I am quite impatient. I’ll abuse my authority on you, if you don’t mind,” I said with a smile, patting his shoulders. His face turned white as a blank sheet of paper, while the number of water droplets increased on his forehead.

“I just need some high-quality pajamas for my daughter’s birthday. I’ll use your machines to prepare it. I hope that you won’t mind it,” I added, pulling the corners of my lips into a meaningful smile. I was selfish. That was a fact, but I never cared about that fact. Being selfish was a must, else you will be used by others for their own gain. That’s something I learned very, very early on in my past life.

We could have created Aurora’s present out of thin air, but we wanted to do it ourselves. Something, that was handmade and the result of our own work. Not the result of our current power.

“O-Of course, you can do anything, my g-“

“Oh, don’t call me that. Just call us Hiro and Alice. Such a title would creep me out…” I said, closing his lips with the use of Space. His brows twitched as he nodded his head.

Teleporting to the old storeroom of the factory, we found a big table. Using our Qi, we destroyed the dust in the room. Alice teleported away and killed a big, fluffy monster. Its fur was very soft yet durable. It came from a monster outside of Sawolond.

[Hahaha~ really, we don’t even need his tools. We could have done everything at home,] Alice said through our bond, laughing at my stupid antics.

“Oh, well. But his face was priceless. It’s ridiculous that Aurora has got used to it, while we are still slaves of surprising others,” I said with a chuckle, slapping her ass.

“Ouch… You are way too random sometimes. But we were there to kill that part of her personality early on, while we had nobody. We aren’t even that old. As time passes by, I’m sure that we will get bored of it too. Thirty years to reach the tenth level. Haah- it’s totally ridiculous,” she said with a long sigh leaving her pink lips. Stepping closer, I embraced her body and grabbed her ass.

Looking into her eyes, I kissed her deeply. “Thanks for giving birth to Aurora,” I said with a smile, repeating the same movement. “Thanks for being born,” I added, finishing it in the same manner, “Thanks for being with me.”

“We just had sex and you are seducing me again…” she said with a pouting face, biting my lower lip. My hands twitched as I let go of her waist. Placing my hand on her shoulders, I pushed her away in a gentle way, looking towards the ground.

“L-let's focus on Aurora’s presents or we won’t finish until tomorrow morning… You can take care of my lower half later on,” I mumbled in a low voice.

“Okay, sweetie~” she whispered into my left ear, biting the top of it. Her right hand squeezed my lower part as she turned towards the table, swaying her hips, her tail continuing.

“You really are incorrigible,” I remarked, glaring at the tip of her tail.

“It’s good to be loved~” she sang in a random tone.

Shaking my head, I tried to shut out my worldly desires, for now. Blank turned into a knife in Alice’s hand and cut into the monster’s fur. Blank disconnected its skin from its meat without any mistake, leaving the fur perfectly clean and untouched. Its fur was black in color with white stripes on it, just like Aurora’s scales.

Thanks to our accurate senses and precise hand movements, we cut the fur into the right sizes. “Should we stick to doing everything the old way?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Hmm- It’s not like this will take a lot of time and effort, no matter what we do. We aren’t mortals and I won’t pretend to be one just to spend more time with a present. I’d rather make it perfect,” she replied, shaking her head in refusal.

“You are right. We change moods and ideas way too quickly… I bet that normal people in my past life would complain about us, even though I was such a person when I wrote my novel too,” I said with a chuckle, feeling nostalgic.

“Err, you are in your past life if you look at it that way. Argh! I just realized that we have been ignoring Aurora’s half for years! We should really take a step forward. Even Bayezinth is just a joke in front of us at this point. I don’t believe that we would be hunted down on the last floor,” she remarked, adding her say to the topic.

In the meantime, we used our Qi to connect the cloth pieces, making it seamless. “She is likely to feel happier about our secondary gift, but I’ll still like to see her in this!” I exclaimed, raising our creation into the air. Holding out her hand, three rings formed in Alice’s hand. We used one of the most powerful metals, which was very flexible as the tie.

“Hmm~ let’s make this a little more girly for Aurora. We can’t have a piece of shit hanging around her neck,” Alice said with a laugh as simple, white crystals appeared around the ring in a thin circle, covering its outside.

“Do you mind?” I asked, having a sudden idea.

“Hahaha~ why would I mind? Don’t be stupid,” she laughed at me. Using my Qi, I inscribed a powerful formation into the ring. It protected both her body and soul. Taking out a few million souls, we fueled the formation in her necklace. The holder of the formation was a text, using the language of my past life, ‘Egy megtörhetetlen kötelék’.

“An unbreakable tie, hehe- I like it, ” Alice said with a chuckle, caressing my back.

“Well, let’s create that storage space for her,” I said with a smile, picking a random chunk of space in our universe and cutting it out. The crystal covering the ring shone with a bright light as the ten million cubic meters space was integrated into it. The light slowly faded out, returning the ring to its former simple look.

“Abyss~ could you come here for a moment? I really want your help with this. She would be so cute!” I exclaimed, hoping that it would come. A shadow appeared in front of us and looked at us without saying a word. A few seconds later, it talked, “Don’t call me in such a way. If it was Alice, I could handle it… but your faked girly voice was so creepy that I almost didn’t come,” it replied with a chuckle.

“…”

“Hahaha~ I’m sorry, Hiro. But I have to tell you that this time the Abyss said the truth,” Alice laughed, patting my shoulder.

“What? I’m always telling the truth! I’m an honest… person… or thing? Whatever, I fulfilled your wish. Now I’m leaving,” it replied.

Grabbing its shady shoulder, I stopped him for one more question. “Who is your half? Are you happy with it?” It had a pink thread connecting it to something else, but I never asked about it before.

Its back facing me, without turning around, it said, “How can you ask such a stupid question? Of course, I am happy. I’ve known it for such a long time and it’s the only thing that fills me with enjoyment, other than playing with you people. I’ll start the next race for the next creator in a few years. You didn’t find anything about Aurora’s mission because you can see it only at the lower levels. The floors of the creators” it replied, adding an interesting piece of information.

We’ve explored the bottom floors too, except for the last one, but we never found anything about Aurora and her mission. But the last floor was only a place for a massacre, without trading rooms, so we didn’t have to check that place. “In that case, we will be sure to win and unravel your little secrets,” I said with a smile, squeezing its shoulder with my full strength. Not even bothering with it, he shrugged off my hand with a chuckle.

“You are funny. But your road is still quite long. Strive on and you will understand everything, though you might feel unhappy about it later… Hahaha, but I’m not implying anything bad here. It’s nice, in a way” it said as its shady body slowly disappeared.

“Strange as always,” Alice remarked, breathing out long.

“Yeah,” I mumbled in a low voice before turning around butt naked. “So where were we?” she asked with a smirk on his face, coiling her arms around my neck.

“Hmm~ I don’t remember. Make me” I said, showing a mysterious smile. Feeling up her thighs, right up to her buttocks, I felt my lust rise once again as I kissed her. Raising her up, I put her on the work desk and indulged in pleasure until morning.

----

We woke up lying on top of the table, butt naked. Yawning loudly, I sat up as Blank covered our bodies. “Let’s go, Aurora is waking up," I said, grabbing Alice’s hand.

“Wait. We don’t have a cake! She loves sweets, just like us. Knowing you and myself, we would care the most about that… really. I think that we should get her something really big and sweet cake!” Alice stopped me, remembering the most important thing.

“Oh, right. I’d rather feel sad about not having a cake than receiving any present. She seemed to be the happiest whenever she saw the cake appearing, just like us…” I said with a chuckle.

Shaking her head, Alice buried her face in her palms. “We are terrible. Sweets above everything else, hahaha~” she mumbled, breaking into a fit of laughter.

Using our universe, we created the necessary materials and created a perfect chocolate cake in a few seconds. Appearing in front of Aurora’s room, we opened her door with gleeful smiles on our faces. Her eyes still closed, her hair a mess, she rubbed her eyes with the sleeves of her white pajama. She is so cute. I can’t let any man near her! No matter half or not! Damn it! I whined in my mind, not wishing to see any man near our daughter.

[Hey, but think about us. Isn’t it wonderful?] Alice soothed me through our bond, our thoughts quicker than even one of Aurora’s hand movements.

But that would mean that a man will sooner or later touch her in that way. NO! I can’t, I shouted in my mind, having mixed emotions. Grr, I hope that her half is good enough, I growled in my mind, cracking my fingers.

[Hahaha, you are crazy as always.] Alice thought with a chuckle. Hearing her voice and the cracks of my fingers, Aurora opened her sleepy eyes.

“Mother, Father? What’s going-“ she was about to ask when she finally noticed the cake in my hands and a box in Alice’s hands.

Seeing her quivering lips, I couldn’t help but peek into her mind. No, no, no! I can’t start crying! But I’m so happy! Every year, the first thing in the morning is to welcome me this way! This is not even customary for other children! S-Smile, Aurora. Smile the brightest you can! she thought, but the corners of her eyes glistened with tears.

“Hahaha, my daughter, you don’t have to hold it back. Do you feel like crying in happiness because of having such great parents?” I asked, laughing loudly.

“I-I don’t!” she shouted, but her tears flowed down on her tiny face.

“Aww~ I have such a cute daughter!” Alice exclaimed, placing the gifts in front of Aurora’s bed and hugging her into her bosom. “Happy birthday, dear,” we said at the same time, hugging her.

Her tears soon turned into sobbing, while a few seconds later a bright smile formed on her face. Looking at the levitating chocolate cake, I asked, “Do you want to start with the cake or your presents?”

“Cake, of course!” she shouted with a gleeful face, showing her white teeth.

---------------- Aurora’s POV: -----------------

The cake was as delicious as always. I’m sure that I inherited my parents’ taste since they are just as selfish and greedy when it comes to chocolate as me. Even though it was my birthday, I had to fight in order to eat enough. But I enjoyed it a lot. I’ll surely remember this in the future too. Even now, it brings a smile to my face when I think about my short life up till now.

Nowadays, I just don’t know what to do with myself. Maybe it is because I’m going through puberty… They don’t restrict me in any way yet I feel bad when I stay out for too long, even if they don’t say anything. They just keep giving me strange looks. They are so manipulative… but I learned quite a lot from them over these years and I hope to continue doing the same in the future. Seeing that there was only one slice of cake left, I quickly grabbed it before my parents could take it away.

I stuffed it all into my mouth and quickly gulped it down. “Hahaha, we wouldn’t have taken it. It’s your birthday,” Mother said with a chuckle, caressing the top of my head. Sometimes I thought that my father would hug me to the death. Even now, he was literally glaring at me. Seeing his face coming closer, I held out my right hand and pushed away his big head.

“Eh? Won’t you give Father a kiss?” he asked, pulling his lips into a round shape. I turned away to look at Mother, but her expression didn’t change. Father’s head kept coming closer and closer, though I pushed him away every time. The last time, he stopped right beside my face. “So?” he asked, holding his face towards me.

“Uhm… fine” I mumbled, turning towards him and giving a kiss on his face, dirtying it with the remnants of the chocolate cake. I didn’t even eat that much… the cake was huge. It must have been them who ate it.

“You are the best,” Father said, raising his hand to give a high five. Returning the favor, he sat on the side of my bed with a grin on his face.

“Oh? What about Mother?” Mother asked, placing her hand on her sad face. Moving closer, I kissed her too.

“Thank you, Father, Mother!” I said with a bright smile, feeling truly happy.

“Haha, no problem, it was our pleasure,” they said at the same time. As Father turned away for a moment, Mother noticed his dirtied face. Leaning closer, she kissed him on the face, but as her lips parted, Father’s face was clean once again. She must have used her Qi! I thought, looking up at my Mother.

I didn’t know what that feeling was, but sometimes she felt so… attractive when she kissed Father. I want to be like her! She is so ladylike and has this wonderful charm, especially when she is with Father!

“Oh, please don’t. I’m really not ladyli-“ she started something, quickly covering her mouth. Did I say it aloud? I thought, questioning myself. I’m not an idiot. She surely responded to my thoughts… Maybe I talked without noticing it. Well, it’s not a problem if she knows that I look up to her! I thought, this time surely not saying anything.

Faking a cough for some reason, Father raised up the box from the ground and gave it to me. “This is your present. Everything is handmade, though we used our Qi too,” he said, looking at me with a loving smile.

Nodding my head, I took away the box. Opening it, I found a soft fabric inside. Pulling it out of the box, I realized what it was. It had the same pattern as my scales in my battle form. I couldn’t help but try stretching this soft material, but nothing happened. It felt very strong yet soft. Strange… but this feels good to the touch! I thought as a smile formed on my face without my knowledge. Well, I did notice it just now.

Actually, it was a full-body pajama with a hoodie and two dragon horns on the top of it. They also gave me a stuffed dragon, which matched the pattern of the pajama. I wasn’t this much of a kid… but these things were just so cute! No! I must resist! But I like them… Damn it! I can’t let anyone see me in this! Maybe my parents can see it. NO! Just look at those stupid smiles on their faces!

“Quickly, try it on!” Mother urged me, grabbing my pajama at its collar. She undressed me without me even noticing! A moment before she was grabbing its collar yet my pajama was nowhere to be seen! What’s going on here?!

Father held their present in front of me. Grabbing it, I pulled it out of his hands and stood up on my bed to dress up. The pajama felt really warm and soft both inside and outside and it had a nice fragrance. In the next moment, it coiled tightly around my body and entered my cells. It turned into a part of me. It was like my parents’ Symbiote!

“W-What is this?!” I exclaimed as I felt that I’m in control of this new texture.

“Haha, it’s something new! It’s a Symbiote, but it doesn’t have any effects, except that you can wear this anytime! You won’t have to take it off or wash it. Just pull it into your body and done! We had to ask for outside help to add this ability, but it was worth it,” Father replied with a chuckle. Feeling a burning gaze on my right side, I looked at my Mother.

“Mother? What is it?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“ARGH! You are just so cute, dear. Those tiny horns of yours are just adding fuel to the fire, not to mention your tail and your little body,” she shouted, hugging me and rubbing her face on mine.

“Hahaha, stop it, Alice. You are cuddling her to the death. Alright, enough of roleplaying and let’s get a little bit more serious,” he said, shifting the mood in a moment. It was rare that they behaved this way and it happened only when they were in the mood to play around. I don’t think that there are many parents who behave this way since I’ve never heard of such events from the other kids I know. And I know a lot of them in Sawolond! But I felt happy to receive their care.

“We have one more present for you. I hope that you will treasure it and keep it by your side. But remember. Even if you lose it accidentally, don’t mind it. We will create a new one, alright? I know that there are many strange things in the world,” Mother said, reaching into the box and pulling out three rings, covered in shiny crystals. They were really pretty. The ring looked simple yet beautiful!

Mother held one between her fingers and held it towards me. Opening my hand, I received it with great care. I felt a huge amount of energy inside the ring. “We made three of these. If something bad happens, this will protect you. Hopefully, it will never be used. Your parents still have another life, but they didn’t have to use it. Hahaha,” she said with a smile. Grabbing my hand, she closed it. I felt the smooth and hard crystals on the ring, telling tales of its quality.

Grabbing my hair, she pulled it to the side and put the tie of the necklace around my neck. Well, they just put the ring on a tie, but I would have found it too precious to wear it on my finger. I heard a click behind my neck and in the next moment, Mother pulled back her hands. “It won’t fall off like this,” she said, caressing my face. Nodding my head, I was about to hug her when she continued.

“There is something else. We have made three of these, though the other two don’t have the defensive formations. If any of us dies, these rings will break. Well, it’s not like you will ever see such a thing, Hahaha. Anyway, you are very clever and manipulative. We can see that. We are happy to see that you are getting along so well with Dre, Kana, and Sophia, but remember one thing. No matter what, we will always be here for you, so please keep this ring with you.”

“It is also a way for you to find us if you ever leave Sawolond and we wouldn’t be here. You will be able to feel the connection between these rings. We will always keep it with us,” she said as both of them tied them around their necks. In the next moment, I noticed that there was something written on the inside of the ring. It was my Father’s native language from his past. I knew that language thanks to him. I understood those words. I didn’t know why, but I started sobbing and crying again.

Standing up, I stepped closer and hugged both of them at the same time. I had troubles since I was really tiny, especially compared to Father. Feeling their arms around my back, I felt happy, and safe, and warm. “I’ll treasure all of these presents,” I mumbled, but I was sure that both of them heard everything. My thoughts were confirmed in the next moment.

“We are glad to hear that,” they said at the same time. I always found it a little strange when they did this, but I’ve got quite used to it. It’s not like they were doing it all the time.

“Haah- I’m happy that you are growing up slowly, but I’m feeling sad about it at the same time. I can’t imagine a time where our cute daughter is wandering around the world with her friends, leaving us all alone,” Father said, breathing out long.

Tilting my head to the side, I said, “I didn’t have such plans, though?”

“I can meet so many people here too since Sawolond is quite big. I’m not saying that we will never leave, but I’m sure that not for long. People outside of this place are all so weird. They are all about strength and money… They are akin to lifeless people, who are totally dumb. Thanks, but I’d rather leave out meeting those idiots as much as possible. Just look at the last time we left. Some idiot teenager attacked us for some really stupid reason. Who would want to wander around such places?”

“Every time we went out, we met such stupid people…” I started complaining about the places outside of Sawolond.

They looked at each other with dumbfounded faces. At first, it changed into happy smiles, but in the next moment, both of them facepalmed as they said.

“We screwed up.”