Luke brushed Dayton’s hand away from his forehead, responding to his overzealous reaction.
“I’m not hurt. I’m perfectly normal. Anyway, didn’t you say you wanted to ask me something?”
“Ah, right.”
Dayton was momentarily stunned by Luke’s unusual behavior and had forgotten his original purpose for visiting.
“I came to ask you something.”
“Well, you see, do you want to go shopping later?”
“Shopping? What’s with the sudden request? Didn’t we already finish preparing for the Spirit Day?”
“Actually…”
Dayton suddenly recalled why he sought out Luke and began to speak.
“Diana said that the gift she wants has already been communicated to the spirit by you.”
“Hmm, did she…? I suppose that’s true.”
He did mention it, though it wasn’t about a gift from the spirit itself.
Dayton sighed in response to Luke’s answer. “I knew it. But what does that even mean? She hasn’t tried to talk to me at all this year.”
Diana was quite a crafty one. In the past, she had firmly believed in the existence of a spirit that brought gifts and was simply delighted by it. Recently, however, she began to harbor doubts, slowly suspecting that “there might not actually be a gift-giving spirit.”
Perhaps it was because she was living with Pyris, who was openly a spirit—or at least claimed to be an entity with spirit-like powers. Consequently, Diana grew to question whether the being that had gifted her every Spirit Day truly was a spirit.
Thus, she needed a way to verify whether a gift-giving spirit actually existed. And the method she thought of was to find out, “If I only express my desired gift to the spirit, will the gift I truly want come?”
Spirits were inherently invisible, leaving no standardized way to prove their existence, and even if she secretly waited up to see Luke placing a gift under the World Tree, she could easily dismiss it by stating, “I was just curious about what the gift was.” This would lead her to think, “Is it really like that?”
This meant she needed a way to only contact the spirit, but fortunately, she had an older sister who was a “Spirit Girl,” so things seemed just right! So, this year, Diana didn’t even write a “letter to the spirit” stating her desired gift.
If the gift-giver turned out to be Luke instead of a spirit, he could easily sneak a look at her letter.
Thus, Diana had already firmly instructed both Pyris and Luke, “Don’t let my brother know!”
At the time, Luke thought it was simply a minor promise, and he readily accepted it without much thought, finding Diana’s whininess to be annoying.
“But why ask me? I’ve already promised Diana not to tell anyone else that isn’t a spirit.”
Regardless, even if he said that, a promise was a promise. Thus, Luke could only respond like this.
Diana, that girl, is really annoying her brother as she is about to turn 9 soon.
Hearing Luke’s response, Dayton sighed and touched his forehead.
“Well, obviously because I need to prepare the gift. You know there is no gift-giving spirit.”
The existence of a gift-giving spirit? Isn’t that a nonsensical discussion upon some thought? Well, it’s not to say that spirits don’t exist at all.
An astute and rational Luke would likely know that such spirits do not exist.
However, Luke’s reaction to Dayton’s declaration was quite unexpected.
—Pausation.
“No spirit that gives gifts on Spirit Day?”
Dayton was very flustered by that reaction and opened his mouth.
“…Well, what about it?”
“Then, the one who gives gifts every year has been you?”
“Is that really such a shocking thing?”
As Dayton was unknowingly stepping on the last remnants of Luke’s childlike innocence, he fell into a deep contemplation. Luke paused for a moment to ponder Dayton’s words.
That statement meant that there was no great spirit or cluster of spirits monitoring children’s behavior on Spirit Day to distinguish between good and evil and to influence them by giving gifts.
But if it was merely a day for parents to create an excuse to give gifts to their children, there was no need for such a terrifying assumption.
“That’s quite fortunate, then.”
Luke sighed with relief and mumbled.
What he had thought was an unknown and insidious threat secretly dominating the world had completely transformed into a mere delusion, so how could he not feel relieved?
“…What’s fortunate about that?”
Rather than being disappointed that there are no spirits, he felt relieved? Dayton couldn’t understand Luke’s reaction at all.
——
A while later, Dayton and Luke moved the flowers they’d gathered into their skirts and sat on a stump near the house, discussing gifts.
“So, does that mean you can’t tell me what gift Diana wanted?”
Upon Dayton’s question, Luke nodded.
“Yeah, a promise is a promise.”
It couldn’t be helped. Breaking an already made promise unilaterally was an unpardonable sin for a Mage. Even more, as someone whose essence was the Circle itself, it was a deed he simply couldn’t perform.
“Then what now? This is a big problem. I don’t even have anything I secretly prepared to ask you. If I just give her some random weird gift, it’ll be chaos.”
In response to Dayton’s worry, Luke advised him, wondering what the big deal was.
“Just come clean. You’ve been the one giving the gifts all along.”
Dayton, expressing a hesitant look while observing Luke’s calm demeanor, replied, “Can you really handle that?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if Diana finds out that there are no spirits on Spirit Day? It could really turn into a scene.”
“…!”
With Dayton’s question of “Can you handle it?” Luke immediately froze.
Indeed, Diana had always been a naive child who was very convinced about the existence of spirits long before meeting him. But what would happen if she found out that there were no gift-giving spirits on Spirit Day?
It would be better if she sulked and shut herself up in her room for a while. But Diana did not lack the stubbornness typical of someone being Dayton’s younger sister.
The likelihood of that was quite slim.
Would she cry? How long would she cry? Would it be over by the end of the day?
Diana’s cries were extremely loud, as she was already an active child. How much of that chaos could he possibly endure?
Luke lacked confidence.
He wasn’t sure if he could handle that situation…
“…”
That there were indeed no gift-giving spirits. That was a truth he would eventually have to learn as he lived—just not today.
On a holiday that should be peaceful, no one in this household, except for Pyris, who could switch to a spectator mode from the material plane, would desire such a result.
If only he could delay the day it came for even just a single day… No, if he could just get through the age where Diana would still be throwing a tantrum.
If he could manage that, a world where no one would get hurt could ultimately be achieved.
Prepared to pay any price for a peaceful home environment, Luke began to brainstorm and quickly thought of one method.
“Right. I can’t tell Diana what gift she wants, but I can ‘prepare’ it, can’t I!”
That’s right. If revealing what she wanted isn’t possible, then he simply had to choose a gift himself from the start!
Luke began explaining his plan to Dayton in detail, who was seeking a more thorough explanation.
“I’ll go shopping, buy it without telling you, and wrap it up nicely before handing it over. Then I could say I never told you what Diana wants, and you could still give her a gift, and Diana would also receive what she wants, right?”
He thought he had come up with a pretty clever workaround, and as he looked at Dayton, he also nodded with a complex expression.
“Yeah. Well, it’s a decent plan.”
“But?”
“To say you must keep promises while coming up with such tricks… Don’t you think you’re a bit clever for your own good?”
“….”
Luke had no rebuttal to Dayton’s words.
So, what can one do?
It’s just the kind of thing Mages do.
Anyway, now there was just one issue left to tackle.
Where could he find the gift Diana wanted?
“But where can I get the limited edition Meruru doll?”
Luke dashed off to his room and began searching.
