TGBAP 23

[Then it makes even less sense! If they’re twins, doesn’t that mean they were born on the same day at the same hour! Why is only Lucian treated like cold rice scraps!]

“Twins are a symbol of abundance and good fortune! How can humans be so cruel!”

The two who had been fuming in indignation shut their mouths at the whining that came from inside the room.

They headed to a place farther away from the room.

[Why would being twins be bad? If they’re twins, isn’t that even better? They say children are precious in the imperial family. Especially if two sons are born at the same time, that should be even better.]

“That, I don’t know either. Maybe humans have some kind of bad superstition or something?”

Hmmm.

Ria and Kaiser folded their arms and racked their brains. But they couldn’t find a clear answer.

One was a ghost who couldn’t leave the mansion at all, and the other was a hatchling with no interest in the human world.

No matter what, there must be something hidden.

“I’ll look into it later.”

[Yeah. If you learn anything, tell me right away. How long are you going to stay here?]

“Dunno. This time too, maybe about a month?”

For a dragon’s lifespan, it seemed like an absurdly short time, but since he hadn’t even undergone the adult dragon ceremony yet, it was the maximum amount of time he could be alone without any guardian.

Any longer than that and, apparently, his parents and the elders would make a huge fuss, or something.

[Huh? Wait a second—come to think of it, didn’t you say ‘birth banquet’ earlier?]

“Huh? Ah, yeah, I did. Probably the Crown Prince’s birth banquet…… huh?”

The Crown Prince and Lucian are twins.

Which means, in other words, their birthdays are the same.

As yet another new fact came to light, Ria and Kaiser flailed around in confusion.

[You, you……! When did you hear that?!]

“Uh…… so……! Ah! Right before I came here, I was with that rude bastard on the same day he left! He said there’s a banquet in exactly a week, so he has to go and prepare!”

Kaiser said he came here the evening before yesterday, and that it took two days to get here.

Then once tonight passes, five days will have already gone by.

[That means there are exactly two days left.]

“Do humans not think birthdays are important?”

[……I don’t know either.]

I’d have to have seen the humans who lived here celebrate their birthdays to know.

They all ended their lives lonely, so of course there was no one to celebrate their birthdays for them.

If fairy tales or novels treat birthdays as an especially important event, then it must be an important day.

“He’s the kind of guy who had his eyes shining just from going to the village. You saw him eating candy, right?”

I saw it clearly.

A child who said there are things this delicious in the world, who shared one with Kaiser, who said his eyes were shining because he wanted to give one to Ria too.

Did that child ever receive a birthday congratulations? Has he ever eaten cake?

[I don’t know exactly how you celebrate a birthday, but we have to make it a day he’ll never forget.]

“If you need anything, just say the word! I’ll help with anything!”

Seeing Kaiser clench both fists and flap his wings, Ria closed her mouth for a moment.

[……Didn’t you say humans are a hassle?]

Kaiser’s wings froze in midair. Then his body gradually lowered, and only after his feet touched the ground did his pupils shake like an earthquake.

[And you’ve only known Lucian for three days.]

Of course, a lot happened in that short time.

Kaiser saved Lucian, and even treated him. They matched well and chatted nonstop without rest, and even went to the village for errands.

And the great Kaiser even flailed around trying to calm a crying child.

Kaiser, as if he sensed something strange in Ria’s words, made a confused expression.

Something like a subtle expression where he wants to refute her words, but can’t quite manage it.

“Hngh……! Whatever, I don’t know! If I want to do it, I do it—who cares if he’s human or what!”

[Sounds like you’ve gotten really attached.]

“That’s not it! I’m just…… Ah! It’s just because he’s pitiful, so I’m doing it!”

[Yeah, yeah. I’ll let you fool me like that.]

“Grr! I’m serious! I’m just helping a tiny bit! Even if he’s human, Lucian is Lucian!”

Does this little dragon even know what he’s saying?

Maybe because he has pride, he couldn’t easily admit that he felt goodwill toward a human. But even so, he also didn’t say he wouldn’t do it.

Either way, it’s true he’s gotten attached to Lucian.

* * *

As soon as the next morning came, Ria and Kaiser immediately began preparing Lucian’s birthday party.

Looking at Lucian as usual, it seems he forgot his own birthday.

It was good for the two of them, but at the same time, it was only heartbreaking that he couldn’t even recall a birthday that comes only once a year.

Ria and Kaiser took turns looking after Lucian and began searching what people usually do on birthdays.

All they could do was rummage through the books in the library, after all.

[Party, party, fireworks, masquerade ball……?]

No matter how many books she searched through, only useless things came out.

[Still, we can at least do cake and presents.]

Just in time, among the books Kaiser brought, there was a new cooking booklet. It definitely had how to make a two-tier cake written in it, right?

And not just cake—they’d have to make all sorts of delicious things too, but with Lucian around, it would be nearly impossible to trick his eyes and make food.

[We roughly have all the ingredients, so that’s fine.]

How can they prepare a birthday party while avoiding Lucian’s eyes?

“Spare me…….”

“I am the Emperor!”

Along with Kaiser’s wail, an extremely excited Lucian appeared. The two of them had decorated their whole bodies with all sorts of things they found in storage.

Judging by how he was saying he was the Emperor and swinging a wooden sword, it seems they were doing roleplay.

There’s no need to ask what the story is—it’s obvious.

“Ah! There’s my beloved witch over there!”

He must be copying the fairy tale book ‘The King and the Dragon, and the Witch.’

Seeing Lucian looking at me with sparkling eyes, I smiled faintly. Then I hugged him and rescued Kaiser, who looked like he was about to collapse any moment.

[Lucian, then Kaiser will have a hard time.]

“Hyung, are you having a hard time? I thought dragons are super, super strong.”

Kaiser, as if something surged up in him, lay sprawled on the floor and worked his mouth open and shut. But he couldn’t bring himself to refute Lucian’s words.

From how his light green eyes were shaking aimlessly, it seems he thought if he said the wrong thing, Lucian would torment him again.

“I don’t know, I don’t know! I’m having a hard time! You try carrying something as big as you around on your back all the time!”

Well, the fact that Kaiser even offered up his back and played for almost an hour was practically a miracle.

“I’m never playing with you again!”

……The problem is, it seems like it ended as of this moment.

At Kaiser’s shout, Lucian grew sullen. Even so, Kaiser, thoroughly angry, went hmph! and turned his body away.

Lucian, watching Kaiser’s mood, whispered to Ria.

“Was I wrong?”

[Hmm. If you were wrong, then you were wrong, I guess? Not everyone has as much stamina as you.]

“But I’m the weakest one here.”

A ghost who lifts everything with magic, and Kaiser, who is a dragon even if he shrinks—compared to those two, Lucian is an extremely frail human.

Of course, the stamina Ria meant and the strength Lucian meant were a little different in flavor.

Rather than explaining further, Ria only vaguely said that’s how it is and suggested a new way to play. Maybe he liked it, because he immediately trotted over to Kaiser.

“Hyung, this time let’s play sleeping.”

“Play again?!”

“This time, whoever falls asleep first wins! Isn’t it super easy?”

Kaiser, who had been about to get angry, felt something strange and tilted his head. When he turned his gaze to Ria, she made a gesture to just go along with it.

Understanding Ria’s signal, Kaiser had no choice but to go up to the second floor with him.

Was it about ten minutes later? A drained Kaiser appeared, ragged and worn out.

[Is Lucian asleep?]

“He kept chattering and not sleeping, so I forced him to sleep.”

[……You didn’t use a physical method, did you?]

“What are you talking about. Of course I put him to sleep with magic.”

As if he’d knocked Lucian out because he was angry.

“I went through all this trouble—don’t tell me you didn’t prepare anything?”

[Of course I’ve roughly planned it out.]

Ria shared the surprise birthday party plan for tomorrow.

First, she planned to set a dining table in the backyard, then decorate it with a tablecloth and all kinds of flowers, and then set out all kinds of dishes.

Since birthdays are something many people celebrate, she planned to animate statues or armor to at least fill out the headcount so it wouldn’t feel empty.

And if they prepare presents too, that makes a decent birthday party complete.

[But there’s a problem.]

“What is it?”

[While we’re preparing the birthday party, how do we draw Lucian’s attention away?]

“Hmmm…….”

[If we prepare food and even set up a table in the garden, it’ll stand out too much. Is there no way to do it secretly?]

“Do it secretly at dawn.”

[Did you forget in the meantime that we said the party is in the evening?]

“Ah, right.”

Hmmm.

Both Ria and Kaiser clutched their heads and agonized.

“Ah, how about that? Send Lucian to the village on an errand.”

[Oh?]

“Just in time, tomorrow we also have to go pick up the shoes we ordered.”

The excuse was perfect. Not only that, if they send him on various errands and make him practice going to the village as a rehearsal, it fits perfectly.

“Have you thought about what to give him as a present?”

[Hmm…… I’m still thinking about it. You?]

“I can just give him one of the treasures in my pocket space.”

What’s gotten into him? He’s the kind of guy who never lets anyone touch his stuff.

And if it’s a dragon’s pocket space, even if he’s a hatchling, it would still be full of all sorts of gold and jewels.

If a dragon is giving a generous gift, then as the bride in name, she can’t give something shabby.

Ria fell deep into thought about what kind of gift would be good.

* * *

“Hurry, hurry, move!”

“I told you to move it over there, not that way!”

“We can’t allow even a hair’s breadth of error. If you make a mistake, that’s a pay cut!”

At the same time, servants in the imperial palace were bustling about, moving busily. Among them was the lowest of the low, James.

“H-how many times do we have to do this, anyway?”

“This is nothing. If it were the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet, no, if it were His Majesty the Emperor’s birthday banquet, we’d have to fix up not only here but also the Ruby Hall, and even the imperial palace gardens.”

At his coworker’s words, James yelped and staggered.

After about an hour of running around here and there without rest, the busy work was mostly done. Now the high-ranking servants would decorate the finer details.

“Man, I’m exhausted!”

“You worked hard. This is your first time with an event this big, right?”

“Ah, senior. Thank you.”

James, sprawled out from exhaustion, drank the water his senior handed him.

“Seriously, royal birthdays are incredible. Do they really do this every year?”

“Pretty much. Still, since the Crown Prince is young, the scale is on the smaller side.”

“……He hasn’t even entered society yet, and it’s already like this.”

“It can’t be helped. The imperial family’s line is pretty scarce, you know. And how common is it for an imperial prince to be born? His Majesty knows that well too, so the moment the Crown Prince was born, he granted him the Crown Prince position right away, didn’t he?”

As his senior said, children are precious in the imperial family. It isn’t easy to have children regardless of sex, and since imperial authority is passed only to men, they absolutely had to bear at least one imperial prince.

In the case of previous emperors, they took not only an empress but also multiple consorts and worked hard to produce imperial descendants.

Maybe because they tried to secure descendants no matter what, sometimes there were so many that a horrific struggle for the throne broke out.

Apparently this kind of history happened nearly every other generation.

James suddenly felt bitterness in his mouth. It was because Lucian, who looked exactly like the Crown Prince, weighed on his mind.

In truth, at first he accepted Lucian as simply an orphan who looked exactly like the Crown Prince, but recently, when he went to see him, he felt a subtle sense of incongruity.

That was the imperial family’s traits that didn’t change no matter how much time passed.

The imperial family’s traits are white hair and golden eyes. Among those, the one that absolutely does not change is vivid golden eyes.

There was no way he couldn’t distinguish simple yellow irises from golden eyes. And there’s no way a roadside orphan would have such eyes either.

Just in case, he asked around, and he heard that using transformation magic that takes on the imperial family’s traits is illegal and punished by execution. And even if someone did it, at most they couldn’t maintain it longer than a week.

From the standpoint of someone carrying supplies, he had never once seen medicine or magical tools that a child could eat or use. Which means…….

‘It means Lucian’s hair and features are original.’

Last time he asked, he said he was eight, and Lucian suspiciously looked exactly like the Crown Prince.

And this time the Crown Prince’s eighth birthday banquet, too…… it isn’t difficult to guess the two are twins.

‘There was a reason the chief attendant awkwardly made excuses.’

Even though they’re both imperial, he can pretty much guess why one grew up in such a different environment—and was even cast out.

Twins are a symbol of misfortune and ill omen.

There’s a superstition that the misfortune only disappears if they devour each other, so usually they kill the younger sibling who was born later immediately after birth. If they don’t, a devil or a witch will come to that family and shatter it to pieces, they say.

But when he actually met Lucian a few times and looked at a child who was nothing but gentle and kind, he felt the superstition wasn’t very trustworthy either.

‘If it’s the Crown Prince’s birthday, then it’s Lucian’s birthday too.’

Is there anyone who will celebrate Lucian’s birthday, left alone in the ghost mansion?

“……Um, senior.”

“Hm?”

“Tomorrow, will we be very busy?”

“Of course. But why?”

“If possible, I was wondering if I could step out for a moment in the middle.”

“This punk, already trying to slip out…… hmm…….”

Clicking his tongue, the senior folded his arms as if thinking for a moment.

“Well, tomorrow you can be gone. The busiest ones are the attendants and maids working in the hall, anyway. You’re the lowest of the low, so you don’t really have anything to do. Take tomorrow off.”

“Th-thank you!”

“But you know you won’t get the special pay for tomorrow, right?”

“Of course! Of course!”

James beamed and repeatedly bowed to his senior.

James! If you have nothing to do, come help over here!

“Yes! Senior, then I’ll be going.”

James hurriedly ran toward where someone was calling him. Seeing him brighten up, the senior tilted his head.

“Why would he give up extra pay when it’s such a sweet deal?”

Well, maybe he’s going on a date with his lover or something?

After idly imagining something pointless, the senior soon left to go help with the work too.