The spirit egg and the [[Paradise]] upgrade materials were exactly the kind of 'age-appropriate' gifts Dark had been hoping for.
Pleased, he immediately picked up the next gift box, one with a cute bear-head icon drawn on its label.
The box was obviously a gift from the Greatbears — that little bear doodle on the label might even have been drawn by Diana herself.
"Come to think of it, what months are Diana's and Rose's birthdays? I really ought to give them something back sometime," Dark mused, tearing open the gift box as he thought it over.
Of course, it wasn't going to be something like a teddy bear pillow.
But it didn't seem to be what he'd expected, either...
"What's this?"
Dark hesitated, staring at the two jars of salve sitting inside the box.
The salve was sealed inside fully enclosed metal jars, each only two fingers tall and about the size of a coin.
Printed on the lid was the salve's name — Refined Salve!
"Thousand-Forged Refined Salve... it rings a bell, but I can't quite place it."
Dark frowned.
If it seemed familiar, it was probably a famous product of the Greatbear clan.
He couldn't recall the details — he'd probably never looked into that field before.
"It's probably a salve for body tempering or healing wounds. I'll ask about it tomorrow."
It was late tonight, and he couldn't very well go bothering Alvit or Claire.
Dark set the two jars of Refined Salve aside for now and opened the gift from the Flotly family.
Inside the box, stamped with the Flotly family crest, sat a deep blue pearl!
A label tucked beneath the pearl clearly stated its origin.
"Deep-Sea Night Pearl — the Star of Kalan."
"This thing is priceless!"
"Why would the Flotly family send me something like this?"
Dark hesitated.
The Flotly family's numbers had dwindled, but their inheritance was vast, pushing their per-capita wealth to a peak.
But even the wealthiest people didn't spend carelessly.
Giving away such a precious jewel as a gift was bound to make one wonder if the Flotly family wanted something in return.
In truth, though, an ordinary gem valued only for its looks was of limited use to Dark.
It would even seem a bit shabby as material for forging a Magic Guide Spirit.
"No use forcing it."
Dark shook his head and set the Deep-Sea Night Pearl aside.
"Next, this one's from the Thomas family."
"This is from the Jon and Joy families."
"This is from the Kyle family."
...
The birthday gifts from these various families included rare first editions, priceless paintings, gold and silver jewelry, and — from one family — even a VIP pass!
Dark moved all of them aside, keeping only the rare book and the VIP pass.
The rare book was 'Around-the-World Travelogue,' written personally by an ancient bard.
Whether or not the bard had truly visited every place described was unclear, but the travelogue recorded so many perilous, unheard-of locations that it had become widely circulated as an eye-opening read.
Whether as light reading or as a way to broaden one's horizons, it was excellent either way.
At the very least, it was more useful than the jewelry!
Then there was the VIP pass.
It was a top-tier pass, granting unlimited access to spend freely at Lingering Dreams, an exclusive establishment jointly run by several great noble houses.
Since Lingering Dreams operated on a membership and invitation-only basis, a member's pass was required just to get in.
Inside, one could buy almost any luxury item and enjoy a host of high-end services — it was an important pleasure haunt for nobles.
Of course, since a membership pass had made its way into Dark's hands, the place had to be legitimate enough to withstand scrutiny.
"This guy really knows what he's doing!"
A quick glance told Dark this gift was from an unremarkable-seeming maternal cousin.
He was probably one of Lingering Dreams's operators.
Many of the luxuries nobles used carried added value, and what could be bought at Lingering Dreams rivaled some black markets.
"Well, I'll hang onto it for now."
...
Soon, only the main event remained before him.
That was the birthday gifts from Eldest Princess Eliza and from Alvit.
The best was always saved for last.
Dark picked up Eldest Princess Eliza's gift first and opened it.
The label on the gift read:
[Happy Birthday! — Eliza]
A simple wish.
But the moment he opened the box, the glow that poured out was anything but simple.
"This is... no wonder it's so heavy!"
Inside sat a piece of ore the size of a soccer ball!
Clearly purified and refined, the ore's surface was free of impurities, giving off a silvery gleam that felt cold and sharp to the eye.
It was called 'Kakarot Steel,' a rare mineral first discovered in a place named Kakarot. After Magic Guide Masters developed a use for it, it was renamed 'Magic Guide Steel'!
Magic Guide Steel had extremely unusual properties.
It was naturally extremely hard and could absorb magic power; once the magic power poured into it exceeded a certain threshold, it would display remarkable ductility and malleability.
Even someone without professional smithing skills could use Magic Guide Steel to forge armor and weapons.
Most of the armaments Alvit had forged in her early years used Magic Guide Steel as their primary material.
With raw materials growing scarcer these days, a whole chunk of Magic Guide Steel like this was extremely hard to come by.
"Eldest Princess Eliza must have given me this with my crafting of Armament Cards in mind."
"It's a fine thing, but if Meowth can't properly master magic power control, he won't be able to work it with any precision."
"In that case, I'd have to do it myself, and that would eat up far too much time."
"Right, I'll just wait until Meowth masters magic power control," Dark decided.
Then, finally, he picked up Alvit's gift!
Every year, he looked forward most to his mother's birthday gift, since it always hit the mark — always the very thing he wanted most at the time.
But this year, even he didn't know what he wanted most...
Aside from the bloodline core problem he couldn't solve for now, most of what he wanted, he'd already earned through his own efforts.
"Let's see what surprise Mother has for me this time."
Dark, thoroughly intrigued, tore open the last gift box.
As always, the label read, 'Happy birthday, baby.'
Once the box was open, he saw a glowing seed floating in midair.
The seed's shape was unremarkable, radiating a soft, gentle green light.
With his current knowledge, Dark couldn't tell its origin at a glance.
He had no choice but to pick up the accompanying instructions underneath.
Written in a fine, delicate script were a few simple lines.
"Diesel Seed."
"A seed of the Desire Tree, produced after several generations of propagation from a branch taken from the Mother Desire Tree."
"An ultra-superior variant of the Insect Tree!"
At the mention of the Desire Tree, Dark understood at once — the Insect Tree he'd been using all along was actually a lower subspecies of the Desire Tree.
As a top-grade specimen, the Desire Tree obviously couldn't be as small as a potted plant.
Under normal conditions, it could grow to fifteen or twenty-five meters, with a thick trunk and a lush, sprawling canopy like a banyan tree.
Every branch and every leaf of the Desire Tree could store emotions, desires, knowledge, and other thought-based substances.
It was also extremely stable, causing no contamination of the stored thought material, and its storage duration was tied to the tree's own lifespan.
Branches from the Desire Tree could even be crafted into advanced Thought Bottles!
An ordinary advanced Thought Bottle held the same thirty drops as a standard Thought Bottle, but was more stable, with a shelf life of up to a full month.
One made from a Desire Tree branch could have its shelf life extended to three months.
Using it as a replacement for the Insect Tree was an excellent option.
The only issue was that the Catnips most likely wouldn't like absorbing Major Sin through bottles.
So the Insect Tree still had its uses.
"In any case, this is exactly what I need right now — the Insect Tree's storage of only twenty-four drops just isn't enough."
"The question now is where to plant it, how to grow it, how to cultivate it, and how fast it'll grow."
"I should get some books on the subject tomorrow morning."
Full of enthusiasm, Dark resolved to cultivate the Diesel Seed into a full tree within the next three months.
...
Once all the gifts were unwrapped, Dark tallied up his haul and listed everything potentially useful: ① Spirit Egg;
② [[Paradise]] upgrade package;
③ Refined Salve;
④ Around-the-World Travelogue;
⑤ Lingering Dreams membership pass;
⑥ Magic Guide Steel;
⑦ Diesel Seed;
...
All in all, it had been a bountiful haul.
It almost made him wish every day of the year were his birthday.
Once he'd finished tallying his birthday gifts, Dark climbed contentedly into bed.
At some point, something cool and refreshing slipped in under the covers with him, leaving him feeling even fresher and improving his sleep.
The next day...
When sunlight slipped through the curtains into the room, Dark suddenly realized he'd overslept again.
Ever since coming home, he'd let himself relax, and in just two days he seemed to have already lost the good habits he'd built up at the Academy.
"This won't do."
Dark shook his head, yawned, and pulled Popplio out from under the covers.
Sometimes he wondered — to evolve Popplio, he'd most likely need a [Major Sin Card] of Envy, but where was he supposed to find Envy?
That was a genuinely hard problem.
"Let me think — what do I need to do today?"
His scattered thoughts gradually settled.
Studying could wait for now.
"Right, hatching the spirit egg and planting the Diesel Seed!"
"And taking Aurora around the capital... what a hassle."
So Dark dragged himself out of bed, grabbed a [Greed III] card, and used it on Trash Slime.
"In the name of Dark Demon, card evolution!"
Once Trash Slime successfully evolved into Greed Slime II, he buried his entire body inside it.
In no time, he felt refreshed all over.
With Greed Slime II around, he didn't even need to wash his face...
Even so, Dark still went into the bathroom to wash up as usual.
Afterward, he changed clothes, clipped on his card pouch, tucked the Lingering Dreams pass into it as well, and got ready to head out.
Flap!
DemiDevimon swooped over abruptly, landing squarely on his shoulder.
Dark didn't bother tossing it off and simply left the bedroom like that.
'Aries' Ollie was already waiting attentively by the door.
"Young Master, will you be having breakfast?" she asked gently.
Dark shook his head. "Of course I'll eat breakfast, but Sister Ollie, you don't need to fuss over me like this."
"I like doing this," Ollie said, flashing a radiant smile.
Dark, a little unable to handle it, changed the subject. "I'll leave my Magic Guide Spirits in the care of the Aries sisters."
He'd already summoned his Magic Guide Scribe before leaving the room; the rest of the Watchers' Alliance summons would be left to him.
...
By the time he reached the dining room, Dark found only Claire there, leisurely sipping tea with a rolled-up newspaper beside her.
"Morning, Aunt Claire," Dark said sweetly.
Claire smiled. "Morning, Dark. Your mother's off at work. You're mine today."
Dark's expression froze, and he laughed awkwardly. "Today I was planning to take Aurora out for a bit."
Claire wagged a finger. "I know. I meant if you need anything, you can come to me."
Once seated, Dark laid out the questions that had puzzled him the night before.
Claire answered, "Hatching a spirit egg requires two things."
Dark smoothed out his napkin and asked, "What things?"
Claire said, "One is a treasure of the corresponding element — ideally something like monster blood or plant sap, which grants the spirit extra traits. The other..."
Dark: "The other is what?"
Claire: "Fate."
Dark blinked. "What do you mean by that?"
Claire said, "Once it has enough energy to hatch, the spirit already possesses a form of consciousness. You need to coax it into hatching, to make it want to come out. If it doesn't want to, it simply won't."
"What a stubborn thing," Dark said, a bit exasperated. "But if it's about matching elements, the spirit egg City Lord Montielfali gave me should be fire-type, and I happen to have—"
"That's not fire-type at all." Suna Montielfali pushed the door open, led in by a maid.
Dark turned, and there, following at her side and looking somewhat shy, was Aurora.
Aurora always struck him as a Diana with her personality flipped.
He greeted them first, then asked curiously, "So what element is that spirit egg, then?"
Suna smiled faintly. "That's a Flame Flame Sun Spirit!"
As she spoke, she raised a finger, and a flicker of flame danced at its tip, gradually growing into a small sun-shaped Flame Flame Sun Spirit.
City Lord Montielfali, who had no elven bloodline whatsoever, turned out to be a spirit user as well!
Before Dark could even register his surprise at that—
as if stirred by the Flame Flame Sun Spirit, two spirits suddenly flew out from Aurora's hair.
One of the two closely resembled City Lord Montielfali's spirit, only smaller.
The other looked like a small crescent moon, radiating waves of cool, biting chill.
"A Flame Flame Sun Spirit and an Frost Moon Sprite!"
Even Claire looked surprised at this.
"Suna, where on earth did you get such rare finds?"
...
"A temple."
Suna sat down beside Claire. "Luckily, it was right under the Free City."
"I can't believe you kept it hidden this long," Claire said, at a loss for words.
Suna said, "Couldn't help it — didn't dare leak it. We first spotted traces of it while laying the city's underground pipelines, and digging further, we uncovered an entire temple. It's dedicated to a certain sun god and Moon God, though they're beast gods."
Claire asked, "How large is it?"
Suna looked a little pleased with herself. "Not small at all. Give it a few more years to clear out the dangerous parts, and we could think about opening it to the public. That might just turn the city's finances around."
Claire: "Still running a deficit?"
Suna's expression sobered, and she said helplessly, "What else would it be?"
Claire sighed. "It really isn't easy."
Suna shook her head. "As long as you're alive, you have to do something."
Claire said, "True enough. Things were a bit easier during wartime — now that the world's at peace, all manner of demons and monsters have crawled out of the woodwork. half-bloods really do need somewhere to belong."
Suna nodded. "If you don't work for it, no one else will."
...
The two chatted a bit longer before turning their attention back to Dark.
A Flame Flame Sun Spirit was naturally better than an ordinary Fire Spirit.
But by the same token, finding a matching treasure of the same element became that much harder.
Dark had a gem sealing a single drop of fire-element monster blood, one he'd cracked out of an egg from the Canteen at Easter.
For an ordinary Fire Spirit, that gem would have been just right.
But since it was a Flame Flame Sun Spirit...
The only thing he could think of was the Fruit of Pride!
But he was currently hoarding Pride like a squirrel storing nuts, so using it wasn't really an option.
"Though there might still be three stalks of the Fruit of Pride's stem left over?"
Dark thought it over for a moment, wondering if he could somehow press those three stalks into juice.
"Though one of them carries a madness factor, so I might only be able to use two. That makes things tricky."
Just as he was pondering this, Claire asked, "Sounds like you've got some ideas already?"
Dark nodded. "A little."
Claire: "Then I suppose I won't offer any help?"
Dark: "..."
Claire said unhurriedly, "Getting things without working for them really isn't good. You're on your own for this one."
Meowth sighed.
Dark said, "So, about the other two questions?"
Claire continued to explain. "House Greatbear's Refined Salve is an extremely precious magical remedy. Its main use is clearing away accumulated injuries from intense training while also strengthening the body — it can remove scars too, though the effect isn't especially strong. I imagine you'll find a use for it eventually."
Dark: "Moving on."
"Then finally, the Diesel Seed," Claire said. "You already know its origin. It's extremely demanding about its growing environment — it needs somewhere with heavy foot traffic, ideally a place full of mixed motives, saturated with desire and longing. It's a bit awkward for me to say, but the best places to plant it are gambling dens and red-light districts."
Dark's brow furrowed. "Is there a second choice?"
Claire said, "A step down from that would be underground arenas, fight clubs, and the like."
Dark pressed further. "What about somewhere residential?"
Claire smiled. "Of course, for the tree's safety, planting it somewhere so chaotic isn't really practical anyway. I'd suggest just planting it in the back garden."
"Just the people living in the Duke's estate should be enough to keep it growing strong. You probably don't know this, but the Dissel Tree's leaves have a special use too."
Dark's frown eased, and he asked curiously, "What kind of use?"
Claire said, "Thought imprinting!"
Dark: "Hm?"
Claire said, "It's a natural copier — it can imprint the scenes you're picturing in your mind onto its leaves, and it can be reused over and over. The downside is that most people's mental clarity isn't sharp enough for it; you need a fairly high level of mental strength."
"The perfect material for making a notebook!"
Dark understood at once.
Every part of the Dissel Tree was a treasure — it just depended on how you used it.
"As for how to cultivate the Dissel Tree..." Claire smiled, "I'd suggest you let someone else handle the planting — Ollie, for instance. She'll surely take care of it perfectly."
No sooner had she said it than Ollie, standing behind Dark, thumped her chest. "Young Master, leave it to me!"
Dark didn't even need to ask to know that cultivating the Dissel Tree must be an extremely complex and time-consuming process — one best left to the maids.
So without further deliberation, he said to Ollie, "Sister Ollie, I'll leave it in your hands, then."
"No problem," Ollie said with a smile.
Watching the warm rapport between master and maid, Claire raised an eyebrow. "I know your needs for the Dissel Tree probably aren't small, but growing it to a usable state within three months will require some special methods. Alvit will tell you about that when the time comes."
Dark nodded and patted DemiDevimon's belly.
Understanding at once, DemiDevimon flew to the wall, snatched up a newspaper, and flew back.
Out of habit, Dark spread open the morning paper and began to eat.
...
This habit of his obviously didn't conform to strict dining etiquette.
But who cared?
Even Professor Vigo, the 'Virgo,' hadn't been able to keep him in line before, let alone now.
Claire, being just as easygoing these days, opened her own newspaper and started reading too.
As for City Lord Montielfali on the other side, she'd never had a noble education in the first place, so naturally she didn't mind such things either.
Aurora, meanwhile, ate her breakfast obediently the whole time, quietly listening in on the conversation.
Once breakfast was done, Dark took the initiative to invite her along, and the two of them agreed to head out at half past eight before each returning to their own rooms.
Once back in his room with Ollie, Dark handed her the Diesel Seed and told her to reach out to a trustworthy tutor as soon as possible, ideally holding tutor interviews before Alvit's 'holiday tutoring' began.
If the Duke's estate wanted to hire a tutor, all it took was word getting out, and crowds of candidates would come for interviews.
But given how unusual the 'student' in question was, finding a suitable tutor wasn't so easy.
As he got ready to head out, Dark added, "Also, assign a supervisor for each Magic Guide Spirit — you know what I mean."
Ollie, of course, understood perfectly.
So did the Magic Guide Spirits.
At once, every single one of them perked up their ears and started meowing up a fuss.
Sylveon went so far as to wrap her ribbons tightly around his arm, clinging and fussing for all she was worth.
Dark remained utterly unmoved.
____
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