Chapter 434: The Birthday Gift
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Roland learned from Anna that Tilly got her twentieth birthday coming.
He hadn't thought about such a thing until now.
It wasn't because he was careless, but because Prince Roland's memories were like a database that he would only delve into when necessary. However, his memories rarely contained anything related to politics or occultism and mostly consisted of mischievous wrongdoings and ideas for pranks, so he revisited them less and less.
Moreover, Tilly was a sore spot for Prince Roland, so everything related to her had little significance and had been buried away, as if he didn't want to recall them.
Tilly's birthday didn't mean her Day of Awakening, but her actual day of birth—as an Extraordinary, she didn't even know the time when she awoke as a witch, and she wouldn't experience the feeling of biting by magic power when the Months of Demons came around. Therefore, her birthday was her only important milestone.
Roland scrolled through his memories and realized that since Tilly was the Queen's youngest child, King Wimbledon III used to throw her a birthday celebration in the Inner City every winter when he was still alive, which was a luxury that even his favorite child, Timothy, never received. However, besides this, he usually ignored Tilly and showed no interest in her life. Otherwise, Prince Roland wouldn't have dared to bully his little sister so much.
As he continued scrolling back, he found another interesting piece of memory.
Tilly's celebration on her eighteenth birthday was her most extravagant one, even surpassing the rite of passage ceremony that followed. Not only did the four border guardians come to the King’s City for this celebration, but there were also gifts from the Kingdom of Dawn, the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and the Kingdom of Everwinter, and even the Fjord Islands sent an emissary delegation.
Timothy and Garcia were extremely jealous and wanted to teach Tilly a lesson that she wasn't father's favorite child—the only one reason why King Wimbledon III threw her these celebrations was to make up for the loss of his queen and to console the spirit of Tilly's deceased mother.
No matter how Roland felt about this theory, they both believed it at the time, so they tried to convince Prince Roland to carry out their plan on his sister. However, after Tilly taught him a lesson eight years ago, he was too scared to mess with this girl who seemed meek at first glance but had the spirit of resistance in the depth of her heart , so he refused. The two siblings were forced to act on their own.
Prince Roland didn't know how they did it, but Tilly's favorite gift, the bear cubs from the Kingdom of Wolfheart, was somehow poisoned—as he watched his little sister dully cradling the dead bears, Roland realized the prince had actually felt entertained.
No wonder he was the scum of the royal family. Besides murder and arson, Prince Roland had done every awful thing under the sun.
Either way, this was definitely an awful memory for Tilly Wimbledon.
After he finished scrolling through his memories, Roland suddenly came up with an idea for a gift.
He took out a sheet of paper and began drawing the picture of his gift.
"What's this?" Nightingale peeked him from behind. "A bear?"
"Yes, a stuffed bear, the one you can sleep with at night." Roland smiled.
Judging from his limited gift-giving experience, he knew that most girls loved cute and furry gifts, and a life-sized stuffed aminal was the perfect combination of these two features. Of course, a simple stuffed animal was too easy and common. As a prince with a group of witches to assist him, he could do much better.
...
On Tilly's birthday, Roland carried her gift to her room.
She was alone when she opened the door and was slightly surprised to see him. "Why do you come over?"
"Today is your birthday, so I'll host a celebratory feast in the castle tonight," Roland said with a smile, "but before that, I have a gift for you."
"A gift?" Tilly said, taken aback. "Is it what you're carrying?" She turned around and said, "Come in."
"Um... It's a little bit big, but I promise it's very special." The prince mopped the sweat on his forehead and placed the gift on the floor. The noble during this time usually gave small and delicate gifts, such as flowers and rings, so that they could hide them in their robes and take them out as a surprise. Roland carrying a large wrapped paper box was definitely a rare sight—and this thing was much heavier than he imagined.
"You've never given me anything before," Tilly said in a mysterious tone.
"I gave you a goose feather quill when you were born." Roland corrected it. "But it wasn't anything valuable."
"Alright, it's a Graycastle royal tradition." She shrugged. "What about this? Can I open it?"
"Of course."
Roland smiled as he watched her untie the ribbons, and when the box fell open, he heard her gasp quietly.
"What... what's this?" Tilly blinked.
"It's a bear!" Roland said with a grin.
"What kind of bear looks like this." She circled the stuffed animal curiously and patted it. "It's so soft..."
Its fur cover was specially made by Soraya according to the fur of Northern wolf cubs and added a silky soft touch. As for the design... Roland completely based it off of the future's pandas. As an animal that had survived millenniums by simply acting cute and had even been used as diplomatic gifts, it was exceptionally cute.
"I've never seen this kind of bear... Its color is so strange..."
"You don't like it?"
"No, I mean..." Tilly seemed to be at a loss for words, but her eyes, which were flashing with excitement, revealed her true thoughts.
"It's called 'panda', and it's a... widely-loved animal."
She quickly understood what he meant. "This belongs to your other world..."
Roland nodded. "And it's not just a stuffed animal you can hold. Try pinching its neck."
Tilly did as he adviced, and the panda suddenly started to move, wave its legs and try to climb on top of Tilly. She covered her mouth in shock and backed away, while the stuffed animal continued to move its legs and walk slowly towards her.
This was why it was so heavy—Roland had installed connecting rods and gears in its body with small generators in each leg, and the generators' power came from miniature Dawn I engines. As he lowered the magnetic flux, its shelf life was greatly extended, lasting up to three or four months without use or four fifths of the time if used frequently. Even if Tilly returned to the Sleeping Island, the panda would still accompany her for a long time.
"Pinch its neck again, and it'll stop." Roland smiled. "I hope you'll like this gift."
This time, even though Tilly didn't respond, her expression told Roland everything he needed to know.