NOVEL NEXT Chapter 367: Birthday Presents
"Mama Pandoru, catch!!" Azazel says, extending her hand to me with a piece of cake. With every second that Azazel eats with her hands, Grimm looks more disappointed, which is funny.
"Daughter, why don't you give some cake to your little sister? I'm already full," I say, and Azazel looks at the cake and then at Eclipsya in Tsukuyomi's lap, quickly approaching Tsukuyomi and offering the cake while I decide to go check the presents.
"..." I approach an area full of presents. There are many that are quite random and I don't care about them at all, after all, they are things from people who don't even know me.
It's unlikely that there will be anything useful or worth anything to me, so much so that part of the pile of presents is mainly things with high monetary value, but that don't really have that much use.
"...Pandora, this...isn't it kind of wrong?" Tsukuyomi says, approaching as she sees me picking up a present, I briefly look at it and throw it on the floor.
"Why? It's my present, I'll do whatever I want with it. If they don't like it, they can come complain, but don't worry, I'd never throw away something I received from people I care about," I say with a smile, without stopping throwing presents on the floor.
"Even so..." Tsukuyomi, who is more "honorable," really seems bothered.
"Tsukuyomi, look at this, a sword...it's just a sword, beautiful no doubt, but trash compared to Violet," I say, while feeling that Violet just smiled.
'It's better she doesn't talk too much.' It's a fact that weapons are trash as a gift, they will have no use for me, and I bet most people know that, to begin with I wouldn't even invite these people if I wasn't the Demon King.
They were only invited because I'm a King and I have to do this, not only to show that everything is perfect, but because I can make a connection with someone interesting.
"This one...a gift from Grimm." I see a large, blood-red box emanating a lot of magic. It's obvious that it's a gift from Grimm due to the magic the box releases, and as it's a gift from my wife, it immediately catches my attention.
'I married Grimm...and today is our wedding anniversary...' I was kidnapped by Grimm on my birthday, so today is also our wedding anniversary, since I married her on the same day just to obtain the bodies of the other Demon Kings she had kept.
'Well...I still think it was worth it.' Thanks to that, I acquired several characteristics of the other Demon Kings, I got a potential ally, and I discovered things about my ability only advantages.
"Let's see what that psycho gave me as a present," I murmur, carefully opening the box. I notice Grimm watching me with a smile, and I wonder if this is going to explode in my face.
'Better she didn't give me something weird.' I finish opening the box, and although the box is large, inside there is only a small altar with a beautiful ring in the middle of the altar.
The ring has a beautiful red gem, while the base of the ring resembles a spider, with the ring hoop being the spider's legs. As unconventional as it is, the ring is truly magnificent.
The red gem is finely polished in a slightly circular shape with parts that resemble a prism, while the black base of the ring has the details finely carved to the point that each piece is an individual work of art that together form one of the best-worked designs I've ever seen.
'A ring...unexpectedly a good present.' I thought she would have given me a head inside the box, or the box would explode. Seeing that she gave me a ring is kind of strange, I take the ring and put it on the ring finger of my left hand.
I raise my hand, seeing the magnificent shine of the ring. It's undoubtedly a beautiful ring, but its spider design isn't exactly something that makes it suitable for everyday wear, so it's beautiful, but too detailed and well-made for common occasions.
'I have to thank her later.' I really liked the present, but before taking the ring off my finger, I see that the small altar has opened and there is a paper.
"A letter too? She surpassed herself," I murmur with a smile, taking the paper to read.
[In ancient traditions, a culture arose among vampires. We firmly believe that we only need one partner for life.
You, Pandora, are my soulmate, so I really don't need another partner. Even after your death, my destiny will be to remain alone, and as proof of my love, today, on our first wedding anniversary, I give you this ring.
I hope you like it, I made it with great effort, following the vampire tradition to the letter. It is a proof of my deep love for you.]
"Oh...how...unexpectedly sweet of her," This kind of warms my heart, until I read the second part of the letter.
[P.S.: Culturally, vampires only have one partner for life. I know you're not a vampire and will have several partners, but to ensure you'll never get rid of me completely, I've just cursed you.
You will never be able to remove this ring or destroy it in any way. The ring now has a bond with your soul, and as long as you exist, the ring will also exist.
I love you so much, my love!!! I hope you like the ring, because you'll have to see it every time you look at your hands.]
"...Grimm...you fucking bitch!" I curse this bitch who now has an immense smile. Now it makes sense why the paper only appeared after I put the ring on my finger and why the box has so much magic it was to prevent me from noticing the curse that this whore placed on the item.
"..." I look at my hand, soon I try to pull the ring, but it's stuck to my finger. Really...like a spider, how ironic. I bet the spider design was precisely with this in mind.
I squeeze my finger until the ring breaks, but it soon reforms in the same place. I put my finger in my mouth, biting and tearing it off, but as soon as my finger regenerates, the ring came with it as if it were a part of my body.
"..." Grimm comes to me as if she hadn't just trapped a cursed item on my body.
"Did you like the present, Pandora?" Grimm asks while I look at the beautiful ring that I will no longer be able to remove.
"Haa...I'll never accept anything of yours without knowing what it is," It could only be the vampires to have the damn culture where cursing your partner is good. I should have looked better at what the ring was before putting it on to see how it looked.
'Second cursed item I can't get rid of.' I already have Violet who also cursed me, now this ring. At this rate, in a few years, I'll be covered in items that won't come off me.
"Grimm, your present sucks, get out of here," I push her away while deciding to pick up another present. There's no point in brooding over it, it's my birthday and I shouldn't let Grimm ruin another birthday.
On the first one, she kidnapped me, and I couldn't enjoy most of my party, so this time I don't want to think too much about her craziness.
"This present here is from...Zephyra..." I pick up a smaller box, ignoring Grimm, who seems too happy about what she did.
"Hmm..." I give a small smile as I open the box, there's a wooden statue of me, carved in a somewhat clumsy way, but with well-worked details using alchemy.
'Zephyra usually didn't touch alchemy anymore because of her trauma...' Seeing her overcoming her trauma to give me a present is quite nice, even though the statue is "mediocre," it was one of the best presents in the pile.
'Who would have thought that that proud and a little manipulative girl would end up like this?' In the past, Zephyra would certainly have chosen to buy something instead of making something.
'I'll keep this statue in my room.' I carefully place the statue on the table, moving on to a strange present.
'Whose is this?'
"Mama Pandoru, that's mine!!!" Azazel suddenly says, pointing to the poorly wrapped little box I'm holding, which makes sense now.
"Oh, is it, daughter? Thank you for the present," I say, opening the box and finding a beautiful red stone. Immediately, Grimm approaches and tries to take it from me like a reflex.
"Is there a problem, Grimm?" I say, moving my hand away from her. Her gaze is one of anger, which pleases me considering her previous malicious smile.
"That's mine, and it's important," She says, but without caring, I put it in my mouth and start chewing.
"..." She seems mortified as she hears the cracking of the material being crushed by my teeth until I swallow it.
"You know, there's nothing I can't eat," I say as I approach Azazel and caress her head.
"It was very good, Azazel, thank you for the great present," I say as she gives me a big smile.
"...I'm going to the guest room, happy birthday, Pandora," Grimm says angrily as she leaves, letting her anger show through.
"Pandora, you should stop this," Tsukuyomi says, not understanding our relationship dynamic.
"Don't worry about it, Tsukuyomi. Our relationship is like this. If we're not fighting, I can assure you the world is ending...or we're having sex," I say to her, and she just gives up on trying to understand.
"Here's my present," She says, handing me a thin, long box. I open it quickly, seeing a Japanese kimono. I must say that strangely, it was exactly what I expected from a "very" honorable Japanese goddess.
"Thank you for the present, although honestly, I'll hardly ever wear this outfit," I speak honestly.
"..." She smiles, probably already imagining that I would say something like that.
"I know, well, I'm going to breastfeed Eclipsya. I don't even know if a baby should eat that cake...besides, I tasted the cake and felt a strange taste, honestly, I don't want to know what that cake is made of," She says as I nod in agreement.
"Yes, you would certainly hate to know what that cake is made of. It's better to live in ignorance. Now go take care of our daughter," I say, returning my attention to the pile of presents with a smile.