20 Chapter 20: Shanna's Christmas

On December 25, 1990, at 6 o'clock in the morning, at the Minashel family castle.

Today, Shanna came to her brother's room as usual. Opening the door, Shanna found that her brother was not in the room.

"Is it earlier than usual today?" Shanna muttered to herself.

Shanna looked towards her brother's bed, where there was a small pile of gifts, fewer than the ones she had received herself.

Shanna knew that besides the gifts from Mom and Dad and herself, those gifts could only be from relatives in the United States.

Over the years, she had met several young witches who were easy to get along with at banquets, and now they had a relationship where they exchanged Christmas gifts. But although her brother enjoyed chatting happily with many people at banquets, he didn't have any close friends.

When Shanna was four years old, she went to the United States with her parents and brother for the first time and met her legendary relatives. She heard that her brother had never seen them before, so Shanna felt a little happy, hee hee.

...

"Bell, Shanna, this is your grandfather, Oren Minashel, grandmother, Bernice Minashel, aunt, Lena Minashel, as well as grandfather, Durud Jeslav, grandmother, Clara Jeslav, and aunt, Helena Jeslav."

William introduced the relatives in front of them.

"Oh, Bell, the last time I saw you, you were just born, and now you've grown so big. I'm really happy to see your able to move freely outside. My poor child."

Grandma Bernice hugged Bell and then hugged Shanna.

"Shanna, I'm deeply sorry I haven't been able to come see you. We've been dealing with quite a few challenges here in the United States. I hope you can forgive us."

After chatting, Shanna learned that several years ago, in order to escape a very, very bad villain, her grandparents and great-grandparents took her little aunt to the United States, leaving only her parents in England to take care of the family business.

Shanna knew that big bad villain; she had read about him in books, his name seemed to be 'Voldemort,' or 'Double Socket Man,' right? Shanna tilted her head.

'How can someone have such a strange name?'

But one time, when Shanna mentioned the name of that person in front of her parents, both of them exclaimed and told her not to say that name, but to call him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?' That's also a strange name.

Later, Shanna asked her brother why everyone was so afraid of that 'mythical person'? Her brother said it was because that person was too ugly, so whenever people saw him coming, they would run away.

Sure enough, Mom and Dad were both cowards, Shanna wouldn't be afraid of someone just because they were ugly. Once her brother found a kind of ugly thing called 'Grindylow' from somewhere, she wasn't afraid... Well, actually, she was a little scared, just a little bit. So, her brother was indeed the bravest, Shanna felt very proud.

After a long time apart, everyone chatted together for a while. Initially, they caught up on the usual topics like "how have you been recently?" and other everyday matters. However, the conversation gradually shifted towards topics such as 'industry' and 'staffing shortages,' which Shanna found increasingly difficult to follow.

Shanna felt a little unhappy because she didn't want others to know that she couldn't understand what they were talking about. She wanted everyone to think she was a smart girl so that her brother would be proud of her. She tried hard to join the adults' conversation, but unfortunately, she failed quickly. Everyone just smiled at her without saying anything, but Shanna still felt unhappy.

And to make matters worse, the most unfortunate part was still ahead. As everyone dispersed and began to prepare for rest, only her brother and Shanna remained alone.

"Shanna, why did you pretend to understand earlier?" her brother asked sternly.

"I'm sorry, brother. I... I just wanted everyone to think I'm a smart girl. I hoped you could be proud of me."

Shanna felt extremely aggrieved.

╥﹏╥

But the next moment, all the grievances disappeared because her brother hugged her tightly.

"I'm always proud of you, Shanna," her brother said, stroking her head. "So, don't do something like that again next time. Admitting what you don't know is the mark of a truly smart girl."

"Yeah!"

'My brother is indeed the best brother in the world,' Shanna thought.

In the days that followed, Shanna and her brother, under the guidance of their aunt went to many places.

Among them, Shanna's favorite was a place called Disneyland. It was said to be a Muggle amusement park. There were many entertainment facilities there, like roller coasters and haunted houses.

Of course, Shanna didn't like Disneyland because of those toys, as she didn't think they were particularly fun, especially not understanding why those Muggles looked so miserable, one by one. Such low heights, such slow speeds, Shanna just needed to release her magic, and she wouldn't be harmed no matter what happened.

But there was one exception, the haunted house.

While touring the haunted house, her brother held her tightly all the time, constantly saying to her, "Those aren't Dark creatures, you can't kill them."

Actually, after her brother introduced it, Shanna already knew that the monsters in the haunted house were disguised by Muggles, just like Halloween.

But because she was startled at first, Shanna subconsciously wanted to attack.

The reason Shanna liked Disneyland was that there were so many people there, so she and her brother successfully lost their aunt.

Shanna had a very happy day that day, although she felt a little guilty when she saw her aunt sweating profusely and anxious to find them later.

...

"Do you need any service, Miss Shanna?"

Lym's sharp voice suddenly sounded beside her, interrupting Shanna's reminiscence.

"No, nothing. Has my brother gone for his morning exercise?" Shanna shook her head and asked Lym.

"Yes, Miss. Master Bell got up ten minutes earlier than usual today."

After bidding farewell to Lym, Shanna walked out of the castle and headed towards the two warehouses in the corner of the garden.

These two warehouses were built by her brother with the help of others a few years ago, specifically for training.

Although they looked like small cubes from the outside, with dimensions of about 10 meters in length, width, and height, they were expanded internally using the 'Traceless Expansion Charm.' So, inside, it was actually a spacious area with dimensions exceeding 100 meters in length, width, and height, where her brother could carry out various training programs.