Present from Dad

Later that day, it was finally time for the Hartmann family to return home. Freyr and Freyja had played together with and showed off their results and present to Leticia who became more eager to welcome her sixth birthday and debut party.

The twins found themselves surprised once more during yet another journey in carriage. They thought that the carriage was headed home. Turned out it didn't!

They began guessing where they would be visiting, but each guess was rejected whenever they saw the route changing or the venue being passed by only. In the end, they remained clueless.

Cyan laughed and he finally decided to let the twins know where they would be headed to.

"I still haven't got you two presents, right? Time to get those presents, then."

...nice one, Cyan. That totally didn't manage to spell away the cloud of confusion in the twins' mind. Rather, they were more confused and tried to guess what presents their adoptive father had in mind.

"I know, a pet?" Freyja finally said her guess after pondering.

"Oh, it seems possible! And we're heading to the store so we can choose!" Freyr added.

"Do we get one each or one together?"

"I'm not sure..."

"Dad, Dad, can we get one each?"

The twins didn't even clarify and they were already too excited upon the idea...

Cyan scratched his head, unsure of how he could break the twins' short-lived dream...

Anyway, they already had Rurune and Phyllo. Add Cassie's Fenix if you would.

In fact, the idea of getting a regular pet never crossed Cyan or Cassie's heads...

"No, well... Sorry to break your dreams, kids," Cyan decided to end the twins' imagination before hope grew inside their hearts.

"You're going to choose your presents. One each, but... It's not a pet," Cyan heaved a sigh after finishing his clarification.

The twins stared at Cyan silently, Freyr with his straight face (・▂・) and Freyja with her mouth a bit opened (・0・)

After a short silent that felt like a long time to Cyan, the twins finally slumped to their seats and their expressions returned to normal.

"Oh...," They only muttered a word.

Cyan's heart tightened a bit at the sight of the heartbroken twins, but it couldn't be helped. He wasn't sure of how to manage having pets, especially when he thought about how the twins and Lyra might end up finding Familiars eventually. Otherwise, he'd let them keep some pets--especially after the twins grew up a bit more.

'Maybe I should bring them to the zoo or some ranches later on,' Cyan quickly noted this in his mind.

Soon after that conversation, they finally arrived in their destination store... A weapon shop!

"Weapon...," Freyja muttered.

"...shop," Freyr completed Freyja's words.

"Yes, that's right. After turning six, you can choose a weapon that you like," Cassie said.

"You've seen me, Altaire, and Lyra practice our melee combative abilities often, right? You can also try out various weapons here and decide after that," Cyan added.

The twins looked here and there at the various weapons in the store. The store clerks immediately went to help the twins look at various weapons and explained the weapons to them in an easy way.

After circling over the store and seeing the variety of the available weapons, the twins didn't seem to have any favorite in particular.

"Got any weapon you fancy the most?" Cyan asked after looking at the twins thinking without any word.

Freyr and Freyja were still holding hands, with their free hands over their mouth--looking like they were supporting their chins while thinking and walking.

Hearing Cyan's questions, the twins shifted their gazes to another section they didn't visit.

Cyan quickly followed their line of sights and saw that they were looking at magical weapons.

"Hmm? The weapons over there are magical weapons that can't be used for melee combative battle. There are also magical melee weapons that you can choose from if you're interested in magical ones. It's quite handy," Cyan offered.

"...," The twins turned to face each other. They silently looked at each other--as if they could communicate through gazes alone.

Then, after a while, they suddenly nodded at the same time and shifted their line of sight to Cyan.

Cassie was observing their behavior and was really curious about how the twins could pull that. Could they really communicate through telepathy with each other? Are rumors about twins true?

"Can we just choose from the magical weapons?" Freyja asked.

"You can, but those weapons can't function as melee weapons at the same time. Well, let's not mention throwing or hitting something with a magical staff... But do you get my point?" Cyan asked to make sure the twins didn't regret their choices that they made out of their lack of knowledge.

The twins nodded in response.

"We know. Dad... Uhm, we love magic so much," Freyr timidly tried to explain.

"Can we just learn magic and not do... Melee?" Freyja finally got to the point and asked right away.

Cyan and Cassie were a bit taken aback, but Cassie also felt happy to hear that the twins really loved magic.

After coming back to his sense, Cyan remembered how the twins didn't seem that interested when they were observing Altaire, Lyra, or himself practicing their melee combative abilities. And seeing how no melee weapons intrigued their interests even after the shop clerks demonstrated how to use the weapons, Cyan came to a conclusion.

Maybe... The twins were more suited to inherit the Hartmann house. The Hartmann was famous as a family of magicians, after all.

Cyan, Altaire, and Lyra all took interests in learning melee weapons as well. Especially Lyra with a keen interest in swordsmanship. If this tradition continued on, the Hartmann family might be similar to the Fumitsuna family in how they were the family that combined magic and swordsmanship as a style.

This sudden turn of events was surely unexpected, but perhaps it was the best for all of them.

In that instant, Cyan comprehended the will of the Maozi jewel.

Perhaps, this was exactly why the Maozi jewel reacted to the twins upon the question of heir at that time.

"Dad?"

The twins' voices pulled Cyan back to his senses. He quickly smiled and pat the twins' heads.

"Of course, you can. If that's the case--"

"Then let me be the one providing advices," Cassie quickly interrupted Cyan's words--or more precisely, completing them.

Now then, what kind of magical item/weapon attracted the twins' fancy the most?

Both Cassie and Cyan's anticipation was building up inside.