17 A Happy Day

There was a flame of envy in Bree's eyes, as if she sensed competition. "Little… piggy?!"

Desmond felt a chill run up his spine as his sister-in-law's malicious gaze settled on him.

Who could have thought that after four years of marriage, he would finally manage to ignite his sister-in-law's jealousy through a series of unfortunate events?

He really regretted not believing his wife blindly when she assured him of Evelyn's safety. He regretted till his intestines turned green! But unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret.

Evelyn looked quite amused at the strange interaction. 'First little puppy and now little piggy, does mom want to turn our house into a zoo?'

But most of her attention was still on her newly acquired 'treasure', the pink fox.

Vivian was already bouncing around the pink fox with excitement. "What should we call it, 'Mara?"

The older redhead rolled her eyes, thinking that it's a good thing her young age allows her behavior to pass, or her little sister would really look incredibly stupid and dense to others.

"Don't be so rude, Vivi, Evelyn should decide on the name herself."

The little girl didn't seem to get her hint at all. In her mind, there wasn't much differentiation between Evelyn's pet and her own.

"Ohh, I was just asking… it's so cute, so it should have a cute name! Eve will come up with a super cute name, right?"

The pink haired girl didn't mind her antics at all, instead smiling with some indulgence. "Should I just call it Vivi too, since it's so cute just like you?"

Vivian, who knew no such thing as shame or embarrassment, squealed in delight. But then she seemed to think of something suddenly and shook her head in disappointment.

"If we're both Vivi how will I know when you call for me or her? No no, there can only be one Vivi!"

Evelyn chuckled. "Alright, alright, don't worry. How about we call her Ruru then?"

The redhead clapped her hands happily. "Ruru! Ruru is cute!"

Amara wondered if it was alright to name her lifelong spirit pet so casually, especially when she vaguely recalled 'Ru Ru' meaning sloth somewhere, or was it something else?

The redhead hoped that Evelyn's little fox didn't have a very big ego, or it would surely shatter very quickly amongst these two little troublemakers.

Meanwhile, Bree was still growling at her brother-in-law, determined to establish herself as superior among her sister's 'pets'.

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There was no one who would celebrate her birthday in her last life, but in this life, she had gotten used to getting a small party every year from her parents.

Evelyn had discovered that although some people did celebrate birthdays, they were not that big of a deal in this world. And when someone did celebrate, it was more of a surprise than an expected thing.

The important celebrations in this world were the 'ceremonies' held at particular points in a child's life. Her first ceremony—the coming of age—has yet to arrive.

So it was no surprise that on her previous birthdays, not even her grandfather had shown up. It was just her parents and herself.

And Isabella was still learning how to make the right food for her. Since apparently a spirit body absorbed everything from the food impartially, she could not just eat anything like normal people. Normal people generally only absorbed the nutrients they needed from their food, and the rest was allowed to pass through.

Of course, with the survival skills she had chosen before her rebirth, such a thing was unnecessary for her. But that was not the case for the rest of the people.

This year, there were not one or two, but four people with the 'same requirements' as herself attending her birthday. Needless to say, Isabella had been very busy for quite some time.

In the end, her efforts seemed to be worth it as all of them were stuffed with the delicious cake till their appetite for cake was gone for the next half a year at least. And there was still a third of the cake left!

Even if Evelyn's belly could never be stuffed, she still felt her mind was stuffed full of sweet strawberry cake already.

"Sister Bella really learned how to cook so well, I still can't believe this was made by you! I still remember when mom kept searching for her favorite pot's lid but couldn't find it. And you finally confessed you lodged it on the roof during cooking? Fufu."

Isabella looked a little indignant at her sister's 'accusation', thinking that she was losing face in front of her precious daughter.

"Hey! That was a long time ago! I'll have you know, not to mention pots and kettles, even pressure cookers don't explode that often on me now!"

And her husband seemed to think this was a good opportunity to earn back some of his lost favor.

"Oh yeah, the last time I heard an explosion from the kitchen was after we were married for two years!"

Though since he wasn't so smart with his words, his efforts might just backfire.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. How come everyone kept judging her mother's cooking? At the very least, today's cake really was delicious.

Plus, taking a look at the critic's qualifications, it really was quite funny.

Amara and Vivian didn't know anything about cooking at all, but they at least knew how to keep quiet on things they know nothing about. Looking at Bree's stupidly beautiful face, she could already tell this blonde bombshell had never even stepped foot in the kitchen.

No wonder she got bullied by Isabella all the time! It looks like every time they had a talk, she just wanted to invite trouble!

As for her father, well, let's just say he only used his spoon for eating.

'I get that it can happen with a pressure cooker, but how does she even cause a pot to explode??? Aunty is surely making this up, right? Well, anyway, with my disease immunity, I should be relatively safe, right?'

Isabella turned her head left and right, as if confused. "My goodness, I keep hearing pigs talk in my house! Whatever shall I do?"

Her husband gave her a pitiful look. "Oh come on! Can you not do that on our daughter's birthday at least?!"

The young mother rolled her eyes. "Fine! But in exchange, you will be sleeping on the living room sofa for a month!"

'How come every word out of her mouth is more misfortune for me', Desmond thought, aggrieved. Just because he made one mistake, the punishments were too unreasonable, right? And by the way, he was still not convinced that worrying too much for his daughter's safety was a mistake. He just didn't dare to bring it up anymore.

Anyway, with so many beds in the mansion, there's no way he's sleeping in the living room.

"B-But we have guest rooms! Can't I take one of those?"

Isabella squinted her eyes, as if wondering if he'll keep taking a mile after getting an inch. "You can also go out and sleep in the garden if you like?"

"… I'll take the sofa, please."

She gave him a nod of satisfaction. "Good piggy."

Bree looked delighted as she saw the piggy 'falling out of favor'. Even if her sister praised the piggy later, she already knew how dissatisfied she got when her pets were disobedient! As her sister's only pet for so many years, how could that pitiful newbie even hope to compete with her?

Although Bree didn't say any of it out loud, her thoughts were written clearly on her face. It was really regretful that her increasingly useless looking probe skill didn't work on Bree either. But Evelyn still wondered, if it worked, would it judge her mental age as three or five?

The pink haired girl felt that she was the only sane person in the room.

Well, although they did stupid things, she still somehow ended up loving them.

Looking at the colorful confetti, balloons and ribbons all around, the dining table full of laughter, and her mouth still vaguely tasting the sweetness of the homemade cake, Evelyn felt contented.

Even if everything changed with time, she hoped that she could still continue enjoying the company of these people for the rest of her life.

Vivian's little body was too tired from travelling and bouncing around, so she fell asleep early. Amara apologized and carried her to their room, wishing her a happy birthday once more before leaving.

Although Bree had said that she can't stay for long when she arrived, it didn't look like she had any intention of leaving at all. In fact, she had already nodded off on Isabella's shoulder, and it looked like someone would have to carry her to bed.

And the little fox was still safely snoozing in its box on the table. So it looks like her parents and herself were the only ones awake.

Isabella patted her on the head kindly, her previous immature looks nowhere to be found. "Well… I hope my precious daughter had fun today. Since it looked like Bree was finally going to be able to come, and you had two new friends this year, we decided to make it a little bigger. Did you like it?"

Evelyn gave them her most genuine smile. "I loved it! Thank you, mom, dad."

Isabella stretched out her hands towards her cheeks, making the vigilant little girl jump back in fright. She knew this little devil of a mother couldn't remain serious for more than one minute!

"Fufu, you're so adorable, ah I just want to—oh nevermind… well, as long as you're happy. Anyway, it's not much compared to what the others gave, I'm sure, but we still prepared some presents for your birthday. Here's mine, and here's your dad's."

Evelyn already expected it, because her parents gave her the softest and plushest of teddy's every year, and she already had six of them on her bed. At this point, forget about feeling lonely on the bed, it was already starting to feel crowded.

To her surprise, however, this year she didn't receive plushies as her presents. Instead, her father gave her a bow and a box of arrows, and her mother gave her a… pen?

"Well… we know you're still young so there's no rush, but since you kept insisting on learning from us, we decided to give these to you as both acknowledgement and encouragement. Our little baby has really grown a lot in terms of both hitting things and painting them, so we're proud!"

She couldn't help but feel a little touched. Her parents really indulged her too much. If she was a real baby, she would have been a really spoiled princess!

"M-Mom… thank you…"

Her father looked a little lonely as he tried to butt in to get attention. "U-Uh, me too!"

Evelyn couldn't help but laugh. Why is he so silly?

She gave him a smile and hugged his thigh with her little body. "Thank you, dad."

'Awww, a cute daughter is the best… it's like all of my torture today was worth it with just a smile from her!' Desmond thought with a sigh.

Isabella rolled her eyes. Isn't it good enough that she's letting him off so lightly? He didn't know how many hoops her little puppy had to jump through when trying to seek forgiveness!

"Well, it's really late now. So go to bed. Goodnight, sweet baby."

"Goodnight!"

She gave them both a kiss on the cheek and left the hall happily while hugging her presents close to her chest.

Closing the door to her room, the first thing she did was place the new presents on the bed. After that, she carefully put her precious new bracelet and belt in the vanity's first drawer. Once done, she jumped face down on the bed with a sigh of happiness.

"Aahhh, itsh sho good… the happiest day of my life!"

Rolling around a few more times, she finally settled down and probed the new items with her skill.

"Ohh?"