Mystery Present Box

"Okay, want to take a look at them?" Cassie lowered the two papers.

"...un!" Freyr earnestly nodded.

"Eeh, wait, Mom! Let me prepare my heart first... Can you tell us if the results are good, so-so, or... Bad?" Freyja tried to avert her eyes, trying to prevent herself from accidentally seeing her results first.

Cassie chuckled at their responses--especially Freyja's.

"They're good. Totally good. Here is Freyr's," Cassie handed over a paper to Freyr as she waited for Freyja to finally look her way.

"And this is yours, Freyja," Cassie said.

"Wow...!" Freyja gasped in surprise.

"...," Cassie wasn't even sure Freyja really understood the test's results. After all, she had never seen other test results, so how could she compare? Freyja's reaction might derive from Cassie's reassurance that the results were good.

"Lemme see yours, Freyr!" Freyja quickly pulled Freyr who was still reading his result over and over again.

"Let's compare them side by side?" Freyr prevented Freyja from snatching his paper. Instead, he guided Freyja to put their papers side by side as they looked at their results.

"Whoa, look, Freyr! We have the same amount of mana!"

"And we have some differences here...," Freyr pointed at another spot in the paper.

"Oh, right... Aww, you're better at this one!"

"But you're better in the other one."

Cassie chuckled as she saw the twins who were too immersed in their papers. She glanced at the clock before opening her mouth to call out to the twins.

"Fufu... Aren't you too excited about the results that you two forget about... Presents?"

"Ah... Presents! I want!" Freyja quickly answered.

"...I thought our presents were these papers...," Freyr covered his face with his paper out of the embarrassment.

"Haha, of course not, Freyr. I have something else for you two. Here," Cassie took out two small boxes and handed one each to Freyr and Freyja. At first glance, the two boxes looked the same, but they were actually different.

"Can we open it?" Freyja excitedly asked.

Cassie just had an idea about what seemingly an innocent question.

"No, you can't," Cassie kept her expression serious.

"Eeeh, why?" Freyja was evidently surprised and she asked while looking a bit sullen.

"...do we need to do something to get this opened?" Freyr deducted.

"Actually... Okay, you can open them," Cassie couldn't think of what to say in response so she gave up teasing the twins. She got why Altaire felt like teasing or playing pranks on people.

...wait, could Altaire get that trait from her? No, no, it can't be.

Cassie lightly shook her head.

"Yay!" Freyja quickly opened her box and...

"Wow, beautiful!" She gasped at the item inside. She gently took them out as if they were the most precious thing in the world. It was a pair of earrings--pretty silver earrings with small crystals embedded on them. The color of the crystals were different and the color matched her eye colors exactly. The left earring's crystal was a green crystal, while the right earring's crystal color was red.

At the same time, Freyr actually hadn't opened his box. He was observing his twin sister who eagerly opened the mystery present box.

"Freyr, look! I got earrings matching my eye color!" Freyja excitedly said. She then saw how Freyr still had yet to open his present.

"If we get the same presents, then yours will have the red crystal on the left and the green one on the right!" She excitedly guessed.

Freyr furrowed his brows. Dissatisfaction was obvious in his face.

"No, Freyja. Mom couldn't have given me earrings. Boys don't wear them," Freyr said.

"But some boys wear them and they look good!" Freyja argued.

"...true, but... It won't suit me...," Freyr still furrowed his brows.

"But we can be the same~," Freyja insisted.

Cassie was speechless upon hearing their conversation.

Not wanting to drag the debate any longer and wanting to make sure of what was inside the box, Freyr finally opened his box.

"This is...!"

Unlike his sister, he didn't take out the item inside it right away. Instead, Freyr was observing the item in awe.

It was a classic, beautiful watch. Its base color was black with silver frame. Instead of numbers as the indicator of time, there were white crystals of various sizes.

After observing the beautiful watch for a while, Freyr finally took it out of its box and rotated it here and there.

"Cool watch, Freyr!" Freyja said as she looked at what Freyr got. However, she seemed to be more interested in her own present that she didn't stare at it for too long and looked at her present once more.

"Do you like them?" Cassie asked--although the answer was quite obvious.

"Yes!" Freyr immediately looked at Cassie and answered in quite a loud voice for his standard.

"Very!" Freyja also looked at Cassie and answered loudly.

Then, the two looked like they just remembered something and opened their mouths again--this time in unison.

"Thank you so much, Mom!"

Cassie chuckled as she saw the twins coming closer to her. She reflexively opened her embrace and the twins also naturally fell into her embrace.

"Glad you like them! Let me help you wear them."

Then, as Cassie helped the twins wear their new presents, she narrated the significance of the presents.

"Did you recognize the crystals embedded in your presents? Freyr's present has selenite in it, while Freyja's crystals are red jasper and green jade. They have protective magic in them. I hope you two will like them enough to wear them often."

"Yes, I will always wear them!" Freyja happily answered. After all, there wasn't any need to take off her earrings that often.

"I will wear them often," Freyr obediently nodded. Unlike Freyr's earrings, there would be time when he needed to take off the watch. Still, the determination in his eyes indicated that he'd wear them most of the time. After all, he admired a certain detective character in an anime that wore watch most of the time.