11 A Precious Gift

There were many strange things about Evelyn that would make normal people feel that something was not right.

It was strange how she could learn how to walk and speak proficiently so very quickly after her birth. And stranger still was the fact that she was able to learn how to read and write not long after. She couldn't do it all perfectly, but what she could do was already shocking enough.

Her mother waved the notebook in her hand towards her husband. "Monmon~ look at these cute little squiggles our daughter has made! Are they supposed to mean something?"

Evelyn clung to her mother's leg with tears glittering in the corner of her eyes. The language in this world was different, and although she could somehow understand it from birth, she had to learn how to write it herself. It was a slow process, to put it gently.

As someone who almost finished her schooling in the past life, she was ashamed to be caught not even being able to write!

Today was a day of celebration, and both of her parents were at home along with some temporary hired help that was working on decorating the mansion. Evelyn thought today would be really fun, getting to spend more time with her parents than usual. If only her mother wasn't a brat.

"Moooooooom, give it back!"

Desmond's expression was hidden behind the newspaper like thing. The backside was all black with no words, so she couldn't really tell what exactly it was or what he was doing with it.

"Stop bullying her and give it back, Bella."

Despite his words, he didn't lift a finger to actually stop his wife from teasing the little girl.

Her mother often made fun of her squiggly handwriting, causing the little girl to pout, but on the inside, she was quite proud. Even if it looks like a mess, her daughter was trying to learn how to write on her own initiative.

She didn't just want to learn how to write, but everything else that caught her interest. It was certainly a headache to face her multitude of requests, but Evelyn was a surprisingly independent learner. She required little to no supervision while learning things, and thus her requests became far more manageable.

And so, keeping an eye on this little troublemaker remained Amara's job. Whether it be learning to paint from her mother or archery from her father, the only person who felt that her workload increased was the poor redhead 'maid'.

Perhaps in another, more normal family, Evelyn would have hidden herself and been more cautious. But among these people whom affection she could already judge as in her favor, she wanted to see how far she could go.

It did not take her long to discover that she did not actually have to hide anything at all. No matter what she did, it wasn't her job to explain how she could do it. In fact, it became the headache of Amara and her parents to explain to her how she was able to do what others can't.

To them, the biggest challenge wasn't explaining how someone people are just born with higher innate abilities. Nor was it a great challenge to explain the advantage of being born from a blessed spirit egg. The thing they worried about the most was how to do all that while not making the cute little baby a conceited and arrogant fool.

Raising a child was much harder than it appeared on the surface, because a small mistake in upbringing could prove very costly later down the road. Tristan was a glaring example that was quite close by, and thus, the young Knox parents tried to be more careful.

Isabella kept waving the notebook around, making little Evelyn jump to grab it in futility, whining in distress.

Evelyn hated showing imperfection in front of people she liked. Perhaps deep down in her heart, she felt that they wouldn't like her if they thought she wasn't as good as they imagined.

"Moom! Mom! Please… give it back! Give it!"

And Isabella was thinking, her daughter really was the cutest when she was crying! Look at those glistening eyes, those shiny cheeks, that long bouncy pink hair! Isn't that the most adorable little thing in the world? How lucky she was to be the mother of such a cute little baby, with exclusive rights to bully her.

Normally Evelyn was quite a proud and cold little girl, and showed affection very rarely. When distressed and crying, however, it was very easy to hug her close and comfort her as she complained about her grievances. It was when the mother felt closest to her daughter.

"Fufu…"

Isabella's chuckles came to an abrupt halt as she spotted a red-haired hamster looking thing in a blue frock crawl into their room with her big sister in tow.

In Isabella's mind, this was Evelyn's pet hamster, called Vivian. A very vicious little thing that bit anyone who tried to bully little Eve. It would be very cute, if it didn't hurt so much!

With a light cough, Isabella pretended to be suddenly busy as she handed over the notebook to the confused pink haired girl and shooed her away. "You guys go play outside while we get the hall finished. Remember to come back when you see your aunt Bree is here!"

Amara took the two little girls away with a roll of her eyes, wondering why it felt like Evelyn's parents were more childlike than herself. No, it was almost as if she was the only adult here, and she wasn't even an adult!

As for Evelyn's aunt coming, Amara had never seen the lady in all her time taking care of the little girl. All she knew was that the woman had always promised to come to the little girl's birthdays, but had never visited her once in her entire life.

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Shortly after Evelyn left the main hall with the Gilmore siblings, Vivian started making a strange whining noise as Amara handed the pink-haired girl a stone bracelet. The little redhead looked so distressed that Evelyn wondered if Amara had snatched it from her.

"She kept taking it apart and changing it over and over, and I felt like I was about to go crazy one of these days. Just look at her hands… Well, she doesn't think it's good enough still, so she wanted me to buy something to give you as a gift. But I think you'll like it, so, this is her birthday gift to you."

'Ahhh, even if the intentions are good, how can you just snatch it?!'

Just one look at the carefully selected stones in the bracelet told her these were all the most precious ones that the little girl had collected in her life.

The bracelet actually looked quite good. If it was sold in the market as an inexpensive pearl bracelet, it wouldn't look too out of place. But of course, even if the little girl had chosen the stones very carefully, there was a slight difference in their sizes, and the colors were completely different.

Evelyn unconsciously used her probe skill on the bracelet, feeling a little silly after doing so. But the results were quite surprising.

[ Shiny Bracelet: Grade 1 ]

- Infused over a long period of time with a blessed spirit's energy, this item has acquired the following properties:

- Spirit Power + 3 when worn.

- Each stone consumed infuses user with +30 spirit power for one day but permanently reduces vitality by 2 due to the rich fire energy.

- Vitality reduction can be avoided if the user has fire energy resistance.

Evelyn carefully slid the bracelet to her right wrist, and then pulled Vivian in a tight hug. To think the first item that can boost her stats in some way was actually made by these tiny hands.

Looking at the tiny tears glittering at the corners of Evelyn's eyes, Amara couldn't help but pet her head. "Don't cry, just think of it as compensation for all the trouble she's caused you so far."

Evelyn tried to laugh, but it was slightly muffled due to her emotions. "Is it for drooling over me? Or when we fell into that mud pond? Or for all those times you bit me? Haha…"

The two of them chuckled at Vivian's squeak of protest.

When was the last time she felt so moved? It's not such a big deal, she tried to tell herself, but the happiness she felt from the bottom of her heart did not lie.

It's true that Vivian hasn't always been a joy to be around in the past few months they had been together. She was an actual child, after all. Her words and actions did not always make sense, and she did not think through things before doing them.

Amara was mature beyond her age due to the responsibilities she carried, and she was almost eight years older than the two of them. Evelyn was an exception, as she was not a true child to begin with.

However, after all is said and done, Evelyn still loved her very much. She was like a precious daughter that she felt a duty to protect at all costs.

Feeling the weight of a heavy object on her head, Evelyn let Vivian go from her hug and grabbed the box that was about to fall off from her head.

She gave Amara an eye roll, but her breath hitched as she looked at the box.

"T-This is…!"