Chapter 15: Fireworks

Shaking Lacht's hand, Frieren then put her palm forward, like she was asking for something

"Fine..."

Rolling his eyes, Lacht then immediately gave his grimoire back to Frieren.

"Hayoo!!"

Frieren excitedly cheered, while holding the grimoire like a baby, before looking at Lacht and smiling mischievously.

"We better go Lacht, Tuli, and Throd might be looking for us"

"Sure sure..."

Waving his hand a series of spacial cracks started to appear behind Frieren, causing her to instinctively look at it with caution.

*Crack*

*Crack*

*Break*

With the sound of broken glass, a view of the night sky started to surface from it before finally stopping at the front entrance of Tuli's house.

'...'

Frieren who was the first to witness such magic instinctively looked at Lacht who just casually waved his hand and formed a wormhole back to their home.

'This spell could be useful...'

"Like I said I ain't giving you my spells!!"

Lacht immediately shouted at Frieren's curious gaze.

"Cheapskate..."

Hearing a negative answer, Frieren angrily pouted before stepping into the broken wormhole and landing on the front door.

Seeing Frieren finally go inside the wormhole, Lacht then immediately followed before snapping his finger and closing the portal to his domain.

*Knock*

*Knock*

Kindly knock on the door, Frieren then patiently waited for either Tuli or the others to open the door.

*Creak*

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.

.

With the door opening inside, Frieren was able to see a short green-haired woman with battle scars on her arms and back, wearing a simple grey sleeveless undershirt looking at them with worry.

"Frieren it's already nighttime... I almost thought for a moment that you kidnapped Lacht for magic lessons"

Frieren then made a derpy face with a singular sweat dripping from her face.

"No, I didn't force Lacht to teach me his spells..."

*Sigh*

Seeing her already iconic face when she was lying or up to no good, Tuli then sighed in defeat before looking at Lacht who had a tired face.

"Come, I made dinner today and also wish Greta a happy birthday she turns 12 years old this year."

Opening his eyes in surprise, Lacht then immediately looked at Tuli with contempt.

"You didn't tell me Greta's birthday was today?!"

Rubbing her cheek in regret, Tuli then looked at Lacht nervously.

"I also almost forgot about her birthday... If it wasn't for Eisen reminding me I would have forgotten about it..."

"..."

Both Frieren and Lacht made a deadpanned face before walking inside the house and seeing the festive feast both Tuli and the gang prepared for Greta, who was happily sitting on a chair close to her birthday cake.

"Happy birthday, Greta!"

Frieren and Lacht immediately greeted Greta with a smile on their faces.

"Hehe"

Making an embarrassed smile, Greta then looked at Frieren and lastly Lacht with excitement in her eyes.

"Go do the thing!"

Hearing Greta's exited gazing at him, Lacht fully understood what she wanted him to do.

*Sigh*

"Not here, maybe outside, you don't want me to accidentally burn Tuli's house to the ground right?"

"Fine! Then let's go outside then!"

Jumping down from her chair, Greta immediately held Lacht's left arm tightly and ran towards the door, Tuli was still currently holding it with a smile on her face.

No longer resisting the child of a female warrior, Lacht then followed Greta's direction with haste to not injure his left arm.

'How strong is she?!'

After a second of running, they were finally outside of their house, with both Tuli and the gang following them with interest.

"Okay now do the thing!"

Now outside, Lacht then cautiously looked at the night sky with a half-moon before nodding to himself

'This place should be enough, I apologize in advance to the villagers...'

Raising his hand unto the sky, Lacht then summoned a ball of fire from his palm before all of a sudden it started to change colors rapidly before ending at the color white.

Seeing the bright white flame from Lacht's hands Tuli, Throd and Eisen curiously looked at the white flame.

Lacht then slowly made the white flame move towards the night skies making sure that it didn't flicker out or suddenly become unstable before finally reaching a safe distance away from them.

'This should be enough...'

*Snap*

Snapping his fingers, Lacht finally triggered his spell.

*Boom*

*Boom*

*Boom*

*Boom*

A burst of tiny, colorful stars started dancing in the sky, lighting up the darkness like magical flowers blossoming in the night.

"Pretty!"

Greta looked at the fireworks display in awe while Tuli and the others watched the beautiful display with a smiles on their faces.

"It's not over yet"

Snapping his finger again, Lacht then created a sequence of firework explosions that started to write Greta's name and greeted her with a happy birthday.

*Boom*

*Boom*

*Boom*

(Greta! Happy Birthday!)

In the village of Igelwide, the chief and the villagers were panicking at the large display of lights just outside of their village before all of a sudden they saw the writing of Greta's name and greetings.

'Oh, it must be Lacht's magic...'

All of the villagers around Igelwide who were looking at the beautiful display no longer tensed up in fear and observed the beautiful display of explosions with awe and surprise.

*Boom*

*Boom*

Seeing Greta be in awe over his fireworks, Lacht couldn't help but pat her head.

Feeling that someone's hand was on her head, Greta immediately looked at Lacht on the side.

"Don't treat me like a child! I'm older than you!"

Removing his hand from Greta's green long hair, Lacht then complacently smiled before continuing with his magic explosions until it was finally over.

.

.

.

After a minute of beautiful displays of magic, Greta then made a disappointed face before looking at Lacht gratefully.

"Thank you Lacht!"

"Hehe"

Hearing Greta's appreciation, Lacht then kindly looked at Tuli and the others before proudly putting his hands against his hips.

"You're welcome."

Seeing that the fireworks are over, Tuli immediately shouts at Lacht and Greta so that she can finally blow out her birthday candles

"Greta, Lacht get back inside!"

Great and Lacht nodded simultaneously before walking back inside their home.

In the living room, an assortment of foods and sweets were situated at the dining table with Greta being in front of the large strawberry cake with a single white candle on it.

"Come on Greta, make your wish"

Tuli insisted while waiting for her to blow her candle.

Closing her eyes in thought.

'I wish that Father is happy in heaven and that Lacht, Fieren, Mother, Mister Throd, and Father Eisen be safe when they are adventuring.'

Opening her eyes again, Greta immediately blew her candle with a smile on her face before looking at her family with happiness.

"So what did you wish for?"

Tuli curiously asked while patting her daughter's head with vigor.

"Secret"

Seeing her mother doting her with affection, Greta immediately answered.

*Sigh*

Removing her right hand from her daughter's head, Tuli then immediately looked at Lacht and Frieren with interest.

'Luvi, our daughter has grown another year older...'

Picking up a pint of beer from the table, Tuli then raised it towards her colleagues proudly.

"Cheers to Greta!"

"Cheers to Greta!"

"Cheers to Greta!"

*Clink*

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.

.

Seeing that adults now start their drinking spree, Lacht and Frieren immediately went up to their rooms after eating their dinner and cheering for Greta.

*Creak*

Opening his door to Lacht immediately faceplanted his body to his white bed.

'I should get her a present tomorrow... She would like a weapon like Tuli's axe...'

'Hmm'

Thinking of a great present Lacht then pushed himself up from his bed and and immediately cast a spell.

"Mana Manipulation: Matter Creation"

*Pant*

*Pant*

After a minute of grueling work, a single large bar of steel metal immediately appeared in front of him.

*Pheew...*

'To think it would take a lot of mana to create matter from scratch... It cost me about thirty percent of my mana just to create a single 50 kg steel bar!'

*Sigh*

Looking at the bar of steel with curiosity, Lacht then picked it up with his mana and inspected it.

"100% pure refined steel?!"

'The fuck is this?'

Looking at his creation with surprise, Lacht then carefully made a simple thought

'I can make gold out of mana!'

Putting down the steel bar gently and making a greedy face, Lacht then rubbed his hands in excitement before casting his spell again.

*Pant*

*Pant*

'This is more tiring than maintaining my dimensional domain... Well, to be exact I'm converting a large amount of energy in this case mana into making matter with mass...'

'If I can make a rough estimation, the amount of mana I'm using to make these bars is 4.5x10^19 joules of energy.'

"..."

'That's just too much energy being wasted...'

'If I can put this energy into real-life perspective, I can power countries like China or even India for over one year with all of their electric appliances running non-stop...'

Looking at his now 50kg pure gold bar on the floor and the steel bar, Lacht couldn't help but think of just how absurdly large his mana capacity was.

'It feels weird... Just where is this man coming from?

'From the grimoire that I read before it said that a person's soul can be the source of their mana... And mages and a small number of animals can control their mana in their blood and the surroundings effortlessly.'

'Sometimes mages can recover by absorbing some of the mana in the air to reinforce their souls and replenish their lost mana, but it's a slow and tedious process.'

'But I recover mana differently, the moment I lose even close to fifty percent of my mana I just naturally recover all of it back from my soul'

"Weird...'

'I wonder if the bracelet the old man gave me has something to do with the soul?'

.

.

.

Picking up the pure gold bar from the floor and putting it under the bed with his mana, he then put his focus on the large steel bar before lifting it close to him and gradually touching it with his hand

*Psshh*

The steel immediately begins changing red hot before taking its time to turn into a red hot liquid that is floating in the air before finally turning into a simple pattern of a dual-sided long axe.

'Isn't this just Stark's axe?'

Lacht then inspected the now cool-down axe in curiosity before adding his finish touches to it.

.

.

.

'Hmm...'

Looking at the now finished battle axe with its handle now made, using an oak tree that he cut down on his domain, Lacht then put his hand on his chin and made a thinking posture.

'This is just Stark's axe...'

'...'

'I don't have any creativity with weapons...'

Putting the axe in the ground gently with his mana, he then crouched down on the floor and then put his hands above the axe Lacht then started engraving it with magic runes that were appearing on his soul.

'Let's see...'

'Give us some fire aspect, unbreaking, mending, sharpness, ice aspect, size-shifting, weapon shifting, weight shifting, and lastly loyalty...'

Looking at his proud creation, Lacht then happily took it from the ground with ease, like he was holding a stick he found on the streets.

'Weight shifting is working well'

He then willed the weapon on his hand to change and suddenly the axe shifted into a short sword, scythe, dagger, and rapier one by one.

'Weapon shifting is working as intended'

'I put this this enchantment here in case she doesn't want an axe...'

Holding the now rapier in his hand, Lacht then willed it to turn smaller and then larger.

'Size shifting is also working'

Holding the now normal-sized rapier in hand, Lacht then turned it back into a two-sided battle axe and made it small enough to be wielded by a small child.

Nodding at his creation, and putting his hands on his hips.

"From now on your name will be Eitel!"

Putting his now fully named axe on the corner of his room, Lacht then immediately jumped to his bed and closed his eyes.

'I will give it to her, first thing in the morning.'