You have to be kidding me…

  Rosa stared at the giant mountain of gifts with a mixture of awe and fear. Gunna and Faenor, who were together with her, had similar expressions on their faces. Azrael, on the other hand, looked utterly bored and uninterested, instead prodding at his nails.

  The grand birthday party was over, and all the received gifts and presents had been brought to an empty room near Alphegor's bedchambers. After passing a thorough inspection by the castle staff. Although only the most obvious dangerous gifts had been disposed of, there could still be some nasty surprises inside.

  "Do we have to look through all of them?" Faenor asked, pale as a sheet.

  "His Majesty said that we're to inspect every gift that Lady Morrigan wants to open," the nanny said, and both of them looked down at her.

  "Alright, let me do the check so I can leave and do actually important things," Azrael grumbled, walking up to the giant pile of gifts and waving his hand. Five boxes floated out of the pile. Their wrappings burned away, revealing five creepy-looking objects – a dagger emanating a dark aura, a black rose, a bracelet made from teeth, a necklace with a tiny vial that seemed to contain blood and a rattle made out of tiny bones.

  What are those creepy-looking things? I never thought an object could be evil but those definitely do feel evil.

  "Are those–" Gunna gasped, and made an odd gesture with her hands, something similar to a cross.

  "Yeah, totally cursed," he said nonchalantly, and the items burst into flames. Initially the flames were normal, but then they turned to sinister black color until the creepy things burned away without leaving even so much as a speck of ash behind.

  "W-What would have happened if Lady Morrigan had opened them?" Gunna asked with a trembling voice.

  "Hard to say. Probably nothing too horrible since she is the Demon King's daughter. But it might have been… unpleasant."

  I bet it would have been more than unpleasant. No, I am done with this. I do not want to open another present in my lifetime.

  Rosa shook her head and turned around to leave the room. Much to her dismay, Gunna panicked and blocked her way.

  "Lady Morrigan, how about we look at a few of the gifts? Now that Master Azrael has made sure that there is nothing dangerous inside, we can open them without worry," the dwarf woman said with a smile, but her voice sounded a shaky.

  Could it be that Gunna was ordered to open the present by Alphegor. I imagine if none of the presents get opened then Gunna and Faenor would get into trouble. I'll pray that the oath Azrael made is enough to protect me.

  "Yeah, you that. Wake me up when you're finished," Azrael said and with a snap of fingers, a couch appeared in the corner of the room. He laid down on it and closed his eyes, not a care in the world.

  With a sigh, Rosa waddled back into the room and inspected the giant pile. Normally, she'd be happy to receive gifts for her birthday, and on Earth, she had treasured every gift that she had received even if she wasn't close with the gifter anymore. But with this many, they had completely lost their appeal. Even she disregarded the possibly cursed items still hidden somewhere in the pile.

  A gift wrapped in dark green wrapping paper and an aquamarine band around it caught Rosa's attention. She went closer to it and saw a smile grow on Gunna's face.

  "From Gunna?" Rosa asked and pointed at the gift.

  "Yes, that one is from me. How did you know? Lady Morrigan is indeed very smart," the nanny praised and went to open the ribbon tied to the package. It wasn't really difficult to deduce that it was from her. After all, it was the only gift with a gentle color scheme. Well, this one and one other which Rosa assumed to be from Faenor.

  Once the ribbon was undone, Gunna handed the present to Rosa, who swiftly tore the paper off. Inside was a long scarf in a beautiful verdant green color. The color looked so odd in this mostly dark place, but it was so refreshing and vibrant that Rosa instantly hugged the scarf close to her chest.

  "Thank you, Gunna," Rosa said, trying not to sniffle.

  "Aww, it was just something I made in my spare time. I-I never expected you'd like it so much, L-Lady Morrigan," the nanny said and began crying. This broke Rosa, and she too began crying. Gunna then hurriedly picked her up, and both of them wailed for a moment.

  "You two are being a bit dramatic," Faenor sighed but he did so after giving them a few minutes to calm down.

  "You're just impatient because you want Lady Morrigan to open your present too," Gunna teased him as she wiped away the tears.

  "N-no! I am perfectly capable of waiting!" the elf retorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

  But you never denied that you wanted me to open the gift.

  Rosa waddled over to the other colorful gift which was in a pale lilac package with a bright violet ribbon.

  Rosa tugged at the ribbon and it slipped off effortlessly as did the wrapping. Underneath was an unusual, somewhat shabby-looking book.

  "Faenor, what kind of a gift is that? Certainly, you could have done better!" Gunna pressed her arms against her hips and looked at Faenor incredulously.

  "For your information, this book is extremely rare and extremely valuable. I've had quite a hard time finding it," Faenor replied with a puff. "It contains information about all of the known magical stones from other worlds."

  Magical stones? Like the alexandrite gifted by Lucius. I wonder what exactly they could do.

  Rosa reached her hand to touch the stone in the protection talisman Azrael gifted to her. She wondered if it was also magical in nature.

  "We can look through it during our next story time," Faenor promised, and Rosa nodded enthusiastically.

  "Thank you!" Rosa held the book close, wondering what could be written inside it.

  "As long as you like it, Lady Morrigan," the nanny sighed and conceded. "Now which gift shall we open next?"

  Oh, right… There were other gifts…

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  A few hours of intensive gift opening later… Rosa, Gunna and Faenor had barely made a dent in the giant mount of gifts. They had unpacked clothes both adult-sized and child-sized, a whole bunch of plushies that depicted one monster or another, shoes of every size and shape imaginable, books of all genres and fabrics of every color. Azrael snoozed away happily the whole time, not a care in the world. It made Rosa annoyed that the one person who could probably unpack all these gifts in a few minutes was sleeping.

  "Too many…" Rosa muttered, her little hands tired from unwrapping and ripping all of the paper and packaging.

  "We'll never get through all of those on our own…" Faenor agreed as he grimaced at the remaining amount of gifts with unhidden disgust.

  "Yes, I thought that we could make decent progress today, but there are far too many gifts," the nanny agreed with a grim nod.

  Why do I even need to open all of these gifts on my own? I know that they're meant for me, but it's not like the people, or demons, who gifted me these know me. They only gave me these for Alphegor's sake.

  "No more presents," Rosa grumbled to her caretakers and waddled towards the door. Gunna caught up to her and picked her up.

  "Yes, that's enough gifts for one day."

  As everyone was about to turn and leave the gifts alone for the day, Morrigan heard some odd noise come from the pile. She stopped and listened.

  "What is it, Lady Morrigan?" the nanny asked, noticing Rosa's odd reaction.

  "Some noise," she said and pointed at the presents. The dwarf and elf both stopped and listened carefully. A quiet chirp came from one of the boxes and all three of them looked at each other with horror.

  "Somebody has stuffed a bird inside one of these!" Faenor gasped, his face contorted in shock and anger. Rosa also felt anger rise within her – who in the right mind would put a live creature inside a box.

  Demons, that's who. Why am I even surprised?

  She followed the chirping sound, and then deduced it came from a rather small box wrapped in dark blue paper. Rose tore it off without a second thought and opened it. Inside it sat a distressed looking golden bird. The moment it saw the lid open, it took flight and was gone out of the window before anybody could react.

  Will it be alright out there? I don't think the Underworld is the right place for a bird to live.

  "What if somebody has put another live creature in their gift box," Faenor said with a pained expression, looking after the bird that had long since disappeared from sight. Rosa's heart clenched. It was so sad seeing the poor bird trapped in that box. She wanted to feed it and give it something to drink, but there was no way of getting it back.

  "But there's no way we can open all these gifts. Lady Morrigan is already tired," Gunna objected but her eyes were downcast, showing that she didn't want to abandon whatever poor animal may or may not be trapped within the many boxes. Rosa thought for a second, her gaze wandering to the white-haired demon sleeping on the coach.

  It's about time this guy did some work.

  "Azrael," Rosa said, startling both of her caretakers out of their glum thoughts. Azrael didn't react, instead just continuing his nap. Rosa went up to him and poked him mercilessly in his stomach. The demon woke up with a sputter and glared at her.

  "What?" he said, voice filled with annoyance at the interruption.

  Rose glared at him, then pointed towards the remaining mountain of gifts.

  "Help open," she kept her speech simplistic, so as to not arouse any suspicion on her intelligence. The demon laughed.

  "No way! I'm a magic teacher and a guard, not a servant. Besides, I already got rid of all the cursed items. What else do you want?" Azrael rejected her request outright, a smug grin on his face. Gunna's lip quivered, and it appeared she wanted to say something but couldn't find the courage to do so.

  "Open," Rosa persisted and pointed towards the gifts again.

  "Sorry, Princess. I am not obliged to comply with your requests," he teased, his grin wide. He was waiting for Rosa to start crying and throw a tantrum. If she was an actual baby, she would have no doubt done that.

  "I tell Father," Rosa stated flatly and the temperature in the room got noticeably colder.

  "Nice try, kid. But I won't be intimidated by a baby," Azrael sneered, but Rosa noticed that there was a bead of sweat forming on his forehead.

  So despite his nonchalant attitude, he is afraid of the King. That will work in my favor.

  "Lady Morrigan, perhaps we could just continue unpacking another day," Gunna finally cut in, finding the courage to speak.

  "Help or I call father," Rosa repeated and adopted the icy expression she'd seen the Demon King use.

  "Alright then, call your daddy!" Azrael waved his hand dismissively. He no doubt thought that the Demon King wouldn't just come at the beck and call of his one-year-old daughter. Honestly, Rosa didn't think he would come either and hoped that Azrael would have been more cooperative.

  Oh, well. It's worth a shot…

  "Father!" she shouted in a voice that reverberated throughout the hallways of the castle.

  How did I do that? It seems similar to the way Alphegor speaks when addressing a large crowd.

  Before she could ponder the question any further, another large, dark shadow appeared in front of her, and out from it rose the Demon King himself.

  He really did come.

  As Alphegor emerged from the shadow, he had the largest, goofiest grin on his face and he instantly bent down and grabbed Rosa into a bear hug.

  "My darling daughter called me 'father' for the first time. I am overjoyed! What do you need, little one?"

  Silence stretched for an awkwardly long time as everyone stared at the Demon King in utter disbelief.

  M-My darling?

  "Your Majesty, are you quite alright?" Azrael broke the silence, smiling somewhat awkwardly as he slowly, step by step, neared the exit.

  "Azrael no help," Rosa said before the demon could run away. Alphegor's expression instantly grew as cold as ice, and the temperature in the room dropped even further. Only this time Rosa was sure that it grew colder for real as she could see Azrael's breath in the air. Gunna and Faenor began shivering.

  "Really now?" Alphegor said in a sweet tone that didn't match his icy glare.

  "I-I just said that I couldn't do it now since I have to…" Azrael trailed off as ice crystals began forming around his feet. "What I mean to say i-is that I'll be glad to help!"

  "Excellent!" The King smiled pleasantly, and the cold instantly disappeared from the room. "See that it's done as Morrigan demands. I'll be finding out all the details later."

  "Of course, Your Majesty," Azrael said with a forced smile while shaking off the thick layer of frost that had formed on his feet.

  Alphegor patted Rosa on her head once, then handed her to Gunna and disappeared back into the shadows.

  "You little brat…" Azrael muttered quietly. Rosa decided to ignore the comment since she came out victorious this time.

  "So, which one we're starting with?" Azrael grumbled and skulked over to the mountain, grabbing a random gift and throwing it up and down in the air.

  "Find animal," Rosa commanded.

  "Animal? Why would there be animals here?" Azrael scoffed, but Faenor stepped forward, gathering his courage to speak.

  "We previously found a bird inside one of the presents. The Princess is afraid there might be more animals trapped inside."

  Azrael regarded the elf like a mosquito that had dared to bite him, then looked at Rosa and sighed.

  "I suppose it wouldn't be nice if they died and their corpses began stinking up the place," his purple eyes lit up and carefully looked over the pile of gifts. He then waved his hands and some of the presents began floating around the room and rearranging themselves.

  After a minute or two of sorting, one smaller box floated to Azrael's hands.

  "This is the only live creature I could find," he said in a cold voice, and then the box burst into flames.

  "Wha-?" Rosa gasped in shock, the creature inside shrieking in pain as it burned alive in a matter of seconds.

  "I'm sorry, Princess, but this is not a friendly creature. It is without a doubt that somebody sent this in an attempt to harm you."

  "What creature was that?" Faenor dared to ask.

  "A soul worm," Azrael said coldly.

  What the hell is a soul worm? On second thought, I'd rather not know. It sounds more sinister than those cursed objects.

  Rosa shivered and decided that she wasn't going to open any more of the birthday presents anytime soon.

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