Birthday presents—what a heart-stirring sound those words had. Back when I was a child, I used to wait for my father to come home on my birthday with even more excitement than usual.
It was strange, though. I was about to receive presents now, yet for some reason, an indescribable sense of dread filled me.
I was happy, of course. But that happiness was tempered by a terrifying curiosity about what might be brought out.
Specifically, I was worried about Shiro-san and Eden-san. Neither of them had been present for the karaoke battle, but they had materialized at some point. There was no way those two would prepare anything resembling a "normal" or "sensible" gift. I could only imagine what kind of world-shattering things were about to appear...
As I was lost in thought, Kuro handed the microphone over to Alice, who stepped in to facilitate for some reason.
"Excuse me! Kuro-san seems to be a bit tied up, so I’ll be taking over as moderator! Now then, would our birthday boy, Kaito-san, please come up to the stage!"
Could I not just receive them here? Back to the stage... No matter how many times I dealt with the embarrassment of being the center of attention, I never seemed to get used to it.
Still, it wasn't as if I hated it enough to throw a fit, so I followed instructions and climbed onto the stage.
"Now, given the sheer number of people gathered here, if we let everyone just hand over their presents as they please, Kaito-san might end up literally crushed under them. That would be a problem. Therefore, we’ll be doing this one by one in a specific order. As for that order, I’ll be deciding it based on my own personal whims and biases!"
So, basically, people would come up to the stage in the order Alice called and hand their gifts to me personally?
That would certainly make it easier for me to thank each person individually, which was a help... but why was Alice the one deciding the order?
"I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm the one deciding, why it isn't a lottery, or what I mean by 'personal whims'... Well, I know what you're thinking. Why am I the one deciding? It’s because a certain few have been trying to use Causality Manipulation to skip the line, and Kuro-san is busy blocking them!"
"...Eh?"
"I mean, everyone is going to give their gifts eventually, so the order shouldn't matter! Hey, you! You Rotten Angel! Don't you dare try to interfere from multiple dimensions at once! You’ll blow the whole venue to smithereens! I'll kick you out of here!"
A battle beyond my comprehension was apparently unfolding behind the scenes? Eden-san... Yeah, it had to be her.
But wait. She said "a certain few," so were there others? ...Shiro-san, probably. I see, so that was why Kuro had handed the moderator role to Alice.
Well, as Alice said, since I'd be receiving gifts from everyone anyway, the order didn't really seem to matter, but...
"Ah, by the way, since the grand finale is the perfect timing for my gift, I'll go last... actually, no, let's make it the one right before the end."
Ugh. Shiro-san and Eden-san, who were messing with Causality just to secure their preferred turns, were a handful, but Alice, who was casually assigning herself the spot she wanted, was also something else.
Why did she choose the penultimate spot instead of the final one? I decided not to think too deeply about it.
"First up... well, this person is the best choice. Lilia-san, please come to the stage."
"Me?! You mean... out of everyone here... I'm the first?!"
"Just so you know, the slot you're in right now is the one Shallow Vernal-sama and that Vicious Angel were fighting over."
"Why would you add that information, Phantasm King-sama?!"
I wondered if Lilia-san was born under some kind of cursed star that attracted misfortune. It was just too cruel. Standing before a lineup that included the absolute elite of the Human, Demon, and God Realms, she had been made the "top batter."
True, Lilia-san was the first person I'd spoken to after coming to this world, so in that sense, it was appropriate... but she was trembling so much I could see it from across the stage.
Was she going to faint again? Would she be okay?
After looking around the area restlessly, her face pale, Lilia-san sighed as if she'd resigned herself to her fate and walked over to me.
She stood before me, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Forcing her body to stop shaking, she opened her eyes and addressed me with a gentle smile.
"...Kaito-san, happy birthday."
"Thank you very much."
"Um, I'm sorry. This was all so sudden that I couldn't prepare anything truly substantial... but please, accept this."
"Is this... a knife?"
"Yes, it's a paper knife to use when opening letters. You seem to write them quite often, Kaito-san."
"It's a beautiful design. Thank you so much! I'll treasure it."
The gift Lilia-san gave me was a paper knife engraved with beautiful roses. Although it was small, the craftsmanship was meticulous, and it looked like a very high-end item.
She had almost no time to prepare... I was truly grateful.
"Lilia-san, thank you so much for—"
"Kyuu..."
"Lilia-san?!"
"Um... alright, who here can use healing magic? Actually, there are way too many. Fia-san, I'm putting you in charge."
She had reached her absolute limit! She had managed to stop her shaking through sheer willpower, but the stress of going first while bypassing the heads of every realm had been too much for her.
Dear Mother, Father—the invisible war between the gods notwithstanding, the gift from Lilia-san, our first presenter, made me genuinely happy. But as for Lilia-san herself—she fainted after all.
Serious-senpai: "Why go penultimate instead of last?"
???: "Well, there's a certain someone who looks like they'd just up and leave the moment they finished their turn, as if they had no more business here..."