Chapter 94
[It’s Fay’s birthday. A very important day!]
The day one is born. It wasn’t something Alnazir had, so it didn’t feel particularly meaningful to him. But if he thought of it instead as the day someone was given a name, then perhaps it did carry some weight.
Zynie insisted that Fay loved surprise birthday parties. She had moved her to tears several times before, so she was certain this would work too.
Deciding to trust her one last time, Alnazir followed her here. He helped prepare food and even assisted while she attempted to make a cake.
The problem was—
“What is this? Why won’t it set?!”
Zynie couldn’t cook. If anything, Alnazir thought she had more talent for destruction than he did when it came to cooking.
That cream clearly wasn’t going to work. He was about to tell her to give up and start over when she suddenly raised her wand.
“If it won’t set, we’ll just use magic.”
“Sto—!”
He could tell at a glance what she was about to do. But before he could finish telling her to stop, the cream exploded.
He had chosen the wrong person to rely on.
Alnazir regretted ever deciding to trust Zynie even one more time.
How was he supposed to explain this disaster? Would they even manage to hold something that resembled a birthday party at this rate?
His head already ached from thinking, and the sickly sweet scent of cream clinging to his face only made it worse.
“Ha… hahahaha…!”
Just as he closed his eyes, weighed down by frustration and complicated feelings, he heard Fay laughing.
He thought he must have imagined it.
But no. She was really laughing.
He looked at her in confusion. Fay wiped the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes as she laughed.
Had she finally gone mad from disbelief? Alnazir frowned, feeling both troubled and guilty.
“What is all this? It’s a complete mess.”
“This is…”
It was all Zynie’s fault. He was about to shift the blame when her soft smile stopped him.
Fay nodded as if she already understood everything.
“Still… I’ll say this first. Thank you for trying to celebrate my birthday.”
“How did you know?”
A surprise birthday party was supposed to surprise the person being celebrated. Yet here, it was Alnazir who stood bewildered.
“Why—”
He couldn’t even finish his sentence. Watching him struggle for words made Fay let out another small laugh.
Of course she knew.
“Fay, it’s your birthday today, right? Happy birthday!”
She had been congratulated several times on her way here. In her rush, she hadn’t properly thanked anyone—but it had firmly reminded her what day it was.
The cream. The cake layers. The fruit. The large plates. The traces of chocolate pen writing that read “Happy Birthday.”
She hadn’t expected Alnazir to be preparing a party with Zynie, but the clues were everywhere. Even someone utterly oblivious would have noticed.
Fay suddenly felt foolish. The man standing there, covered head to toe in cream just to make a cake. And herself—for trembling in fear of someone like this all this time.
“This is so strange… I don’t understand…”
She murmured, staring at him. She realized she hardly knew anything about him.
She called him Alnazir, but she didn’t even know if that was his real name. She didn’t know what he truly was. She didn’t even know whether he was a good invoked or a bad one.
But really. Would some scheming, evil monster really end up covered in cream just to celebrate a witch’s birthday?
“It was a complete failure.”
And he looked flustered now that he’d been found out.
Seeing his visibly frustrated expression, Fay burst into laughter again.
“Honestly… you’re such an idiot.”
“Idiot?”
Alnazir reacted immediately, his brows shooting up in irritation.
“It’s true. Anyone who saw you right now would call you an idiot.”
As she continued teasing him, he glared sharply at her.
But what could he do? He couldn’t even raise a finger, forced to swallow his irritation in silence.
Fay realized then that this wasn’t an act. For a fleeting moment she had wondered if this was another one of his manipulations, but he wasn’t that good at pretending. This was genuine.
“You’ve got cream on your face.”
Once she let go of her suspicion, her heart felt lighter. When she reached up to wipe the cream from his cheek, her hand no longer trembled.
She tasted the cream from her fingertip.
And then she felt his intense gaze on her.
“Are you not afraid of me anymore?”
Alnazir asked.
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