CH 425

Side Story: Christmas Special 2020

“Come on, adults. It’s that time of year again! Let’s get fired up! Nell, Leila, how’s the dinner coming along?” (Yuki)

“I’ve got it all ready!” (Leila)

“I’m almost done with the cake!” (Nell)

“Okay, Lew, how’s the barbecue place?” (Yuki)

“Everything is ready here! All we need to do now is to light the coals!” (Lew)

“Excellent. How about you, Dragon Santa? What about the presents?” (Yuki)

“Yes, I’ve checked everything. It should be just as you requested.” (Lefi)

“Roger that. And Dragon Santa, please rehearse your Santa accent so that we don’t get wrecked in the show.” (Yuki)

“Hohohoho! I am Dragon Santa! I’ve brought presents for all of you who have been good the whole year! Seriously, what are you trying to make me do?” (Lefi)

“You didn’t want to be the deer, so I gave you the role of Santa. Instead, it’ll be me and Rir who will be the deer. Right?” (Yuki)

“No, well, that’s true, but… cough… By the way, Rir, I’ve been telling you this for a while now. If you don’t like it, you can say so, all right? You don’t have to go along with this fool’s game.” (Lefi)

“Kuu…” (Rir)

“Okay, okay, both of you, Rir is feeling troubled, so leave it at that.” (Yuki)

“Rir-sama, you’re looking so pitiful as always…”  (Lew)

“I’m glad you two are getting along so well…”  (Nell)

Today was Christmas.

While the little girls were playing outside, the adults were preparing for the Christmas party.

The dungeon was decorated about a week ago for Christmas.

I wondered for a bit whether I should make it snow in the meadow area, but since we were planning to have a barbecue party outside today, I decided not to. Anyway, the weather would be cold for sure and we could always play with snow later.

I did wonder if it would be a good idea to have barbecues for Christmas dinner, but that was the wish of little girls.

I had asked them what kind of feast they would like, and they unanimously said that they would like to have a barbecue party.

When we had celebrated Christmas before, we had prepared a turkey or some other Christmas-like dishes, but apparently a suggestion of having a barbecue party was more popular because everyone could enjoy it.

Well, it would certainly look more festive if we cooked the turkey on the spot. We could also prepare Christmas-like dishes such as roast beef and paella to be eaten together.

Of course, the usual grilled meat, grilled vegetables, and seafood would also be available.

In that sense, the little girls made a good choice.

Barbecues often accompany every event in our household as we enjoyed them a lot.

Incidentally, we were currently staying at the barbecue site we built in the meadow area, which we used once every two months or so.

This time, a new fir tree was added to the dungeon, and thanks to our pets, a huge Christmas tree was completed.

Nowadays, I was adding more and more things that had nothing to do with the dungeon’s defense, but it was too late for me to care about it now.

“We have three minutes left until the scheduled time. Everyone, I’ve been looking forward to this day. I am happy to see little girls–“

Just as the adult group was getting into the swing of things, suddenly, with a bang, several crackers went off, sending confetti and paper tape flying around the area.

Surprised, we turned around to see little girls dressed in Santa costumes.

“Merry Christmas!”  (Iruna)

“Happy holidays!”  (Shii)

“…Happy day!”  (En)

The Wraith girls cheerfully swooped in next to the smiling faces of the little girls. They seemed to have possessed a special doll for Christmas.

“Oh, what’s the matter, kids? Dinner is just a little while away, okay?” (Yuki)

“You heard me! We’re… what was it again?” (Iruna)

“We’re looking forward to the food!” (Shii)

“…Well, Iruna meant we’re Young Santas. I’m also looking forward to the food, but Shii has already focused too much on that.” (En)

“Oh, that’s right! We are Santa Claus!” (Shii)

“Yes, we are Santa Claus today! We’re always on the receiving end of all the good things! So today, we will be Santa Claus and bring you happiness! More specifically, we will sing!” (Iruna)

“We did a lot of practice!” (Shii)

“…We had a lot of fun practicing it. Wraith kids and the pets are going to help us play instruments.” (En)

After En’s words, the pets, who were apparently waiting, appeared from the back of the room, each holding a tambourine, maracas, or cymbal-like object with their paws or in their mouths.

Not only that, Rir, who was with us, also joined the pets. It was clear that Rir had long joined the little girls’ scheme.

Wow… really?

I had thought that they had been singing a lot lately… but it was unexpectedly for this reason.

Knowing that they had put so much effort into something to make us happy, an inexpressible sense of joy welled up inside my chest.

The same seemed to be true for the rest of the adults, who all had pleased and overjoyed expressions on their faces.

Also, the pets.

You guys were really handy and could do anything.

Thank you for always helping us with things that had nothing to do with dungeon defense.

“Now, you guys, sit down there! We’ll prepare the food together afterwards!”

“En-chan, please, prepare the song!” (Iruna)

“Nn, the first song is…” (En)

Then the Christmas live performance by the little girls began.

It seemed that the girls had practiced really hard, and of course, their singing was perfect, as was their choreography, which was adorable.

The most important thing was that they seemed to be enjoying themselves, which naturally made us happy as well.

The performance by the Wraith girls and the pets was also beyond compare, and the adults clapped their hands, cheered, and yelled with glee.

This was how we spent Christmas…