Title: Happy Birthday
Characters: Silver, MC/Yuu
JP Proofreader: j-mee
Part 1
Diasomnia Dorm - Birthday Party Venue
NRC School Newsletter
Birthday Boy Interview Special Issue
~Silver’s Edition~
Silver
Thank you. I’m happy everyone could celebrate with me like this.
Silver
That’s why I'd feel guilty if I were to doze off during the party. All the other dorm mates worked hard on the preparations, after all.
Silver
So I made sure I had plenty of sleep last night. I also drank lots of black coffee earlier just in case.
Surely I'll be able to stay awake till the party ends today.
MC/Yuu
Do you have any special birthday memories from back home?
Silver
Hmm… I guess it would be the commemorative photo my father takes of us every year.
Silver
We would stand in line with Lord Malleus and Sebek, who would visit for the occasion, to take the photo.
Silver
The photo we took last year is still on my desk in my dorm room. It's such a wonderful birthday present I can’t bear to replace it with other pictures.
Now that I think about it, one year, while Sebek was standing next to me as we were taking the photo, I noticed he'd grown taller than me.
I was taller than Sebek when he first started out as my father’s pupil, but at some point it seems like his height surpassed my own.
Silver
I was pretty surprised when I finally realised that fact.
Silver
Ever since, I'd depend on Sebek to bring the plates down from the highest shelf in the dish cupboard.
We can actually use magic to get the plates but…… Whenever I'd ask Sebek to do it, for some reason, he'd look at me with a smug expression on his face.
Silver
Perhaps he just likes retrieving objects from high places.
Silver
If so, it would be rude of me to get in the way of his hobby. So I intend to depend on him for it in the future too.
Part 2
Diasomnia Dorm - Birthday Party Venue
Silver
Zzz……Zzz……
MC/Yuu
Uh, uhm…
Silver
Ah! I apologize, I suddenly became drowsy…… I slept so well last night, yet it didn’t help at all……
Silver
I'm sorry to be rude. If I fall asleep again, could you wake me up by whatever means possible?
MC/Yuu
Understood. Moving on, how has your boarding experience at NRC been?
Silver
I'm often surprised by how different the lifestyle here is. Before I came here, I only ever lived in the deep forest in Briar Valley.
For example, I was very grateful for electronics that let you wash and clean without having to use magic.
Silver
I was also surprised by how bright the lights are after sunset. In the forest where I lived, it was pitch dark.
Silver
But the one thing that surprised me the most… was how delicious the food here was.
It left a huge impression on me…… because apart from what I cooked on my own, I only ever ate my dad’s unique cooking growing up.
MC/Yuu
Has anything else been different since you entered NRC?
Silver
I would say the many friendships I made here. That’s because in Briar Valley, the only close friend I had around my age was Sebek.
Going to the school store during breaks with my classmates is also a novel experience I never had in my hometown.
Silver
At the store, I often browse through the whetstones and the latest protective equipment. Everyone else often looks at the candy and comics.
Silver
I’m not familiar with the latest trends or what people do for fun, so I’m grateful to Kalim for teaching me so many things.
Ahh, also, Kalim occasionally invites me to the banquets at his dorm……
Silver
There, I ate fruit native to the Scalding Sands and rode on his magic carpet among other valuable experiences.
Silver
It’s interesting to discover the unknown. I’m always learning something new when I hang out with the others.
I feel very grateful for all the friends I have.
Part 3
Diasomnia Dorm - Birthday Party Venue
MC/Yuu
Please tell us about your family.
Silver
I’m an orphan, but I have a foster father who raised me.
Silver
When I was young, I thought he was my biological father. Now that I think about it, we don’t even look alike in the first place……
Silver
When I finally noticed that my father’s ears had a different shape from mine one day, I asked “Why do our ears look different?”
That was how I learnt that we were neither of the same species nor related by blood.
Silver
He laughed, saying “You never noticed til now!?” which left me confused. Before I knew it, I dashed out of the house into the rain……
Silver
In the end, my dad found me and brought me home…… But I became bedridden with a fever after that.
At the time, father smiled and said, “What a little troublemaker you are” as he stayed by my side the entire time, nursing me back to health.
Silver
He never left my side until my fever went down even though he was surely tired from searching high and low for me in the rain.
Silver
……I doubt I'll ever forget the smile he had when I finally recovered that day.
Silver
I’m no longer concerned that we aren’t blood related. No matter what, I will always be my dad’s only son.
Silver
……Oh yeah. My father was also the one who gave me the name “Silver”.
When I asked him how he came up with it, he answered without hesitating, “From the colour of your hair!” It’s just like him to do something like that.
Silver
I will continue to cherish the name that my dear father has given to me.
MC/Yuu
What an amazing relationship you both seem to have.
Do you have a special care routine for your hair that you were named after?
Silver
I don’t do anything special to maintain it. I’m also not particular about the style, so I usually just cut it however.
Sometimes I cut it by myself. Although in the past I've asked my father and my friends to cut it for me, too.
……Now that I think of it, Vil also asked about my hair care routine a while back.
Silver
I remember getting scolded by him when I told him I didn’t do anything special with my hair.
Silver
Perhaps because of that conversation, Vil gave me a hair care kit as a thank-you gift for helping out at his Film Studies Club once.
It contains not one, but two kinds of shampoo, along with various other creams and oils that I’m not familiar with.
Vil did say that “Beauty isn't made in a day.1"…… But it takes lots of effort to maintain one’s hair.
Silver
My hair’s condition did improve when I used the hair care kit, but it’s definitely not a routine I could keep up with.
Silver
I’ve finished using up whatever’s in the kit, so now I just soap myself down from head to toe in the bath.
MC/Yuu
Thank you very much for today. Once again, I wish you a happy birthday.
Notes
- “Beauty isn’t made in a day” an allusion to the actual saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” (Return to text)