As she spoke, Iri picked up the Christmas card tucked inside the gift box.
On the card was a line of Christmas blessing written in exquisitely neat, flowing script, the signature settled in the lower right. Her eyes skimmed quickly over the message, then fixed on the signature in the corner.
"Huh?"
A flash of bafflement crossed Iri's lovely eyes, and her delicate little face filled with surprise in an instant.
"Iri?"
Margaret noticed something was off. She set down the gift box in her hands and leaned in for a look at the card.
"Goddess... Freya?"
Iri nodded, her expression blank. She didn't understand why the goddess Freya would send such an expensive earring magic item as a Christmas present. And more to the point, of course... she didn't know this goddess of beauty at all!
"Huh?"
"Who?"
Leon's head snapped up, and he stared at the exquisite earrings and the Christmas card in Iri's hands with disbelief, feeling like he was questioning his whole grasp on reality.
"Iri, who did you just say... it was from?"
Iri turned the Christmas card over and over, examining it carefully, repeatedly confirming the crest pressed into the card and the wax seal sealing it, before nodding in earnest.
"Mm... that's right, this really is the Freya Familia crest."
"And the signature is the goddess Freya too."
Leon and Margaret exchanged a glance, the same thick confusion welling up on both their faces.
What are you doing?
What was going on here?
Iri and the goddess Freya, aside from glimpsing each other from a distance during yesterday's attack, should have been complete strangers. No... it would be more accurate to say there was no way the other side could even know a person named "Irisviel von Einzbern" existed.
After all, even counting generously, Iri had been part of the Familia for less than two months.
Not to mention she was just a Lv.1 small-fry newbie, and before yesterday's attack, Leon had barely had time to keep his own presence low, let alone show off. As a result, their visibility and the amount of talk about them in the city was nearly zero.
So the only explanation...
Leon furrowed his brow.
"Did she see Iri's stunning performance yesterday and decide to deliberately get on good terms? No... one of the two pillars of Orario, a patron goddess of her stature, wouldn't stoop to that..."
Margaret spoke up softly.
"Could it be we're overcomplicating this? The gift really is from the Freya Familia, but maybe that goddess just happened to think of it on a whim, mentioned it offhand, and the actual handling was all done by an officer within the Familia... like that 'Hildrsleif,' for instance."
"And more importantly, the real intent behind the gift might not be aimed at Iri the way we're guessing. It might be... directed at the goddess Demeter."
After hearing out her reasoning, Leon rubbed at the fresh stubble on his chin, thinking it over.
"A social courtesy? Improving relations?"
In the past, Leon might have reflexively dismissed that possibility.
Back then the Demeter Familia, while it held a unique influence in the city, especially thanks to Demeter's own deep connections and prestige within the circle of gods, which absolutely counted for something across the whole city.
But turn your attention to the Familia itself, to raw strength in particular, and the Demeter Familia really was second-rate... even falling short of those mid-tier factions, like the Hermes Familia, the Modi Familia, the Apollo Familia, and so on.
But things were different now.
With the Familia's rapid rise in combat strength, layered on top of the all but unshakable position it already held in the agricultural sphere...
At that thought, he suddenly let out a quiet laugh.
"Interesting..."
"Does this count as... getting crossed off 'Orario's menu' and taking a seat at the 'table' instead?"
Iri and Margaret were thoroughly lost, with no idea what Leon was muttering about. The two exchanged a glance and, by silent agreement, gave up on digging into it, turning their attention back to the mountain of gift boxes in front of them.
Compared to puzzling over all those convoluted twists and turns, opening presents really was more direct and more fun for them.
Whether it was the commotion downstairs gradually spreading, or some other people having their own anticipation for Christmas presents maxed out, before long... drowsy, dragging footsteps came from upstairs once again.
"Morning, Leon..."
"Morning, Laurier."
"..."
"?"
"Huh? Leon?"
Leon: "..."
This scene... hadn't it just played out a moment ago?
Laurier was rubbing her eyes while letting out a long yawn, her whole body slumped limply against the second-floor railing.
Her gaze first swept blankly over Leon, then landed on the mountain of gifts under the Christmas tree, and on Iri and Margaret crouched beside the pile.
Her every move was a carbon copy of Iri's earlier.
"Huh?"
The next second, the little elf snapped wide awake.
"Christmas presents!!!!!"
"So many!!!"
...
...
"So this is the reason you lot were banging around at the crack of dawn?"
Rose, the head housekeeper, gave a languid yawn, shot Leon a lazy, charming sidelong glance, then turned her gaze toward the corner of the living room, half exasperated and half amused. There, Iri, Margaret, Laurier, and Aura, who on the surface pretended not to care but couldn't hide a trace of excitement in her eyes, all four were gathered around the Christmas tree, eagerly throwing themselves into the "grand enterprise" of opening presents.
Leon shrugged, and just as he was about to toss out a teasing remark or two, he caught sight of Jeanne across the sofa, her eyes vacant, her expression as if her soul had drifted out of her body. He grinned.
"On Christmas, what could possibly be more delightful than enjoying the thrill of opening presents first thing in the morning?"
Persephone was deftly twisting her waist-length hair up behind her head. At his words she lifted her eyelids, no particular expression on her refined face.
"Is that so? Because the look on your face says you don't really feel that way."
Leon's smile froze, and in the end all he could do was give a "bear shrug" of helplessly conceding defeat.
...
Everyone chatted and joked around for a while longer, then got ready to start the day's busy work.
Leon and Rose headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Kureha changed into clothes that were easy to move in, picked up an axe, and marched straight to the back courtyard to chop wood, claiming, generously, that this too was part of her daily training.
Jeanne, meanwhile, directed Laurier and the others to first sort the opened and unopened gifts into categories and tidy them away, then set about the big post-holiday clean-up.
As everyone knows, the more relaxed and cheerful it is putting up the holiday decorations, the more of a headache it is tidying everything away afterward.
One look at the long faces on Laurier and the others made that plenty clear.
A round of orderly knocks suddenly rang out, cutting through the bustle inside.
"Excuse me, is Mr. Leon Hart of the Demeter Familia at home?"
A clear male voice came from outside the door, its tone formal and steady.
"I'm an employee of the Guild. I have a letter here for you, please accept it!"
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