Chris felt that Darwin was simply a genius in the world of gift-giving!
"Then... then we'll give them exactly as you said."
With the plan set, the two selected the most beautiful dress and a fairly nice necklace from their list.
Adding the two items together, the budget directly soared to two-thirds of their existing savings.
"So what do we give Dad? There's not much money left."
"A gift for Dad, huh..."
Darwin's gaze swept back and forth across the list several times.
A suit? Too expensive!
A tie? Not used often!
After pondering for a good while, Darwin's eyes suddenly lit up: "I know what to send!"
Chris hurriedly asked: "What?"
"A fountain pen!"
"A fountain pen? Isn't that a bit too cheap?"
Darwin shook his head and said meaningfully: "Compared to aesthetics, men care more about the practicality of a gift. A fountain pen happens to be a very practical thing for Dad."
Chris thought about it and said: "Dad has to process many guild documents every day; a fountain pen is indeed very practical!"
Darwin clenched his fist and said with full confidence: "Not only is it practical, it will allow Dad to feel our heavy love for him at every single moment!"
"Maybe he'll become passionate, hot-blooded, and tireless when he works in the future, thereby greatly increasing his work efficiency!"
Passionate and hot-blooded is one thing, but why does he have to be tireless while working?!!
For a moment, Chris didn't think of this fatal flaw; she only felt that "boys really do understand men better."
"Alright, we'll go with your idea!"
The two quickly sucked up the last drop of their juice, then ran to three different shops in sequence, buying the selected necklace, dress, and fountain pen, and having them wrapped as gifts.
"With this, the 'gifts' are complete, right?"
"There's still a little bit left. Did you forget the handicrafts I mentioned just now?"
"Oh right! Handicrafts... what are they?"
Darwin said: "There's a clay shop on West Street where an old master specially offers teaching courses. In just one day, you can mold figures that highly resemble real people."
"We'll go take a class tomorrow and ask the old master there to teach us how to mold a set of figures of our family of five. Wouldn't that be perfect?"
"Mom and Dad are big celebrities in town; the old master must have seen them many times. He might have even molded figures of them privately, so it shouldn't be a problem!!"
Molding clay figures?
Great idea!
Chris thought it over and felt there was nothing more suitable than this. Her heart instantly settled, and she even wished she could drink two more glasses of juice to celebrate.
By the time they reached home, it was already dark.
The siblings covered for each other. While Zera was cooking, they secretly hid the gifts in their rooms, then spent the evening smoothly pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary.
The next day, the two headed to the clay shop as planned.
As soon as they arrived, the siblings knew they had come to the right place.
Because in the glass display window of the clay shop, there were many figures of Fairy Tail wizards.
Figures of Weston, Mavis, and Zera were prominently displayed, and there were also many of others like Irene, Precht, Yuri, and Warrod.
"Look, look..."
"What did I say yesterday?"
"Selling so many figures here, the owner of this shop is definitely a fan of our Fairy Tail!"
Darwin couldn't help but cheer for his own cleverness once again.
Just then, he suddenly noticed his own silhouette among the pile of figures.
"Eh, wait!"
"Is that... a figure of me?!"
Chris also cried out, pointing a finger at the window: "Look over there, there's a clay figure of me too!"
Darwin tilted his head in confusion: "Strange, we aren't big celebrities in the guild. Why would this shop mold figures of us?"
Just then, an aged voice came from behind them.
"Of course, it's because you two are Master Weston's children!"
The two followed the sound and turned around, finding an old man with a kind face and a white beard, looking to be sixty or seventy years old, standing behind them.
"Old Man, are you... ??"
"I am the manager of this shop."
As the old man spoke, he held out his hands to them. They were covered in thick calluses, clearly marks left by years of clay craftsmanship.
"Manager Grandpa, are you... a die-hard fan of our guild?"
Seeing so many figures of Fairy Tail wizards in the window, even including the two of them, Darwin could only think of this one possibility.
"Hohoho... you could say that!"
The old man nodded and spoke of his connection with Fairy Tail: "That was over ten years ago. Children your age probably wouldn't know..."
At this point, he paused and corrected himself: "No, since you are Master Weston's children, you might know something about it."
"At that time, Magnolia was ruled by a dark guild called Blue Skull. The people of Blue Skull acted with extreme arrogance and cruelty; they killed many people here. My child also died at their hands."
"Later, Master Weston and the others came here, liberated this town, and worked with the mayor at the time to vigorously develop the economy."
"One day, Master Weston learned of my situation. He sympathized with the fact that I had no children left and that life was difficult. So he looked after me quite well, applying for subsidies, reducing miscellaneous taxes, and even allowing me to mold figures of the various Fairy Tail wizards without charging me copyright fees."
"Thanks to his help, my clay shop was able to get through those difficult days and survive until now."
There was actually such a story?!
Darwin and Chris certainly knew about the Blue Skull incident; after all, it was one of the reasons why Fairy Tail was established here.
But they didn't expect that after defeating the enemy, so many important yet inconspicuous things had happened.
For a moment, the two felt a deep sense of pride in their hearts for being wizards of Fairy Tail and the children of Weston, Mavis, and Zera.
"Having said all that, did you two come here today specifically to buy clay figures from me?"
Reminded by the old man, the siblings finally remembered their main purpose and explained their intent in detail.
"It's not to buy, but to take a class! It's like this..."
Upon learning that they actually wanted to hand-make a "family set of figures" as a gift for their parents, the old man was instantly amazed.
"I remember you're only seven, right?"
"You're already able to work as wizards?"
"Truly worthy of being Master Weston's children!"
Beyond the shock, he felt a sense of shared glory.
"No problem!"
"I will definitely put forth my full effort to help you complete these clay figures today!"